Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated that the country must be "ten times stronger" than Armenia "every day," explaining this by the need to maintain military superiority even after the initialing of a peace agreement between the two countries. He outlined his position on October 2 at the 8th Congress of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party in Baku.
The State Duma has decided to extend Islamic banking in Bashkortostan, Dagestan, Tatarstan and Chechnya, as well as to develop standards in this area.
The Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets Anatoly Aksakov believes that the development of partnership financing will attract additional investments from Islamic countries and expand international economic cooperation. New standards will be developed by a special committee created by the largest participants in the experiment - credit institutions.
Islamic banking involves compliance with the religious rules of Sharia. It prohibits investing money in alcohol, gambling and certain types of meat. Financial institutions will not be able to set a fee in the form of an interest rate when making transactions.