Posts Tagged ‘shuvalov’
Russia Hires Goldman to Boost Investor Image Abroad
Russia hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) to boost its image abroad as the most corrupt country among the Group of 20 last year seeks to attract foreign investors.
The Economy Ministry and the Russian Direct Investment Fund have signed a memorandum with Goldman under which the New York- based bank will advise on issues such as communicating government decisions, according to Deputy Economy Minister Sergei Belyakov. State-owned banks including OAO Sberbank (SBER) and VTB Group will also assist, he said.
“We don’t know how to communicate with investors,” Belyakov told reporters today in Moscow.
President Vladimir Putin last year ordered the government to improve Russia’s standing in the World Bank’s Doing Business rating to 20th by 2018. It climbed eight positions to 112 in the latest study, issued in October. While that’s better than BRIC peers India and Brazil, Russia is still the worst among major economies in terms of graft, Transparency International said last month in its annual Corruption Perceptions Index.
The world’s largest energy exporter plans to raise a record $10 billion from asset sales this year, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said in an interview with Bloomberg Television this month. While corruption continues to be an issue, it’s less of an issue for foreign investors who have already committed to Russia, Shuvalov said.
Read More →
Facebook
Twitter
Google Buzz
LinkedIn
del.icio.us
Google Bookmarks
Yahoo! Buzz
Tumblr
StumbleUpon
FriendFeed
NewsVine
Digg
Medvedev Courts Davos Skeptics With Better-Than-China Pitch
Russia has a $10 billion sales pitch for investors at this year’s World Economic Forum: give us your money and we’ll worry about corruption for you.
That was the line from First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov in an interview with Bloomberg Television last week and that’s what Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will try to convince skeptical investors of tomorrow with his keynote address at the conference in Davos, Switzerland, the third by a Russian leader in five years.
Russia plans to raise a record $10 billion from asset sales this year as it seeks to stem capital flight and reverse the state’s creeping hold over the economy, Shuvalov said. The government failed to reach a similar goal last year, when it retained its ranking as the most corrupt country in the Group of 20, an organization it leads this year.
“Russia, regardless of what people are saying, is a place that people can invest, can earn,” Shuvalov said on a Jan. 18 train ride to Moscow from Kaluga, a region that has attracted investment from companies including Volkswagen AG (VOW) and AstraZeneca Plc. (AZN) “If you talk with investors, they say they invest maybe less than in China, but lose less than in China. They say people don’t know Russia.”
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Medvedev Courts Davos Skeptics With Better-Than-China Pitch
Russia has a $10 billion sales pitch for investors at this year’s World Economic Forum: give us your money and we’ll worry about corruption for you.
That was the line from First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov in an interview with Bloomberg Television last week and that’s what Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will try to convince skeptical investors of tomorrow with his keynote address at the conference in Davos, Switzerland, the third by a Russian leader in five years.
Russia plans to raise a record $10 billion from asset sales this year as it seeks to stem capital flight and reverse the state’s creeping hold over the economy, Shuvalov said. The government failed to reach a similar goal last year, when it retained its ranking as the most corrupt country in the Group of 20, an organization it leads this year.
“Russia, regardless of what people are saying, is a place that people can invest, can earn,” Shuvalov said on a Jan. 18 train ride to Moscow from Kaluga, a region that has attracted investment from companies including Volkswagen AG and AstraZeneca Plc. “If you talk with investors, they say they invest maybe less than in China, but lose less than in China. They say people don’t know Russia.”
Putin Critique
Medvedev used his Davos speech in 2011 to highlight the “new opportunities” for foreigners “for doing business with success” in Russia. The message was more upbeat than the one then-premier Vladimir Putin delivered in 2009, in which he said the global crisis had shown the dangers of rampant greed in the U.S.-dominated global financial system.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Magnitsky Bill Likely to Reopen Old Wounds
Historical mistrust and relatively weak trade links could amplify the Magnitsky Act’s damage to U.S.-Russian relations, although Washington will likely use caution in applying sanctions to Russians suspected of human rights violations, analysts said.
“In the absence of a solid background of trust and partnership, even relatively insignificant episodes can sour relations and leave a trace for a long time,” said Masha Lipman, an analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center.
Over the weekend, Russian condemnations escalated over the U.S. Senate’s nearly unanimous passage of the so-called Magnitsky Act, which normalizes trade relations with Russia and authorizes sanctions on Russians suspected of human rights violations.
“The Magnitsky Act is an attempt to interfere in our internal affairs,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a group of allies of President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, adding that parliament’s reaction should be “collective and multi-partisan,” RBC reported.
Passage of the Magnitsky bill, which U.S. President Barack Obama said he would sign, appeared to mark a low point in the U.S.-Russian relationship under Obama, who has pursued improved relations under the “reset” policy, resulting in Russia’s joining the World Trade Organization and bilateral agreements on visas and nuclear weapons.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Shuvalov Says Magnitsky Response Won’t Affect Trade
First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov assured investors in New York on Tuesday that Russia’s response to the Magnitsky bill would not affect trade.
Although Russia is preparing measures in response to the U.S. list of suspected human rights abusers in Russia, these measures only concern political relations between the two countries, Shuvalov told a group of international investors during a visit to the New York Stock Exchange, Interfax reported.
“I hope that this will mean absolutely nothing for businessmen,” he said. “Maybe this will affect officials, but it won’t affect businesspeople engaged in mutual trade.”
The U.S. Senate is considering the Magnitsky bill after it was passed by the House of Representatives in November, and President Barack Obama is expected to sign it into law by the end of the year.
The bill would implement a visa ban and asset freeze on a list of Russians involved in human rights violations such as the prison death of Hermitage Capital lawyer and whistle-blower Sergei Magnitsky, while also establishing permanent normal trade relations with Russia.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
U.S.-Russian Trade Ties Face Some Political Snags
With relations between Russia and the United States on edge over Syrian policy and strident anti-American statements by the Russian government in response to political protests here, the Obama administration and its Democratic allies in Congress have begun an aggressive push to end cold-war-era trade restrictions and make Russia a full trade partner.
The seemingly incongruous and politically fraught campaign to persuade Congress to grant permanent, normal trade status reflects a stark flip in circumstances: suddenly, after more than 35 years of tussling over trade, Russia has the upper hand.
In December, Russia became the last major economy to win admission to the World Trade Organization — a bid that was supported by the Obama administration because it required Russia to bring numerous laws into conformity with international standards, including tighter safeguards for intellectual property. It was also part of the so-called reset in relations with the Kremlin.
But if Congress does not repeal the restrictions, adopted in 1974 to pressure the Soviet Union to allow Jewish emigration and now largely irrelevant, the United States will soon be in violation of W.T.O. rules. American corporations could be put at a serious disadvantage — paying higher tariffs, for instance, than European and Asian competitors, which would immediately enjoy the benefits of Russia’s new status.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Russia better clean up its act if it wants investment dollars
Russia is opening up and looking to grow, but investors are scared, says Bill Browder, CEO of Hermitage Capital Investment. Watch and listen as he and Chrystia Freeland dish in a closed-door session on Russian investment opportunities, held last week in Davos, Switzerland.
http://www.reuters.com/video/2012/02/02/reuters-tv-russia-better-clean-up-its-act-if-it-wan?videoId=229579147&videoChannel=117853 срочный займ на карту unshaven girl https://zp-pdl.com/apply-for-payday-loan-online.php https://zp-pdl.com/fast-and-easy-payday-loans-online.php payday loan
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Does the Trail to Magnitsky’s Killers Lead All the Way to the Top?
An interesting bit of news from a Financial Times blog with Davos gossip:
The most gripping exchange came right at the end when Bill Browder of Hermitage Capital – once the biggest foreign investors in Russia and now a bitter critic – asked the panel about the notorious death in police custody of Sergei Magnitsky, his lawyer and auditor.
The response of Igor Shuvalov, the deputy prime minister was – I think – meant to sound reasonable and reassuring. He described the case as “horrendous” and said that some people had already lost their jobs and been charged over it. But it was very difficult to get to the bottom of the case, because the “system” was protecting some guilty people.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Russia Davos party has unusual opposition flavour
* Russian moderates feel squeezed
* Power can be lost like Gorbachev-Putin deputy
* Kudrin plays key role in Russian Davos delegation
By Dmitry Zhdannikov
DAVOS, Jan 28 (Reuters) – Kremlin clan in-fighting spilled into the open this week when government officials sympathetic with Russia’s fragmented opposition warned the country’s ultimate leader Vladimir Putin he may soon lose power if he doesn’t undertake sweeping reforms.
Putin, Russia’s president from 2000 to 2008 and now prime minister, is expected to return to the presidency after March elections, but is looking increasingly out of touch after the opposition brought tens of thousands of people onto the streets in December to demand a re-run of parliamentary elections.
Putin first dismissed the protesters as chattering monkeys financed from abroad, then backed a proposal from his protégé President Dmitry Medvedev for gradual political reform, but later had a former KGB spy appointed as Kremlin chief of staff.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
