First, and foremost, it depends on your business, industry and type of investment. Lets assume you want to open a large business to break into the Russian market....we'll go with Russia, as that is what I'm most familiar with.

First of all, you need to do market research. Russian tastes and attitudes are unique. In some ways they may seem similar to other European/Western nations but its its own combination. So you need to hire a company to do proper market research.

Suppose all that is done, now what? Well, now if this is your first time doing business in Russia, you need to find a qualified partner. Take a 40% minority stake with a right to buy out in x years. Russia, like any country you are not familiar with, has its own ups and downs and learning to navigate all this while trying to get your business off of the ground is a hard way to learn some possibly hard lessons.

So the best way is to have a local partner, someone who is experienced and has the right connections.