i take a contrary view on this. every sovereign country has the right to develop or not develop its natural resources. but with russia already being hurt by low oil prices, i don't think they are going to try to drive away foreign investment now. instead i take it as a positive that kinross is willing to develop another project in russia, because i don't think they would be investing more money there if they had not already received assurances about the kupol operation. unlike the 75/25 kupol deal, the new project is 49/51 so the russian government already has control of the operation.

maybe russia will turn into another ecuador overnight, or maybe they will nationalize everything, but that's a risk i'm willing to take with part of the kinross portfolio. kinross is expanding rapidly to take advantage of low asset prices, not just in russia and ecuador, but also in chile with lobo-marte. you have to go where the gold is, and it looks like a lot of it ended up underneath siberia.