Over a two year period, aggregate foreign assets by Russia's 25 largest multinationals more than doubled (2.5) to reach $60bn, according to a study published by the Skolkovo Management School in Moscow and the Columbia Programme on International Investment. Stock for Russian companies jumped to $157 billion, growth mainly experienced since 1999. Since 2004, exports for the 25 biggest multinationals in Russia also doubled to reach $200 billion, as did the number of staff employed abroad, now standing at 130,000. This increase, however, has not allowed Russia to catch up with new globalisation actors, particularly India and China, which invested between $60-70 billion in Europe last year, as opposed to about 10 from Russian companies. The study demonstrates that only two of these 25 multinationals have more than $10 billion invested abroad and four of them have more than 10,000 staff employed outside Russia. Russia's international expansion has mainly benefited the natural resource industries. Around 53% of Russia's foreign assets belong to four hydrocarbon companies and 25% to nine steel and mining companies. (I.L)