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Ben Aris' blog

Ben is the editor/publisher of bne and an Eastern Europe specialist. Among the longest-serving foreign correspondents in Eastern Europe, Ben has been covering Russia since 1993, with stints in the Baltics and Central Asia. He is a former Moscow bureau chief for the Daily Telegraph, was a contributing editor at The Banker and Euromoney for a decade as well as Russia correspondent for The Business. He is also a regular contributor to many of the best-known international business titles such as The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Institutional Investor and many others. In 2003, Ben moved to Berlin as acting bureau chief for the Guardian before founding http://businessneweurope.eu in 2006 to cover all of CEE. He returned to live in Moscow full time in the summer of 2009. He is also a prize-winning professional photographer and represented by Camera Press in London.

Is Russia’s capital flight problem all that bad?

May 11, 2012 Ben Aris
Over the last year, money has been flowing out of Russia for the first time since the chaos of the 1990s. In 2011, a total of $80 billion left the country with another $35.1 billion departing in the first quarter of 2012

Beginning a top-down attack on corruption

April 13, 2012 Ben Aris
With the presidential elections over and Vladimir Putin due to return to his old job in May, the Kremlin has turned back to the task at hand: fixing Russia, Inc. At the top of the agenda is taking on corruption

Once again, the question: “Who is Mr. Putin?”

March 16, 2012 Ben Aris
Although the political Putin has been demonized in the Western press, Russians welcomed him

Russia’s fortunes rise as West sinks into despair

December 21, 2011 Ben Aris
Ben Aris explains why despair in the West is now higher than in Russia

Crisis looms, but Russia well prepared

October 17, 2011 Ben Aris, the Moscow Times
Are we headed for the abyss? Certainly Russia is in a dangerous place, as confidence is fading fast

Foreign investment flowing back into Russia

September 15, 2011 Ben Aris
In July, Russia took in $87.7 billion of fresh investment – triple the amount from last year

Ukraine's monopoly on European gas exports broken

September 9, 2011 Ben Aris
Imagine this: The cash-strapped Ukrainian government realizes that it can't afford to buy oil at $100 a barrel so it starts lobbying Saudi Arabia to sell oil to Ukraine at $80 per barrel instead

Abroad or at home, Russia benefits from investment

June 10, 2011 Ben Aris
Does it actually matter if the investment is foreign firms investing into Russian projects or Russian companies buying foreign ones?

Time, space and a permit quagmire

June 4, 2011 Ben Aris
How do you police progress of reforms in Vladivostok from Moscow when your subordinates are working seven hours out of sync because of the time difference?

Giving credit where credit is due

May 19, 2011 Ben Aris
Emerging markets continue to be treated as inferior even as they enact more sensible policies than their mature counterparts

Black swans come home to roost

March 28, 2011 Ben Aris
Emerging market investors are able to be successful because they are prepared to deal with the unexpected

Russians down in the mouth

March 18, 2011 Ben Aris
Suffering is part of life, but Russians never give up

Waiting on the Joneskis

March 9, 2011 Ben Aris
Russia's economy is looking up, but average consumers have yet to receive much benefit

Authoritarian capitalism and the Chinese scam

February 8, 2011 Ben Aris
Western leaders are betting that values can trump profits, but chances are, they are wrong.

Is Russia going to emerge as a safe haven again this year?

January 24, 2011 Ben Aris
Russia is starting 2011 in a good position to take advantage of financial problems in the rest of the world.

Overcoming the China syndrome

December 27, 2010 Ben Aris
Emerging markets are hot and none is sexier than China

Fears for the ruble as QE2 sets sail overseas

December 1, 2010 Ben Aris, Russia Beyond the Headlines
The U.S. government's decision to enact a second round of quantitative easing benefits Russia in the short term, but long term consequences are more serious.

Most Equitable BRIC

September 22, 2010 Ben Aris, Business New Europe

Emerging markets overtake world with IPOs

August 30, 2010 Ben 
Aris, Russia Now
Jim O'Neill, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, famously predicted that the GDP of the fast-growth Bric countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) will overtake the developed world in the next 15 years, but following the $22bn IPO of China’s AgBank in J

The Greek tragedy, shades of 1998

May 5, 2010 Ben Aris, bne
Equity markets around the world, including Russia's, are tanking as the possibility of a Greek default looms large.
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