MOSCOW, July 29 (RIA Novosti) – The introduction of the “aggressor state” notion to Russian legislation will uproot all foreign-based audit companies in the country, a result that will not only be welcome but also overdue as it will nurture national auditing, a senior Russian lawmaker said Tuesday.
“Our economy will certainly lose nothing to it … Larger [national] companies are already steady on their feet. My feeling has long been that we need more national auditing, even if we leave sanctions out of consideration. Sanctions may only serve as an impetus,” said Mikhail Emelyanov, deputy chief of an economic policy, innovation and entrepreneurship committee with the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament.
“The idea is good, although it might require judicial, technical or similar amendments, but the concept is the right one,” Emelyanov added in a comment to RIA Novosti.
Russia’s Izvestia newspaper cited sources in the Duma as saying Tuesday the country’s lawmakers were mulling a bill that would add the notion of “aggressor country” to the law of the land.
According to the sources, an aggressor country will be defined as “a state introducing sanctions against the Russian Federation, Russian citizens and Russian legal entities.”
It is expected to hit foreign legal entities and individuals registered in such states, banning them from providing audit and consultancy services in Russia.
All six major US audit and consulting companies working in Russia – Deloitte, KPMG, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey – could be outlawed, according to Evgeny Fedorov, one of the initiators.
