Information results of the week, June 28

**Leave the switch**

One of the most discussed events of the week is the end of the existence of Anatoly Chubais's fiefdom, RAO UES of Russia. The electricity monopoly has broken up into 26 private companies, which will now independently generate, transport and sell the always in demand product. Chubais's supporters call the decline of RAO UES the logical conclusion of a large-scale reform of the country's entire electric power industry, in fact, the only reform out of a number of previously announced ones, which was completed thanks to Chubais's administrative genius. The main advantage of the reform is the receipt of funds that will be used for the major modernization of the industry and the construction of new stations. Moreover, as a clear example of the need for such injections, one can always show the charred remains of the Chaginskaya substation transformer, manufactured in 1947 and a couple of years ago that left half of Moscow without electricity.
However, there are many skeptical assessments of what the former head of RAO UES has done with the energy industry. According to some experts, the entire reform of the domestic electric power industry has actually boiled down to just a banal sale of the country’s unified energy system at prices that do not reflect its real cost, and the admission of foreigners to it. Of course, this has caused an influx of vitally needed investments, however, they do not even remember the interests of the end consumer, who fearfully awaits a multi-stage increase in tariffs as a consequence of the liberalization of the country’s energy market.
For example, according to former Deputy Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation Viktor Kudryavy, “the method by which Chubais received his 3 billion is very interesting. He sold off the fixed assets of the energy sector at an order of magnitude cheaper than the real cost. It’s like selling the apartment itself for the sake of renovating an apartment, keeping it for yourself.” "just a toilet. What they did to the energy system can be called reform either by morons or suckers."
According to the governor of the Kirov region, Nikolai Shaklein, “the absence of monopoly in the absence of alternative energy supply does not give anything.” And the topic of the country’s strategic energy security generally remains behind the scenes.
One way or another, until very recently, the country’s unified energy system indeed remained one of the few under-privatized industries with enormous growth potential. And given everything that has happened in our country in recent years, it was clear that this could not continue. Chubais, who burst into politics with the idea of ​​“privatizing the entire country,” did exactly what he should have done. And today he leaves the Russian energy sector, as is usually said in such cases, “with a sense of accomplishment.” But the duty to whom?
Some evil tongues claim that, by and large, the entire grandiose reform of the EEC came down to Chubais ritually selling his office chair at auction for more than 1.5 million rubles. Despite the fact that it was immediately announced that money would be transferred to an orphanage, observers had a completely reasonable question: the chair was, after all, a government-issued one, with an inventory number, so had the ex-head of RAO, according to media reports, abused last year more than 27 million dollars, through his official position, even in the interests of orphans?
However, the former head of RAO UES has long since taken his place of honor in Russian history. As one of the famous Russian directors subtly noted, “even if in thirty years something happens in our country, Chubais will still be to blame.”

**Clouds are gloomy over the bribe-taker...**

Recently, President Dmitry Medvedev presented to the Council of Legislators under the Federation Council a national plan to combat corruption. The need for a systematic fight against this evil has been declared for a long time, often and loudly, but for the first time oral declarations finally took the form of legislative initiative. As a first measure, it is proposed to develop an anti-corruption law. The president himself calls corruption “one of the glaring problems” and admits that “we, unfortunately, have done little over the past time to cope with this problem.”
The presented plan contains a ritual set of tools to combat werewolf government officials. This is the aspen stake of criminal prosecution, and the silver bullets of confiscation of property, and the garlic of deprivation of the right to further hold public office. The only thing missing is the main thing - a clear definition of the criteria for corruption itself. After all, the cross-section of the phenomenon that we are constantly shown is, for some reason, incomprehensibly limited to bribes to a traffic cop, a military commander and the head of the administration, less often to the mayor of a city or deputy, and even less often to a governor or deputy minister. Illustrating the facts of corruption, the media talk about “gifts”, envelopes, “kickbacks” and services. I remember that there was even a case described when former Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, while still the head of Rosfinmonitoring, decisively pushed away a box of chocolates presented to him on the occasion of some holiday: “Corruption!” Thus, the portrait of corruption presented to society has a very specific framework, beyond which there is still much that can only be guessed at, although in Europe, for example, all these behind-the-scenes nuances for us are classified in great detail and entail real penalties.
For example, can the fact of many years of combining the duties of a governor, who by definition is a civil servant, with the successful activities of a businessman who is included in the golden hundred billionaires according to Forbes magazine, be considered corruption? Or one of the largest state-owned raw materials companies obtaining almost all promising deposits without the competition appropriate for such cases? Can the appointment of the offspring of high-ranking government officials to senior positions in the country's largest banks and companies be considered corruption? Or the actions of the minister, who in one day approved a pile of documents for the allocation of a billion dollars from the state budget to one of the domestic companies, although such approvals usually last for months?
The most important problem of the proposed plan is that the fight against corrupt officials is proposed to the bureaucratic system itself, which is riddled with corruption. There is no doubt that we will continue to witness many new high-profile cases organized according to this plan and the go-ahead of those who will be responsible for this plan. According to observers, the notorious plan is not capable of changing the main thing - the very environment of existence of the Russian government. As long as laws are in force that open up the widest possible field for abuse by officials, corruption will not be eradicated. According to the famous publicist Dmitry Bykov, corruption today is the only real form of saving the people from the state. According to Bykov, “this is a normal bribe that people pay to the state for non-interference in their affairs. The bribe is given not for any special preferences, but simply so that the state does not interfere with the work of small businesses, does not interfere in areas in which there is nothing does not understand, and did not take young people away from work for the sake of poorly organized army service."

**The romance with Chukotka is completed**

The news about the resignation of Chukotka Governor Roman Abramovich “at his own request” came as a surprise to everyone. Of course, it was known that the “chief of Chukotka” had been asking the president to let him go for a long time, but no one expected that this would happen right now. Meanwhile, some observers believe that the most convenient time, from a PR point of view, was chosen for Abramovich’s resignation. Conclusions have already appeared in the media on the topic “Abramovich’s resignation is the final decline of the Yeltsin era.” And indeed, in the perception of the Russian average, the governor of Chukotka was clearly associated with the “family” and everything that had to do with it. Therefore, today, by signing the governor’s statement, President Medvedev, as it were, clearly demonstrated his determination to renew the vertical of power, the desire to work with a new, specifically his team on the ground.
In fact, as experts suggest, there is simply a complete coincidence of the desires of the governor and the capabilities of the Kremlin. Abramovich, who had long been burdened by his government position, perfectly understood the depth of its artificiality. Chukotka was managed by a team of managers he hired, and he himself was absent from Anadyr for years, preferring his London residence and the deck of his own yacht to the snowy edge of Russian soil. He even once admitted that the climate in Chukotka was “too dry” for him. Of course, Abramovich’s personal money did its job: the population’s income almost quadrupled, the share of subsidies from the federal center decreased from 75% to 47.2%. Thus, Abramovich’s resignation could only be accepted if there was a guarantee that the achieved pace of development would be maintained. There is no doubt that the outgoing governor gave such guarantees. As Abramovich's spokesman John Mann said, "mission accomplished, but that doesn't mean he's quitting his job there," recalling that the businessman has two charitable foundations in the region.
Abramovich’s love affair with Chukotka began at a time when it was fashionable to go to power. Even “nickel” Mikhail Prokhorov once admitted to journalists that he would also like to try to “raise” some depressed region. Now, apparently, this fashion is passing. A person burdened with big money has more important concerns than the affairs of distant natives.