Africa, Americas or Asia, would find Russian visa entry requirements and practice of issuing visas more liberal and open minded than visa granting procedures in most of the EU nations, never mind the USA. Enormous potential for future expansion With population of 145 million and dynamic economy, Russia offers fantastic growth potential. Most of investment has been concentrated in Moscow and St. Petersburg area, and potential for introducing new products and brands or expanding existing operations into smaller cities and other regions is indeed vast.But…
Greater, deeper commitment is usually required to succeed.
Like every market Russia requires commitment. In case of Russia a manufacturer or exporter may have to invest more efforts and money in establishing a successful Russian operation (which frequently begins with product certification) than in most other markets. Quite appropriately, rewards are also higher. Contracts are not always honored.
The state is not worshipped. The law is not supreme. Personal relationships and connections matter more than written contracts. When it comes to values, priorities and life outlook in general Russia and Russians are very much unlike Protestant part of Europe -Scandinavia (Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland) the UK, and English overseas transplants – the United States and other Anglo-Saxon countries. This may sound surprising even to many Russians who know their own history, after all Russian monarchy and aristocracy has largely married with and into Protestant royal and princely houses, and a conservative, almost Puritan, streak runs through Russian and Soviet tradition of administration (Russia was one out of three Christian nations that ever imposed prohibition on sale of alcoholic beverages. The other two were Finland and the United States). The reality is that in Russia the state and the society were and still are frequently at odds with each other, and conservative traits of European Protestantism have never been shared by any class of the population. These traits are the preoccupation with public morality (for example, all traditionally Protestant nations outlaw prostitution), obsession with the vice in general and consumption of alcohol in particular (all Protestant nations have imposed stringent alcohol control and licensing regulations, ranging from elaborate warnings to would-be drinkers as is the case in the UK to outright state monopolies like the one in Finland), fixation on the so called openness and transparency (which in realty translates into lack of business, financial and personal privacy) but most importantly the worship

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