YEREVAN, April 4, /ARKA/. Russia’s high-ranking officials should buy the stocks of Russian companies to support the domestic equity market, Central Bank Deputy Chairman Sergei Shvetsov said on Thursday, RIA Novosti reported.

“The presence of Russian issuers’ securities in their [income] declarations should become compulsory for officials occupying senior positions,” Shvetsov told a forum of the Moscow Exchange on Thursday.

The measure is necessary to attract internal investors and ensure financial stability, he said.
“A strategic task for the Russian authorities is to ensure the presence of internal investors on the Russian securities market,” he said.

Shvetsov’s statement comes just two days after President Vladimir Putin signed decrees to help implement laws obliging state officials to declare their income and expenses in a bid to crack down on corruption.

State officials will have to submit information concerning their acquisition of real estate, land, cars, valuables and shares, as well as information about any property they own abroad, and will have to explain the sources of the income used to purchase such assets. -0-