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ILLARIONOV: YUGANSKNEFTEGAZ WILL BE RETURNED TO PREVIOUS OWNER

MOSCOW, February 14 (RIA Novosti) - In an interview with Novaya Gazeta, presidential economic adviser Andrei Illarionov was uncompromising on a number of painful issues.

In his opinion, the adoption and implementation of the law on the replacement of benefits in-kind by cash payments revealed that many political institutions and instruments required for taking such significant decisions had been dismantled. Accordingly, he believes there is a real and very serious danger today that the center of political processes has moved to the streets once and for all.

The adviser is convinced that the money in the Stabilization Fund must not be spent. However, if it is spent, the Finance Ministry will be responsible for how it is used. Herein lies the main problem: the money from the Stabilization Fund will merge with federal budget money in this case and it will be technically impossible to track it.

Mr. Illarionov said that he did not know the origin of the money used to buy Yuganskneftegaz. "I have not seen any documents nor did I see the auction, so it remains incorrect to say that Rosneft paid for Yuganskneftegaz," the official said. At the same time, Mr. Illarionov is sure that Yuganskneftegaz will be returned to its previous owner sooner or later: "We are a Christian nation after all. I cannot understand how society and the country can live ignoring the Commandment 'Thou shalt not steal.'"

Mr. Illarionov also gave his version of constantly diverging capital inflow and outflow figures. In his opinion, when the ruble is down, banks convert their money into foreign currency, whereas when the ruble is stronger, investment in the Russian currency becomes more profitable and banks instantly convert their capital into rubles. "However, these operations involve speculative capital rather than investment. Therefore, in my view, it is absurd to consider these fluctuations as capital outflow or inflow," the presidential economic adviser said.