Russian President Orders Probe into State Firms including Rusnano
President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday ordered Prosecutor General Yury Chaika and the head of the Kremlin’s oversight department, Konstantin Chuichenko, to open an investigation into state corporations including the nanotechnology giant "Rusnano", in a sign of growing skepticism over the institutions’ role in the economy.
Conglomerate Russian Technologies, nanotechnology giant Rusnano, Olympic construction firm Olimpstroi, state lender Vneshekonombank, nuclear conglomerate Rosatom, the Housing Maintenance Fund and the Deposit Insurance Agency are all classified as state corporations.
State corporations have come under fire from influential quarters since they were created in 2007. Presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin have spoken out against state corporations, saying they hamper growth.
In March, Medvedev’s legal council on civil law said the special legal status accorded to state corporations was unnecessary and suggested that they operate under the same laws as private businesses. Shortly afterward, Medvedev fired a broadside against Rusnano, criticizing its state corporation model and saying it would hamper innovation.
The prosecutor general was chosen to perform the investigation. “Usually, such checks are performed after a signal that the law is not being followed in a particular company, while the rest were tacked on to avoid singling out just one,” said Anton Kostenko, a partner at Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners, which works with state corporations, adding that the Prosecutor General’s Office has the broadest authority to conduct investigations.
Source: St. Petersburg Times