Page 58 - BNE_magazine_bne_September 2019

58 I Eastern Europe bne September 2019
Despite the Kremlin’s best efforts to subdue the population protests have become a regular feature of local politics, however, instead of focusing
on the big themes like regime change, that always catch the western headlines, today's protests tend to focus on local issues that affect the local community directly like parks and landfills.
Even the case of the July 27 protests fits the same template as the choice of city council in Moscow will directly affect the everyday lives of millions of Russians and they are simply demanding the ability to choose
Independent States (CIS), which the most politically interested Russians are indeed observing.
The most important of these revolutions was the Ukrainian 2014 Revolution
of Dignity in 2014 that swept the
deeply corrupt former president Viktor Yanukovych out of office. However, rather than an inspiration for Russians, Ukraine’s subsequent economic collapse and military conflict with Russia has proven to be a cautionary tale.
While western Russia watchers are focused on political change that could
Having said that the ushering in and promise that Ukraine’s new president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has brought could bring new pressure on the Kremlin from Russians that start to demand the same sort of genuine representation.
Likewise the Velvet revolution in Armenia last year has also introduced alternative models of government that are more accountable to the people. It so far has not ended in collapse and is still inspiring the local population.
And Georgia’s Rose Revolution has set several precedents. Just lately popular protests once again held the govern- ment accountable and highlighted to the Russians that governments can be held accountable to a certain degree.
It is not clear how all these protest movements will affect or guide Russia’s political maturation but clearly across the entire region, not just in Russia, populations are politically maturing and governments are being forced
to respond.
And the Moscow protests are unlike to end with the mass arrests on July 27 as the opposition politicians have called on their supporters to keep up with street rallies in the run-up to the city council elections in September.
“The Moscow protestors have done no reported damage nor have they attacked the police in any obvious way”
a candidate that will represent their best interests, rather than a representative of the Kremlin.
Revolution by osmosis
The growing Russian protest movement is being driven by slowly falling living standards thanks to Putin’s austerity, but it is also a function of Russians watching the other protest movements in the rest of the Commonwealth of
make people’s lives better, as bne IntelliNews has argued elsewhere equally important for most Russians, if not more so, is not destroying the real material gains that have been made in the last almost three decades. It is this caution that makes a real popular uprising in Russia very unlikely as Russia has made more gains and has the highest standard of living in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
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See page 2
We have launched a new publication bneTech
CEE Fintech Atlas: Old narratives are changing, innovations may flow now from East to West
Gunter Deuber of Raiffeisen Research in Vienna
After nearly three decades since the end of the socialist experiment many countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have made enormous progress, but they are still catching up to
their western peers. But not in fintech, which has been
Russia moves towards 5G
Russia has made another step towards launching the
fifth generation of cellular mobile communications (5G),
as state-controlled telecoms operator Rostelecom transferred companies that tested the relevant technology to its
subsidiary, Bashinformsvyaz. See page 5
Contents
CEE Fintech Atlas: Old narratives are changing, innovations may flow now from East to West 2 Russia moves towards 5G 5 IoT network to be set up in Russia 6 Russian online retailers fight for
higher duties on imported parcels 7 Wildberries leads the top 50 Russian e-commerce online stores ranked
by revenues in 2018 9
Leaders 10
Facebook and Twitter given nine more months to comply with Russian data-localisation law 11 Net profit of Russian internet major Mail.ru drops 47% in 1Q19 12 One year after ban, Telegram still accessible from Russia with growing audience 12 Russia’s Sberbank reportedly eyes
media major Rambler, registers Sber trademark 13
Investment 15
Armenia’s censor-defeating secure messaging app Pinngle announces $12mn of funding 15 MTS launches corporate fund to invest $15mn in startups 15 RWuhseseialynrdarisiveesr$b1o5omking service 16
Russian HeadHunter makes first
NASDAQ IPO since 2013 17 Russian Ozon e-commerce major
raises another loan for expansion 18
Fintech & E-commerce 19
Russia’s steel major Severstal to boost online sales 19 Russia’s Yandex said to plan cashback card with Alfa and Tinkoff banks 19 Russian retailer O’key reportedly eyed
by Yandex.Market online marketplace 20
Telecom 21
Romania’s consumer protection body
tells Vodafone to cancel price hikes 21 O2 telecoms operator in Czech Republic records Q1 profit of CZK1.24bn 21 Russia's mobile phone VEON
operator delivers sold earnings
in 1Q19, reiterates guidance 22 T-Mobile in Czech Republic saw
growth of CZK6.7bn in 1Q19 22 Turkish mobile operator Turkcell’s
profit soars 145% y/y in Q1 boosted
by unit sale 23
NIBs 24
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