MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Vasily Kononenko).--
Last July the Prosecutor General's Office instigated criminal proceedings against former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov on charges of misappropriation of public property. The owner of expensive dachas avoided giving any explanation to the press. However, last Saturday RenTV Channel broadcast a short interview with him, while yesterday he described his vision of the general situation in Russia and his own role in the political process in an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station. Asked whether he intends to run for the presidency in 2008, he said: "As of today, my answer is 'Yes'." This was a key point of his speech. "Three months ago I was not certain yet", he went on to say. However, now the former prime minister has become convinced that "he cannot leave" because "there is no one" on the political scene today "to develop the democratic process in Russia".
While on vacation in the Mediterranean, far from prosecutors, Kasyanov described in a London publication a certain Project for Russia, which can be interpreted as an election platform of the presidential candidate. The underlying theory is simple: Russia followed the correct democratic course until President Putin started making one mistake after another, deviating from the earlier (namely, Yeltsin's) plan.
Kasyanov implies that it is possible to correct these mistakes by going four years back ... to the time when "the family" (as Yeltsin's inner circle is known) "privatized", following the president's decrees, numerous assets in the oil and other industries, and became instant billionaires. Meanwhile, the administrative reform, which included the division of the levels of power and the appointment of governors, sharply criticized by Kasyanov, started when he was prime minister and therefore in the position to tell the truth about the problems facing the state. This, however, did not happen. What we heard instead were Kasyanov's protests against criminal cases involving large-scale embezzlement.
The former prime minister still insists that imprisoned oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his partner Platon Lebedev "did nothing unlawful". "Their actions might be considered morally wrong," Kasyanov admits. It is just that at that time there were "loopholes" in Russian legislation which made it possible to avoid paying taxes.
Only cynics who do not care a bit about their country can talk about "loopholes" in this context. It is well known that hundreds of billions of dollars were siphoned off from Russia through these numerous "loopholes", involving the use of free economic zones, fraudulent charity schemes, all sorts of swindle, allowing capital to be moved out of the country. In other words, this money was stolen. As a result of such "transactions," Russia ranks second in the world in the number of billionaires today. There are hundreds of 30-year-old millionaires in this country. As one of Russian popular journalists put it, "Those who didn't have a penny to their name yesterday, buy plants, newspapers, ships, football clubs today, leaving crumbs to law-abiding citizens". As a result, the majority of people in what used to be a prosperous country have turned into paupers. The standard of living in Russia is still lower than in 1991, although it has doubled under Putin.
The rhetoric and arguments of the potential candidate for the presidency are classic. For example, he claims that there is a serious increase in corruption today. "It has always existed; however, in my opinion and judging by what businessmen report, corruption is rife in Russia now", he claims, keeping mum about his own "dacha affair". During his premiership, it was common knowledge that he owned an apartment in Moscow and a modest plot of land in the countryside. However, just a few months after his resignation, "some more property was bought", he admits. Notably, a dacha in Zhukovka, a prestigious area outside Moscow, worth $20 million, according to Aleksander Khinshtein, the State Duma deputy responsible for the instigation of legal proceedings against Kasyanov. There have also been other "acquisitions related to business activities," Kasyanov says. "These are dachas in Sosnovka and Usovo, and some other things". He bought the Sosnovka-1 formerly state-owned dacha for $720,000, although its market value is $150 million.
"When the election campaign kicks off, I will provide all the documents to answer any enquiries," Kasyanov said. It is safe to assume that we will never see these income declarations because Kasyanov has no intention of running in the election. Everything he said should be interpreted as political bargaining. A regrettable tradition has developed in Russia of late: those "under investigation" start announcing their intention to run for one office or another as soon as the prosecutor knocks at their door. Kasyanov is not the first to try this. He has swiftly become "an oppositionist" and "a democrat" in order to convey a simple message to the authorities: "leave me alone and I will do my best to return the favor in 2008."
