The purpose of this thesis is to provide an understanding of how Swedish SMEs internationalize towards Russia and the barriers, challenges, and opportunities they encounter. In order to conduct this research, relevant aspects regarding the theme have been identified and analyzed. By conducting a qualitative research method a deeper understanding of the issue of how Swedish firms internationalize towards Russia can be provided. The thesis follows an abductive approach, mostly because of that the subject is quite unexplored and therefore a theory will arise, as our understanding of the subject will increase.   The literature review that has been recognized in this thesis includes theories that are related to internationalization, networks, barriers, culture, and sanctions. The literature review developed the conceptual framework. The framework works as a map that describes how the different theories are related to each other. The conceptual framework later served a purpose to analyze the obtained empirical data that was extracted from multiple case organizations. The following chapter consists of the empirical findings and what could be extracted from the interviews. The analysis chapter includes a discussion where the empirical findings are put against the theories in order to identify relations and similarities. The analysis chapter is structured in the same way as the conceptual framework. The final chapter will provide a conclusion that has been concluded from the analysis, empirical findings and it also contains an answer to the research question, theoretical implications, practical implications & recommendations, limitations and suggestions for future research.   The theoretical implications that the thesis resulted in includes fillings the research gap as well as identifying how Swedish SMEs internationalize towards Russia and the barriers, challenges, and opportunities they face. The main practical implication is that an understanding of these aspects is highly recommended for Swedish SMEs or organizations in general that wishes to penetrate the Russian market.   As the theme of this thesis is rather unexplored we find it of high relevance and that it could be of high value for Swedish SMEs or organizations in general that wishes to enter the Russian market.