New data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Advancement (UNCTAD) reveals that foreign direct investment in Russia has fallen to $3.3 billion in 2024, marking its lowest point since 2001.

The figures, coinciding with the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, indicate a 62.8% decrease in investment between 2023 and 2024. Compared to 2021, the year preceding the war, when Russia attracted $38.8 billion, there has been a 50% decline.

Sergei Aleksashenko, a former deputy governor of the Russian Central Bank, now residing abroad, told Reuters that even if the war ended imminently, Russia’s political risks would deter most serious businesses from considering it a viable investment destination.

The Central Bank reports a 57% drop in foreign investment in Russia’s non-financial sectors over the past three years. Total accumulated FDI has decreased from $497.7 billion at the start of 2022 to $216 billion as of January 2025, the lowest as 2009.

Factors Contributing to the Decline

Analysts cite increasing state seizures of private assets, including the recent nationalization of Domodedovo Airport, as a important deterrent for foreign investors. Since the start of the war, over a dozen foreign-owned businesses have been expropriated.

“Everyone can clearly see the situation with property rights is getting worse every day,”

Last month, President Vladimir Putin said Western tech companies operating in Russia but acting against the country’s interests should be “strangled.”

UNCTAD’s report also highlights the sharp contraction in 2022, when foreign firms withdrew a net $15.2 billion, reflecting the urgent repatriation of capital following the invasion of Ukraine and the imposition of sweeping international sanctions.