Fear of political instability and corruption allegations have kept many investors away from Russia, but now could be the time to take advantage of the emerging market as Europe is in the grip of a debt crisis and valuations are cheap, Roland Nash, chief strategist at Renaissance Capital, told CNBC Wednesday.
It's “not surprising that people are buying Russian debt when you’ve got these problems in Europe and the U.S.,” Nash said.
Investors have been active in other emerging markets like China, India and Brazil, but have remained cautious about the risk of investing in Russia, according to Nash.
“People are still scared about Russia,” he said; but now interest in the Russian markets is growing thanks to extremely cheap prices.
Russia has been the best performing equity market in the world during the last 15 years, according to Nash.
“Things are cheap right now so I think you will see things starting to move as people get more confidence back in Russia,” he said.
Nash said there’s a lot of cash sitting in the Russian banking system looking for somewhere to go, and it’s going into the debt market.
“The Russian sovereign balance sheet looks excellent, particularly compared to a lot of places in the rest of the world,” he explained.
