Last year, attendees to the annual VTB Capital investment forum were treated to some of Moscow’s best opera singers. This year, the evening’s festivities on the opening night of the forum featured a James Bond-esque multimedia extravaganza. Super IB Boss and Infrastructure Superman were just two of the characters VTB’s employees took on to entertain a crowd of hundreds of investors, business leaders, analysts and journalists.

The RussiaCalling!:London Session, which has over the past five years solidified VTB Capital’s stance as the leading UK-to-Moscow bank, was held this week at London’s Andaz Hotel. The forum featured over 300 one-to-one meetings between British investors and Russian companies, a programme full of panel discussions and speakers, including the heads of VTB Bank, the CEO of the LSE and other prominent guests.

“The role of this forum is very important,” global head of communications and marketing at VTB Capital, Olga Podoinitsyna, says. “It demonstrates the sustainability of investment in Russia and proves that it is not just a result of current events, it is the result of an annual demand for the forum’s agenda. There is annual investor interest in opening a dialogue with Russian business.”

Representatives from nearly 50 Russian companies from nine industries met with investors interested in pouring capital into Russia’s booming markets.

Podoinitsyna says the forum confirms that creating business relationships between UK-based investors and Russian business leaders is a sustainable and necessary role for VTB to fill. “We have been confirming this for five years,” she adds. “The forum is the core of the business. It proved that Russian business could be stable, it could be sustainable and it could be transparent.”

The forum has had a sister event in New York for the past two years, but London, as VTB Capital’s target audience and primary office, is the flagship event. It attracts the most interest from investors and builds the most relationships between London and Moscow.

Podoinitsyna says, while it is up to Russian business leaders to win the interest of the investors, VTB Capital’s role is to facilitate this interest. “We are the platform that provides the dialogue and supports the relationship between Russian companies and investors,” she says.