SHIVA Capital, its management and team are active in Russia since 2004!

The Russian Federation stretches across much of the north of the super-continent of Eurasia. Because of its size, Russia displays both monotony and diversity. As with its topography, its climates, vegetation, and soils span vast distances. From north to south the East European Plain is clad sequentially in tundra, coniferous forest (taiga), mixed and broad-leaf forests, grassland (steppe), and semi-desert (fringing the Caspian Sea) as the changes in vegetation reflect the changes in climate. Siberia supports a similar sequence but is taiga. The country contains 40 UNESCO biosphere reserves.

Russia's area is about 17 million square kilometers. It remains the largest country in the world by more than 7 million square kilometers. Its population density is about 9 persons per square kilometer, making it one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. Its population is predominantly urban.

Russia is a unique emerging market, in the sense that being the nucleus of a former superpower shows more anomalies.

On one hand, its exports are primarily resource based, and on the other, it has a pool of technical talent in aerospace, nuclear engineering, and basic sciences. How this peculiar emerging market integrates itself into the world economy over the coming decade is a story as significant in today's world as the reemergence of China and India.

Russia posted gross domestic product growth of 6.4% in 1999, 10% in 2000, 5.1% in 2001, 4.7% in 2002, 7.3% in 2003, 7.2% in 2004, 6.4% in 2005, 7.4% in 2006 and 8.1% in 2007 with industrial sector posting high growth figures as well. Russia is currently the fastest growing economy in the G8.