March 20, 2014. The Crimea crisis is bound to affect the Russian economy tremendously, yet this impact will be less keenly felt by startups, Advisor to President of Skolkovo Foundation Pekka Viljakainen said in the course of the Russian Startup Tour in Yekaterinburg today.

‘Startups are, by definition, international businesses. They might even profit from what is happening in the short term, because their salaries are paid in rubles, so the labor costs are lower against all the other currencies,’ the advisor said.

Viljakainen believes that the heart of the problem is in the difficulties of cooperating internationally, so a lot of efforts have to be made to create a startup community in Russia.

Now about 96% of the Crimea’s population voted for becoming part of the Russian Federation during a referendum last Sunday. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an agreement on accepting the republic into the Russian Federation yesterday.

Russian Startup Tour is a road show of Russian development institutes that is held in the cities of Russia on January 20-April 24. The main idea behind the tour is to create entrepreneurial communities, find promising projects, and help the young startupers to shape their project development strategy.