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The purpose of this master thesis is to identify the influence of the political risk level in particular regions of the Russian Federation (the Arkhangelsk and Leningrad Oblasts) on the amount of foreign direct investments into the economy of these regions. In order to do so, three research questions were addressed, namely:(1) Which factors of political environment constitute the profile of political risk in both the Arkhangelsk and Leningrad Oblasts (Regions), and are there any differences between these Russian regions? (2)To what extent do foreign firms (particularly, Norwegian enterprises) investing in the economies of the Arkhangelsk and Leningrad Oblasts perceive political risk, and how is the political risk assessed? (3) To what extent does political risk have an impact on the amount of foreign direct investments made in the economies of the Arkhangelsk and Leningrad Regions? In order to identify the political risk profile in the reviewed regions, the factors derived from the literature review were used, and the political risk level was measured by the Business Environment Risk Index (BERI, Haner 1972).

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