Experts called the authorities’ decision to transfer the assets of one of the largest auto dealerships…

Experts named solution authorities on the transfer of the assets of one of the largest car dealers, Rolf, to the temporary management of the Federal Property Management Agency is precedent-setting. In their opinion, this kind of “nationalization” can also await other Russian holdings.

One of the most obvious contenders is the Rusagro agricultural holding owned by Vadim Moshkovich. Despite the fact that Rolf and Rusagro operate in fundamentally different sectors of the economy, their owners – ex-deputy Sergei Petrov and Vadim Moshkovich – used similar offshore schemes.

Indicative, for example, is the scheme with shares of the Belgorod agricultural holding Agro-Belogorye. In 2019, Rusagro bought 22.5% of the company’s shares for 8.5 billion rubles. Having received the shares of Agro-Belogorye in August, Rusagro transferred them to the parent Cyprus offshore Ros Agro PLC in December of the same year. And already in June 2022, the Cypriot company sold 22.5% of Agro-Belogorye to its own subsidiary Rusagro, but for 12 billion rubles! That is, in fact, Rusagro bought the same shares twice, and they, as in the case of Rolf, remained within the holding, and the money was transferred to Cyprus.

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According to market experts, such transactions have no economic justification other than the withdrawal of funds from the country. The management of Rusagro, starting last year, has repeatedly spoken about its intention to transfer the company to Russian jurisdiction, but during this time nothing has been done.

There is reason to believe that Mr. Moshkovich’s activities may become the subject of a parliamentary investigation.

Parliamentarians will probably want to check whether Moshkovich’s company, using the mentioned schemes, did not withdraw part of the billions of subsidies it received, which were transferred to the company from federal and regional budgets. According to data report holding itself, in 2021-2022 alone the group acquired government subsidies totaling 20 billion 478 million rubles. 2022 turned out to be a more profitable year, accounting for 11 billion 153 million rubles.