Russia 

This year Latvian tax authorities are investigating 131 money laundering cases. Recently, the European Central Bank has decided to increase its supervision of European banks at high risk of money laundering, including Latvian banks.

The Belarusian budget may lose 20 per cent of its annual revenues as a result of the increases of the price of Russian oil. The Russian-Belarusian economic relations are unique in history, but may not last forever.

The sanctions imposed on Russia by the Unites States, Canada, Norway and other Western countries, following the occupation of Crimea, did not in principle prevent the maintenance and expansion of economic relations between Russia and the individual EU member states.

Russian state energy company, Rosatom, treats Hungary as a key market for further European investments through the expansion of the Hungarian Paks nuclear power plant.

Russia’s largest financial institution, the state-owned Sberbank continues to increase its profits by a rapid pace despite the numerous obstacles many Russian banks have been facing.

In recent times, the transatlantic rift has been most visible in the discussions about two foreign policy issues: the re-imposition of sanctions on Iran and the pipeline project connecting Russia and Germany, known as Nord Stream 2.

The Russian Arctic maritime highway, the Northern Sea Route, has recently been in the center of attention, and this is well received in Beijing, which has its own plans for the so-called “Polar silk road”.

Due to the new wave of the US sanctions Russia’s currency fell to its lowest USD value in almost two years. Similarly, the Russian stock market suffered some heavy losses.

At the end of July 2018, the Russian daily Kommersant informed about a draft of legislation that, if approved, would oblige smartphone and computer producers in Russia to pre-install domestically developed software and applications.

Russia’s second largest bank, VTB, came with a number of proposals for expanding the use of the Russian ruble in international financial settlements.