Most companies with foreign capital are ready to continue working in Russia, but want to reduce the risks of doing business, Sergey Katyrin, President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI), told TASS on Tuesday following a meeting with representatives of foreign business associations.
“Foreign business associations noted that the majority of foreign companies are interested in continuing to work in Russia, but would like to ensure that risks for their activities are reduced. I would like to emphasize that Russia is not closed off from foreign capital and the world market and is ready to continue to take an active part in international economic relations,” he said.
He noted that the foreign business is very concerned about the introduction of amendments to Art. 201 of the Criminal Code, which supplements the offense of abuse of power with a new nature of offense – the execution of foreign sanctions. They are also concerned about a bill on the possibility of external management of foreign companies that have announced their withdrawal from the Russian market due to Western sanctions.
Also, fears of foreign companies “are caused by work within the framework of decisions on parallel imports,” Katyrin said. In particular, the possibility of making changes, according to which a number of product groups can be imported into the Russian Federation without the consent of the copyright holders.
“Following the results of the meeting, we agreed to continue close cooperation and hold such meetings on a regular basis. Foreign business associations will prepare their proposals and comments on draft laws that cause their concern, after which the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry will discuss further joint actions,” Katyrin said.
