Features
Russia’s major corporates undergoing a digital transformation
Everyone is on board. Digitisation has been made a top priority of the government that has already transformed the tax service so that a cosmonaut paid his taxes from space last year. Russia's economy is going online.
High tech investment the answer to CEE’s labour crisis
As labour markets tighten across CEE, economists say the best outcome for the region is for companies to respond to worker shortages by investing into new technologies.
Belarus-Russia energy dispute snowballs
Russia has refused to discuss with a high-level delegation from Minsk possible ways of compensating Belarus for its multi-billion losses from the so-called 'tax manoeuvre' in the Russian oil sector that will effectively cut energy subsidies to Belaru
VOX: Smaller Russian equity market pie, but bigger pieces
Interest in Russian equities is picking up again as the economy recovers and earnings rise again, but the number of brokers is shrinking. The pie is getting smaller, but the pieces left have to be shared with fewer people.
Astana eager to boast a regional IT startups hub
Accelerator, incubator and co-working project located at former EXPO site to form part of business centre in the mould of La Défense in Paris and Moscow City in Moscow.
Plastics in the snow: Sibur takes the lead in Russia's burgeoning petrochemical sector
Global top ten petrochemicals company Sibur has spent $9bn on a new facility that will treble its output and double its revenues. Despite its controversial shareholders the firm is ripe for IPO.
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CEE firms to invest heavily into robots
Growth in industrial robot shipments to Central and Eastern Europe to considerably outstrip global growth, as labour shortages bite.
IRI poll finds Ukraine's presidential race remains wide open as all the candidates are unpopular
New poll shows none of the prominent candidates has a clear lead and the gaps between them remain relatively small.
Poland to lead the world’s last-ditch effort to weaken climate change
The coal-dependent country’s willingness to host the summit – for a record fourth time – is a travesty for many observers, who suspect Warsaw will want to push the agenda of moving away from coal only incrementally.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis is the king of the woods
Babis has made a fortune from forestry, but critics say he has also caused an environmental disaster.
East European cities mull banger bans as “dirty diesel” exports threaten to worsen air quality
Governments and city authorities in Southeast Europe and Eurasia want to limit imports of the older car models that have flooded into the region as few people can afford new cars.
Masha and the Spy
The Times ran a piece on November 17 entitled “Children’s show is propaganda for Putin, say critics” claiming a much loved Russian cartoon featuring a little girl called Masha, who is friends with a bear, was “soft propaganda” for Putin's regime.
Uzbekistan’s bourse is open for business
These are busy times for the Tashkent Stock Exchange. Foreign delegations visit almost daily, not only from Korea, which bought a stake, but also from Kazakhstan, Russia, Japan and China. Europeans have been slower to react to Uzbekistan's revival
Russian broker dealer BCS Global Markets launches swap engine to simplify trading ruble assets and capture underserved mid-market clients
Banking and finance is one of the most sophisticated sectors of the Russian economy, but it still has quirks. Russian prime broker BSC GM has set up a synthetic swap product that smooths the creases and will break open new international markets.
Explosive growth marks most CEE media markets in 2017
The CEE advertising industry is growing at an astonishing pace, according to the CANnual Report 2018. While television is still the dominant media type in most countries of the region, digital is catching up fast.
Number of Russian banks falls below 500 as sector clean-up enters its end game
The central bank has revoked licences from more than 400 banks and sanitised more than 30 credit organisations, including three very large banking groups.