A good business will not be left unattended – Newspaper Kommersant No. 6 (7451) of 01/16/2023

The restructuring of Russian foreign trade after the breakdown of old models as a result of the military operation in Ukraine, in the understanding of the general public, is mainly expressed in the “pivot to the East”, that is, the reorientation of the export of Russian resources to China and Southeast Asia, and in the opening of parallel imports for the import of more inaccessible goods of unfriendly countries through third parties – friendly or indifferent. However, this policy has a local dimension – for example, at the beginning of autumn, in private conversations, we were told about new activity in the regions bordering the EAEU countries, where Russian companies, with the tacit consent of the regional authorities, began to build infrastructure that copies the one that until 2022 worked for consolidation arrived in predominantly European jurisdictions convenient for this. Now, according to the interlocutors, the place of Europe, according to the interlocutors, was to be occupied mainly by Kazakhstan: it was supposed to organize centers of profit concentration there, gradually transferring “Russian” business to Kazakhstani business, albeit with the payment of all taxes, but in general, according to understandable rules and without surprises. I once asked the supporters of such a scheme how they think the federal authorities would look at it, but they brushed it off: there is no one to discuss it with, only the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is interested in regional interstate activity, “and we don’t have any politics.”

Until recently, this was the case, but if there is economic activity, there will certainly be control and supervision over it, and the regional revival has not gone unnoticed. On Friday, the Ministry of Economy published on regulation.gov.ru a draft presidential decree on the introduction of a “systematic approach to coordinating relations between subjects of the Russian Federation and foreign partners.” The explanatory note repeats the entrepreneurs’ explanations: “international and foreign economic relations of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, with the exception of their foreign policy aspect, turn out to be without proper coordination at the federal level,” and the Ministry of Economy just pretends to ensure this “due attention” to provide.

It is impossible to understand from the draft decree what the function of the Ministry of Economy will be for “coordination”, as long as it involves control by the department of the implementation by the regions of the “economic” decisions of intergovernmental commissions, the implementation of interstate agreements by them (we note that both of these have so far somehow managed without control), as well as the introduction of the obligation of the regions to notify the ministry two weeks in advance of their intentions to engage in international economic activity and monitor these ties with an annual report to the president. In the process of this work, something will probably be found or, on the contrary, the border regional activity itself will die out. We are only afraid that this will not stop her “coordination”.