Russia Profile
June 2, 2006
A "Conservative" Prosecutor Dismissed
Vladimir Ustinov's Dismissal Could Prove a Blow for Siloviki Faction
By Dmitry Babich
The dismissal of Russia's prosecutor general Vladimir Ustinov sent shock waves across Russia's political spectrum, as it was completely unexpected and may entail a redistribution of power among powerful clans inside the Kremlin.
The news of the dismissal came Friday morning, when Alexander Kotenkov, the president's representative in the Federation Council, the upper chamber of Russian parliament, said Ustinov had asked president Vladimir Putin to dismiss him from the position of the prosecutor general and Putin agreed. The senators quickly approved the resignation, although most of them said it was an unexpected development for them. Yuri Biryukov, Ustinov's former deputy, was appointed as an acting prosecutor general on Friday.
The position of the prosecutor general is an important one in Russia. The prosecutor general is essentially the top law-enforcement official, who sees to it that law is upheld in all spheres of society and has the right to put suspects in preliminary detention.
Vladimir Ustinov set a record of political longevity for prosecutor generals in post-Soviet history. His candidacy, submitted by president Vladimir Putin to the Federation Council, was first approved by the senators on May 17, 2000. In April 2005 the Federation Council extended his powers for another five-year term. Ustinov retained his post for a full six years, while his predecessors in the 1990s never held out for more than four, years and sometimes ended their careers in jail or in public disgrace. Alexey Ilyushenko, the prosecutor general from 1994-1996, was found guilty of embezzlement and spent several years in jail. Yuri Skuratov, the prosecutor general from 1997-1999, was secretly filmed in bed with two prostitutes, and ignited a political crisis in Russia in 1999, when he refused to leave office until the "compromising" footage was shown on state television.
So, why did Ustinov stay so long and why couldn't he stay the four remaining years of his tenure?
Part of the reason could be Ustinov's tough stand on the problem of oligarchic influence over politics in Russia. It was under his order that the seemingly all-powerful and untouchable billionaires Vladimir Gusinsky and Mikhail Khodorkovsky were arrested and jailed in the years 2000 and 2003 respectively. Gusinsky was released after a vigorous campaign through his media outlets in his defense and fled first to Spain, where he was arrested by Spanish police on money-laundering charges, and later to Israel. Khodorkovsky refused to emigrate and was sentenced to eight years by a Moscow court in 2005.
"Ustinov was not just fulfilling orders while prosecuting the cases of Gusinsky and Khodorkovsky," said Alexey Makarkin, deputy director of the Center for Political Technologies, a Moscow based think-tank on Russian politics. "He developed something approaching his own legal theory, which was conservative in its essence and was despised by the liberals."
Ustinov's theory of "ignoble actions," which he developed in his books and public speeches, in fact penalized certain actions that were not crimes under common law, but which were widely believed to be anti-state and anti-social.
"For example, minimization of taxes by [Mikhail Khodorkovsky's] Yukos oil major could also be seen as an ignoble action in view of Ustinov's theory," Makarkin said. "After all, everyone knew that Russia's tax legislation was full of loopholes and allowed the oil majors to hide huge amounts of taxable income. Khodorkovsky's financing of all major Duma factions and parties was also not illegal, but it was an ignoble action and Ustinov bore this in mind when he prosecuted Khodorkovsky on other charges."
"This was seen as completely unacceptable by Russian liberals who lived according to the principle that 'if something is not prohibited, it is allowed' during the 1990s," Makarkin said.
Ustinov was reportedly tied to the so called "siloviki" clan inside the presidential administration, supposedly led by deputy head of the presidential administration Viktor Sechin. Ustinov's and Sechin's children got married several years ago, thus giving even more ground for rumors.
So, does Ustinov's dismissal mean a weakening of the power of the siloviki faction?
"I am not sure about that," said independent political analyst Vladimir Frolov. "If Ustinov is moved to the position of Krasnodar governor, replacing the currently ailing governor Alexander Tkachyov, that will actually mean a strengthening of Sechin's position. Krasnodar is a very important region of 5 million people."
In Frolov's opinion, the scenario whereby Ustinov is moved to the position of a governor is the likeliest one, because before his promotion to the office of the Prosecutor General in the 1990s, Ustinov worked as a prosecutor in Sochi, a resort town in Krasnodar region. The other version of the dismissal could tie Ustinov's removal to the current anti-corruption drive, which has led to the dismissal of four Federation Council members and many customs officials during the last two months.
"In the last few months the leadership of the country has openly voiced concerns about the lack of resolve in the fight against corruption," said Vyacheslav Nikonov, a political analyst heading the "Unity In the Name of Russia" foundation, a think tank of the governing United Russia party. "Investigations against corruption in the customs and other state bodies were particularly difficult. The head of state had to nudge the law-enforcement bodies towards fulfilling their duties."
As for the public reaction of the country's top officials, it was largely neutral, but with a hint of sympathy for Ustinov.
"His resignation had a purely technical character," said Sergei Mironov, the chairman of the Federation Council. "He was a true professional, though."
"We shall definitely see him in state service again," said Vladimir Krasheninnikov, Russia's former justice minister. "He left in a civilized way."
Experts agree, however, that Ustinov's future career will not be a public one and he will not seek elected office, even though Ustinov tried to appeal to some conservatively minded circles inside the Russian Orthodox Church and certain political circles. "We are the true believers in our only true Orthodox church," he said addressing the delegates of the Tenth Annual World Council of Russian People, a church-organized event in the cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow in April. Ustinov thus became the first Russian prosecutor general since 1917 to state openly his religious affiliation.
Dmitry Kozak, the president's representative in the Southern Federal District, and Dmitry Konovalov, the president's representative in the Volga Federal District, were named by analysts as possible replacements for Ustinov. Both come from St. Petersburg, Putin's native city.