Page 33 - RusRPTNov19

January 13 , the state-run TASS news agency reported. Calvey and other executives at private equity group Baring Vostok were detained in February. They deny wrongdoing and say the charges against them are being used to pressure them in a business dispute over control of mid-sized bank Vostochny. The court's decision to keep Calvey and French Baring Vostok executive Phillipe Delpal under house arrest was "groundless," Baring Vostok said in a company statement. "The court is following the lead of the investigation, which is delaying the case in order to put pressure on our employees, and completely ignores the position of the defense," it said.
A group of US congressmen have prepared a draft law containing new sanctions against companies participating in the construction of Nord Stream 2 , Forbes reports. The draft law suggests prohibiting entrance into the US for the individuals who are related to the vessels helping construct Nord Stream-2. Furthermore, according to the propositions, the US President might be given the power to impose sanctions on companies that provide financial and insurance services to the pipe-laying firms that export Russian energy. Additionally, the law directs the White House to propose a strategy for providing energy security to all US allies in Europe.d
Russia hosted the first ever Russia-Africa summit in Sochi on October 23-24, with more than 50 African leaders and 3,000 delegates invited to foster economic and diplomatic relations. This makes the third major event aimed at improving Russia’s presence in Africa in the last year, after special African Focus at the 2018 St Petersburg Economic Forum and the Russia-SADC business forum that was held in February 2019 in Moscow. The Sochi summit is chaired by the Russian President Vladimir Putin himself and the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, with Egypt, together with Algeria, making up the lion’s share of Russia’s trade with Africa. Trade between Russia and sub-Saharan Africa jumped to $4.8bn in 2018 last year from $1.8bn in 2010. In 2018, Russia’s exports to sub-Saharan Africa totalled $3bn, while imports from sub-Saharan Africa came in at $1.7bn.
The Ministry of Justice has named Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption
Foundation (FBK) a “foreign agent” for receiving RUB140mn ($2.2mn) from
organizations in the US and Spain. Recall per the 2012 law on NGOs, a
foreign agent is an organization that engages in political activity in Russia
while receiving funding from foreign states, organizations, and people. There
are currently 71 foreign agents registered in Russia. What does the new
designation mean for FBK? Foreign agents are prohibited from participating in
Russian elections in any form. That said, individuals from FBK, such as
Navalny, Lyubov Sobol, and Ivan Zhdanov can still run for office as
independents. Where FBK will likely run into problems is in publishing
anti-corruption investigations during elections, coordinating opposition election
strategies such as “smart voting,” and dispersing election observers during
polling (in the 2018 presidential election, FBK had 33,000 election monitors
throughout Russia).
The Kremlin was discussing the creation of a Green Party and that new
climate change legislation had been drastically watered down. While
contradictory, this shouldn’t come as a surprise: the environment is a political
football in Russia and there is widespread scepticism about the risks of climate
change. Media outlet RBC reported on October 15 that the Kremlin is
discussing throwing its support behind a new Green Party. One reason behind
this is the uncertainty over the fate of the ruling party, United Russia, which
33 RUSSIA Country Report November 2019 www.intellinews.o