Russia Reform Monitor: No. 1747

September 9:

The Kremlin has announced plans to sell 15 percent of its biggest oil producer and 10 percent of its second-biggest lender in order to raise state revenues. According to Bloomberg, Russian officials are hoping the sales will raise some $10 billion next year, as part of a larger goal of raising 1.16 trillion rubles from state asset sales between 2012 and 2014. Future assets to be sold include energy shipper Sovcomflot, OAO Federal Grid Co. and RusHydro, as well as oil titan Transneft, Russian Railways, United Grain Co., and numerous others.


September 11:

Britain’s Prime Minister, David Cameron, is making the first official British state visit to Russia in five years. Relations between the two countries have been strained since the poisoning murder of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 - a crime that is commonly suspected of having been orchestrated by the Kremlin and carried out by its security services. But now, the Associated Press reports, the British government is attempting to reconcile with the Kremlin as part of an attempt to jumpstart Britain’s stagnant economy through the pursuit of emerging markets. In recent weeks, Cameron has made similar trips to both India and China.


September 13:

Russia’s Finance Minister, Alexei Kudrin, has guaranteed reforms after the country’s upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections. Kudrin’s comments, Reuters reports, were intended to reassure investors wary of next year’s polls - since many fear that Vladimir Putin’s potential return to the presidency could lead to economic stagnation. “I believe the next prime minister will without doubt have a certain amount of credit for carrying out reforms,” said Kudrin. “How much, more or less, will depend on many things including the elections results.” He likewise emphasized privatization and the protection of property rights, as well as the division of power within the government and the continuing development of the country’s financial sector.


September 14:

The Los Angeles Times reports that Mikhail Prokhorov, one of Russia’s richest men and the owner of the New Jersey Nets, has announced his intention to leave big business in order to head the struggling Just Cause party. Calling the Kremlin “hostile to its own people,” Prokorov has already taken the party from near-zero popularity ratings to a point approaching the seven percent threshold required for entrance to the State Duma.

Many Russians, however, aren’t buying the tycoon’s sudden interest in national politics. “There is no doubt that Prokhorov readily executes the Kremlin order to fill the liberal niche in the stagnated Russian political spectrum,” one Russian think tank expert has opined. “He has been chosen by the Kremlin to play the role of a clown to make the election period amusing,” a senior researcher with the Moscow Carnegie Center has said. “But he is not a funny clown.”

Russia’s Central Elections Committee has insisted that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) lower the number of members in its observer mission for the country’s upcoming Duma elections. According to the Moscow Times, the European election watchdog had proposed a 260-member mission, a significant decrease from the 460 total members involved with its last mission to Russia in 2003. The organization chose to cancel its missions to Russia in 2007 and 2008, citing extreme limitations by the Kremlin, but there are hopes a deal can be reached in time to let 60 long-term observers into the country by November 1st. There are 95,000 polling stations spread across Russia, making monitoring difficult even if the committee’s proposal is eventually accepted.