They came for Gerashchenko
The General Prosecutor's Office will take control of the case of violations committed by the Bank of Russia when issuing a stabilization loan to SBS-Agro. Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov promised this to the senators yesterday. In the last six months, the pro-Kremlin-minded Prosecutor General has not made such statements in vain - every time it ended with the removal of another oligarch from the game. This means that now it’s the turn of the country’s main “financial oligarch” - Viktor Gerashchenko.

Since the end of last week, the Bank of Russia has been hit with a torrent of accusations. At first, the Accounts Chamber stated that the Central Bank refused to let it into its vaults and did not allow it to investigate economic violations. Then she stated that she had identified serious violations when issuing a stabilization loan to SBS-Agro Bank. Yesterday the Prosecutor General's Office joined the Accounts Chamber. Vladimir Ustinov, speaking to the governors, said that the case about violations committed when lending to SBS-Agro by the Central Bank would be transferred from the Moscow City Prosecutor's Office to the Prosecutor General's Office.

Stabilization loan to SBS-Agro Bank in the amount of 5.86 billion rubles. for a period of one year was allocated by the Bank of Russia in October 1998. The subjects of the federation acted as guarantors for it. In November, the Bank of Russia filed claims against 40 regions with the Moscow Arbitration Court, demanding to recover more than 2 billion rubles from them. to pay off loan debt.

Considering the specifics of the audience, it is clear that the main interest of the Prosecutor General's Office will be focused on the actions of the Central Bank. And ultimately, its head, Viktor Gerashchenko, will have to answer for everything.
The first information that the Prosecutor General's Office was interested in the head of the Central Bank appeared about a month ago. Then one of the Internet sites even named specific episodes of his activities that came to the attention of the prosecutor’s office. She allegedly became interested in the role of Viktor Gerashchenko in the operation of Sberbank, VEB and Ingosstrakh to withdraw $70 million in 1986 through the Swiss subsidiary of the Central Bank, the fate of government funds allocated for the reorganization of Russian foreign banks in 1992-1994, as well as an attempt to sell shares of two of them .
Kommersant was unable to find confirmation of this at the time: the Prosecutor General’s Office declined to comment. However, later our source in this department admitted that the Prosecutor General’s Office indeed “has questions for Viktor Gerashchenko.” “For example, what is the effectiveness of the ‘Banker’ system, for the development of which, allegedly on Gerashchenko’s personal order, the Bank of Russia allocated $150 million to the Lavochkin NPO,” he told Kommersant. However, most of all, according to him, investigators from the Prosecutor General's Office were interested in the story of issuing loans to SBS-Agro.
Of course, the prosecutor’s office would not simply interfere in the affairs of the Central Bank. It is also significant that the initiative is being taken by Viktor Ustinov, who has more than once proven his loyalty to the Kremlin. This may mean that the decision to get rid of the intractable chairman of the Central Bank was made at the very top.
“Gerashchenko did his job,” a source in the presidential administration told Kommersant. The stability of the ruble and the growth of gold and foreign exchange reserves may indeed inspire some optimism in the Kremlin. But there is another explanation. According to a high-ranking representative of the Central Bank, Gerashchenko’s irreconcilable position on Russian foreign banks is to blame for everything. “He is preventing some financial groups from taking control of these banks,” he told Kommersant.
Their interest lies in the fact that Russian foreign banks are the holders of part of the Russian external debt. We are talking, in particular, about the commercial debts of Soviet foreign trade organizations, the obligations for which were assumed by the state, as well as about the debts that Russian foreign banks bought on the secondary market. And Viktor Gerashchenko, with his plans to transfer Russian foreign banks to Vneshtorgbank, controlled by the Central Bank, stands in the way of those who would like to make money on Russian debts.
Of course, it is not easy to prove Viktor Gerashchenko’s involvement in the “SBS-Agro case.” But then the law “On the Bank of Russia” can be brought into play, according to which the head of the Central Bank can be relieved of his position, for example, in the case of “violation of federal laws that regulate issues related to the activities of the Bank of Russia.” And these violations are not difficult to find. Already last week, the Accounts Chamber reported that it had identified “significant violations of current legislation when subjects of the Russian Federation entered into surety agreements with the Bank of Russia and SBS-Agro Bank.”

ELENA Kommersant-KISELEVA, NATALIA Kommersant-KULAKOVA

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 239 dated December 21, 2000, page 1

Authors:

Elena Kiseleva