Foreign direct investment in countries of the former Soviet Union: Relationship to governance, economic freedom and corruption perception Murat M. Kenisarin a , Philip Andrews-Speed b, * a Academasbob, Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences, Tashkent Akademshaharchasi 700125, Uzbekistan b Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy, University of Dundee, Carnegie Building, DD1 4HN Dundee, United Kingdom Abstract The modernisation of the economies of the former Soviet Union (FSU) will require sub- stantial levels of foreign direct investment (FDI). The aim of this study is to examine factors which may be instrumental in determining this level of the FDI. It achieves this by establish- ing quantitative relationships between levels of FDI per capita to the year 2004 and three sets of indicators relating, respectively, to governance, economic freedom, and corruption perception. The paper demonstrates that the level of FDI in FSU states has been determined to a significant extent by the degree of reform from a planned economy towards a market economy. Ó 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Regents of the University of California. Keywords: FDI; Governance; Economic freedom; Corruption; Former Soviet Union * Corresponding author. Communist and Post-Communist Studies 41 (2008) 301e316 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com www.elsevier.com/locate/postcomstud 0967-067X/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Regents of the University of California. doi:10.1016/j.postcomstud.2008.06.007