In Russia, Corporate Raiders Can Be Cops

choi

James Marson and Thomas Grove, In Russia, Corporate Raiders Can Be Cops; Security officials and political heavyweights squeeze companies, critics say. Wall Street Journal, Aug 8, 2018.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/in- ... ten-cops-1533634200

Quote:

(a) "ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia—A businessman recently played colleagues here a short video to demonstrate what ails Russia’s economy: It showed masked police bursting into an office in Siberia wielding rifles and sledgehammers.

"Russian companies routinely face harassment from law-enforcement officials seeking to extort money or expropriate businesses, according to business owners, lawyers and activists. One in six Russian business owners is facing criminal prosecution, according to Aleksandr Khurudzhi, who works for an agency the Kremlin set up in 2012 to help entrepreneurs.

" 'It's a cancer for the economy,' said Mr. Khurudzhi, who was detained in 2015 for nine months on fraud charges related to his firm before being released and later acquitted in court.

(b) "In an address earlier this year, Mr. Putin repeated promises to boost small and medium-size businesses’ contribution to gross domestic product to 40% by the mid-2020s, up from 25% now but still lower than in many developed countries. * * *

"But Mr. Putin’s authoritarian rule relies on security officials and political heavyweights who use their authority not only to squash political opponents but also to squeeze companies for payoffs, seize them on behalf of rivals or take them over for themselves, critics say.

My comment: The report is available to the public (not locked behind paywall), but there is  no need to read the rest (the quotations are the essence).