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#9
gazeta.ru
October 31, 2001
Prosecutors Clearing Way for Putin's Team
By Andrei Litvinov

Leading figures in Russia's ministries and government agencies are facing the grim prospect of being summoned to the chief prosecutor's office for questioning, sources in the Prosecutor General's Office informed leading news agencies on Tuesday.

Over the past two weeks storm clouds have gathered over the Railroads Ministry and, in particular, its chief Nikolai Aksyonenko, whom the federal prosecutors have already officially charged with abuses of office inflicting huge financial damage on the state.

It looks increasing likely that certain senior officials in the Ministry for Emergency Situations, headed by Sergei Shoigu, the popular leader of the pro Kremlin Unity party, will also be charged.

On Tuesday reports of yet more criminal proceedings instigated by the Prosecutor General Office hit the headlines. Several major media outlets said that prosecutors plan to open criminal cases against ministerial officials who combine public service with commercial activities, which is prohibited by Russian law.

Reports also emerged of a black list of threatened officials that Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov allegedly keeps in his safe.

Many observers presume that those reports concerned Mikhail Lesin of the Press Ministry and Vitaly Artyukhov of the Ministry for Natural Resources, however the Prosecutor General's Office immediately refuted all assumptions that those two officials could be implicated in any kind of criminal activity.

Later in the day the Interfax news agency cited "sources in the Prosecutor General's Office", which said that apart from the Railroads Ministry, proceedings have been instigated against senior officials in the State Fisheries Committee and the State Customs Committee (GTK). The report also mentioned Sergei Shoigu's Emergencies Ministry.

The first reports about a criminal investigation into Emergency Ministry officials emerged last Friday. Since then the Prosecutor's Office has on several occasions said the investigation concerns only Sergei Khetagurov, one of Shoigu's former deputies who was recently registered as a candidate in the elections for president of the Russian Republic of Northern Ossetia.

The prosecutors have said it is unlikely that they will question minister Shoigu himself.

However, on Tuesday evening Sergei Stepashin, the chief of the Audit Chamber, the parliamentary financial watchdog, said on the NTV channel that "a very serious audit" was being conducted in the Ministry of Emergency Situations to establish how funds allocated for the restoration of the town of Lensk in Yakutia have been used. Large areas of Lensk were literally washed away by floods last spring.

As for the customs service an investigation was recently launched into abuses of power by customs officials in the North Western customs department and the whole of the management thereof resigned as a consequence. The clampdown against corruption was initiated personally by Russia's custom's chief himself, Mikhail Vanin. It is very possible that Vanin's intention was to demonstrate his capabilities to the state.

As for Yevgeniy Nazdratenko and his agency, the State Committee for Fisheries, it is relevant that the former governor of the Primorye Region was appointed the post in the wake of an enormous scandal.

As governor of Primorye, Nazdratenko literally looted the region's economy which lead to a severe energy crisis in the region last year. As a consequence many of the region's residents were literally left freeze in their unheated homes.

Nazdratenko resigned from the Primorye's governor's post following a phone call from President Putin and was apparently handed the Fisheries Committee as a reward for his obedience. Several observers have said the Kremlin now wants to oust Nazdratenko from is new and potentially very lucrative post.

Finally, on Tuesday Sergei Stepashin told the press that his Audit Chamber is conducting an audit of the Press Ministry.

Stepashin admitted that all the audit reports drawn by the Chamber are being submitted to the Prosecutor's Office for further inspection. Thus, it is highly likely Mikhail Lesin's agency is next on the list, in spite of the earlier denials.

Commenting on the new campaign initiated by prosecutors against certain senior state officials, most observers on Tuesday assumed that the Kremlin, with the help of law enforcers, has launched a campaign to redistribute spheres of influence in the state and to get rid of old-timers, appointed to their posts under Yeltsin.

Eventually, they all will be replaced with people from the so-called "Putin Team", which will enable the Kremlin to establish control over huge ministerial budgets.

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