The Institutional Factors of Russia’s Trade with Foreign Countries

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to estimate the institutional factors of Russia’s foreign trade. The estimates show the intensification of Russia’s foreign trade with neighboring countries due to low transport costs and gravitational attraction of the Russian economy to large markets. The exogenous factors had a positive impact on Russia’s foreign trade: the common border, the post Soviet space, and trade agreements (FTA and the customs union). The tariff equivalent of the sanctions impact on Russia’s foreign trade in 2014-2020 was determined. The assessment pointed to the significant impact of the single economic and institutional space of the Russian economy as an aggregated endogenous barrier to reducing imports to Russia.