Putin's Russia: Business for Dummies

Opinion

Barry Artiste

For the ordinary Russian Business having a "Roof" is a common price for doing business, whereby payments are made on a regular business to protect your business.  But when your Roof is the Ex President of Russia, perhaps your payments may not be as lucrative when a more larger slice of your entire company can be had by someone who controls not only your company, but your life, your friends lives, etc, Etc, ETC.....

My time in Russia was a wonderful experince, the culture, the history and the wonderful people, a people, who know what it is to go without, and perhaps takes exception to the instant Billionaires, who they feel took over their countries assets, during the sell off after communism.  Perhaps very little sympathy will be given to those now charged with criminal raping of a countries assets. Guilt certainly takes a backseat to the accused when those Russians who had Nothing, now perhaps have at least something, but want a more Western Lifesyle, many see in the cinema, not realizing many of us at home have the same unrealistic dreams.

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/francis/archive/2008/08/25/putin-s-russia-off-limits-to-business.aspx

Putin's Russia: business for dummies

Posted: August 25, 2008, 4:43 PM by Diane Francis

Greed, Canadian Politics, Russia, U.S. Politics

(Photo Inset) Russia Inc.'s board of directors: Vlad Putin and fake President Dmitri Medvedev Robert Amsterdam is an outspoken lawyer who defended Mikhail Khodorovsky, the jailed oil oligarch in Russia who last week lost his bid for parole.

Amsterdam (Amsterdam & Peroff in Toronto) warns that Canadian corporations, like Magna International or Petro-Canada, which do business in Russia or with Russian entities are endangering their shareholders by so doing.

He argued, as I have, in favor of a ban preventing Russians from owning Canadian entities or assets until Moscow demonstrates that foreigners are protected in its country.

Examples are commonplace. Yesterday, Moscow officially sanctioned Robert Dudley, British CEO of a Russian-BP partnership, after driving him out of the country on trumped-up charges.

Dudley, an experienced oil executive, has gone into hiding. More nasty surprises for business Two weeks ago, another strategy surfaced when Prime Minister Vladimir Putin verbally attacked Moscow-listed coal giant, Meschel Co., twice and shaved about $6 billion off its stock market value, said Amsterdam.

“Putin’s attack drove the stock down then another set of comments drove it down further which is very important for foreign investors to understand.

There is a confiscatory attitude, called corporate raiding, a willingness for the state to literally raid companies. Not only the state but people who have connections to the state,” he said.