The Russian oil company Rosneft became the biggest producer of crude in the world, according to Vedomosti newspaper. During January to September 2011, the state-owned Rosneft extracted 88.6 million tonnes of black gold, overtaking American ExxonMobil and accounted for a Rosneft's output increase of 2.9%.
In December, Russia moved one step closer to WTO entry, after signing a memorandum of understanding on economic issues with the European Union. Now Russia is likely to join the organization in 2012. The negotiations have been going on for 17 years.
According to the latest edition of CEBR's World Economic League Table (WELT), Russia will move from being the World's 11th largest economy in 2010 to the 4th largest by 2020. From the other BRIC countries, Brazil overtook the UK economy in 2011 to become the world’s 6th largest economy, and India is predicted to move up from being the world’s 9th largest economy in 2010 to becoming the 5th by 2020.