RUSSIAN FEDERATION1. What are the rough dimensions of the country in miles?The total area of the country is 6,592,735 sq mi.2. What is the population? What percentage live in the 3 largest cities?The total population of Russia according to 2001 estimate is 145,470,197. About 14% ofthe total population lives in Moscow (13,200,000 people), St. Petersburg (5,550,000people) and Novosibirsk (1,418,200).3. What is the predominant language? How widely used is English in business?The predominant language is Russian. As a foreign language, English is the mostextensively used for all kinds of communication including business.4. In the last three years have there been any instances of political instability?As the state is still in the process of building a democratic society, the political situationin country changes frequently and unpredictably. In the period of 1998-2001 there wereseveral sudden changes of the prime ministers and the government, as well asresignation of the president. The grand-scale terrorist attacks and the beginning of thenew war in Chechnya contributed much to the general political instability. Though thesocial and political situation is gradually improving since 1999, the tragedy with theRussian submarine “Kursk” in 2000 has immensely undermined the prestige and ratingof the government and aroused general dissatisfaction with the power in the state.5. What is the currency? What is the exchange rate to US dollars? How has it changed inthe past two years?The monetary unit is Russian ruble (RUR). The exchange rate is 30.75 rubles for onedollar. During the last two years the ruble has depreciated by 10%, from 28 rubles to30.75 for a dollar.6. What time zones exist in this country? What time is it in the capital when it is noon inCambridge, MA?There are 10 times zones. Moscow time is 8 hours ahead, so when it is noon inCambridge, it is 8 PM in the capital.7. What unique requirements exist for products sold in this country? (e.g. testing,packaging, language, safety, etc.)All imported food products must feature Russian-language labels or packaging with theproducts name, producer, weight, ingredients, expiration date and other information.Importers are responsible for compliance. On non-food products, information must beplaced on the label or an insert with each unit of the goods including the name of theproduct, country of origin and name of the manufacturer. It must also contain the maincharacteristics, rules and conditions for effective and safe use of the product. The sale ofproducts that do not contain such information was prohibited on July 1st 1998.Russia's July 1993 Consumer Protection Law requires official certification (byGosstandart) of imported products for conformity to Russian technical, safety, andquality standards. Certification is based on a combination of international (notably EU)and Russian standards. All food items imported into Russia are subject to food qualityand safety standards and require a certificate for each shipment. Manufactured itemscan receive certificates allowing import of a good over a three-year period. Importlicenses are required on the normal range of dangerous and harmful materials andgoods. The procedures of obtaining the required certification can be long and costly.8. What regulations or limitations exist regarding freight transport?Regulations: The major concern to all transportation companies operating in Russia iscomplicated and unpredictable Russian customs legislation and the poor level ofcoordination between Russian customs and other Russian authorities responsible fortransportation. As an example, an order, issued without any prior notice, by Russiancustoms in 1998 required all freight companies to use paid customs escorts on theterritory of Russia for all imported cargo crossing the Russian border. Another exampleis a similar requirement to present at the Russian border the original or a notarized copyof the license issued to the freight company. Although the above requirements werecanceled a short time later, transportation companies suffered losses. Currently, Russiancustoms requires one commercial invoice for each container shipped to Russia. Russiancustoms will not accept multiple containers on one commercial invoice.Limitations: The concern of international courier service companies is Russian customs’unavailability to provide the western-style level of services in terms of timing. Sincecourier cargo does not have any privileges in Russia compared to all other cargo, it mustpass through the same time-consuming customs procedure. As a result, no more then 10percent of courier's cargo is processed in 24 hours by St. Petersburg customs. Ingeneral, the average processing time for courier cargo at the customs is 5-7 days.9. Are there saltwater ports, which can handle large ships? How far are the majorpopulation centers from those ports?The major saltwater ports are Arkhangel'sk, Astrakhan', Kaliningrad, Kazan',Khabarovsk, Kholmsk, Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, Murmansk, Nakhodka, Nevel'sk,Novorossiysk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Saint Petersburg, Rostov, Sochi, Tuapse,Vladivostok, Volgograd, Vostochnyy, Vyborg. The ports are evenly spread across thecountry, thus, every major population center is relatively close to a seaport.10. What business terms and financial instruments are typically used for import commercialtransactions?One of the most common forms of commercial credit in Russia is the promissory note,or "veksel." Russian companies of all sizes, Russian banks, and many local and regionalgovernments use promissory notes in lieu of cash in an economy where commercialcredit is still hard to obtain. While promissory notes do carry significant risk, knowledgeand common sense can serve companies well when they encounter this ubiquitousfinancial instrument. In general, the business terms used for commercial transactions areinternational as well as the financial instruments.11. How large is a typical supermarket or retail food store (square feet or meters)?A typical food retail store is around 60-100 sq m, and a supermarket can be from 800 sqm and larger.12. Do any of the large US discount retailers (Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Toys ‘R Us) have storesin this country?No, Russia has only European representation of chain stores. Moreover, large-scalediscount stores are very new to Russia and may be found only in the largest cities.13. Describe the highway and rail infrastructure. Are the: extensive,