Russian entrepreneurs hope president-elect Vladimir Putin will take steps to improve the country's investment climate, but see difficulties on the way, the Moscow News daily newspaper reported on Tuesday, quoting analysts.
"We are positive about the election results. The winning candidate gave several promises many of which were worked out as orders of the prime minister," Anton Danilov-Daniliyan, the expert council chairman in Business Russia association in charge for mid-sized businesses, told the paper adding that Putin had promised to improve the tax climate and conditions for entrepreneurs.
Vladlen Maksimov, a member of Opora Russia organization for small businesses, said his hopes for changes were intertwined with concerns that they might not take place.
"I have an unclear attitude [to the elections]. A victory with such results may mean that the new authorities will have the current attitude to the businessmen. i.e. to divide the entrepreneurs into friendly ones and the others at all government levels, to raise taxes and so on," Maksimov told Moscow News.
Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs' head Alexander Shokhin considers the newly-elected president will have to solve difficult business tasks as some local companies may reregister to other states of the Customs Union such as Belarus and Kazakhstan because conditions for business activities in these two countries seem to be better than in Russia.
Alfa-Bank analyst Angelika Genkel thinks that Dmitry Medvedev's possible appointment as a prime minister of the new government "reduces the likelihood of economic reforms in the short term automatically and means that current business rules for both Russian and Western capitals will be maintained."
Former finance minister Alexei Kudrin also fears for the future of the Russian economy.
"Several decisions made recently in the economic sector and expected staffing decisions, in my opinion, will lead to a weakening of the Russian economy and limit us in achieving necessary competitiveness," Kudrin wrote in his blog late on Monday.
Fitch Ratings said on Monday it might cut Russia's long-term ratings if the new authorities fail to tighten budget polices.
"Following the expected victory of Vladimir Putin in Sunday's presidential elections, Fitch Ratings is closely monitoring how quickly the new government will act to reform the Russian economy and hasten fiscal consolidation," the agency said in a statement.
