Opinion of business and authorities on the nationalization trend

Russian business and government officials at the Eastern Economic Forum have already made many statements about the path of nationalization that the Russian economy has recently been following: over the past year, the Prosecutor General’s Office has filed and won more than one case regarding the seizure of private companies in favor of the state. Key statements are in the Vedomosti collection.

The state, represented by officials, is “not a very good owner,” said the presidential aide. “The enterprise is located in some region, lives its own life, the official is in Moscow, reads the report once a quarter. The main thing for him is not to take any risk, to unsubscribe from something, and so on. It is clear that such management does not lead to good results.”

Thus, Oreshkin assessed the claims of the Prosecutor General’s Office for the seizure of private assets in the event of violations. The presidential aide emphasized that asset management must be “local” so that managers are motivated to make the enterprise “highly profitable” for more earnings and the opportunity to invest in new projects.

Gref recalled the importance of the prosecutor’s office protecting the interests of business. Today, a trend towards nationalization is emerging in the Russian economy, says the chairman of the board of Sberbank. “We see a large number of claims from the prosecutor’s office regarding historical transactions, where, in fact, both the statute of limitations and the acquisition statute of limitations have long passed.”

According to Gref, any market economy is based on two pillars – the inviolability of property rights and the stability of economic turnover. He noted that these basic rules are being violated, which reduces the attractiveness of the Russian economy for investment. As a result, capital flows abroad, Gref concluded.

The head of Sberbank emphasized that the Prosecutor General’s Office “must protect the interests of business to the same extent as the interests of the state.” He recalled that Russia has already gone through “the price of a non-market economy” and pointed to the situation in countries that exist with such economies.

Reshetnikov warned that a revision of the privatization results “could demotivate” business. “This is a road to nowhere, and it demotivates a lot of people, and a lot of people start to wonder where the red lines are,” believes minister

Commenting on the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office to transfer a number of private companies to the state, he said that one can “poking around in the past for a long time” to figure out whether everything was done correctly from the point of view of the law. However, Reshetnikov continued, the current situation is a “risk zone”, since at such moments the “red lines” for entrepreneurs are not visible. He also pointed to the “inviolability of property rights.”

“In fact, it seems to me that stability in the current conditions is more important than secondary reasons for taking away assets from current owners,” – noted head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. According to Shokhin, those who in the 1990s ended up in an advantageous position. “cached”, and in the worst case – the final owner.

He added that there are also questions regarding the determination of new owners of nationalized assets. Shokhin wondered whether such a company would be transferred into trust management to “the right people, “good” entrepreneurs from some circle” or put up for privatization.

He called the actions of the prosecutor’s office “not the best way to resolve the issue.” According to Shokhin, business “reacts poorly” to nationalization plans because “no one knows who might be next in line.”

At the same time, Klepach does not see a trend towards nationalization of the economy in Russia. “I don’t think there’s a real threat <...> reaching systemic nationalization. We already have a very large sector of state-owned companies and companies that are under state control – explained He.

At the same time, we can say that state-owned companies or corporations with state participation are expanding their activities, noted the chief economist VEB.RF. He admitted that the situation with such segments as port logistics infrastructure, where there are also elements of nationalization, is rather temporary.

Kostin also doubted that the nationalization of assets was becoming widespread. At the same time, he expressed concern. “Of course, if it is systemic in nature, it will not be very good,” <...> As always happens, each specific case is complicated by the fact that you need to master the material in order to assess the situation. We are for business to work quietly, this is very important, they need to be reassured,” he said.

Chapter VTB proposed holding a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and business and the head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Alexander Shokhin, with the participation of the Prosecutor General’s Office. According to him, this will make it possible to express “mutual concerns,” clearly explain the claims of the prosecutor’s office, and, with the assistance of experts, “repair” the operation of a particular law. Kostin expressed the opinion that “the laws are interpreted somewhat differently” than business understands them.