Russia to Admit Foreign Investors to Defense Asset Sales

Foreign investors will be eligible to bid for stakes in enterprises of Russia’s defense industry but the process will be controlled by the government, president-elect Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

“We will admit foreign investors [to privatizations] very carefully and will control them at the state level, as is done elsewhere in the world,” Putin said at his final address to the State Duma as prime minister.

Putin also said that only a few defense companies were of interest to foreign investors.

“We always make an individual decision [concerning privatization deals] about each case,” he added.

First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said on Monday that the Russian government would approve in the next few weeks an extended list of state properties slated for privatization.

The privatization plan will include share stakes in Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port, shipping company Sovcomflot as well as 50-percent state stakes in United Shipbuilding Corporation and United Aircraft Corporation.

 

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