| In Italy, Putin willingly spoke about the fate of the oil company Vladimir Putin, who was recently unsuccessfully called upon to outline his position in relation to the events around YUKOS, is now increasingly willing to comment on this topic. Moreover, questions about YUKOS no longer cause him the former irritation. On the contrary, one feels that the Russian President constantly thinks about this and finds new explanations and images for the public.
No one expected that the YUKOS topic would become a key issue at Vladimir Putin’s negotiations that began yesterday in Rome. It seemed that if Putin was asked about this here, he would answer politely but firmly: they say, don’t worry, there will be no deprivatization, please stop the speculation and hysteria, and in general this is our internal criminal matter.
But by the beginning of yesterday's press conference between Vladimir Putin and Silvio Berlusconi, Russian journalists already knew that the president would speak about YUKOS. Although Mr. Putin still gave a surprise. He chose to talk about the Yukos case in the same detail and convincing way as he usually talks about international terrorism. In addition, apparently, in the person of Mr. Berlusconi, the Russian president has found a convenient interlocutor on the topic of “power and oligarchs.” “President Putin informed me in detail,” the Italian prime minister told reporters. “And I think he understands the concept of separation of powers very well.” Mr Berlusconi's next remark drew laughter from the audience: "In Italy I have long fought to separate the judiciary from politics."
For some reason, Vladimir Putin began explaining to journalists his concept of separation of powers by criticizing the Ministry of Natural Resources (the head of this department, Vitaly Artyukhov, suggested yesterday that checking YUKOS’ compliance with licensing agreements could well end in the revoking of the company’s subsoil development licenses). Noting that the Ministry of Natural Resources must monitor the implementation of agreements “constantly, and the reaction must be prompt,” he concluded: “one government agency is seizing shares, and another is depriving licenses on this basis... It seems that the state is aiming to stop the company’s activities . The state cannot and should not set such a goal.” The president acknowledged that the “economic results” from such coincidences could be negative and added: “I hope that the government will refrain from steps of this kind.”
Vladimir Putin explains the logic of law enforcement agencies this way: “The court and the prosecutor’s office are not the places where they give awards, orders, certificates of honor and cash bonuses. The prosecutor's office proceeds from the fact that cash bonuses have already been received and there is a need to find out whether they were obtained legally. So that there are no groups of people, who refer to the difficulties of legislation during the privatization period. If so, then let’s change the laws publicly, through parliament, so that society itself agrees with these changes.”
Vladimir Putin's appeal to parliament is unlikely to please Russian business, since parliamentary requests are the most popular mechanism for initiating various types of criminal cases. Thus, the other day, the author of the request for Apatit JSC, deputy Vladimir Yudin, turned to the Prosecutor General’s Office with a request to seize the shares of Sibneft. He believes that it is necessary to check the legality of the privatization of this enterprise, as well as the gas production company Rospan, now owned by YUKOS and TNK, since in his opinion, significant damage was caused to the state during the privatization.
“The most important thing is to prevent the experience of the Soviet period - non-judicial, non-procedural resolution of court cases,” summed up Vladimir Putin. It is difficult to say definitively whether Vladimir Putin’s statement yesterday was “conciliatory” or “aggressive.” In any case, one thing is clear: as long as the authorities use arrest as a preventive measure for the leaders of YUKOS, any “concepts of separation of powers” look like empty words. A Kremlin source for the Vremya Novostey newspaper claims that there is no “thaw” between YUKOS and the state. And the departure of Mikhail Khodorkovsky from the post of head of YUKOS is not at all a consequence of any agreements with the authorities, but an attempt by the imprisoned oligarch to remove the company from the blow.
Russia and Italy declare their determination to “provide a simplified procedure and procedures for issuing visas for travel” of certain categories of citizens of both countries - this is stated in a joint statement by Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and his Italian counterpart Franco Frattini, signed in Rome. The foreign policy departments of the two countries intend to begin negotiations as soon as possible with the aim of concluding an appropriate intergovernmental agreement. Within the framework of this document, the following aspects of the simplified procedure for issuing visas can be considered: issuing multiple-entry visas with a long validity period to representatives of legislative and executive authorities, prominent figures of science and culture, as well as entrepreneurs with a positive reputation. It is also expected to simplify the necessary documentation for obtaining visas for certain categories of citizens, as well as exempt individual citizens from a personal interview. Participants of youth and educational exchanges, as well as members of official delegations, will be able to avoid paying visa fees. In accordance with the agreement, the possibility of expediting the issuance of visas for tourists is also being considered. Andrey DENISOV, Rome |
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