When Lanxess, the German chemicals maker, tried to get the Russian city of Dzerzhinsk to supply power to the industrial park where it planned to build a factory, nothing happened for five years. But after bringing the problem to the federal government’s attention in 2012, everything suddenly became very easy.

“Within two days, everyone from the vice-minister level down promised that they’d help, and within six months, the transformer was built,” says Georges Barbey, the company’s general director for Russia. “It is possible to get good conditions for investment in Russia when the federal authorities come in like a deus ex machina.”

That pretty much sums up how Russia approaches its key macroeconomic problem: widespread complaints about its business climate, which have kept companies from investing enough to boost ailing economic growth.