The revolution in Russian outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) has occurred this century. UN statistics indicate that Russian OFDI stock was just USD 20 billion at the beginning of this century, whereas in 2013 it already exceeded USD 500 billion. The researchers have followed this skyrocketing investment growth and the numerous novel themes it has generated. On the eve of the millennium, there were only a handful of scientific studies focusing on Russian OFDI, whereas a decade later, significantly more than 100 contributions have emerged. With this review the authors aim to identify the development of Russian OFDI, its main trends, research gaps, key weaknesses and even some scientific disputes among scholars. With the description of the development of the research field, the authors wish to strengthen the accumulation of knowledge concerning Russian OFDI and aid other scholars to find novel research topics and focus their research more effectively than before.KEYWORDS capital exports from Russia, internationalization of Russian firms, literature review, Russian outward FDI According to Bulatov (1998Bulatov ( , 2001, Russian enterprises began to invest abroad in the last decades of the 19th century. Russian capital was exported primarily to China and Persia as well as to Mongolia.