Putin bans "hostile" investors from operations with strategic assets

Moscow, August 5 (EFE). – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday prohibited, by decree valid until the end of the year, that investors from “enemy” countries with Moscow have any kind of operations with their holdings in strategic companies, in, in particular, in the country’s energy and banking sector.

The decree states that the ban, both for legal entities and individuals, extends to all companies, strategic institutions and their subsidiaries, as well as to the Sakhalin gas projects and the Garyaga oil tanker, in the Far East and Northwest Siberia, respectively.

The presidential decree also affects transactions with users’ holdings of all major deposits of oil, gas and coal, as well as uranium, quartz, nickel, cobalt, tantalum, niobium, beryllium, copper, diamonds, gold, lithium and platinum.

In addition, Putin ordered the government and the Russian Central Bank to prepare a list within ten days of companies and banks that will have prohibited operations with shares of investors from hostile countries.

The document states that “the operations prohibited by this decree can be carried out with the special permission of the President of the Russian Federation.”

The list of “enemy” countries drawn up by the Russian government includes 49 countries, including all member states of the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Switzerland, Norway, Japan and Australia. EFE