Claim operation

The President of Bashkortostan is suing federal media

Following the lawsuit against NTV, the President of Bashkortostan, Murtaza Rakhimov, filed a lawsuit against the country's main official publication, Rossiyskaya Gazeta. The reason for the lawsuit was the article “The Bashkir Paradox” dated June 30, 2010, which dealt with corruption in the fuel and energy complex of the republic. The article suggested that Mr. Rakhimov and other representatives of the republic’s leadership were personally involved in corrupt practices.

Against this background, the son of the President of Bashkortostan, Ural Rakhimov, voluntarily resigned his parliamentary powers. Concluding the spring session, deputies of the State Assembly (kurultai) of the Republic of Bashkiria unanimously voted to deprive the son of Murtaza Rakhimov of his deputy mandate at his own request. Experts clearly link this to the resolution of the issue of the long-overdue resignation of Murtaza Rakhimov. Mr. Rakhimov himself, the oldest of all the heads of Russian regions, has publicly stated his readiness not to apply for another reappointment. But, apparently, he still hopes to resign according to the same scenario as the ex-president of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiev, who actually managed to retain control of the republic for his team. The son of the President of Bashkortostan in this case is more of a hindrance than a help in such a scenario.

Rakhimov, who, according to some reports, was actually already living outside of Russia, was prompted to leave the Ural deputies by a scandal that erupted after the NTV channel on June 19 aired a story about corruption, extortion and the appropriation of state property by the clan of the Bashkir president. Presenter Gleb Pyanykh compared Rakhimov Jr. himself to the son of the ousted president of Kyrgyzstan, Maxim Bakiyev. In fact, accusations were heard on the screens of using administrative pressure and corruption schemes to promote their own business projects, as well as putting pressure on opposition figures. In conclusion, journalists reported that Rakhimov Jr. is currently living in Austria and it is possible that up to $3 billion received from the sale of previously privatized oil and energy enterprises has been transferred to this country.

The President of Bashkortostan immediately called the information published by NTV “untrue, defaming honor and dignity” and filed a lawsuit against the journalists. This is a familiar situation for both litigants: in 2007 and 2008, Rakhimov Sr. already sued Gleb Pyanykh and achieved a decision in his favor. Then the Kalininsky and Kirovsky district courts of Ufa ordered the defendants to refute the information that discredited the presidential honor. However, today this scenario can be considered violated, since Ural Rakhimov resigned without waiting for the lawsuit to be considered. By the way, he was not present at the meeting of the kurultai.

We should not forget that, through the efforts of administrative resources, the Bashkir State Assembly is completely controlled by local United Russia members, so if they decided to resign the presidential son, then this move was clearly agreed upon in advance. President of the St. Petersburg Politics Foundation Mikhail Vinogradov does not exclude that we are talking about agreement with the President of Bashkiria himself. “Rakhimov Sr. shows that he heard signals from Moscow,” the analyst told a Vremya Novostei correspondent. “He realized that Ural Rakhimov is a strong allergen for the federal center, and is ready for a certain compromise in order to complete his term of office and transfer power to his chosen successor.”

Let us recall that Murtaza Rakhimov has been continuously leading Bashkiria for 17 years, starting in 1993. In 2006, he was reappointed by then Russian President Vladimir Putin under new legislation. Rakhimov Sr.'s term of office expires in October 2011, but experts believe that the change of power in the republic will occur earlier. Time is running out - the federal parliamentary campaign will start in the fall of next year, and it is almost impossible that the transfer of power in Bashkiria will take place against its backdrop. “We must either carry out this operation as long as possible before the elections, that is, now, or postpone it until later,” notes Mr. Vinogradov. “At the same time, it is extremely unlikely that the Kremlin will agree to extend Rakhimov’s term.”

The expert recalls that in the rating of “political survival of governors” compiled by the St. Petersburg Politics Foundation, the President of Bashkiria was assigned the lowest score (one on a five-point scale). Apart from him, only ex-governor of the Chelyabinsk region Pyotr Sumin, who had already been dismissed at his own request, received such a low rating. “We hit the mark with Sumin, but with Rakhimov the situation is now hanging,” the analyst concludes. - On the one hand, there can be no talk of a new term, on the other hand, there is a feeling that the limit of impunity is endless. Last year he got away with quite harsh political demarches.” Obviously, right now there is active bargaining between Moscow and Ufa over the terms of Rakhimov Sr.’s departure, and his son’s deputy mandate has become another bargaining chip in this game.

Natalia ROZHKOVA