Biden: US, Germany Agree Russia Cannot Be Allowed to Use Energy to Coerce Neighbours

LOCAL NEWS

• Biden: US, Germany agree Russia must not be allowed to use energy to coerce neighbours while reiterating his concerns about Nord Stream 2.
  • Merkel said, however, that Germany had a different assessment of the motives of the project to the US, but noted that NS2 should complement, not replace, gas transit through Ukraine.
  • Berlin is also working on this as part of the Normandy Format
• Nothing in local newsflow regarding the US-Russia Cybersecurity meeting that Biden confirmed on Monday, but fell short of providing details or location – be aware that this may happen today or may not.
• Ministry of Economy proposes to significantly reform the institution of takeovers - purchases of large blocks of shares
  • including draft amendments to the law "On joint stock companies (JSC)" developed by the department in order to eliminate the problems accumulated in practice.
  • In particular, the ministry proposes to move away from determining the affiliation of buyers and sellers to assessing their "connectedness" with each other.
  • Econ Ministry has prepared large-scale amendments regarding the acquisition of large blocks of shares in public joint-stock companies (more than 30%, 50% and 75% of voting shares).
  • Deputy Minister of Economy Torosov says, "this is a long-awaited and significant reform that will help improve the quality of corporate regulation in Russia, and hence the country's investment attractiveness"