Western Companies Seek Cooperation With Russian Market - German Media

Although the Russian economy is experiencing difficulties due to Western economic sanctions, German journalists have noted that the inflow of foreign capital to Russia had increased.

German businesses, in particular, are ready to actively cooperate with Russian companies, and the German media is wondering whether further extension of the restrictive measures would make any sense.

The Russian economy is recovering

Despite the fact that the Russian economy is currently experiencing difficulties, the situation is likely to significantly improve in the near future. As the world's largest producer of nickel and palladium – the "Norilsk Nickel" company managed to get an international loan of more than a billion dollars for a period of seven years.

The world's leading exporter of gas – Gazprom – has also returned to financial markets and received investments amounting to 900 million euros for the period of over three years.

The ice seems to have been broken, Die Welt wrote.

Germans doubt the sanctions

German media also noted that in recent weeks, leading European politicians have started to make statements about the strengthening of the Russian economy.

"Against this background, a pan-European consensus on the extension of the anti-Russian sanctions is considerably weaker than 15-16 months ago," Die Welt wrote.

At the same time, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung noted that the sanctions negatively affected opportunities of German companies to deal with Russian enterprises and have made their interactions more complex.

Building bridges

However, despite this fact, German and Russian business associations are searching for a way to foster active cooperation with each other. In order to ensure such cooperation, a special platform for entrepreneurs was set up in Moscow, Wirtschafts Woche wrote.

Russian and German business associations also resumed ‘Petersburg dialogue’, a bilateral forum for discussion designed to contribute to a better understanding between Russian and German civil societies.

According to the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce in Moscow, the aim of these initiatives is to expand bilateral cooperation between the two countries and create additional framework conditions for investors.