The Kremlin’s grip on the Russian private sector continues to strengthen, as the war in Ukraine lasts and weighs more and more in the accounts of the State. Already, Vladimir Putin had announced “special measures in the economic sphere” to support the war effort. From now on, it is a question of asking for a “single contribution” – presented as “voluntary” -, from companies in order to fill the coffers of the federal budget. Discussions are underway with Russian employers who should have little leeway to refuse this invitation to pay.
In Russia, the role of the state is omnipotent, in addition to a large parallel economy centralized around power in Moscow. As early as March, Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party also proposed to nationalize foreign companies that abandoned their subsidiaries and ceased their activities following the start of the “special operation”.
Also, the Kremlin asked private companies to speed up the production of equipment for its troops, wrote the Wall Street Journal early December. In addition to encouraging the creation of private armed militias to protect Russian interests and carry out a “hybrid war” (Wagner, Task Force Rusich, and other private military companies, the PMCs).
If growth is still expected in 2023 and 2024 in Russia, it remains nonetheless fragile and the cost of the war is likely to be exponential. The share of companies is therefore essential:
“We expect (this contribution) to be around 300 billion rubles”, or 3.8 billion euros at the current exchange rate, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in an interview on Friday. on the Rossiya-24 TV channel.
Take in the profits
The Minister did not wish to detail the exact mechanism that will be put in place, arguing that it was still “ in discussion with companies “, but he noted that such a contribution ” fund government programs “in the face of” rising expenses.
According to the Russian press, only companies benefiting in 2022 would be affected by this “one-time voluntary contribution”.
Mr. Silouanov only indicated that small businesses, and those in the gas and oil sectors, will not be targeted by such a measure, for which he said he hoped for a final decision “ in the near future “.
Last week, Andreï Belooussov, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, had justified such a project by “ very good financial results of certain companies in 2022.
Russian employers prefer a tax on profits
The Russian employers (RSPP) has however already declared itself once morest the mechanism envisaged, saying it is rather in favor of an increase in the tax on profits by 0.5 point to 20.5%.
In any case, Moscow is looking for new income, while its oil revenues are plummeting. In its annual budget, Russia includes an assumption of 70 dollars per barrel of oil exported. However, the average price of Urals – the benchmark crude in the country – was just under $50 in January 2023, according to the Ministry of Finance.
A bill submitted to the Duma, the Russian Parliament, must also ratify the establishment of a limitation of the rebates granted by Russian oil companies, whose crude and refined products are subject to an embargo and a cap on prices by the EU and the G7.
Beyond this contribution, other means will be put in place to make up for this deficit: the Central Bank will draw on its yuan reserves to the tune of 160 billion rubles (2 billion euros). The Kremlin is also considering tapping into its National Welfare Fund, as it has done in the past.
ZOOM – The Auchan group accused of supporting the Russian war effort in Ukraine, the French distributor reacts
The French distribution chain Auchan is once more targeted by Ukraine: kyiv accused it on Friday of being ” a full-fledged weapon of Russian aggression “, following the publication of a survey of the daily The world that the group had contributed to Moscow’s war effort.
“Auchan has turned into a full-fledged weapon of Russian aggression. I intend to discuss it with my French counterpart” Minister Catherine Colonna, declared on Twitter the head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba.
A year earlier, Mr. Kouleba had already called for a boycott of Auchan which, like Leroy Merlin, another commercial brand belonging to the Mulliez family galaxy, had decided to stay in Russia despite the invasion of Ukraine. by Russian troops, unlike many other groups.
Auchan has a long-standing presence in Ukraine and Russia. As of June 30, 2022, it operated, according to its financial documentation, 230 stores in Russia and 42 in Ukraine, specifying that these two countries had generated, the previous year, “around 12% of the group’s turnover”, i.e. nearly of 3.6 billion euros.
According to documents obtained by Le Monde, the investigation site The Insider and the NGO Bellingcat, a collection of products intended for Vladimir Putin’s army, worth a total of 2 million rubles (around 25,000 euros), was organized within the Russian subsidiary of Auchan.
The investigation cites an anonymous source who said that this load would have been offered free of charge by Auchan.
According to Le Monde, a management controller, Natalya Z., had drawn up a list of equipment on March 15, 2022 in an email sent “to regarding twenty employees in several stores in Saint Petersburg, in western Russia, with the aim of + collecting donations for humanitarian aid +”.
The list included “thousands of cigarettes, size 43 or 44 woolen socks, gas stove cartridges, canned pork stew, axes and nails, all from the store’s stock”continues the daily.
“We are very surprised”the group’s management reacted to AFP on Friday following the publication of the survey by Monde. “We are in the process of verifying the asserted elements, but, to date, the elements in our possession do not corroborate” this investigation, she continued.
“We do not finance or participate voluntarily and actively in any collection intended for the Russian forces”she assured.
(With AFP)
