#10
BBC Monitoring
Little known Putin's confidant seen behind corruption
investigations in Russia
Source: Ekho Moskvy radio, Moscow, in Russian 1000 gmt 31 Oct 01
[Presenter] We are starting our news bulletin with semi-criminal news. Russian First Deputy Prosecutor-General Yuriy Biryukov denied today that a criminal case has been opened against the management of Rosoboronexport [Russian arms export company]. At the same time, the directorate for information of the Prosecutor-General's Office has confirmed that prosecutors are working on several cases related to three state bodies - Railways Ministry, Emergencies Ministry and State Customs Committee. Besides, the Moscow prosecutor's office has opened a case against an official from the State Committee on Fishery [headed by formed Maritime Territory governor Yevgeniy Nazdratenko].
[Omitted: covered from other sources]
Our colleagues in newspapers are concerned about corruption investigations in several state bodies. Two newspapers commented today on the checks and reshuffles. Lev Gulko will brief us on this.
[Gulko] Perhaps because of being extremely nervous, officials in the Kremlin and the White House [house of the government] were eager to share their views on the current and expected events with the Kommersant [daily] correspondent. They however did it only under the condition of anonymity.
So here is the picture one can draw using the information obtained from sources that are independent from each other. It is not just routine checks, but the process is being managed by some shadow personnel office under the president headed by the chief of the presidential secretariat, Igor Sechin. The Gazeta daily agrees with this. Gazeta's source says that the person behind all these intrigues is the deputy head of the presidential staff, who incidentally is the same Igor Sechin.
The source told the newspaper that there must be a very substantial reason to initiate such checks. Sources in the presidential administration said, the newspaper continues, that the results of the checks conducted by the Audit Chamber are almost always unpleasant. However, there have been no resignations in the cabinet prompted by such checks. Even [Russian Railways Minister Nikolay] Aksenenko's case is very loosely linked to the Audit Chamber.
The source told the newspaper that Sechin is in charge of the president's schedule, paperwork and drafting decrees. He is unlikely to have any relation to reshuffles in the government. But having said that, the newspaper maintains, one should keep in mind that Sechin is one of the closest confidants of the president. Back in the early 1990s he became the head of the staff of the head of the committee for international relations at the St Petersburg mayor's office, Vladimir Putin. The two men have never parted since then. Sechin was beside Putin wherever he went - be it the presidential administration, the cabinet or the Kremlin.
If the scheme described by Kommersant and Gazeta really exists than we are watching yet another cycle of one natural process, Kommersant says: Old personalities are being replaced with new ones. The form is traditional for Russia - the usage of punitive methods. The replacement of, if not the political, then certainly the economic elite managing Russia on behalf of the state is under way.
One more question might emerge, Kommersant says. Maybe [Audit Chamber head] Sergey Stepashin, who has become something like an engine of the new Russian staffing revolution, is clearing a place for himself? This is unlikely, Kommersant answers itself. Neither Stepashin, nor Putin have forgotten an episode in the "Conversations with Putin" book, in which Putin says that Stepashin's short-lived premiership was an extremely weak affair. Stepashin's motive is different. He himself is a politician called up in the old oligarchic times. So it is important for him to preserve his status of a presidential confidant. Same refers to Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov. So, little has changed in the rules of staffing games since the last century, Kommersant concludes.
Next Article