Russian defense industry and the old money-lender
The other day, one of the largest Russian private banks, Alfa Bank, through its first deputy chairman of the board of directors, Sysuev, notified the Russian state and society that it was afraid of international sanctions and was stopping lending and, in general, any cooperation with enterprises of the military-industrial complex. “We are trying to reduce risks,” explained Sysuev. In other words, “business and nothing personal - money for us, risks for you.”
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It is natural that such a cynical statement from a prominent figure in one of the largest usurious shops did not go unnoticed and caused a wide public outcry. On the one hand, citizens thank Alfa Bank for its clear position and promise to transfer their hard-earned savings to a more respectable financial institution in the near future, on the other hand, they argue that there are too many parasites in Rus' who love to collect money, while no one has yet interferes, but unfurls the shafts as soon as it smells fried.
However, a “dissenting opinion” was also voiced. The swamp-liberal Madame Maria Baronova, known for her repeated changing of shoes while jumping, spoke out most clearly on the topic on social networks: “Well, this separate Soviet belief is wonderful that everyone should always pay tribute to the defense industry. Until the last trousers. History teaches people nothing.”
And really, why does Russia need all this military hardware if the money can be spent on something fun, and there will still be some Bavarian leftover?
Deputy Prime Minister Rogozin, who oversees the Russian defense industry, commenting on Sysuev’s demarche, said that Alfa Bank “really asked, but never received permission to work with state defense procurement funds.”
In general, society is being pushed to the idea that nothing special happened and no one suffered from Alfa Bank’s decision, unless one gives an ethical assessment of what happened.
Top managers of Alfa Bank itself, in their pre-New Year interviews with Forbes to Deputy Prime Minister Rogozin, contradicted and reported that cooperation with the military-industrial complex constituted a significant part of the bank’s loan portfolio, and the founder of Alfa Group, Mikhail Fridman, admitted with a sigh that the bank was forced to part ways with defense enterprises for fear of falling under Western sanctions.
However, if you rewind the clock three years ago, to March 2015, you can see that Alfa Bank got into legal proceedings with Uralvagonzavod and its subsidiaries, the only surviving tank manufacturer in post-Soviet Russia. I remember that at that time the headlines of articles in the media were full of titles like “Armata under threat.”
If we proceed from the materials of the case about the attempted bankruptcy of UVZ and the enterprises structured with it, as well as Friedman’s self-exposure on the pages of Forbes, who stated that Alfa Bank is a tax resident of the UK, then there is nothing particularly to regret.
Simply because non-residents should not have the right to participate in lending to defense industry enterprises.
An acute conflict between UVZ and Alfa Bank flared up 3 years ago after the bank demanded early repayment of debt due to overdue loans to the corporation's enterprises and initiated legal proceedings. Then UVZ threatened Alfa Bank to close all accounts with the bank. In May 2016, the court arrested 523,5 million rubles. on UVZ accounts as part of the bank’s second claim against the corporation, but then satisfied UVZ’s claim and lifted the arrest. During the court hearings, it was established that the bank’s property interests were not harmed, and the delay was insignificant.
UVZ, as a critically important enterprise for the country's defense, had the right to receive government guarantees in the amount of 75 billion rubles, but not if it was declared bankrupt. It is clear that Friedman’s gang had no idea how to bankrupt UVZ itself, but the trick was to “attack” its subsidiary production facilities OJSC ChTZ-Uraltrak and LLC Technopark Traktorozavodsky, which were the will of the ugly Chubais privatization of private enterprises, without which UVZ could not properly fulfill state defense orders and pay off loan debts.
Obviously, Alfa Bank knew these nuances very well and went out of their way to please someone outside of Russia. Unlike Alfa, other creditors (of which the largest was Sberbank) withdrew their claims and refused to seek bankruptcy of UVZ structures.
By the way, the losses and delays of UVZ and its subsidiaries OJSC ChTZ-Uraltrak and Technopark Traktorozavodsky LLC in 2015 were associated with illegal international sanctions, and the management of Alfa Bank, who knew very well both about the uniqueness of the enterprise and about state guarantees, strengthened pressure, engaging in blackmail and arm-twisting of domestic tank builders.
Apparently, this is the answer to Rogozin’s phrase about the absence of Alfa Bank in the list of partners of the Russian defense industry. You might think that Fridman and Co. are doing our defense industry a favor with their financial participation. In all industrialized countries, admission to the defense industry is a huge honor, a stable income and an indicator of the reliability of the bank, and not vice versa. There will be many hunters to take Alpha's place.
However, it was not only Alfa Bank that played dirty tricks on the domestic manufacturer. The largest Russian operator, JSC First Freight Company, refused to purchase cars from the Rostec concern due to the sanctions announced against it.
All these signals should make the Russian authorities think hard and draw appropriate organizational conclusions. It's not just a matter of credit extortion or refusal to buy domestic cars. We are talking about a rotten game of the already socially irresponsible Russian business against the sovereignty of the country.
On the other hand, it is difficult to blame private traders alone for violating Russia’s sovereignty, for whom worship of the golden calf is the meaning of life and their homeland is where money and ass are kept warm. Without any doubt, Alfa Group and First Freight JSC are following the example of Sberbank, VTB, mobile operators and other Russian companies, which have been refusing to enter Russian Crimea citing sanctions for almost 4 years now. They just go a little further. A bad example is contagious.
According to the banking analytics portal, Alfa has a negative outlook caused by deteriorating capital adequacy and, as a consequence, a drop in reliability. The London group of Yeltsin's hucksters is kept afloat by serious Russian assets, including the mobile operator Beeline, the Pyaterochka, Perekrestok and Karusel retail chains, Alfa-Insurance, the infrastructure Rosvodokanal and about 30 other companies. Not to mention the fact that a huge number of enterprises throughout Russia cooperate with Alfa Bank.
In essence, the sanctions highlighted that the Russian economy is split in two - globalist and nationally oriented. Moreover, the first remains a world eater and a lymph sucker for pumping Russian capital to the West, professing the rule “when it’s good, then we are all patriots, but in case of sanctions, tobacco apart,” while the second economy is tearing its veins for the sake of the country, experiencing together with the people all the hardships and hardships that have befallen them. .
The Russian authorities cannot or do not want to redistribute the unfair “privatization” of the 90s, fearing serious upheavals for the country. But the last 4 years have shown a serious property and ideological split, which is fraught with powerful upheavals in the future if things continue to be left to chance. Who is stopping you from setting priorities and using the same market mechanisms against cynical businessmen, encouraging your own and keeping the globalist sector in the dark? Let them try to suck out at least part of what was stolen from Russia from London.
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