Today, Browder takes a dim view of Russia as an investment, predicting that the government will eventually resort to nationalizing and even seizing companies, among other draconian measures. "In the meantime, don't be fooled by the likely dead cat bounces," he warns. "Russia is a sucker's market, and one that you shouldn't touch with a barge pole."

Risks To Consider: Although it began converting to capitalism more than two decades ago, Russia no longer seems committed to having a reasonably functional free market system. In fact, it's backsliding and may never successfully make the transformation.

Action To Take --> Russia may be one of the world's largest economies, but I agree with Bill Browder. It's no place to risk your capital. Consider completely avoiding individual Russian equities, as well as the types of Russia-focused funds that I mentioned earlier.

To thoroughly purge their portfolios of Russian stocks, investors will also need to dump emerging markets funds that contain such stocks, as many typically do in substantial quantities. One international fund that has zero Russian exposure: the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Minimum Volatility ETF (NYSE: EEMV).

As the chart above indicates, Russian stocks have been rallying in what could be one of the dead cat bounces Browder cautions about. For risk takers, this may be an opportunity to short a Russia-focused fund like RSX.