Izvestia: The Association of European Businesses may be recognized as a foreign agent

The Ministry of Justice is conducting an audit of the Association of European Businesses (AEB), which includes 500 European companies, reports “News”. The agency will assess whether the AEB is performing the functions of a foreign agent. The Public Consumer Initiative (PII) filed a complaint with the ministry.

According to the documents cited by the publication, the Ministry of Justice began to study the papers of the organization on January 12. They were supposed to complete the check by February 3, but the department told Izvestia that it had not yet been completed. The OPI noted that the AEB receives funds from abroad, including from legal entities. The OPI assures that the majority of foreign states and organizations whose interests the association represents have spoken negatively about Russia. In this regard, the organization asked to include the AEB in the register of NGOs that act as foreign agents.

“Foreign companies are implementing sanctions… But at the same time, they retain the tools to influence our domestic policy, the decisions of regulators. And the main such instrument is the AEB, which openly opposes the initiatives that the state needs, for example, against the legalization of parallel imports. The AEB promotes ideas that infringe on the consumer rights of citizens,” says Oleg Pavlov, head of the OPI.

The Association of European Businesses includes 500 companies from the European Union. Among them: Coca-Cola HBC, Henkel, OBI, Nike, Mercedes-Benz, Metro, Procter&Gamble, Bacardi, Bank Credit Suisse. The AEB also publishes statistics on the Russian car market on a regular basis. There are now more than 80 organizations on the list of NPO-foreign agents, but so far there is not a single business association.

Laura Keffer