Ekaterinburg — the administrative center of the Sverdlovsk region — is an industrial, metallurgical, mining, transport and cultural center located between Europe and Asia. It is difficult to find another place in the world in which so many precious stones are concentrated. Ural gems are not just minerals, but a miracle of nature, glorified in fairy tales.

The Creative Capital Index research project produced by Calvert 22 Foundation with PwC Russia studies twelve Russian cities, drawing on the results of Russian and global studies of creative industries and innovative economy.

Where should the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East be geographically located? When will the megaproject to build a bridge from the mainland to Sakhalin be completed? And have you claimed your own free land plot under the Far Eastern Hectare programme? Andrey VANDENKO, a senior interviewer at the TASS news agency, asked Alexander KOZLOV, the Minister for the Development of the Russian Far East, these questions and more, exclusively on behalf of the EEF magazine.

The third edition of the National Report highlights regions with favorable conditions where resources are concentrated for high technologies development, as well as regions that have already succeeded in non-resource sector developing. The global goal of the Report is to identify potential points of non-resource growth of the Russian economy.