| "Yabloko" Artemyev wants to split companies and break up mega-mergers Igor Artemyev, recently appointed chief overseer of fair competition with the rank of head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), held an “introductory” press conference on Friday. Mr. Aryemev was quite cautious in answering specific questions, but showed ambitions in the area of antitrust strategy.
FAS was created on the basis of the Ministry of Antimonopoly Policy and Entrepreneurship Support, which was headed by St. Petersburg resident Ilya Yuzhanov, who in recent months has made desperate attempts to demonstrate his usefulness in the power structure. In particular, an antimonopoly investigation was initiated against the FEC and Gazprom, which ended in failure in court. However, in the new government there was no place for this ministry, as well as for Mr. Yuzhanov himself. The MAP, potentially one of the most powerful non-power government agencies in a market economy, regulated monopolies and supported small and medium-sized businesses in a too sluggish manner. As a result, Mr. Artemyev was entrusted with overseeing the competition, and the service itself remained under the direct supervision of Prime Minister Fradkov.
First of all, Igor Artemyev promised not to surrender his party mandate in connection with the transition to civil service. “In order to avoid various speculations, I want to emphasize that I am not ashamed of my political convictions and will not leave the party in which I worked for many years,” said the head of the FAS. And he promised that he would use the material accumulated by the party in his activities in his new post. At the same time, he expressed regret that the antimonopoly service “was taken away from the functions of supporting small businesses.”
But even without this direction, the FAS, apparently, was given very serious tasks. According to Mr. Artemyev, he will seek additional powers to split up existing companies and break off merger deals in case of violation of antitrust laws. “We will create a competitive environment, including through litigation,” he noted. Accordingly, the new body will deal exclusively with large companies and mega-deals and will turn into a control body over the emergence of “oligarchs” and an additional mechanism for their “dismemberment.” If Artemyev manages to add such functions and implement them in practice, then the administrative and political weight of the service will become very large. And for business, the FAS will become one of the main law enforcement agencies. At the same time, the new candidate for the security forces categorically rejects the possibility of the department receiving formal security attributes. “There is no point in organizing another “mask show,” we have law enforcement agencies, and responding to violations is within their competence,” Artemyev said.
The FAS, according to its head, will carefully monitor not only compliance with antimonopoly legislation, but also the information integrity of the largest companies. “Often we do not know the real owners of enterprises; the FAS intends to seek the disclosure of objective information,” the official promised.
At the same time, on the issue of structural reform of natural monopolies, Mr. Artemyev tried to be extremely restrained and laconic. He formulated the special role of the FAS in the reforms of the electric power industry, housing and communal services, railway transport and other natural monopolies as follows: “The Antimonopoly Service will exercise constant control over all organizational changes in these structures.” “The issue of reforming Gazprom is political, and now it is quite difficult to say when it will happen,” admitted the head of the FAS. “At the moment we will strive to facilitate independent suppliers’ access to the gas infrastructure.” Alexey GRIVACHS |
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