#5
The Moscow Tribune
December 7, 2001
Purges may be in works
By Dmitry Polikarpov
Speculations over a possible major exodus from the Kremlin of several key members of Boris Yeltsin's inner circle received new impetus this week as exiled media tycoon Boris Berezovsky urged Yeltsin's allies to resign and form a liberal opposition to President Vladimir Putin.
Berezovsky's open letter to the head of the energy monopolist RAO UES, Anatoly Chubais, Chief of the Kremlin administration Alexander Voloshin, and Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov came amid an escalating media campaign alleging that they may be ousted by Putin and his allies from the special services.
"Show some will, do not wait to be shown the door. Present your resignations voluntary. With this step you will most effectively help the president realise his mistakes," said the letter published by Nezavisimaya Gazeta, which is controlled by Berezovsky.
Berezovsky, who has been living in voluntary exile in Europe, also urged the former Yeltsin allies to "create a truly powerful liberal opposition" to combat what he described as "Putin's thirst for dictatorship."
Berezovsky's warning came as an evident response to the ongoing campaign against corruption among top government officials carried out by Audit Chamber chief Sergei Stepashin and Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov. The Prosecutor General's office filed criminal charges last month against Railways Minister Nikolai Aksyonenko and requested that the official not leave Moscow until the investigation is completed.
The Auditing Chamber uncovered about $370 million worth of misappropriations and inefficient use of funds by Aksyonenko's subordinates. The Auditing Chamber has submitted to the Prosecutor General's office reports featuring alleged wrongdoings at the Railways Ministry, the State Fisheries Committee, the Emergency Situations Ministry, the State Customs Committee, and the Press Ministry. Investigations into activities of the Natural Resources Ministry and the Presidential Administration's Property Department are also under way.
On Thursday, Moskovsky Komsomolets added heat to the media debates over a possible split between Putin and "the Family" -- as Yeltsin-era officials are called -- saying that the president has been trying to oust Yeltsin's daughter, Tatiana Dyachenko, from the Kremlin. She recently married Valentin Yumashev, Yeltsin's ghost-writer and former head of administration. Both Dyachenko and Yumashev are advisers to Voloshin on a voluntary basis. The daily said that Dyachenko, who played a key role in Putinès election campaign in 2000, was forced to share the same office with Yumashev after sudden repair works began in her office. MK also wrote that Putin was annoyed that Dyachenko had been trying to purchase a luxury home in the Vorobyovy Gory area, owned by the administration, for an artificially low "state" price.
Yumashev said at a private meeting with the editors-in-chief of several national periodicals last week that Putin might be preparing for "purges resembling those of the '30s" held by Joseph Stalin. Yumashev reportedly accused Putin of promoting "people from special services," who spy on former Yeltsin officials and create "unbearable conditions" in the Kremlin for them.
The choice of "victims" in the war on corruption has prompted political analysts to say that the campaign is an attempt by Putin's team to undermine the positions of Yeltsin's appointees still controlling key government posts.
"This is evidently a deliberate action that has a strong political element. Putin is trying to get rid of officials of the Yeltsin era using the war on corruption as a pretext. If he manages to do so, his team will receive control over important financial resources," said President of the INDEM research institute Georgy Satarov in an interview with The Moscow Tribune.
However, several analysts have been sceptical about the possibility of former Yeltsin allies forming a viable political opposition to Putin.
"This idea is unrealistic. There are no important political figures among those who are supposed to form the opposition. In essence, they are businessmen and state managers, not public politicians," said Vyacheslav Nikonov of the Politika foundation.
The Kremlin has been denying any split within Putin's team, dominated by natives of St Petersburg, former special services agents, and "the Family."
"The main Kremlin secret is that there is no split there. The more the press writes about the confrontation between the two wings, the more evident it becomes that these allegations are nothing but fiction," said Gleb Pavlovsky, president of the Effective Policy Foundation close to Putin, in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta this week.
Pavlovsky said, "This campaign in the media is masterminded by those who intend to create maximum problems in the Kremlin."
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