Ladies and gentlemen. My name is [inaudible]. I'm an Associate Professor at the Department of world economy at Saint Petersburg State University. This module is devoted to the business geography of Russia, to doing business in Russian regions. Russia is diverse and heterogeneous country. What are main messages of my presentation? Real budgets depend on Federal subventions. Moscow and St. Petersburg are the main sites for starting business in Russia. Huge Russian and foreign companies arrange the headquarters in this two cities. Regional diversity is great, and there is a great gap between two capitals and the rest of Russia. You must keep your eye on regional peculiarities when you are preparing to doing business in Russia. What is different? What varies? Time, climate, nature, people, such indicators as population density, religion, infrastructure, differs greatly. Incomes, salaries, living standards, prices, also vary among Russian regions. Institutions and business climate may also vary. Let's start with the climate. It varies from the Maritime to strong continental, from Arctic to subtropic. About one third of Russian territory is permafrost. There are 11 time zones in Russia. Their borders are changed from time to time. Due to time difference, top managers in the far East of Russia often have communication problems while co-ordinating their activity with the Moscow colleagues and Federal authorities. Population density is very uneven in Russia. The most dense population is around Moscow to the south of Moscow and the southern parts of European region of Russia. At the same time, many parts of Siberia and the far east are nearly unpopulated. Regions are different in Russia. Orthodox Christianity dominates. About 80 percent of believers in Russian are Orthodox Christians, but Islam also matters. Some regions are characterized by the domination of Islam. It's typical for North Caucasian region and some parts of middle Volga. Even Buddhism is present, three regions in Russia are populated mostly by Buddhists. Administrative division of Russia is extremely complicated and not very logical. There are 85 Federal subjects of six types, so-called Oblasts or Provinces, Republics, we mean Autonomous Republics populated by ethnic groups hinted by Russians as well, Krais, Autonomous Okrugs and some other kinds of Federal subjects.