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#14
Argumenty i Fakty
No. 47
November 2001
PUTIN'S OBSCURE FOLLOWERS
Analysis of President Vladimir Putin's economic team
Author: Olga Gladkova

[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]

VLADIMIR PUTIN HAS EVERYTHING HE NEEDS NOWADAYS TO PLAY HIS OWN GAME. HE HAS TWO TEAMS. THE SECOND ONE SEES TO THE SAFETY OF THE PRESIDENT'S POLICY FROM THE ECONOMIC FLANK. NOTHING OR ALMOST NOTHING IS KNOWN ABOUT THESE MEN SAVE FOR THE FACT THAT THEY ARE EITHER FROM ST. PETERSBURG OR FROM THE SECRET SERVICES.

IT IS THE TEAM THAT MAKES THE PRESIDENT. VLADIMIR PUTIN HAS EVERYTHING HE NEEDS NOWADAYS TO PLAY HIS OWN GAME. HE HAS TWO TEAMS. ONE TEAM IS IN KEY POSITIONS IN THE STATE. THEY ARE BUILDING THE STATE POWER HIERARCHY, AND ARE CONSTANTLY SEEN ON TV. THE OTHER TEAM SEES TO THE SAFETY OF THE PRESIDENT'S POLICY FROM THE ECONOMIC FLANK. NOTHING OR ALMOST NOTHING IS KNOWN ABOUT THESE MEN SAVE FOR THE FACT THAT THEY ARE EITHER FROM ST. PETERSBURG OR FROM THE SECRET SERVICES.

THE MATTER CONCERNS MEN FROM PUTIN'S TEAM WHO MANAGE RUSSIAN COMPANIES GENERATING $7-10 BILLION IN PROFITS A YEAR.

Nikolai Tokarev became the president's first representative in big business. Former Transneft vice president who had worked with Putin in Boris Yeltsin's administration, Tokarev became general director of the Zarubezhneft just over a year ago. He replaced Oleg Popov, the man who had managed the company the last ten years and was generally viewed as a creature of ex-minister Kalyuzhny (fuel and energy).

The Zarubezhneft extracts oil on the Vietnamese shelf. It brought $440 million to the state treasury in 2000. The company earns approximately the same sum exporting 20 million tons of Iraqi oil or so every year.

Staff shuffle took place in the arms export system approximately a month after the reshuffle at the Zarubezhneft. Two state companies Rosvooruzhenie and Promeksport merged to form the Rosoboroneksport.

Arms export brings Russian $3-3.5 billion every year. The new structure is headed by Andrei Belianinov, formerly deputy general director at Sergei Chemezov's Promeksport. It is Chemezov who is Belianinov's deputy now. Current top managers of the Rosoboroneksport had worked with Putin long before he was elected the president. Like Putin, Belianinov worked at the Soviet Embassy in East Germany back in the 1980's. Chemezov headed the office of the company Luch in East Germany then and afterwards worked under Putin at the Presidential Affairs Department in Moscow under Yeltsin (he was in charge of foreign economic contacts). Ex-head of Rosvooruzhenie Aleksei Orlov, a man associated with Yeltsin's Family, was dismissed.

Belianinov's and Chemezov's past careers resemble each other closely, but the career prospects of the latter are viewed as more promising. It was Chemezov who got an invitation to the First Lady's birthday party. Tokarev was there as well.

Staff revolution at the Gazprom took place shortly afterwards with the coming of Aleksei Miller, former head of the St. Petersburg Sea Port and the Baltic Pipelines System. Expansion of men St. Petersburg into the Gazprom began with Miller's appearance. It is men from St. Petersburg who manage the company that reported over $17 billion worth of consolidated dividends (together with subdivisions, that is).

Vitaly Saveliev has become one of the most influential managers at the Gazprom. Former deputy to Miller and former head of the MENATEP - St. Petersburg bank, he is said wield even more influence than Pyotr Rodionov, Miller's senior deputy and a representative of Rem Vyakhirev's team. It is Saveliev who signs all important financial documents nowadays.

Sergei Veremeenko, another representative of the financial circles and Mezhprombank CEO, was considered one of the candidates for the top position at the Gazprom's financial bloc. He is known as the closest associate of Sergei Pugachev, founder of the bank.

Miller's another deputy Sergei Lukash is known at the Gazprom as a man close to Viktor Zolotov, Director of the Presidential Security Service. Zolotov was in charge of Putin's security when the latter was the prime minister. He had been Sobchak's bodyguard in St. Petersburg before that.

The ALROSA, the major Russian diamond company, will probably be added to the list of businesses enjoying the attention of the powers- that-be. It reported $405 million dividends in 2000. According to its general plan, the company may earn $4 billion between 2001 and 2005. Rumors on the possibility of power shuffles in the company coincided in time with the presidential race in Yakutia - Sakha where the company operates.

There are several men who may replace ALROSA head Vyacheslav Shtyrov. Vladimir Litvinenko of the St. Petersburg Mining Institute is one of them. Litvinenko knows Putin as a politician and as a scientist. It was with Litvinenko's help that Putin defended his thesis. It was Litvinenko who managed Putin's electoral headquarters in St. Petersburg. It is clear that the ALROSA top management will be changed in any case. Perhaps, the new top management will come from the Mezhprombank who are fairly interested in the Yakutian company.

Future plans of the economic wing of Putin's team are fairly transparent. The Prosecutor General's Office made everything clear pressing charges against Nikolai Aksenenko.

There is nothing surprising in the president's desire to promote his own men to key positions in the economy. Continuity of power costs a lot. Experience of 1996 shows that it is better to borrow money for the elections from the men the president considers his own. When oligarchs are too independent, they demand too much in return.

There is another difference between old and new business-tycoons. The ones that surrounded Yeltsin thought in financial terms, they thought in terms of privatization for a song. The ones surrounding Putin have more by way of ideology. As far as they are concerned, Putin is not a moneybag. He is a guarantee of their businesses by the law. And when such a president needs help sometimes, why not offer it?

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