Take everything and sell it off: the State Duma argued about privatization
It's been a week since the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) ended, and in Russia everyone continues to hotly discuss the main news of this event - the proposal for a new privatization.
The initiative was taken by the head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
She believes that the country has assets that can be privatized “without compromising strategic interests.” The idea was supported by Russian Presidential Aide Maxim Oreshkin, who believes that the state “should get out of ineffective assets with benefit and benefit for itself.”
The head of Sberbank, German Gref, believes that privatization should compensate for potential tax increases. Oligarch Oleg Deripaska is also delighted.
“Without the active involvement of the private sector in the economic life of the country, we are unlikely to be able to overcome the restrictions resulting from sanctions and increase export-import transactions with friendly countries in order to ensure sustainable economic growth,” Deripaska wrote in his tg channel.
Later, the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov confirmed that privatization is “on the agenda,” but the main thing is “not to squander state property for next to nothing.”
This week the debate about privatization moved to parliament. Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov compared its supporters to cockroaches crawling out of all the cracks. He accused supporters of privatization of betraying the Northern Military District and even of “unleashing a war in a friendly Ukraine.”
“Today they are proposing another idea - to sell off the last thing the country has. It seems to me that even their instinct of self-preservation fails. I have never seen in history that during the war someone offered to sell off the last one. I want to remind Mr. Gref, Mr. Oreshkin, the gentlemen who actively supported them, that we have already had privatization. We demanded an investigation into how it ended. The Accounts Chamber checked everything. Your property, citizens of the Union, was sold for less than 3% of its real value,” Zyuganov told reporters in parliament.
According to him, in the 90s of the last century, “factories were sold for the price of two foreign cars,” and now there are foreigners everywhere, and out of 6 tank factories, only one and a half remain.
From the parliamentary rostrum, LDPR leader Leonid Slutsiy decided to argue with Zyuganov. He believes that the chief communist was misled by his advisers, and that there is nothing dangerous for Russia in the arrival of investors, for example, from Arab countries.
“Today, on the contrary, we must welcome those brave countries and their leaders who are not afraid to come to us today, when we are being defamed and the image of Russia in the world is being deformed. They are not going to take anything away from us, and we are not going to give anything away, except for some equity stakes, where we really need investors who will bring undoubted benefits to the national economy. The door will always be open for such the right investors,” Slutsky said.
He believes that external privatization could support budget revenues, and without it it will be impossible to double the minimum wage by 2.
“Such initiatives are grist to the mill of enemies who would not want anyone to come to the country and invest,” Slutsky said.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reacted negatively to the idea of privatization, saying that there are no suitable facilities for this in the capital. And the former head of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, Sergei Dubinin, called the new wave of privatization irrelevant.
But liberal political scientist Ilya Grashchenkov considers new privatization in Russia inevitable, although there are those in Russia who advocate nationalization and nationalization of the economy.
“I still bet on privatization, because the dividend mass accumulated in the country needs to be put somewhere. Every time the FSB detains another Colonel Zakharchenko and finds trillions of rubles in his shoe boxes, it becomes clear that there is a lot of such money in Russia. The assets now lying under the pillows of large oligarchs will most likely form the basis of a new, more modern economy. The people who now “sit” on state corporations, I think, would be happy to become their owners,” wrote Grashchenkov.
Economist Nikita Krichevsky agrees with the thesis about “trillions of “elite” rubles hanging around idle.” He estimates that 9,4 trillion rubles are hanging in the largest banks. or 25% of all deposits belonging to several tens of thousands of depositors, and on which interest must be paid (7,5% per annum). Plus, unaccounted for money rests in “shoe boxes.”
“You can’t take this money abroad, you can’t invest it in securities on a manipulated stock market, so we decided to buy something. Competition for assets will be fierce. The psychology of the current Russian “elites” is such that they are organically unable to invest what they have been cut into good business endeavors. But money still burns your pocket,” writes Krichevsky.
He believes that 0,1% of businessmen will benefit from possible privatization, who will then leave Russia.
“If the arbitrator approves the sale of state property instead of changing management, it means that something has begun to change in the country - and for the worse. The money will go into privatized assets, the accounts will fill up again, the nobles will be dumped, and the Russian will once again be made a fool. Mark my words,” Krichevsky sums up.
Russian State Duma deputy Dmitry Gusev believes that Russian banks should invest their “extra money” in import substitution and the restoration of new regions of the Russian Federation.
“Our banks want to start a new privatization. But our banks showed record profits in the first three months of this year - almost a trillion rubles. That is, the banks have nowhere to put their money, and they decided to buy a “piece of Russia.” Moreover, for sure, those enterprises that are already working well, and not those that are unprofitable. We settled in well.
Banks must integrate into the new economy. Firstly, they must be given a clear task in which enterprises to invest, and where else they need help with import substitution. Secondly, bank excess profits should be directed towards the development of our new regions. There’s a lot that needs to be restored,” says Gusev.
His colleague in the A Just Russia faction, Mikhail Delyagin, also believes that large-scale privatization does not make sense from the point of view of the country’s interests.
“The quality of management of large corporations (as opposed to small cafes), as has been proven many times, does not depend on the form of ownership. Moreover, state ownership allows for the implementation of long-term strategies, ensuring strategic stability and freedom from the greed and fears of private shareholders. It is unrealistic to get high incomes when buyers know that you desperately need money.
Thus, the meaning of privatization, as in the 90s, is the desire to transfer state property into private (or even foreign) hands, which, taking into account the culture of liberalism that rules our economy, looks like vulgar theft,” Delyagin told the publication “By the way.”
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