Page 17 - RusRPTDec19

2.10 ​Politics - misc
Leading Russian fund Baring Vostok has cancelled plans to raise a sixth fund ​that could have been worth $1.3bn, as five of its senior managers face fraud changes and three of them languish in prison, the fund announced on November 21. The fund has suspended plans to raise a new fund because international institutional investors are concerned about “contradictions in Russian and international arbitration law ” and the uncertainty regarding the protection of their rights, the fund’s press service told The Bell. Instead, Baring Vostok will focus on further investing in its fifth fund, selective investments from the fund’s team and Russian co-investors, and managing its current asset portfolio, the press service added. The press service didn't specify how much it hoped to raise for the sixth fund, but the previous fund had raised $1.3bn.
The Kremlin appears to be forgoing its annual autumn wave of gubernatorial “resignations” this year.​ A Kremlin insider told Vedomosti at the end of October that there likely would not be a round of resignations this fall, although one or two governors may leave in November and December. His reasoning? The heads of Russia’s regions “need to prepare for winter”— an undertaking they apparently did not face in previous years! In the past three years, the Kremlin has replaced 48 governors: 20 in both 2017 and 2018, and 8 earlier this year. This is a much faster replacement rate than in 2005-16, when on average 10.2 governors left per year. While the wave of resignations has satisfied society’s demand for new faces, it also leads the public to demand change at the federal level, experts at the Petersburg Politics Foundation say. This may be contributing to the Kremlin’s pause.
The Russian parliament passed a new ‘foreign agent’ bill November 18 that means the derogative Soviet-era label can now be applied to
17​ RUSSIA Country Report​ December 2019 ​ ​www.intellinews.com