The recent experiences of the Ukraine demonstrates, quite amply, that there isn't a mining company in the world with the power to exert countervailing influence on the Russian state; with the movement of the Russian state against foreign control of strategic deposits, which is essentially interpreted as anything of substantial value (e.g., large gold and copper deposits; any PGM, nickel, uranium or rare earth deposits), it would take a brave, brash or brazen investor to face the risks of a major investment in this part of the world. There are examples of success, of course, but any investor will find that managing relations with the Russian state is a large part of the annual work program.