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Comment by dkarl | Hacker News Reader

What about outsourcing to Russia when it becomes a reasonable place for foreign firms to do business? It seems like that wave is yet to come.

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Russia is problematic in that its government is notoriously corrupt and controlled by the mob and Russian business interests, but its workers are not poor (and therefore cheap) enough for foreign investors to be able to overlook Russia's political problems.

Even for higher-level jobs like engineering or software engineering? I don't imagine call centers popping up in Russia, more like contract engineering firms that do work for American companies. Or is that possible and happening already in the current climate?

Edit/PS: The political problems are exactly why I think the wave is yet to come.

"Russia is problematic in that its government is notoriously corrupt and controlled by the mob and Russian business interests, "

Don't listen to Western media. I'm sure Russian government would be supportive of anything that provides jobs to the working class.

Russia's government only seems to be (practically) supportive of opportunities for the "siloviks" clan members. A quintessential plutarchy.

(I am a Russian national).

I'd advise that you read about the demise of Yukos, formerly one of Russia's largest companies.

A good case in point. It is illustrative that the demise was initiated by the arrest of its owner, who was the only Russian oligarch who "came clean" by publicly acknowledging the corruption of the Russia's top businesses and state, and called for transparency in both.

I'm not sure why I'm getting downvoted.... I thought I made a stupid but checking salaries here(1) and here(2) (first Google results that popped up) it looks like American software engineers make almost three times as much as Russian software engineers. It's not as big a ratio as India, but wouldn't it be enough to attract work from American companies if the business climate was right?

(1) http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Software_Engineer_%2...

(2) http://www.payscale.com/research/RU/Job=Software_Engineer_%2...

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