Extensive analyses Russia

DESTEP
Russia, officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuaniaand Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerb aijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also has maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the United States by the Bering Strait. At 17,075,400 square kilometres Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the eighth most populous nation with 143 million people. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning nine time zones and incorporating a wide range of environments and landforms. Russia has the world's largest reserves of mineral and energy resources and is the second largest oil producer and second largest natural gas producer globally. Russia has the world's largest forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the 1 world's fresh water.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia

Demographic
There are several ethnic groups in Russia. Ethnic Russians comprise 79.8% of the country's population. In all, 160 different other ethnic groups live within Russia. Though Russia's population is comparatively large, its density is low because of the country's size. Russias population is densest in European Russia, near the Ural Mountains, and in southwest Siberia. 73% of the population lives in urban areas while 27% in rural ones. The latest results of the 2010 Census shows a total population of 142,905,208 people. Russia's population peaked at 148,689,000 in 1991, just before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It began to experience a rapid decline starting in the mid-90s. The decline has slowed to near stagnation in recent years due to reduced death rates, increased birth rates and increased immigration. In 2009, Russia recorded annual population growth for the first time in fifteen years, with total growth of 10,500. Around 279,906 migrants arrived to the Russian Federation the same year, of which 93% came from CIS(Commonwealth of Independent States) countries. The number of Russian emigrants steadily declined from 359,000 in 2000 to 32,000 in 2009. There are also an estimated 10 million illegal immigrants from the ex-Soviet states in Russia. Roughly 116 million ethnic Russians live in Russia and about 20 million more live in other former republics of the Soviet Union, mostly in Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Russia's birth rate is higher than a lot of other European countries (12.6 births per 1000 people in 2010 compared to the European Union average of 9.90 per 1000), but its death rate is also substantially higher (in 2010, Russia's death rate was 14.3 per 1000 people compared to the EU average of 10.28 per 1000). The Russian Ministry of Health and Social Affairs predicted that by 2011 the death rate would equal the birth rate due to increase in fertility and decline in mortality. The government is going to start up programs designed to increase the birth rate and attract more migrants. Monthly government child assistance payments were doubled to US$55, and a one-time payment of US$9,200 was offered to women who had a second child since 2007. In 2009 Russia experienced its highest birth rate since the dissolution of the Soviet 2 3 Union.

2 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia#Demographics http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3183.htm

Ethnic composition (2002)

[183]

Russians

79.8%

Tatars

3.8%

Ukrainians

2.0%

Bashkirs

1.2%

Chuvash

1.1%

Chechen

0.9%

Armenians

0.8%

Other/unspecified 10.4%

Economic

The economy of Russia is to be said a market economy which means that decisions regarding investment, production and distribution are based on supply and demand and the prices of goods and 4 services are determined in a free price system. Russia has a lot of natural resources consisting of oil th and natural gas. Russia is the places 9 in the world by nominal GDP (1.884 trillion total, 13.235 per th capita) and 6 in the purchasing power parity GDP( 2.376 trillion total, 16.687 per capita). In 2010 approximately 13,7% of the Russian citizens lived below the national poverty line, down from 40% in 1998 when the country was in a post-soviet collapse.

As you can see the GDP growth went from a staggering drop to a steady growth from mid 2010. The growth drop was because an economic crisis which Russia is now steadily recovering off. Russia is currently the worlds top natural gas exporter and second on producing natural gas. It also holds the th 8 largest oil reserves and second largest coal reserves on the planet. Currently the state run Russian Railways account for over 3.6% of the countrys GDP and it handles a total of 39% of the freight traffic and more than 42% passenger traffic. Russia holds 85.500km of railway tracks but only 44.000km are electrified. Since 2006 Russia has 933.000km of roads of which 755.000 are paved. But with such a large country, Russia has the lowest road density of all of the G8 and BRIC countries. Russia has a few major sea ports including Rostov-on-don on the Avoz Sea, Navorossiyk on the Black sea, Astrakhan and Makhachkala on the Caspian, Kaliningrad and St Petersburg on the Baltic, Arkhangelsk on the White Sea, Murmansk on the Barents Sea, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Vladivostok on the Pacific Ocean. It has a great advantage because it holds the only fleet of nuclear icebreakers which gains them access to develop sea trade through the northern seal route between Europa and East Asia. Finally, Russia has 1216 airports, 4 of them being 5 in major cities . Apart from the majority of railroads and roads, both of them are very underdeveloped. 416.000km of total roads in Russia serve industries or farms and are not maintained by governmental 6 highway maintenance.

4 5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_economy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia#Economy 6 http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Europe/Russia-INFRASTRUCTURE-POWER-ANDCOMMUNICATIONS.html

Socio-Cultural

Collectivism - Throughout its notable history, Russia has assumed a strong communal spirit that is still reflected in Russian business practices today. Russia's severe climatic conditions have also meant that co-operation and collaboration, rather than competition, have been vital for survival. This sense of togetherness is one of the traits that distinguish Russians from many Westerners. Russian collectivism dates back to the peasant farmers, who lived in agricultural villages known as 'mirs' or 'obschina' and worked together in an organized and self-managed community. Egalitarianism - An important concept related to the village milieu is 'egalitarianism', the social philosophy that supports the removal of inequity and promotes an equal distribution of benefits. In Russian business terms, this equates to important strategies of equality, reciprocity and mutual advantage. Russians are very status conscious and believe in co-equals. A "deal" is often thought of from the perspective of equally shared benefit. Dusha - The famous and enigmatic Russian 'dusha' or 'soul' remains central to everyday Russian behaviour and as a result when building successful business relationships with Russians you will find that mutual liking and emotion will from a strong basis. Also we have found some Russian business etiquette which is part of the business culture; DO shake hands firmly when greeting and leaving your Russian partners and make direct eye contact. DO partake in small talk, which normally involves talk of family and personal matters, before dealing with business. DO take a gift that symbolizes the stature of your company and the importance of the impending business deal, preferably an item characteristic of your local area or one that displays the company logo. DON'T be afraid to show some emotion, the Russians won't! DON'T as the Russian proverb states 'hurry to reply', but 'hurry to listen'. DON'T praise or reward anyone in public as it may be viewed with suspicion or cause envy and jealousy. Remember the collective rules over the individual.

Political and Legal

Russia is currently a part of the WTO (World Trade Organization). Analysts think of two most important functions; Overseeing implementation, administration and operation of the covered agreements. Providing a forum for negotiations and for settling disputes.

It also is the WTOs duty to propagate and review the national trade policies and make sure the trade policies are transparent. They do this through surveillance of global economic policy-making. Currently Russia has an import tariff of 0-20% on electric machinery. In general, companies face a number of barriers when exporting to Russia. One if the most complaints by companies is Russias complex system of standardization. The complex part of this is that Russias regime lacks clarity, transparency and overall redundancy. There also is a chance that companies face discrimination because they are a foreign company. This isnt a result of federal law but abuse of power, regional regulations and practices that might violate Russian law. An example of this is that a company has to pay a range of fees to obtain licenses that dont exist from local authorities. Besides all this Russia also has an collection of import requirements and documentation.