UK Officials Try To Downplay Improvement Of Russian Business Climate - Russian Ambassador

UK Officials Try to Downplay Improvement of Russian Business Climate - Russian Ambassador

UK businesses are eager to learn about facilitated business conditions in Russia given its better performance in the Doing Business rankings, but UK officials try to downplay these improvements, Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Andrei Kelin told Sputnik in an interview

LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd December, 2019) UK businesses are eager to learn about facilitated business conditions in Russia given its better performance in the Doing Business rankings, but UK officials try to downplay these improvements, Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Andrei Kelin told Sputnik in an interview.

"I have yet also heard a serious desire on the part of British businesses to learn what is happening in Russia to facilitate business. But on the other hand, I have of course also heard officials of the UK cooling it down, trying to decrease expectations and trying to intervene with the political background and all of that side," Kelin said.

The Russian government is doing a lot in cutting off the old regulations which are impeding business development, the ambassador stressed.

"Anyway, I do believe that business will find ways how to circumvent all these things, and if people would like to do that, they will do that. Some very interesting ideas have been launched today. For instance, that British business should use existing opportunities like creating a free-trade zone with Russia not limited by the European Union," he added.

Russia was ranked 28th in the Doing Business 2020 index compiled by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, rising from last year's 31st position due to innovations in electricity supply, taxation and protection of minority investors' rights. Last year, Russia moved to the 31st position from the 35th place, while eight years ago, it was ranked 120th.

In early October, Nicholas Cobb, the chair of the Westminster Russia Forum, told Sputnik that UK-Russian business ties were positively developing even despite uncertainty over the UK's withdrawal from the European Union.

The relations between Russia and the United Kingdom soured last year over the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergey Skripal and his daughter on UK soil. London has accused Moscow of carrying out the attack, while Russian officials have refuted the allegations and stressed that Moscow has been denied access to the investigation and the Skripals themselves.