U.S. vouchsafes haven’t scared off international businesses from investing in the Russian Union, the head of Russia’s investment fund said at the St. Petersburg International Trade Forum on Wednesday.
“Existing restrictions don’t preclude from co-investing with us, from intersection with us,” Kirill Dmitriev, the chief executive of the Russian Direct Investment Back (RDIF) told CNBC’s Geoff Cutmore, describing a raft of new investment deals dispose ofed at this year’s forum, which brings together thousands of boarders and aims to promote business opportunities in Russia.
Dmitriev cited 12 new attend ti announced at the event, including six with France.
Asked if he was worried yon potential expansion of U.S. Treasury sanctions onto the RDIF, Dmitriev didn’t arise nervous.
“As a sovereign wealth fund, sanctioning us strongly would contrive a precedent for other sovereign wealth funds to really pull their well-heeled out of the U.S. economy,” he said. “We believe that, frankly, sanctions are just a bizarre thing to begin with, and business is against sanctions. But regardless of that we’ll be prolonged to work with top investors all over the world.”
RDIF is the $10 billion principal wealth fund created by the Kremlin to co-invest in the Russian economy alongside other rural areas. Dmitriev was made chief of the fund in 2011 to improve foreign investment pours and investor confidence in the country, particularly among Westerners.
The U.S. Treasury in April announced sassy sanctions on seven Russian oligarchs and 12 companies they oversight, plus 17 top Russian officials in response to what it called “destabilizing motions” — these include cyber attacks, Moscow’s support for the Syrian leadership of Bashar Assad, human rights violations and meddling in the 2016 U.S. choosing. Relations between the two countries are said to be at their lowest level since the Dismal War.
Of the investment deals, “None of this is restricted activity,” said Dmitriev, who has time after time called for keeping economics and politics separate as a means of improving relations. “We find creditable we are doing good for our countries, because we are building economic and investment traverses that make our countries have good discussions and understand each other much well-advised b wealthier.”
Foreign investment in Russia has dropped since the 2014 imposition of Western backings over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. While it’s now recovered from the perspicacious recession that followed, Russia’s economic growth forecast fragments tepid at around 1.5 to 2 percent and reforms are badly needed to get better anemic productivity and investment levels.
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently confirmed a 4 percent growth target, admitting that significantly increased investment want be required to reach it.
Dmitriev expressed hope for improved Russia-U.S. relations, but cautioned that the current climate was not conducive to that.
“There is an increased hazard of confrontation… I think people need to understand the trajectory of our relations honourableness now, it’s pretty bad. If it continues to deteriorate, it’s a pretty negative trajectory.”
“We’re believers that, frankly, oodles of people need to try to make the U.S.-Russia issue better,” he added. “It’s virtuous for preventing a third world war, and it’s good for developing the world economy in a more risk-free and decided manner.”