Page 2 - bne Magazine August 2022

2 I Contents bne August 2022
Senior editorial board
Ben Aris
editor-in-chief & publisher I Berlin +49 17664016602 I baris@bne.eu
Clare Nuttall
news editor I Glasgow
+44 7766 513641 I cnuttall@bne.eu
William Conroy
editor Eurasia & SE Europe I Prague
+420 774 849 172 I wconroy@intellinews.com
———
Subscriptions
Stephen Vanson
London I +44 753 529 6546 svanson@intellinews.com
———
Advertising
Elena Arbuzova
business development director I Moscow +7 9160015510 I earbuzova@bne.eu
———
Design
Olga Gusarova
art director I London
+44 7738783240 I ogusarova@bne.eu
Please direct comments, letters, press releases and other editorial enquires to editor@bne.eu
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced to any retrival system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or other means of transmission, without express written permission of the publisher. The opinions or recommendations are not necessar- ily those of the publisher or contributing authors, including the submissions to bne by third parties. No liability can be attached to the publisher for these comments, nor for inaccuracies, errors
or omissions. Investment decisions or related actions taken on the basis of views or opinions that appear herein are the responsibility of the reader and the publisher, contributors and related parties cannot be held liable for these actions.
bne Intellinews is published by Emerging Markets Direct OU
Print issue:
£4.50/$6.75/€5.90 . €499/year
Follow us on twitter.com/bneintellinews
COMPANIES & MARKETS
4 FDI in CEE: It’s about Russia, inflation and populism
6 Hungarian government declares energy state of emergency, tightens utility price cap rules
7 PPF group confirms plans to sell Chinese operations
8 Kremlin reminds Nur-Sultan who’s boss over Kazakh oil exports
9 Uzbekistan creating gas processing industry to feed soaring domestic demand
12 Russian freight train arrives in Iran, marking new trade corridor milestone
12 Kyrgyzstan preps mining project with China in mind
14 The West approves badly needed budgetary support for Ukraine, but delays dog distribution of funds
15 Ukraine’s Akhmetov transfers media licences to the state, saying “I am not an oligarch”
17 Kremlin VTB bank to be hit by investor class action for seizing foreign shares
18 Tourists stay away from Montenegro as prices rival Cote d’Azur
19 Bucharest office blocks
being turned into hospitals to accommodate booming private medical sector
20 Belarus defaults on its Eurobond payments
20 Belarus will make its Eurobond payments in Belarusian rubles
21 New Putin decree could force foreign stakeholders out of Sakhalin-2 gas project
22 Fitch cuts Turkey to five notches below investment grade
23 VK set to become Russia’s tech leader as IT crisis shakes up sector
25 Serbia’s strong tech sector growth defies brain drain
30 Has green energy had its day?
33 Water imbalance in 'Third Pole' is wreaking havoc on Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan
COVER FEATURE
34 Russia woos Africa with arms, grain and nuclear power
20
14
30
Sign up to FREE electronic version of bne monthly magazine OR buy a print subscription at
bne.eu/subscribe