Page 25 - RusRPTJune18

Former Finance Minister and co-head of the presidential council Alexei Kudrin was widely expected to either get a Cabinet role or at least a senior position in the all-powerful presidential administration. Instead he was offered the job as head of Russia’s Audit Chamber. "A disappointment as this will be generally seen as far lower role for him than expected by the market. He will have some influence over the budget process and SOEs but his main role in the chamber will be limited to controlling how public funds are being spent rather than overseeing strategic changes. Overall, this is better than him remaining on the sidelines but not very inspiring... But one should also keep in mind that Kudrin's allies and protégé - Siluanov and Golikova - will play dominant roles in the Cabinet on economic front, so now we have a trio of pro-market liberals running Kremlin's economic agenda,” says BSC Global Markets chief economist Vladimir Tikhomirov.
Putin has instructed the government to increase the workforce engaged in small and medium-sized businesses in Russia to 25mn by 2024 . The president also ordered to bring the share of small and medium-sized enterprises to at least 10% in the total amount of exports. To achieve these figures, the president ordered to yearly increase the amount of easy credits for small and medium-sized enterprises. Under the decree, conditions for carrying out business activity must be improved by 2024, including simplified procedures of reporting to the tax authorities for the entrepreneurs using cash registering appliances.
The Association of European Businesses (AEB) expressed “concern” about a draft law that would allow the Russian government to punish companies that comply with sanctions imposed by the US on Russia in April, the association said in a statement on May 16. A draft law entitled “On amending the Criminal Code and introducing criminal responsibility for complying to sanctions of foreign states on the Russian territory” has already passed its first reading in the Duma. It is the response to the Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons List (SDN List) that was adopted by the US government on April 6 . AEB says the draft law on the floor of the Duma now is ill conceived and will hurt European businesses working in Russia as the draft bill, “contains so broadly formulated criminal offenses that their use can put at risk representatives of foreign and Russian businesses,” AEB said in a statement.
2.13 Polls & Sociology
A total of 82% of Russians approve of President Vladimir Putin’s achievements , according to a poll conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center. Putin was sworn in as president for the fourth time on May 7, after winning the presidential elections with 77% of the vote in March.
Russians say medicine is more important than pensions. According to data from the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Russians are significantly more worried about the current state of the healthcare system than other social problems, including pensions. The RAS survey revealed that more than half of Russians have either “strong concern” (39%) or “constant fear” (15%) about the worsening state of healthcare in the country. Of the 4,000 individuals polled, only 12% were not worried about the situation. These numbers mean that Russians are more fearful of deteriorating healthcare than of a military
25 RUSSIA Country Report June 2018 www.intellinews.com