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The decision to retain a single Gosoblako provider stems from the nature of the procurement model: it is easier for the customer to work with a single contractor who is responsible for the entire infrastructure. However, this approach creates risks—switching providers can be a lengthy and costly process, and it will be more difficult for the government to influence contract terms. RBC spoke with Antonina Levashenko, Head of the International Bast Practices Analysis Department at the Gaidar Institute, about this.

Anastasia Levchenko, Researcher at the Gaidar Institute’s Industrial Organization and Infrastructure Economics Department, commented for Nezavisimaya Gazeta on the government-approved plan for implementing Russia’s Energy Strategy through 2050.

Evgeniy Goryunov, Head of the Monetary Policy Department at the Gaidar Institute in a comment for RBC, explained why one-off price spikes in Russia can have a long-term impact on inflation and why it is important for the Central Bank to take this effect into account.

The European economy has become better at coping with energy shocks, but that does not mean their consequences have disappeared. Industrial enterprises are the first to suffer from rising energy prices, especially those for which electricity accounts for a significant portion of their expenses. This was reported for RBC by Anastasia Levchenko, Researcher at the Gaidar Institute’s Industrial Organization and Infrastructure Economics Department.

Ilya Sokolov, Senior Researcher at the Gaidar Institute, warned of the risks of rapid growth in public debt amid high interest rates in an article in Nezavisimaya Gazeta on the draft federal budget for 2027–2029.

On October 29, Binance suffered the largest hack in the history of the cryptocurrency market: approximately $6.3 bn worth of assets were stolen from the exchange’s wallets. This is more than four times the loss from the Bybit hack on February 21, 2025, when hackers withdrew about $1.46 bn. The FBI links both attacks to North Korean groups. For comparison only: the scale of this theft is roughly equivalent to one-fifth of North Korea’s nominal GDP for 2025, which the Bank of Korea estimates at 47.2 trillion won, or approximately $32.8 bn.

Angelina Shpilevaya, Researcher at the Gaidar Institute’s Mathematical Modeling of Economic Processes Department, analyzed the current demographic situation in China.

Deni Sugaipov, Researcher at the Gaidar Institute’s Mathematical Modeling of Economic Processes Department, analyzed a study by Anthropic, the developer of the Claude neural network, based on calculations using data from the Anthropic Economic Index and the Research Center for Economic and Social Research (RMES) at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE).

Olga Ponomareva, Expert at the Economic Policy Fund (EPF), spoke in a commentary for Nezavisimaya Gazeta about the structure of Russian exports to the African continent, promising niches for domestic businesses, and the main barriers faced by Russian companies.

Alexey Vedev, Doctor of Economic Sciences and Head of the Financial Research Department at the Gaidar Institute, shared his forecast for the ruble exchange rate in an interview for the publication “Svobodnaya Pressa”. The expert noted that regardless of any changes in exchange rates on the Russian market, the budget rule remains the dominant factor.

Anastasia Levchenko, Researcher at the Gaidar Institute’s Industrial Organization and Infrastructure Economics Department, spoke to Nezavisimaya Gazeta about the prospects for Russian helium and the factors preventing it from becoming a fully-fledged export commodity.

Evgeniy Goryunov, Head of the Monetary Policy Department at the Gaidar Institute, commented for RBC on the Central Bank’s decision to keep the key rate unchanged:

Maria Girich, Researcher at the Gaidar Institute’s International Best Practices Analysis Department, spoke to Kommersant about price trends in the Russian book market. According to her assessment, the industry’s revenue growth in recent years is primarily due to rising book prices, while the number of printed copies sold is declining.

Evgeniy Goryunov, Head of the Monetary Policy Department at the Gaidar Institute spoke to Nezavisimaya Gazeta about the factors that will influence inflation in Russia and the Central Bank’s decisions on the key rate.

Russia possesses one of the world’s largest reserves of rare earth metals (REM)—about 5.5% of global reserves, according to estimates by the Federal State Budgetary Institution “VIMS” for 2025. However, the country’s share in raw material processing and finished product manufacturing remains low. Antonina Levashenko, Head of the International Best Practices Analysis Department at the Gaidar Institute, spoke to the newspaper “Vzglyad” about the reasons for this gap and the measures needed to develop the industry.

Sergey Drobyshevsky, Principal Researcher at the Gaidar Institute predicted in a comment to Frank Media that the Central Bank of Russia's key rate would increase from 14% to 14.25%. According to the economist, the regulator will take into account the continuing high inflation rate, but will try to prevent excessive cooling of economic activity.