Venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson -- known for such hits as Skype (now part of eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY)), Baidu.com (NASDAQ:BIDU), and EnerNOC (NASDAQ:ENOC) -- is bringing U.S.-style VC investing to Mother Russia.

Earlier this week, DFJ announced the formation of a partnership with VTB, a major Russian commercial bank. DFJ is known for its broad-reaching network of affiliate funds around the world, and the firm has been aggressively scouting out new locales that are primed for VC investors.

Many investors have had cold feet regarding Russia because of its rather opaque (to put it lightly) political climate. DFJ co-founder Tim Draper, however, seems more confident. He was quoted in a press release as saying, "It is safe to say that with the influx of institutional money, governmental support, and the migration of management talent of Russian origin back to Russia, the ecosystem for technology startups is now emerging." Of course, should Draper be right, it could still be years before the budding start-up environment in Russia brings us any companies of note.

For U.S. investors who don't have the kind of money to get into a DFJ fund, there are fairly limited choices if they want to invest in a company based in Russia. These include Vimpel-Communications (NYSE:VIP), Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods (NYSE:WBD), and Mobile Telesystems (NYSE:MBT). For those willing to venture off the U.S. exchanges, there are some more stocks available -- such as oil giants Gazprom, Rosneft, and LUKOIL -- but the options are still pretty limited.

So is DFJ hopping on the leading edge of a new age for the motherland? The country certainly has the human resources for it, but time will tell whether its government can avoid choking off the entrepreneurial spirit.