OREANDA-NEWS. June 19, 2015. In the early stages of World War I, Henry Ford launched his chartered Peace Ship, which sailed to Europe with several prominent pacifists on board. He wanted to appeal to heads of state to get the troops out of the trenches by Christmas. Three weeks later, Ford was back in the United States.“I didn't get much peace”, he said, “but I learned that Russia is going to be a great market for tractors”.

Isn't a shrewd business approach one that should be followed even during turbulent times?

Of course, sectoral and other sanctions have had their effect on Russia. According to the 18th edition of PwC’s Annual Global CEO Survey presented in January 2015, few Russian top managers (16%) are very confident about their companies’ prospects for revenue growth over the next 12 months. Furthermore, 63% of Russian CEOs agree or strongly agree that the number of threats facing their businesses has increased.

Of course, Russia is not corruption-free, and bureaucracy and administrative barriers have damaged the country's reputation.

However, significant progress has been made within the last decade to eradicate these obvious obstacles to doing business.

And I have no doubt that Russia today remains a place where one can always find, if not “a great market for tractors”, then a market for other products or services. Everybody who is determined not to lose a major business opportunity must have a noticeable presence here.

We have been operating in Russia for more than 25 years and now have over 2,700 clients. In cooperation with our global network of firms, PwC Russia has participated in an impressive number of investment projects, which have attracted almost USD 25 billion into the Russian economy.

And we don’t have any plans to curtail our activities. In 2015, our new office in Ufa becomes our 11th here. In Ufa, as well as in Moscow, St Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Kazan, Novosibirsk, Rostov-on-Don, Krasnodar, Voronezh, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and Vladikavkaz – in fact, everywhere in this huge country – you can be sure that PwC Russia's more than 2,500 employees are always there to help you do business.

And, even more importantly, our job is to help you do it even more efficiently.

Igor Lotakov, Managing Partner, PwC Russia