To do this, the US president asked Putin to release Michael Calvey and change the rhetoric of communication with entrepreneurs. Biden noted that now American businessmen do not want to be in Russia and invest in it
Joe Biden
US President Joe Biden said that during a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he asked for the release of businessman Michael Calvey. Biden said this after the summit in Geneva at a press conference broadcast by RBC.
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“An American businessman [Michael Calvey] has been under house arrest for a long time. And I told him [Putin]: “If you want American businessmen to invest in Russia, let him go free, change the dynamics of the situation,” the president said.
Biden noted that now American entrepreneurs are not ready to invest in Russia, and also do not want to be either in this country or in Moscow. “I know that international politics is a well-honed art, that there is a secret code, a secret language. But international politics is based on personal relationships, it’s a function of human nature, ” he says.
As Biden noted, every president, even those who do not comply with international rules, needs them in order to benefit from them. “We talked today about the need for investment in Russia from other countries. And they will only do this if there are no violations, ” he said.
Michael Calvey and his colleagues at the Baring Vostok fund, Philippe Delpal, Vahan Abgaryan, Ivan Zyuzin, as well as former Chairman of the Management Board of the bank “Vostochny” Alexey Kordichev and former head of the First Credit Bureau (PKB) Maxim Vladimirov, were detained in February 2019. The case of fraud (Article 159 of the Criminal Code) against them was initiated underaccording to the statement of the minority shareholder of “Vostochny” Sherzod Yusupov, partner of the major shareholder of the bank Artem Avetisyan. Later, the case was reclassified as embezzlement by an organized group on a particularly large scale (Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). In addition, the seventh person involved in the case was detained-ex-employee of the bank Alexander Tsakunov.
According to the prosecution, Calvi, along with five other defendants in the case, convinced the shareholders of Vostochny to accept shares of International Financial Technology Group S. C. A. from PKB on account of the debt. However, the real value of the shares was underestimated and amounted to 600 thousand rubles. The defendants pleaded not guilty.
In November 2020, the Supreme Court released Calvi and the other defendants from house arrest. The reason for this was, among other things, that the PKB transferred 2.5 billion rubles to Vostochny, as a result of which the bank refused a civil claim for damages in the criminal case.
But Calvey and the other defendants in the case were banned from leaving the house at night, as well as from communicating with witnesses and visiting the building of the First Collection Office and the bank “East”. The ban is valid until the beginning of September.