 Ritchie began doing business in Russia during the Cold War with creation of a company, Management Partners International or MPI, which became the American partner in the second ever Soviet American Joint Venture - JV Dialogue, founding in 1987 and by 1992 the company had become a network of 110 subsidiaries in various fields ranging from JV Dialogue to Dialogue Bank and real estate and architecture, with nearly 5,000 employees.The MPI General Manager was Jack Byers who lived in Moscow and worked as a team with Pyotr Zrelov the General Director of JV Dialogue.Among other things JV Dialogue was the exclusive distributor for Microsoft products for two years and Steve Ballmer came to Moscow to announce the relationship.