Russian trade policy: main trends and impact on bilateral trade flows

The paper provides a comprehensive analysis of current Russian foreign trade policy and evaluates empirically its influence on the country's trade flows. First, it considers the role of trade in the country's economic development. Second, it examines the evolution of the trade policy and the effect of the WTO accession process on its development. Third, Russian foreign trade policy is contextualised in broader regional perspective, looking at relations with EAEU partners, EU, APEC and BRICS. Finally, the authors explore the impact of 'sanctions' on Russian trade. The authors apply an augmented gravity model to explore the influence of the Russian foreign trade policy on bilateral trade flows. They conclude that tariff liberalisation may increase foreign trade, WTO accession asserted a significant positive influence on the Russia's trade flows, and economic sanctions hurt Russian exporters significantly. Trade with APEC partners is relatively more promising than with BRICS, EU or EAEU.