Russian Economy General News: #9

The physical volume of oil exports for the first quarter of 2018 decreased by 1.5% and amounted to 61.64 million tons

MOSCOW, May 8. / TASS /. The surplus of foreign trade of Russia in January-March 2018 increased by 26.6% compared to the same period in 2017 and amounted to $ 48.5 billion, according to the materials of the Federal Customs Service (FCS).

Exports of goods for the period increased by 23.1% to $ 103.5 billion, imports - by 20.3%, to $ 55 billion. Thus, for the first quarter of this year, Russia's foreign trade turnover increased by 22.1% to $ 158 , 5 billion.

Austin wrote:Putin signed a new "May decree"

GunshipDemocracy wrote:
Exports of goods for the period increased by 23.1% to $ 103.5 billion,

flamming_python wrote:

GunshipDemocracy wrote:
Exports of goods for the period increased by 23.1% to $ 103.5 billion,

A large part of this was probably from the oil export revenues increase by 21.2% that you posted about.

ZoA wrote:Kudrin appointment all but confirmed, loyalist are purged from the government, treasonous and  incompetent liberals promoted. State banks and CBR stay in control of neoliberal foreign puppets. My prediction for Russia in next 4 years:

-drastic cut in state spending, massive layoff and cuts in public services

-complete cut-of in  defence spending, massive cancellation of existing procurement contracts, Su-57 cancelled, T-14 cancelled, Tu-160 cancelled, Su-22M modernisation  cancelled, Hasky cancelled...all new ships and subs currently under construction will be  cancelled, sold of to foreigners for pennies, or sold of to scrap. Within 4 years defence spending will be barely enough to pay wages to what remains of its staff, and nothing more.

- Missive purges of loyalist from the civil services, military and intelligence agencies. Would not be surprised to see return of 1993 stile terror.

- increase of age of retirement, massive reduction military and civil servant staff, reduction of civil and military contracts to private sector, and removal of any countercyclical spending or government stimulus combined with existing banking entirely controlled by neoliberal puppets will result in absolutely massive surge in unemployment and drop of wages

- surge in capital outflow thanks to additional liberalisation of financial sector

- resurgence of domestic sececionist movements.

-Russia abandons all of it's foreign allies , and they abandon it in return

-overall return into 90s economic and political conditions

-finally same cult of personality fanbois will be telling us how this is all  Putin's cunning 5 dimensional chess plan to develop Russia

Call me out in 3 - 4 yeas if i'm wrong. I wont be.

ZoA wrote:Kudrin appointment all but confirmed, loyalist are purged from the government, treasonous and  incompetent liberals promoted.

Call me out in 3 - 4 yeas if i'm wrong.

Austin wrote:The deputy told how to find ten trillion rubles to fulfill the decree of Putin

https://ria.ru/economy/20180508/1520147245.html

Academician Sergei Glazyev called Mikhail Khazin one of the specialists who, long before the global economic crisis that began in 2008, predicted it in his works [44] .

Источник: https://politexpert.net/104911-khazin-putin-nanes-sokrushitelnyi-udar-po-liberalam-v-rossii?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fzen.yandex.com

A well-known Russian political scientist, economist and publicist Mikhail Khazin commented on possible personal appointments to the Russian government on his personal website on the web after the inauguration of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Khazin writes that among the proposed persons there are no "political" liberals and no significant liberal leaders in the new government. That is, the liberal bed was cleaned completely, which is a positive moment for Russia.

No less positive is the fact that the liberal contingent has cleared the hardware part, that is, the cadre service of the government. This makes it possible to clean up the middle section of the apparatus in the future. According to Khazin, it is now very important to start forming a kind of "headquarters" in the government, which will be engaged in reforms. Earlier, it was difficult to create something like this, because the interested persons did not allow the presence of an illiberal body that forms the policy of the state. Now no one will be against, since there is practically no one to express their "fi".

As a result, the political scientist came to the conclusion that the appointment of new persons to government posts is a long-awaited smashing attack of the president on the liberal elite group. The influence of this grouping will now not be so strong and will gradually begin to fall. True, it is not possible to finally get rid of the undesirable element in the state, since from the beginning of the 1990s an economic model of the country was formed under them. Therefore, in the future, one or two more government reforms will be needed. The political scientist stressed that the surviving players from the "liberal bloc" will have a difficult life, since they will not have any protection from anti-corruption investigations. Therefore, their life will be difficult and short....

TheArmenian wrote:Who is spreading the FAKE NEWS about Kudrin joining the government?

Much of the speech by Putin and his proposals were almost literal quotations from the report “A Strategy for the Development of the Country, 2018-2024,” which he had earlier commissioned from the Center for Strategic Research (CSR). The CSR is headed by the former finance minister and close Putin ally Alexei Kudrin, who is generally considered to be the greatest darling of both the liberal opposition and the world financial elite among Putin’s inner circle.

Apart from similar demagogic and vague promises for a better social future, the report was more open about the actual direction in which the Kremlin should head: “Until 2024 entrepreneurial freedom will be guaranteed in Russia on a new level, real competition in the economy will be secured. … State policy will be aimed at a partnership with private business and a reduction of the direct involvement of the state in the economy.” Key proposals—not mentioned by Putin on Monday—include:

• The reduction of control and overseeing functions of the state in the business sector by half.

• The selling of state assets that are not “essential” to the functioning of the company.

• An increased role for non-profit organizations (NGOs) in providing social services, while state involvement in providing them is to be cut.

• An increase in labor productivity by a third.

• Raising the retirement age to 63 for men and 65 for women. The Russian government has already announced in late April that it is actively working on realizing this demand.

• The facilitation of rules for customs and tariffs and lowering of taxes for both domestic and foreign companies.

• Salaries for state employees should be tied to their work performance.

• A number of measures toward granting cities and regions more autonomy, such as the creation of city police forces, as opposed to the current police acting on a federal level, as well as more control by cities and regions over local taxes.

• The creation of professional army with all members of the armed forces to be working on a contractual basis.

• A further reduction of military spending.

ZoA wrote:
Apart from similar demagogic and vague promises for a better social future, the report was more open about the actual direction in which the Kremlin should head: “Until 2024 entrepreneurial freedom will be guaranteed in Russia on a new level, real competition in the economy will be secured. … State policy will be aimed at a partnership with private business and a reduction of the direct involvement of the state in the economy.” Key proposals—not mentioned by Putin on Monday—include:

• The reduction of control and overseeing functions of the state in the business sector by half.

• The selling of state assets that are not “essential” to the functioning of the company.

• An increased role for non-profit organizations (NGOs) in providing social services, while state involvement in providing them is to be cut.

• An increase in labor productivity by a third.

• Raising the retirement age to 63 for men and 65 for women. The Russian government has already announced in late April that it is actively working on realizing this demand.

• The facilitation of rules for customs and tariffs and lowering of taxes for both domestic and foreign companies.

• Salaries for state employees should be tied to their work performance.

• A number of measures toward granting cities and regions more autonomy, such as the creation of city police forces, as opposed to the current police acting on a federal level, as well as more control by cities and regions over local taxes.

• The creation of professional army with all members of the armed forces to be working on a contractual basis.

A further reduction of military spending.

Beginning his new term in office, the Russian President has made disengaging the US currency from the Russian economy one of his goals, stating that the dollar monopoly is dangerous. The announcement comes as Moscow and Beijing attempt to step up bilateral oil sales and financial cooperation.

Addressing the Russian Parliament following his inauguration, Vladimir Putin called for the “unburdening” Russia’s economy from the dangerous monopoly of the US dollar in the pricing of oil in global commodities markets. He indicated that the underlying reasons were security-related.

“We used to behave naïvely, but now we see that the WTO [the World Trade organization] rules are all too often broken, the restrictions are imposed for political reasons, which they call sanctions. Plus more and more of them are imposed to secure its favorite competitive advantages,” Putin said.

He stated that the new "restrictions," breaking the world trade principles, make the world see that monopoly of the US dollar is dangerous for many regions. According to him, de-dollarization should be promoted on principle, in order to preserve the country’s sovereignty. Putin didn’t name an alternative currency in his speech.

Chinese Wall to Petrodollar

Putin’s recent announcement came less than two months after China launched yuan-denominated oil futures on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange, thus challenging the dominance of the Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) benchmarks. Incidentally, in 2017 China emerged as the largest oil buyer, surpassing the United States. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), in 2017 China imported 8.4 million barrels of crude per day, half a million more than the US.

Russia is ready to support the Chinese contracts, as Sputnik contributor Igor Naumov wrote, citing a source close to the top management of the Saint-Petersburg Stock Exchange (SPBEX).

"Currently, the US dollar is used as the contract currency in the global hydrocarbon trading system, as well as for other commodities," the journalist explained. "This is what largely provides the dollar with its status as the world's leading reserve currency. [However], the yuan is seeking to dislodge the American [petrodollar] from one of the fastest growing oil markets in the world."

READ MORE: De-Dollarization: How Russia and China May Soon Dethrone the Petrodollar

Amid US-led sanctions, Russian energy ties with China have deepened over the last several years, which has resulted in the country’s becoming China's biggest crude supplier, displacing Saudi Arabia and Angola. On January 1, 2018, a second pipeline for importing Russia's East Siberia-Pacific Ocean Crude began to pump oil, which doubled China’s import capacity to 30 million metric tons annually, according to China's state-run Xinhua News Agency. The first pipeline supplying crude from Russia directly to its eastern neighbor began operations in 2011.

At the same time, in December 2017, the Russian Finance Ministry announced plans to place an issue of yuan-denominated bonds worth $1 billion on the Russian domestic market in 2018. Prior to this move, President Vladimir Putin endorsed the idea of creating a yuan-denominated investment fund; the idea had been proposed by the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and China Development Bank. In July 2017, the organizations agreed to establish a joint 68-billion-yuan (some $10 billion) fund to contribute to direct investments, including within the framework of the China's "One Belt, One Road" strategy.

Separately, Russia and China are considering possibilities for cooperation on the issue of national payment systems, specifically, linking Russia's MIR payment system with China's Union Pay, as Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev stated.

De-Dollarization Amid Sanctions

The de-dollarization issue took on new significance during the peak of Russia's currency crisis the end of 2014 and in early 2015, when the Russian ruble collapsed. The nation faced a sharp outflow of capital as international sanctions were imposed after the country reunited with Crimea.

The debate about the necessity to reduce Russia's dependence on US payment systems intensified after US President Trump introduced a new volley of anti-Russian sanctions in August 2017. This gave new momentum to Russian de-dollarization, as Russian banks continued to reduce the volume of dollar-denominated transactions with foreign creditors, while the non-financial sector continued to replace foreign currency obligations with those denominated in rubles.

"There is a big trend toward the de-dollarization of the Russian economy. The Central Bank made some very important s

The State Duma of Russia approved the candidacy of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev , proposed by President Vladimir Putin . The newly appointed government, Dmitri Solonnikov, director of the Institute for Contemporary State Development, said in an interview with EADaily that he was temporary, and also talked about other possible moves in the vertical of power.

- Dmitry Vladimirovich, in your opinion, the new government, the backbone of which is formed almost in these hours, has come for a long time?

- Firstly, untouchables, of course, not, and if some direction is failed, then the responsible for this direction will be displaced. And before the current government, in order to launch the mechanism of a powerful breakthrough, which the president announced, there will be a task of quite complex unpopular reforms, and it is these changes that will be handled by a team led by Dmitry Medvedev. And as a result of these reforms, the president will decide on the future work or dismissal of the current prime minister. After all, most likely, Medvedev will not hold out on his post for six years. Why did not Putin change it now? The fact is that in the world a very complicated international situation and the replacement of the first persons could adversely affect the entire country. And it is not in the traditions of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin to conduct personnel changes in this situation. Now, if everything was good, then today it would be possible to completely calmly form a new government of "young technocrats" and give them the opportunity to train. In the situation of "storms, squalls and underwater reefs", perhaps a new team to start experimenting would not be very cool. So now we need to go through the current stage and then talk about the new team. I think that the Medvedev government will work for about two years, and then the question of replacement will be raised.

- At the same time, we see that they were not afraid to replace more than half of the vice-premiers.

- And not only. First, only three people remained from the former vice-premiers in the new government ( Olga Golodets , Vitaly Mutko and Dmitry Kozak ), but six did not get there ( Igor Shuvalov , Arkady Dvorkovich , Sergei Prikhodko , Dmitry Rogozin , Yury Trutnev and Alexander Khloponin). In my opinion, this is quite a serious update of the corps of vice-premiers, and each of the remaining in the Cabinet has changed functional. Secondly, Shuvalov and Dvorkovich were completely removed from the entire economic block. Further, the responsible for the military-industrial complex, Dmitry Rogozin, was also withdrawn. These are the most serious changes, and this must be treated with a great deal of responsibility. We understand that Kozak's world view is fundamentally different from Dvorkovich's world view, and Kozak, who is called the "special forces of Putin," and who is thrown into the most complex, breakthrough areas (the North Caucasus, Olympiad-2014, Crimea) in its field of increasing the efficiency of production and the transfer of domestic industry to modern rails. Someone will say, that in the new government the liberal team has shrunk, and this is not good, but I believe that in the current situation this, on the contrary, is positive. The same Kozak is a technocrat who solves difficult problems by the method of strict state administration.

"But in the new government, Anton Siluanov, who will be the first vice-premier, receives enormous powers, and which will remain the post of Minister of Finance.

- Many say that Siluanov is a very professional financier, but he is not an ideological liberal, but a specialist who manages financial flows, who is competent to follow all the instructions that are given to him. In this direction he will work at his post.

- In your opinion, the lack of an ideological orientation for a leader of this level is not a minus?

- I'm not sure that in this situation it's a minus. For example, if ideology is 100 percent formed in the presidential administration, Siluanov will be instructed to perform certain actions within the framework of this ideology, and from the point of view of implementation it will be very effective. I am sure that one ideological headquarters should appear in our country, and there should be no competition between a separate vision of the situation in the Putin administration, a separate vision in the government and a separate one, for example, in the State Duma - when everyone competes with each other as a result, nothing good is obtained. We can certainly consider different political models at the stage of preliminary discussion and choice, but after making a decision and starting a concrete work, ideology should be one. After the development of its resource (or if it comes to a standstill), as, for example, happens in other countries, there arises the possibility of the arrival of a new team with their ideological approaches. But now it is important that we are not torn in different directions.

- Does Putin have a reserve of such ideologically savvy people? After all, when a rather odious manager Vitaly Mutko in the government is transferred from sports to construction, the question of the general state of cadres in the power structures appears.

- In my opinion, there are human resources and people are. And in the course of 2017 we saw the professionals of their business offering their concepts. Among them are the groups of Alexei Kudrin and Sergei Glazyev . His point of view on the prospects for the development of the country from Andrei Belousov and Boris Titov . There are structured teams in the Committee of Civil Initiatives and in the Stolypin Club.
In occasion of Mutko I will say that his transfer to the "building block" is not as anecdotal as the second day we are trying to imagine. After all, judging by the information, he will be engaged, including the development of the regions, in which he is sufficiently adept and he does not need to study the situation a second time. And as for the construction, it is important who will assume the post of minister. In conjunction with the minister-professional representing the construction industry, Mutko, who has direct access to the first person in the state, can lobby for quite important decisions. And this bundle can be very effective for the entire construction sector. Therefore, perhaps we laugh too early about the current movement of Mutko. I note that Dmitry Medvedev said yesterday that the construction industry has not developed in the best way in recent years, so I think,

- Minus Mikhail Men. Clear. And, in your opinion, Vladimir Medinsky at Olga Holodets will remain?

- At one time, the appointment of Medinsky was more political, he was appointed as a person representing a certain ideology. If the leadership of the country agrees with his vision of the development of culture, he will most likely remain, and if they suddenly decide that some other approach is needed, they will appoint a new minister.

- To what extent can Alexei Kudrin be able to influence Siluanov to work for a new Cabinet?

- The whole question is, what place will Kudrin take in our country. He was not in the government, which in general is logical - he could hardly be imagined in the same team as Dmitry Medvedev, mindful of all their previous relationships. If Kudrin gets to the presidential administration and gets there some important post, then yes, of course, he will have to reckon with him. If he remains one of the fittens of our country, then directly he will not have influence, and Siluanov will work within the framework of that vertical of power and in the structures of the document circulation to be adopted. It's just that, of course, only from ideological love to listen to Kudrin's advice Siluanov, of course, will not.

- "St. Petersburg Group" can dilute the new government, take other positions at the federal level? Earlier there was much talk about a possible move to the capital of the governors of St. Petersburg and Leningrad region Georgy Poltavchenko and Alexander Drozdenko.

- As for employment in Moscow - this is possible for Poltavchenko, and for Drozdenko. The same Poltavchenko is close to Putin, and if the president finds it important for him to take him to Moscow, then the governor of the northern capital will be there. But, for the positions he held and because of his age, it is unlikely that Poltavchenko will fall into the government. Other options are possible. Now two posts will be vacated - the post of the head of the Accounting Chamber and the plenipotentiary representative in the Central Federal District (and after the final formation of the new government, other posts will be vacated). If you look at the ideology of the formation of a new power structure, you can recall the slogan "They come back." If this slogan is prolonged on the Central Federal District, then in St. Petersburg, two former leaders of this district - Alexander Beglov(presidential envoy for the North-West Federal District) and Georgy Poltavchenko. If "They come back" will play a role and this time, soon enough we will be able to find out about the new appointment of a representative of the "St. Petersburg group". I would like to note that the staffing of the vertical of power today is due to the call of new efficient specialists, and not on territorial grounds, so now it is absolutely not necessary to start your career in St. Petersburg in order to be in demand later.

- Are vice-premiers themselves able to lobby for the appointment of ministers or is it more the prerogative of Putin-Medvedev?

- It depends on what. But surely the voice of vice-premiers will be heard. For example, no doubt that the same Alexei Gordeev will offer his people in the management of agriculture. If we are talking about culture and sport, then Olga Golodets will have some right to vote, but first of all these appointments will be political.

- In your opinion, the siloviki - Sergei Shoigu and Vladimir Kolokoltsev plus Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will definitely remain in their seats?

- It's hard to say unequivocally on all three. According to Lavrov, there are a number of throws about the fact that he is tired and several times already asked him to release him in resignation. Of course, there are no complaints about him, but not so long ago, for example, that Anton Vaino , the head of the presidential administration, could take his place . Theoretically this is possible, but, in my opinion, this figure has a minus - it does not have a diplomatic rank. Sergei Shoigu, most likely, will not go anywhere. He is much more active, much younger than the same Lavrov and to resign probably does not hurry. According to Vladimir Kolokoltsev, there are both positive signals, and the minus signs. Here fifty to fifty, as they say.

Interviewed by Yegor Zubtsov (St. Petersburg)

ZoA wrote:Even Trotskyite rag like wsws has better understanding of what is going on then self deceiving members of Putin's personality cult:

Much of the speech by Putin and his proposals were almost literal quotations from the report “A Strategy for the Development of the Country, 2018-2024,” which he had earlier commissioned from the Center for Strategic Research (CSR). The CSR is headed by the former finance minister and close Putin ally Alexei Kudrin, who is generally considered to be the greatest darling of both the liberal opposition and the world financial elite among Putin’s inner circle.

Apart from similar demagogic and vague promises for a better social future, the report was more open about the actual direction in which the Kremlin should head: “Until 2024 entrepreneurial freedom will be guaranteed in Russia on a new level, real competition in the economy will be secured. … State policy will be aimed at a partnership with private business and a reduction of the direct involvement of the state in the economy.” Key proposals—not mentioned by Putin on Monday—include:

• The reduction of control and overseeing functions of the state in the business sector by half.

• The selling of state assets that are not “essential” to the functioning of the company.

• An increased role for non-profit organizations (NGOs) in providing social services, while state involvement in providing them is to be cut.

• An increase in labor productivity by a third.

• Raising the retirement age to 63 for men and 65 for women. The Russian government has already announced in late April that it is actively working on realizing this demand.

• The facilitation of rules for customs and tariffs and lowering of taxes for both domestic and foreign companies.

• Salaries for state employees should be tied to their work performance.

• A number of measures toward granting cities and regions more autonomy, such as the creation of city police forces, as opposed to the current police acting on a federal level, as well as more control by cities and regions over local taxes.

• The creation of professional army with all members of the armed forces to be working on a contractual basis.

• A further reduction of military spending.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/05/09/puti-s05.html

Deputies of the Duma propose to introduce criminal liability in case of a repeated offense, Tass source in the lower house of parliament
MOSCOW, May 11. / TASS /. State Duma deputies are considering the possibility of establishing a criminal penalty for joining the US sanctions regime in Russia up to six to seven years of imprisonment for company executives and their deputies. A source in the parliament told Tass on Friday.

"Draft laws on administrative and criminal liability for the implementation of US sanctions on the territory of the Russian Federation are being prepared, while options are being considered for imposing administrative fines of up to 50,000 rubles for individuals who join the sanctions regime in Russia, and for legal entities, ", - the interlocutor of agency has told.

According to him, the criminal liability will be offered if the offenses are repeated in this area, and punishment is supposed to be introduced for officials - heads of enterprises and their deputies who repeatedly made decisions "on subordinating the US sanctions to the regime in Russia." "The maximum measures - up to six or seven years of imprisonment," - said the source.

Earlier, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said that the bill on criminal responsibility for the implementation of US sanctions in the territory of the Russian Federation can be submitted for consideration by the State Duma on May 14. He assured that this issue is a priority, to consider which "is planned during May."

miketheterrible wrote:According to Tass, Kudrin was offered accounts chamber job. What does the accounts chamber do exactly?