The Russians Are Buying—and Buying
Record profits give them the cash for deals in Eastern Europe
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Flush with profits, Russian companies are now zoning in on a new target: Eastern Europe. The real surprise is that the region’s governments, saddled with debt and deficits, are helping them do so.
Russian companies were shut out of Eastern European markets after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. Bitter feelings toward the former occupiers lingered, and Russia’s battered corporations were in no shape to acquire. Besides, German, Austrian, and other Western European companies were eager to invest in the newly liberated East.