It was quite a good week if you are among that small band of optimists who want to do business in Russia, and believe Russian business culture will all come right in the end.
After many setbacks and disappointments over the years, there were a couple of encouraging signs of good corporate governance and rule of law in the country's business dealings.
The Russian track record is so depressing in this regard that it's always unwise to claim victory too soon, but perhaps the first straw in the wind of corporate change is blowing around the country's business culture.
The first indicator is the state of play at BP. The oil giant has had such a bad time in its dealings with the Russian authorities and the oligarchs that run its oil business, it seems perverse to use its current situation as an example of good corporate practice.
Certainly Bob Dudley, BP's chief executive, will find scant comfort in the fact that his current predicament might make things easier for future investors in the country.
But you could argue that recent decisions have upheld the rule of law, and reduced the interfering powers of the Russian government.
A little context is required. BP, it will be remembered, got itself into a whole lot of trouble with TNK-BP, the partners in its Russian joint venture, when it quietly negotiated a deal behind their backs with the government-owned oil company Rosneft for a US$16 billion (Dh58.77bn) share swap and an agreement to develop Arctic oil.
The partners called foul, claiming BP had broken the terms of its deal with them, and seeking redress. In the words of one of them, Mikhail Fridman: "If you want to marry a new wife, you have to divorce the old one first."Sound point, Mr Fridman.
BP seems to have reckoned that a deal with Rosneft, backed by the Russian state and ultimately the prime minister Vladimir Putin, would trump any undertaking it had with TNK. BP was actually seeking to exploit Russia's weak culture of corporate governance by allying itself to the most powerful political entity in the country.
If so, that has backfired. Successive courts - in Russia and in an independent Swedish arbitration chamber - declined the validity of the Rosneft deal. The law of contract with TNK was upheld, at the expense of BP's ambitions in the Arctic.
It's a mess for BP, and piles considerable pressure on Mr Dudley, but it might turn out for the best.
The second sign that things might be on the up in Russia came in a flurry of departures at the top end of the country's state-owned corporate hierarchy. All those facing the chop, on the orders of the president Dimitry Medvedev, are government officials who have been sitting on the boards of state companies. They are to be replaced by bankers or other more credible business representatives.
Igor Sechin, Rosneft's own chief executive, who is also deputy to Mr Putin in government, could be replaced by Rair Simonyan, the chairman of Morgan Stanley in Russia. Similar changes will take place at the top of 19 other state-owned companies, accounting for 15 per cent of the country's GDP.
The cynics - of whom there are many in Russia - say the changes are part of a new power play by Mr Medvedev in his delicate pas de deux with Mr Putin. But whatever the motive, the result is beneficial for Russian corporate governance, reducing the power of the state in big business. Certainly most foreign investors would rather deal with a Morgan Stanley man than a government apparatchik.
The third cause for optimism among foreign investors in Russia is the announcement of plans to float, via initial public offerings (IPOs) in Moscow and London, a large chunk of Russian Helicopters (RH), the state-owned aerospace company.
RH has been going since the late days of Stalin, and was responsible for the aircraft that led Soviet troops into Afghanistan in 1980, and also out again in 1989.
These days, RH still produces military aircraft, bought by a number of developing countries. But it also manufactures civilian workhorse craft used by governments and industry across the world.
Selling a chunk in such a strategic industry is a radical move by the Russian government, and comes after several attempts at London IPOs were unsuccessful, partly because of market conditions but also because of investor doubts about levels of disclosure in IPO documents.
The listing authorities in London, and international investors, will scrutinise the financial information closely, especially the risk factors that inevitably go with such an IPO. But if that one gets away, it opens the door for many others as part of the $32bn privatisation plan announced by the Russian government last year.
Maybe this time, Russia means it when it says it wants to be business-friendly.