After considerable changes in the Russian government after the Presidential elections, the Ministry of IT and Communications was modified to get a new name and a new head. Igor Shegolev was appointed to manage the government body, which now bears the name of Ministry of Telecommunications and Mass Communications.

Although the Russian IT market reacted negatively to the extraction of the “IT” part from the Ministry’s name, the good news are new deputies to Mr. Shegolev, who possess considerable experience and vast knowledge of telecom and IT industries in Russia.

Among them is Alexey Soldatov, who is considered to be one of the pioneers of Internet development in Russia back in 90s. Until his appointment to the Ministry Mr. Soldatov held the position of R&D Director at Kurchatov R&D Institute in Moscow.

The Russian IT market players expect the new team of the Ministry to continue the dialogue with the business community.

Software right violation in Russia reduced greatly, says the new report of Business Software Alliance, the global organization dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world.

BSA presented its annual report on the levels of software piracy in the world. The research found that Russia led the way with a one-year drop of seven points to 73%, and a five-year drop of 14 points. Russia’s piracy rate is decreasing at a fast pace as a result of legalization programs, government engagement and enforcement, user education, and an improved economy.

Of the 108 countries included in the study, PC software piracy dropped in sixty-seven countries and rose in only eight. Among nations studied, Russia’s piracy rate dropped a remarkable seven percentage points to 73% from 2006 to 2007. This reduction is the result of legalization programs by IT vendors, enforcement and education by the Russian government, and, an overall improvement in the country’s economy that helped drive a 22% surge in personal disposable income in 2007.

“Russia had a phenomenal year, with the piracy rate dropping seven points in 2007. Ongoing legalization programs on the part of vendors and the government had an impact and also lowered piracy in the installed base. In addition, Russian police authorities increased the criminal enforcement against resellers and commercial users of illegal software while some of the distribution networks that sold pirated software have switched to legitimate software distribution. Rapid economic growth and the rise in disposable income are prompting consumers to re-evaluate the trade off between the risk of using pirated software and the cost of legitimate software. Were it not for an increase in software deployments to the installed base of older PCs compared to last year, the Russia rate might have been even lower. The legitimate PC software market grew more than 100% in 2007.”

From “Global Piracy Study 2007” by Business Software Alliance

In March the international rating agency Standard & Poor's revised Russia's rating outlook to Positive (A-) due to the continuous growth. The upgrade reflects the agency's expectations of the future progress of Russia, forecasted for the budget and external reserves of the country, which have recently revealed rapid growth.

Russia's GDP grew by 8,1% in 2007 according to the estimates from the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. Last year has also seen the surge in investments which soared by 21% in comparison to 2006. The increase in capital flows and the growing purchasing power are among other distinctive trends in the Russian economy.

St.Petersburg Governor Valentina Matvienko rounded off the summer with signing a memorandum of cooperation with Oracle Corporation.

This happened only a month after she made an agreement with the management of Microsoft Russian office. Microsoft agreed to provide the city authorities with software and hardware necessary for the government projects and to take part in the professional trainings in information technologies.

The agreement on Intentions with Oracle aims at strengthening the existing partnership between the City of St.Petersburg and Oracle Corporation and at exploring information technology e-government projects. In signing the agreement, the parties expressed mutual interest in considering co-operation in the design and implementation of a series of new city information systems based on leading-edge technologies, and which will integrate with the existing St. Petersburg IT systems to provide government services to citizens and to businesses.

By partnering with two IT giants, the government of St.Petersburg has proved its interest towards the making information technology an inherent part of the city life. The city authorities became very attentive to the needs of the local IT community and have been looking for proving additional tax incentives for the IT market players. Only this year, their efforts brought two MNCs’ technology centers to St.Petersburg - Hewlett-Packard and EMC. Oracle announced the plan to open a new office in the city, too.

Regional government of St. Petersburg is making plans to outrun other Russian regions on the way of supporting the innovation in the high technology area. And the recent seminar at the Committee of the Economic Development proved this trend to be a serious intention.

The Committee, chaired by the vice-governor Mikhail Oseevsky, presented the updated policy on the development of innovation in the high-tech branch in the city. The meeting’s discussion brought together more than 60 representatives of technology enterprises and government officials.

Discussion was focused on preparing the roadmap for further development of the St. Petersburg high tech sector that is estimated to be the most advanced in the country. Concentrating 20% of the 300’000 Russian IT professionals and accounting for the 10% of the overall science potential of the country, the city is already a recognized technology hub.

The five million city of St. Petersburg accounts forthe major share of the human capital in the country: 8% of Russian students and 15% of graduates and post-graduates in Russia. This makes us believe that with the sensible government support the innovations will flourish in the city.

Today, when the fast paced growth of the Russian market attracts visitors from abroad, the question of entry to Russia should be addressed and resolved properly. Dealing with authorities is surely not the most pleasant experience, especially if you are doing it for the first time. But there is good news, nothing too complicated, says the article titled Russian Visa Demystified. Part I. “INTRO TO RUSSIAN VISA”.

Whether you are novice to Russian travel or have completed a couple doze trips to Russia already, we believe that our new Russian Visa Demystified corner will give a few hints on the process of getting a Russian visa from start to finish. We firmly believe that just about every Russian traveler will find something new about Russian visas in the article, and might even end up saving money.

The article is written by Kestutis Gregeris, a Georgia State University MBA graduate, who also offers a dedicated service: www.RussianVisaGuide.com

Finally, a recognized western periodical releases positive impressions on Russia. The Washington Post’s “Russian Chronicles” blog offers lively and moving images of Russia, stories, visuals, opinions. Stories are categorized by regions of Russia, and many good things are said about St. Petersburg, in particular. About St. Petersburg on www.washingtonpost.com

It takes writer Lisa Dickey and photographer David Hillegas eleven weeks to travel across Russia, while they file daily blog entries and photos about the people they meet from Vladivostok to St. Petersburg. The Changed Russia on www.washingtonpost.com

Ten years have lapsed since Lisa’s last visit to Russia, and as she revisits the Russian places she’d been to, she comments on the changes that have taken place since 1995.

Russia Blog, edited by fellows from the Discovery institute (representing their own opinion), widely comment on the general happenings around the country and provide a reasonable source of information on topics, relating to our blog. In particular they provide information on business and political news, FDI, governmental performance, etc.

We would like to point out just one posting that we think, might be of interest to you, our readers, those of you who are keen on evaluating the country as a sourcing location. The "10 Western Media Stereotypes about Russia: How Truthful Are They?" stipulates on the recent messages in the Western media, providing facts and comments, that are simply good to know. There is also a PDF report available for download.

The international rating agency Fitch announced on August 18th, that it revised upward ceiling ratings for 40 countries, including Russia. According to the agency's press release, the upper limit to which Russia's rating could be raised is now A- compared with the earlier ВВВ+ rating.

The upgrade reflects extensive liberalization of capital markets and foreign currency control in many emerging market countries, such as Russia and Brazil and stronger monetary policy and further integration of these countries in the global economy, Fitch noted in its press release.

A Russia-based research and statistics firm reported that Russia's mobile phone penetration approached 100% at the end of July this year. The number of mobile phone subscriptions in the country reached 143.07 million, which represents 98.5% national market penetration.

These figures were disclosed by ACM (Advanced Communications and Media) Consulting research company last week. The researches pointed out that the number of mobile subscriptions does not reflect the number of cell phone users, as many people hold a few active mobile SIM cards. They estimate that the penetration in Moscow reached 149% at the end of July, the penetration in the regions climbed up to 89.9% whereas the country's penetration soared up to 96.6%.