Vladimir Putin met with entrepreneurs in Voronezh. Senior partner of “BIEL” Philipp Ryabchenko participated in the conversation with the President

Russian President Vladimir Putin during his working visit to Voronezh met with representatives of the business community. Senior partner of the law firm “BIEL” Philipp Ryabchenko took part in the meeting and discussion of the business climate in the country.

After the welcoming speech of the President, in which he stressed the importance of entrepreneurial initiative for the state economy and congratulated the participants on the upcoming professional holiday, B. Yu. Titov, Commissioner for the President to protect the entrepreneurs’ rights, stated the entrance theses of the meeting. He pointed out that for the effective development of business it is necessary to create conditions for convenience, safety and profitability of operation. And in this regard substantial progress has been made to date. For example, in order to ensure the security of business activities, four legislative packages have been adopted to mitigate criminal penalties for economic crimes. At the initiative of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI, in which Expert Council Philipp Ryabchenko is a member), several “Road Maps” were approved, including “Road Maps” in the key areas of the economy, such as customs procedures and connection of commercial organizations to communication networks.

Further conversation was diversified, with wide coverage of topics, businesslike and sharp. The statement of Oleg Deripaska drew the attention; he criticized the “escalation of tariffs” of natural monopolies “above the inflation”. The President of the Association of Russian Banks Garegin Tosunyan defended the irrationality to lower interest rates on loans. The leader of “Support of Russia” Alexander Brechalov actively promoted the idea of a tax holiday for new small businesses, but the President, contrary to the expectations of many analysts, did not support the idea, and expressed doubts as to whether it would be possible to develop effective levers for administration of the tax deferral, which levers would prevent the abuse of experienced entrepreneurs in this sphere.

At the meeting, many questions were asked to the President and a large number of constructive proposals were made. Putin promised to think on many of them. As a result, it can be definitely said that the conversation took place in a productive way.

Images from the meeting you can see here.