Translated material
Fight for the "Right Cause"
Administrative resource against $18 billion
The conflict between the Kremlin and Right Cause began on August 29 and ended with a split and a raider takeover of the party
“What happened remains a mystery to me,” Mikhail Prokhorov admitted after the raider takeover of his short-lived political project was completed. What made one of the leaders of the Russian Forbes list, who made a fortune in the era of “gangster capitalism” of the 1990s, kept afloat after the default of 1998, retained his assets in the KGB zero and emerged victorious from the crisis of 2008-2009, suddenly look out of his penthouse on Tverskoy Boulevard, 13, and see: what country does he really live in? The detective story entitled “How to take away a business project of the Just Cause party from an entrepreneur with a capitalization of $18 billion” was followed by The New Times
On September 15, 2011, Mikhail Prokhorov said: "in the last 2 weeks or 10 days," they began to put pressure on him from the Kremlin. “Without exception, the heads of regional branches or delegates to the congress were summoned to local administrations. The governor spoke with someone, with someone the deputy governor on ideology,” he said on the air of Ekho Moskvy. “And everyone was strongly advised not to vote for the candidacy of (the head of the City Without Drugs Foundation Yevgeny) Roizman to the federal lists” * ** In an interview with The New Times, the Yekaterinburg fighter against drug dealers spoke in detail about the fact that the Kremlin demands his exclusion from the party’s federal list "Just cause". — See No. 29 of September 12, 2011.
As The New Times found out, the conflict began on August 29: immediately after the meeting of President Dmitry Medvedev with the leaders of political parties, at which the head of state signed a decree on elections to the State Duma.
Medvedev vs Roizman
“I would very much like the composition of our future Duma to reflect the political preferences of the widest range of our citizens as much as possible,” the president said then to the cameras. But in the part of the meeting closed to journalists, he made a reservation: "Let's agree that there are no people with a criminal record."
By this time, Mikhail Prokhorov, according to sources from his entourage, and Yevgeny Roizman himself, had already agreed, as is customary in today's Russia, with the presidential administration, the federal list of his party, which included the head of the City Without Drugs Foundation, who In 1981, while still a young man, he was convicted of theft, fraud and possession of edged weapons and served 2 years in a colony. Roizman announced his decision to join Right Cause on July 23, emphasizing that he had rejected a similar proposal from the All-Russian Popular Front of Vladimir Putin, and on the day the party leaders met with Medvedev, he announced at a press conference in Moscow that the issue had been resolved: he would enter the federal party list.
A week before the Right Cause congress, on September 7, Roizman admitted for the first time in his blog that pressure had begun on the party to remove him from the lists, and pointed to the source of the problem. "Who made the decision?" I ask. The serious official looked at me and pointed with his eyes at the portrait on the wall. Here, damn it, I think, how could this annoy the small and modest Evgeny Vadimovich so much to the great and mighty Dmitry Anatolyevich ?! In an interview with The New Times, Roizman said: "For the first time, Mikhail (Prokhorov. - The New Times) called me with the fact that the Kremlin had questions about me, about two weeks ago." That is, immediately after August 29.
By concepts
Then the story, judging by what insiders say, developed like this. The curator of the Just Cause project to the State Duma, Vladislav Surkov, told Prokhorov that Roizman should be removed from the federal list. Prokhorov did not agree with this. Firstly, Roizman’s criminal record was expunged back in 1984, and the Yekaterinburger’s somewhat extravagant, if not out of the law, methods in the fight against drug sellers did not bother the administration for which he wrote information notes and his proposals. Secondly, the leader of the LDPR list in the Irkutsk region is FSB colonel in reserve Andrey Lugovoi, who in 2004 was convicted "for organizing the escape of the deputy general director of Aeroflot Airlines" for 1 year and 2 months ** * Lugovoi was released in the courtroom , since by that time he had already served the entire term in a pre-trial detention center. and on whose extradition the UK insists, suspecting him of serving polonium tea to political emigrant Alexander Litvinenko. Thirdly, as recently as April 2011, the former mayor of Tver, Oleg Lebedev, became a deputy from United Russia, who in 2008 was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months (Article 294 of the Criminal Code - “obstruction of justice”, in 2011 released on parole), and the conviction has not yet been cancelled. And finally, Prokhorov agreed on his federal list, and having agreed, he made it public.
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„ There is a puppeteer in the country who has privatized the political system and is misinforming the country's leadership. As long as such people manage the political process, politics in the country is impossible.” |
It is not known what arguments Surkov cited. He probably recalled that the head of Right Cause was at a meeting with Medvedev, heard the words of the president, and if he did not object, it means that he accepted the new conditions of the political game. Prokhorov, obviously, considered that the rules were agreed upon at the start and changing them when the project became decisive was not according to concepts. As the head of ONEXIM likes to say: "The kid said - the kid did, but each kid decides for himself."
Roizman vs Medvedev
Yevgeny Roizman, in turn, according to sources close to the party, was ready to make concessions to the Kremlin, but he wanted to receive guarantees of his safety - from possible further raids from outside, in particular, the security forces. He was ready to exchange his voluntary resignation for a meeting with the president on the fight against drug addiction, where he would be present together with the heads of law enforcement agencies: public support by the president of the initiatives of his City Without Drugs foundation would give him the opportunity, as they say, to save face and declare to his voters that the head of state outlined for him a more important front of work than the meetings at Okhotny Ryad. “We discussed this option in a narrow circle, looking for compromises. Even if Medvedev had simply called me and said: take care of your fund, this is important work, I would plunge into work and remove the conflict situation, Roizman told The New Times . - True, I did not propose this idea to anyone in particular and did not meet with Surkov, but I do not know whether Mikhail Prokhorov addressed this initiative to the top. But all this time he was in contact with the political elite, ”says the politician. Medvedev, according to The New Times, Roizman's proposal reached, but his reaction was in the spirit of "who is he to set conditions for me." As for the fighter against drug dealers, he hoped that the situation, given Prokhorov's direct access to the country's top officials, would be successfully resolved. Therefore, he was silent until September 7, when he decided to go for broke.
The fight for the "just cause"
By the end of the first week of September, the situation reached an impasse: the president was categorical in his decision not to allow people with a criminal record in the ranks of the right-liberal party, the leader of this very party promised that he would leave the Right Cause if he was forced to shake up the federal list again, in any case case, Yevgeny Roizman wrote about it and spoke about it in an interview, unexpectedly for himself becoming a center in the Russian political and administrative field. „
Among the "walkers" for the "Just Cause" are named the press secretary of the president Natalya Timakova, and the presidential assistant for economics Arkady Dvorkovich. Two vice-premiers and one minister intervened in the conflict. Deputy Prime Ministers Alexei Kudrin and Igor Shuvalov, grabbing the head of the Ministry of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina for persuasiveness, turned to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
However, the president's claims to Right Cause only grew: the mention of Alla Pugacheva's name as another face of the party - her name was named by Mikhail Prokhorov on September 6 - also caused irritation. “What is this liberal party with Roizman and Pugacheva?” - something like this was expressed by the president, who obviously tracked all the movements of Prokhorov on the Internet. Probably, Medvedev, who is called the initiator of this right-wing liberal project in his new, 2011 model, incarnation, also heard rumors that some political technologists invited from Ukraine who promote quite populist ideas are in charge of the project, which was reflected in the first version. The "manifesto" of the party: it is no coincidence that on September 13, the day before the party congress, a second manifesto was published, according to experts, more in line with its name (see The New Times No. 26 of August 22, 2011).
High-ranking officials from both the presidential administration and even the government rushed to save the project. Sources name among the "walkers" for the "Just Cause" and press secretary of the president Natalia Timakova, and economic assistant to the president Arkady Dvorkovich. When this did not help, two vice-premiers and one minister intervened in the conflict. According to rumors, Deputy Prime Ministers Alexei Kudrin and Igor Shuvalov, having taken the head of the Ministry of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina for persuasiveness, turned to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who already turned to the president: de, here colleagues are worried that Right Cause can be both right and deed cease to be if Prokhorov resigns as party leader. It is impossible to verify this information, just as it is impossible to either confirm or deny the reaction to such intercession on the part of Medvedev. He, they say, became furious and seemed to even send a black mark to Kudrin, who, as you know, was persuaded back in the spring of 2011 to head the Just Cause, they say, don’t meddle in your own business.
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" People are going crazy! And, probably, someone upstairs, and not someone, but the same Vladislav Yuryevich went crazy. Somehow, out of my naivety, I thought that we were creating such a thing that would help the authorities to come to their senses somewhere, to see something. Maybe they don't hear these voices of righteous people, pure and free? And what did I hear in response? “Well, if you think that we didn’t help you, then we will interfere with you” ” |
The inclusion of the White House ministers in the game, and especially the senior comrade in tandem, is called by observers one of Mikhail Prokhorov's main instrumental mistakes. “If you don’t manage the wiring, then you are 90% doomed to lose,” one of those who participated in saving the Right Cause project shared with The New Times. Wiring was managed by Vladislav Surkov.
Prokhorov vs Surkov
The leader of Right Cause was given an ultimatum almost with reference to the president. He was offered to choose from three options: remove Roizman from the list and continue his triumphal campaign to the State Duma; promised to send it to Igor Zyuzin, the owner of the Mechel company (the shares of his company, and the entire stock market, collapsed after this promise of the prime minister).
The head of ONEXIM preferred option No. 2, but he approached its implementation creatively, publicly blaming Vladislav Surkov for the failure of the project and promising to do everything so that the official was dismissed. True, he did not name higher names.
On the evening of September 13, that is, on the eve of the opening day of the Right Cause congress (this was announced on September 7), Mikhail Prokhorov made a last attempt to resolve the conflict: he met with First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Surkov and Deputy Head of the Domestic Policy Department of the Presidential Administration Radiy Khabirov, who is responsible for party building in management. At the same time, information leaked to the media that the congress delegates were ready to abandon their leader.
Obviously, Vladislav Surkov understood: Prokhorov had become dangerous, and therefore he began to look for a replacement in advance. The media leaked information that it was proposed to replace the head of ONEXIM as the leader of Right Cause to the governor of the Kirov region, the former leader of the Union of Right Forces, Nikita Belykh: on September 7, Belykh was invited to a working meeting with the president. Officially, the conversation was about the situation in education, unofficially, the Kirov governor was asked to head the party in order to somehow save the project. Belykh himself answered all the journalists' questions that he was ready to enter the federal list "with its own subject - the development of self-government, decentralization, support for local initiatives." On September 14, the first day of the congress, which Mikhail Prokhorov did not attend that day, Belykh was invited to the presidential administration for a meeting with Vladislav Surkov. According to sources in the Presidential Administration, Surkov made another attempt to persuade Belykh to save the project, but met the governor's refusal with understanding.
Day of betrayal
On September 14, early in the morning, the Internet publication gazeta.ru reported that the Right Cause congress could be rescheduled for a day. After a couple of hours, however, it became obvious that the congress was underway and the events at it were unfolding in the most unfavorable way for Mikhail Prokhorov. Control over the course of the first day of the congress was immediately seized by people loyal to the presidential administration: Andrey Dunaev, chairman of the executive committee and leader of the Moscow-based Right Cause organization, a representative of the now defunct Civil Force party * * 3 In 2008, Right Cause was formed by the merger of three pocket parties - Civil Force, the Democratic Party and the Union of Right Forces., and members of the executive committee from the Democratic Party Andrei Bogdanov and Vyacheslav Smirnov. Mikhail Prokhorov's opponents have formed their mandate and control commissions.
The presidential administration decided not to reinvent the wheel, and the seizure of the party took place according to the same scenario, according to which the NTV television company was once carried out, then the Union of Journalists, and in 2005 the Democratic Party, which former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov wanted to head. The technology is as follows: scabs are recruited from among the dissatisfied or greedy, parallel structures are formed, which then take control of the commanding heights on the same day.
Exactly this was done: on the eve of the congress, two groups of 20 delegates visited the presidential administration, where they received clear instructions on how to prevent Yevgeny Roizman from getting on the lists and how to act if Prokhorov insists on his own. 6 years ago, fighting with Kasyanov, representatives of the presidential administration, as the participants recall, bought up delegates to the DPR congress at $10,000 per person. This time there were no financial incentives: it was really quite pointless to compare the budget with the billionaire Prokhorov. “We have arrived in Moscow. We were collected and taken on buses for a talk, ”a delegate from the Krasnodar Territory, who asked not to be named, confirmed to The New Times about the briefing on Staraya Square. Radiy Khabirov was appointed responsible for the recruitment of strikebreakers.
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“He did not allocate funds for the regions, although now he is demanding the return of what he invested in the party. This is about 800 million rubles. It's party money. And Prokhorov lost the game ” |
For the time being, the leader of Right Cause, who did not appear at the congress on September 14, together with Yevgeny Roizman and Alexander Lyubimov, gathered an emergency briefing in his office at 13 Tverskoy Boulevard, where he announced an attempted raider seizure of his party. The correspondent of The New Times, who was present at the briefing, noted that in the lobby of the secretaries there were unpacked books, including books in English, indicating that Mikhail Prokhorov was seriously preparing to change his profession: Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action (“Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspired Action”) by Simon Sinek, “I Wanted to Kill Stalin” by Anatoly Bezuglov, and “Speeches That Changed the World” with Churchill’s portrait on the cover. The office of Mikhail Prokhorov himself was decorated with David Hoffman's investigation "Oligarchs", where one of the chapters is devoted to the owner of the cabinet, "The History of the Inquisition" and the political thriller of the former party ally, and now the enemy (he joined the new executive committee of "Right Cause") Alexander Ryavkin " Hot Iceberg"; in the corner of the office was a photograph of Mikhail Prokhorov with Vladimir Putin: however, the face of the prime minister was blocked by some kind of box. “You, apparently, are waiting for me to say that I’m leaving, you won’t wait,” Prokhorov told reporters and signed papers on the expulsion of Andrei Bogdanov and the Ryavkin brothers from the party, as well as on the suspension of the work of the executive committee headed by Andrei Dunaev.
In the Kremlin, Prokhorov's words were called hysteria the same evening. Both sides tried until late at night to assemble a loyal political council (out of 11 of its members, it was necessary to enlist the support of at least 6 votes), but its meeting never took place. “In my entire life in business, I was betrayed twice, and here in one day they offered to betray me 8 times,” said Sergey Nedoroslev, a member of the political council of Right Cause, a well-known businessman, a member of the Club 2015 and a player on the hockey team with the telling name Premier. : by coincidence (the conversation was about the aviation industry in connection with the accident of the Yak-42), that evening he ended up in the editorial office of The New Times.
On the night of September 14-15, opponents of Mikhail Prokhorov reported on the party website that the second day of the Right Cause congress would be held at the World Trade Center - journalists were informed about this by mailing. Supporters of the head of ONEXIM warned that they would gather in the building of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences. However, the alignment of votes was not in Prokhorov's favor: it looked like he could enlist the support of only 30% of the congress delegates. Yesterday's supporters fled from Prokhorov. If on the evening of September 14, the former co-chairman of Right Cause, Georgy Bovt, who commented on what was happening with the words “I oh.vayu”, spoke about his support for Prokhorov, then the next day all TV channels on the air quoted Bovt as an ardent opponent of Prokhorov. Another member of the political council, the former SPEE member Boris Nadezhdin, did the same. Economist Vladislav Inozemtsev, one of the authors of Prokhorov's economic program, also joined the ranks of the raiders-schismatics; Andrey Nechaev, the Minister of Economy in the first government of Yegor Gaidar, was also noticed at the raider congress. However, he told The New Times that he managed to attend both versions of the convention. “Mikhail Prokhorov gave the party dynamism, but the trouble is that his entourage, for the sake of winning the elections, has largely abandoned the ideology of the party,” Nechaev said. “The conflict in the party has been ripe for a long time: the efforts of the presidential administration fell on fertile ground.”
Day X
The events of September 15 in the building of the Academy of Sciences will probably occupy a special place in recent political history. Announcing that he, along with Yevgeny Roizman and Alexander Lyubimov, had left the party and would not take part in the elections, Mikhail Prokhorov admitted that, although up to 50 delegates had gathered in the hall, this was not a congress, but only a "high meeting." The speech of the now former leader of Right Cause came down to denouncing the main Kremlin ideologist Vladislav Surkov, whom he called the main initiator of the raider takeover of the party. Prokhorov called Surkov a “puppeteer” and accused him of misinforming the country’s leadership, for which he should be dismissed: he did not say the names of this “leadership”, which, as we now know, were well informed about the situation. Alla Pugacheva, who came to support Prokhorov, suggested that Surkov had gone crazy. Ivan Starikov proposed to disperse the entire Department of Internal Policy of the presidential administration. The guests of honor of the congress - Leonid Yarmolnik, Pavel Bardin, Pavel Lungin, Andrey Makarevich, Igor Vernik - applauded the words about Surkov's resignation, but, it seems, did not fully understand what was happening in this hall. On the sidelines, Irina Yasina shared with The New Times: “For the first time in many years in Russia, someone has grown balls, and he did not hesitate to demonstrate it.” In conclusion, Mikhail Prokhorov promised to continue the fight by creating a new political movement. Observers, meanwhile, noted that the businessmen who invested in the project of Mikhail Prokhorov by ruble and face did not come to his “high meeting”.
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An ultimatum was issued to the leader of Right Cause, almost with reference to the president. He was offered to choose from three options: remove Roizman from the list and continue his triumphal campaign to the State Duma, in case of refusal - peacefully, without scandal, resign as party chairman, or prepare to meet the "doctor"
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The congress of the winners was going on at the same time in a hall urgently rented at the World Trade Center on Krasnopresnenskaya embankment. To get to the event, one had to go through a non-front entrance, go up to the second floor, wander for a long time along the corridors: “All the time to the left,” the organizers prompted the arriving delegates. In the second part of the hall, fenced off with a thin screen, there was a reception for the participants of the Sisco conference. So that the hungry rightists would not wander inadvertently on the smell of food, four guards guarded the screen. The delegates themselves were treated to tea and cheese sandwiches.
“We rented the hall the night before. After we realized that Prokhorov’s people would not let us into the Academy of Sciences,” Andrey Dunaev told The New Times. The tiny room was crammed with 75 delegates and nearly as many journalists. According to the official version, they were waiting for Mikhail Prokhorov. “We invited him,” assured the elected acting. party chairman Andrey Dunaev. - If Prokhorov had come, none of this would have happened. I was ready to follow our leader." He, of course, was cunning: the first question was put to the vote on the deprivation of Prokhorov's powers and party card. Secondly, they canceled the charter, which gave Prokhorov unlimited power over the party. “More than Stalin,” the delegates were indignant, as if they were not the ones who voted for this document in June. Thirdly, Andrei Bogdanov was reinstated in the party and the decision to dissolve the executive committee was canceled. Curiously, the cards of the delegates they voted with were bright orange. "What does this mean?" The New Times asked Andrey Dunaev. "Coup!" he replied, adjusting his tie, which was also bright orange.
“We have no complaints about the organization of the congress. He is legitimate,” Justice Ministry employee Maria Guseva told The New Times. “But Prokhorov has no such representatives at the Academy of Sciences.”
“Prokhorov managed to turn everyone against him in two months,” the delegates assured. “Prokhorov’s PR people literally raped us,” the head of one of the regional offices admitted to The New Times. According to him, the leader surrounded himself with assistants who managed all party affairs on his behalf: “Prokhorov's people with Moscow show-offs called and every time they yelled at me, an elderly man. They said - we order you. No objections were accepted. They threatened that they would remove it, and the department would be dispersed. It has become unbearable." “Prokhorov acted arrogantly,” Georgy Bovt, a member of the political council, told The New Times. - You couldn't get through to him. He ran the party like a factory, and talked to fellow party members like they were working. If they don't like it, they fired me."
Money became a separate claim to Prokhorov. “He did not allocate funds to the regions,” Boris Nadezhdin told The New Times. “Although now he demands to return what he invested in the party. This is about 800 million rubles.” When asked what the rightists would do with such a sum, Nadezhdin answered definitely: “This is the money of the party. But Prokhorov lost the game.
Who will walk right?
The headless Right Cause will have to find a new leader in the next 3-4 days. The congress will continue on September 20. There is only one requirement for the candidate - high recognition. Although, as Boris Nadezhdin admitted, the ex-leader set a bar that would be difficult to overcome: “Height of 2 meters and a fortune of $ 18 billion is very high. The next leader of the party will be both shorter and thinner in the pocket.”
This, in fact, is the only intrigue that remains in this story. We went through the rest many times: Mikhail Prokhorov tried to go a little beyond the flags, demonstrating at least some independence, and faced a nuclear reaction that swept him away, despite the desire of President Medvedev to get a liberal faction in the future Duma. More exotic versions are also put forward: as if the Kremlin was frightened by Prokhorov's statements about his possible participation in the presidential race. Indeed, in circles around the government, the question has been discussed for some time that in the event of a split in the tandem and the nomination of both Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin to the presidency at the same time (The New Times analyzed this possibility in issue 28 of September 5), Prokhorov could be nominated as a technical candidate capable of "biting off" a significant part of Dmitry Medvedev's electorate. This version explains the President's stubborn unwillingness to compromise.
From the Kremlin, Mikhail Prokhorov's attacks on Vladislav Surkov were commented rather ironically: “Apparently, his strange statements are connected with emotional experiences due to his own mistakes and failures. Prokhorov confused the congress with a corporate party where paid artists perform. At the time of signing the issue, the members of the tandem did not react in any way to the situation in Right Cause, with whom Prokhorov first announced his desire to meet. Although, according to Nadezhdin, the reaction was: "Medvedev is angry, and VV is laughing." Moreover, already on September 16, a classic campaign to persecute Prokhorov and his associates began on Central Television. In the evening prime time, NTV aired the film “Wrong Cause” denouncing Yevgeny Roizman. In the stories from the congress itself, the channels gave the floor only to Prokhorov's opponents, together with the largest news agencies, silencing his promise to achieve Surkov's resignation. If we were talking about a meeting at the Academy of Sciences, there was an empty hall in the frame, although during the speeches of Prokhorov and Pugacheva it was packed almost to capacity, and the Rossiya 24 TV channel, which even broadcast the congresses of Yabloko and Patriots of Russia, urgently order canceled the screening of the congress at which the leader of the Right Cause was removed. In the coming days, as they say, searches may take place in Prokhorov's offices, and the Kremlin youth will begin actions, advocating his arrest. As Yevgeny Roizman told The New Times: “When they piss, it’s bullshit. Used to. But this mochilovo can also become artillery preparation for something much more serious.