President Vladimir Putin approved a new $100 billion reserve fund over the weekend that will specifically aid the BRICS nations: Brazil, Russia, India China and South Africa.

On paper, there’s no good reason to invest in Russia right now. The country’s dealing with a collapsed currency, plunging oil prices, recession, conflict in Ukraine, sanctions, and a government that’s hard to predict. The MSCI Russia Index lost almost half its value last year, and those losses could continue in 2015 and even into 2016. On Monday, as fighting in Ukraine intensified, the ruble dropped another 2.3 percent against the dollar, to its lowest level since Dec. 16.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has recently released new rules to simplify the approval process for foreign investments and delegate more approval powers to local authorities. The Administrative Measures for the Approval and Record Filing of Foreign Investment Projects to replace the interim measures issued in 2004 will go into effect on 17 June 2014.