Periscope No. 5

Khlebnikov case | Get up, the court is gone

Just a month after it began, the trial for the murder of Paul Khlebnikov, editor-in-chief of the Russian version of Forbes magazine, starts anew. The Moscow City Court sees nothing extraordinary in this. "The reasons are purely technical," spokesman Anna Usacheva told Newsweek. - At the last meeting on January 18, it was decided to postpone the hearing due to the illness of Judge Marina Komarova. She is undergoing inpatient treatment, and in order not to drag out the process, Vladimir Usov has now been entrusted with chairing it.” According to Usacheva, according to the norms of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the consideration of the case will return to the very initial stage. This may mean changes in the composition of the jury (if the new judge does not leave the previous composition), and a return to the main issue - the openness of the trial itself. Judge Komarova closed the process to all outsiders (including the media), following the lead of the prosecution, who feared for the disclosure of certain secrets. This was repeatedly opposed by relatives and friends of the deceased journalist, his Russian and foreign colleagues, as well as representatives of the defense, but the court remained indifferent to their arguments. Recall that there are three defendants in the dock: Chechens Musa Vakhaev and Kazbek Dukuzov and Moscow notary Fail Sadretdinov. It was the Chechens, according to the investigation, who killed Khlebnikov in Moscow on July 9, 2004, on the order of one of the former leaders of the self-proclaimed Ichkeria, Khozh-Akhmed Nukhaev. The notary, on the other hand, is involved in the case "on a tangent" - he is accused of organizing a contract killing of a capital businessman, which he allegedly entrusted to the same Dukuzov and Vakhaev. “Replacing the presiding officer is an attempt by Themis to correct the violations committed by judge Komarova,” said Ruslan Koblev, Sadretdinov’s lawyer. - The court ignored our remarks on obvious violations of the Code of Criminal Procedure: neither the defense witnesses nor the specialists who conducted the examinations were named in the case file ... I am satisfied that the judicial investigation will start from scratch, and I hope it will proceed without violations of the law ... We also intend to seek openness of the process. As I managed to understand, the prosecutor does not intend to use the materials of the criminal case in court, which would be marked “top secret,” Koblev continues. The first court session in the new composition is scheduled for February 15. Newsweek will continue to follow its progress.

No luck | Past the St. Petersburg

Valentina Matvienko failed to achieve re-registration of one of the largest Russian oil companies Sibneft in St. Petersburg - the giant's head office remains in Omsk. Last year, the governor spoke about the move of the oilmen's headquarters to the northern capital almost as if it were a fait accompli: they now have a luxurious office here near the Bronze Horseman, and tax incentives can be discussed. There were no denials at the time, but last week Alexei Firsov, Sibneft's press secretary, spoke more than definitely: "Neither Gazprom nor Sibneft, which belongs to it, announced the re-registration of the company in St. Petersburg." Rumors about the move, made it clear in Sibneft, came largely from Valentina Matvienko, who was interested in this, but 14 billion rubles. taxes per year will continue to receive Omsk. So far, the shareholders of the Moscow company Sovcomflot did not want to move to the city of Petra either - Matvienko was also looking forward to them along with 2 billion rubles. annual taxes. However, there is no need to talk about some kind of boycott of St. Petersburg: in 2005, Gazprom moved the headquarters of its petrochemical holding there from Moscow SIBUR , Transnefteprodukt and Vneshtorgbank followed him “for the company”, and in January Transaero airline “flew” from Orel. Sergey Mayorov, an expert from the Center for Strategic Studies, is convinced that the registration of the head offices of the largest companies in the president's hometown remains a political issue: “In the extractive industries, in metallurgy, the proximity of the office to enterprises is often important. And if there is a need to move to a large city, Moscow is much more convenient than St. Petersburg, where, moreover, there is no metropolitan infrastructure and business activity.

Balkans | Rugova - on another

In Kosovo, the struggle for the presidency of the region began. The question of who will succeed Ibrahim Rugova, who died two weeks ago of lung cancer, should be decided in the coming days. “With the death of Rugova, the era of stability between peace and war has gone. Those who fought will now come to power, and their position will be tougher, ”Elena Guskova, head of the Center for the Study of the Contemporary Balkan Crisis at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, shared with Newsweek. Today, several influential politicians are running for the presidency. Analysts believe that 54-year-old professor of law from Pristina, Fatmir Sejdiu, is most likely to become it. Last Tuesday, he was nominated for this post by the province's largest party, the Democratic League of Kosovo. According to Judy Butt of the EU Institute for Strategic Studies and Security, "Mr. Sejdiu fits the role of president." She is echoed by Balkan expert Tim Judah of the Economist magazine: “There is no doubt that he will become president. However, the president does not play a key role. It is more important who will lead the negotiation process.” Ibrahim Rugova combined both positions. "Most likely, Sejdiu will do the same if he is elected president," Agron Bajrami, editor-in-chief of Kosovo's largest newspaper, KohaDitore, told Newsweek. Meanwhile, two weeks later, negotiations on the final status of autonomy, postponed due to Rugova's death, begin. Representatives of the Contact Group on Kosovo have defined their position. On Wednesday, the group released its joint statement, which states a fixed deadline for solving the problem - until the end of 2006. In the Balkans, this position was unequivocally assessed. Kosovo Albanians believe they will finally get "conditional independence" by separating from Serbia and Montenegro. But Serbia still has hope for the support of Russia, which believes that the precedent with Kosovo may lead to similar processes in the former USSR: there is no legal basis for the independence of the region, and the solution of the problem cannot be limited to specific terms.

Bushenomics | How much is a barrel of alcohol?

Last week, US President George W. Bush delivered his annual State of the Union address to Congress. The fifth message of Bush Jr. differed from the previous ones: the main emphasis was placed on domestic problems, primarily on energy security. States are increasingly dependent on imported oil: there is a risk that in the event of sharp changes in the oil market, another fuel crisis will erupt, as it did in the 1970s. Last year, the share of imports was over 67%, while the total consumption of oil by America exceeds 20 million barrels per day. This problem worries the administration for a long time. Bush noted that "since 2001, about $10 billion has been spent to develop cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable sources of energy." Now appropriations for these purposes are expected to be increased by 22%. Bush wants to switch vehicles from gasoline to alcohol and hydrogen, and energy - to nuclear, solar and wind energy. By 2025, alternative energy sources will make it possible to replace more than 75% of oil imported from the Middle East. "By this time, we plan to reduce the import of crude oil from the Middle East to 6 million barrels per day," Craig Stevens, a spokesman for the US Department of Energy, told Newsweek. Over the past 35 years, four US presidents have put forward similar energy programs, but none of them have been implemented. Many observers see Bush's initiative as a mere attempt to secure a Republican majority in this year's congressional elections. But, according to others, such a "long-term construction" after numerous scandals within the party and the White House, as well as against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Iraq, is unlikely to help American conservatives rise in the eyes of voters. Andrey Korneev, an expert at the Institute for the US and Canadian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, shared his assessment with Newsweek: “The energy program will in no way affect either the internal alignment of forces or the rating of the Republicans.”

Personnel | Dollar exchange

On January 31, the legendary Alan Greenspan, who headed the US Federal Reserve for more than 18 years, resigned. Instead of 79-year-old Greenspan, nicknamed the "dollar man" for his contribution to US monetary policy, Ben Bernanke began to lead the department. The change was planned back in late October, when President Bush nominated a new candidate for the post. The era of Greenspan in the United States is associated with a decade of economic recovery, the strengthening of the dollar, curbing inflation. Nevertheless, Bernanke inherited a difficult situation: analysts predict America's unprecedented inflation and crisis, primarily due to overheating in the real estate market. Dean Baker, co-chairman of the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research, told Newsweek: “The crisis is only a matter of time. The bubble may burst in a month or a year.” However, he does not connect this with the change of power in the main financial institution of the United States. Bernanke has an excellent track record: a professor at Stanford University, an economist with 30 years of experience. The expert believes that "Bernanki will continue the inflationary line of his predecessor." For Russia, the question of what will happen to the dollar is no less relevant than in the United States. Anton Struchenevsky, an economist at Troika Dialog, predicts that the US currency will either remain at the same level or weaken slightly. True, this depends on many factors - including whether it will be possible to contain the further growth of the US budget deficit: it has not been in surplus since the days of Clinton.

Protest | Stones are crowded on the Lubyanka

Last week, Russian human rights activists tried to prove to the secret services that they do not work for British intelligence. At a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, they firmly promised to sue the spy stone - with TV journalists, with the FSB, and almost with Putin. And in the evening they staged a picket right under the walls of the Lubyanka building, although the prefecture offered to gather nearby - at the Solovetsky stone. “Many of our slogans played on the word “stone,” and it was blasphemous to hold a picket there,” Lev Ponomarev, executive director of the For Human Rights movement, later explained. “We didn’t break the law, because the refusal of the prefecture was not motivated, and verbally we were told at all that the FSB would clean the snow on the roof.” Two men with shovels were indeed throwing snow at the main entrance, and the picketers stood at the other wall. Ponomarev unfolded a poster "The English spy Beria worked here." “I stood for seven minutes before they grabbed two guys. I asked the police officer: “Why are you taking them? I am an organizer. “Let's pick you up, Lev Aleksandrovich,” he offered with respect. The same [officers] are responsible for mass actions, and we can be said to be old acquaintances. So we cannot say that the picket was dispersed. He stayed for an hour." They took 17 people. The picketers, remembering how harshly they suppressed the anti-fascist rally on Tverskaya in November, were even surprised. “Then they took fifty and in five minutes. The posters were immediately torn and trampled. And here was another tactic. “We must show that we act delicately,” the riot police said. The scandal has flared up already,” explains Oleg Orlov, another organizer of the picket, from the “Memorial” society. With the slogan “FSB, stop lying,” he managed to stand for half an hour. But his colleague Sergei Kovalev was not detained at all, as was Henry Reznik, a member of the Public Chamber, who, out of old friendship, came to support his friends. The police could not deal with the detainees for a long time. “In the end, the assistant prosecutor came. Only under her dictation were they able to write protocols on an administrative offense, ”laughs Orlov, who was released closer to midnight. Now they are waiting for a subpoena, a counterclaim against the prefecture has already been filed. The average fine for participating in an unsanctioned rally is 1,000 rubles. In allied Belarus, the same amount, only in dollars. “It's okay, we'll catch up soon,” both human rights activists joked in the same way.

Litigation | The right is not in favor of the Orthodox

The organizers of the famous exhibition of alternative art "Russia-2" managed to avoid a guilty verdict. On February 1, the Zamoskvoretsky Court refused to satisfy the claim of a group of Orthodox artists against the gallery owner Marat Guelman and the Central House of Artists on the fact of inciting religious hatred. The plaintiffs went to court a year ago after attending an exhibition that they said was "blasphemous, blasphemous and grossly immoral." They demanded 5 million rubles. for insulting their "religious and national feelings". This group of believers won the previous battle with contemporary art: the organizers of another exhibition, Beware of Religion! in the Sakharov Museum were fined 100 thousand rubles. every. “In the recent history of Russia, for the first time, artists defeated obscurantists, and they won quickly,” notes Marat Gelman. - In more than a thousand-year history of this struggle, artists have always won, but not immediately. For example, in the Sistine Chapel, obscurantists forced to paint over naked figures, and these “clothes” were washed away only after 40 years.” According to Gelman, everything is for the best: the gloomy mood in the artistic environment, caused by the processes in the case of "Beware of religion!", is a thing of the past. “If they [outraged Orthodox] communicated with priests more often,” Gelman says, “then they would hear from them: the best thing a believer can do is to boycott such art, and not work to promote it.” However, the plaintiffs' plans, according to their lawyer Mikhail Voronin, are absolutely opposite: they are still going to file an appeal and are ready to go to the European Court.

Arts Council | Do not confuse "Bastards" with executioners

Cinema was reminded of the honor of the NKVD

On February 1, the day before the premiere of the film, an official statement from the service unexpectedly appeared on the website of the FSB, denying the existence during World War II of “children’s sabotage schools” in the NKVD-NKGB system, similar to the one described in the story “Bastards”. “There are no archival documents on special operations to send sabotage groups of teenagers by Soviet state security agencies behind enemy lines during the war years,” the report says. The film is about the school of the NKVD, which in the mountains near Alma-Ata in 1943 trained saboteurs-suicide bombers from among the homeless orphans. Director and screenwriter of the film Alexander Atanesyan, who previously stated that he had no reason not to trust his fellow screenwriter Vladimir Kunin, according to an autobiographical? story of which the film was made, immediately changed his mind. "Everything about this film is fiction," Atanesyan told Newsweek. - If we won the war by sending children to their deaths, then we would all need to shoot ourselves. This is not the price you pay to win. "Bastards" is a warning film, a metaphor film saying that children cannot and should not be left without love." The reaction of the FSB, if it surprised the director of the film, was more likely due to its speed. “I was pleased with the FSB statement,” says Atanesyan, “because the authorities must be vigilant in matters of morality and the observance of the purity of historical truth. I just don’t understand why the statement was made now, and not in the process of distribution and public controversy.”