Sovereign Wealth Funds of Russian Federation: Problems and Prospects of Development

One of the major challenges that natural resource–exporting countries face is the weak fiscal sustainability caused by excessive dependence of the national budget on the external economic environment considering high price volatility. Sovereign wealth funds establishment and its further effective management can be a solution to this problem. The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of Russian sovereign funds (Reserve fund and the National Wealth fund) and identify the opportunities to enhance its performance considering other countries’ experience, namely, Norway and Venezuela. The theoretical background of the sovereign fund establishment and activity is presented. The study also provides the analysis of Russian and foreign practice, covering such aspects as funds’ legal regulation, funding and withdrawal rules, accumulation and spending procedures and the investment strategy. Results revealed a number of problems in the Reserve fund and National Wealth fund management. Thus, the set of the measures could be taken in order to implement better experience of resource revenue management are proposed, further prospects and ways of improvement of the National Wealth fund performance are also provided.