Russia’s Oligarchs Cry Wolf
0550 GMT, 000620
Summary

In response to the arrest of Russian media mogul Vladimir Gusinsky, a delegation of business leaders from the United States postponed its trip to Moscow this week. The move illustrates a conflict in U.S. policy toward Russia. On one hand, Washington has pleaded with Moscow to drive corruption from the upper levels of government and business. However, on the other, now that Russian President Vladimir Putin has begun to take the necessary measures, Washington is balking at the method.

Analysis

U.S. policy toward Russia took a puzzling turn this week when government advisers and private investors joined in the parade of global criticism against oligarch Vladimir Gusinsky’s arrest. Taking for granted a rash of media reports accusing Putin of Soviet-era repression, American investors and policymakers are overlooking the fact that Moscow is in fact combating corruption. Putin is attempting, as was requested by Western governments, to stimulate economic growth by imposing law and order in Russia.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Robert Strauss announced June 15 that eight corporate leaders from the U.S.-Russia Business Council would postpone their meeting with Putin scheduled to take place in Moscow June 20-21. The council, co-founded by Strauss, is a lobbying organization that represents 200 large American companies with active investment interests in Russia.

The council’s press statement claimed that “serious political and legal questions raised by the detention of Vladimir Gusinsky” had determined Strauss’s decision – which was made only after consultation with senior U.S. government officials – to postpone the trip.

Gusinsky, a member of Moscow’s wealthy, influential class of politically connected businessmen, was arrested on June 13 and charged several days later with embezzling $10 million in state funds. Russian law allows police to hold suspects for 10 days before charging them. Gusinsky was released after three days amid a barrage of both domestic and global protest that he – the owner of the only independent television station in the country – was detained for airing politically charged television programs. The embezzlement charges have not been dropped, despite an appeal on June 19, and Gusinsky has promised not to leave Moscow.

Gusinsky’s public proclamation of his innocence and victimization permeated first the Russian press, next the international media – and finally the halls of Western governments. When Gusinsky was arrested, he and other well-connected businessmen launched an all-out campaign accusing Putin of relying on Soviet-era tactics to repress free media and ignore democratic norms. There is little evidence beyond their assertions that this is a clampdown on the media. Nevertheless, their allegations were heard around the world, and Western media have regurgitated the story for outraged European and American audiences.

Western news reports are blaming Gusinsky’s arrest on his station’s criticism of the Kremlin and its mission in Chechnya, as well as for the station’s prime-time political satire – actually, a puppet show called “Kukly.” The media industry is in an uproar about Russia’s freedom of the press. Jewish organizations are up in arms about anti-Semitism; Gusinsky is a Jewish leader in Moscow. Fifty-two members of Congress called on President Clinton to intervene, demanding Gusinsky’s release and a justification for his arrest. And now American investment – Russia’s most valuable attainment – is turning away.

Ironically, Putin is being internationally reprimanded for doing exactly what he must do to create a safe investment environment in Russia. A vital part of Russia’s plan to heal its economy is the removal of the corrupt businessmen who rob the profitable national industries and use their political influence to reward their own best interests.

Putin cannot do this gently. Notice, he did not moderate his actions, but directly charged Gusinsky with embezzlement of state funds. This is why the oligarchs have suddenly become avid advocates of press freedom. Other oligarchs will follow, and they will not all be media magnates. The oligarchs are using a democratic value to catch Western attention in preparation for their own impending run-in with the Putin administration.

Nevertheless, American investors, in conjunction with the U.S. administration, are condemning Putin based on information coming straight from the accused and from other oligarchs who correctly fear they are the next targets. Granted, Putin may not be a “Kukly” fan, but his primary goal is to take away the power that allows the oligarchs to loot and manipulate the state.

As long as Putin continues to weed out the high-level corruption in Russia, the opposition against him will be strong. Right now, Washington is at risk of falling in with the crowd that sees Putin as a former KGB officer intent on pulling Russia back into a Soviet shell. If it does so, the State Department will end up defending the very thieves it demanded Putin remove, all because it believed the oligarchs when they cried wolf.

http://www.stratfor.com/CIS/commentary/0006200550.htm That was the link for last post.It sounds sort of like what I said yesterday.

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But, through Media-MOST’s connection to Gazprom, Gusinsky and his companies do have the power to pass on a significant financial burden, the effects of which will seep back to the national economy. In 1996 Gazprom bought 30 percent of the shares in Media-MOST. Since then, Media-MOST has accrued approximately $1 billion worth of foreign debt, for which Gazprom is liable. Should Media-MOST default, or should Gusinsky reallocate some funds to his personal accounts, Gazprom – in which the state has the largest stake – will have to pick up the debt. And the federal government, which relies on Gazprom’s profit to cover more than 25 percent of government revenues, is not willing to sacrifice a billion dollars for Gusinsky.

This Gusinsky is a parasite and should be given a life sentence.What's with all the freedom of speech and anti Semitism shite, this guy is a thief and parasite bottom line.More arrests to follow.This should have been done before this garbage siphoned the money out of the country.

Of Puppets and Oligarchs: Putin’s Crackdown Continues
0124 GMT, 000615
Russian media oligarch Vladimir Gusinsky was arrested late June 13 on suspicion of property theft. Foreign governments, Russian liberals and oligarchs immediately criticized the arrest as an attack on independent media. Russia’s oligarchs – all influential businessmen – are right to be concerned with the Russian government’s new assertiveness. The arrest, however, was not a move to destroy press freedom but simply to rein in oligarchs; others will follow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has long had reason to dislike Vladimir Gusinsky. Gusinsky’s parasitic absorption of many of the Soviet Union’s assets by legally dubious means helped degrade Russian power to where it is today. More recently, Gusinsky has backed Kremlin outsiders – such as the unruly Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov – against Russia’s ruling elite.

Targeting Putin more personally, Gusinsky’s media empire was one of the few sources of domestic criticism of the Chechen war – the issue that propelled Putin to power. Furthermore, one of Gusinsky’s television shows, entitled “Kukly” or “The Puppets,” has lampooned Russian political figures for several years. Putin has not escaped Gusinsky’s scathing comedic knife.

Gusinsky claims that it is this criticism – and the Putin puppet specifically – that triggered the tax police raid on Gusinsky’s Media-MOST firm on May 11. Critics of the Kremlin say the same rationale lies behind Gusinsky’s arrest.

But in the long-daggered world of Russian politics, seeking revenge for an annoying puppet is ridiculous. Putin must curb the power of the oligarchs in order to bring Russia’s lucrative extraction industries under central control, a first step toward rooting corruption out of the Russian economy. Gusinksy controls the most extensive independent media in the country and is therefore in the best position to challenge any government program. It is logical that he is the first to fall.

With Media-MOST tamed, others will follow – and they know it. The day after Gusinsky’s arrest, 17 of Russia’s most influential businessmen sent a letter to Russia’s prosecutor-general vouching for Gusinsky’s “good behavior” and calling for his release. This solidarity is a far cry from their scathing attacks on each other only months previous.

Two signatories – Unified Energy Systems chief Anatoly Chubais and Rem Vyakhirev, the head of Russia’s natural gas giant, Gazprom – are bitter enemies. As recently as a month ago they were clashing furiously over the future of their respective firms. Desperation, like politics, makes strange bedfellows.

Other signatories include Sibneft oil group head Yevgeny Schvidler, Interros Financial Group chief Vladimir Potanin and Alfa Group (Bank) chairman Mikhail Friedman. All now face a common threat from the Kremlin.

Even Boris Berezovsky, a long-time insider in Kremlin politics, characterized his view of the arrest as “sharply negative,” despite the fact that Berezovsky’s own media holdings stand to gain the most from Gusinsky’s absence. A president angered by a puppet certainly could not threaten the oligarch of oligarchs. A president intent on taming the oligarchs is another matter entirely.

Putin is far too pragmatic a leader to expend so much political capital simply to incapacitate an annoying puppet. Moreover, Putin has not moved against the entire press, just Gusinsky. A wider media crackdown would do nothing for Putin’s goal of gathering Western economic aid. Putin will continue his crackdown until the oligarchs see things his way.

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Well son I'll start off with the name, betterthanyou, this was chosen out of contempt for another when I first visited this board. He claimed he was a nazi and stated he beleived whole-heartedly in the nazi way of life including the persecution of others because of race, religion and nationality. Just as you... Now don't get me wrong I have my prejudices against others but I wouldn't kill them for it. It seems somehow you have chosen to ignore all the facts of these conflicts that the serbs have waged war against. I may have mentioned in jest the photo's which were taken of families slaughterd, children maimed and raped. So you are stating all the eye witness accounts in Bosnia were lies also, if you beleive this you are a dumbass. You seem to ignore the the photos of the war crimes as fakes and propoganda by some unknown entity. So who killed them and who raped them? Was it you? You will probably say it was a US laser guided bomb that spread her legs, raped her and then shot her in the head. Right? Well I doubt that very much. I doubt very much that you have carried a weapon in defense of another. It's easy for you to judge war when you have never been to war isn't it. I have seen what undiciplined third world soldiers do when they are alone. Now again don't get me wrong, because I'm not stating war crimes are not commited by western troops because it does happen. But it doesn't happen to the extend of a whole military force gone mad, trying to exterminate a whole race. So for your support of the serbs yes I call you a dumbass, you are no better than a Nazi sympathizer. Of course then again the holacaust was a hoax too, right? All filmed on the back lot of Universal Studios with rubber dummies. So you tell me why do you ignore the facts, is it jealousy? Igor you really think I'm overlooking the facts, I thjink it's the other way around... Open your minds and your ass will follow! Dipshiit...
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