The map of Russia

1. The map of Russia

2. 1985 The Soviet Union began to collapse into independent nations. After years of Soviet military buildup at the expense of domestic development, economic growth was at a standstill. Failed attempts at reform and a stagnant economy led to a general feeling of discontent, especially in the Baltic republics and Eastern Europe.

3. 1991 Soviet Union finally collapsed when Boris Yeltsin seized power in the aftermath of a failed coupthat had attempted to topple reform-mindedGorbachev.

4. 1998 The Russian financial crisis (also called "Ruble crisis") hit Russiaon 17 August 1998. It was exacerbated by the global recession of 1998, which started with the Asian financial crisisin July 1997. Given the ensuing decline in world commodity prices, countries heavily dependent on the export of raw materials, such as oil, were among those most severely hit. The sharp decline in the price of oil had severe consequences for Russia.

5. Goldman Sach invented the term BRIC to describe the Brazilian, Russian, Indian and Chinese economies. Russian economy is growing very fast. Russia ended 2007 with 7% growth of GDP. Russian economy is growing annually since the financial crisis of 1998.

6. Over the last six years, fixed capital investments have averaged real gains greater than 10% per year and personal incomes have achieved real gains more than 12% per year.

7. The federal budget has run surpluses since 2001 and ended 2007 with a surplus of about 3% of GDP. Foreign debt is approximately one-third of GDP. The state component of foreign debt has declined, but commercial debt to foreigners has increasingly risen.

8. These achievements have raised business and investor confidence in Russia's economic prospects, with foreign direct investment rising from $14.6 billion in 2005 to approximately $45 billion in 2007.

9. Inflation approached 12% by year-end.

10. What are the perspectives of development? •  Existing mix of market-oriented policies and state intervention will remain in place, with state control over strategic sectors. •  Tighter liquidity will dampen investment and consumption growth, with real GDP growth slowing to an annual average of 6.7% in 2008-09. •  High energy prices, strong capital inflows and fiscal loosening will continue to fuel inflationary pressures. •  Strong imports and only moderate export growth are forecast to reduce the current-account surplus to around 3% of GDP by 2009.

11. According to the World Bank’s “Governance Matters VI: Governance Indicators for 1996-2006,” published in July 2007, the level of responsibility for the Russian government was rated 24 out of 100, along with Mauritania and Butan.

12. It is difficult to open your business • The structure of the Russian economy remains skewed towards a few giant companies, mostly forged from Soviet-era assets. Small and medium-sized businesses contribute less than 15% of GDP. The cost of opening a business is higher than in most other countries. Only 5% of firms have been created in the past ten years, according to the World Bank

13. Anti-government forces committed numerous human rights abuses in the internal conflict in Chechnya. They continued killing and terrorizing local heads of administration.

14. There were also positive developments with regard to human rights. • Reforms initiated in previous years continued to produce improvements in the criminal justice system

15. Population • 140,702,094 (July 2008 est.) • Population of Russia • 127,288,419 (July 2008 est.) • Population of Japan

16. My own experience!

24. Pioneers