This book analyzes the transition of Russia's agro-food sector from a centrally planned system to a market-oriented one. The chapters set out to explain the initial conditions of transition, describe the measures undertaken, survey the current situation, and offer perspectives on how best to...

Gas from the Russian Federation accounts for a quarter of the consumption in the European Union and for more than 40% of its imports. In 2010 essentially all of these imports depended on transit through either Belarus or Ukraine, both being major importers of Russian gas themselves. On both...

A Common Economic Area (CEA) formed by Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus since January 1st 2012, following creation of the Customs Union between these countries in 2007 (and in operation since mid-2010), raises a number of topical questions on whether it can be sustainable, trade-stimulating,...

The overall degree of international equity market connectedness has gradually increased over the past two decades. Reflecting the shift in global economic power, it has been recently suggested to pay more attention to the BRICT (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and Turkey) countries. Building on,...

COP17 in Durban revealed once again the general willingness to commit to the 2°-target and the difficulty to reach an international Post-Kyoto agreement until 2015. There is strong evidence from model-based analysis that economic costs of reaching the 2°-target will be below global GDP growth...

Technological change has been attributed an important role in reducing the costs associated to climate change mitigation through GHG emission reductions. The adoption and deployment of low-carbon and environmentally friendly technologies has been at the center stage of climate negotiations....

The emergence of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) grouping and the rapid advancement of their stock market may results in the acceleration of the appreciation of their respective currencies and ultimately the loss of their trade competitiveness. Conversely, exchange rate...

Russia is not only one of the world’s major sources of carbon based energy – coal, oil and gas - but is also one the most intensive users of energy. Furthermore, Russia accounts for a disproportionately large share of global carbon emissions – some 5 to 6 percent of global carbon emission...