Obama's Russia visit to bring over $1.5 bln in deals
* John Deere, PepsiCo, Boeing in $1.5 bln-plus Russia deals
* U.S.-Russia talks to focus on cutting nuclear arms stores
* To seek U.S.-Russia commission to help bilateral relations
* Discuss supply of weapons to NATO forces in Afghanistan
By Dmitry Zhdannikov
MOSCOW, July 6 (Reuters) - U.S. corporate giants John Deere (DE.N), PepsiCo (PEP.N) and Boeing (BA.N) will announce more than $1.5 billion worth of deals in Russia during President Barack Obama's visit, part of an effort to revive waning trade and investment between the two nations.
Agricultural machinery maker John Deere will invest $500 million in the next six years in Russia [ID:nL6116492], while soft drink giant PepsiCo will boost investment to $4 billion from $3 billion in the next three years. [ID:nL6136198]
Aircraft maker Boeing plans to announce a joint venture with the world's largest titanium producer, Russia's VSMPO-Avisma, on Tuesday, industry sources told Reuters on Monday without giving further details.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke will attend a Kremlin summit along with Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and hold a dinner meeting with American business leaders.
The summit between Obama and Medvedev is expected to focus on talks about cutting U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons stores, the supply of weapons to NATO forces in Afghanistan, and on creating a joint government commission between Washington and Moscow to improve relations. [ID:nL6567315].
A breakthrough at these talks would serve as firm evidence that both sides want to "press the reset button" -- to use Washington's phrase -- on U.S.-Russia relations and help boost bilateral trade, which stood at just $36 billion last year.
"If we have success on the geopolitical side of the summit we are going to see much more investments by U.S. companies," Andrew Somers, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, told Reuters in an interview on Monday.
"We hope that president Medvedev will be able to follow through on his continuous campaign to improve the rule of law. I think this is a single biggest inhibitor to investment by U.S. companies, their concern about the rule of law," he added.
U.S. executives regularly name the weak rule of law, high level of red tape and corruption as the key obstacles for doing business in Russia, and are likely to raise these issues when they meet both presidents on Tuesday at a parallel business summit. [ID:nL2424663]
In addition to executives from PepsiCo, Boeing and John Deere, the meeting will be attended by executives from U.S. oil majors ExxonMobil (XOM.N), Chevrov (CVX.N), ConocoPhillips (COP.N) and aluminium major Alcoa (AA.N).
"There are a few issues about which investors hope to hear some positive comments; the start of a process that "clears the air" on a number of investment issues, as well as those in the political sphere," said Chris Weafer from UralSib brokerage.
"That being the case, the benefits will be longer term and, currently, more concentrated in private equity and venture capital deals in areas such as technology, agriculture, pharmaceutical and medicare," he added. (Additional reporting by Dmitry Sergeyev; Editing by Andrew Macdonald)
