This measure is a preventive response to the possible freezing of domestic assets abroad
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that prohibits investors from enemy countries from conducting transactions with shares of all strategic enterprises and joint-stock companies , their “daughters”, as well as with shares in the Sakhalin-1 projects and the Kharyaginskoye field. The document will last until the end of this year, but can be extended if necessary. In fact, according to experts, it is a response to threats of nationalization of the assets of domestic oil and gas companies. jpg” />
On Friday, August 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree banning investors from enemy countries from doing business with domestic strategic enterprises, their shares and subsidiaries. The document also covers transactions with shares of users of all major deposits of oil, gas and coal (at least 20 million tons of oil, at least 20 billion cubic meters of gas or at least 35 million tons of coal), uranium, high-purity quartz raw materials, rare earths of the yttria group, nickel , cobalt, tantalum, niobium, beryllium, copper, diamonds, gold, lithium, platinum group metals as well as offshore and offshore bedrock.
Now transactions with such shares will be possible only on the basis of special permission of the main states. The document enters into force on the day of its official publication. At the same time, the period of validity of the restrictions can be extended.
According to experts, the president's decision to freeze foreign assets in Russia is a protective measure designed to protect the interests of Russian companies in case of expropriation/nationalization of Russian assets abroad.
Such plans were repeatedly written about in foreign media with reference to the first persons of the states. On April 4, the German authorities took Gazprom Germania under temporary control. The head of the department, Robert Habek, justified the decision with non-transparent legal relations of the company and violation of registration rules. They renamed the company SEFE Securing Energy for Europe, explaining that they intend to guarantee the energy security of Germany and Europe. In July, the German cabinet approved a law allowing the government to acquire a stake in the group. And already at the end of May, the Austrian authorities followed the example of the Germans. Chancellor Karl Nehammer said Gazprom would lose the republic's largest gas storage facility in Austria's Haidach if the Russian company did not fill it with gas. Earlier in May, in an interview with the Austrian media, he threatened to take it away from Gazprom if it was not filled with blue fuel and transfer it to another supplier.
Rosneft's share in the RSK refinery in the German city of Schwedt can also affect the fate of the forced nationalization. Now the Russian oil and gas company owns 54.17% in the refinery through Rosněft Deutschland. Since March, talks about the nationalization/expropriation of the domestic part of the plant have not stopped in Germany. PCK Raffinerie Schwedt is located near the border with Poland and is regionally important for the whole of East Germany and the country's capital, providing jobs to more than a thousand people and consumers of gasoline, diesel, jet kerosene and other diesel products. The oil in the refinery comes from Russia via the Druzhba pipeline. It is the fact that there is no alternative to the supply of Russian oil to RGC and the fear of fuel shortages in the region in the event of the rejection of oil from the Russian Federation that does not allow the German authorities to decide on nationalization. plants.
Nevertheless, in April, German Deputy Prime Minister Robert Habek spoke about the possible expropriation of RSK. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in May that he does not rule out the nationalization of Rosneft's stake in RSK with subsequent transfer to another owner. In addition, the authorities of the federal state of Brandenburg, where the plant is located, insist on a new shareholder structure. At the end of May, the Bundesrat approved an amendment to the German Energy Security Act, which provides for the possibility of nationalizing energy companies in exceptional situations.
Against the background of these serious threats, the Russian government adopted a new decree. In response, the country's leadership should protect oil and gas companies. In this regard, it is important to emphasize that the Russian authorities do not plan to take away shares in domestic enterprises owned by foreign companies. They do not prohibit foreign partners from working and earning in Russia. The decree to freeze their assets is a kind of risk assurance and protection of the interests of the Russian Federation.
The current presidential decree imposes restrictions on the activities of foreign companies in PSA projects, but foreign partners do not lose their property, Aleksey Grivach, deputy director general of the National Fund for Energy Security, emphasized in his commentary for Vedomosti. According to the expert, it is not about the nationalization of enterprises, but about the protection of Russian energy security. As an example, the expert cited the situation with the Sakhalin-1 project, when ExxonMobil unilaterally began to limit production, which had the most negative consequences for Sakhalin and the Far East as a whole. “This decision is largely reciprocal, the task of the decree is to ensure the further activity of PSA projects, to prevent their limitation,” the expert emphasized. , that foreigners will somehow freeze Russian assets abroad. At the same time, the production sharing contract is enshrined in the federal law, which no one has canceled, this regime is still valid. There is no need to talk about new foreign investors yet, but hopefully this will give them time to think. The geopolitical situation may change and they will understand that Russian assets are not so bad, they are profitable assets. Maybe they won't want to leave after this moratorium. This will provide a respite for the Russian side as well,” financier Sergey Suverov commented on RBC TV.
Note that the decree also imposes a ban on transactions with shares of Russian banks. The list of these financial and credit organizations will be prepared by the Cabinet of Ministers and the Central Bank.