The paper exposes and analyses a serious flaw in Russia’s current rail freight tariffs. Subsidized sectors of the Russian economy are overcharged while a range of other sectors are undercharged. This transfers budgetary subsidies from one sector to another in a way that is opaque to regulators. The article details how this transit subsidy is part of conveyer belt that runs from the national budget to refining, rail transport and ultimately to coal mining. Analysis shows that the transit subsidies from differential railway tariffs are quite large (from 2019 to 2021 coal industry revenues were augmented by an annual average of RUB 270 billion through this technique). The article also demonstrates that subsidizing coal production through differential railway tariffs cannot be justified by rational economic considerations, as it only prolongs the life of many hopelessly unprofitable enterprises and thus hinders sustainable economic development in coal-mining regions. The paper studies the feasibility of eliminating this kind of subsidy by making tariffs for oil and coal transportation converge. If those subsidies had been eliminated in 2023, the author concludes that it would have been relatively painless for the industry and could potentially bring about a RUB 245 billion reduction in annual state budget subsidies by 2050. The funds saved could be redirected to economic diversification and social development in the regions where the coal industry is concentrated.

The article provides a history of Russia’s modern banking sector. Russia has stabilized after a great many socio-economic and socio-cultural transformations, and the time is apt for a historical treatment of the topic. The author analyzes the development of the banking system from its beginnings during perestroika when the first commercial banks appeared in the Russian Federation. The formation of the Russian State Bank in July 1991 initiated the first stage of development, which ended in late 1995 when the banking community was able to recover from Russia’s first systemic banking crisis and adapt to market realities. The article identifies and analyzes the distinctive features of the banking sector during the first stage of its formation. Before perestroika, the main task of the Soviet Union’s single-tier banking system was to arrange financing for the economy and supervise budgetary spending and estimates. Even during its early stages the Russian banking system began to coalesce into two tiers as banks were exposed to market conditions, gained experience in commercial credit, and dealt in market-based financial instruments. When the Soviet Union collapsed, there were 869 banking organizations operating in Russia, and these provided a basis for structuring the banking sector during the next stage of the economy. After 1991 the country had to meet the challenge of detaching the economy of the RSFSR from the post-Soviet republics, rebuilding a system for mutual settlements in a national economy disrupted by crisis, and finding ways to regulate the banking sector and make it more reliable.

This paper examines the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) from offshoring and developed countries on the efficiency of Russian companies. The empirical basis for this analysis includes the financial performance of 18,804 domestic companies from 2013 to 2020, which provided 150,432 data points. The research methodology included panel regression and DEA data shell analysis, which enables comprehensive analysis of a company’s performance in comparison with other companies. Both horizontal and vertical spillover effects were determined in order to trace the effect of offshore companies. Horizontal spillover consists of the side effects on productivity that exclusively national firms are subject to when operating in the same industry alongside firms with foreign investment. Vertical spillover is due to reciprocal and direct links between foreign companies and their suppliers and buyers. This study indicates that efficiency measured in terms of spillover effects is greater for companies with FDI from white offshores than for companies with FDI from gray and black offshores. Furthermore, the efficiency of investment from developed countries in terms of spillover effects is greater than that of investment from gray and black offshores. The spillover effects from investment by gray and black offshores is negligible because of the return of capital. These results may be informative for the top management of Russian enterprises, shareholders, boards of directors, specialists from financial and tax services, analysts, the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, the Federal Tax Service and other interested parties.

Instruments aimed at sustainable economic development have become widespread in financial markets and are firmly embedded in economic transactions and the system of credit and financial regulation. Incorporating ESG principles into economic activity enables companies to be involved in solving environmental, social and managerial challenges as well as to promote these principles by means of instruments designed to attract and allocate resources that advance sustainable development. As stable financial instruments for these purposes are developed and absorbed into both micro and macro management of the economy, the practices that govern their registration, accounting and listing on exchanges are changing in turn. A parallel process of conceptualizing and reaching theoretical understanding of these new instruments for encouraging sustainable economic development is also underway. Systematic concepts applicable to sustainable financial instruments have been developed, and the role of these instruments in financing ESG transition and development of the financial market has been clarified. The article examines the evolution of sustainable financial instruments, identifies their essential features and role in investment decisions, analyzes the most significant ways they impact the economy and financial markets, and assesses how prepared the financial sector is for their development. Three research hypotheses are put forward. First, economic entities are successfully adapting to the new concept of sustainable financing. Second, the increased inherent complexity of the new instruments and effort needed to prepare them is partially offset by their standardization, as well as by a simplified scheme for their circulation, maintenance and supervision. And third, sustainable development instruments such as green bonds, social bonds, sustainable development bonds, sustainability-related bonds and transitional period bonds contribute to a reassessment of market efficiency and the rationality of market participants.

Perhaps the best way to honor Leif Johansen’s legacy as a theorist on the fortieth anniversary of his death is to show that his ideas are still pertinent and able to inspire new research. This paper adapts the world’s first CGE model for MSG, which he created in the late 1950s, to current Russian statistics. The CGE model has been used to calculate the consequences to be anticipated from two groups of scenarios: 1) accession to Russia of four new regions in 2022; and 2) a complete trade blockade of Russia due to exacerbation of the crisis in Ukraine. During preparation of the input data, balancing of the input-output tables was achieved by developing an algorithm based on a certain discrete analog of the elastic filter algorithm. This approach can also be used to prepare input data for other single-region CGE models. The version of MSG that was constructed for Russia can be used for teaching university students, as a BOTE model, or for debugging more complex CGE models, or as an auxiliary tool for estimating import substitution frontiers, country production frontiers or various structural parameters of CGE models. Despite the more than six decades that have passed since its inception, the MSG model still does not look outdated in essence and contains some elements that are sometimes undeservedly overlooked in a number of modern CGE models.