The Political And Economic Results Of July 2015

In July 2015, the SCO and BRICS held their simultaneous summits in Ufa. The main result of those summits was the conclusion of agreements on the creation of the BRICS contingent reserve and the establishment of the New Development Bank. Another major event of July was the so-called Iran Nuclear Deal which opened the way for Iran to return to the international oil market in 2016. The litiing of oil sanctions imposed on Iran is expected to put new downward pressure on oil prices. In a separate development, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation ruled that the initiative to hold the next parliamentary elections three months early (in September 2016 instead of December 2016) did not violate the RF Constitution. Also, the RF Constitutional Court ruled that decisions of the European Court of Human Rights should be upheld only when they do not contradict Russia’s basic law, thus making itself the fi nal arbiter on whether or not such decisions should be upheld in Russia. Also in July, Russia abolished the Ministry for Crimean Aff airs and the Federal Tariff Service. The Ministry was transformed into a government commission, while the Tariff Service was made part of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS).