British entrepreneur Richard Branson says his Virgin Group is aiming to invest around $1 billion (620 million pounds) in Russia-focused businesses, as he hopes to establish a mobile phone company in the country, start flights and invest in a Russia-focused green fund.

"We... are trying - to get permission to fly to Russia," said Branson, in an interview with Reuters. "We are (also) trying to get permission to set up a mobile phone company here."

Virgin earlier on Wednesday said it formed a $200 million fund, together with Russian state-backed technology fund Rusnano, to invest in energy efficiency projects focused on Russia.

"We are planning to invest roughly $1 billion dollars but we have to get few permissions sorted before we can do that," Branson said.

(Reporting By Reuters Trainee Sonia Elks and Maria Kiselyova,; writing by Megan Davies, Editing by Alexei Anishchuk)