I find it amusing, in a sad way, how the media is labeling him “first freely elected Russian president”, rather than the more accurate “only freely elected Russian president”.
Looks to be the last, too, the way Putin is running things . . .
I recall a joke they used to tell in Russia back then:
Q: What have two years of capitalism accomplished that 70 years of Communism failed to achieve?
A: Made Communism look good!
Mostly I see that Putin makes Russia look smart
- grabbing back the bone, but doing so sufficiently politely to get London listings
Personally I think that listings are dumb, and if I were Russia I would milk Shell and BP, but only until their SOX stink.
It is a joke - they have us by the balls, and there is no advantage for them from exploiting it.
What “bone”? And what are these “London listings”?
The ‘bone’ is primarily oil and gas.
Under Yeltsin non-Russian companies bought in on Russian oil pretty cheaply, Putin has been ‘renegotiating’ those deals. Both BP and Shell have found themselves facing some pretty tough treatment. IIRC Shell got it in the neck for conservation reasons in Sakhalin - something to do with whales being threatened, a great joke as Russia could not give a toss about whales.
For some obscure reason the Russians like floating companies on overseas stock exchanges. I’m not sure it is a good idea, but they like it.
Since Sarbanes Oxley the NY exchange is difficult, so they have been using the London Stock Exchange.
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/item/?ci=19712
Several Russian businesses, including an oil and pipeline group, an industrial group, a fertilizer company and two steel groups, are preparing to list on the London Stock Exchange. London is becoming the preferred destination for foreign groups that might have opted for the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq in days prior to Sarbanes-Oxley. The LSE is outpacing the NYSE and Nasdaq combined when it comes to foreign listings, by a ratio of 50 to 15.
That is from Aug 2006 - it is quite an industry now.
To be honest I can’t really see why they want to raise money on the London stock market - but it sounds as if they are interested in investing heavily in European companies - there was a bit of a stir when they showed interest in buying a chunk of EADS (Airbus Aircraft) also they showed distinct interest in buying British Gas - the major UK natural gas distributer - and they have bought a tiddler NG company - also they are doing something with electricity generation in the UK.
It could be that they are raising money for vertical integration, and it could be that they are trying to buy ‘respectability’. Regardless, the City loves it.
I think that Putin et al want to tie Russia in with the West so that we are mutually dependant on each other - which ties in with the putative Baring Straits tunnel - it would be an umbilical for Canada and the USA. I think the idea is that if we depend on them, then we’ll be a bit less intolerant of some of the things that they do to get themselves up to Western levels.