High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Russia released a preliminary estimate for 2011 GDP growth on Tuesday - and at 4.3 per cent, it looks pretty healthy. The figure crept ahead of analyst expectations, buoyed by a strong recovery in consumer demand over the year, while 2010 growth was revised upwards, also to 4.3 per cent. Renaissance Capital was cautiously bullish, calling the forecast 'reason for a (modest) celebration'.

Russia will not abide by its World Trade Organization commitments with the U.S. unless Washington scraps a trade law that dates back to the Cold War, the foreign minister said Wednesday.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday decried the illicit use of offshore structures by Russian state businesses to spirit cash out of the country and ordered them to return from the "offshore shadows".

The U.S. risks losing out on a potential doubling of exports to Russia unless Congress repeals a Cold War-era law upheld to retaliate a Communist Soviet Union.

The World Trade Organization's tentative capitulation of Russia's membership might leave a U.S. incompetent to take advantage of a 22 percent rebate in tariffs that European and Asian nations will enjoy.

Ministers are expected on Friday to put Russia on track to become a member of the World Trade Organisation in 2012. Countless hours of negotiations, spanning 18 years and several generations of ministers, are nearing a successful conclusion. Yet doubts remain. Have the delays not largely been due to Russia's own actions, ask WTO members? The Russians too have doubts: will the benefits of membership offset the discomfort of WTO-imposed disciplines and accountability? Amid all the uncertainty on the Russian stage, does WTO membership still make sense? My answer is: yes, yes and yes.

Almost two decades after negotiations began Russia is set to join the World Trade Organization. Russia, the biggest country to enter the WTO since China joined ten years ago, is expected to be confirmed as a member during the ministerial meeting in mid-December.

In a Q&A, Sergei Aleksashenko, former deputy minister of finance of the Russian Federation and former deputy governor of the Russian central bank, looks at what WTO accession will mean for the Russian economy and global trade, and assesses the dispute with Georgia, the last sticking point that Russia had to overcome before joining the WTO.

From Mail.Ru Group's $1 billion IPO to Yandex's $1.3 billion public debut, Russian tech companies have had a rocking 2011. 

Government plans to create a 600 hectare-business park dubbed Skolkovo Innovation Center are taking shape just outside Moscow, with 300 start-ups already signed up and the effort attracting strategic support and $1 billion from the likes of Google, Intel, Microsoft and Cisco.

Russia's expected invitation to join the World Trade Organization this month has ignited debate in Congress on a bill that targets Russian human rights abuse and a trade law that could hurt U.S. businesses.

Billionaire Russian investor Vladimir Potanin announced a $5 million gift Thursday to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to mark its 40th anniversary and support its programs.