Medvedev Attacks 'Selfish' Banks
Medvedev appeared to be firing a warning shot at the country's largest private lender, Alfa Bank, though he didn't name any companies. The bank, controlled by billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Pyotr Aven, is locked in a legal battle over loans with companies that are part of Basic Element, billionaire Oleg Deripaska's holding vehicle.
"We can't sacrifice the future of entire enterprises and the employment of many thousands of workers to satisfy the ambitions of individual lending institutions," Medvedev said in a meeting with First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov at his Gorki residence outside Moscow. "It's time to end corporate selfishness."
A bank must not be able to halt the operations of a company even if it has legitimate complaints, Medvedev said.
Alfa Bank had no comment, a spokeswoman said. A spokesman for a Basic Element company, Glavstroi, said Alfa may be looking to bankrupt the Deripaska-owned company.
Medvedev first raised the need for banks to be more receptive to producers' economic hardships at an economic meeting in Irkutsk late last month. On Monday, he sounded irritated that the message got lost earlier, saying the government should find a way to force bankers into greater compliance.
Banks "must value" the government's efforts that prevented them from collapsing after liquidity began evaporating from the market last fall. Alfa Bank became the first private bank to draw a subordinated loan from state-owned Vneshekonombank in January.
Shuvalov, who is the government's anti-crisis point man, told Medvedev that some banks were "extremely tough" on borrowers and that the government will work with both sides to ensure that loans are paid on mutually acceptable terms.
A spokesman for Shuvalov said he could not immediately say which lenders were giving defaulting corporate clients an excessively hard time.
Several Basic Element companies, including Glavstroi, a construction unit, and Soyuzmetallresurs, a mining operation, have had tough talks — involving legal disputes — with Alfa on loan restructuring in recent months. "We have arrears and are trying to come to a compromise," said Glavstroi spokesman Vitaly Korolyov. "This is perhaps the only lender that has an extremely unconstructive position."
Vladimir Tatarchuk, deputy chairman of Alfa Bank, said last week that the bank regarded Basic Element's conditions for restructuring as unacceptable.
Basic Element has had more fruitful talks on restructuring some loan payments with other banks, including and the , a Basic Element spokesman said, adding that the company's debt to Alfa is less than $1 billion.
During the meeting with Shuvalov, Medvedev also ordered the government to move more quickly to provide state loan guarantees to companies that are listed as strategic by the Cabinet. No guarantees have been provided since the government's decision to offer them in December, a delay that may force some companies to go out of business, Medvedev said.
Shuvalov said there has been more progress in actual lending than in giving guarantees. Three state-controlled banks loaned 2.6 trillion rubles ($75 billion) to the companies on the list, with most coming from , Shuvalov said. VEB and each extended about 500 million rubles of that amount, he said.
Putin Calls For More Religion on TVPrime Minister Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with religious leaders Wednesday that the "voice of the church" should have a greater presence on state-run television channels and that more TV programming should be devoted to religious topics. |
McFaul Epitomizes Embrace of Social MediaU.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul took to Twitter and Facebook on Wednesday in an attempt to refute charges that he's promoting regime change in Russia. |
Nation Ticked Off After a Winter of Summer TimeThe famous proverb, "Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise," was penned by American founding father Benjamin Franklin. He was also the first to suggest implementing daylight-saving time. |
Uproar Widespread Over Chechnya TripHübner and his colleague Johann Gudenus, leader of the Free Democrats' faction in Vienna's City Council, held talks with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov in Grozny last week. |
St. Petersburg Anti-Gay Law AdvancesSt. Petersburg lawmakers on Wednesday approved at the crucial second reading a bill introducing fines for advocating gay and lesbian relationships in front of children and promoting pedophilia. |
Voluntary Chemical Castration For Sex Offenders Is ApprovedThe State Duma has approved a draft law that mandates stiffer penalties for sexual offenses against minors, including increased prison time and voluntary chemical castration. |
Comments
To post comments you must be registered


