Russia
Moscow
The commercial capital and the Skolkovo project. Sanctions sit on the cross-border half of any deal.
Startup EcosystemsRussiaMoscow
Domestic market, constrained cross-border capital
Role
Moscow holds the country’s corporate headquarters, the main technical universities people cite, and the Moscow-City commercial district in the photograph. Skolkovo is a separate territory on the city’s edge, a foundation-run innovation centre created as a federal project. Living in one does not put you inside the other.
For a domestic customer, the city is still the market. For an investor who must comply with US, EU, or UK sanctions, the city is a legal problem before it is a market. The country page states that constraint. This note does not soften it.
Capital that can still arrive
The capital that does not have to cross a sanctioned banking relationship is domestic: Russian funds, corporate balance sheets, and state development tools. Their governance and their exit are not a standard venture partnership’s. A foreign founder should assume that a wire in dollars or euros fails until an authorised lawyer shows a licence.
GRIP does not describe a way around that. Circumvention is not a research finding.
Across GRIP
Elsewhere in the research
The same place, read from another desk.
- Startup EcosystemsCities in this systemThe country file lists the cities in the order they are discussed.
- Real EstateHow a building is readUse, tenure and the building itself.
- EconomyEconomy deskCountry notes where they exist. No forecast is attached.
- InfrastructureInfrastructure deskA physical system plus a way of charging for it. Announced projects are not operating assets.
- Startup EcosystemsRussia startup ecosystemCompany formation, capital, and scale. Property is a separate file.
- RelocationRelocation deskThe right to remain and the right to own are not the same permission.
Continue with GRIP
Read the country rulebook next.
A city can hire. It cannot invent a different companies act, a different sanctions regime, or a different exchange control.