MOSCOW, January 31 (RIA Novosti) The Russian government must turn the country’s enormous investment potential into a real flow of foreign capital, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. Putin was addressing a government meeting discussing Russia’s economic development to 2018, including measures to boost the country’s economic growth and reduce its dependence on raw material exports. Russia has fundamental […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – www.rbth.ru – Yulia Ponomareva, Combined report – January 30, 2013) Though optimistic about the eurozone’s future, Russia is not planning to buy European debt anytime soon. Instead, according to Prime Minister Medvedev, Russia should look at options for swapping part of its euro reserves and reducing dependence on hydrocarbon exports. Experts agree, believing Russia should […]
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MOSCOW, January 29 (RIA Novosti) Russia has hired U.S. banking giant Goldman Sachs in a $500,000 deal to polish the image of the country’s investment potential abroad and lure foreign cash, Deputy Economics Minister Sergei Belyakov said. “We, officials, don’t know how to communicate with investors,” Belyakov said, explaining the government’s decision. Under a memorandum signed with the Economic […]
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In Russia, Eurasia is usually assumed to mean the post-Soviet space. The integration project Moscow has been actively promoting over the past four years is even called the Eurasian Union. However, the interpretation of Eurasia as the territory of the former Russian Empire and the Soviet Union is now outdated.
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Nathan Gray – January 28, 2013) Russia’s assumption of the chairmanship of the G20 has received a lot of attention since the handover from Mexico at the beginning of December. One of the subjects of discussion at the Gaidar Forum earlier this month was the country’s potential to lead the major economies to solutions to […]
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MOSCOW, January 29 (RIA Novosti) Russia’s Oil Wealth Fund will be totally consumed if world oil prices plunge to $60 per barrel and stay at that level for a year, experts from the Russian School of Economics (VSE) said on Tuesday. That scenario presents “a shock not only for the budget system but also for the economy as a […]
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(Government.ru – January 27, 2013) Fareed Zakaria: Mr Prime Minister, thank you for agreeing to this meeting. In 2009, when you were President of Russia, you wrote a very interesting and important essay about Russia’s future. You said that the two major problems of the Russian economy were excessive dependence on oil and excessive corruption. A look at current statistics […]
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NOVO-OGARYOVO. Jan 25 (Interfax) – Privatization deals should be carried out on Russian markets, but the infrastructure needs to be put in place, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting dedicated to stock market development. “These deals should occur on Russian trading floors,” he said. “Privatization done within the country is testament to the fact that our plans to […]
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(Government.ru – January 28, 2013) Correspondent (via interpreter): Prime Minister, it is a great honour for us that you have agreed to give an interview to our newspaper, Handelsblatt. We are an economic publication and we cannot wait to hear what you will tell us. Dmitry Medvedev: I am glad to meet you and I am glad of the opportunity […]
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(Government.ru – January 26, 2013) Sergei Brilyov: Mr Medvedev, I would like to come back to the Grand Hall meeting, where you took a seat in the audience. Why didn’t you go up on the stage straight away? Dmitry Medvedev: I wanted to see my colleagues present their scenarios. I enjoyed sitting in the audience. It’s better than being on […]
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(Government.ru – January 25, 2013) Correspondent: As the Prime Minister, you are known for supporting the need to make tough and honest assessments of the situation both domestically and internationally. The scenarios developed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) show that the time for simple reforms has passed already in Russia… The reform process needs a boost to overcome corruption […]
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(Government.ru – January 24, 2013) Question: Mr Medvedev, you were here in 2007, one year before you were elected President. The key point of your policy speech then (which we all remember) was “Freedom is better than unfreedom.” What phrase would you use now, six years on? What would you say to the West with the same succinctness or perhaps […]
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(Government.ru – January 24, 2013) Dmitry Medvedev: Good morning. I hope it is truly a good morning for you. Arkady Dvorkovich: It is. We have just managed to discuss a number of issues regarding global and Russian economic growth. And we have even held a vote on possible global and Russian economic growth rates. Dmitry Medvedev: And what did the […]
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(Government.ru – January 24, 2013) Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to tell you about our view of the G20 and our plans. Last December Russia took up the baton of the G20 chairmanship, one of the most influential informal associations in the world. This is common knowledge, but I will repeat that the G20 countries account for about 90% of […]
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(Government.ru – January 23, 2013) Mr Schwab (Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum in Davos), ladies and gentlemen. Apparently, my task is to refute all three of the scenarios in about 20 minutes and to explain what we are going to do. I will certainly do that, but first of all I would like to […]
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(Government.ru – January 23, 2013) Question (as translated): Good morning! We have Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev here today. Forty-five minutes from now, he will deliver a keynote speech here in Davos, at the World Economic Forum. Mr Prime Minister, thank you for coming. By the way, you are the first leader who agreed to be interviewed without wearing a […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines/Interfax – www.rbth.ru – Alexander Panov, based on Interfax – January 23, 2013) Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev made an appearance at the 2013 World Economic Forum in Davos to discuss Russia’s economic future in a global perspective. In his speech to the Forum audience Medvedev discusses the need for an increase in competitive power for Russian […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – January 23, 2013) How popular discontent will play out is one of the key uncertainties that the World Economic Forum identified for Russia’s long-term economic development in a report released Tuesday. Attendees of the annual forum in Davos, Switzerland, which opened Tuesday, are set to question Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev about this […]
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DAVOS. Jan 23 (Interfax) – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev believes Russia’s integration into the world economy, which remains unstable, requires an increase in the competitive power of Russian companies, but the main risks faced by Russia are internal, not external. “The global economy remains unstable. The attempts to come out of the crisis without resolving the accumulated financial and […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – January 23, 2013) The G20 countries’ failure to fulfill their obligations to achieve sustained economic growth and prevent financial instability may undermine confidence in the exclusive club of the 20 most developed industrial nations, the Audit Chamber said in a study, Interfax reported Wednesday. Russia, which holds the presidency of the group, will host a […]
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DAVOS, January 23 (RIA Novosti) The danger of a global slump in the raw material markets remains a key threat to the Russian economy, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday. That means the Russian economy remains vulnerable to negative changes in global markets, the premier told the World Economic Forum in Davos. “That is why we continue to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova and Anatoly Medetsky – January 23, 2013) Russian officials visiting the World Economic Forum 13 years ago were puzzled by U.S. journalist Trudy Rubin’s famous question about the newly elected Russian president: “Who is Mr. Putin?” This year, members of the Russian delegation, which includes state officials, economic experts and business leaders, are […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anastasia Matveyeva, Moskovskiye Novosti – January 21, 2013) New calculations for pensions and a funded component, a possible luxury tax and a special structure that will come to manage Russian currency reserves are the main economic events that are expected in the coming year. How will these reverberate on us, and what will they will […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Nikolaus von Twickel – January 22, 2013) Russia urgently needs to attract immigrants over the coming years to avoid labor shortages, the country’s top migration officer said Monday. “Even if we manage to stabilize or increase the population by raising the birth rate, the only source for increasing the labor force for the coming 15 […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer, Scott Rose and Ryan Chilcote – January 22, 2013) Russia has a $10 billion sales pitch for investors at this year’s World Economic Forum: give us your money and we’ll worry about corruption for you. That was the line from First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov in an interview with Bloomberg Television last week […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – January 21, 2013) Angel Gurria, secretary general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, addressed the Gaidar Forum in a keynote address on Friday. [The global economic outlook] has deteriorated again, and the word “again” is probably the more operative one. We are indeed far from being out of the woods. We predict a […]
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MOSCOW. Jan 18 (Interfax) – The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe must get rid of imbalances and double standards by 2015, becoming a fully-fledged international organization with its own charter, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “Russia sees the Helsinki + 40 initiative as an important step that aims to launch the process of the OSCE’s renewal and […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – January 21, 2013) A left-wing economist who advocated firing Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will help draft the government crisis strategy in case of economic turmoil, according to a presidential order published in December, Vedomosti reported Friday. Sergei Glazyev will be on a task force that will develop the strategy. It will also […]
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(Interfax – January 21, 2013) Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) brought the country many advantages for protecting the domestic agriculture market, Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov said at a press conference in Berlin. “We view WTO accession as satisfactory and believe that it provides more pluses for protecting the domestic market,” he said. Membership in the international trade […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 10 – Jamestown Foundation: jamestown.org – Margarita Assenova – January 18, 2013) Increased state control and consolidation of the oil and gas sector marked Russia’s energy developments in 2012, while the state budget remained heavily dependent on energy revenues. At the same time, Russia’s markets in Europe are shrinking due to the economic crisis […]
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(Interfax – January 17, 2013) The Russian economy is losing out from the process of globalization, Sberbank (RTS: SBER) president German Gref believes. “A question: are we gaining or losing on global markets? Answer: losing. We gained in all recent years only thanks to resource exports. On all other positions we are losing,” Gref said at the Gaidar Forum, commenting […]
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(http://government.ru – January 16, 2013) Speech by Dmitry Medvedev at the forum: Good afternoon, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to thank you for inviting me to speak at the Gaidar Forum. Life changes fast. Currently, all of us, Russians of course, take for granted the possibility to build our lives as we see fit and to do it […]
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MOSCOW. Jan 17 (Interfax) – The development of the Russian stock market this year will to a significant degree be determined by the influence of external conditions, and high volatility is likely to continue, according to a review of the financial market in 2012 worked up by the Central Bank of Russia’s research and information department. This year could see […]
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(Interfax – January 17, 2013) The question of Russia meeting its obligations to the World Trade Organization is closed, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy said Thursday at the Gaidar Forum in Moscow. He said Russia has been a member of the trade body for five months already, so the question of the country meeting its obligations is a thing of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – January 17, 2013) Russia will not have to assume many of the commitments to liberalize trade that are approved during the Doha round of World Trade Organization talks, the government’s top trade negotiator said Wednesday, Interfax reported. “Russia would like to see [the Doha round] wrap up as quickly as possible if only for pragmatic […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Howard Amos – January 17, 2013) A capital outflow of up to $10 billion every three months would be an acceptable level under current macroeconomic conditions, a leading figure at the Central Bank said. Russia saw $56.8 billion leave the country in 2012, stoking fears that the Kremlin is struggling to control capital flight and […]
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(Kremlin.ru – January 16, 2013) The Kremlin, Moscow Vladimir Putin held a meeting on economic issues to discuss the financial results for 2012 and measures to develop Russia’s economy. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, colleagues. We will discuss the results for 2012 today and look at additional measures to ensure economic growth. The situation in the global economy […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova – January 17, 2013) Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday urged the Cabinet to ensure stable economic growth of at least 5 percent a year in the near future, a goal some officials said might require changes to current budget policy. The major goal for the country’s government is “to ensure transition to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – January 16, 2013) First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said Wednesday that the government would not raise taxes for business before 2018, provided that events of a “global” scale do not influence the situation. In an interview published in Kommersant on Wednesday, Shuvalov said that the government finalized its midterm tax strategy last year. “Up […]
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MOSCOW, January 16 (RIA Novosti) Russia should abandon its policy of providing state support to specific sectors of the economy and start supporting domestic firms integrating into world production chains, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday. “It is necessary to go beyond the sectoral approach, which has been established and is frequently practiced in our country. The focus […]
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MOSCOW. Jan 16 (Interfax) – Russia’s economic performance was “relatively satisfactory” in 2012, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting dedicated to economic affairs at the Kremlin. “The economic results of the year have not yet been conclusively summed up, but the preliminary figures look relatively satisfactory. According to the Economic Development Ministry’s estimates, GDP growth for January-November of […]
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(Interfax – January 16, 2013) Year 2012 was calm politically and good economically, despite the difficult State Duma and presidential elections, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said in an interview published in the Wednesday edition of Kommersant. “To me, as a government official, our condition at the end of 2012 is an additional confirmation that the country has learned […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Simon Kennedy & Scott Rose – January 16, 2013) The world is on the brink of a fresh “currency war,” Russia warned, as European policy makers joined Japan in bemoaning the economic cost of rising exchange rates. “Japan is weakening the yen and other countries may follow,” Alexei Ulyukayev, first deputy chairman of Russia’s central bank, […]
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(Interfax – January 16, 2013) Russia, as a country that only recently joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), might not assume many of the commitments to liberalize trade that are approved during the Doha round of talks, Maxim Medvedkov, head of trade negotiations at the Russian Economic Development Ministry, told Interfax. “Russia would like to see [the Doha round] wrap […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – January 15, 2013) Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his newly appointed Ukrainian counterpart, Leonid Kozhara, had a series of meetings on Sunday and Monday to underline the importance of fostering strategic ties between the two countries, with Ukraine’s potential accession to the Russia-dominated Customs Union a central topic. Relations have been strained […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Nathan Gray – January 15, 2013) The fourth annual Gaidar Forum kicks off at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and State Administration on Wednesday, bringing together Russian and international economic leaders to discuss key policy issues around the theme of “Russia and the World: The Challenges of Integration.” The forum grew out of […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Kristen Blyth – January 14, 2013) When asked how she became qualified to work as a real estate agent, Emma became defensive. “I don’t want to tell you,” she told The Moscow News. “I’m a realtor now, and that’s all you need to know.” Emma was the broker that Elliott Estebo, an expat English teacher, […]
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(www.opendemocracy.net – Pavel Usanov – January 11, 2013) Pavel Usanov is head of the Hayek Institute for Economy and Law in St. Petersburg and Reader at the Higher School of Economics. Since the collapse of the USSR investors have flocked to Russia, tempted by the high rates of return and the Alice in Wonderland atmosphere in Moscow, where everything seems […]
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MOSCOW. Jan 9 (Interfax) – The multi-part drama known as the corporate dispute at Russian mining giant Norilsk Nickel (RTS: GMKN) came to a conclusion at the end of 2012 with an unexpected twist. The distribution of forces that had emerged at Norilsk Nickel since the end of 2008 seemed fairly stable and safe. Vladimir Potanin’s Interros and Norilsk Nickel’s […]
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BEIJING, January 10 (RIA Novosti) China-Russia trade grew 11.2 percent in 2012 from the previous year to $88.16 billion, the Chinese General Customs Administration reported on Thursday. Trade with the European Union, China’s largest trading partner, declined by 3.7 percent last year to $546.04 billion while trade with the United States, China’s second-largest trading partner, grew by 8.5 percent to […]
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