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- Take it personally: the inflow of foreign investments to Russia has increased 11-fold
Take it personally: the inflow of foreign investments to Russia has increased 11-fold
Foreign capital is increasingly returning to Russia: Last year, the economy received $25.3 billion in investments from abroad, Izvestia found out. This is 11.5 times more than a year earlier. The money was invested by China, India, Iran, Turkey, as well as the Persian Gulf states. Moreover, foreign companies rely on long-term projects, financing technological and innovative developments, experts say. The growth is also facilitated by the withdrawal of capital from offshore companies. Whether this dynamic will continue is in the Izvestia article.
What is the volume of direct investment in Russia?
There is a clear trend in the Eurasian region to restore foreign direct investment flows after a significant drop in 2022 due to sanctions. The largest influx last year was recorded in Russia, according to a study by the Gaidar Institute, described by Izvestia.
By the end of 2025, it reached $25.3 billion, according to the annual report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). This is 11.5 times more than in the previous year. However, the indicator has still not recovered to the level of four years ago. In 2021, investments exceeded $38.6 billion. And over the past 30 years, Russia received the most money in 2008 - over $75.8 billion.
Last year, Asian countries (China, India, Iran, Turkey, and the Persian Gulf states) became the largest donors in the Eurasian region, according to a study by the Gaidar Institute. Russia, together with its EAEU partners, continued to increase economic cooperation with them. For example, an agreement on trade liberalization between the Russian Federation and the UAE is being discussed.
"The volume of investments from unfriendly countries decreased by almost 50% over the period 2022-2025. At the same time, their volume has increased by more than 50% from friendly ones," the study says.
As the Ministry of Energy reported earlier, over two and a half years, Russia has attracted 3.3 billion rubles of investment in "golden visas" (investments in the economy in exchange for a simplified residence permit). In addition, in 2025, the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance agreed on proposals to attract capital from countries that have imposed sanctions against the Russian Federation.
This dynamic reflects the process of gradual recovery of the indicator due to the replacement of Western capital that left the country, both by Russian companies and players from other countries, primarily Asia and the Middle East, the press service of the Ministry of Economic Development told Izvestia.
"It is obvious that Russia remains a promising market, including due to favorable tariffs for energy resources needed by many manufacturing industries, as well as effective regulation and systematic government work to improve the business climate," they noted.
And they clarified that we are talking about the continuous improvement of various preferential regimes, the development of infrastructure for business and institutional measures.
Official statistics on foreign direct investment in and out of Russia from 2022 are very limited, said Olga Belenkaya, head of Finama's macroeconomic analysis department. The Bank of Russia does not currently provide a breakdown by individual countries. According to UNCTAD, the inflow of investments from abroad began to recover, while the outflow, on the contrary, decreased. If in 2021 the last figure reached $64 billion, then in 2023 it amounted to just under $30 billion, and in 2025 it was already below $13 billion.
Izvestia sent a request to the Ministry of Finance on what measures are being used to attract foreign capital.
Why are foreign investments in Russia growing?
Until 2021-2022, three quarters of foreign direct investment in Russia came from now unfriendly countries, said financial advisor and founder Rodin.Capital Alexey Rodin. After the aggravation of relations, they began to withdraw funds, there was a drawdown, which took time to eliminate, he explained.
— In part, deeper and longer-term investments have contributed to the current growth. For example, Chinese companies used to enter the market through trade and concentrated in traditional industries. Now these are more and more technologically advanced and innovative products, and there is a growing interest in investing in Russian regions and industry," said Alexey Rodin.
In addition to China, the flow comes from India, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. Since the sanctions were imposed, investments from these countries have increased from 25% to 75% in 2025, the expert said.
Most of the foreign direct investment until 2022 was made at the expense of Russian companies through their subsidiaries from abroad, Ilya Fedorov, chief economist at BCS World Investments, added.
The growth reflects the structural restructuring of capital, agreed Andrei Glushkin, a member of the General Council of Delovaya Rossiya. The key factor is deoffshorization. According to the expert, from 2022 to 2025, the volume of direct investments from offshore and "intermediate" jurisdictions (Cyprus, the Netherlands, Luxembourg) in Russian business decreased by about 610 billion rubles. At the same time, the re-registration of companies from other countries to Russia is technically reflected in the statistics as an influx of new capital, he explained.
Last year, 135 more organizations moved to Russian offshore companies, the Ministry of Energy told the editorial board. Among the big ones are Etalon and Ozon, Izvestia wrote earlier. By the end of 2025, 674 companies were registered in the special administrative regions (SAR), 148 of them were on Russian Island (Primorsky Krai) and 526 on Oktyabrsky Island (Kaliningrad Region).
Other drivers of foreign investment growth include simplification of procedures for investors from friendly countries, as well as active work to expand trade and investment ties within the EAEU, Andrei Glushkin believes.
Estimates of agencies and businesses on investments in the Russian Federation differ: the Ministry of Energy expects a decrease in financing in 2026, followed by an increase of 3.8% in 2027. The head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Alexander Shokhin, predicts a fall of 1%, and Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak talks about a possible revival of investment activity by the end of 2026 and the beginning of 2027 against the background of accelerated GDP growth.
According to Alexey Rodin, so far the steps of foreign investors are very cautious and largely depend on geopolitical statements, but, obviously, investments in the Russian Federation will grow. According to Andrey Glushkin, a slowdown in inflation, continued deoffshorization of large businesses, as well as expanded partnerships with the EAEU and Persian Gulf countries could contribute to the recovery.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
