Russian Economy General News: #12

miketheterrible wrote:No it isn't. He clearly broke laws and he is getting punished by some sort. The case isnt over yet and simply put, if he is:

Working for an outlawed organization

And

Embezzling money

He is what we call a "criminal".  I don't know if retarded Russians understand this or not, but a person like that gets many years in jail here. Just see that Russian woman serving time in jail in US regarding her dealings.

Those business men you are taking to, worried about this, are worried because they are criminals.  You see, if they are working to stir shit in Russia which is now illegal in Russia, and working for banned groups and embezzling money, then these are fucking losers you need to report and also sent to jail.

It really isn't rocket science.

The Atlantic Council is undesirable, but it's not outlawed

So it's down to embezzling money or not. If he's there on some mission from the Atlantic Council though, then I doubt he'd be risking his position by criminal activity. Never know though.

What's not rocket science is how this all looks. Whatever agenda that guy has or doesn't have, if the Russian govt. simply made up a case against him to get rid of problem, then that's going to be a problem for other investors. As far as they're concerned he was an investor who was outspoken about Russia's business prospects, stayed under the radar and out of trouble, avoided investments into sensitive areas of the economy, and had been working in the country for a long time - yet still ended up as a red blip on the state's radar.

miketheterrible wrote:

flamming_python wrote:

miketheterrible wrote:No it isn't. He clearly broke laws and he is getting punished by some sort. The case isnt over yet and simply put, if he is:

Working for an outlawed organization

And

Embezzling money

He is what we call a "criminal".  I don't know if retarded Russians understand this or not, but a person like that gets many years in jail here. Just see that Russian woman serving time in jail in US regarding her dealings.

Those business men you are taking to, worried about this, are worried because they are criminals.  You see, if they are working to stir shit in Russia which is now illegal in Russia, and working for banned groups and embezzling money, then these are fucking losers you need to report and also sent to jail.

It really isn't rocket science.

The Atlantic Council is undesirable, but it's not outlawed

So it's down to embezzling money or not. If he's there on some mission from the Atlantic Council though, then I doubt he'd be risking his position by criminal activity. Never know though.

What's not rocket science is how this all looks. Whatever agenda that guy has or doesn't have, if the Russian govt. simply made up a case against him to get rid of problem, then that's going to be a problem for other investors. As far as they're concerned he was an investor who was outspoken about Russia's business prospects, stayed under the radar and out of trouble, avoided investments into sensitive areas of the economy, and had been working in the country for a long time - yet still ended up as a red blip on the state's radar.

Clearly not. Because it isn't like people haven't been kicked out before for working with Atlantic council. On top of that, he embezzling money. He got caught. Authorities arrested him and the court ruled against him.  So you are saying they are all lying and an American business man, who comes from a country who had other business men do illegal activities in Russia for decades, is somehow innocent cause he says so?

So are you telling me everyone except the American is lying?  Even though Russian courts have ruled against the federal government on multiple times over navalny and shit?

Give me a fucking break.  You are defending a criminal and other criminal business men who are scared of not being able to.embezzle money

https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/crime-penalties/federal/embezzlement.htm#:~:text=Embezzlement%20of%20property%20worth%20less,fine%20of%20up%20to%20%241%2C000.&text=Penalties%20include%20a%20fine%20of%20between%20%24500%20and%20%245%2C000%2C%20between,more%2C%20but%20less%20than%20%2420%2C000.

Here in the us on embezzling charges.

Personally, either hang him or kick him out indefinitely and take his assets.  He works for Atlantic council, an organization that hates Russia.

Kick you out too since you defend such cocksuckers who turn countries into graveyards.

Again you're assuming he's guilty of what they said he was. Could be the case, I don't know.

If this is all an American op to build contacts among Russia's business elite, then that hasn't been stopped - all he ended up with is a suspended sentence.
If it's an American op to make Russia look bad by sponsoring this guy in Russia knowing he'd be a target given his contacts and credentials, then they've succeeded
If he's guilty of the crime, then he got off with no jail time
If he's not guilty of the crime, then whatever the rest of the circumstances, he's ended up being charged with a crime he didn't actually commit and the Russian court system has been undermined

Any way you look at it, the Russian state has been outmaneuvered, although they've chosen the least retarded option at least out of acquitting him and making themselves look weak and undecisive, or putting him in jail and scaring off investors for good.
If he's innocent of embezzlement, then they should have avoided this whole situation to begin with. It's the wrong way to deal with such matters

I always find it funny, when they put a thug like Khodorkovsky in the same context, trying to defend someone
This is probably targeted at the western audience, already tamed and with existing Pavlovs dogs reactions.
One should remind himself, how the things with Yukos used to be ...
For those with a short memory, I will make a short extract.
Yukos was found unable to operate its debts back in 2003. It was not something really serious, still presented a clear need for debt restructuration. But nothing was done for that matter, and they started to be unable to deliver and sell their product with desired liquidity in 2004. In 2005, its own board - each and any member being non-Russian citizen, except for Khodorkovsky - started a bankruptcy procedure in face of ... US-based court.
At the same time, a broad operation of transferring company assets abroad started, widely commented by Yukos own board members, that they are doing that to avoid taxation in Russia
And I am not kidding you, folks!
US court told them to GTFO, because they had no bankruptcy jurisdiction for a Russian-based company, but what happened the?
Magic!
The banking consortium that financed the Yukos, applied for a bankruptcy procedure in front of the Russian court, knowing the jurisdiction obviously.
And who are those back-stabbing midgets, who dared to make a kill of freedom-loving, transparent and honest tsar-company? ("a tsar-thing" is a Russian idiom to describe something big and extraordinary)?
You think, Putin puppets of the Russian banking sector?
Naaah!
Back in 00s, Russian banks were not good enough for gangsters tearing Russia apart.
It used to be o consortium consisted of Societe Generale, Citi, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Paribas, and last but not least, The Bank of Tokio.
Not bad, huh?
Those are liabilities in possession of those fellows, that Rosneft bought.
From the banks that claimed the company bankruptcy, not torturing dear Mikhail to sign the selling papers. They didn't need to.
They bought liabilities totalling 25bln$, becoming a secondary creditor of still existing Yukos, a hand by hand with the Russian federal tax bureau.
And some more fun things. As soon as new owners started to divide the company, reselling its assets to get the cash back, some ugly vultures appeared on the horizon.
Those bad fellows didn't care of evil Putin killing freedom companies of crystal clear businessmen like the Khororkovsky, they just wanted to earn money.
How nasty of them!
One of the vultures used to be the Polish state corporation Orlen, purchasing the refinery at Mozeyki.
Some vultures from Italy appeared, and from France, and from Germany ...
Who would believed that, oh my oh my ...
At the end of the story we can add, that none of the Yukos board members other than Khodorkovsky was put on trial, because they all evacuated abroad, where they belonged.

miketheterrible wrote:Nope. He embezzled. Court wouldn't have have given him off if he wasn't guilty.  He was and it's really that simple.

The courts will decide whatever the executive power in Russia (President and so on) will tell to their subordinates
It's possible Putin & co. didn't interfere and that this was just a criminal case. Given the Atlantic Council stuff and the high-profile of this situation, I wouldn't be so sure.

You can cry for an Atlantic council retard all you want. Just proves to us you are a piece of shit really.  And your business friends should be scared. Hopefully they are found hanging from a lamp post if they are also embezzling money.

Why don't you cut the name-calling before I call a mod in.

If you don't have the mental finesse required to figure out the workings of political intrigues, games and how best to counter them then just stick to commenting on stuff you're capable of understanding instead. If you ever find yourself in a position of power others will run rings around you.
Just like the US just won a PR battle against Russia just now, assuming of course this guy really is on their payroll.

miketheterrible wrote:
I clearly do understand, it's you who do not.  The guy got outed, it's as simple as that. He may face a small punishment but his dealings are known and everyone else will steer clear of him.  He is guilty and anyone who defends him are clearly guilty as well.

You have proven to us your mental capacity. And that it's extremely limited when it comes to law and overall economics.  So that part I'm not surprised how you feel. You commie wannabe.

No different than how navalny was allowed to leave.  While we all raged hard, turns out, was a great opportunity to out him and get him into trouble later.

It ain't over, and hopefully this guy will be gone for good from Russia.  You, then can cry for him and all your criminal embezzling friends over how he can't steal anymore money.

I won't ever agree with you on this. You won't find anyone else here either feeling sorry for this piece of shit.  So you know what you can do.

Well since he was outed, I mean why not just kill him. Makes sense no?

Or would that be excessive and incur too many consequences?

Right. So why open a criminal case against him on bogus charges; that's the same thing even if less extreme

I mean I don't know. He could actually be guilty, so my arguments here are tentative. But neither do you know either, nor about the embezzlement, nor his activities in Russia, intentions in the future or anything else.

And no you don't have to be his supporter, or work for the Atlantic Council to speak out against this. It's enough to disagree with the way it looks like things are being done, and not wanting to see your own state shoot itself in the foot.

Hope you're enjoying your mutual echo-chamber here lads

https://tass.com/economy/1321629

Exports of agriculture, IT, creative products to drive economic growth in Russia

First Deputy Head of the Analytical Center under the Government of the Russian Federation Gleb Pokatovich noted that there was a trend of decline in the share of oil and gas revenues in Russian federal budget

MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/. Together with huge oil and gas export potential the Russian economy has high non-oil and gas export potential, experts polled by TASS believe. Exports of food, information technologies and creative products are among such growth drivers.

Speaking at the headquarters of the office of the director of national intelligence (ODNI) last week, US President Joe Biden recalled the Geneva summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and stated that the Russian economy is based exclusively on nuclear weapons and oil resources.

First Deputy Head of the Analytical Center under the Government of the Russian Federation Gleb Pokatovich considers the decline in the Russian budget’s revenues from resources export a trend. "The decline in the share of oil and gas revenues in the federal budget may continue, though not compared to 2020 when it reached the lowest level ever, but more likely as a trend. Looking at the past decade, in 2011-2015 the share of oil and gas revenues amounted to an average of 48.8%, whereas in 2016-2020 it stood at 37.8%, in 2021-2023 it will probably go down to 32-33%," he said.

"The decline in the share of oil and mineral revenues in the budget is a general trend in the long-term prospective. With growth of other non-resource sectors particularly from resources exports the share in the budget will be decreasing. This is definitely inevitable in the long-term prospective," Director of the Centre for Science and Technology Foresight at the Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge of the Russian Higher School of Economics Alexander Chulok agrees.

The issue of food safety is coming to the fore as a result of the pandemic, which is why the agriculture complex might become one of growth drivers with high export potential for the Russian economy, Chulok suggests. However, it is important to make sure that exported goods should have a high transformation rate. "The first growth driver is the use of capacities in agriculture, including resource and export, though with transition to technological modernization, meaning considering technologies that do not depend on climate, advanced-processing technologies. It is very important here not to repeat the mistake with oil. We need a technological upgrade, using the existing resource export areas," he explained.

The expert considers the information technologies sector, as well as products of creative industries, another promising non-resource export area. "The second area (also non-resource) is connected with our successes in IT, in information technologies, in the work with client experience, in big data processing. We have a good groundwork here largely due to the fact that we have decent math schools, computer programming schools, everything concerning creativity. In the future creative sectors of the economy may become one of the most intensive in terms of added value. And in this respect the situation with creativity is quite good here. Creativity, ingenuity, the skill to find non-standard approaches, this might be a very good growth driver as well," he said.

Apart from mining sectors and agriculture, the areas of creating new materials, new transport types, information technologies and a number of other fields may become new growth drivers, according to Pokatovich. "Speaking about new growth driers, the issue may be about the technologies of creating new materials, various projects in the area of AI, robotics technology, autonomous driving and hydrogen transport," he said.

franco wrote:Rosstat told about the growth of Russia's GDP

Russia's GDP in the second quarter of 2021 grew by 10.3% over the same period last year. This is reported by Rosstat .

"The index of the physical volume of GDP in the second quarter of 2021 relative to the corresponding period of 2020, according to preliminary estimates, amounted to 110.3%, relative to the corresponding period of 2019 - 101.7%," the message says.

Earlier, the head of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade Maxim Reshetnikov said that the ministry had recorded a slowdown in the recovery growth of Russia's GDP.

Reshetnikov added that many industries, including OPEC + oil production, air travel and services, have not yet recovered. In his opinion, this could lead to a "certain cooling" of the Russian economy by the end of the year.

It was also reported that the annual inflation in Russia over the past week decreased to 6.45% from 6.49%, which were recorded a week earlier. The head of the Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina admitted that inflation in the country will be a long-term phenomenon. Inflationary expectations were more subdued at a time when economic conditions were considered more stable, she said.

https://www-gazeta-ru.translate.goog/business/news/2021/08/13/n_16382108.shtml?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=ajax,elem

10.3% expansion this quarter y-on-y versus a 7.8% contraction in this quarter last year. That means the economy has already recouped its losses in 2020, although not quite with a whole 2.5% to spare as Q2's growth this year started from a smaller base than Q2 of last year.

The aim now should be to reach a 6.5% growth for Q3. That will all but ensure that the Russian economy will expand by 5-5.5% this year.

kvs wrote:

flamming_python wrote:Hope you're enjoying your mutual echo-chamber here lads

Typical Trotskyist-think.   If someone does not agree with your drivel, then they are automatically wrong.

You have not made your case, clown.

I was being polite to say the least, you estrogen-infused troll.

I've made my case and if you disagree then make a counter-point, don't resort to emotional hysteria

https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2021/08/03/half-a-decade-on-reflecting-on-russias-unsung-successes/

Half a Decade On – Reflecting on Russia’s Unsung Successes

on August 3, 2021

By Apurva Sanghi

In 2016, as the incoming World Bank lead economist for Russia, I started writing about Russian economic issues. It is now time to bid goodbye. As a professional analyst of the Russian economy over the last 5 years, I can summarize my experience in one sentence: things in Russia are never as bad as they seem, but they are never as good as they can be, either.

Just in the last 6 years, Russia has managed to attain remarkable macro-stability. Inflation, which was in double digits, is in now in manageable territory. The country is less reliant on oil and gas today than 5 years back. These are no small achievements. On the other hand, as I – and many others have written – sagging potential growth holds progress back. But these issues are well-known. In this final column, I would like to recognize three lesser-known Russian developmental successes that often fly under the radar screen.

First is Russia’s increase in life expectancy – from 65.3 years in 2000 to 72.7 years in 2018. This has been mostly due to a drop in the number of deaths caused by non-communicable diseases (i.e. diseases that are not infectious or contagious such as heart attacks and stroke) and external causes (such as road accidents and homicides). Mortality rates for both adults and particularly children have also been decreasing since the 2000s. Even more recently, infant mortality decreased by 36 percent from 2011 to 2017 and maternal mortality decreased by 49 percent in the same period. While the pandemic engulfs us all, it is worth taking a longer-term perspective to recognize legitimate improvements in Russia’s life expectancy.

Second is Russia’s progress in financial literacy. Russia is no stranger to financial crises. While governments anywhere and everywhere have the primary responsibility in preventing and managing them, an important factor that is only being recognized is the need for individuals to become more informed about making financial decisions.

As an early adopter, Russia has recognized the benefits of financial literacy, and made remarkable strides in increasing literacy across both adult populations and school children. This is thanks to both top-down efforts by the Ministry of Finance and Central Bank of Russia, and bottom-up ones, which have included tapping into schools, libraries, and other community platforms to reach a large and diverse segment of the population. Indeed, Russia was ranked the first among 132 countries in the Child & Youth Finance International Global Inclusion Awards in 2016. It also ranks in the top 10 of G-20 countries for financial literacy.

Third is Russia’s progress in improving its tax administration. The history of taxes in Russia hark back to medieval times, with Prince Oleg imposing the first known “tribute” on dependent tribes. Catherine the Great is known to have said “Taxes for a government are same as sails for a boat. They serve to bring her faster into a harbor without flipping over by their burden”.

Building on lessons learnt over centuries, Russia today is at the global forefront of tapping technology and real-time source data and has managed to shift from a culture of tax evasion to tax compliance. Tax non-compliance, notably in value-added taxes, for instance, has shrunk from double digits a few years ago to less than 1 percent today, with minimal human involvement. Russia’s success in modernization of its tax services is not as well known as it ought to be, but global interest is slowly but steadily growing.

Surely, these achievements are not the end of the road. When it comes to life expectancy, male life expectancy is behind female life expectancy by almost 10 years, and this gap needs to be shrunk. Financial literacy, consumer protection, and safeguards for privacy and data protection need to keep pace as cryptocurrencies and digital fraud become more commonplace. And gains in tax administration may be washed out without complementary tax policies. Yet, these unsung successes deserve more recognition, both within and outside Russia.

One of the more unusual analysis the World Bank undertook was to figure out how wealthy is Russia. We found that Russia’s wealth lies not in its abundant natural resources (as important as they are), or its physical infrastructure (as mighty as some of it may be). Rather, Russia’s wealth derives from the ingenuity and creativity of its people. Indeed, almost half of all Russia’s wealth derives from its human capital — the cumulative experience, knowledge, and skills of Russians. Only then is it followed by physical capital (about a third), and natural capital (about a fifth). Anecdotally too, I can reaffirm that to be the case. In my interactions with students in various universities and high schools, I have witnessed their keen engagement, their sharp and pointed questions, their sense of humor, and above all, a passion to improve their country. I am indeed privileged to have played a small role in this journey.

PS: There is one other area I would like to draw your attention to, and that is climate change. While the politics are what they are, the science and economics are undeniable. In Russia, in addition to federal initiatives, it is encouraging to see positive signs emerging from within Russian regions, such as Sakhalin and Murmansk, which are vying to become carbon-free zones. As I had written earlier, the one mistake not to make about Russia is to treat it as a single unit of analysis. Doing so would be like being unaware that a Matryoshka doll is not empty! Indeed, Russian regions may be at the forefront of addressing climate change and we might be in for a (pleasant) surprise – this space is therefore worth keeping on an eye on.

Interesting points

We switched to our own: why Russian goods are often more expensive than foreign ones, 22/08/2021.

MOSCOW, 22 Aug - RIA Novosti, Irina Badmaeva. Kuban apples, strawberries near Moscow, Tula potatoes - more and more often on the shelves of domestic. The imported products, which once flooded the Russian market, were successfully replaced. Over the past seven years, food purchases abroad have decreased by a third. However, technology and medicines are still entirely foreign. Why success in some industries and lagging behind in others - RIA Novosti figured out.

Together we switch to a domestic product

It is believed that Russia has been refusing imported products since 2014. In fact, it all started two years earlier, when the agricultural development program was adopted. The state compensated interest on investment loans in the agro-industrial complex, partially reimbursed the costs of construction, reconstruction, modernization, and equipment.

Anti-Russian sanctions have only accelerated this process. In response, Moscow has imposed an embargo on meat, fish, dairy products, cheese, vegetables, fruits from the EU and the United States. A year later, products from Albania, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Montenegro were banned, and later from Ukraine. All this was replaced with domestic goods.

The first results were seen in 2017: imports fell from $ 43 to $ 25 billion. The main foreign sellers left the market. Their place was taken by Russian manufacturers.

In 2020, food exports exceeded imports for the first time and reached $ 30.7 billion. This is almost 79.5 million tons in physical terms.

Pork is now imported ten times less than before, beef - two and a half, poultry - two.

But for decades we have been fed with foreign products: "Bush's legs", beef with salmonella and growth biostimulants.
Now there is so much meat in Russia that we have overtaken Australia, Argentina and Brazil in terms of beef exports. The main buyer is China, which acquired 3.7 thousand tons in the first quarter, 20 times more than a year ago, according to the Center for Industry Expertise (SEO) of the Russian Agricultural Bank.

Dependence on foreign dairy products and cheeses has decreased: domestic producers have increased their capacity by a third. Vegetable growers are not lagging behind. For example, imports of tomatoes fell by 45 percent, apples and pears by 50 percent.

However, the target indicators have not yet been reached. By 2021, purchases of milk should have decreased by 30 percent, in fact - 20. For vegetables instead of the expected 70.3 percent - only 27. For fruits and berries - 11 against the planned 20.

Affected by weather conditions, seasonality. No matter how much you empty store shelves for Kuban apples, they will not grow faster. Fruiting trees and plants take longer than building new greenhouses. And if there are almost 90 percent of domestic cucumbers in our stores and markets, then there are 56 percent of tomatoes.

In order to displace imports, it is also necessary to reduce the cost of production. "It is difficult because farmers and enterprises are under credit. Debts and expenses are growing. Retail prices are skyrocketing. In 2019, consumers lost about 445 billion rubles due to import substitution. Producers need large-scale subsidies to offset the rise in prices. notes Pyotr Pushkarev, leading economist of the information and analytical center TeleTrade.

In monetary terms, Russia imports the same amount of food. But the commodity structure has changed. For example, before the embargo, Norwegian salmon accounted for 40 percent of imported fish. It was replaced by supplies from Chile and the Faroe Islands.

The share of the EU fell, but increased among the countries of Latin America, China and Belarus, which was often reproached for the re-export of "prohibited" items. By the way, the neighboring republic is in the lead in terms of supplies: 40 percent (in 2013 it was 12).

We mainly buy citrus fruits now (almost one and a half million tons). The second place is taken by wine and grape must (800 thousand tons).

Lagging technique

Technique is more difficult. From June 2015 to July 2021, only 1615 import substitution projects were implemented, the portal Sdelanounas notes.

But there are truly outstanding results. For example, the first fully domestic gas turbine with a capacity of up to 500 megawatts. Russia is now producing underground rock drills.
We even sell medical equipment abroad: artificial joints, capillary blood collection systems. These companies received soft loans from the Industrial Development Fund on time.

"Small projects are underfunded. Both in industry and agriculture. They rely on stable and experienced enterprises. Because of this, many promising ones have not been implemented. For example, in pharmaceuticals. We still mostly buy drugs," says Peter Pushkarev.

We are also lagging behind in microelectronics - the production of chips and semiconductors.

Meanwhile, banks, state and defense enterprises should switch to domestic software and equipment in two years. It is not yet clear how competitive the Russian counterparts are. It takes at least five years to create full-fledged ones, in some cases even more.

"At the same time, the share of domestic goods in the state order increased from 50 percent in 2019 to 75 in 2020. For some items it has exceeded 90. But in general, deliveries are still 20-30 percent lower than planned," says Dmitry Zavyalov, head of the Department of Entrepreneurship and logistics of the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. Much remains to be done in mechanical engineering, IT, and the high-tech sector.

By the way, you need to understand that rejection of a foreign language is not a panacea for the economy. There are areas where getting involved in replacement or getting ahead of ourselves is risky. Despite the exchange rate difference, own production is more expensive.

Moreover, if you stew in your own juice, many patents and current inventions can pass by. Enterprises will relax without competition, and the average buyer will have to pay.

https://ria.ru/20210822/tovary-1746598384.html