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Analysis
How will it effect us?
Will the change in president in Russia effect our business? The answer is almost certainly no. Anything that may effect the packaging sector in western Europe may – absurdly – aid economic growth in Russia. That is the cost of energy. One of the most important mainstays of the Russian economy for the past eight years has been oil but it is not the only mainstay as many seem to believe.
Anyone who has visited Moscow will confirm that it is a thriving and expensive. Whilst walking around Moscow, one may be forgiven for believing that is Warsaw, Prague or Budapest. Or – dare I say – many cities in western Europe.
But leave the capital and it is a different story. Many provincial cities are still noticeably poor although they are catching up with the capital. This will continue to be a major challenge for the packaging industry. Domestic suppliers cannot keep up, there is huge demand for machinery and packaging consumption is much lower than elsewhere in Europe.
Dimitri Medvedev claims that he is an economic liberal. That is good. However there is not a lot of evidence of that from his time at Gazprom. Nonetheless even if he did nothing, the economy is strong enough to boom for a few years yet, as even Putin has pointed out. If he does follow some economic reform, so much the better! If there is one request that could be made of him, it would be to start to fight corruption . And that is not very likely.
