Russia: a punt for the bold

There are plenty of reasons not to buy Russian stocks. But for the contrarian investor, it’s a tempting prospect. Merryn Somerset Webb looks at the pros and cons, and picks some of the best ways in.

I'm going to let you all into a little secret: as I write, there are 3,277 emails in my inbox. This is a good week - it's been over 5,000 in the past.

Most of the time, I consider my packed inbox to be a downside of my job. I go to bed every night longing to have the time to attend to enough messages to get below 2,500 (this is a government-style adjusted target it used to be 800).

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.