Page 24 - RusRPTNov18

report says. Previously the analysts already pointed to the dilemma that the US lawmakers face when considering imposing sanctions over Russian sovereign debt, possible after the November's mid-term elections . Former US Treasury official Daleep Singh, who participated in designing original sanctions measures against Russia in 2014, argued for the curbs on sovereign debt funding, claiming that there was “no credible reason why US public pension funds and savings vehicles should fund the Russian government.”
Sberbank CIB, the investment banking branch of Russia's largest state bank, will hire ex-deputy head of IR service of Russia's largest oil company Andrei Gromadin as its Oil & Gas analyst, the bank said on October 15. Gromadin will be replacing Alex Fak who was sacked on May 21 after he published two controversial reports harshly criticising Rosneft's head and close ally of President's Vladimir Putin Igor Sechin, as well as natural gas giant Gazprom. In the latter report, Fak, who worked as a reporter for bne IntelliNews at the start of his career, highlighted the fact that two top stoligarchs , businessmen close to Putin, are profiting from $93.4bn worth of gas pipeline construction contracts to the detriment of Gazprom’s profitability .
Kudrin inserts himself into foreign policy debate. Alexei Kudrin, the influential head of the Audit Chamber, told the Russian Union of Industry and Entrepreneurs (RUIE) that Russia's foreign policy goal should be to improve relations with the West. If Russia cannot improve relations, he argued, sanctions will make Putin's economics goals impossible to achieve. Though his influence over foreign policy is limited, it's a hugely telling sign that Kudrin couched his comments to the RUIE in a broader context around the May decrees. Even foreign policy hardliners in Moscow can't deny that many of the May decrees cannot be achieved if sanctions are tightened (or, honestly, if they just continue as is). Kudrin's statement in Riga about the need for improvements in Latvian-Russian relations despite EU sanctions was likely dipping a toe in the water to see who reacts in the capital. In claiming that Russia's primary foreign policy goal should be tamping down tensions with other states, i.e. the West, watch to see if Kudrin gives voice to a wider business lobby hoping to influence Putin's final policy frontier: grand strategy.
● Kudrin said that he "would measure the effectiveness of [Russian] foreign policy" by watching whether sanctions end or continue.
● Kudrin sees sanctions as the most important foreign policy issue facing Russia. "We don't have the kind of global problems for Russia...that would require increasing tensions with other countries," he said.
● At the same event, Kudrin also said that 65% of the goals set out by Putin's May decrees do not have clearly defined statistical measures, and that measures will have to be invented over the next few years. Despite this, Kudrin promised the Audit Chamber would "audit" progress towards the May decrees.
● During a recent visit to Riga, Kudrin also remarked that there is "room for improving [relations]" with Latvia. Citing the example of Italy, he recommended Russia undertake bilateral projects with Latvia.
The governors of Bashkortostan, Zabaykalsky Krai, and Kursk Oblast announced their resignations on October 12 . President Vladimir Putin has already named Radiy Khabirov governor of Bashkortostan and Roman Starovoyt governor of Kursk. None of these changes are surprising. The former governor of Bashkortostan (Rustem Khamitov) and the former governor of Kursk (Aleksandr Mikhailov) are both older and have been in power for several years. Khamitov’s electoral chances took a hit after a conflict with the mayor of Ufa. Mikhailov has a reputation for being unpopular and ineffective. The former governor of Zabaykalsky Krai, Natalya Zhdanova, was appointed recently and was not expected to last long; United Russia won only 23.8% of the vote in the regional election. These changes are just the latest in a series of gubernatorial resignations as the Kremlin cleans house in the regions. The
24 RUSSIA Country Report November 2018 www.intellinews.com