[A-List] Russia: Putin tightens grip

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

In "Black Lightning" Mark Jones sheds some light on the competing networks
of power in post-Soviet Russia, highlighting the effective continuance of
the KGB, whose agenda is in stark contrast to that of the oligarchs. Putin
himself was portrayed in early profiles as modelling himself upon his hero,
Yuri Andropov, former KGB head and all-too-brief General Secretary of the
CPSU. Mark uses one of his characters to recycle an old legend about
Andropov's death at the hands of the wife of the then-interior minister (in
1984) as a result of Andropov's anti-corruption drive. After this, according
to the character, the rot was well and truly entrenched and even the
non-corrupt (Gorbachev included) knew that to do anything about it was to
court death. In a recent Guardian article Roy Medvedev dismisses this rumour
of Andropov's death as fantasy, but I've met more than a few from the former
USSR and eastern bloc who strongly suspect foul play, rather than kidney
failure.

See http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,883566,00.html

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Putin sacks minister in oil giant war
VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, in Moscow
The Herald, October 31 2003

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, yesterday sacked Alexander Voloshin,
his chief of staff, deepening political and economic turmoil following the
arrest of Russia's richest tycoon, ending rumours that the minister had
resigned which had rattled Russian political and business circles.

Voloshin reportedly tendered his resignation after the arrest and jailing of
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the head of the Russian oil giant Yukos.

The sacking announcement came hours after prosecutors froze a huge chunk of
Yukos shares, plunging the stock market into its second nosedive in a week.
The benchmark RTS Russian stock index closed down 8% after the announcement
of the share freeze and Yukos shares lost 14%.

The stock market's sharp reaction appeared to reflect investor fears that a
probe of Yukos that began in July could foretell troubles for Russia's
biggest companies.
The freeze was a new escalation in a four-month-old probe of Yukos, which
took a dramatic turn owhen Khodorkovsky was arrested and jailed after being
seized by special agents at a Siberian airport.

The arrest was widely seen as an action staged by some of President Vladimir
Putin's top lieutenants to avenge the tycoon's political activities, which
included funding of opposition parties.

Voloshin, a top Kremlin advocate of big business, reportedly resigned to
protest Khodorkovsky's arrest.
The resignation would signal a strengthening of the security-service faction
in the Kremlin - connected with Putin from his days as a KGB agent - which
appears eager to stem the influence of magnates such as Khodorkovsky.

Top Russian media reported that Voloshin submitted his resignation to Putin
on Saturday after Khodorkovsky's arrest, but agreed to wait a few more days
to avoid inflicting political damage to the president. The Kremlin has
refused to comment on the reports.

Putin, in a Kremlin meeting with top businessmen and investors yesterday,
made no reference to Yukos. He said that Russia has taken many steps to
improve the business climate, such as judicial reforms and improving demands
for corporate transparency.

But later one of the participants, Morgan Stanley International president
Stephan Newshouse told Dow Jones that "he assured us that this (Yukos case)
does not represent a campaign against business or any change in the
government's commitment to the market economy."-AP

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How Voloshin became indispensable to president
By Andrew Jack in Moscow
Financial Times; Oct 29, 2003

With his high forehead and long delicate fingers feeding cigarettes one
after another into his mouth, Alexander Voloshin proved unexpectedly adept
as Russian president Vladimir Putin's éminence grise.

Renowned for his long hours of work, Mr Voloshin, who is believed to have
finally offered his resignation as the head of the presidential
administration, is a controversial figure.

He rose to prominence under former president Boris Yeltsin, who appointed
him in March 1999.

Many did not expect him to last under Mr Putin, but despite occasional
rumours that he was about to resign, he proved an indispensable member of
the Russian leader's first term, tightly co-ordinating political strategy.

If his resignation is now accepted, it will represent the final demise of
the "family" around Mr Yeltsin, which had once included the former leader's
daughter Tatiana Dyachenko, Valentin Yumashev, now her husband, and Roman
Abramovich and Boris Berezovsky, two of Russia's then most politically
influential business "oligarchs".

Mr Berezovsky, who was a business partner of Mr Voloshin in the collapsed
financial group AVVA in the early 1990s, has since gone into self-imposed
exile and Mr Abramovich has been disposing of many of his Russian assets
over the past few months. Mr Yeltsin and his own family were granted
immunity from prosecution by Mr Putin as his first decision on being named
acting president on New Year's eve in 1999.

Mr Voloshin's departure would also be a logical step in the build-up to
parliamentary elections in December and a presidential campaign next March,
which is increasingly being characterised as a struggle between a series of
big business oligarchs who benefited commercially and politically under Mr
Yeltsin, and a new group of "hardliners" drawn from the security services
and law enforcement agen cies, many from Mr Putin's native St Petersburg.

Mr Voloshin took on many sensitive missions for Mr Putin, including
negotiations with the US in the build-up to the Iraq war, when Russia
sharply opposed military action.

He is a private figure who rarely gives press conferences or public
statements, creating an aura of mystery deflated in personal meetings. He
comes across as a highly intelligent, lively but down-to-earth interlocutor,
with occasional use of earthy language.

Mr Berezovsky, who has split with Mr Voloshin and was recently given
political asylum in the UK, said yesterday: "He may have changed in the past
three years since I have seen him. As for everyone else, power changes the
mind. He destroyed the upper chamber of parliament. He is very good at
serious intrigues but bad as a strategician."