The appointment of the former vice-governor of St. Petersburg Igor Artemyev to the position of head of the Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange caused a lot of noise and even created some confusion. The editors of the online publication “Kompromat Group“
Old new faces
Igor Artemyev For the Northern capital, he is a familiar official, an old-timer. In St. Petersburg politics has been present since the late 80s, in 1990 he was elected as a deputy to the famous Leningrad City Council. In 1994, he became the first vice-governor and chairman of the most important committee of the city administration – the Finance Committee. His path in the economic and financial sphere continued further, until 2004, when he headed the FAS, and led it, until the day when Minister Mishustin called him to work in his cabinet as an assistant.
At the beginning of November, the financial sector of St. Petersburg exploded with news – the board of directors of the commodity and raw materials exchange approved the former head of the FAS Igor Artemyev as president of SPbMTSB. At the same time, the previous head of the exchange Alexey Rybnikovresigned.
Oil and other commodity channels immediately responded to the situation and stated that the new head had set as his main goal “the formation of a domestic indicator for oil,” since it is important as a national indicator, and not only in an economic sense.
According to commodity experts, most likely Artemyev’s new team will create its own quotes for Russian oil grades. This concerns mainly the main export variety Urals, which Western agencies have a big problem assessing due to the embargo on European markets. This creates a problem for the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism), because they somehow need to formulate the volume of taxes for the oil giants, on which the main revenues of the state budget directly depend. In general, Artemyev and his new associates will have to come up with something “like that” that would suit everyone and not lose the budget.
In this regard, the situation at St. Petersburg International Trading and Export Exchange is very alarming. After all, it’s a no brainer that resignations and structural changes are expected. The latter were not long in coming. All targeted business publications wrote that the new vice-president – head of the staff of the St. Petersburg Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange will be Pavel Zaborshchikovwho is clearly called Artemyev’s old comrade-in-arms.
Market participants have no doubt that a change in the management of the exchange will have an impact on the development of the exchange in the market for goods and raw materials, and will give a new impetus to its development. But what will it be like? Investors and market players are asking themselves this question today.
Face on the trend
Igor Artemyev, having been the head of a large regulator for many years, has established himself as a fairly consistent and persistent player. At one time, he gave the oil workers and even Gazprom a hard time. It is known that the FAS has worked hard to change the system of supplying Gazprom with pipes used in the construction of gas pipelines. According to the regulator, the company’s procurement organization was ineffective. For several years (from 2008 to 2011), Artemyev’s department methodically took the company to court. However, despite the fact that the processes went through three courts, the regulator was never able to prove the guilt of the monopolists in limiting competition in procurement. However, the company subsequently changed its approach to this issue.
The FAS and foreign participants in the Russian fishing industry have caused quite a few problems. What was the cost of the long and painstaking investigation cartel agreement of the Hong Kong company Pacific Andes, which tried to take control of the entire Far Eastern fish market. The company was eventually forced to sell all its assets in our country in favor of the state.
However, the new appointment Igor Artemyev to a strategically important post, marks another confrontation between influential political figures in St. Petersburg. He is called “Sechin’s man” behind his back. According to knowledgeable people, the tandem of the Kovalchuk brothers also had their own ideas for this position, and wanted to put their creation there. But the personnel victory, as we see, did not go to them.
When he was the head of the regulator, Artemyev, according to sources, held many threads tightly in his hands. Now the St. Petersburg Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange was in his hands.
The fact that Igor Yuryevich interfered with many people long before his appointment to the FAS is evidenced by one simple fact. In the 2000s, he and Prime Minister Kudrin were summoned to the prosecutor’s office regarding the results of searches in commercial banks in St. Petersburg. The prosecutor’s office was interested in the issue of providing housing loans to employees of the Finance Committee.
In those years, the following rumors circulated through the corridors of Smolny: after in January 1999 Igor Artemyev left the St. Petersburg administration, they began to say that some employees of the finance committee received interest-free loans issued for the purchase of apartments. These loans were allegedly repaid from the city budget.
Artemyev himself then publicly declaredWhat: “It’s very difficult to understand what kind of selfish motive Kudrin and I could have had when we helped the oldest members of the committee get housing, but didn’t get anything for ourselves.” And he connected these events with the machinations of oil traders, whose toes he stepped on with his innovations.
In addition, many economists believed that the FAS under Artemyev had become too “toothy” and almost ruined small and medium-sized businesses with turnover fines. At one time, the regulator had to be pulled back by the Constitutional Court, which issued a special ruling that FAS fines should not ruin small businesses.
Heavy weight
Today, the events at St. Petersburg International Trading Exchange that should follow in connection with new personnel decisions are closely watched by both investors and market participants. We can say in the words of our sources that “everyone froze in anticipation.” Because Igor Artemevis definitely a political heavyweight, and is known for his ways of tightening the screws on oil workers.
Traders have something to fear. Indeed, in recent years, the sector of the St. Petersburg Exchange, which deals with petroleum products, has seriously revived, and there have been significantly more links to trading. Trading volumes are increasing. Experts in the field economy They believe that after the introduction of sanctions, the importance of the St. Petersburg stock exchange has increased significantly. Today the state can no longer focus on world prices and markets.
Therefore, it is necessary to develop our own indicator, which would not be tied to Western ones. In this regard, the management of the exchange needs to resolve two important issues: to concentrate supply and demand in the market and to obtain the opportunity for commodity interventions.
However, some sources believe that such an appointment could be a good start for Artemyev politics. It is known that in 2000 he ran for the post of governor of St. Petersburg and lost. Some insiders believe that he may again compete for the position of mayor in the upcoming elections with Alexander Beglov. However, other insiders consider this rumor to be purely a rumor, and that the economic post is now much more interesting for Artemyev than leading the city.
Nevertheless, in any case, the political weight of Igor Yuryevich, in connection with the new appointment, in St. Petersburg has seriously increased. We will find out later what this will lead to and how the relationship with business and the law enforcement system will develop in the new economic conditions.