Including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and an associate in Turkmenistan, the CIS is a Eurasian trade bloc that achieved about US$125 billion in multilateral trade in 2025, with an average GDP growth rate of approximately 4.7%. Key developments include new trade platforms (CIS Plus), focus on infrastructure like the CKU railway, and expansion of free trade agreements, especially for services, enhancing regional economic integration within Eurasia and beyond. Understand the CIS market for business. Get analysis on trade regulations, economic integration, and cross-border investment opportunities within this key post-Soviet economic zone.
The Russian-Kyrgyz Development Fund (RKDF) plans to allocate US$161 million to finance investment projects this year, the RKDF has stated. The fund’s financing amounted to US$149.3 million in 2024. The new figures mean it will increase 7.8% in 2025. During the year, US$141 million is expected to go towards direct project financing, and another US$20 […]
Russia’s VTB bank has launched phone number-based transfers to Azerbaijan, in moves that circumnavigate the financial sanctions placed on Russian banks using the SWIFT financial transfer service. Russian retail clients can now instantly send money to Azerbaijan using the recipient’s phone number to clients of the subsidiary bank – VTB Azerbaijan. The transfer is made […]
The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has been discussing bilateral relations with the Tajik President, Emomali Rahmon, in Moscow. They discussed prospects for expanding bilateral relations of strategic partnership and alliance, with a focus on trade, investment, cultural and humanitarian cooperation in addition to exchanging opinions on key regional issues. Both countries are members of the […]
The Russian President Vladimir Putin, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, and their Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev held informal discussions on Friday (March 14). All are members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and discussing how to further develop interstate relations. Lukashenko had been on an official visit to Moscow from March […]
The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, has stated that “Eurasia needs a continent-wide structure akin to the African Union or the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC)” in interviews this week. Bearing in mind that Western Europe already has the European Union and the Organisation for Security & Defence in Europe (OSCD), his […]
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Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov has been meeting with Uzbekistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Khodjaev in Moscow. Manturov and Khodjaev are co-chairs of the Russia-Uzbekistan intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation. The two parties discussed priority issues regarding bilateral cooperation during the meeting, with Manturov emphasizing the significant potential of interregional cooperation. The two […]
The Belarus Ministry of Transport and Communications has said that logistics companies from Russia, Belarus and Pakistan have signed a MoU that will allow increasing freight traffic between the three countries, but also with the countries of the “Far Arc” which also includes Brazil, Cuba, and Venezuela in Latin America; Nigeria and South Africa in […]
Following last week’s visit of Myanmar Prime Minister Min Aung Hlaing to Moscow, spin off trade and investment ties with Belarus appear to have also been on the agenda, with the Minsk Tractor Works (MTW) announcing plans to set up an assembly production line of their tractors under the Belarus brand in Myanmar. A Myanmar […]
Russian Railways Logistics has signed a contract with one of Belarus’ leading fertilizer producers to provide a complete transport and logistics supply chain for full-scale container transportation of potash fertilizers in transit along the eastern route of the North-South international transport corridor (ITC) to China. Belarus is the world’s third-largest producer of potash, China is […]
The Bugristoe checkpoint on the border of Russia and Kazakhstan has begun a significant upgrading which will double the capacity of the border crossing, when completed at the end of 2026, according to the Russian Federal State Budgetary Institution Rosgranstroy. The works include the construction of 29 buildings and structures, the organisation of 32 lanes […]
Russia’s unrealized export potential in trade with the Caspian countries is estimated at US$3.5 billion, which is about 10% of Russia’s trade turnover with the countries of the region in 2023, according to Dmitry Volvach, Russia’s Deputy Minister of Economic Development of Russia. He was speaking at the Third Caspian Economic Forum in Tehran. Russia’s […]
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