31 October 2003 11:34
Papers say Putin uses Stalin methods against YUKOS
Leading Russian and international newspapers on Friday slammed the blocking of a major stake in oil giant YUKOS, saying the Kremlin was returning to Stalinist methods and destroying all prospects for business.
"Business can react to such a development only by shutting down. In a country where property rights are not respected, only illegal business is possible," said Russia's most respected business newspaper Vedomosti, warning that the whole of Russian business was now facing a real threat of nationalisation.
If President Vladimir Putin failed again to criticise the impounding of a 44 percent state in YUKOS, it would be a clear sign that the Russian leader had decided to restore a Soviet-style authoritarian rule, the paper added. "The president should open his eyes and finally discover that prosecutors are destroying in one day what took years to create."
Russian prosecutors froze a 44 percent stake in YUKOS owned by jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his allies on Thursday in a dramatic escalation of a confrontation between the Kremlin and big business.
Putin also replaced his chief of staff, Alexander Voloshin, deemed sympathetic to Khodorkovsky, in another sign that Kremlin "hawks" were gaining ground in a drive to reassert state control and better control coming elections.
"A whiff of Stalinism is now polluting the Moscow air," said The Times of London, which added that the stock seizure could amount to nationalisation "by the back door". "Putin's insistence that he cannot influence the prosecutors is disingenuous: a move so portentous for Russia's economy could be sanctioned only at the top."
Analysts have said the attack on YUKOS was orchestrated by the Kremlin to punish Khodorkovsky for meddling in politics. He was supporting Putin's liberal opponents ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections.
The Financial Times said the shares' seizure was out of all proportion to the charges of fraud and tax evasion laid against Khodorkovsky, who was arrested at gunpoint on Saturday. "The president who might have gone down in history as a tough, but necessary, antidote to the chaotic rule of his predecessor Boris Yeltsin, is now plunging down the dangerous path to authoritarian rule. He must stop before it is too late." "Mr Putin has served the West well in the war against terrorism. But this cooperation must not blind the U.S. and the EU to the threat that he now poses to his country," it said.
Another Russian business daily, Kommersant, noted that the combined Russian market capitalisation has decreased by $27 billion or more than 16 percent in less than a week. "Investors don't believe in the market anymore and analysts think that this is just the beginning of a long way down."
The daily Vremya Novostei said Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, also believed to be sympathetic to Khodorkovsky, was trying hard to refrain from commenting, but may change his mind very soon, publicly criticise the attack against YUKOS and resign.
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