He told Putin "No!"

In the economy

He told Putin "No!"

December 20, 2005 Alexander Golts

Donald Evans, a former US Minister of Trade, received an offer from Putin, from which, as the Russian president was confident, it is impossible to refuse. In fact, Evans offered the place of the chairman of the board of directors of the oil company, whose assets are estimated at 58 billion dollars. When it comes to such money and such prospects, the owner of the Kremlin believed, the American should not even confuse that the oil giant is called Rosneft. So, in fact, with the fact that Rosneft simply and brazenly, with the direct support of the executive branch, appropriated the most profitable company of Yukos - Yuganskneftegaz.

For this, they invited the American to improve the "Rosneft" image. After all, next year the Kremlin decided to sell its shares on foreign exchanges. And with the reputation of the stolen buyer, to do this somehow not from the hand.

After the successful acquisition for Gazprom, the former Chancellor of Germany Putin was sure that his retired American minister was in his pocket. I am sure to such an extent that, contrary to his habit of observing secrecy, in fact, confirmed to reporters that Donald Evans made an offer. And he got a slap in the face. The American thought and decided to abandon the Putin's bounty. Sorry, they say, because of attachment to the family, I can not devote “Rosneft” as long as it is required in order to lead a huge company. And he added meaningfully, which is connected by obligations to business partners.

I suspect that for Evans it was not a very simple solution: he was thinking for more than a week. And the decisive role was played by something that it is considered to be a evidence of prohibitive naivety to mention. This is me about the desire to maintain a reputation and the fear of public opinion. In recent days, unambiguous warnings to Evans were made from the pages of the most authoritative business newspapers in the world. “Say“ No ”, Mr. Evans,” demanded the British Financial Times in the editorial article . The American Wall Street Journal went further , comparing Putin with Hussein, who bought foreign officials and politicians for money received from nftyal deals. At the same time, the newspaper recalled the law that directly and unequivocally forbids the Americans to give and receive bribes while working abroad. “Although the proposals of work made by Putin are not bribes in the literal sense of the word, they make it forced to assume that the Kremlin believes that it can brazenly buy the favor of the political and business elite of the West,” wrote Wall Street Journal. “Schroeder may not feel remorse, being in this slippery crowd, but we hope that Evans will show the Kremlin that former members of the American Cabinet of Ministers have higher moral standards.”

And Evans heeded these unambiguous warnings. It seems that in the coming weeks we will witness a curious experiment, which will be doomed to do Vladimir Putin. If I correctly understand the nature of the Russian president, then for him it will become a matter of honor to get a famous foreigner to the post of head of Rosneft. Moreover, this person can not be a less significant figure than Donald Evans. Only in this way, Vladimir Vladimirovich will be able to prove to himself and others that, firstly, you can buy any person, and secondly, that no one can do this better than the Russian president.

Well, it is possible that Putin will succeed in the recruitment of the next VIP: people are weak, and he is a brilliant manipulator. Well, what if it fails? Suddenly, the desire to maintain business and political reputation will be stronger than oil money? Suddenly, the candidate, who will eventually find, be small? Then, I suspect, Putin will not have anything else to convince himself and others that this is another evidence of a conspiracy against Russia.

Meanwhile, in ten days, Russia should begin its chairmanship in the Eight. And the example of telling Putin “no” may be contagious.
Alexander Golts

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