I think IB is a very well run company. It is regulated brokerage that lets you trade on regulated exchanges. I take money out of my account on a monthly basis. The process is automated. The amount of customer money in accounts can be tracked on their website and was $74 billion recently. Listen to their conference calls and look at their accounts.
They did have insurance at LLoyds of London for amounts in excess of the SIPC limit but I don't see this paying out to $74billion though. You can track the IB stock price on nasdaq symbol IBKR.
http://www.londonstockexchange.com/...ry/company-summary/US3682872078USUSDIOBE.html http://www.londonstockexchange.com/...ry/company-summary/US8688612048USUSDIOBE.html http://topforeignstocks.com/foreign-adrs-list/the-full-list-of-russian-adrs-2/ Why do you want bonds and not equities? Is Putin the largest shareholder in Surgutneftegaz? Don't these Russian gas companies have to pay 50% of revenue as dividends and Surgutneftegaz has a yield of 20% and a PE of 2?
I do not understand foreign markets. Because of that i prefer to trade equities on russian market. I do not know who own surgut
You can trade Russian equities on foreign markets as linked to above. On the LSE they have an electronic order book for retail bonds but there are no Russian bonds on it and it is not available via IB.
http://www.etfstrategy.co.uk/russia...ate-bond-exchange-traded-fund-etf-fxru-85821/ Google russian bond etf, unless you can get an account at a major investment bank and have mid 7 to 8 figures to invest ($) then an etf is the only way to get Gazprom bonds. You could try Citibank as they have a retail bond offering for smaller accounts.