SOVEREIGN ECONOMY: TOP EVENTS OF THE WEEK
16/06/2023, 11:00
The 26th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) is taking place from June 14 to 17 this year. The main topic of SPIEF in 2023 is "sovereign development as the basis for a fair world." The general course of the Kremlin towards political and economic isolationism and the rejection of global rules is reflected in the title itself.
The First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Government, Andrey Belousov, stated that the business should become a junior partner of the state. He made such a statement as part of the "SPIEF Club" project in his interview with Russian TV channels. He cited the windfall tax as an example of such a partnership, which is quite indicative from the point of view of the designated subordination of the parties – the Kremlin dragged the Russian Federation into a military adventure, and the financial burden of the war was redistributed to business.
The trade surplus of the Russian Federation decreased 3.1 times in January-April. According to the Bank of Russia, the positive balance of foreign trade of the Russian Federation, determined by the methodology of the balance of payments, amounted to $36.419 billion in January-April 2023, which is 68%, or 3.1 times less than for the same period in 2022. The reduction in the trade balance surplus was caused by complex sanction pressure, leading to a decrease in physical volumes of supplies and global prices for major Russian export goods, as well as an increase in the import of goods.
Russian "AvtoVAZ" is hiring prisoners due to a shortage of specialists in the country. According to Reuters, Russia's largest car manufacturer "AvtoVAZ" has approached the regional Penal Enforcement Service with a request to help them to fill in the labour shortage.
More than 930 entrepreneurs are in Russian pre-trial detention centres. The authorised representative of the President of the Russian Federation for the protection of the rights of entrepreneurs, Boris Titov, reported that the most common article of the Criminal Code, under which entrepreneurs are prosecuted, - is fraud allegation (more than 80% of all criminal cases).
