RUSSIAN SPHINX

Internet development in Russia's regions

2012-01-08T07:07:00.000-08:00

Sources:
ФОМ, Потенциал развития интернета в регионах
Internet World Stats

Moscow’s most elite housing clusters

2011-12-21T07:06:00.000-08:00

Source of data: Penny Lane Realty, Карта элитных кластеров Москвы или сколько стоит соседство с Президентом РФ

Элитные кластера Москвы

2011-12-20T05:01:00.000-08:00

Source of data: Penny Lane Realty, Карта элитных кластеров Москвы или сколько стоит соседство с Президентом РФ

Cross-border travel agreement between Poland and Russia

2011-12-19T05:41:00.001-08:00

Russia: Planned rallies against falsification of the election results

2011-12-09T02:29:00.001-08:00

Author: mitingmap Interactive map: Митинг 10 декабря

Федеральный бюджет России на 2012

2011-11-27T05:40:00.000-08:00

Gender Equality in Kazakhstan

2011-11-04T07:34:00.000-07:00

I have found a place where women earn more than men (Almaty province), only women employed at small companies but still it is enough shocking to contact the Statistics Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan or maybe I should pack my suitcases and move there :)

The vis is under construction so be patient...

Sources:
Statistics Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Invest in Kazakhstan

Suicide rates per 100,000

2011-10-22T14:05:00.000-07:00

The Quality of Life Index covers 81 regions of Russia and two cities: Moscow and St. Petersburg. It scores regions on a scale from 0 (low level) to 100 (high level). In 2009 Moscow got the highest score 79.08, the lowest score (47.55) has got Republic of Tuva.

The Quality of Life Index in Russian regions has been released by Russian Institute of Regional Information and Laboratory of Mathematical Methods of Political Analysis and Prognosis of MSU Faculty of Political Science.

Following factors were taken into account:

individual incomes,
regions' attractiveness for migrants,
infant mortality,
safety,
development of service markets,
unemployment rate,
living conditions of population,
life expectancy at birth.

The Freakonomics podcast page for "The Suicide Paradox" has a wealth of links to research and information on the topic of suicide mainly in the United States.

Virtual Kazakhstan

2011-10-02T09:39:00.000-07:00

If you like my map and you would like to make your own, you need => tutorial how to work with shape files in Tableau
MapShaper
Website full of shape files
and just in case... shape files for Russia

Виртуальный Казахстан

2011-10-01T05:50:00.000-07:00

Moscow from 1897 to 2010

2011-09-11T04:43:00.000-07:00

Dear Tableau Software,

Each Interactive Viz Contest is only for residents of the United States, so now I am suggesting making Viz Contest only for European Tableau users... I understand that an award can't be a free roundtrip ticket to attend the 2011 Tableau Customer Conference in Las Vegas, but it doesn't have meaning, it can be something different... a virtual kiss or a virtual hand shake or t-shirt. I am sorry, I am desperated and tired of taking part in your contest illegally :)

and here is link to info about contest

Sources:
Census 1997, 1926, 1939, 1959, 1970, 1979, 1989, 2002
Photo: Albert Plomp

Which European and Russian cities match the population of Moscow's districts

2011-09-04T04:55:00.000-07:00

Global Office Locations 2011

2011-08-19T02:07:00.000-07:00

CBRE’s research compares the office presence of 280 major companies across 101 countries and 232 cities. 17 of the top 30 most popular company office locations are in emerging markets.

Source:
CBRE, Global Office Locations 2011

London, Paris, Moscow - most expensive luxury shopping streets in Europe

2011-07-27T05:44:00.000-07:00

Source:

Jones Lang LaSalle, Glitter and glamour shining brightly, The 100 most renowned luxury brands and their presence in Europe’s metropolitan centres

Population

2011-06-13T01:26:00.000-07:00

Prices of real estate by Moscow Districts in April 2011

2011-05-30T04:52:00.000-07:00

I am taking part in the Tableau Interactive Viz Contest. The contest is organized in co-operation with The Economist magazine. Please DO NOT vote for my visualization as the contest is open only to residents of the United States.

I decided to contribute to this challenge as I like working with data and creating visualizations, I use Tableau (and like it even living outside of the United States :) Hope that next contest will be just for Europeans :)

More about Tableau Interactive Viz Contest.

Fertility Rate and Life Expectancy

2011-05-13T09:36:00.000-07:00

Source:
World Bank

Work less, produce more ... celebrating International Workers' Day

2011-05-01T06:49:00.000-07:00

Индекс стоимости жизни по отдельным городам Российской Федерации

2011-04-13T01:10:00.000-07:00

Под индексом стоимости жизни (ИСЖ) подразумевается показатель, измеряющий относительную стоимость набора товаров и услуг в отдельных городах по сравнению с ее среднероссийским значением. Результат сопоставления этих показателей дает возможность рассчитывать на сколько дороже (или дешевле) будет обходиться один и тот же определенный набор потребительских товаров и услуг с едиными объемами их потребления в различных городах России, т.е. позволит измерить соотношение стоимости жизни в этих городах с ее среднероссийским значением.

Source:
Индекс стоимости жизни

Chocolate

2011-04-11T02:48:00.000-07:00

Sources:
ВЦИОМ, ПРАВДА И МИФЫ О ШОКОЛАДЕ

Preliminary results of Russian Census 2010

2011-04-06T05:23:00.000-07:00

Russian State Statistics Agency released preliminary results of the All-Russia census of the population of 2010. Compared with the 2002 census data, the country’s population dropped by 2.2. million or 1.6%, from 145,166,700 to 142,905,200 people.

Source:
Росстат опубликовал предварительные итоги Всероссийской переписи населения 2010 года

Airports: baggage mishandling by region

2011-03-31T01:49:00.000-07:00

Renewable Energy - Geothermal, Solar, Wind

2011-03-26T05:30:00.000-07:00

Please wait, the chart is downloading

BP, Statistical Review of World Energy 2010

Military Budgets by Country and for the World in 2009 (Billion Dollars)

2011-03-23T09:27:00.000-07:00

Click to see details

Source: Compiled by Earth Policy Institute with military spending from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Military Expenditure Database, electronic database, at milexdata.sipri.org, updated 2010

The geography of Russian marriage and divorce

2011-03-22T12:01:00.000-07:00

Source:
Центральная База Статистических Данных

Men vs. Women on Facebook

2011-03-07T02:08:00.000-08:00

Demographics profile (Russia's regions and countries)

2011-03-06T11:45:00.000-08:00

Source:
Центральная База Статистических Данных

Demographics profile

2011-03-06T11:00:00.000-08:00

This chart correlates life expectancy and number of children per woman for the Russia's regions. The bubble sizes show population, and the colors represent different federal districts of Russian Federation. You can also click on the play button to see data change over time.

Click on the x / y axis to select population by age groups (total and %).

Source:
Центральная База Статистических Данных

International Women's Day

2011-03-05T01:08:00.000-08:00

Lies in social networks

2011-03-02T03:11:00.000-08:00

The Russian Centre of Public Opinion Research conducted the survey of colouring the truth in social networks.

Source:

WCIOM, О ЧЕМ ВРУТ ПОЛЬЗОВАТЕЛИ СОЦИАЛЬНЫХ СЕТЕЙ?

Number of feature films in Russian release, by country of origin

2011-03-01T03:37:00.000-08:00

Source:

Росстат, РОССИЙСКИЙ СТАТИСТИЧЕСКИЙ ЕЖЕГОДНИК 2010, Москва 2010

Languages in Europe

2011-02-20T01:55:00.000-08:00

Natively spoken languages in Europe (thousands)

Click to see details

There is just number of native speakers living in Europe (only European citizens of countries placed both in Europe and Asia).

Europe vs. Moscow size comparison map

2011-02-19T05:52:00.000-08:00

Moscow's Index = Country's population / Moscow's population

Analysis of Crime in Moscow by Districts

2011-02-05T05:22:00.000-08:00

Nezavisimaya Gazeta has published the ranking of Moscow’s districts by the number of crimes committed (Где в Москве жить страшнее? Рейтинг безопасности между административными округами и районами мегаполиса). The districts are ranked from 1st to 122nd. The first place being the most dangerous district with the highest number of crimes committed.

Unfortunately there is no data about the types of crime committed within Moscow’s districts.

In many cities local data is available online, here you can check a map of London’s districts. Keep your fingers crossed that one day that kind of data will be available for Moscow which will allow me to build a more detailed map.

Facebook Usage by City

2011-02-03T05:31:00.001-08:00

Facebook offers the possibility of checking the estimated number of its users in British cities. In some cities the number of Facebook users seems actually higher than their population. Here are the possible reasons:

Facebook also takes into account the area around the city as well (smaller towns, cities).
There are Facebook users who are temporarily in the city (students, relatives)
Alien beings started to treat Mark Zuckerberg’s words: “The age of privacy is over” seriously. They don’t want to enter Facebook from cosmic space as they prefer to keep in private their real place of living.

United Kingdom

Facebook users by city

The Netherlands

Facebook users by city

Sale of alcoholic beverages by Russian regions

2011-01-30T05:54:00.000-08:00

You can compare the Russian regions against each other.

The start graph shows sale of vodka and beer from 1998.

To check data for other alcohols click on the label of y-axis and select:
- champagne,
- cognac,
- wine.

(Put the mouse on the bubbles to see details)

Sources:
Росстат, Продажа алкогольных напитков и пива в натуральном выражении по видам в расчете на душу населения по субъектам Российской Федерации

Demographic prognosis for Russia

2011-01-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

Sources:
Росстат, Демографический прогноз до 2030 года

Vkontakte usage by country

2011-01-18T03:50:00.000-08:00

Source of data:
http://vkontakte.ru

Road Traffic Death

2011-01-18T01:20:00.000-08:00

The state of Russian LinkedIn

2011-01-17T03:13:00.000-08:00

The place of Russian language in the internet

2011-01-05T06:59:00.000-08:00

Top ten languages used in the internet
(number of internet users by language)

Sources:

InternetWorldStats, Top ten languages used in the web

Human Development Index rating of Russia’s regions

2011-01-02T02:58:00.000-08:00

The UN Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary composite index that measures a country's average achievements in three basic aspects of human development: longevity, knowledge, and standard of living. HDI divides countries into four groups:

1 - 0.784 (Very High)

0.677 – 0.784 (High)

0.488 – 0.676 (Medium)

0.488 - 0 (Low)

The Human Development Index (HDI) consists of components:

• standard of living as measured by the gross regional product in purchasing power parity US dollars;

• education as measured by the adult literacy rate and the gross enrolment ration among children and young people between the ages of 6 and 23;

• life expectancy.

Compare Russia (HDI=0.719) to other countries: HDI on the map.

In 2010 UNDP published National Human Development Report in the

Russian Federation

with HDI for Russian regions.

Continuing transition of Russian regions into the group of developed territories (with HDI indices exceeding 0.800) is a positive trend. There are 30 such regions. The reason was further growth of life expectancy in 86% of Russian regions.

There was a strong trend towards concentration of population in regions with high

HDI, because several large regions crossed the 0.800 threshold. More than half of Russia’s population lives in high HDI regions (adding Moscow as the outstanding leader

we have a figure of 60%).

One more positive result is almost total elimination of regions with relatively low HDI indices (between 0.700 and 0.750). This group now consists only of less developed eastern regions such as the Republic of Tuva, Altai and the Jewish Autonomous District.

HDI is calculated for only one of

Russia

’s four autonomous districts – the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug – since the other three are included in Tyumen Oblast (Khanty-Mansi, Jamalo-Nenets) and Arkhangelsk Oblast (Nenets).

Sources:

UNDP Russia, National Human Development Report in the Russian Federation 2010, Millennium Development Goals in Russia: Looking into the Future

The investment climate in the Russian regions 2009/2010

2010-12-22T09:29:00.000-08:00

The investment rankings of the Russian regions for 2009/2010 has been prepared by Expert RA Rating Agency to show the business potential of each region and the risk connected with possible investment.

These are the forms of risk included in the ranking:

economic,
financial,
political,
social,
ecological,
criminal,
legal.

The potential of the regions depends on the following factors:

natural resources,
human resources,
production,
innovation,
infrastructure,
financial,
consumer.

You can also compare the results with a previous ranking.

Sources:

Рейтинг инвестиционной привлекательности регионов 2009–2010 гг.

Agglomerations

2010-12-08T10:10:00.000-08:00

Percentage of Russian population living in Moscow and St. Petersburg agglomerations

Percentage of country’s population living in agglomerations

(only agglomerations with more than 20% of country's population)

Europe

Asia

America

Africa

Oceania

Sources:

CityPopulation.de

Quality of Life Index: Moscow districts ranked

2010-11-29T02:01:00.000-08:00

Slon.ru released the Index of quality of life in Moscow districts.

Yakimanka is the leader in quality of life among Moscow districts. Top 5 districts also include Tverskoy, Arbat, Yuzhnoye Butovo, Meshchansky. The last places are occupied by Chertanovo Tsentralnoye, Tsaritsyno, Biryulyovo Zapadnoye.

The factors included in the ranking:

* population density – persons per sq km

* public health

- number of hospital beds per 1 000 population,

- capacity of polyclinics (number of patients' visits per shift),

- number of physicians per 1 000 population,

- number of medium-level medical personnel per 1 000 population.

* natural environment

* living conditions of population

- housing stock in average per inhabitant, sq. m, number of families (including singles),

- registered to receive dwelling per 1000 inhabitants,

- prices of real estate $/sq m.

* culture and recreation

- number of fitness centres per 1000 population,

- number of swimming pools per 10 000 population,

- number of museums, theatres.

* education

- number of general education establishments per 10 000 population,

- number of places at pre- school and school education establishments per 1 000 population,

- number of higher vocational education institutions.

* public transport

* finances

- revenues,

- expenditures

* other places

- railway and bus stations,

- prisons,

- graveyards.

Sources:
Slon.ru, Где в Москве жить хорошо? Рейтинг районов столицы

Mapping the Russian Blogosphere

2010-11-26T02:39:00.000-08:00

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University released Public Discourse in the Russian Blogosphere: Mapping RuNet Politics and Mobilization.

The research investigates the role of the Internet in Russian society. Russian blogs were clustered according to long term patterns of citations within posts and segmented into thematic groups. The diagram below shows the results.

Eco-rating of Russian regions

2010-11-22T05:58:00.000-08:00

The Green Patrol issued an eco-rating of

Russia

’s regions for 2010.

The eco-index compiles:

ecosphere index – protection of the environment,

sociosphere index – protection of human’s health and living environment,

technosphere index – state of industry in compliance with the ecological safety.

Belgorod Oblast has the highest eco-index – 66 points (out of 100 points).

The lowest index has been noted for Chelyabinsk Oblast – 34 points.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Russia

14:44 16/11/2010 24 out of 911 UNESCO World Heritage Sites are located in Russia.>>

Other news of the day

Sources:

The Green Patrol, Экологический рейтинг субъектов Российской Федерации

Corruption Perceptions Index 2010

2010-11-21T09:54:00.000-08:00

The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) ranks countries according to the perception of corruption in the public sector. The CPI is an aggregate indicator that combines different sources of information about corruption, making it possible to compare countries.

The CPI measures the degree to which public sector corruption is perceived to exist in 178 countries around the world. It scores countries on a scale from 10 (very clean) to 0 (highly corrupt).

Sources:

Transparency International, Corruption Perceptions Index 2010

Tweeting presidents

2010-11-18T04:10:00.000-08:00

TweetCloud for @KremlinRussia_E

TweetCloud for @BarackObama

The TweetClouds were done in TweetStats and Wordle

The Russian market of fruit

2010-11-15T08:54:00.000-08:00

Image: Artbees

Russian Federation, Fresh Deciduous Fruit Annual

View more presentations from RussianSphinx.

Sources:
USDA, Russian Federation Fresh Deciduous Fruit Annual 2009, 11/1/2010
Images: Artbees and IconShock

Prices of real estate in Moscow districts

2010-11-04T04:59:00.000-07:00

Put the mouse on the bubbles to see details of each district. Prices are for October 2010.

Sources:
РБК.Рейтинг, Рейтинг районов Москвы по стоимости квартир в октябре 2010 года

Quality of Life Index: Russian regions ranked, 2003 - 2009

2010-10-27T08:32:00.000-07:00

Quality of Life Index covers 81 regions of Russia and two cities: Moscow and St. Petersburg. It scores regions on a scale from 0 (low level) to 100 (high level). In 2009 Moscow got the highest score 79.08, the lowest score (47.55) has got Republic of Tuva.

Moscow dominates the top of the index from 2003, followed by St. Petersburg (2nd) and Moscow Oblast (3rd place from 2005 to 2009).

From 2003 to 2009 some regions have significantly changed their place in the ranking. Kaliningrad Oblast and Republic of Kabardino-Balkar have soared in the ranking by 25 and 43 positions respectively.

Republic of Chuvash has dropped from 20th to 42th place. Kemorovo Oblast has also dropped 22 positions to 51th place. Sakha Republic fell 30 positions in the ranking compared with 2003. Now the region ranks 69th out of 82.

The Quality of Life Index in Russian regions has been released by Russian Institute of Regional Information and Laboratory of Mathematical Methods of Political Analysis and Prognosis of MSU Faculty of Political Science.

Following factors were taken into account:

individual incomes,
regions' attractiveness for migrants,
infant mortality,
safety,
development of service markets,
unemployment rate,
living conditions of population,
life expectancy at birth.

(Click on the interactive map)

Sources:
Институт региональной информации, Индекс качества жизни в регионах России, 2003 - 2009 гг.

Quality of Life Index: Russian regions ranked, January - June 2010

2010-10-26T05:40:00.000-07:00

Moscow retains the top spot as the place with the Russian best quality of living, according to the Quality of Life Index, January – June 2010. St. Petersburg and Moscow Oblast follow in second and third position, respectively.

In Asia, the highest ranking entry is Tyumen Oblast at position 4, followed by Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug at position 5 and Sakhalin Oblast (9).

Republic of Ingushetia (81) and Republic of Tuva (82) are the lowest-ranking regions in the country.

To produce the index following factors were taken into account:

individual incomes,
regions' attractiveness for migrants,
infant mortality,
safety,
development of service markets,
unemployment rate,
living conditions of population,
life expectancy at birth.

(Click on the interactive map)

Sources:

Институт региональной информации, Индекс качества жизни в регионах России, 2003 - 2009 гг.

Институт региональной информации, Индекс качества жизни в регионах России, 1 полугодие 2006 - 1 полугодие 2010 гг.

Russian regions Investment Attractiveness Index, 2010

2010-10-21T05:40:00.000-07:00

Sources:

Министерство регионального развития Российской Федерации, Доклад о ситуации в экономике, финансово-банковской и социальной сферах субъектов Российской Федерации в январе-августе 2010 года (по информации на 28 сентября 2010 года)

Proved reserves of natural gas by country

2010-10-18T04:27:00.000-07:00

Sources:
BP, Statistical Review of World Energy 2010, Natural gas, proved reserves at end 2009

The geography of the Russian internet, summer 2010

2010-10-15T05:21:00.000-07:00

The Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) has released the last country report on Internet in

Russia

See below Russian internet in charts.

Put the mouse on the interactive chart to see the details.

Sources:

ФОМ, Тридцатый выпуск регулярного бюллетеня «Интернет в России». Выпуск 30. Лето 2010

The top 30 best cities for doing business in Russia

2010-09-19T06:03:00.000-07:00

The Forbes Russia published a list of Russian cities, offer the best conditions for doing business.

These are the factors included in the ranking:

Social factors
Purchasing Power
Business climate
Resistance to crisis
Infrastructure
Comfort of doing business

Check Image Gallery in Ria Novosti

Fifteen best cities for doing business in Russia

18:00 02/06/2010 The income and education level of the population, the authorities’ attitude toward businessmen, and the convenience in registering companies – the rates of these categories vary in each Russian city. The Forbes magazine published a list of Russian cities that offer the best conditions for setting up businesses. >>

Other news of the day

Sources:

Forbes Russia, 30 лучших городов для бизнеса — 2010

RIA Novosti, Fifteen best cities for doing business in Russia

Traffic in Moscow

2010-09-08T10:51:00.000-07:00

Moscow has been placed on fourth position in IBM Commuter Pain Survey, conducted in twenty major cities around the world.

Moscow never sleeps so the traffic never stops.

Special thanks to Googlea for mapping tips:

- Get Geographic Coordinates from Google Maps!
- Latitude, Longitude, and Tableau

Sources:
Data: The Globalization of Traffic Congestion: IBM 2010 Commuter Pain Survey
Car icon: Cemagraphics

The geography of the world's internet

2010-08-30T03:42:00.000-07:00

Please wait, the chart is downloading

Sources:
Source of data Internet World Stats
HostGator promo codes

A short story about social media in Russia

2010-08-22T03:21:00.000-07:00

Rose, is a public relations agency and has prepared a short film about the place of social media in Russian society. 4 minutes with social media in Russia: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte.

Russian version:

Sources:

Rose, Is It Time Your Company Got Serious About Social Media?

Rose, Компаниям Пора Задуматься о Социальных Медиа?
Smashing Magazine, Twitter Heart Icon

Quality of Death

2010-08-15T01:19:00.000-07:00

The Economist Intelligence Unit was commissioned by the Lien Foundation, a Singaporean philanthropic organisation, to devise a ”Quality of Death” Index to rank countries according to their provision of end-of-life care.

The Lien Foundation web site is worth visiting for an interesting design, last playlist, the last word sections and the pdf report “The quality of death. Ranking end-of-life care across the world”.

The Quality of Death Index measures the current environment for end-of-life care services across 40 countries. The Index scores countries across four categories: Basic End-of-Life Healthcare Environment; Cost of End-of-Life Care; Availability of End-of-Life Care and Quality of End-of-Life Care.

The Quality of Death Index = 20% * Basic End-of-Life Healthcare Environment + 25% * Availability of End-of-Life Care + 15% * Cost of End-of-Life Care + 40% * Quality of End-of-Life Care

Remember that the index scores were calculated to two decimal places, but they have been rounded to one decimal place in the report. For this reason, countries which appear to have the same score may have different rankings.

The Quality of Death Index across the world (rank 1st - score: 7.9, rank 40th - score 1.9)
(Put the mouse on the countries to see details)

Ranking end-of-life care across the world

Death is waiting for you... on Facebook.
The foundation has Facebook page so you can also become a Facebook fan of Death.

Sources:

The Lien Foundation, The quality of death. Ranking end-of-life care across the world http://graphics.eiu.com/upload/QOD_main_final_edition_Jul12_toprint.pdf

Who Loves Facebook?

2010-08-01T02:02:00.000-07:00

Please wait, the chart is downloading

Source:

Smash Robot, Facebook users by country

United Nations Statistics Division, Composition of macro geographical (continental) regions, geographical sub-regions, and selected economic and other groupings

Smashing Magazine, Facebook Heart Icon

Innovation

2010-07-19T13:02:00.000-07:00

In May 2010, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the New Economic School, the Russian Venture Company, and the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies conducted a survey of 100 large1 companies operating in Russia to assess the level of innovation. The survey was also designed to explore the key factors which determine the innovation, the key barriers to innovation

The survey seeks government policies which would, in the opinion of large business, be most effective in fostering innovation in Russia.

The survey is available at PricewaterhouseCoopers web site in English and Russian versions.

Sources:

Росстат, РЕГИОНЫ РОССИИ, СОЦИАЛЬНО-ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКИЕ ПОКАЗАТЕЛИ 2009, СТАТИСТИЧЕСКИЙ СБОРНИК, Москва 2009

The New Economic School, PricewaterhouseCoopers Russia, the PwC Center for Technology and Innovation, the Russian Venture Company, Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies, Innovation by Large Companies in Russia, Mechanisms, barriers, perspectives

The X-Files

2010-07-04T01:33:00.000-07:00

A Reuters poll conducted by Ipsos shows that 21% of Russians believe that alien beings have come down to earth and now walk amongst us in our communities disguised as "us".

The research was conducted in 22 countries and the average is 20% of alien-believers in each country, so Russia is placed in the middle of the responses.

As FBI agent Fox Mulder said "The Truth Is Out There,"…on the map

Source:

One in Five (20%) Global Citizens Believe That Alien Beings Have Com

Photo; Hot-Air Balloon

Foreign investment in the Russian regions

2010-06-23T01:53:00.000-07:00

Foreign investment in the Russian regions from January to June 2009

(Click on the interactive map)

Source:

Russian Economy, dataset: Foreign investment in Russian regions from January to June 2009.

GKS, dataset: Foreign investment in Russian regions in 2008

Smiling Internet

2010-06-01T01:09:00.000-07:00

According to research carried by Yandex in March 2010 Russian internet smiles.

The quantity of smileys showing positive emotions :) surpasses negative ones :(

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Every sixth web site contains a smiley

Types of smileys in Runet (million)

Source:
Улыбки в интернете

Organizations promoting Russia in the Netherlands

2010-04-17T01:04:00.000-07:00

The organizations are divided into three groups:

1. embassy (a dark pink pin)
2. business (dark blue pins)
3. culture (pale blue pins)

Click on the link below the map to see it in new window

View Organizations promoting Russia in the Netherlands in a larger map

When you enlarge the map to see each location, you will be able to have virtual trip in mentioned places as Street View is available in each place marked on the map. If you have never met Pegman and you do not know how to use Street View (a feature of Google Maps that allows you to quickly and easily view and navigate high-resolution, 360 degree street level images of various places around the world), you should check out this tutorial:

The map is under construction so if you know more organizations promoting Russia in the Netherlands, post links in comments.

Sources:
Clog
Google Street View

A map of an economic crisis in Russia

2010-03-13T03:47:00.000-08:00

Over one half of the Russian population (52%) consider that they suffered from an economic crisis, according to 44% the crisis didn’t impact on their lives.

The quantity of those who suffered from the crisis varies according to the region. The situation is hardest in the Central European part of Russia and Urals regions. On the other hand the inhabitants of the North-West regions, Siberia and the Far East consider that the influence of the crisis has had less effect.

The regions that suffered less from the crisis (dark blue colour)

Republic of Karelia
Arkhangelsk Oblast
Republic of Komi
Kaliningrad Oblast
Novgorod Oblast
Kaluga Oblast
Voronezh Oblast
Republic of Mari El
Krasnodar Krai
Astrakhan Oblast
Kurgan Oblast
Republic of Khakassia
Irkutsk Oblast republika
Amur Oblast
Jewish Autonomous Oblast
Kamchatka Krai
Magadan Oblast
Sakhalin Oblast

Regions that suffered most from the crisis (red colour)

Kursk Oblast
Belgorod Oblast
Tambov Oblast
Ryazan Oblast
Vladimir Oblast
Yaroslavl Oblast
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
Ulyanovsk Oblast
Sverdlovsk Oblast
Novosibirsk Oblast
Republic of Altai

The percentage of the Russian population that have suffered from the crisis

The survey, Georating, was conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation (Фонд Общественное Мнение (ФОМ). Between the 6th and 30th of August 2009 500 Russians answered the questionnaire in 68 regions, totally 34 thousands of respondents.

Source:

Год уходящий и год наступающий: оценки и ожидания населения
Crisis graphic

How to understand Russians

2010-02-08T04:41:00.000-08:00

Svetlana Kuznetsova, the certified trainer at Cross-Cultural Communications Centre in Russian Federation, have said a few words about a Russian culture profile for Russian Sphinx. Svetlana Kuznetsova is a high level professional in the sphere of forming the image of Russia abroad, developing the cross-cultural Communications' effectiveness. As well, she is a developer of her own methods in the sphere of political and business processes.

1. Can you sketch in few words a Russian national cultural profile?

Speaking on Russian national cultural profile it would be wise to firstly make a list of typical Russian characteristics.

Usually foreigners quite easily list the main Russian features such as pessimism, fatalism, collectivism, people-orientation, etc. Most of them together with Russian originals acknowledge that sense of pride or Mother Russia attitude is the most distinctive trait of the Russian character.

Even though many features of Russian mentality are rather obvious and might be seen from the first glance, there are many of them that are hidden from the eyes of outsiders. For example, volya (a kind of freedom) justice, and self-sacrifice.

In general, Russian NCP is not such simple and well-detective thing. It is rather complicated and takes time to be explored.

2. What are the most common mistakes in business communication with Russian business partners made by foreigners?

In my view, there are few of them.

The first one is the overstatement of Soviet Era influence on the contemporary Russia existence. Russian behavior patterns both in everyday and business life have their roots far beyond the 20-th century and, just could not be boiled down to Soviet period. In addition, there are many things from that time history which form the National Pride even for the modern generations. All this is about values. Do not ruin them explaining that the values of yours are better.

The second problem the foreigner might meet here is trying to behave the same way as Russians do. Bear in mind that suspiciousness towards foreigners is a black hole and also typical Russian feature. So, the excessive reliance to the Russian partners might become an unpleasant surprise in the future. It is better to follow the Russian rule: Trust and Check!

And the third one, probably, the most serious mistake is trying to do business without establishing the personal contacts. Russia has very people-oriented culture, so without personal trust between partners no one will be ready to run business together.

3. What kind of problems can face a foreign manager working with Russian subordinates?

All of them are connecting with Russian NCP and generally have nothing to do with major business practices. I will name only the most common, such as passivity, responsibility avoidance, deadlines’ breaking up, lateness and delays, fear of change, etc.

4. How to motivate Russians?

Usually Russians are motivated with three things:

1) Great and challenging aims with the impact for the nation as a whole

2) Self-development including possibility to learn

3) Flexibility in time use

5. Russians are known as hard negotiators. What is the most surprising for foreign negotiators?

In my view, more often than not, foreigners are not ready for the ambivalent strategies of Russians during negotiations. Being very theatrical Russians are able to play different roles at various levels of negotiations. They may choose the “sit it out” tactic and if necessary are able to change it in a flash to the immediate deal strategy.

6. How to negotiate with Russians?

Actually, it is impossible to teach the negotiation with Russians in the interview format. Here I will give the only one tip for foreigners: never think that money is a key motivator for Russians at the negotiation.

7. Which rules should foreign partners follow to build good communication with Russians?

I call them the “Golden rules” for interacting with Russians. Below is the list of them:

1) Establish personal relations

2) Respect the national honor (Mother Russia attitude)

3) Do not take what is said and heard for granted

4) Don`t be greedy, either for yourself or for them

5) Appeal to the feelings of the majority not to the law

6) Indicate your human side – emotions, hopes, aspirations etc.

7) Remember the order of priority: personal relationship, form and appearance, opportunity for financial gain

8. Which nationalities are the closest to Russian dusha and easily understand Russian culture?

Excepting the former Soviet oriented cultures, my perception is that two group of cultures are relatively more adaptive to Russian culture. The first group includes Germans, Finns and, probably, Swedes because of their previous knowledge and contacts with the Soviet Russia.

The second group’ cultures are close to the Russian one in terms of general attitude towards life. Among them there are Italians, Columbians, and French.

As for the Russian dusha, I doubt that any foreigner is able to perceive it in the real sense. My advice is: just be aware this phenomenon exists in Russia, but do not try to make any conclusions based on your personal perception of it.

The investment climate in the Russian regions

2010-02-01T05:03:00.000-08:00

The investment map of Russia shows the business potential of each region and the risk connected with possible investment. The fourteen investment rankings of the Russian regions for 2008/2009 has been prepared by Expert RA Rating Agency. You can also compare the results with a previous ranking.

The investment map and preferences of investors has radically changed. The economic crisis has forced investors to rethink priorities from both sides; potential and risk. Nowadays the most competitive are those regions with the lowest “human” risks; criminal, administrative and social. The potential of the consumer, that held the leading position in previous rankings, is less important for investors that in the past. The importance of infrastructure potential remains stable.

From one hand risk

For the first time in the top ten of regions with the lowest investment risk there are several regions with diversified economies and agro industrial functions as a result the leading group renewed by 70%. For the first time in the top ten appeared Penza, Voronezh and Tambov Oblast. Together with the Lipetsk Oblast these regions formed the new type of Russian region attractive for investments; relatively small, economically balanced with non natural resources. Their secret is the steady economy, based on agriculture and processing industries, social stability, calm criminal situation and good strategy.

Voronezh Oblast demonstrates an impressive reduction in the investment risk. In the past three years it has jumped from 68th position to the 7th in the rating of integral investment risk due to an improvement in all forms of risk. Tambov Oblast moved from the 57th position in 2004 to 8th place.

The Omsk Oblast is new in the group and it is the only Siberian region that entered the top ten of the smallest risk in all years of ratings. Recently the region has considerably improved in the areas of social, financial and also economic risk.

The capital regions, the Republic of Bashkortostan together with Krasnodar Krai and Rostov Oblast mark the standards of investment attractiveness.

For the first time the Republic of Tatarstan and Belgorod Oblast do not appear in the top ten. The leading group has left Vologda, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan, Kaliningrad Oblasts, and also the Republic of Chuvash behind.

From other hand potential

The process of deconcentration investment potential has accelerated and the shares of capital regions (Moscow, St Petersburg) and large regions have decreased. Small and average regions are getting more competitive. The largest Eastern regions decreased their shares in the total investment potential: Krasnoyarsk Krai, Jamalo-Neneck Autonomous Okrug and Republic of Sakha.

In the top ten Russian regions with the highest investments there has only been one change: Perm Krai has jumped into the place of Samara Oblast. Samara Oblast has reduced its potential and is rated 12th place; the lowest in fourteen years of rankings. The problems in Samara were caused by the crisis of AvtoVAZ; the biggest enterprise in the region. The greatest decrease in investment potential was noted in the Tomsk and Astrakhan Oblasts. Tomsk Oblast decreased human and consumer potentials. Astrakhan Oblast reduction was mainly in human and innovation.

Geography of investment potential

In recent years the essential shift of investment potential from the Eastern regions, that are wealthy in natural resources, into the European part of Russia occurred. This creates the serious threat to the promising development of the Eastern regions. In the period between the crises (1998-2009) the investment potential moved to the West and into the regions of developed agriculture and processing industries.

Map of investment climate in Russian regions

Source:

Рейтинг инвестиционной привлекательности российских регионов: 2008-2009 годы