Russia imported about US$240 billion worth of goods in 2025, ranging from selected agricultural products, cars, machinery, electronics, and high-tech goods. The Russian consumer market is also changing in light of new preferences and tastes created by its move into new markets in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.
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The Russian and Turkish Foreign Ministers have met in Baku. We discuss the pressing bilateral trade and investment issues, including nuclear power, tourism, agriculture and trade finance.
We examine the Russia-Paraguay bilateral trade history and current dynamics, and look at the evolving trends. Paraguay is a member of Mercosur in South America with the bloc specifically targeted for foreign trade development as part of Russia’s overall foreign policy.
Russia has completed the ratification of its labor agreement with India, which eases the procedures for hiring temporary employees. It comes as Moscow seeks more Indian workers to address labor shortages, and covers Indians working in Russia and Russians employed in India under employment or service contracts. It also applies to full-time students taking temporary jobs outside their studies.
The Russian and Abkhazia Foreign Ministers have meet in Moscow for their annual trade evaluation discussions. Bilateral trade is showing strong growth, based on the back of a significantly developing tourism sector, helping Abkhazia develop its own economic strengths without having to rely on Russian aid or loans. Abkhazia’s nominal GDP reached over US$1billion for the first time last year and is continuing to show sustainable increases.
The Russian and South Ossetian Foreign Ministers have met in Moscow to discuss their mutual trade, and South Ossetia’s development. South Ossetia is hampered by a lack of international recognition and relies upon Russia for much of its GDP. However, there are plans in to develop self-sustaining industries such as tourism to allow South Ossetia increasing economic independence. Targets are for the current GDP to increase by 60% by 2030.
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Russia and China have been discussing maritime security cooperation during ministerial-level talks in Beijing, with both sides critical of Western sanctions, and interference with the maritime law of the sea concerning right of passage. This raises the possibility of joint naval patrols being extended towards both their and friendly-country allies shipping on a global basis.
Russia’s automotive regulator has suspended the sale of numerous Russian trucks and SUV’s following spot-checks on safety compliance issues. Most of the defects related to braking systems, visible pollutant emissions, and the safety of external protrusions. Complaints also arose regarding seat belt anchor points, cabin safety features, emergency call devices, and external and internal noise. Imports can resume once the issues are rectified.
Vietnamese nationals may enter Russia visa-free from October 15 under a new decree. About 40,000 Vietnamese visited Russia in 2025, with most going to Moscow and St.Petersburg. That number can be expected to increase during 2026 and 2027.
Intra-Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) trade is up 19% in H1 2026, although Russian President Putin has asked for trade barriers to be lowered to increase multilateral trade still further. The effective CIS members are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Ukraine began exiting the bloc in 2014 but has not been able to secure trade guarantees with the European Union either – leaving it in de facto trade limbo and with no eastern markets.
The first Iran-Russia Trade Development summit has taken place in Bandar Anzali, and places a sharply defined economic proposition at the centre of Tehran’s northern trade strategy. The Caspian Sea acts as a gateway to Russia’s US$300 billion annual import market into substantially larger non-oil exports, transit flows and cross-border investment. We deep dive the bilateral Russia-Iran trade and investment developments.
Kuibyshev Railways and the Deng Xiaoping Terminal in Russia’s Tatarstan region has sent its first container train of wheat by rail to Vietnam. The train, consisting of 76 containers with 2,000 tonnes of wheat, departed from the hub’s One Belt One Road terminal, and will finish its journey in Vladivostok. From there, the containers will be sent to Vietnam by sea.
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