Russia flexes its substantial resource muscles

摘要

The massively improved Russian economy has far-reaching implications for the global forest products industry. ONLY 10 YEARS ago, Russia was in a poor economic shape. The country was not long out of the Soviet era, and much of it was still being run onold-fashioned communist principles. In 1998 the Russian Government had to default on its ruble-based debts, GDP shrank by 5% and inflation reached 84%. Most of the Moscow-based banks failed and global financial markets (prematurely) wrote off Russia asa credible economic force for the foreseeable future.