Russia 110601 Basic Political Developments

Who needs a free Khodorkovsky?

http://rt.com/politics/press/trud/khodorkovsky-release-need/en/
Published: 1 June, 2011, 04:45
Edited: 1 June, 2011, 04:45
Zhanna Ulyanova

Former Yukos head may be awaited by Dmitry Medvedev and Mikhail Prokhorov 

Yesterday Khodorkovsky and Lebedev won against Russia in the European Court of Human Rights and, at the same time, filed for parole. It won’t be long before they are released, say political analysts, as the detainees are needed by the “right”, the presidents, and modernization. 

The former head of Yukos and ex-director of Menatep have decided to submit a petition for parole at the Moscow Preobrazhensky District Court. Khodorkovsky’s last attempt, which was made three years ago, was unsuccessful, and Lebedev had decided not to even try. Today, the situation has changed, clearly to the advantage of the prisoners, say Trud’s experts. 

Modernization stalls without Khodorkovsky

“The release of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev is, first and foremost, beneficial to Medvedev. His involvement in this will serve as a trump card in the political game,” says Mikhail Vinogradov, president of the St. Petersburg Politics Fund.

The president and the prime minister have chosen opposing viewpoints in the Yukos case. On May 18, Dmitry Medvedev said that a free Khodorkovsky “is absolutely non-threatening”, which could have influenced the decision of the Moscow City Court to reduce his jail term by one year. So, if the Supreme Court of Russia reduces the term by several more years and then approve him for early release, then Dmitry Medvedev will have reasserted himself in the eyes of Russian citizens as an independent leader, just as he did in the case of Luzhkov’s resignation. 

Without a free Khodorkovsky the president’s modernization stalls.

Foreign investors do not want to work in Russia until they ascertain the legal rules of the game in the Russian field of innovation.

The “rights” will save a space

Mikhail Prokhorov and the Right Cause Party, which he has personally revived, are also waiting for the prisoners. According to the director of the National Strategy Institute, Stanislav Belkovsky, the “rights” would accept Khodorkovsky and Lebedev in their ranks – which would win them more votes – especially considering the fact that the head of Onexim Group has already expressed regret about the new term assigned to the head of Yukos.    

The chosen candidate in 2012

“Khodorkovsky’s release from jail is beneficial to the next president of Russia,” says Igor Bunin, director of the Center for Political Technologies. “It will be done by Putin or Medvedev, whoever becomes the head of the country in 2012.” The country needs to change its image, to finally respond to the EU’s accusation of judicial lawlessness, and to attract investors. The political scientist is confident that Vladimir Putin will not be deterred by his stated position – “a thief must sit in jail.” It will be a gesture of goodwill, and it will be even more dramatic than if the jail cell door was opened by Dmitry Medvedev.     

However, according to Sergey Markov, director of the Political Research Institute, no matter who initiates the release, the authorities and the prisoners will first need to come to an agreement. “Khodorkovsky and Lebedev will be forced to stop criticizing the state and speaking out against those who divided the property of Yukos,” says Sergey Markov.   

For now, the international community continues to frown on the sentencing of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev. Yesterday the European Court of Human Rights, though it did not find solid proof that the case was politically motivated, obliged Russia to pay the prisoners €10,000 in damages and €14,543 in legal fees. 

Barack waits for Khodorkovsky

Strangely, US President Barack Obama is also interested in seeing the businessmen released. He is currently gaining points for his second term in office, and a democratic victory in Russia would be rather timely, says Stanislav Belkovsky. At last year’s APEC summit in November, the Russian and US presidents held a meeting, during which Barack Obama asked the Russian president to resolve the issue concerning Khodorkovsky, to which Medvedev replied: “Okay Barack, I hear you.”

Auditor Says $71M Misspent in State Tenders

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/auditor-says-71m-misspent-in-state-tenders/437899.html
01 June 2011

By Natalya Krainova

Government officials misspent more than 2 billion rubles ($71 million) in state tenders between November and March, the Audit Chamber said in a report obtained by The Moscow Times on Tuesday.

Contracts were overpriced by almost 252 million rubles, agencies failed to receive 1.5 million rubles in goods, and "ineffective expenses" accounted for 992 million rubles, the lion's share of the misspent funds, the report said, without elaborating.

President Dmitry Medvedev called for measures to curb corruption at state tenders in October. The head of the Kremlin's control department, Konstantin Chuichenko, said corruption eats up more than 1 trillion rubles ($35 billion) of the 5 trillion rubles ($178.5 billion) that federal, regional and municipal agencies spend in the tenders every year.

The government is considering legislation to prevent corruption at tenders, which result in more than 10 million contracts per year.

The Audit Chamber report said the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, which is responsible for monitoring tenders, has detected more violations over the past two years. The anti-monopoly service fined government agencies 10,399 times last year for a total of 227.2 million rubles, compared with 2,989 times in 2008 for 91.1 million rubles.

More than 94 percent of state contracts were placed "on a noncompetitive basis" in 2010, the report said. The number of dishonest suppliers has grown from 1,484 in 2008 to 4,519 in 2010, it said.

A large chunk of the money was misspent by unspecified agencies on defense needs controlled by the Federal Service for Defense Contracts, or Rosoboronzakaz, which issued 573 fines in 2010 for 34.6 million rubles, compared with 234 fines in 2008 for 8.38 million rubles, the report said.

Another defense agency, the Federal Agency for Delivery of Weapons, Military and Special Equipment, or Rosoboronpostavka, was accused of misspending by increasing the average salary of its workers to 135,000 rubles ($4,800) per month last year, an amount 2.2 times higher than at other state agencies, Gazeta.ru reported.

Corrupt military officials steal practically 20 percent of the country's defense budget through kickbacks and bogus contracts, chief military prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky told Rossiiskaya Gazeta last week.

The Audit Chamber report said the Federal Prison Service spent 48.6 million rubles on cars in 2009 and 2010, while the Justice Ministry spent 24.6 million rubles for the same reason over those two years, but both misspent a large part of the money on "economically unjustified" car parts.

The report also criticized a 2005 federal law on state tenders, saying it had reduced competition from 3.68 bids per tender in 2006 to 2.78 bids per tender today.

Also, 60 percent to 90 percent of state tenders are held with procedural mistakes, the report said.