Why Foreigners Love Vladimir Putin’s Bond Market

Russian elections highlight the strange economic attraction investors have shown for the country’s financial markets

The political waves being generated by Vladimir Putin’s Russia are hard to ignore, with the U.K. expelling 23 diplomats after the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and the U.S. row over Russian interference in the 2016 election continuing. Except, of course, in Russia, where Mr. Putin is all but certain to win a fourth term as president this weekend.

That has presented a counterintuitive opportunity for investors, which has drawn them into Russian bonds.

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