Information results of the week, 15

**Step forward**

The most important news of the past week was the visit to Moscow of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. The media has no doubt that the distinguished American guests came to Russia to personally meet those elected by President Dmitry Medvedev. The formal topics of the negotiations - the deployment of American missile defense elements in the Czech Republic and Poland and the situation with the declaration of independence of Kosovo - could not, naturally, be resolved during the Moscow meetings. Nobody expected this: Washington cannot admit that it was wrong on the Kosovo issue, as this would mean signing the failure of the entire Balkan policy of the last fifteen years. In addition, apart from the truly dangerous and anti-legal “Ahtisaari Plan”, which provides for the independence of Kosovo, no other has ever been put forward - neither by Russia nor by Serbia. The missile defense systems in the Czech Republic and Poland are also difficult for the Americans to concede, since these new NATO members insist on installing them. Russia, in turn, has absolutely no reason to give up its critical position on both issues, since it does not oblige Moscow to anything and entails no consequences.
The main event of the negotiations in Moscow, according to experts, is the clear desire of the American administration to take a step towards Russia. The warming of relations between the two powers is also important for our country, and right now, under the presidency of George Bush, since the future occupant of the White House, whoever it becomes - Republican McCain or Democrats Clinton or Obama - will certainly begin his reign by tightening anti-Russian rhetoric. If there is a certain backlog of positive contacts, then burying it will not be so easy.
And such a step was taken. First, Ms. Rice and Mr. Gates openly acknowledged that Russia has a right to be concerned about missile defense construction in the Czech Republic and Poland. A more specific proposal was also made: not to equip installations in Poland with missiles until Iran’s possession of missile weapons becomes a fact, and also to allow Russian specialists to control American systems. Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev appreciated these gestures from the American side, calling Washington's proposals "serious" and emphasizing that "the dialogue is developing productively." In principle, contacts of this kind between Russia and the United States are in themselves a move towards more trusting relations, and nothing more can be expected now.
Another step towards reconciliation between the White House and the Russian leadership, less noticeable in Russia, but very visible for the Western community, was the format of the traditional meeting between Mrs. Rice and Russian oppositionists. This time, Grigory Yavlinsky, for whom President Putin had recently openly demonstrated sympathy, and lone democrat Vladimir Ryzhkov were present, but the most irreconcilable “freedom fighters” - ex-Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and representative of non-traditional intellectual orientation Garry Kasparov - were not invited. This was a clear demonstration that the US government is distancing itself from the irreconcilable Russian opposition and is ready to recognize the political realities of our country as deserving, if not approval, then at least recognition.
It is difficult to say whether Russia and the United States will be able to continue the path of gradual rapprochement. There are too many things that divide us, including issues on which it is very difficult to reach agreement. But we can count on the fact that relations between our countries will not deteriorate. Unless, of course, Washington and Moscow embark on new adventures like an attack by the American army on Iran or Russia’s recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

**We will have the FBI too**

According to information that appeared in the media, law enforcement agencies are expected to undergo radical reform as early as this fall. The investigative bodies of all law enforcement agencies will be united into one structure, which will be called the Federal Investigation Service - in fact, the domestic analogue of the American FBI. The press reports that there are two contenders for the post of head of the new department - the head of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin, and the head of the Investigative Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Alexey Anichin. Both of them, the media emphasize, are fellow students of Vladimir Putin.
The basis of the new structure, according to a number of printed publications, will be the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Its two departments - for the investigation of organized criminal activities against economic security and for the investigation of organized criminal activities against public safety - will be merged into the Main Investigation Department (GSU), which will merge into the FSR along with the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office. At the same time, the core of the FSR will be the State Investigative Directorate, and not the Investigative Committee under the prosecutor’s office, a number of experts believe. Of course, the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, actively resists this development of events. However, the preference that the supreme power gives to the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is not surprising, since, for example, in 2006, the prosecutor's office initiated 318 thousand cases, while the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - 3.2 million.
The idea of ​​creating a “Russian FBI” has been in the air for a long time. In the early 90s, Sergei Shakhrai, who was then the head of the State Legal Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, tried to implement it. It didn’t work out, since our law enforcement agencies throughout the post-Soviet years have been quite successfully resisting all attempts to reform themselves, force them to work more efficiently and, moreover, bear responsibility for the results of their work. In 2001, Dmitry Kozak, who was then working as deputy head of the presidential administration, came up with the idea of ​​​​creating the FSR, but everything fell through again, as the then powerful Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov was categorically against it.
Russian law enforcement agencies, in particular investigative agencies, are in a deplorable state. Those under investigation have been waiting for sentences for years, the legal consciousness of the police officers, investigators and prosecutors themselves is at a terribly low level - newspapers and Internet sites are simply screaming about corruption and other crimes they commit. The creation of a single investigative body can have a positive impact on the situation in this area, but only if it becomes one link in a whole set of measures designed to improve the security situation and protect citizens from arbitrariness. In particular, a structure independent of the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor General’s Office, dedicated exclusively to suppressing the criminal acts of police officers, traffic cops, investigators and prosecutors, is vitally needed.
We can only hope that reform of the law enforcement system will finally begin. And such a beginning will be the creation of a Russian analogue of the FBI. And then the hands of the supreme power will reach everything else.

**Construction chaos**

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov recently advocated introducing land laws in the capital similar to those adopted for the Sochi region. The local land legislation allows people to be evicted from their homes and deprived of their land plots if they interfere with the construction of socially important facilities, in particular Olympic facilities. It seems that the construction boom (or rather, construction madness) that has gripped Moscow has led to the fact that Muscovites simply began to prevent the authorities and associated construction companies from implementing their ambitious projects without interference.
Last week, the media reported that demolition of blocks adjacent to “Moscow City” - a copy of the Parisian Defense, striking the imagination with gigantic towers visible from almost anywhere in the capital - was beginning in Moscow. The press reported on the dramatic fate of the Kamushki microdistrict, which will be demolished in the near future. 1,399 apartments will be demolished and replaced by modern office buildings. It’s a mystery where residents of houses slated for demolition should go; the urban development plan does not provide for the construction of housing for these citizens. Let the opponents of the Moscow government be angry - they say that people will be resettled in the distant Moscow region. This is slander: simply no one is going to resettle them anywhere.
The City Code provides for mandatory public hearings when adopting a city development program. However, in Moscow, even without any laws a la Sochi, the City Code is not a decree: no hearings are ever held in the capital. On this occasion, newspapers quote the words of one of the city hall officials: “If we follow the City Code, then by 2020 we will not get close to this territory” (meaning the territory where the long-suffering microdistrict “Kamushki” is located). That is, the interests of the investor-developer in Moscow are a priori placed above the interests of residents. Nevertheless, the city authorities see the future of the Kamushki district exclusively in optimistic terms: “By 2013, this will be the most expensive, most respectable and most comfortable district of Moscow,” says Moscow City Duma deputy, chairman of the commission on urban development prospects Mikhail Moskvin-Tarkhanov . The fact that the current residents of the block will not be able to take advantage of the benefits of “the most respectable and comfortable area”, since by this year they will be living with relatives or will become homeless, worries only its residents themselves, but not the city authorities.
The problem of the "Kamushki" quarter is just one of the manifestations of construction chaos and the wild arbitrariness of officials in Moscow. Brutal dispersals and beatings of pickets of townspeople protesting against "infill development", the lawless demolition of private garages, cutting down parks and groves, attacks on protesters by "unidentified" gangs of mercenaries - this is the other side of the construction boom that has swept the capital.
But that's not all. 22-year-old journalist Aigul Makhmutova, who wrote about construction chaos in Kuzminki, was thrown into prison. The girl worked part-time cleaning up garbage at the Kuzminsky market - and she was accused... of fraud “in organizing the removal of garbage from the Kuzminsky market,” although she had nothing to do with the organization. During interrogations, the journalist was subjected to such beatings that she received a concussion. Now State Duma deputies are trying to get her out of prison, but without much success: the construction mafia in Moscow seems to be more powerful than the legislative branch of Russia.
No one can say how the situation with construction projects in Moscow will develop further. Mr. Resin once said that 5 million people should live in the capital - the rest, obviously, will be driven out into the open fields. And “Pebbles” is a touchstone. However, in Rio de Janeiro in the early 70s, under the military regime, favelas (slums), which spoiled the appearance of the city and confused tourists, were bulldozed into the sea at night along with their people. So the Moscow authorities have something to strive for and what beacons to focus on.

**Super-Mega-Oligarch**

In the mass consciousness of Russians, the rule of Vladimir Putin is associated with several trends: the end of the Chechen war, the strengthening of the economy, and, naturally, the destruction of the oligarchs as a class. Berezovsky, Gusinsky, Nevzlin, Bendukidze, Gutseriev are hiding abroad, Khodorkovsky is in prison. The survivors have abandoned political ambitions and are pursuing their business projects through public-private partnerships.
However, a number of media outlets indicate that in recent years a new oligarchy has formed in Russia: it consists not of private entrepreneurs, but of officials heading state corporations, which are created one after another and are raking in more and more new assets. In recent days, some publications have drawn attention to the rapid rise of the state corporation Rostekhnologii, which is headed by one of President Putin’s close associates, a former security officer and ex-head of Rosoboronexport Sergei Chemezov. One respected publication notes that Chemezov’s corporation “is acquiring assets faster than Dmitry Medvedev is praising odes.” Now it includes more than 250 enterprises - defense and engineering. The addition of VSMPO-AVISMA, the world's largest titanium producer, to it (at that time it was not Rostekhnologii, but Rosoboronexport), alarmed many experts: after all, it was a metallurgical asset, and its inclusion in the engineering corporation made them suspect it of the desire to get their hands on, albeit non-core, but profitable assets. Then Rosoboronexport acquired AvtoVAZ, a plant that has nothing to do with high technology and the defense industry, but is profitable: Zhiguli cars will always be bought in Russia.
Now Russian Technologies are in the process of absorbing Aeroflot, AirUnion and several other smaller air carriers - also companies, frankly speaking, not related to mechanical engineering and technology. Apparently, Mr. Chemezov will not have problems with the absorption of these assets.
In essence, Chemezov is creating a diversified super-corporation, not inferior in power to Gazprom, and even superior to it in its ability to use financial flows and influence both state power and voters.
The reason for the surge of interest in Russian Technologies and the figure of Chemezov was essentially his first defeat in the apparatus struggle for assets. Last week, according to information leaked to the press, he failed to obtain at the disposal of the corporation the Russian share in the Mongolian copper-molybdenum plant Erdenet - it will supposedly go to Gazprombank. Apparently, the incredible appetites of the head of Russian Technologies have begun to alarm President Putin - no one doubts that the monster being created is precisely his brainchild, the instrument through which the current president expects to maintain influence on the economy, and therefore on the country’s politics after leaving his post. However, the manager of state assets, Mr. Chemezov, is himself turning into a super-mega-oligarch, and who can guarantee that he will remain obedient to Putin and not begin to use his industrial empire for his own purposes? Apparently, Vladimir Putin is beginning to understand that creating “his own” oligarchs, even if they are triple-tested patriotic statesmen, is dangerous. The story of Dr. Frankenstein tends to repeat itself.