Russia’s richest businessman warned the Kremlin against confiscating assets from companies that fled after the Ukraine invasion, saying such a move would set the country back more than 100 years.
Vladimir Potaninchairman of metals giant Norilsk Nickel and its biggest shareholder, said Russia risks returning to the tumultuous days of the 1917 Revolution if it closes its doors to Western companies and investors.
He advised the Russian government to proceed with extreme caution regarding the seizure of assets.
“Firstly, it would take us back a hundred years, to 1917, and the consequences of such a step — global investor mistrust of Russia — we would experience for many decades,” he said in a message posted to Norilsk Nickel’s Telegram account at Thursday (9).
“Secondly, the decision of many companies to suspend operations in Russia is, I would say, somewhat emotional in nature and may have been taken as a result of unprecedented pressure from public opinion abroad. They will probably come back and personally I would keep that opportunity open.”
Potanin is Russia’s richest billionaire and is still worth about $22.5 billion, according to Bloomberg, despite having lost about a quarter of his fortune this year as Norilsk Nickel shares slumped.
The company’s shares lost more than 90% in London trading before being suspended this month despite rising commodity prices.
Norilsk Nickel is the world’s largest producer of high quality palladium and nickel, as well as a major producer of platinum and copper.
The company and its primary products escaped punitive sanctions imposed by Western countries that hit the Russian economy.
Dozens of American, European and Japanese companies have abandoned joint venturesfactories, shops, offices and other assets over the past two weeks in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and sanctions.
They joined Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan on Thursday, the first major Western banks to announce they will leave Russia altogether since the crisis erupted in February.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that he supports a plan to introduce “external management” of foreign companies leaving Russia.
“We need to act decisively with those [empresas] that will end their production,” Putin said according to a video posted by the Kremlin and aired on state media. “It is therefore necessary… to introduce external management and then transfer these enterprises to those who want to work”, he added.
Potanin said it was not particularly convenient to talk about nationalizing Western assets, but the Kremlin’s proposal could allow “owners to hold property and businesses to avoid collapse, continue to produce products and pay employees money.”
“I understand that, in light of the economic restrictions directed against Russia, there may be an understandable desire to act symmetrically,” he wrote.
“But in the example of Western countries, we see that the economies of these countries suffer from the imposition of sanctions against Russia. We must be wiser and avoid a scenario where retaliatory sanctions hit us.”
He also called on Russia to ease restrictions on foreign currency so that interest can be paid on foreign bonds and loans. Otherwise, there was a risk that the country would default on all of its foreign debt, which he estimated at around US$480 billion.
Source: CNN Brasil
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