Is there a trend toward nationalization in the Russian economy?

Representatives of government and business at the Eastern Economic Forum (WEF) launched a heated debate about whether “deprivatization”, or nationalization, is going on in the country. The discussion started against the backdrop of claims from the Prosecutor General’s Office for the seizure of property in favor of the state, which began to become widespread. The nationalization agenda was commented on, among others, by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his assistant on economic issues Maxim Oreshkin, Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov, heads of state banks German Gref and Andrei Kostin, as well as President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin. During his speech, Putin assured that there would be no deprivatization, which business fears. According to the head of state, the work of the Prosecutor General’s Office in certain areas is not connected with any systemic decisions of the authorities.

Russian business behaves extremely responsibly – it retains work teams, establishes new supply chains, and is active, the president emphasized. “Of course, in many cases there is a demand for the emergence of a new class, a young class of businessmen. This is also true. But no one says that issues need to be resolved by deprivatization,” he pointed out.