Professional traders now swap shares over an electronic trading system. Moscow's top hotels are swarming with Western bankers, brokers and deal makers. Anyone who was in Latin America or Asia or Central Europe is now here. Russian companies control some of the world's biggest oil reserves, its biggest supplier of natural gas, its biggest nickel and platinum mines and thousands of huge if decrepit factories. The big debate now is whether Russia is still cheap, after the tremendous run-up in stock prices.
Most investors agree that the easy money has already been made.
But they disagree deeply on whether the market is poised for yet more growth. By any measure, investing in Russia is a mind-bending experience. Russian companies are in a shocking state of disrepair, needing either billions of dollars in reconstruction or outright demolition. Many managers have brazenly looted assets or ceded control to organized crime bosses. Others have manipulated profits through new holding companies, circumventing original shareholders.