Russian Outperformance Among BRIC

I hear a lot of talk from prominent investors about huge growth potential in China, Brazil, India, three countries that make up "BRIC" (here's one example). The last one in that BRIC, Russia, is not mentioned as much, if not outright ignored. (And that silence was exactly what got me interested in Russian stocks.)

But take a look at this chart, comparing ETFs of BRIC countries (EWZ for Brazil, RSX for Russia, PIN for India, FXI for China) and S&P 500 Index since the March market bottom. RSX is vastly outperforming BIC and the US index.

Companies engaged in industrial materials, energy, and utility make up 70% of the ETF. They have "the stuff", real, tangible goods;I think that's what people are investing in, as they are faced with the prospect of (hyper)inflation.

Despite the recent run, I continue to like Russia. During this economic crisis the government is surprisingly out of the picture. It does have economic stimulus package of $20 billion, but that, as far as I know, is earmarked from the government surplus, and hasn't been spent.