A decade or so ago, Russian companies – Gazprom excepted – were almost invisible abroad. Since then, they have been growing fast, with the pace of foreign expansion accelerating.

A study published this week by Moscow’s recently founded Skolkovo school of management in partnership with the Columbia Program on International Investment shows that the foreign assets of Russia’s 25 biggest multinationals increased 2.5 times to nearly $60bn (€40.8bn) over the past two years. Since 2004, their exports have doubled to $200bn, and so have their foreign salaried workers, who now total about 130,000.