Question

What are:

a) The most interesting or fun facts about Russia?
b) Key challenges, risks, threats of doing business in Russia from an economic perspective?

Answer 1

a. The Trans-Siberian Railway crosses the county nearly all the way, making it the world's longest continuous railroad. The 9200 kilometer railway (or 5700 mile) departs in moscow (located in European Russia) and crosses into Asia. This then finds its way to Vladivostok's Pacific Ocean terminal, where it hits the end of its incredible journey. The entire non-stop journey will take you 152 hours and 27 minutes

By area Russia is the world's largest economy. It's total area is 17,075,400 square kilometers, representing more than a quarter of the surface area on Earth. The density of the soil in Russia is 1.8 times the size of the United States

By 2012, Russia has become the world's second-largest oil producer, delivering an total of 9,900,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Saudi Arabia occupied the top spot with 10,900,000 barrels a day, but the US is expected to overtake both Russia and Saudi Arabia and become the world's biggest oil producer by 2020 (the US is actually in third place).

b. The number of measures taken to secure building permits will differ considerably from city to city; Novosibirsk needs just 16, compared to 47 in Moscow. As a result, the time it takes to receive permits varies enormously; a year in Moscow compared with five months in Surgut

Registration of property in Russia is fairly inexpensive, and registration costs are among the lowest in the world and far below the OECD level. But to complete the operation, it also takes an total of four operations running about 35 days. Having power is an exceedingly laborious process in Russia and businesses can struggle to be turned on between four months and a year, depending on the destination. Project approval is a especially complicated phase which involves many trips to public agencies and takes between 30 and 120 days

Russia's infrastructure is predominantly Moscow-centered, with most economically important transportation networks coming from the country's capital. Global transport depends extensively on rail which is not fully incorporated into world transport networks. Air connections are still underdeveloped for such a large nation, rendering intercountry travel arduous.