Doctors called?

Last week, at a meeting in Nizhny Novgorod, Prime Minister Putin attacked a company that causes his activity damage to the Russian economy.

This company was by no means “Baikalfinance group”, which bought Yuganskneftegaz at a non -alternative auction for the loan provided to it by the state. And not the company "Ganvor", which belongs to a friend of Putin's Premiere and receives $ 70 billion. annual income from the export of Russian oil. And not the Rosukranergo company, whose right to supply gas to Ukraine according to opaque schemes is selflessly defended by Russian officials at the highest level.

It turned out to be the company "Mechel", convicted of the sale of raw materials abroad at prices, is two times lower than the internal. The owner of the company, Igor Zyuzin, did not appear at the meeting, referring to the disease. “Of course, the disease is a disease,” the prime minister noted and advised the owner of Mechel to recover as soon as possible. “Otherwise, the doctor will have to send and clean all these problems to him.”

Putin’s promise to send Zyuzin the doctor cost Mr. Zyuzin 5 billion dollars. -It was so much that evening that the capitalization of the “swordsman” on the New York Exchange collapsed.

The reason precisely the "Mechel" caused the dissatisfaction of the prime minister is such. The largest Russian metallurgical giants, in particular, Novolipetsk and Magnitogorsk metallurgical plants, purchase coal on the side and, as a result, during a sharp increase in prices are interested in long -term contracts for the supply of coal.

The Mechel, which supplies coal, the company is carbon and therefore interested in sport contracts for the supply of coal, which will allow it to maximize the profit from sales, and on occasion to use coal deficiency as a lever to obtain control over small factories (for example, Gubakhya).

It is clear that giants such as NLMK and Magnitogorsk are much closer to the Kremlin and, especially, to the deputy prime minister Sichin, which now oversees industry. It was Sichin, with the active participation of metallurgical giants, and preparing a report that caused such a resonance.

It is noteworthy that this is already the second attempt to direct Putin Prime Minister’s direct intervention in the economy. A week ago, his discontent was caused by high prices for aviation kerosene. If earlier, during the presidency, President Putin emphasized in every possible way that the “Yukos case” is an exception, now, it seems, Prime Minister Putin gives everyone to understand that he intends to lead in manual mode.

The Mechel, which last week cost about $ 15 billion, recently laid out about 2.5 billion dollars. For control packages of two large coal companies - Yakutugol and Elgagullah - having defeated the state Alrosa. Yakutugol has been operated for a long time. Elgagan is just a piece of taiga, for the development of which you need several billion dollars.

Obviously, in the near future, the company that paid money for an open auction for not working assets will be difficult to attract funds for their development. If the "swords" went bankrupt, and its assets will be sold for nothing, the shareholders of Mechel (and I remind you that the company has passed IPO and its shares are quoted on the New York Stock Exchange), they may well sue Putin in the court of New York.

And if the shareholders of the Yukos, when filing such a claim, remains to prove that it was Vladimir Putin or Igor Sechin who are to blame for their troubles, then everything is obvious. It is difficult to imagine George Bush, threatening to “send a doctor” to Bill Gates. So in the free world do not speak with businessmen. So they say groin with a talked businessman. Typically, evidence of such threats is obtained promptly, wrapping themselves in microphones. Here the threats sounded right on TV.

One question is how much this story “sword” will cost. But, in my opinion, much more interesting is different - how much it will cost Magnitogorsk and Lipetsk. The incident is a classic illustration of the saying: do not call the wolf on the dogs to help. Metallurgical giants turned to the deputy prime minister Sichin to help him fight inflation by coercion of Mechel to long-term contracts. The general fall in the market was already worth the Russian steel industry much more than the losses from spotal contracts by which Zyuzin was sold. But zealous officials will now check everyone, not only Mechel. This is always the case with the Chekists and bandits: if you ask for them about the service, they will provide a service or not, it is unknown, but they will be likely.

But the most interesting thing is how much this story will cost Premier Putin. The point is not that the business will begin to say something in defense of the "swordsman"-no one has illusions here. The business will tear pieces from the "Mechela", and his mouth will be busy. But the “swordsman” will probably run to protect President Medvedev, and there is no reason why President Medvedev would not have provided him with protection. If nothing happens to the Mechel, and the prices for flights will not decrease, this will mean that Prime Minister Putin cannot regulate prices either for airlines or coals.

And this is very bad when the prime minister sends the doctor every week, and the doctor does not come. So quickly you can slide down to the level of Prime Minister Fradkov, who every week arranged for the spin of Gref or Kudrin, but for some reason could never do anything with them.