The attacks on Russian businesses in Ukraine demonstrate that the country has lost all investor confidence, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.
“Obviously, we monitor the situation and are really worried. One can hardly speak about any investment climate and investor confidence in the country. Obviously, this is a country with zero investor confidence after what has happened there,” he said.
The Kremlin expects that the Ukrainian authorities, if they are capable, will protect Russian investors from attacks by ultra-nationalists.
“Of course, we want and we expect that the interests of foreign investors, (which applies to Russian companies in Ukraine), will be protected by the state if this state is legally capable . We expect that the Ukrainian state will protect the private property of foreign investors from attacks by ultra-nationalists and extremists,” he said.
When asked whether the Kremlin would recommend Russian businessmen to leave the Ukrainian market, Peskov noted that “entrepreneurs are the most carefully monitoring the situation.” He reminded that, for example, Russia’s largest savings bank Sberbank is already “on the way to finalizing its decision to leave the Ukrainian market.”
“But we very carefully analyze what is happening,” the Russian President’s spokesman said.
Peskov also said that Russia will not assume any measures against Ukrainian businesses in response to vandalism against the Russian business in the country.
“Russia has never violated international agreements, international obligations, and what is most important – has never violated investors’ rights,” he said, adding that otherwise “the confidence may be easily dented and a country may lose the reputation of a protector of comfortable terms for investors and need decades to restore this reputation afterwards,” he said.
“This means, of course, that any barbaric methods that imply endangered rights of private owners, the way it happens in Ukraine, are out of the question for Russia,” he added.