MOSCOW. May 21 (Interfax) - Russian investment abroad grew 16.6% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2007 to $11.776 billion, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said on Monday.

The repayment of earlier Russian investment abroad amounted to $13.9 billion, which is 47.3% more than in the first quarter of 2006.

Cumulative Russian investment abroad as of the end of March 2007 was $12.781 billion. This figure is almost the same as the overall Russian investment in the first quarter as this investment if frequently short-term.

Cumulative Russian investment abroad broke down into $6.245 billion in direct investment, $795 million - portfolio investment, and $5.741 billion - other investment.

Most cumulative investment from Russia was in Cyprus ($2.091 billion), Austria ($1.526 billion), Britain ($1.311 billion), the Bahamas ($1.145 billion), Luxembourg ($1.016 billion), the Netherlands ($859 million), Ukraine ($814 million), the United States ($609 million), Germany ($372 million) and Lithuania ($288 million).

During the first quarter, Russian businessmen invested $4.719 billion in the U.S. (in the same period the U.S. invested $364 million in Russia, or 13 times less), $3.019 billion in Austria, $1.095 billion in Germany, $493 million in Britain, $283 million in Cyprus, $114 million in Ukraine, $66 million in the Bahamas and $27 million in the Netherlands.