In 1959, Fidel Castro imposed a ban on the sale of residential property in Cuba. For more than fifty years after this decision was made, the only way that Cubans could move was to exchange properties on the basis of similarity. A new property should not be different from the old one in terms of square footage or style. And even if a family had the need to expand their living space and, more importantly, the means to do so, it would not have been legally possible. At the same time, other families could have housing that was too large for their needs. For example, childless families or older couples might prefer to live in a modestly sized apartment, but the paradox was that this exchange was impossible. In addition, according to one unofficial estimate, by 2011 there were about 200,000 units of vacant housing on the island, despite the fact that about a third of Cubans had to squeeze into a few square meters of living space each. According to the 2012 census, the Cuban population (11.2 million) lives in 3.9 million housing units, meaning that there is an average of 2.8 inhabitants per unit.

We wrote about the economically unequal position of women and the gender wage gap in the February issue, stating that this is a topical issue for all countries, both developed and developing. The issue of equal gender participation in the political decision-making process is even more acute. Historically, women have always been outsiders in the political arena, and until the 20th century they did not have the legal right to vote. Women began to gradually make inroads into politics once they won suffrage rights. At least three women always appear in rankings of outstanding political figures from the 20th century: Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, and Benazir Bhutto. But in the perception of many, female heads of state are still the exception to the rule.

To this day, the Arctic remains the most pristine, untouched piece of the Earth where there are a vast number of natural resources, oil and gas among them. Those claiming a piece of the “Arctic pie” have already accumulated quite a large portion and don’t just include bordering countries, but even such powers as India and China. As their economies grow, so do their energy needs, and Beijing and New Delhi are searching for a way to the heart of the Arctic.
In May 2013, the two largest Asian powers, India and China, gained observer status in the Arctic Council (AC). Officially, the AC is an international organization dedicated to monitoring and protection of the polar zone. There are 8 full members of the AC: Finland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Canada, the U.S., Sweden, and Russia. Unofficially, the AC is a format for international dialogue about the future status of the Arctic, a region rich in natural resources, particularly oil and gas.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, 13% of the world’s unexplored oil reserved are concentrated in the Arctic North, or about 160 billion barrels. For comparison’s sake, the most optimistic reserves estimate for oil-rich Saudi Arabia is 44 billion barrels and for Russia is 25 billion. The Arctic also has up to 30% of the world’s natural gas reserves.

The combination of the terms “rapidly developing” and “economy” were used exclusively to describe the Asian Tigers and the BRICS countries just five years ago. But today, to the surprise of many, there are several new growth leaders on the African continent. The IMF paints a good picture of this trend, according to which six of the top ten fastest growing economies (by GDP growth compared to the previous year) for 2001-2010 were African (Angola, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Chad, Mozambique, and Rwanda) and seven of the top ten projected fastest growing countries for 2011-2015 (Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Congo, Ghana, Zambia, and Nigeria). Thanks to these countries, the entire continent’s economy is expected to grow by 6% in 2014. It’s clear that most of the success of the “African lions” is due directly to profits from energy exports.

On the future of EU-Russia energy relations WEJ spoke with Jack D. Sharples, expert on the EU-Russia energy relations and a lecturer at the European University at Saint-Petersburg.

Dear Mr. Sharples, how would you assess the current state of EU-Russia trade relations – who is more dependent on whom?
Currently mineral products (mainly oil and gas) account for around 71 percent of Russia’s exports. Taxation oil and gas production and export contributes around 50 percent of the Russian federal budget. The EU is the main export market for Russian oil and gas. According to Gazprom Export, in 2013, Russia exported 133 bcm of natural gas to the EU. This is 68 percent of Russia’s total pipeline gas exports. According to the latest figures from Eurostat, in 2012 Russia exported 170 million tonnes of crude oil to the EU – some 71 percent of Russia’s total crude oil exports of 240m tonnes in 2012. So clearly, oil and gas exports to the EU are important for Russia.

The legislation specifies requirements for the payment card system as well as regulatory functions and features to be carried out by the Bank of Russia. The main goal of the NPS is to ensure complete independence from international payment systems, foreign regulators, and political risks that could result in the partial or complete blocking of foreign payment systems. If the NPS project is successful, widely used international payment systems could lose up to $4 billion which the companies earn from commissions on approximately 85% of all transactions in Russia. And this despite Russians using bank cards much less than in the West. Out of all bank card operations within Russia, 81% are cash withdrawals and only 19% are for cashless purchases.