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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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.
The Russian and Turkmenistan Presidents have held a bilateral meeting at Avaza, a national tourist zone on Turkmenistan’s Caspian coast, located near the city of Turkmenbashi. Current bilateral trade is about US$2.5 billion and has been growing significantly the past two years. Both governments have set a target to double trade by 2030. We discuss the bilateral trade makeup.
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Intra-Eurasian Economic Union trade has grown by 10% in 7M this year. The bloc includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, filling the geographic space between Eastern Europe and Western China. If this growth continues for the rest of 2026, multilateral trade values would surpass US$100 billion for the first time.
The Joint Russia-Myanmar Commission For Trade & Economic Cooperation was held in Moscow this week, with Russia and Myanmar expanding their bilateral trade and economic ties through long-term commodity agreements, joint infrastructure projects, and alternative settlement mechanisms. Bilateral trade turnover has been scaling up, with total trade values close to US$2 billion.
The Eurasian Economic Union – United Arab Emirates Free Trade Agreement came into effect on October 6th. We examine the multilateral trade flows, key areas of imports and exports, the resulting tariff reductions and the expected impact on Russia-UAE trade flows.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk and Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi have discussed improving bilateral trade, which has increased 150% in 7M in 2026. There is the possibility for 2026 bilateral trade volumes to reach US$1 billion this year. We discuss the growth sectors.
Between January and August 2026, rail freight between Russia and China hit 130.2 million tonnes, a rise of 5.4 percent compared with the same period last year. At the same time, container shipments increased 12.8 percent, reaching 2.4 million twenty-foot equivalent units. Exports from Russia to China came to 113.5 million tonnes, a 3.7 per […]
Russia’s container market volumes have grown by 6% in the 8M of this year, incorporating foreign trade and transit shipments via Russian seaports, foreign trade and transit movements across overland border crossings along the Russian Railways network, domestic Russian container shipments along the Russian Railways network, and coastal cabotage traffic.
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