Asia-Pacific Digest: Arab funds, Moscow-born Bali painter
RBTH ASIA Team
Shutter Stock/Legion Media
Articles and features about Arab investments in Russia, Filipino Domestic staff in Moscow, and the Valdai Club meeting in Jakarta were among the Asia-Pacific highlights of the week on rbth.com.
On November 26-27, Jakarta will host a regional meeting of the Valdai Club, one of Russia's most respected intellectual platforms. In an exclusive interview, Fyodor Lukyanov, scientific director of the club, spoke to Rossiyskaya Gazeta about the meeting’s agenda.
The sovereign investment fund of Kuwait will invest an additional $500 million in projects in Russia in partnership with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). Experts say Arab sovereign funds are hedging against falling oil prices by investing in Russia.
Russia has made several attempts to switch to national-currency settlements with its trading partners, including China, India, Indonesia, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries. RBTH looks at the implications of such a move, taking Indonesia as an example, since Jakarta supports the Russian initiative.
Walter Spies, a primitivist painter, who was born and raised in Moscow, is a celebrated figure in the artists’ haven of Ubud and is credited with attracting Western cultural figures to Balinese art and culture in the 1930s.
Many Filipinos working in Moscow have professional training, but nearly all of them work in the household service sector — as cleaners, nannies, cooks or drivers.
As the Valdai Club holds a meeting dedicated to Russia's relations with Asia in Jakarta, RBTH looks at when Moscow established diplomatic relations with its Asian partners.
