Around five years ago I was interviewing one of the leaders of a business delegation from Russia at a Las Vegas tradeshow. I asked him whether any American businesspeople with Russian roots stopped by the booths of the Russian companies attending the fair and inquired about the opportunities for doing business.

In 2008, the annual budget of the city of Moscow, as executed, will stand at 50 to 55 billion dollars. There are only two cities in the world that have such budgets, New York and Tokyo. Our editor talks to the head of the Department for External Economic Affairs of the City of Moscow Georgiy Muradov.