24 April 2004 19:36
Russian auditor awards status of "untouchables" to some oligarchs - paper
April
The question of which of the existing major Russian businessmen will fall under the punitive hand of
"justice" (I cannot help wanting to add the adjective "Basmannyy" [reference to Moscow's
Basmannyy Court, known for its controversial decisions]) is becoming increasingly topical. Recently two high-ranking
federal officials at once - Audit Chamber Chairman Sergey Stepashin and Finance Minister Aleksey Kudrin - sketched out
the prospects for the future relationship between the authorities and business and explained how the "right
kind" of oligarch should behave. And Sergey Stepashin went even further - he supplied a list of those who, in his
view, meet these criteria and against whom the authorities have no grievances. In addition to a number of Russian
enterprises, all foreign investors came into the "untouchable" category.
In Stepashin's view, "with the publication of the analysis of the privatization process, for the management
of enterprises that have committed no malicious infringements and which are currently strictly implementing their main
social responsibility - the timely and full payment of taxes - a line will be drawn under the period of
uncertainty". Aleksey Kudrin enlarged on his colleague's words and set forth the signs of
"rightness" point by point. "The first thing you must do is live up to your responsibilities. In my
opinion it is one's social responsibility not to hide from taxes. Second is charity. Third, no-one is prohibited
from taking part in political activities but it is desirable that those political activities result in the development
of the country," he told the British newspaper The Times.
The head of the Audit Chamber, on the TV programme Zerkalo, named the enterprises that meet these criteria in full.
"Here I can name Magnitka (the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine [MMK] - more than 60 per cent of MMK shares are
controlled by the management headed by General Director Viktor Rashnikov - Nezavisimaya Gazeta note); Norilsk Nickel
(the main owners are Mikhail Prokhorov and Vladimir Potanin - Nezavisimaya Gazeta note); Severstal (head and main
shareholder Aleksey Mordashov - Nezavisimaya Gazeta note); the Novolipetsk (Metallurgical) Combine (head and de facto
owner Vladimir Lisin - Nezavisimaya Gazeta note), and Ford in Vsevolozhsk (the car plant belongs to the US auto giant of
the same name, which did not feature in Russia's privatization or in links with our oligarchs - Nezavisimaya Gazeta
note) in my native Leningrad [Region]. For these people, and particularly for foreign investors, who are working very
actively in our country today, I must say: My friends, the talk of deprivatization is over," Sergey Stepashin
stated.
It is not known for what services these companies were granted the status of "untouchables" by the head of
the Audit Chamber or what their owners did for the authorities that others could not have done too, such as Mikhail
Fridman (Alfa Group), Vagit Alekperov (LUKoil), Vladimir Bogdanov (Surgutneftegaz), Viktor Vekselberg and Robert Dudley
(TNK-BP), or even Aleksey Miller and Gazprom.
[Nezavisimaya Gazeta] |
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