For small innovating business-friendly countries I would suggest Estonia or Slovakia. If you like sea and nice weather Slovenia, Croatia or Monte Negro.
Slovenia (where I'm from): great country, a lot of nature (mountains, sea), near important EU cities (Munich, Vienna, Milano, Venice, Rome), good awesome weather, people know English, not too expensive.
But! Bureaucracy is horrible, especially for non-EU foreigners trying to work here. My past company spent a lot of time bringing a (highly qualified, well-paid) Russian to work for a Slovenian! company. I think they resolved the case by using personal connections to government employees (the normal way of resolving issues in Slovenia). Also, taxes are rather high (top marginal tax is only 42%, but it kicks in way sooner than e.g. in UK).
Slovakia is nice nature-wise, but I would probably chose Czech Republic over it. Slovakia is pretty religious, meaning they don't like homosexuals and drugs (harsh possible sentences for users). Corruption is pretty high as well, though I doubt it's much worse from any of the mentioned countries.
I am actually Czech and my business is based in Prague :-)
Slovakia made lot of progress in past 10 years. In business friendlies it is ahead, it also has more stable and simpler laws. In Czech rep every new government totally changes taxes, accounting, working law...
Religion wise I do not know. Czech republic is probably the most agnostic country in Europe (if now in the world), and I have not noticed much difference in tolerance compared to Slovakia. Being from Russia will be probably bigger issue.
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For small innovating business-friendly countries I would suggest Estonia or Slovakia. If you like sea and nice weather Slovenia, Croatia or Monte Negro.
Slovenia (where I'm from): great country, a lot of nature (mountains, sea), near important EU cities (Munich, Vienna, Milano, Venice, Rome), good awesome weather, people know English, not too expensive.
But! Bureaucracy is horrible, especially for non-EU foreigners trying to work here. My past company spent a lot of time bringing a (highly qualified, well-paid) Russian to work for a Slovenian! company. I think they resolved the case by using personal connections to government employees (the normal way of resolving issues in Slovenia). Also, taxes are rather high (top marginal tax is only 42%, but it kicks in way sooner than e.g. in UK).
Slovakia is nice nature-wise, but I would probably chose Czech Republic over it. Slovakia is pretty religious, meaning they don't like homosexuals and drugs (harsh possible sentences for users). Corruption is pretty high as well, though I doubt it's much worse from any of the mentioned countries.
I am actually Czech and my business is based in Prague :-)
Slovakia made lot of progress in past 10 years. In business friendlies it is ahead, it also has more stable and simpler laws. In Czech rep every new government totally changes taxes, accounting, working law...
Religion wise I do not know. Czech republic is probably the most agnostic country in Europe (if now in the world), and I have not noticed much difference in tolerance compared to Slovakia. Being from Russia will be probably bigger issue.