The article analyzes the development of Finland since the beginning of the 19th century as a part of the Russian Empire, its close connection with the circumstances of the evolution of the capitalist relations and independence according to the Decree of the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Republic from 31 December. The complex nature of mutual relations between two countries at the stage before the Second World War and a fruitful cooperation in the post-war decades, up to our time, are shown. Current achievements of bilateral cooperation and perspectives are analyzed.

The author considers the principles and the main content of the Russian- Finnish and soviet-Finnish trade in the period 50-80s of the last century. The role of Soviet and Finnish leaders in creating a favorable climate for this trade, its importance for the economy of Finland and Russia.

The article touches upon challenging issues in Russian-Finnish economic relations in the midst of complicated relations between Russia and the European Union. The author proves that following the path of mutually-beneficial trade and scientific, technological and production cooperation is the only way to succeed for the two countries.

In the recent years substantial attention has been paid to various issues related to internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Remarkable, that the challenges related to SMEs’ foreign market entry are discussed not only within academic community. Policy makers are interested in good economic results of such companies, taking into consideration the fact that they employ a significant proportion of the working population. At the same time SMEs have a number of internal (hidden) reasons that hinder the process of internationalization. Moreover, they sustain the influence of various external environment factors to greater extent than big companies. The paper deals with challenges, opportunities and prospects existing for Finnish SMEs trying to enter the Russian market in the light of recent changes in the political and business environment.

The article examines the state of bilateral relations between Russia and Finland, the role of meetings of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Finnish President S. Niinistö for their development, as well as the main content of their relations, particularly economic ones.

The author analyzes the culminating stages of relations of Russia and Finland, including pan-European conference on security cooperation and its impact on the economic cooperation between the two countries. As a result of this cooperation Finnish products have become more competitive in world markets.

A present article deals with the current state of Finnish economy as well as with both short- and long-term prospects of its development from the point of view of currency dimension in European Union performance. The authors notice that economic difficulties and problems experienced by the country since the beginning of the Great Recession are closely linked with Finland’s participation in Eurozone. Hence, the general possibility and specific ways of recovery from the modern crisis also heavily depend upon a future destiny of the single European currency.

This paper describes aspects of Finnish secondary and higher education, its main principles and possibilities of implementation from the point of Finnish and Russian cooperation have been considered. Additionally, authors have made comparative analysis of international rankings among Finnish educational institutions. Also the cooperation between IBS- Plekhanov and Finnish universities has been highlighted including Double- Degree and exchange programs both for bachelor and master levels.

The article examines the actual trends in the foreign trade of the European Union during 2014-2016 on the background of the shifts occurring in the modern world economy, and during the period of introduction and prolongation of anti-Russian sanctions. The most significant changes in the dynamics, geographic and commodity structure of the EU foreign trade relations at the stage of the likely process of narrowing the EU have been analyzed. It is shown that, despite the existing problems, the European Union manages to maintain a leading position in the global commodity exchange.

In the field of trade and economic relationships between the United States and the EU countries, along with mutual interest in expanding and deepening of the cooperation, is formed an extensive area of disagreement. The growing discontent in political and business circles in the United States of the results of the European-American interaction was personified by the President D. Trump, who hit plans to create a Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. The claimed parameters of geo-economic course of the White House - «tramponomics» - are associated with phenomena developing in the bowels of the world economy and trade, and reflect the started reforming of the globalization process. Globalization is reshaping its original appearance, to some extent, loses the former quasi universal nature, and becomes more fragmented. Appeal of D. Trump to protectionism, its negative attitude towards integration projects of mega blocks, including in the Atlantic, form a trend, which complicates the United States relationship with their counterparts in Europe and other parts of the world, increases global instability and uncertainty.

For twenty-five years since the resumption of diplomatic relations between Russia and Israel much has changed. Countries have come a long way from open hostility to the partnership, very close in some cases. The overall dynamics of bilateral relations is reflected in the economic and trade cooperation. The paper deals with the current state of Russian-Israeli cooperation in the field of business. Considerable attention is paid to the identification of problem areas that impede the effective development of business cooperation between the two countries, the search for ways to overcome them. The paper also explored prospects for development of Russian-Israeli cooperation. Particular attention is given to cooperation in science and technology, as Russia is interested in the formation of its national full-scale economy of innovation, and Israel could be a significant partner in this area.

This paper tries to give a comprehensive summary of the multinational corporation strategies in the light of the fast-changing world and the changing patterns of international trade. We make a general picture of contemporary world economy and international trade with strong focus on the most important patterns of the current globalisation tendencies. The room for manoeuvre for corporate adaptation is unearthed. The study points to the most important factors of competitiveness and calls the attention to relevant directions to take by the corporations given the rapidly changing feature of the contemporary world economy and international trade.