Russian Economy General News: #5

kvs wrote:

Karl Haushofer wrote:

medo wrote:
This is exactly what I said for some time ago. Russia will become extremely powerful concurent for the West in the international market. They produce their products now with the same high quality as the west with similarly economically and ecologically effective industry, but Russia not only have cheaper currency, but also far lower taxes and debts to pay. EU have large debts and they simply could not lower the taxes, actually they are increasing taxes, that they could pay interests for public debts and to pay public sector.

There are a few reasons why the GDP/capita in Russia is lower than in the West. One of them is that the Russian economy and industries are not as well developed and efficient than their Western counterparts. So I think the highlighted part of your post is not correct. Russia is not yet on par with the West in this regard.

You have no clue what you are talking about.   Your so called efficiency is nothing of the sort.   This bogus metric is obtained by dividing
the GDP by the active population and called "efficiency".   Total, ludicrous nonsense.   Efficiency is related to, you know, actual production.  
So you cannot use the whole GDP which includes the fluff called the "financial industry" and all of the extra territorial economic revenue
you generate thanks to transnationals.   You have to use the fraction of the GDP related to domestic production.   Manufacturing in
the USA is less than 20% of GDP.   So start by comparing apples to apples.

I will give you a counter example that utterly destroys this NATO propaganda BS.   Russia can produce six Project 636.3 submarines
for $2 billion dollars.   One Japanese Soryu class sub which is no better and in the same category of diesel-electrics goes for $2 billion.   Clearly
Russia is way more efficient at producing this high tech product and the exchange rate of the ruble to the dollar simply cannot explain
a factor of six difference in the price.  

Haushofer has nothing but valid points.

You bring up the Defence Industry, which is an industry in which Russia is for the most part, cutting-edge and in fact more competitive than any Western country in, especially with the current rouble devaluation.

And you know what, if all Russian industries were like Russia's military one - then Russia might well be one of the most developed, richest countries in the world. But they're not, and it's not.

Let's go over some of them:

1). Textiles/Garments/Leather - neither Europe's quality, nor Asia's cheapness; Russia is still trying to find itself here, and it better do so soon as this industrial sector has been slowly dying for the last 20 years. It has some successes, there are definitely a few successful brands and factories here (Lutch, Slavyanka, etc...); but hardly any with any substantial export orders or international recognition - maybe only Bosch. The rest are held back by quality issues, lack of evolution from Soviet-era industrial practises, or lackluster branding and P&R efforts. There is definitely quality to be seen here though, some of the military and camo outfits are good examples.
This sector employs a fair amount of people in Russia, particularly in the Volga and Central provinces, but pay is generally low, facilities often look run-down, the firms are often stuck in the past - it's a big industrial sector where Russia is nowhere close to European standards. Europe's firms in this sector by comparison are far more lean, modern, dynamic and export-orientated.

2). Handicrafts/Masterworks (samovars, wooden carvings, laces, traditional headscarves, pottery, paintings, miniatures, religious icons, tableware, musical instruments, traditional knives, etc..). Russia actually does good here, some real high-quality stuff done by old masters and specialists, knowledge passed on via apprenticeships and family businesses in villages where such crafts have been practiced for centuries.
Problem is - in comparison to Europe's equivalent businesses; Russia hasn't secured much export interest here. This stuff stays in Russia, and this limits expansion and demand. A shame, because there are some real treasures here.

3). Watchmaking, was a huge industry in the Soviet Union, which manufactured millions of watches every year, mostly for export. Several huge factories (2 in Moscow, 1 in St. Petersburg, 1 in Uglich, 1 in Penza, 1 in Chelyabinsk, 1 in Chistopol, others too).
Now? Shadow of its former self; a couple of the surviving factories have massively downsized and are still barely profitable, or were until recently - the one in Chelyabinsk has been downsizing for 20 years and only in the past 2 years has started talking about expansion. Other factories collapsed, and their machinery and premises was divided up among small splinter-firms, that get by using old stocks of Soviet-era mechanism or new ones from China to build some dubious quality-watches.
There are a couple masters in this field too, such as Konstantin Chaykin, that has his own very successful firm making his own ultra-luxury watches of extremely high quality using his own custom-built mechanisms.
However, other than the ultra-luxury sector, there are really only 2-3 or so Russian companies able to compete with Swiss or Japanese watch firms here. One of them is the Petrodvorets Watch Factory, which all but collapsed in the 90s and was all but a ruin until it was revived and turned around completely by a French investor a few years ago. Now it's a very, modern dynamic firm with great prospects and able to compete with some of the lower-end Swiss segment.
In comparison with Europe, this Russian sector still secures many export orders, however the quality is generally worse, and many companies are still struggling. There are some world-famous Russian brands; but mostly they are just reflecting their Soviet-era past and glory; of the new wave we haven't seen a real breakthrough yet. IMO though, it's only a matter of time before Russian watches make a come-back and rejoin the world's leading nations.

4). Metallurgy, Russia is pretty much as competitive here as the Europeans or anyone else; which is why Russian metallurgical products are exported around the world and integrated into the global economy. By and large, no problems here.

5). Power generation and machinery, if we talk about nuclear power - Russia probably has the most competitive industry in the world, it's already taken over 37% of the world market for NPP construction (and rising).
If we're talking about other types of power plants, Russia builds mostly for itself, with the exception of occasional hydroelectric dam contracts. Once again, this limits profitability and expansion; I'm pretty sure US, German and Japanese firms have more export orders than Russia's ones that build thermal, hydroelectric, solar, wind power units and associated equipment.
2 bright points though. Firstly, Russia has many borders with many countries, and a unified electricity network - which allows it to efficiently export electricity to a large amount of neighbours and it makes a brisk trade from doing so - this is something Europe can't do as well.
Secondly, Russia does a roaring trade selling power turbines and other specific equipment, it definitely has some very competitive companies in this field.
Overall it's a mix, but if we factor in nuclear power - Russia definitely has the edge on Europe and everyone else; because it's nuclear export success is so phenomenal. But on everything else; it can stand to improve.

6). Infrastructural development. Russia has infrastructural companies that can develop roads/railways/airports/cosmodromes/ports/highways/etc... problem is, even in their own home market - they regularly lose tenders to European/Turkish/Chinese firms, and them securing export orders is almost unheard of. Perhaps with the exception of Russian Railways - but even they've had a pretty small amount of export success considering the amount of high-level government support, funds and resources that they enjoy.
So yeah, Russia is losing out to Europe here for sure. Hopefully all the new contracts in Russian infrastructure might give them a jump-start.

7). Construction. Much the same as with infrastructure development, only there are more local Russian companies doing it; but still a lack of presence on outside markets. They are competitive only in Russia itself. Don't see any sign of improvement on the horizon.

. Alcohol; huge amount of companies of varying qualities, but almost all of them are geared towards Russian and CIS markets. Compare this to European alcohol corporations, particularly beer producers, and how they've expanded and spread all around the world, their brand recognition, etc...
Even though Russia is basically competitive here, it's success has been limited.
Of course, there are success stories, successful Russian vodka exporters, other high-quality spirits, Baltica brewery (albeit its now owned by Europeans too), etc... but generally, less than there should be. And I don't see much progress on this front.

9). Agriculture, still a huge amount of old Soviet-style collective farms, if not in organization than certainly in methods and equipment, where things are being done as they were 25 years ago. A lot of the land being cultivated, is not cultivated as efficiently as land in Europe is. Agriculture in Russia tends to be more weather dependent than in Europe, there is a greater risk of bad harvests. Infrastructure for storage, transportation and export of grain and cereals is not as developed as in Europe, this leads to higher losses.
This sector has much improved over the last 10 years mind you, and is growing quickly. We were all until recently, eating dairy products from the Baltic states, now we are eating our own; and not only dairy, but grains, meat, fruit & vegetables - it's all rapidly rising in Russia. The government programs, for loans, new equipment, land grants, etc... are all doing their part too. But the infrastructural challenges remain, even with the government focusing on that too.
The greater abundance and lower cost of land should ensure that Russian agriculture will soon become more competitive than its European competitors, which are right now going through a crisis - however we are not there just yet.

10). Financial sector. Well what Russia has here, is basically pretty good. Moscow City, the St. Petersburg stock exchange and so on. The trouble is that what it has is rather small relative to Russia's size and economy, while the Financial Sector is extremely profitable so having a bigger financial sector would really pay off. Countries with a bigger financial sector automatically have quite a boost to their GDP. Per capita, I think almost all European countries have a bigger Financial sector than Russia has.

11). Small and Medium sized Businesses. Again, what Russia has here is not that bad. And again, relative to the Russian economy's total size - this sector is not particularly large. Which is a shame, as again, in developed countries, it tends to account for a huge amount of the GDP. Russia has problems here with excessively high-interest loans, a perception of bureaucratic hurdles and instability (in actual fact its improved significantly, but the perception remains), lower faith in the legal system to secure business rights than it perhaps deserves, and so on.

12). Chemical and Petrochemical production; everything is more or less good here, can't knock it, some of these facilities are the largest or most modern in the world; again this is another sector where Russia is quite competitive, and it shows because its products here are used all around the world.

13). Space services and industry. If it weren't for the fact that Russia has a monopoly on parts of this industry, there really wouldn't be anything that special about many of Russia's companies here. Yes it has a lot of contracts, a lot of partnerships, and a lot of money is being made; but much has been lost too - due to negligence, low quality standards, sub-standard parts, etc...
I suppose this is a sector where Russia wins on default as Europe barely has a space sector, but really, Russia needs to keep reforming it and shaking it up; the Europeans and Americans are moving forth with their own plans and Russia will have to work hard to maintain its market-share in the coming decades.

I could go on and on for hours more, challenges, problems and unfulfilled promises in food processing, tourism, automobile industry, hydrocarbon extraction services, retail, logistics, machinery-tool production, shipbuilding, etc... but I think that you guys get the picture.
Far from a rosy picture, actually.
A mix of the competitive, the non-competitive, and the somewhere in the middle - not that great yet but with a lot of potential.
That's the Russian economy in a nutshell. As you can see, there is plenty of work to be done, and plenty of objective reason, why Russia is poorer than Germany, Japan, France, the US, Canada, Great Britain, Sweden, South Korea, Australia, etc...
Yes, some of it is just spreadsheet magic, financial and currency focus-pocus and whatnot, but most of it is grounded in reality on the ground - Russia has to catch-up and just the fact that its nuclear sector, defence industry, etc... happen to be doing well is not enough.

So please, no more ridiculous chest-beating Russia-***** BS.

flamming_python wrote:
Haushofer has nothing but valid points.

You bring up the Defence Industry, which is an industry in which Russia is for the most part, cutting-edge and in fact more competitive than any Western country in, especially with the current rouble devaluation.



So please, no more ridiculous chest-beating Russia-***** BS.

You are the one BSing. It is obvious the trollish comments on Russia's backward industry are rubbish and your long post
does not justify any of them. Who the f*ck cares about leather. And consumer goods are made in China for every
developed country. If the USA is not making consumer trash at home and letting China do it, then why should Russia
be evaluated on the basis of its domestic consumer industry? All I see is ridiculous apples and oranges where you see
some "valid points". Canada does not make any TVs and computer parts but I don't see any finger wagging about how
underdeveloped it is. If consumer trash imports are good for Canada, the USA and the whole of the EU, then they are
good enough for Russia.

The insinuation by these two pseudo-trolls, whom you defend with full vigour, is that Russia does not have the capacity
to advance and that its current development trajectory is lacking. On what basis do these two clowns make this assertion?
On their worthless gut feelings conditioned by decades of brain rotting NATO propaganda (and don't even try to lecture me
that there is no NATO propaganda of the sort I am referring to, it is the daily bread and butter of the NATO MSM from Poland
to Canada to Japan)? I see many Russian startups going far and fast. But somehow that is discounted with a broad brush
invoking consumer junk production that NATO does not even generate itself.

kvs wrote:

flamming_python wrote:
Haushofer has nothing but valid points.

You bring up the Defence Industry, which is an industry in which Russia is for the most part, cutting-edge and in fact more competitive than any Western country in, especially with the current rouble devaluation.



So please, no more ridiculous chest-beating Russia-***** BS.

You are the one BSing.   It is obvious the trollish comments on Russia's backward industry are rubbish and your long post
does not justify any of them.   Who the f*ck cares about leather.   And consumer goods are made in China for every
developed country.   If the USA is not making consumer trash at home and letting China do it, then why should Russia
be evaluated on the basis of its domestic consumer industry?   All I see is ridiculous apples and oranges where you see
some "valid points".   Canada does not make any TVs and computer parts but I don't see any finger wagging about how
underdeveloped it is.   If consumer trash imports are good for Canada, the USA and the whole of the EU, then they are
good enough for Russia.

The insinuation by these two pseudo-trolls, whom you defend with full vigour, is that Russia does not have the capacity
to advance and that its current development trajectory is lacking.   On what basis do these two clowns make this assertion?
On their worthless gut feelings conditioned by decades of brain rotting NATO propaganda (and don't even try to lecture me
that there is no NATO propaganda of the sort I am referring to, it is the daily bread and butter of the NATO MSM from Poland
to Canada to Japan)?   I see many Russian startups going far and fast.   But somehow that is discounted with a broad brush
invoking consumer junk production that NATO does not even generate itself.    

Who the f*ck cares about leather? Well maybe you should, because you care about the Russian economy so much, and there are millions of Russians employed in light industries such as that, and many other industries, a lot of which but not all are sub-optimal when compared to their competitors.

As for the USA not making consumer trash and Russia being evaluated on the basis of its domestic consumer industry - well the whole point is that the US doesn't make consumer trash, it lets China do - instead its citizens, on average, are employed in other sectors; more profitable ones.
If the US had a huge consumer trash making industry, it would probably be uncompetitive, and would be a problem for the US and would give it a smaller overall economy than the one it has now. But the US doesn't have any uncompetitive industrial sectors as such.

Russia should be evaluated on its domestic consumer industry because again, it has its citizens employed in it and its a part of its economy.
Even if Russia has a super duper ultra-modern defence industry (and actually, there are still some problems even there too), it's overall economy is nothing but the average across all its sectors and the people employed in them - so textiles, agriculture and the financial sector figure in no less to how the Russian economy should be evaluated compared to its European peers.

If Canada doesn't make TVs, good for them. If it did make them, then it would have better made sure that they are good ones that would be exported around the world. But instead it doesn't bother, and thus has its people freed up to make things that they are good at making and that are popular in other countries - such as snowmobiles.
Russia BTW does produce TVs; but again, only for the domestic market and at best some of the CIS one. If they as good as say Japanese or South Korean models, I think they would have conquered some world market share by now.
Not that I'm saying Russia should give up on it or anything. Far from it. It's just not there yet, that's my point.

I didn't see any insinuation that Russia is incapable of advancing, would you please kindly point it out to me?
Yeah, Russian startups going far and fast - but for the umpteenth bloody time - how much of the Russian economy overall do those startups account for? And how much do all the problem areas and more that I've been mentioning account for?

Your anger at me is ridiculous. Don't be angry at me because my demonstrated knowledge and analysis has surpassed your own and I've proven you wrong on a forum. Accept defeat gracefully.

here is what russia ''produces'' if you

Remove oil, gas and raw materials, that the leaders shamelessly steal from the people.

145 million Russians produce and export less than Greater Toronto, population 4.5 million

flamming_python wrote:

kvs wrote:

flamming_python wrote:
Haushofer has nothing but valid points.

You bring up the Defence Industry, which is an industry in which Russia is for the most part, cutting-edge and in fact more competitive than any Western country in, especially with the current rouble devaluation.



So please, no more ridiculous chest-beating Russia-***** BS.

You are the one BSing.   It is obvious the trollish comments on Russia's backward industry are rubbish and your long post
does not justify any of them.   Who the f*ck cares about leather.   And consumer goods are made in China for every
developed country.   If the USA is not making consumer trash at home and letting China do it, then why should Russia
be evaluated on the basis of its domestic consumer industry?   All I see is ridiculous apples and oranges where you see
some "valid points".   Canada does not make any TVs and computer parts but I don't see any finger wagging about how
underdeveloped it is.   If consumer trash imports are good for Canada, the USA and the whole of the EU, then they are
good enough for Russia.

The insinuation by these two pseudo-trolls, whom you defend with full vigour, is that Russia does not have the capacity
to advance and that its current development trajectory is lacking.   On what basis do these two clowns make this assertion?
On their worthless gut feelings conditioned by decades of brain rotting NATO propaganda (and don't even try to lecture me
that there is no NATO propaganda of the sort I am referring to, it is the daily bread and butter of the NATO MSM from Poland
to Canada to Japan)?   I see many Russian startups going far and fast.   But somehow that is discounted with a broad brush
invoking consumer junk production that NATO does not even generate itself.    

Who the f*ck cares about leather? Well maybe you should, because you care about the Russian economy so much, and there are millions of Russians employed in light industries such as that, and many other industries, a lot of which but not all are sub-optimal when compared to their competitors.

As for the USA not making consumer trash and Russia being evaluated on the basis of its domestic consumer industry - well the whole point is that the US doesn't make consumer trash, it lets China do - instead its citizens, on average, are employed in other sectors; more profitable ones.
If the US had a huge consumer trash making industry, it would probably be uncompetitive, and would be a problem for the US and would give it a smaller overall economy than the one it has now. But the US doesn't have any uncompetitive industrial sectors as such.

Russia should be evaluated on its domestic consumer industry because again, it has its citizens employed in it and its a part of its economy.
Even if Russia has a super duper ultra-modern defence industry (and actually, there are still some problems even there too), it's overall economy is nothing but the average across all its sectors and the people employed in them - so textiles, agriculture and the financial sector figure in no less to how the Russian economy should be evaluated compared to its European peers.

If Canada doesn't make TVs, good for them. If it did make them, then it would have better made sure that they are good ones that would be exported around the world. But instead it doesn't bother, and thus has its people freed up to make things that they are good at making and that are popular in other countries - such as snowmobiles.
Russia BTW does produce TVs; but again, only for the domestic market and at best some of the CIS one. If they as good as say Japanese or South Korean models, I think they would have conquered some world market share by now.
Not that I'm saying Russia should give up on it or anything. Far from it. It's just not there yet, that's my point.

I didn't see any insinuation that Russia is incapable of advancing, would you please kindly point it out to me?
Yeah, Russian startups going far and fast - but for the umpteenth bloody time - how much of the Russian economy overall do those startups account for? And how much do all the problem areas and more that I've been mentioning account for?

Your anger at me is ridiculous. Don't be angry at me because my demonstrated knowledge and analysis has surpassed your own and I've proven you wrong on a forum. Accept defeat gracefully.

" Americans are employed in other sectors more profitable ones. Lol " I dnt knw about Russia but your ignorance on american labour and jobs is laughable.They have lost their Industralized base.


Bmtpkk troll somewhere else .

would paste the structure of russian export, but i am afraid some pompous asshole will accuse me of being an eurocentric evil germanic wannabe conqueror lol

please update your 19. century thinking and rethoric.

Prince Darling wrote:would paste the structure of russian export, but i am afraid some pompous asshole will accuse me of being an eurocentric evil germanic wannabe conqueror lol

please update your 19. century thinking and rethoric.

Actually we don't see much Russian goods in the market, but we can see a considerable amount of Russian parts inside Western goods.

That is the pattern of Russian export. They export high-tech products (titanium products, machines parts, chemicals, zircon core for nuclear reactors...) to foreign companies, rather than export Russian branded goods to foreign market.

Legacy of the USSR planned economy, I believe.

Imports into Russian probably are luxuries and products exchanged inside a cooperation (for example Russian sell titanium parts to Boeing and buy a whole Boeing airplanes, dunno how to express it in English).

I'm really pissed that Russia lost the household appliance market. Here in Bulgaria soviet tools, washing machines, ovens, etc. are renowned and loved for their quality with many of them still running, while the german shit breaks usually after 1-2 years. Rusia has massive potential in this sector to make devices made to last instead of breaking to force you to buy a new one. If mediocre economy croatia(or was it slovenia?) can have gorenje sell worldwide why can't a company in russia do that especially with that massive industrial base?

bmtppk wrote:here is what russia ''produces'' if you

Remove oil, gas and raw materials, that the leaders shamelessly steal from the people.

145 million Russians produce and export less than Greater Toronto, population 4.5 million

bmtpkk is inbred degenerate retard

See, it has to be true because it is in bolded leters.

Karl Haushofer wrote:

sepheronx wrote:Have you? Care to share your perosnal photos?

I keep hearing the claims, but not seen the evidence.

I don't have any personal photos to offer, but the infrastructure does get a lot poorer when you go to Russia.

For example Kuusamo (a small city in northern Finland) is a modern and well developed Finnish town. You can nowadays cross to Russia from Kuusamo. You should see how these small villages and towns  look like in East Karelia (or Viena Karelia as it is called in Finland) in Russia. It looks probably the same that Kuusamo looked in the 1940's and 1950's. There is no running water in these villages. You see cows, hen and chicken wandering on the dirt roads at summers.

They look like this:



I realize that this is not how all of Russia looks like, but there are no underdeveloped places like this in Finland at all. Even the most remote villages have the basic services (even internet connections).

Very country with a large population and large land mass is going to have some underdeveloped areas, this is Detriot, USA and Detriot is a Major city:


http://clickcited.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/detroit-slums.jpg

http://ghettoamerica.blogspot.ca/


The way west media works is that they ignore and hide all the bad parts of their own and show otehrs.

Russian Oil Firms Increase Profits and Output On Weak Ruble

In ruble terms, the state-controlled Bashneft's production costs were 281 rubles per barrel in the second quarter, slightly up from 264 rubles a year ago, the firm said in a presentation on its website. In dollar terms, costs were down to $5.3 from $7.5.

KomissarBojanchev wrote:I'm really pissed that Russia lost the household appliance market. Here in Bulgaria soviet tools, washing machines, ovens, etc. are renowned and loved for their quality with many of them still running, while the german shit breaks usually after 1-2 years. Rusia has massive potential in this sector to make devices made to last instead of breaking to force you to buy a new one. If mediocre economy croatia(or was it slovenia?) can have gorenje sell worldwide why can't a company in russia do that especially with that massive industrial base?

Gorenje is from Slovenia and it made its name as well as Iskra in times of Yugoslavia. But now only few Gorenje products are produced in Slovenia, because majority is produced in China.

bmtppk wrote:here is what russia ''produces'' if you

Remove oil, gas and raw materials, that the leaders shamelessly steal from the people.

145 million Russians produce and export less than Greater Toronto, population 4.5 million

GTFOutta here, how about some sources for this BS?

Gonna be fun picking it apart.

Pretty sure Moscow alone produces and exports more than Greater Toronto.

Karl Haushofer wrote:

For example Kuusamo (a small city in northern Finland) is a modern and well developed Finnish town. You can nowadays cross to Russia from Kuusamo. You should see how these small villages and towns  look like in East Karelia (or Viena Karelia as it is called in Finland) in Russia. It looks probably the same that Kuusamo looked in the 1940's and 1950's. There is no running water in these villages. You see cows, hen and chicken wandering on the dirt roads at summers.

They look like this:


Enlarge this image Click to see fullsize



I realize that this is not how all of Russia looks like, but there are no underdeveloped places like this in Finland at all. Even the most remote villages have the basic services (even internet connections).

Have the above guy realize he is comparing a nation like Findland with a Continent like Russia that have near 50x times more territory than Findland.. means it needs an economy much higher than the americans ones plus 10x to be able to develop all its territory.

Russia is 4x times bigger than main land USA.. and for the size it have they have achieve a miracle there ,the nation with more pavement roads and largest trains routes in the world.
Show me a train in Findland or American that covers 9,000km on a decent transportation system? Guess none exist.. Russia SUbways are about the best in the world and for obvious reasons of its monumental size and its close ARtic proximity it will be impossible for Russia to fully develop more than half of its land mass ..is not economically practical ,specially because most of RUssia territory is inhabited.  But Russia do have very well developed cities that have nothing to envy Finland or any other nation in Europe.. take a look for example the dozen of major cities in Russia where half the population live and FIFA 2018 will be hosted..

This is about ~12 cities in Russia.. but there are more developed ones.. this are just the ones
were Russia will be hosting Football.





here are new cities in Russia under construction..



and show any place in Findland that match
St Petersburg..



or Moscow...


here all FIFA new Sport facilities in development in Russia for 2018.



In your dreams Findland is more developed than Russia. It have 1/50 the size of Russia , with 3% of its population Findland have 5 million people ,Russia have 140 millions.. So obviously it will be far easier for Findland to build roads across the entire country since less territory.
But so far Russia have more developed cities in quantity ,quality and luxury than FIndland ,even thought is only a small part of so huge continent ..it will be unfair to look at the size of Russia and look for undeveloped cities.. You will find that in any major country in the world.. including US /France or Germany..

Oh Russia is so poor.. . looks like zimbabwe to me..    
Findland can only dream to have all the luxury , history and development that exist in Russia.

Don't think this guy should expect promotion any time soon. My highlight.

WASHINGTON, August 29. /TASS/. Russia’s latest moves to expand the area of the continental shelf in the Arctic under its control are in full conformity with international law, a senior US Department of State official said in a special tele-briefing for the media devoted to an international conference on the Arctic, due in Anchorage, Alaska on August 30-31.

About Russia’s revised bid for expanding the area of its continental shelf in the Arctic, presented on August 3, the US official said: "They are doing things entirely under the process of the Law of the Sea Treaty." The US official said that Russia had carried out extensive work to gather more arguments in support of its claim submitted to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. "They have devoted a lot of science to documenting their claim, and they’re going through the proper process within the Law of the Sea Treaty," the diplomat said. He expects that apparently three countries will be contesting the North Pole, not only Russia and Denmark, which filed their applications earlier, but also Canada. "I’ve had preliminary looks at what Canada might submit as their claim; it also claims the North Pole and a rather large portion of the Arctic Ocean," he said.

The official expressed regret the US Congress had not yet ratified the relevant convention, which left no chance for Washington to take active moves in the Arctic the way other countries of the region were doing.

"My only regret is that the United States is not able to have standing under that treaty because we have not acceded to it yet," he said.

The US official in fact pointed to unfair and biased coverage in the Western media of Russia’s steps to expand its continental shelf borders. "Much has been made over the fact that their (Russians’) claim includes the North Pole; not much of a fuss was made when Denmark made a similar claim," he recalled.

Whenever you hear Standard and Poor's predictions think of this credit worthiness map.   Ignore Ukraine as it is an obvious
problem that even the S&P clowns can't deny.   But look at those deep, rich green A and AA rankings for the Baltic statelets
and only a BB rating for Russia.   Seriously, S&P is utter crap of a ratings agency.    On what basis do they evaluate the
debt servicing capacity of Russia?   On the 1998 default?    Russia has basically 10 times less debt compared to the EU "rich"
countries that average debt loads over 80% of GDP.  

http://www.cbr.ru/eng/statistics/print.aspx?file=credit_statistics/debt_an_det_new_e.htm&pid=svs&sid=itm_272

The direct debt of the Russian government is $49.4 billion.   Canada's government debt is over $1 trillion.   You will
see many sources lump in the $351 billion that the CBR lists as "public sector" into Russia's government debt.  

* Public Sector External Debt covers liabilities of the General Government, the Central bank, and those entities
in the banking and other sectors that are public corporations, i.e. non-financial or financial corporations which are subject
to control by government and the Central bank. Control is established (directly or indirectly) through ownership of more
than half of the voting shares or otherwise controlling more than half of the shareholder voting power.

This is a baloney definition.   Gazprom's debt is not the debt of the Russian government.   It is corporate debt and is financed by pure
corporate activity.   If we are going to move goal posts like this then all the corporate debt in the US of about $14 trillion
should be lumped into the $16 trillion government debt of the USA.

kvs wrote:

Whenever you hear Standard and Poor's predictions think of this credit worthiness map.   Ignore Ukraine as it is an obvious
problem that even the S&P clowns can't deny.   But look at those deep, rich green A and AA rankings for the Baltic statelets
and only a BB rating for Russia.   Seriously, S&P is utter crap of a ratings agency.    On what basis do they evaluate the
debt servicing capacity of Russia?   On the 1998 default?    Russia has basically 10 times less debt compared to the EU "rich"
countries that average debt loads over 80% of GDP.  

That is a very intersting infographic. I'm also wondering on what basis S&P rates the Baltic states higher than Russia. Is anyone here who is up to date on the investment potential of these countries? Really curious to find out.

found this video from TV Zvezda, can someone who speaks Russian provide a summary? thanks!

sepheronx wrote:Rosturizm: domestic tourism is growing rapidly
http://sdelanounas.ru/blogs/66777/

So domestic tourism increased by 30% and outpaced the goal set for 2018.

I have been saying this would happen. While there is loss for travel agencies within Russia, this is overall good as it means the money stays within the country.  Now they need to add packages and what not, to attract more foreign tourists to Russia.

I believe we can expect more or less similar growth of other sectors in the near future, after Russia finishes the restructure of the economy.

Hard truth is that Russian economy is highly self-sufficient. The so-called sanction can't kill Russia, in fact Moskva is making full use of it to boost the domestic enterprises and further increases the self-sufficiency of the country.

On the other hand, Russia/BRICS sanction against Western countries means... well, look at protests of European farmers since Russia imposed sanctions against EU dairy products.

Neutrality wrote:

kvs wrote:

Whenever you hear Standard and Poor's predictions think of this credit worthiness map.   Ignore Ukraine as it is an obvious
problem that even the S&P clowns can't deny.   But look at those deep, rich green A and AA rankings for the Baltic statelets
and only a BB rating for Russia.   Seriously, S&P is utter crap of a ratings agency.    On what basis do they evaluate the
debt servicing capacity of Russia?   On the 1998 default?    Russia has basically 10 times less debt compared to the EU "rich"
countries that average debt loads over 80% of GDP.  

That is a very intersting infographic. I'm also wondering on what basis S&P rates the Baltic states higher than Russia. Is anyone here who is up to date on the investment potential of these countries? Really curious to find out.

Actually that's about credit rating. Which is a totally different point than Public debt. For Instance Germany's Public is at over 2.7 trillion (Euro) Debt Nominal, and about 4 trillion (Euro) of total debt. Russia's Public is at 0.244 Trillion debt and 0.55 Trillion Total. Yet the debt for Germany, that cannot sustain it (read about public deficit in Germany and Russia) is deemed far more viable than Russia's. This comes from simply a game of accountants. Germany can roll its debt (borrow amounts to repay what it own) thus pushing the actual reimbursments further. Because its economy is deemed more vital than Russia's. However in absolute terms, as Germany needs more initial input than Russia, both are diversely affected by an economic down turn. For Instance when for RUssia things get worse, they don't get worse by match and Russia shells out money to repay debt. Germany cannot go into austerity mode, because that would even more adversely affect its GDP. That's the only good thing with the dutch disease. The hard currency never stops getting in for the state.

sepheronx wrote:The Russian government revised their outlook. They believe gdp to fall by 3.6% this year and 1% or so next year, then growth.

They are saying it has to do now with the Asian "crisis" and all developing countries are facing drops. Makes sense.  So hopefully smarter people decide that it is time to concentrate fully in the domestic market (that also means dropping interest rates to increase business activity and consumers).

The oil price is a good indicator that we are in a global recession. So the GDP drop is, like in 2008-2009, driven by the global economic
decline. But NATO propagandists will take full credit for "putting the hurt on Russia".