Translated material
Milov's plan
The new face of liberal politics
On April 5, in St. Petersburg, the Democrats will make another attempt to unite. A new face will appear on the scene of Russian liberal politics. Vladimir Milov, a former Deputy Minister of Energy and a well-known specialist in the field of oil and gas, decided to part with his expert activities and go into politics. What Vladimir Milov is counting on - about this in an interview with The New Times
Vladimir Milov - Evgeny Albats
Why You Need It? You are a successful person, you have something to earn your living, you are well known in the oil and gas companies of the world. You go into politics in a situation where it is dangerous to be a politician in Russia...
I clearly understood that the potential for expert work in the energy sector in today's Russia has been exhausted. Here everything is collapsing under the skating rink of Gazprom and Rosneft. As a person who has been involved in policy making in this area for a long time, I cannot look at this calmly. I want to change this policy. It can be changed only from the “head”, through a change in the general vector of state policy in Russia.
You said "from the head", do you intend to become the president of Russia?
No, I do not have presidential ambitions, and in general I like to do what I can do. Let's say I'm sure I'd make a good minister of energy.
And if Putin now offers you to become Minister of Energy?
I have nothing in common with this corrupt regime, which builds its actions exclusively on the philosophy of total monopoly in politics and economics. Whatever money they offer. By the way, Boris Nemtsov and I recently released a report on the results of Putin 1 , and so there was a reaction from certain persons from the authorities, and the question was: “Maybe we should just give them money?”
Issue price
Did you offer much?
But it did not reach a specific discussion, because the idea was rejected from the threshold. So, it makes no sense to work with this government, but I am sure that through politics with a team of people where I do not pretend to the highest post, it is possible to positively change the situation in the country. And here is just the second reason for my entry into politics: I have serious experience in public administration. I know how decisions are made in this area, I know the nature of these processes. Finally, I have something to say to people. Well, the third story is that the situation in Russia has reached a point where I, as a citizen, can no longer calmly look at what is happening. We, in fact, returned back to the Soviet Union, only in a more hopeless and much less attractive version.
Do you understand what risks await you?
Yes. And I already felt it in my professional activity. I've lost contracts, quite a lot of money over the past couple of years, exactly because I'm taking an active critical stance towards the authorities. But it's not scary, it's not about money. This is an absolutely conscious decision, and I think that those comrades in the Kremlin who follow my activities are aware that it is impossible to turn me in the other direction. They have already tried this many times.
Is your family ready for this?
Ready. They see what is happening in the country. And they personally experience problems: for example, trying to engage in small business, facing all these bureaucratic barriers, corruption and getting real losses from it. The problems we are talking about concern very many ordinary citizens.
Choice of alternatives
You mentioned a team of people with whom you are ready to come to power. Who is this?
People who can make an alternative to the current rulers, and a very serious, high-quality alternative. There are enough of these people. And understand correctly, I'm not so much outlining the contours of the future team, as I see it, but I just want to show that there is potential for personnel. The same Boris Nemtsov. This is the most professional of the vice-premiers who oversaw the real sector of the economy - industry and energy. In 1997, he was, in fact, the author and main driver of the program of structural reforms in the real sector, which then to a large extent formed the basis of Gref's program in 2000. Another example is a team of economists from the Center for Economic and Financial Research and Development (CEFIR) led by Sergei Guriev. I believe that this is a ready-made financial and economic bloc that the governments of many countries would envy. Well, besides, I believe that a specific team of people who can come to power and replace those who today head the state administration system should be formed as a result of a coalition process, a broad dialogue among democratic forces, which, I hope, will begin at a conference in St. Petersburg, April 5th.
There have been conferences before, but the Democrats have not been able to unite ...
I don't want to suggest rigid designs. It seems to me that, given past experience, it is important that the participants in this unification process do not come there with some preconditions. Now the most fundamental issue is the creation of a coalition mechanism for developing political decisions that could, firstly, quite effectively contribute to the democratization of the political and social system in Russia, and secondly, create conditions for this positive, constructive management team to come to power .
Are you ready to cooperate only with the Democrats or with the left too?
Dialogue with the constructive left forces is necessary: we have left forces in Russia that want to pursue a more socially oriented state policy, but they do not support the ideas of authoritarianism, do not flirt with the current regime, and are in fairly tough political opposition to it.
Of course, we have different views on the economy, but leftists and liberals in many countries have such different views. We are ready for dialogue. There is another problem: the absence of a powerful coalition political force that would primarily unite people of liberal democratic views. There are two official parties, Yabloko and SPS, which are in an extremely difficult situation. According to my estimates, there are approximately 10-15 million voters in Russia who are ready in principle to provide political support to the democratic forces in one form or another. But most of these people don't have the opportunity to do so because they don't like the current political parties and don't see others to vote for. A significant part of these people simply do not go to the polls.
Action Committee
When you talk about a coalition of democratic forces, do you mean another attempt to unite Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces?
As a structure, no. Attempts to organize the unification of active political parties, which were made in previous years, proved to be untenable. But there are many people in these parties and even more informal supporters of these parties who would be ready to enter into a broader civil coalition that would not bind these two parties with rigid organizational ties, but on the other hand, would create a kind of superstructure that would help effectively coordinate the actions of citizens represented in this coalition.
What will happen in the end: a party, a popular front?
Any legally formalized construction is vulnerable in the face of severe attacks by the authorities on the opposition. Therefore, an informal committee that cannot be imprisoned for tax evasion is a much more viable form. At this stage, we are talking only about the creation of a movement that is not a formalized legal structure.
Okay, informal movement. Who is in charge?
At first, it will be an organizing committee, which will include people from Yabloko, people from the Union of Right Forces, and representatives of independent democrats and the human rights movement and the United Civil Front. The issue of a leader or institution of co-chairmanship in this movement will be discussed in the regions in preparation for the autumn congress.
Can you name the names of those who will be on the organizing committee?
I will name those whom I think it would be useful to include in such an organizing committee: Garry Kasparov, Nikita Belykh, Boris Nemtsov, Maxim Reznik and Ilya Yashin. Many would like to see Vladimir Bukovsky - he enjoys unconditional authority in the democratic movement. But new politicians will also be presented, in particular, I proposed my candidacy.
Any politics is not cheap, and the politics of the opposition party is triple. How will you solve this issue?
We can no longer rely on large-scale sponsorship from a few large, say business-related sources. But for me, this is just good, because it reduces reputational risks. We clearly need to look for new technologies to mobilize funds. There are some solutions and ideas about this. I think that in the near future we will find money.
Vladimir Milov is 35 years old. Born in Kemerovo. Graduated from the Electromechanical Faculty of the Moscow State Mining University with a degree in mechanical engineering. In 1997–2001, he worked at the Federal Energy Commission of the Russian Federation: he rose from a leading specialist to the head of the economic analysis department of the Federal Energy Commission. In 2001, he headed an expert group at the Center for Strategic Research (Gref Center). In the spring of 2002, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Energy. Due to disagreements with the leadership, he resigned and since November 2002 has been heading the independent Energy Policy Institute.
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1 “Putin. Results” Independent expert report. Publishing house "Novaya Gazeta", 2008