Main Trends and Conclusions in Russian Economy in February 2018

The existing geopolitical context is capable of endowing seemingly ordinary business events in one or other economic branch with almost global significance. One of the examples of this trend is the recent announcement, by a Japanese state-owned bank, of its readiness to finance a new natural gas project of Novatek. This means that, in spite of being under sanctions, a Russian company still can get access to foreign financing from a high-profile official source. Moreover, in the case under consideration, this new source of financing will become a competitor to the company’s previous sources of financing (for example, Chinese ones). Thus, the above news story has transmitted two positive signals at once, which overshadow, for the time being at least, the risks that can be brought about by changes in the global market situation, namely global liquefied natural gas demand and LNG prices in the mid-2020s, when this natural gas project, its total cost amounting to about $ 20bn, is planned to be completed.