| Chubais does not want to follow the path of Khodorkovsky One of the country's main liberals, the head of RAO UES of Russia, Anatoly Chubais, responded to Mikhail Khodorkovsky. In an interview with The Financial Times published on Friday, Mr. Chubais, however, does not say anything about the “crisis of liberalism in Russia,” but says: “Let Khodorkovsky repent of his own sins, I will deal with my sins myself.” Mr. Khodorkovsky subscribed to about 100 periodicals in “Matrosskaya Tishina,” but it is unknown whether The Financial Times is on the list.
In his famous address, “The Crisis of Russian Liberalism,” Mikhail Khodorkovsky wrote that liberals were defeated largely because they were “deathly afraid to tell the truth.” “I don’t want to say that Chubais, Gaidar and their like-minded people set themselves the goal of deceiving Russia... The tragic failures of their policies were most often covered up with deception. They deceived 90% of the people by generously promising that a voucher would buy two Volgas,” he wrote. In an interview with The Financial Times, Anatoly Chubais responded to his former ideological comrade: “I’m not saying that everything we did was right. But I believe that this was the only possible way to create private property and prevent the complete collapse of the Russian economy.”
Anatoly Chubais, responding to streams of criticism all these years, has repeatedly said that, they say, history will judge. But as to what exactly history should judge, Mr. Chubais seems to be confused. “We created the phenomenon of oligarchs in Russia, and they did a lot of harm by introducing corruption into political and legal processes. But beyond that, they created successful companies that Russia is now known for,” he says. So are the oligarchs to blame for “causing a lot of harm,” or are it “we” who “created the oligarch phenomenon”? However, Mr. Chubais apparently forgives the oligarchs for the harm they caused, since their current achievements prove that he was right at that time: “They restructured Soviet factories, making them operational again. They lower prices and open their businesses to investment. Speaking about the cumulative growth of the Russian economy by 38% over the past five years, one must understand that the growth is observed precisely in the private sector, created during that very privatization that everyone does not like so much. The economy is working, and exactly according to the scheme that we developed.”
It is curious that Chubais responds to Khodorkovsky in a foreign newspaper. “Learn to look for the truth in Russia, and not in the West,” Mr. Khodorkovsky showed liberals the right path in his article. - The image in the USA and Europe is very good. However, it will never replace respect from fellow citizens.” Perhaps Chubais believes that the time when he can count on the respect of the majority of his fellow citizens has not yet come... Ivan GORDEEV |
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