Commercial policies for major market participants were introduced in Russia about a decade ago in order to improve compliance with antitrust provisions and as a partial substitute for them. Experts were initially rather sceptical about this move because it was a departure from prevailing international practices and also imposed additional regulatory burdens on companies. This article examines whether commercial policies have been an effective way to improve antitrust compliance by Russia’s pharmaceutical companies, reduce erroneous accusations, and drive down the costs of anti trust enforcement for both the antitrust authorities and market players. Analysis of the commercial policies of several large pharmaceutical companies indicates that their rules are meant to address the abuse of market dominance in the sector which has been alleged by the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation (FAS). Inasmuch as a refusal to supply counts as an infringement of Russia’s legislation on competition and also in view of particular aspects of competition in the Russian pharmaceutical markets, such commercial policies have great potential, first, to diminish erroneous accusations and, second, to reduce the costs of enforcing the legislation on competition. The authors conclude that introducing commercial policies has been beneficial for both consumers (as represented by the FAS) and the pharmaceutical companies.

This paper explores the nature of retail gasoline market competition in the Russian Federation by applying a detailed panel structure database at the level of individual filling stations. This market is a highly concentrated one, which theoretically enables companies to exercise market power. Furthermore, in most of the administrative districts of the Russian Federation, one vertically integrated oil company will dominate; this is often the company located nearest to its own refinery. Spatial econometric analysis has yielded some interesting empirical results concerning how the local market is affected. First, there is no confirmation of the hypothesis that gas stations compete only with the nearest gas stations. Second, there is strong evidence that stations compete with other filling stations located within five kilometers, and the intensity of competition decreases as the distance between stations increases. A relationship between certain characteristics of filling stations and the price behavior of individual filling stations also became evident. These results suggest that retail fuel prices are influenced by such features of filling stations as brand name and services provided. The conclusion is that the brand name of competing stations and even the geographical distribution of these specific brands are more important determinants of the retail price of gasoline than the number of competing stations.

The increases in cross-border electronic commerce (e-commerce) over the past decade have generated enormous opportunities for the global economy by providing new cross-border transactions, prompting development of new business models, driving new consumption trends, and creating new jobs. E-commerce has become a game changer for international trade while also giving rise to a wide range of challenges for customs regulation and methodology all over the world. The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is no exception, and its members have been working on amendments to the union’s Customs Code since 2021. One of the greatest challenges is arriving at valuations. It may seem that e-commerce is merely another form of trade, but the authors maintain that we need to acknowledge the changes it brings to the trade environment and provide solutions that deal with them. Suitable valuation of e-commerce goods is a crucial element in those solutions. The authors propose separate e-commerce valuation approaches for the different business models in e-commerce: business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-warehouse-to-consumer (BWC). In order to respond to existing and emerging challenges in revenue collection, particularly for the large number of relatively low-value and small-scale cross-border e-commerce transactions, the authors recommend using sales value for the B2C model and customs value for the BWC model, and they offer their views on how to assign the sales value and the customs value of e-commerce goods. Although the authors’ proposals are largely reflected in Article 309 entitled “Value of e-commerce goods purchased by natural persons” of the protocol adopted in December 2023, it should be noted that this approach constitutes a fundamentally new kind of customs regulation. In it such constructions as “information on the final value” may be interpreted as establishing the price of goods solely according to the value set in the marketplace. However, such an interpretation will inevitably run the risk of conflicts between buyers of goods and e-commerce operators, on the one hand, and customs authorities, on the other.

Russian trading firms had already been operating in southeastern China by the second half of the nineteenth century. The Russian government’s development policy for the Far East, which was strongly advocated by the then minister of finance Sergei Witte, prompted construction of the Siberian railway line, one trunk of which was the Chinese Eastern Railway (KVZD). This railroad was then instrumental in forming a free economic zone in Manchuria where Russia’s new economic model that supported entrepreneurship could be tested. However, the activities of the Russian colony in Manchuria were confined to the right of way of the KVZD and to certain cities of little commercial interest. As a result, the companies established to extract minerals and develop industry and trade remained relatively small in both their capitalization and financial results. However, economic development of this territory continued despite Russia’s defeat in the Russo-Japanese war and stopped only after the First World War began. The final blow came when Russian businessmen were forced to liquidate their businesses. The trading houses and companies owned by Russian entrepreneurs gradually became property of Chinese, Japanese and European owners. This article gives an account of the operations of Russian joint-stock companies and trading houses established in Manchuria at the end of the nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth and indicates the role those firms played in the development of the region. The research analyzed archival sources from the Russian State Historical Archive (RSHA) and statistical reference works along with preRevolutionary and modern scholarly literature.