Russia's government finally abandoned the idea of compulsory transfer of companies from offshore to domestic jurisdiction, according to a source familiar with the corresponding report of First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to the source, the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Finance prepared a draft government resolution on the approval of the criteria for determining the backbone organizations of the Russian economy and their subsidiaries, which must necessarily be under the Russian jurisdiction, but subsequently it was denied, Interfax reported.
The result of public consultations was the conclusion that the use of coercive measures to transfer a wide range of backbone organizations to Russia would create significant risks for the country's economy as a whole.
Professor of the RANEPA faculty of Finance, Money Circulation and Credit, Yuri Yudenkov, speaking with Vestnik Kavkaza, said that the abolition of forced deoffshorization, in fact, represents a step backward in the governmental control over the means of state corporations.
"The risks that arise when accounts in offshore banks are closed are not comparable with the risks when this money run out of state control, so I believe that the government unleashes the hands of large corporations in making money," he explained.
According to the expert, Russian companies that have offshore funds, and, accordingly, the state are very much at risk. "Tomorrow the United States may order Cyprus or Greece, a member of NATO, to block all Russian accounts, and all offshore zones will be blocked," the analyst warned.
Yudenkov recalled that the matter concerns state corporations, which are simply obliged to fulfill the requirements of the government.
