U.S.-Russian Commercial Investments

According to Russian Government data, foreign direct investment into Russia in the first half of 2003 was up 35 percent over the same period in 2002. The U.S. is the leading source of cumulative foreign direct investment into Russia, and the more than $600 million of U.S. direct investment into Russia in 2002 was 15 percent of all foreign direct investment in Russia.

U.S. direct investment in Russia has historically been concentrated in energy, but recent trends point to diversification. Numerous U.S. companies have expressed an interest in expanding or establishing new significant investments in Russia in various sectors, including wood processing and paper production, diesel engines production and sunflower seed oil processing.

Russian firms are also investing in the United States. For example in June 2003, Stillwater Mining Company of Columbus Montana and MMC Norilsk Nickel signed a Stock Purchase Agreement, completing the largest single transaction by a Russian company with an American corporation. Stillwater is the only U.S. producer of palladium and platinum and the largest primary producer of palladium in the Western Hemisphere, as well as the largest primary producer of platinum group metals outside of South Africa. Norilsk Nickel is the world's largest leading mining company and the world's largest producer of nickel and palladium.