Dear lesson

Russian presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich said on Monday that the situation around the metallurgical company Mechel should be a lesson for all Russian companies. He hopes that Russian companies will henceforth “act in the most civilized manner on the market.” From now on, this is after the entire Russian stock market collapsed under the influence of harsh statements addressed to the company by Prime Minister Putin, losing almost $58 billion in value during the day. The Mechel company itself fell in price by more than five billion dollars. Let us recall that Putin accused Mechel of selling raw materials abroad at reduced prices. It is alleged that since the Yukos case, Putin has not allowed himself such aggressive statements against Russian companies. Mechel is the largest owner of the coking coal mining company. Apparently, Mechel held back the supply of coal to other metallurgical companies, first providing coal for its own production and selling coal for export. Russian competitors considered that Mechel had violated the rules of the game. After a rebuke from Putin, who promised to send a doctor to the sick director of the company “and clean up all these problems,” Mechel issued a press release in which it stated that the company would not do this again - it would not allow violations on all issues related to prices for coal, promises to cooperate with the state. Following this, his shares rose sharply.

Dvorkovich consoled everyone by saying that the Federal Antimonopoly Service would not rush to investigate the Mechel case. He called the fact of the company's cooperation with regulatory authorities a "positive signal."