Russia has been developing continuously in the last ten years. Russia’s goal since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 was to constantly grow economically. In order to stabilize, an ambitious program of radical economic reforms was initiated by Yeltsin and the economist Yegor Gaidar, his adviser.
Russia’s status in the world substantially grew in power in the ten years that followed 1998’s financial crash. Not since the mid-1980’s has the Kremlin enjoyed such a powerful position as it did in the mid-2000. This was possible due to the energy market’s favorable conditions and the intelligent macroeconomic policy of the Russian government put together. This position helped Russia reaffirm itself as a great international power, an autonomous centre of power and control with highly ambitious leaders in the present.
Russia is foreseen as the fifth largest world leading economy, as far as GDP is concerned. With the middle class population as the majority and with a ruling party and well-built set of State institutions, Russia vaunts itself as socially sustainable and politically stable.
The service sector contributes a lot to Russia’s gross domestic product, accounting for sixty percent of the total GDP. As far as industries are concerned, the most important ones are: textile, agriculture, construction, food and mining. 95 per cent of Russia’s grain output is provided by four of the 7 federal districts: Volga, Siberian, Southern and Central.
Russian Wheat is grown mostly in the Southern and Central districts, which provide a very fertile black soil called chernozem. Rye is cultivated in the north, where soils are not as fertile and winters are quite severe. Every year, winter causes damages to more than 10 per cent of the crops planted in autumn. Plants suffer from soaking, ice crust, and overexposure to snow, frost damage or heaving.
On July 1st, the Russian export tariff on softwood logs and Russian Wood increased to 20 percent, but not less than 10 Euros per cubic meter. The change in the export tariff for unprocessed wood products is expected to have a long-term impact for Russia’s main trade partners. Russian Timber is exported mainly to China, Finland, and Japan.
Russia exports oil, Russian Gold, manufacturing products and natural gas to the Netherlands, Italy, China and Germany. Its partners of import are Germany, Japan and Ukraine, from which it imports fuel, capital goods and food.
