MOSCOW, June 19 (RAPSI) – A law is being drafted in Russia to prohibit the US consultancies’ representative offices and subsidiaries from consulting Russian state companies, Izvestia newspaper wrote on Thursday.

The bill’s author, lawmaker Yevgeny Fyodorov (United Russia), said this would protect Russia from foreign influence and large state companies from covert foreign manipulation. He also proposed creating national consultancies, which could assist the public sector in economic planning and strategies.

“The Russian economy has been growing at a rate of only 0.5% because foreign consultants are lobbying for the interests of their own country,” the newspaper writes, quoting the lawmaker. “Several days ago, the State Duma Budget Committee discussed the Central Bank’s financial statement, whose deputy governor said that the epidemic of bankruptcies among Russian banks was a result of foreign consultation. Foreign consultancies do not facilitate management but appoint outside managers. Even the Central Bank is still being audited by a foreign company.”

These limits will primarily affect the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Russia, which is one of the largest consultancies in Russia, and also McKinsey & Company.

Izvestia writes that US companies, including BCG and McKinsey, received the same treatment in several other countries. For example, China has prohibited these firms from consulting its government agencies and state companies.