Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Gazprom, the country’s pipeline gas export monopoly, to build a 3,200km pipeline from East Siberia to the Pacific port of Vladivostok, reported Reuters on Monday, in an attempt to reduce the nation’s reliance on exports to Europe and develop closer ties with Asian customers.
The Russian government is set to spend up to 600 billion roubles ($19.23 billion) on hosting the 2018 Football Cup, predicted the country’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko on Sunday, with the sum being almost twice the amount projected by then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin when Russia won the rights to host the tournament in December 2010.
These are not the final numbers,” Mutko said, during a joint conference with the president of the global football governing body (FIFA), Sepp Blatter, on Sunday.
Russia has agreed to “forgive” nearly all of a $11 billion Soviet-era debt owed to it by North Korea, reported the Financial Times, as part of a deal that will allow Moscow to enter into new projects in the North Korean energy, health and education sectors.
At a difficult time for the world economy, Russia, the world’s sixth largest – and third fastest growing major – economy has opened up for trade. After 19 years of negotiation, Russia finally received membership to the World Trade Organisation on August 23rd 2012 – opening up major new trading opportunities in the process. What are some of the impact and opportunities emanating from Russia’s WTO membership?
Russia officially joins the World Trade Organisation today, after a 19-year wait, as the group’s 156th member. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a leading G8 country, Russia is the last major economy to join the global trade body.
After 19 years of negotiation and waiting, Russia today joins the ranks of the World Trade Organisation, a status that is expected to lower trade barriers and increase the level of foreign investment in Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signalled his support for a controversial new anti-protest bill, which will increase fines for any unsanctioned protestor from the current maximum of 5,000 rubles ($160) to 1,000,000 rubles ($32,250).
Russia has agreed to begin re-importing cheese from neighbouring Ukraine after a two-month long ban, which many believed to have been politically motivated, claimed a report by Reuters on Tuesday.
In February this year, the Russian consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor had barred all cheese imports from Ukrainian producers in February this year after claiming that they had violated Russian milk and milk product standards, which included excessive quantities of palm oil.
The Russian government is set to sell up to $7 billion in government bonds in the coming days, said a report by the Financial Times on Monday, as the nation prepares to overhaul their domestic bond market in order to attract foreign cash.
According to FT, the Kremlin is ready to issue the full bond amount sometime this week – with the bond said to be split into three parts, maturing in five, 10, and 30 years.
Russian Prime Minister, and prospective Presidential candidate, Vladimir Putin intends to implement a luxury tax on his nation’s super-rich population, reported the Moscow Times on Wednesday, after the Prime Minister claimed that the country’s oligarchs were spending too much on expensive houses and cars.
Less than two weeks before presidential elections, which Vladimir Putin is largely expected to win, Putin has pledged more defense spending and called for a stronger army, saying that diplomacy is fallible and Russia must rearm itself to prepare for new threats.
As Prime Minister Vladimir Putin inspected Russia’s new fleet of stealth fighter jets, he said that a stronger military would give Russia greater presence on the world stage.
