Doing Business in Russia under the FCPA and Bribery Act

As reported by Andres Kramer in Tuesday’s New York Times, in an article entitled, “Russia, Facing Big Budget Gap, Warms to Foreign Investors”, the Russian government is actively seeking foreign capital and foreign investors. The article mentioned that several state-owned enterprises are up for investment. It is reported that the state owned bank VTB; the state-owned oil company Rosneft and the state-owned national hydro-electric RusHydro, among others are seeking foreign investment.

While these offerings may produce significant business opportunities, Kramer notes that doing business in Russia still presents significant risks. He reports that the British political risk consulting firm Maplecroft “ranked Russia 186th out of 196 countries for political risk to business”. The Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index for 2010, released in November 2010, gives Russia a score of 2.1 or number 154 out of 178 countries rated.