Yesterday four key European business associations operating in Russia published a “common statement” with regards to the Baring Vostok case in which two foreign top managers of the firm, US citizen Michael Calvey and French citizen Philippe Delpal, were detained Friday.
These business associations stated the following:
The Association of European Businesses, the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce (AHK), the French-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI France Russie) and the Finnish-Russian Chamber of Commerce (SVKK) are very concerned about the situation around Baring Vostok Capital Partners investment fund and the arrest of its top-management.
Baring Vostok is one of the major western private equity investors operating in Russia for more than 20 years, which has created for itself the reputation of an honest and trustful partner. The detention of Baring Vostok top-management has sent shockwaves through the country’s business community, and can potentially seriously damage the investment climate and attractiveness of Russia for foreign direct investments.
The AEB and the national Chambers of Commerce trust that the Russian law enforcement authorities will conduct an honest and fair investigation in compliance with the rule of law and that the principle of the assumption of innocence unless proven otherwise will be applied.
The AEB, the AHK, the CCI France Russie and the SVKK believe that commercial disputes should to a maximum possible extend be resolved through civil law means like arbitration, and that the immediate application of such criminal law procedures like detention should be avoided.
The Baring Vostok arrests give Russia a “disastrous image abroad,” insisted in a separate statement the president of one of these foreign business associations, after showing flawless loyalty to the Russian authorities over the past years.
As reported by business publication RBC, the four foreign business associations also co-signed with the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP, a leading business association) a letter to Russian Federal Investigative Committee Director Alexander Bastrykin, asking him to transfer Calvey from pretrial detention to house arrest.
Shock and frivolity
Calvey also received public support from a variety of high-profile Russian business leaders, from Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of Russian sovereign fund RDIF – who said Friday he was “ready to personally vouch for Michael Calvey;” to Arkady Volozh, the co-founder and CEO Yandex – for whom it is “hard to imagine that the Baring Vostok team could do something unethical or illegal;” to Russian Business Ombudsman Boris Titov, who called Calvey’s arrest “clearly unlawful.”
Given the deep Kremlin connections of Artem Avetisyan, the instigator of the lawsuit against Calvey, some reactions stroke by their naiveness or frivolity. Sberbank CEO German Gref said he hoped the criminal case would turn out to be a misunderstanding, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated Calvey’s arrest “should not and could not affect the investment climate” in Russia.
Meanwhile, Russia’s central bank is making an attempt to mediate the dispute between the warring parties in the dispute over Vostochny Bank, which led to the arrests, Financial Times reported this morning.
