Page 16 - RusRPTMay21

Previous nationwide demonstrations this year led to more than 10,000 detentions, dozens of criminal cases against protesters and widespread claims of police violence.
Levada’s survey also showed high awareness — as well as a clear generational divide — toward Navalny’s imprisonment, with more younger respondents calling it unjust than their older counterparts.
Half of Levada’s respondents aged 18 to 24 said Navalny was imprisoned unjustly, compared with 19% of those aged 55 and over.
Overall, 82% of those polled said they have closely followed or heard about the anti-corruption campaigner’s incarceration.
Levada conducted the in-person survey in partnership with Russia’s Open Media investigative news website among 1,623 respondents in 50 Russian regions between March 25-31.
2.4 Foreign investors flee Russia’s OFZ bond market
In March of this year, foreigners dumped the Russian national debt almost as in March last year - but not because of oil, but because of the threat of sanctions.
The share of non-residents in the ruble-denominated state debt of Russia for the year decreased from one third to one fifth, and in March this year its decline accelerated, writes RBC. Most emerging markets are experiencing an outflow, but in Russia, sanctions and geopolitics are added to the general factors.
The share of non-resident investments in Russia's ruble-denominated public debt has fallen below 20% in the second week of April, according to a review by Maxim Korovin, senior strategist at VTB Capital. As of March 1, non-residents held RUB3.14 trillion rubles in OFZs, in March their investments decreased by RUB123bn rubles, and in one week from March 26 to April 2 - by RUB74.6bn rubles.
In 2020, the share of non-residents in OFZs fell against the backdrop of the oil crisis (the most disastrous month was March, minus RUB293bn rubles), a pandemic and an increase in the state debt due to anti-crisis spending through purchases of OFZs by Russian banks.
In March of this year, the sanctions factor came into effect, connected with the probable US sanctions against the Russian national debt under the law on the prohibition of chemical weapons (more about them here). Due to the sale of securities by non-residents, the yields of ten-year OFZs jumped above 7.1%, RBC reminds, and the Ministry of Finance canceled the auction for the placement of the state debt scheduled for March 24.
In addition to expectations of sanctions, the fall was facilitated by the collapse of the national currency and markets in Turkey and the forecasts of high
16 RUSSIA Country Report May 2021 www.intellinews.com