Political Quotes

“In terms of Russia and its tax policy, the problem has been they have not had a fair, coherent tax policy at all up until this year. They just in fact passed a new tax code this year which they are in the process of attempting to implement. In Russia in the past, they have had a myriad of taxes. In fact, in some cases American businesses who are attempting to do joint ventures in Russia may have to pay as many as 15 or 20 different taxes to all kinds of different levels of government with no coordination. In some cases an American company would get involved in a joint venture, only to have the tax structure change while they are in the process of completing that venture, thereby causing companies to not want to invest in Russia. In fact, we did a comparison between western investment in China and Russia over the past six years, and the difference is unbelievable: $350 billion of western investment in China, and during the same period of time, about $10 billion of western investment in Russia. A lot of that was due to an inconsistent, unfair tax code. That now is being changed and the tax code is now being implemented.”