Reuters chief Russian financial correspondent Douglas Busvine writes that the price of Russian securities thought to have ties to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, or to have profited the most under his economic policies, “have sold off hardest” in the days following this month’s rigged Duma election.
Russian companies mostly deeply in the red since Dec. 4 include gas firm Novatek, tied to Putin’s friend and oil trader Gennady Timchenko; potash miner Uralkali, which Suleiman Kerimov, backed by state banks, won control of this year; and gold mining company Polyus, in which Mikhail Prokhorov owns a major stake.
Busvine writes:
With the opposition crying foul over alleged fraud in the December 4 election, which cut the majority of Putin’s ruling United Russia party, investors have slashed their exposure to stocks whose prospects they see as tied to the stability of the regime.
Utilities stocks, like state-controlled Federal Grid Company, InterRao and RusHydro, are also underperforming, as analysts note that the Russian stock market is now trading at roughly a 40 percent discount to its emerging markets peers.
