Impossible to Resolve Issue of Dishonest Privatizations in 1990s — Shuvalov
Interfax - 6.7.12 - JRL 2012-104
MOSCOW. June 7. (Interfax) - Although it is fair to attempt to solve the problem of the "unfair privatization of the 1990s," it will be quite difficult to do so in practice, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said.
"Of course we have worked with experts - both those who work at agencies and independent experts. The majority of experts, even including governmental experts, are inclined to believe that it is practically impossible to do this. If it needed to be done, it should have been done a lot earlier," he said at a Thursday briefing in Moscow.
Conscientious buyers have appeared for these assets - acquirers that were in no way involved in the original privatization. "This is why there is a factor of fairness here, and Vladimir Vladimirovich is absolutely right - if we did do this, it would be some kind of amendment to public opinion. But can this be done if we adopt some kind of legislation? Unlikely. We can't adopt laws that are impossible to enforce, that will be exclusively political in nature," Shuvalov said.
He emphasized that "it would be fair, but it would be extremely difficult to implement such a law in practice."
That said, the new stage of privatization slated for the next few years must be fair. "The most important is that all of these privatization deals be truly approved by the population of this country. We can't allow this privatization to be perceived as unfair. We can't allow a second wave of unfair privatization," Shuvalov said.
At the Congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE) on February 9, Putin stressed the necessity of closing the topic of the 1990s privatizations and proposed thinking up options for solving this problem jointly with businesses. "This should either be a one-time fee or something like it, but we need to think about it together. I think that both society as a whole and the entrepreneurial class are interested in this most of all.
We need to close this subject. What we need to do is ensure public legitimacy for the institute of private property itself," Putin said at the time.
Asked by journalists on March 7 when a decision could be made as to how the dishonest privatization topic could find closure, Putin said that "there are several elements here - we need to find a formula suitable for both the 'privatizers' of the 1990s and for the public, so that this topic can finally have closure."
"Whether we can find such a formula, I don't know. When I was talking about this, I said that it was Grigory Alexeyevich Yavlinsky's proposal," Putin added.
Keywords: Russia, Economy, Business - Russian News - Russia
MOSCOW. June 7. (Interfax) - Although it is fair to attempt to solve the problem of the "unfair privatization of the 1990s," it will be quite difficult to do so in practice, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said.
"Of course we have worked with experts - both those who work at agencies and independent experts. The majority of experts, even including governmental experts, are inclined to believe that it is practically impossible to do this. If it needed to be done, it should have been done a lot earlier," he said at a Thursday briefing in Moscow.
Conscientious buyers have appeared for these assets - acquirers that were in no way involved in the original privatization. "This is why there is a factor of fairness here, and Vladimir Vladimirovich is absolutely right - if we did do this, it would be some kind of amendment to public opinion. But can this be done if we adopt some kind of legislation? Unlikely. We can't adopt laws that are impossible to enforce, that will be exclusively political in nature," Shuvalov said.
He emphasized that "it would be fair, but it would be extremely difficult to implement such a law in practice."
That said, the new stage of privatization slated for the next few years must be fair. "The most important is that all of these privatization deals be truly approved by the population of this country. We can't allow this privatization to be perceived as unfair. We can't allow a second wave of unfair privatization," Shuvalov said.
At the Congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE) on February 9, Putin stressed the necessity of closing the topic of the 1990s privatizations and proposed thinking up options for solving this problem jointly with businesses. "This should either be a one-time fee or something like it, but we need to think about it together. I think that both society as a whole and the entrepreneurial class are interested in this most of all.
We need to close this subject. What we need to do is ensure public legitimacy for the institute of private property itself," Putin said at the time.
Asked by journalists on March 7 when a decision could be made as to how the dishonest privatization topic could find closure, Putin said that "there are several elements here - we need to find a formula suitable for both the 'privatizers' of the 1990s and for the public, so that this topic can finally have closure."
"Whether we can find such a formula, I don't know. When I was talking about this, I said that it was Grigory Alexeyevich Yavlinsky's proposal," Putin added.