“Sources close to the Kremlin” told independent TV station Dozhd that the arrest of Baring Vostok founder Michael Calvey on Feb. 15 – which President Putin at least knew about and perhaps endorsed – were caused by suspicions that the private equity firm funded Russian opposition groups.
“They tried to shake things up before the [2018] presidential election,” an unnamed official said, citing protests from truckers and deceived savers which took place last year in Russia. Such financing could go through Norvik Bank, according to this source – a theory which is also supported by Telegram channel Nezygar.
Reacting to the rumor, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he “didn’t know” about these suspicions: “This is the first I’m hearing about it,” he told business daily Vedomosti.
Neither do Baring Vostok representatives see any political dimension in the matter: “Somebody possibly found it advantageous to present this situation in that way, but this is a commercial conflict,” Vedomosti quoted them as saying, referring to the shareholder dispute around Vostochny Bank.
The private equity firm still firmly believes its employees are innocent, which “the courts will affirm.”
“A clear signal to Western investors”
Perhaps more convincing than the theory of Baring Vostok financing the opposition is that the case might have a foreign policy dimension. In an interview with Dozhd, Valery Solovei, an independent-minded pundit who regularly comments on international affairs, interpreted Calvey’s arrest as “a clear signal to Western investors.”
“Since 2014 [when Russia’s dispute with the West started in relation with the Ukrainian conflict – editor’s note], the Kremlin has been considering Russia as being in a pre-war situation, exposed to growing threats from the USA.”
In this context, Solovei explained, Russian leaders consider US investments to be unnecessary and see with suspicion any “American eyes or ears” on Russian soil.
In an exchange with East-West Digital News, Solovei specified that he did not see geopolitics as being the primary cause for Calvey’s arrest. However, “geopolitical considerations as well as some arguments related to domestic politics were used by one of Putin’s close advisers to support the decision to arrest Calvey.”
“Russia is showing she doesn’t care about Western investments while facing a tense international situation,” Solovei concluded.
