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"I think we want someone who is on a par with Putin"

Uber forged deals with Putin's closest allies in a failed attempt to break into the Russian market, the ICIJ said. Documents from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists show that Uber partnered with a Kremlin bank and offered Russian oligarchs shares.

While Uber battled local governments and evaded or questioned rules in Western democracies, some executives went to extraordinary lengths to grow the company's operations in Russia, one of the world's most attractive yet oppressive markets at the time.

In Russia, according to the documenten, Uber insiders have expressed concern that a proposed deal with a Russian adviser could violate US anti-bribery laws. A nine-page internal briefing document details the challenges the San Francisco-based giant faced in Russia, and the tactics to overcome them. 

Uber said it needed to be "unobtrusive given the current geopolitical climate". One of its "key objectives" was to "become an active player in the legislative process" by identifying "key business and political stakeholders".

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“tame the bear”

Trying to tame the bear ("tame the bear"), as an internal memo described, Uber forged deals with several Putin allies, including Gref's Sberbank investment company LetterOne Holdings, owned by Putin loyalists Fridman and Petr Aven, and USM, a holding company co-owned by Russia's seventh richest person, Alisher Usmanov.

Read also  Taxi drivers come out on top with a multi-million claim against Uber

“I think we want someone who is on a par with Putin,” Uber chief business officer Emil Michael said in an email exchange with colleagues in 2014 about potential Russian investors. A spokesperson for Michael said he "does not recall any specific references to Uber wanting an investor on par with Putin." The company has vetted all investors, he said.

"Is it normal practice for the largest state bank of the Russian Federation to advertise services that are potentially dangerous to civilians?"

The Uber-Sberbank alliance infuriated Russian taxi drivers. A taxi union wrote a letter to then-Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev saying the partnership weakened competition, cut workers' wages by undercutting prices and violated taxi laws. They even accused Uber of tax evasion and bribery.

“Is it normal practice for the largest state bank of the Russian Federation to advertise services that are potentially dangerous to civilians?” the drivers asked in the letter. “Why does Sberbank offer the most expensive and complicated lease and loan deals to others and particularly favorable terms to Uber?”

Emails show that the Uber-Sberbank relationship was started in part by Plouffe, who met Gref during a summer trip to Russia in 2015. For the entire duration of the relationship, Sberbank was under sanctions from the US and EU governments, first prompted by Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.

In 2017, Uber agreed to merge its Russian operations with Russian internet company Yandex, which operates a ride-hailing service, into a $3,7 billion joint venture controlled by Yandex. Since then, Uber has sold a larger portion of its stake. After this year's invasion of Ukraine, Uber announced plans to cut financial ties with Russia completely.

Read also  Taxi drivers come out on top with a multi-million claim against Uber

Source: ICIJ

Also read: Russian tech company Yandex continues without Uber

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