(FORTUNE Magazine) – ''You shouldn't mix up the long-term business opportunities with the occasional shootouts. These things will happen.'' So says Percy Barnevik, CEO of ABB Asea Brown Boveri, in the bloody aftermath of President Yeltsin's defeat of hard-liners who came close to seizing power. ABB, a Swedish-Swiss engineering goliath, owns majority interests in 11 Russian companies and continues negotiations to buy another ten. Other intrepid foreign outfits who vow to keep on making investments include Bristol-Myers Squibb, Philip Morris, and Occidental Petroleum. Such companies believe that Russia's huge potential market, vast mineral resources, and scientific know-how outweigh the risks of escalating turmoil. Of course, it's one thing to signal full speed ahead from faraway HQ in Zurich, and another to be there. Maxwell Asgari, manager of ABB's 200 Moscow employees, had to dodge sniper bullets on his way to work as the mop-up continued. Barnevik would love Asgari's words: ''We're convinced this is the market of the future -- and the future may be only three or four years from now.'' Yeltsin, perhaps politically stronger than at any time since 1991's failed putsch against Gorbachev, is poised to see his supporters sweep the parliamentary elections set for December. A victory would help economic reform, including steps to control inflation, now running at an annual rate of 2,200%.