Despite the lack of stability on the global economic arena, investors feel optimistic about Russia’s long-term investment appeal. The country’s abundant natural resources, its growing consumer market, highly skilled workforce, and the recent entry to the WTO make Russia a promising investment object for the coming decade. Despite a lot of red tape and the underdeveloped infrastructure, which are still two worrying factors, most investors feel that Russia has made a step forward and does not lag behind the other rapidly growing markets as much as it used to. The country’s investment appeal rose by 8% compared with 2011, which is the best figure in the world at the moment, Ernst & Young’s second research on Russia’s investment appeal states.

Over the last decade, the number of investment projects has grown by over 50%, while the number of projects involving direct foreign investment rose from 83 to 128 in 2002-2012. Russia is still one of Europe’s top ten in terms of attracted investments volume and is in the 7th place on the list for Europe and number one for Central and Eastern Europe.