Global Business Services in Moscow: Patterns of Involvement

The article is focused on the activity of the global business services companies in Moscow and the patterns of their embeddedness in the local economy. The research findings indicate: the growing role of Moscow as a focus of global corporate networks and strong links between foreign and national capital; three basic strategies of involvement in the Russian economy, specific for certain sectors of business services; a much stronger gateway function of Moscow for professional services than for the financial sector; the continuing central role of Russia at the national scale and partly at the supranational scale (within the post-Soviet space), where it is challenged by some national capitals and the complete loss of central position within eastern Europe.