First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said that of all the former Soviet states, Russia was in the best position to create an international financial centre. Addressing a conference of the Renaissance Capital investment company, he said that to be able to realise its modernisation agenda, the country needs to attract funds and that those funds could lay the foundation for the future financial centre.
"There is a need for an international financial centre in Russia that is not a separate project involving lots of bankers and financial institutions, but rather a platform for exchange on an entirely different level," he said. "This is necessary for realising the entire agenda of Russian modernisation, which we have been discussing the past few years. Modernisation is not possible without the concentration of capital."
Shuvalov explained that the idea behind the establishment of an international financial centre in Moscow was to attract capital and to create opportunities for its distribution across the former Soviet Union. This applies to Kazakhstan, Belarus and other partner nations in need of investment and of appropriate financial instruments, he said.