MOSCOW, March 27. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Economic Minister Alexei Ulyukayev believes that an investor should be given an alternative in choosing ratings.
“The thing is that the existing rating agencies - the Big Three - are called international, but they are self-named international agencies. Generally speaking, these are US agencies. They simply have gone through a certain path of development and investors find it convenient to use them,” he told Rossiya 24 television channel on Thursday.
“We cannot force investors to switch from one rating agency to another, but we should give them an alternative. An investor should decide himself what agency will be better for him to use,” Ulyukayev said, adding that not only China, but also Europe also approved a legal framework to create their own rating agency.
Earlier Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said the government had been working to reduce dependence on foreign ratings.
“We are interested in rating agencies not to be influenced by their governments or political systems and the image or the investment rating of one or other country not to be lowered as if at a command,” he said.