Having spent several years sizing up the Russian market, US auction web site eBay is to roll out a Russian-language version that will enable users to buy and sell goods in rubles. Users will be able to pay using credit cards linked to PayPal accounts when the system becomes operational next month, eBay CEO John Donahoe announced during a visit to Moscow this week as part of a US high-tech delegation.

“Opening a Russian-language site for e-commerce is a step in the direction” of creating ebay.ru, Donahoe told reporters in Moscow on Thursday, a day after holding talks with Kremlin officials. Donahoe said that the value of Russia’s e-commerce market could soon quadruple to $20 billion a year.

 The new European platform will focus only on fixed-price goods rather than auctions, as eBay looks to change the format of the company into a more conventional online store. Analysts predicted success for eBay’s move, given the undeveloped state of the e-commerce market in Russia. “eBay has a range of advantages that would help it [take market share],” said Boris Kim, chairman on the Committee on Payment systems of the National Association of E-Commerce.

 eBay’s will be competing against an established Russian rival: online auction web site Molotok.ru, which had a total of 30 million users in 2009. Igor Karpachyov, Molotok.ru’s CEO, was sanguine, saying eBay’s entry into the market was an indication of “good prospects” for the sector. “The appearance of a new international player is always useful for the market as it boosts its development,” Karpachyov said.

A delegation of leaders from high-profile American technology and social media companies including eBay, Twitter, Cisco Systems, Howcast, EDventure, the Social Gaming Network and Mozilla visited Russia between February 17th and 23rd.

The delegation traveled to Moscow and Novosibirsk, where they met with senior government officials, leading technology, software development and telecommunications companies, entrepreneurs, cultural and educational leaders, students and NGO representatives. They discussed how social media and other innovative technologies can be used to strengthen and broaden ties between the United States and Russia, and how these technologies can be used to develop knowledge-based societies and economies in both countries.

“Russia is a country with a vibrant technology industry in and of itself. The Russians have a huge startup capability, a huge technology industry and huge innovative capacity,” said Jared Cohen of the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s policy-planning staff, describing his impressions of the visit. This trip formed part of the broad dialogue launched by the Bilateral Presidential Commission created by Presidents Obama and Medvedev in July 2009.

The head of Russia’s Ministry for IT and Communications Igor Schegolev and Red Hat’s Director of European Operations Werner Knoblich met this week to discuss Red Hat’s progress in developing the market for open source software within Russia. It follows a meeting between the two men in February last year, where open source software market development and the use of open source software with existing systems were discussed, and the Ministry agreed to support Red Hat’s initiatives.

Study modules in open source software have since been approved at a number of Russian universities, and an innovations centre, the Solomatin Bureau of Worldwide Practices in Open Information and Communication Technologies, has been founded to bring together knowledge of global leaders in open source technologies.

An agreement on technological collaboration signed between Red Hat and the Solomatin Bureau has played a key role in advancing the progress of open source software in Russia, enabling the organisation of a new software certification system for open code. Certified product updates can now reach the end user with minimal delay following the release of updates by international providers. The certification level allows the use of open software by Russian state organs and is also a basis for key elements of new e-government programmes.

According to a paper by PricewaterhouseCoopers entitled, "Convergence, Catch up and Overtaking: How the balance of world economic power is shifting", the next decade will see the world’s largest emerging economies catch up with and even surpass the established leading economies in terms of GDP. PwC projections indicate that from 2020 on, the combined GDP of emerging E7 economies (China, India, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey) will overtake the G7’s combined GDP. Analysts predict that Russia will move up the GDP rankings over the next two decades and could move into sixth place - ahead of Germany - before 2030. While PwC analysts established a link between Russia’s growth and its energy resources, domestic economists also point to growth of the IT and high-end technology sectors as influential factors.

The Russian stock market was the most attractive of the BRIC countries in the first half of January.

According to Emerging Portfolio Fund Research, only during the last week, $245m was invested in overseas funds in Russia or the CIS - the highest amount since last autumn and the second-highest since May 2008, when Russian stock indexes reached a historical maximum.

Over the same period, $107m was invested in the Indian stock market, and $37m in Brazil's. $290m left the Chinese stock market.

A source at UFG Wealth Management commented that Russia is benefiting from its relatively low level of external debt and the healthy state of internal finance, compared to other BRIC nations.