Until Boris Nemtsov, the former governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, was made first vice premier in March this year, I wasn’t planning to invest money in Russia. I perceived his appointment as an attempt to move away from robber capitalism to a law-abiding capitalism where shareholders’ rights are protected. Recent events have confirmed that I was right.

The sale of the “Svyazinvest” shares demonstrated the extent to which business rules in Russia have changed. There now exists what is usually called normal competition: The winner of the auction was the one who paid the most, however unpleasant this may be to the loser. I have invested $980 billion into the “Svyazinvest” telecommunications company. To this date, this is my biggest one-off investment in Russia, a country which is becoming the world’s most interesting market.

My investment funds have made considerable investments in Russia on earlier occasions, and although this was often done in spite of objections on my part, these investments have turned out to be highly lucrative. The sum total of these investments, including the “Svyazinvest” deal, now amounts to $ 2.5 billion.

This means that today I play the roles both of a benefactor and of an investor. I used to do my best not to invest capital in countries where the Soros Foundation was operating, since I thought that my true intentions could be misinterpreted. In the case of Russia, where my Foundation has given out hundreds of millions of dollars since it was founded exactly ten years ago, I have overcome my prejudice. My investments will not interfere with my charitable activities, by which I strive to support culture, science, education, and lately medicine in Russia. On the contrary, I intend to expand these activities.

Wherein lies my “interest” in Russia? To invest money in Russia today is both interesting and attractive. Russia is currently in need of foreign investment, so I have decided that, despite a potentially ambiguous reception of my double role, I am doing the right thing. The more so because I believe in the current attempt to move to a capitalism where share-holders’ rights are respected. This will help Russia build an Open Society, although it would be wrong to identify the Open Society with capitalism.