The Government of the Russian Federation decided to impose restrictions on the exit of foreign investors from Russian assets

The Russian government has prepared a draft decree of the President of the Russian Federation on the introduction of temporary restrictions on the withdrawal of foreign business from Russian assets. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced this today.

According to him, Russia will continue to consider foreign business as potential partners and is ready for dialogue with constructive investors. However, the head of the Cabinet pointed out, “in the current sanctions situation, foreign entrepreneurs are forced not to be guided by economic factors, but to make decisions under political pressure,” Mishustin complains.

In his opinion, “those who will not curtail their projects in our country, succumbing to the slogans of foreign politicians, will win.”

At the same time, the prime minister hinted, “in order to give businesses the opportunity to make an informed decision, a draft presidential decree has been prepared to introduce temporary restrictions on exiting Russian assets.”

In general, the head of government is confident that “sanction pressure will eventually subside.” “As practice shows, exiting the market is easy, but returning to a place that is already tightly occupied by competitors is much more difficult,” he added.

Recall, on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin made an emergency appeal to the Russians and announced a special military operation in the Donbass. In his speech, he stated that “circumstances require decisive action from Russia” and stressed that “Russia will not allow Ukraine to have nuclear weapons.”

In response to Russia’s actions, Western countries (USA, Canada, European Union, Great Britain, Japan) announced new, tougher sanctions against the Russian Federation, including financial and economic ones.

In particular, Russian banks fell under the sanctions, including Sberbank, VTB, Novikombank, FC Otkritie and Sovcombank, and for a number of state-owned companies it was difficult to attract foreign capital.

Later, the EU countries and the United States agreed to disconnect Russian banks that fell under sanctions from the international system of interbank transactions and information exchange SWIFT. In addition, it was decided to freeze the assets of the Bank of Russia, which will create difficulties for its use of international reserves. EU countries also pledged to take steps to limit the sale of citizenship — the so-called “golden passports” that allow wealthy Russians connected to the Russian government to become citizens of EU states and gain access to their financial systems.

You can follow the chronicle of events around Ukraine on March 1 here.