(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Lena Smirnova – August 2, 2013) Russians were promised lower prices when the country joined the World Trade Organization, but one year on prices continue to rise at least for consumers. Increased competition from WTO members is lowering wholesale prices and putting huge pressure on domestic producers, but consumers continue to pay the same […]
» Read more
(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, Aug. 1, 2013) Most Russians have negative views regarding the influx of labor migrants, millions of whom come from former Soviet republics in Central Asia to seek a better living in Russia, according to the results of a state survey published Thursday. About two-thirds (65 percent) of respondents to the poll, conducted last month, said […]
» Read more
(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 30, 2013) Income disparity in Russia increased slightly in the first six months of the year compared with the same period last year, Rosstat reported. The 10% of Russians with the highest incomes accounted for 30.4% of all income in the six months. The first half results in previous years were 30.2% in 2012, 29.8% in […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 31, 2013) Russian industry’s main economic indicators do not suggest it is on its way to recovery in the second half of 2013. Low demand for industrial goods remains the main challenge for Russian businesses according to a poll conducted by the Gaidar Institute. The poll showed that in July demand was at its […]
» Read more
(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 30, 2013) The majority of Russians deems ruble devaluation possible and anticipates a threat to family budgets, Romir Holding said. Approximately two-thirds of the 1,000 respondents (64%) polled in seven federal districts in July said ruble devaluation was possible and 13% of them argued that it was inevitable. Twenty-five percent did not expect a crisis, and […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Guennadi Moukine – July 31, 2013) Removing obstacles that inhibit the development and operation of small- and medium-sized enterprises in Russia is the key to economic recovery, an Italian expert said. Small businesses were instrumental in rebuilding the Italian economy and transforming a mainly rural nation into an industrial powerhouse in the 1960s, a period […]
» Read more
(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Tom Balmforth – MOSCOW – July 29, 2013) Western lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activists are ratcheting up the pressure on Russia over laws outlawing “gay propaganda.” Among the tactics: an online campaign to “dump Russian vodka” calls for a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, while another campaign urges a visa ban […]
» Read more
(Business New Europe – bne.ru – Ben Aris in Moscow – July 30, 2013) [Charts here http://www.bne.eu/storyf5224/Europes_west_is_doomed_and_its_east_might_not_make_it] It’s not going well. Governments around the world have had six years to make a dent in the huge debts they built up during the 2008 crisis, but in the first half of this year those debt levels have increased and the pace […]
» Read more
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Maria Shpigel, special to RBTH – July 30, 2013) Against the background of crises in the developed economies, Russia, with its high oil revenues, looks promising for the development of the services sector. The majority of micro and small enterprises operate in the services sector, because it is here that the cost of […]
» Read more
(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 29, 2013) One in two Russians gives three (out of five) to the existing economic situation in the city, town or village where the respondent lives, the majority do not feel confidence in tomorrow and their social activity is decreasing, Levada Center sociologists told Interfax. According to the results of the poll held on July 18-22 […]
» Read more
(Kremlin.ru – July 27, 2013) Vladimir Putin took part in the conference called Orthodox-Slavic Values: The Foundation of Ukraine’s Civilisational Choice. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, friends, I just said goodbye before to President of Ukraine Mr Yanukovych. You also sent him your best wishes. Unfortunately, he has a strict schedule with a lot of events to attend: […]
» Read more
(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 27, 2013) Opacity of the Russian judicial system and corruption may influence investors’ decisions to enter the Russian market, European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) President Henri Malosse said. “Today investors indeed may feel some trepidation for reasons that are linked to the reliability of the Russian judicial system, as well as for reasons of corruption,” […]
» Read more
(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 25, 2013) Tennis star Maria Sharapova has regained first place on a list of the most popular and richest Russian celebrities published by the Russian edition of Forbes magazine Thursday. The Forbes rating of Russia’s top 50 celebrities is compliled according to a combination of factors including annual income, print media coverage and hits […]
» Read more
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – July 25, 2013) Despite its image as a den of high tech thieves international credit card company VISA reports that fraud in Russia is 10-times less than in its other markets. The company said that card fraud in Russia costs it 5 kopecks per 1,000 annually, a tenth of the company’s global average, VISA […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 25, 2013) Russians will spend 1.7 trillion rubles ($42 billion) abroad in 2013, which represents an increase of 13 percent over last year according to an annual study Citibank released Thursday, though half that amount is being spent online. But while spending abroad continues to increase annually, growth is slowing down in some categories. […]
» Read more
(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 25, 2013) Competition in the Russian economy is still weak, which is hindering the development of small and medium-sized businesses in the country, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday. “Our anti-monopoly legislation is quite strict, while competition is still weak,” Medvedev told a government meeting. The prime minister said problems remain on raw material […]
» Read more
(Pravda.ru – Margarita Troitsyna – July 24, 2013) On July 24, 1993, 20 years ago, the Central Bank of Russia announced the withdrawal of Soviet banknotes from circulation. From that day, Soviet cash was no longer valid on the territory of Russia. The reform was carried out to curb inflation in the country, but it caused huge panic in the […]
» Read more
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – July 25, 2013) Corruption in Russia has helped drive up interest rates on loans to the point where it’s choking off economic growth. “Rates are high now and that makes it hard to do business,” Garegin Tosunyan, head of the Russian Association of Banks, said at the St Petersburg […]
» Read more
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Maria Balyuk, special to RBTH – July 22, 2013) In 2012, the McDonald’s fast food restaurant chain increased its sales in Russia by 19.6 percent, SPARK-Interfax reported. Although growing costs prevented the burger chain from scoring a more successful year than 2011, McDonald’s has remained one of the most successful restaurant operators in […]
» Read more
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Witold Jancszys, special to RBTH – July 23, 2013) The business landscape in Russia has changed in the last decade and, now, more and more foreign nationals are starting businesses in the country, attracted to the opportunities for growth and space for new ideas in the Russian market. Foreign entrepreneurs doing business in […]
» Read more
(Interfax – July 23, 2013) Russia’s business ombudsman Boris Titov, who proposed the idea of economic amnesty, has said that it is difficult to grant it now to opposition leader Aleksey Navalnyy and former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovskiy from the legal standpoint. Titov said this at a news conference in Moscow on 23 July, as reported by Russian news agency […]
» Read more
Subject: No. 133: Putin 3.0: The Economic Plan Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 From: “Russian Analytical Digest (RAD)” <newslist@isn.ch> RUSSIAN ANALYTICAL DIGEST Newsletter 18 July 2013/No. 133 PUTIN 3.0: THE ECONOMIC PLAN To download this issue please click here: http://www.css.ethz.ch/publications/DetailansichtPubDB_EN?rec_id=2626 Analyses The Political Economy of Putin 3.0, by Peter Rutland, Middletown, CT Economic Growth and Strategies for Economic Development in […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Peter Hobson – July 22, 2013) The Russian government faces an uphill struggle to make underdeveloped regions more attractive for investors. Officials and business leaders disagree on the feasibility of a draft set of mandatory standards designed to improve the investment attractiveness of districts and towns, which are set to enter into force by 2014. […]
» Read more
(RIA Novosti – Moscow, July 22, 2013) Head of research at the Higher School of Economics Yevgeniy Yasin has described the Russian government instruction placing heads of state companies under obligation to account for their income and spending on par with officials as “absolute piffle”. Instead of building these mechanisms, one should continue the course to privatization, the economist has […]
» Read more
(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 23, 2103) Moscow was ranked the world’s second most expensive city for expatriates in this year’s Mercer Human Resource Consulting survey, published Tuesday. Moscow follows Angolan capital Luanda as the second most expensive city because of high costs for rental accommodation a luxury two bedroom unfurnished apartment rental for one month in the […]
» Read more
(Interfax – KALUGA, July 23, 2013) Russian Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev considers the 2.4% slump in investments in fixed capital in June, factoring in seasonal and calendar factors, is a worrisome sign, but there is an improvement trend and the 2.4% GDP growth forecast is not changing. “Generally, of course, the sign is troubling,” Ulyukayev told the press on […]
» Read more
(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 23, 2013) The first thirteen businessmen have been set free in Russia as part of an economic amnesty for white-collar criminals that came into effect earlier this month, business ombudsmen Boris Titov said Tuesday. “As of now, 13 people have been released under the amnesty,” Titov told reporters. Eight people have left pre-trial detention […]
» Read more
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Lyudmila Nazdracheva, special to RBTH – July 22, 2013) Almost 6 percent of Russian university graduates register at the unemployment office immediately after graduating. Lawyers lead the way in this area. There is also an excess of economists, real estate agents, travel managers, civil engineers, bankers, teachers and psychologists. Russian universities are still […]
» Read more
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yuri Paniyev, special to RBTH – July 23, 2013) The G20 financial meeting in Moscow on July 19-20 focused on economic growth, unemployment rates and tax evasion by multinational companies. Russia, playing host for the event, was placed in the position of arbiter between emerging and developed countries. At a meeting in Moscow […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova – July 22, 2013) The fight against tax evasion by multinational corporations and measures to ensure recovery amid the global economic turbulence came into the limelight at the two-day meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers that finished in Moscow on Saturday. Finance ministers and central bank governors of the world’s 20 biggest […]
» Read more
(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 20, 2013) Public service looks attractive to 55% of Russians, although 22% believe public officials have to agree to compromises with their conscience, a nationwide public opinion poll conducted by www.superjob.ru has shown. ‘Stable salary and powers,’ ‘maximum salary and minimum efforts – public service is a dream for any idler’, ‘you can take large bribes […]
» Read more
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ksenia Galouchko & Vladimir Kuznetsov – July 22, 2013) The conviction of Alexey Navalny, a political opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, highlights risks faced by investors as they weigh whether to buy assets in the world’s biggest energy exporter. Russia, which earned about $350 billion from oil and gas exports last year, has a Baa1 […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – July 19, 2013) The Federal Property Management Agency is urging banks to give out loans to investors ready to purchase government assets as part of a new scheme to stimulate privatization, which has been slow to take off. The loans provided by the banks will be backed by the privatized companies’ shares, […]
» Read more
(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Robert Coalson – July 18, 2013) Opposition politician and anticorruption blogger Aleksei Navalny got all the press during the nearly four months of his trial. But he was not alone in the dock, as he took pains to point out during his closing remarks on July 5. “First, I would like to take this opportunity to […]
» Read more
(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 17, 2013) What do these three things have in common: tanks, abortions and instant coffee? They are all things that Russia exports, performs or consumes more than any other nation. Esquire magazine’s Russian-language edition on Monday released a list of 24 things for which Russia is a statistically proven world leader. One standout is […]
» Read more
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – July 19, 2013) The Kremlin was hit with what is like to be a serious of extremely expensive bills following the conviction of opposition blogger Alexei Navalny to five years in jail on corruption charges by a court in Kirov on July 19. Russia’s stock market tanked as the […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova – July 19, 2013) The Russian stock market reacted pessimistically Thursday following the ruling of a regional court that sentenced opposition leader Alexei Navalny to five years in prison for embezzlement. The sentence is widely believed to be another blow to Russia’s image and is likely to result in an a more dramatic […]
» Read more
(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 19, 2013) The head of one of the world’s largest transport companies, state-owned Russian Railways, this week dismissed as unfounded corruption allegations made against him by opposition protest leader Alexei Navalny, Prime news agency reported. In a blog post earlier in the week, Navalny published details of property and offshore companies that he claims are […]
» Read more
(Alexey Eremenko, RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 18, 2013) This week, a little-known Russian business consultant named Pyotr Ofitserov finally took his eldest daughter on a long-promised visit to Moscow’s famed Tretyakov Gallery. They squeezed in the outing between errands on Tuesday afternoon, as Thursday Ofitserov expects to be jailed for up to five years. “It’s funny how much […]
» Read more
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Tatyana Lisina, RBTH – July 17, 2013) According to data from the World Bank, Russia’s economy has jumped ahead of all the European nations, becoming the fifth largest worldwide in terms of GDP. Experts are confident that, in the future, the gap between the Russian Federation and the Old World will widen further. […]
» Read more
(RIA Novosti, The Moscow News – themoscownews.com – July 18, 2013) Russia’s stock market fell sharply on Thursday according to Moscow Exchange data, after investors took in the news that opposition blogger Alexei Navalny had been found guilty in a controversial fraud trial and sentenced to five years in jail. The court in the city of Kirov, about 900 kilometers […]
» Read more
(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 18, 2013) The sentence of opposition activist Alexei Navalny is affecting the interests of small and middle-sized businesses and will lead to the outflow of young lawyers and businessmen from Russia, leader of the Civil Platform party Mikhail Prokhorov said. “The sentence passed on Alexei Navalny and Pyotr Ofitserov is not just a sentence to the […]
» Read more
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer, Irina Reznik & Jason Corcoran – July 17, 2013) When Russian agents stormed the downtown offices of the Skolkovo technology hub being built near Moscow on April 18, a startled Intel Corp (INTC). executive got caught up in the raid. Dusty Robbins, head of global programs for the world’s largest chipmaker, was forced to […]
» Read more
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – MOSCOW BLOG – July 17, 2013) Russia passed an important milestone on July 15, overtaking Germany to become the biggest economy in Europe in terms of purchasing power parity and the fifth biggest in the world. This achievement comes on top of the World Bank’s decision a week earlier to upgrade Russia from a […]
» Read more
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Jason Corcoran & Henry Meyer – July 17, 2013) Alexey Navalny faces possible imprisonment tomorrow in the highest-profile case against a critic of President Vladimir Putin since the prosecution of former oil billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky. A judge in Kirov, 900 kilometers (560 miles) northeast of Moscow, will rule on charges that Navalny defrauded state-owned timber company […]
» Read more
(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 16, 2013) The pursuit of a better life is the primary cause of emigration from Russia, said 54% of respondents acquainted with prospective emigrants. Sixteen percent explained their emigration as a desire for self-actualization, the Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM) told Interfax. Five percent of prospective emigrants believe that life abroad is better organized and […]
» Read more
(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 17, 2013) Russia urges the G20 nations to inform the markets about their debt policy guidance. “We think it would be advisable to put medium-term debt policy guidelines for countries with a lot of debt on the agenda for the G20 meeting [of finance ministers, which takes place in Moscow at the end of the week],” […]
» Read more
(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 16, 2013) The Business 20 (B20) on Tuesday unveiled its definitive White Book of recommendations for the Group of 20 (G20) leaders, of which Russia is president in 2013. “The recommendations were discussed during the St Petersburg (economic) forum and submitted to (Russian President) Vladimir Putin, and some of them will be presented during the summit […]
» Read more
(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 15, 2013) The income of the CEO of state company Rusnano, Anatoly Chubais fell by 42.5 million rubles to 217.7 million rubles in 2012 from 260.2 million rubles a year earlier. Chubais’ income from his main place of work dropped to 20.55 million rubles from 22.4 million rubles, materials from the state company show. As of […]
» Read more
(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 16, 2013) President Vladimir Putin criticized the federal government and local authorities Tuesday over their failure to ensure effective development of Russia’s Far East, Rossiya 24 TV Channel reported. “Are you going to work, or what?” he asked participants at a development meeting for the Sakhalin region, which he said has everything needed to become […]
» Read more