The results of the week. Better without illusions

Sergei Guriev in Paris is not going to return yet. One of the most, if not the most brilliant Russian economist, according to Evgeny Yasin, under whose leadership the Russian Economic School (RASH) turned into one of the best, if not the best economic university of the country, wrote an official letter to Sberbank, where he asked him to exclude it from the list of candidates for the supervisory board of the largest Russian bank. According to unofficial information, Guriev will leave the board of directors not only in Sberbank, but also in the “Russian venture company”, “Alfa-insurance” and E.O. Rossiya. It is unlikely that he will be allowed to remain the rector of the RES and, obviously, will be excluded from the lists of an open government, deleted from the first hundred of the presidential personnel reserve. Sergey Guriev will not moderate one of the main discussions of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum and will not come to the forum at all, which was confirmed by Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov.

The case is unprecedented: not another “runaway oligarch” or a wandered official, who fell under the loud anti -corruption campaign, and a world -famous reputation, refuses to return to Russia. Former Princeton teacher Guriev can apply for the department at any of the world's best universities, will remain a member of the Belgian Research Institute of the Bruegel, the Peterson Institute of International Economy, a researcher at the CEPR economic policy of the Peterson International Economy.

About a month ago, Guriev was called for interrogation to the Investigative Committee, where this information was confirmed, saying that the rector of the RASH was interrogated for ... the Yukos case. The reason was the participation in the examination in the second case of Lebedev-Khodorkovsky, held at the end of 2011 on behalf of the Human Rights Council under the then President Medvedev. Experts unanimously called the accusatory sentence to the defendants of the case with a “mistake”. Starting from the fall of last year, four of the six experts who signed the conclusion passed searches, they all called for interrogation. The fact that the investigating authorities prepare the next process, the main purpose of which to leave Khodorkovsky with Lebedev behind bars and after the end of the sentence awarded, there is practically no doubt. Another reason for the persecution of Guriev is his support organized by Alexei Navalny to the fight against corruption.

In one of the comments on Facebook, Guriev wrote that in Paris it is better than in Krasnokamen. Later, the comment was deleted, but many managed to read and quote it. The choice is certainly correct. And for Guriev himself, and for economic science.

If in this whole story something is surprising, then this is the hopeless stupidity of the Russian authorities. Guriev was never in the ranks of an irreconcilable opposition. Rather, on the contrary, he belonged to that part of the liberal community that is completely sincerely trying to use any opportunity to improve and make a more civilized state machine and the economic system in the country. The maximum that Guriev allowed himself - the objectivity of assessments and the argumentation of judgments, thanks to which he enjoys authority, which is neither in most “irreconcilable” nor even any of the full -time government economists and experts. In fact, the presence in the country of people like Guriev (and they can be counted on the fingers of one hand) was the last argument for those who naively believe in talking that “freedom is better than a lack of freedom”, reasoning about the commitment of democracy, about improving business climate, modernization of the state and economics in Russia.

Guriev was one of the few human persons that Russia could present to the world in all kinds of world economic forums and conferences. Now, thanks to the Investigative Committee, the regime has lost this face. The reaction of investors, by the way, followed immediately: the news that Guriev was not yet going to return from Paris was accompanied by the fall of the ruble and the collapse of the Russian stock market.

All this may not be so bad. At least, the remnants of the illusions of those who still remained. All the conversations about the self -cleaning of power and the version of Putin 2.0 would end finally. Now even the most beautiful people will finally become obvious that the spiders in the bank will forever remain spiders in the bank, and a small evil vengeful lice will never turn into a wise generous elephant. As for Guriev, it remains only to hope that his forced emigration will not last too long.