This paper examines the complex relationships between the government and multinational enterprises (MNEs) in Russia. Different from most studies that focus on the state as a whole, we distinguish between different levels of government, namely federal and regional. We investigate how these relationships influence the ability of Russian MNEs to gain external legitimacy. We report the findings of a qualitative multiple-case study of 12 Russian MNEs based on observations and 55 face-to-face interviews conducted in 2014 and 2015. The analysis reveals four different types of relationships: collaborative, submissive, adversarial, and collusive. We find that collaborative and submissive relationships have a positive effect on the external legitimacy of MNEs, whereas adversarial and collusive ones have a negative effect. We conclude that Russian MNEs are able to gain external legitimacy by capitalizing on different types of relationships with the federal and regional governments and using them to advance their own international activities.

本文研究了俄罗斯政府与跨国企业（MNE）之间的复杂关系。与大多数侧重于整个州的研究不同，我们区分了不同级别的政府，即联邦政府和地方政府。我们调查了这些关系如何影响俄罗斯跨国公司获得外部合法性的能力。我们根据2014年和2015年进行的观察和55次面对面访谈，对12个俄罗斯跨国公司进行了定性多案例研究的结果。该分析揭示了四种不同类型的关系：协作，顺从，对抗和共谋。我们发现，合作关系和顺从关系对跨国公司的外部合法性具有积极影响，而对抗性和串通关系则具有负面影响。