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Wednesday, October 1, 2014 B U S I N E S S & F I N A N C E The Moscow Times? 5 Sechin: Rosneft Doesn’t Want Bashneft Rosneft’s head blasts comparisons of Yevtushenkov to Khodorkovsky. By Delphine d’Amora [e-mail] Rosneft head Igor Sechin has rejected widespread comparisons between the case against billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov and an earlier case ending in the imprisonment of former oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky, saying Yevtushenkov, unlike Khodorkovsky, “doesn’t have blood on his hands.” “Yevtushenkov never eliminated his competitors, and that was a practice at Yukos [Khodorkovsky’s nowdefunct oil company],” Sechin said in an interview with Bloomberg published Tuesday. Yevtushenkov, the chairman and majority shareholder of oiltotelecoms conglomerate Sistema, was arrested earlier this month on charges of moneylaundering in the course of an investigation into Sistema’s acquisition of midsized oil producer Bashneft between 2005 and 2009. The events have evoked widespread comparison to the case against Khodorkovsky’s Yukos, then Russia’s largest oil producer, in the early 2000s. Yukos’ management was convicted of fraud in 2005 and its assets seized and sold off at state auctions, where they were then scooped up by rising state energy monopoly Rosneft. The Hague’s arbitration court ruled in July that Russia must pay out $50 billion in damages to the defunct oil giant’s shareholders. Khodorkovsky, who was released by a presidential pardon in December after serving more than a decade in prison, was among the first to accuse Sechin of ordering the case against Yevtushenkov in a bid to absorb Bashneft’s assets. Khodorkovsky accused Sechin of running Rosneft into the ground in an interview with RBC. The company’s oil production has fallen to its lowest levels since the purchase of TNKBP in 2013, Bloomberg reported, citing data from the Energy Ministry. “It’s important to [Sechin] that one person doesn’t notice [the decrease in production] — it’s clear who. And since [Russian President Vladimir Putin] isn’t Ruble Devaluation Pushes Retail Brands Out of Russia THE MOSCOW TIMES Pounded by the rapid slide of the ruble this year, the Russian outlets of clothing brands Esprit, OVS and River Island are closing their doors, business daily Vedomosti reported Tuesday. “The company is shutting down its operations,” a secretary at Maratex, the company that runs the three brands’ Russian franchises, told the paper. He did not specify the reasons for the closure. Maratex is 71 percent owned by Polish company EM&F Group. In addition to franchises of Esprit, River Island and OVS, Maratex also runs the Russian franchise of lingerie retailer Bodique. EM&F Group’s Russian business has been hit hard by the steady devaluation of the ruble and attendant rise in operating costs. Russia’s currency has fallen more that 20 percent against the dollar so far this year, and the slide shows no sign of ending. The group’s losses from currency conversions doubled in the first half of this year, reaching 6.9 million Polish zloty ($2.1 million), Vedomosti said, citing a copy of EM&F Group’s halfyear report. Earlier this year, EM&F Group announced plans to rid itself of certain clothing and shoe franchises due to “unsatisfactory results,” but did not specify which assets in particular it planned to shed. Other retailers have also pulled out of the market this year as the ruble sinks and uncertainty over Russia’s economic prospects shakes investors. Finnish retailer Stockmann recently announced plans to close 80 percent of its Seppala clothing retail stores in Russia. EM&F Group, Esprit, OVS and River Island did not respond to Vedomosti’s requests for comment. Russia and Iran Plan to Reject Dollar THE MOSCOW TIMES YEKATERINA KUZMINA / VEDOMOSTI Igor Sechin, head of state oil major Rosneft, standing before reporters at news conference in June last year. Russia and Iran plan on replacing the U.S. dollar with their national currencies for the settlement of bilateral trade transactions, Iran’s IRNA news agency reported. Announcing the plans at a meeting Tuesday in Tehran, Asadollah Asgaroladi, an Iranian business magnate and head of the IranRussia Joint Chamber of Commerce, said that use of national currencies would spur economic collaboration between the two countries. Asgaroladi was not the first Iranian politician to mention the plans. Following a meeting with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak earlier this month, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said that the two countries had agreed to conduct banking transactions in rials and rubles, IRNA reported. Russia has long been a proponent of reducing the dollar’s preeminence in international trade, a position that became top priority this year after Western sanctions over the crisis in Ukraine cut off Russian state banks and energy majors from U.S. and EU capital markets. Earlier this month, Russia and China agreed to settle more of their future bilateral trade using the ruble and yuan. very wellversed in such matters, it’s possible to use the absorption of Bashneft by Rosneft to conceal the breakdown of the parent company,” Khodorkovsky said. In the interview with Bloomberg, Sechin denied any past or current interest in purchasing Basheft. “The market has known about the skeletons in the closet for a long time. … I think that is precisely why we never considered buying this asset,” Sechin said. As for the claim that Khodorkovsky Among speakers RALF MEURER, Managing Director, The Economic Development Agency of Duisburg In program has “blood on his hands,” Sechin appears to be referencing claims that Yukos dabbled in murder to rid itself of unwanted competition. Partner Leonid Nevzlin was charged with conspiracy to commit murder in 2008 and found guilty in absentia, while the former company’s security chief, Alexei Puchugin, is serving time for multiple murder convictions. Both deny the charges. Khodorkovsky’s spokeswoman told Bloomberg that her client has never been charged with murder or conspiracy to commit murder. Ruble Dives To Record Low Point THE MOSCOW TIMES Russia’s currency dropped sharply Tuesday to new historic lows following a media report that the Central Bank was looking at the introduction of capital controls. Though the bank quickly denied that it planned to implement capital controls of any kind, the ruble fell to 39.71 against the dollar, its lowest level since the currency was restructured in 1998. The Central Bank’s currency basket dropped to 44.36, a hair’s breadth away from the point at which the regulator has said it will intervene on currency markets. By 9 pm the rate had recovered to 39.6 against the dollar. The sharp dive came after a report issued by Bloomberg news agency that quoted two unidentified officials saying that the Central Bank was discussing the implementation of restrictions on the free flow of money out of the country. Russia abolished capital controls eight years ago in a landmark reform, but capital outflow has ballooned this year on the back of international tension over Ukraine. The Economic Development Ministry has said that capital outflows could reach as much as $120 billion this year, the highest level since the 2008 financial crisis and a sum equal to 6 percent of Russia’s gross domestic product. Kremlin adviser Sergei Glazyev has suggested that Russia should introduce a tax on the export of capital in a bid to stem the flood of money leaving the country. ROUND TABLES AT THE XVII EXHIBITION EXPO REAL SUPPORTED BY THE MOSCOW CITY GOVERNMENT PROF. DR. DIETER REBITZER, HfWU Nurtingen Geisslingen ALEXANDER KRUSTALEV, Сhairman of the Board of Directors, NDV Group For additional information regarding registration, please contact Angela Kasumova Phone: [phone] (ext. 4267), [e-mail] WWW.EVENTS.MOSCOWTIMES.RU KONSTANTIN TIMOFEEV, Chairman of the Moscow City Committee for Investment Project Support and Participatory Construction Oversight Sponsor: 6 October, 10.30 – 12.00 HOW ARE THE GROWTH OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE REAL ESTATE SECTOR CONNECTED? 6 October, 12.15 – 14.00 DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ZONES IN METROPOLITAN AREAS: THE EXPERIENCE OF THE EUROPEAN CAPITALS AND FEASIBILITY IN MOSCOW SERGEY CHERYOMIN, Minister of the Moscow City Government, Head of the Department for External Economic and International Relations, Head of the Moscow City Government delegation advertising

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