With almost 150 million people, the world’s 12th largest economy, and just handful of smart buildings, Russia represents a sleeping giant in the smart technology sector. The country’s economy has also taken an upward turn recently, after years of relative stagnation. Economic Development Minister Maksim Oreshkin upgraded his growth forecast to 2% for 2017. “We have some recovery growth, and the period of crisis is ending. Uncertainty in the economy has also fallen considerably,” Oreshkin said during the Russian Investment Forum in Sochi. “We currently expect about two percent growth by the end of 2017. That is, we expect very good dynamics in the economy. We see that investment activity has increased,” he added. Russia is rarely mentioned in international smart building media but announced its intention to smarten up its power grid in 2014. As the world’s third largest consumer of energy, Russia is expanding its use of the smart grid electrical framework to […]