Putin and Asia's investors

 "The" Eastern Economic Forum "has been taking place every year since 2015 in Vladivostok, in the Far East of Russia. It is intended to attract investors to Russia, especially from the Asia-Pacific region, and it was not by chance that it came into being a year after the start of Russian - Ukraine conflict : The forum is part of the "turn to the east" propagated by the Kremlin, the search for new economic partners, which has already led to an increase in China's share in trade with Russia, but the most important trading partner is still the EU. 

Unlike in previous years, there were hardly any promises about major investments in Vladivostok this time: Only India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced via video that India wanted to help Russia expand the Northeast Passage through the Arctic Ocean - thanks to global warming, it should be an alternative to the southern route through the Suez Canal. The Indian shipyard Mazagon Dock Limited will build one of the most important merchant ships in the world together with the Russian shipyard Zvezda, according to Modi. 

In contrast, no such offers came from China; In 2018, President Xi Jinping had promised to help build industrial capacities in the Far East. This year, Xi only spoke about the coronavirus in a video message.

Trade relations with Japan did not play a major role either. They have long been hampered by a dispute over the Kuril Islands, a group of islands in the Pacific that the Soviet Union occupied in 1945. Moscow and Tokyo have therefore still not signed a peace treaty since World War II.  

Putin has now announced that he wants to set up a special economic zone on the islands in which foreign entrepreneurs will not have to pay taxes for ten years. 

Apparently Japanese investors are also to be attracted in this way. However, only a few are likely to get involved - because of the dispute over the islands, but also because Japan has joined the Western sanctions against Russia." 

Lithuanian businessmen could also use that special economic zone in the Kuril Islands, of course, only without violating the requirements of sanctions.