Mikhail Zub, the long-standing head of a privately owned fish processing plant in the northern city of Murmansk, is one of a kind in Russia. Russian businessmen tend not to get involved in political cases, especially those linked to the name of President Vladimir Putin, due to a fear that they could suffer the same treatment as Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky or opposition leader Alexei Navalny, both of whom have spent time in the dock or behind bars.
Zub did just that, however, when he challenged a government decree, signed by Putin in early August, that placed a one-year embargo on food products from countries that have imposed sanctions against Russia for its perceived role in the Ukraine crisis. Norway, Russia's biggest salmon and herring supplier, was among those countries. Zub filed a lawsuit at the Supreme Court, calling for the ban to be amended to allow the Murmansk Fish Factory to continue buying now-outlawed fish from Norway.
On Tuesday the court scheduled the hearing for Nov. 11. "On the one hand, the fact of such a lawsuit in itself is an unprecedented phenomenon," Federation Council senator Konstantin Dobrynin was quoted as saying Tuesday by Interfax.
The lawsuit shows a positive trend — one where businessmen are not afraid to go against the government, Dobrynin added.
INC News, 09/09/2014
No comments:
Post a Comment