This paper examines the motives behind foreign direct investments located in a group of four Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries (Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan) based on a survey of 120 enterprises. The results indicate that non-oil MNEs are predominantly oriented towards local markets. On average, MNEs in these four countries operate as “isolated players”, weakly cooperating with local firms but strongly linked to their parent companies. The surveyed firms procure a low share of their supplies locally. For this reason, the possibility for spillovers arising from co-operation with foreign-owned firms in the CIS is rather low. There is a lack of efficiency-seeking investment that poses further concerns about the nature of FDI in the region. The most important problems for the surveyed foreign firms are the volatility of the political and economic environment, ambiguities in the legal system, and corruption.