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Government in talks on re-registration of Rusal in Russian offshores — source

The offshores are to be established on the Oktyabrsky and Russky islands

MOSCOW, June 1. /TASS/. Russia’s government is considering the re-registration of Rusal company in one of the country’s offshore zones, which are to be established on the Oktyabrsky and Russky islands, a source in the financial and economic bloc of the Russian government told reporters.

"In particular talks on Rusal are under way," the source said.

On Friday, Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin said that a number of large Russian holdings expressed interest in re-registration in special administrative regions, which are will be created after the fashion of foreign offshore zones.

In May, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said earlier on Wednesday that the Russian government intends to create territories with the special legal regime in the Russky island in the far East and Oktyabrsky Island in the Kaliningrad region, Russia’s enclave on the Baltic Sea. Oreshkin said in May that a special administrative regime in those islands will resemble the one in the State of Delaware, the offshore zone in the United States.

US sanctions

On April 6, the US authorities announced the imposition of sanctions against a number of Russian officials, businessmen and companies. The Russian businessmen who were put on the new US restrictions list include Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, VTB head Andrei Kostin, owner of Renova Viktor Vekselberg, Surgutneftegaz CEO Vladimir Bogdanov, Sibur board member Kirill Shamalov, and businessmen Igor Rotenberg, Oleg Deripaska and Suleiman Kerimov.

Among the companies slapped with the latest sanctions are several enterprises belonging to Oleg Deripaska. Among them are Agroholding Kuban, Evrosibenergo, RusAl, Russian Machines Holding and GAZ Group, B-Finance investment company, Basic Element holdings and En +.

The sanctions imply that the assets of these companies are frozen.

Initially, the US Treasury obliged American investors get rid of the shares and debt instruments of all companies put on the list before May 7 and to terminate all contracts with them before June 5. Then, US investors were allowed to conduct transactions with Rusal until October 23, 2018 and to get rid of securities of of En+, Rusal and GAZ Group until June 5.

On May 31, the US Treasury extended the period during which US investors should get rid of the shares and debt instruments of these companies until August 5.