17 June 2004 10:57
Russia in the dock
In the freebooting days of Boris Yeltsin, a small number of Russians, the so-called oligarchs, made a great deal of
money. The president's calculation was that a new, super-rich class dependent on him would ensure he stayed in
power. That paid off in 1996, when the likes of Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Gusinsky helped him to see off the
Communist challenge. His chosen successor, Vladimir Putin, is of a more bureaucratic, less liberal frame of mind. On
acceding to power in 2000, he told the oligarchs they could keep their wealth provided they stayed out of politics.
Messrs Berezovsky and Gusinsky thought they could take on the president and win; they were forced into exile and their
media empires were broken up. A younger tycoon, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who financed opposition parties and lobbied
parliament to oppose tax reform, has likewise been frustrated. Yesterday , he went on trial in Moscow for alleged fraud
and tax evasion. At the same time, the fiscal authorities are pressing Yukos, the oil giant of which he was the largest
shareholder, for immediate payment of pounds 2 billion, an action which could lead to the bankruptcy and break-up of the
company.
Mr Khodorkovsky poses as a champion of democracy who made Yukos a model of transparency. The truth is more complex.
Nevertheless, he is entitled to feel victimised. The rule of law that Mr Putin advocates is, in the case of the
oligarchs, highly arbitrary, as the proposed deal of 2000 illustrates. In a normal democracy, businessmen should be free
to support political parties and lobby MPs to advance their interests. The president has decided, rather, that the
criterion for pursuing alleged criminal action should be defiance of him and his policies. Russia may be a tidier place
under Mr Yeltsin's successor but it is not yet subject to the rule of law as understood in the West.
It is possible that prosecution and defence may strike a deal that would prevent the destruction of Yukos and the
incarceration of Mr Khodorkovsky, events which would look bad overseas. On the other hand, it is clear that Mr Putin
loathes the defendant, who in turn might choose to play the martyr. Whatever transpires, this is a highly politicised
case governed by deals rather than due judicial process. The Yeltsin era may be reviled for its chaos but it had more of
the breath of freedom than Mr Putin's constricted form of democracy.
[The Daily Telegraph] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
