I
venture that few outside the Russian Federation will even know the
name of Anatoly Chubais, today the CEO of a Russian high-tech company
called Rusnano. Following the high-profile November 15 arrest of
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s Minister of Economics, Alexei
Ulyukaev, on charges of accepting at least $2 million in bribes in a
state privatization involving Rosneft and Bashneft energy companies,
the spotlight has turned to the company of Anatoly Chubais, Boris
Yeltsin’s 1990s privatization czar, today CEO of state-owned
Rusnano. If charges are formally brought against Chubais–undeniably
one of the most hated of the Yeltsin-era kleptocrat “reformers”
who worked with the CIA during the 1990’s to plunder Russian state
assets worth hundreds of billions for just pennies – it will signal
that Putin feels in a strong enough position to purge the pro-free
market liberal mafia that still holds a lock grip on the development
of the Russian economy.
by
F. William Engdahl for the Saker blog
On 16
November, the day after the dramatic arrest of Ulyukaev, state
prosecutors and police raided the offices of Chubias’ Rusnano.
Notable about the reports of the prosecutors’ questioning Chubais
and other top officers at Rusnano, is the fact that several have fled
Russia in recent months to avoid prosecution. To the present, Chubais
remains, and vehemently claims innocence.
In my view,
there is vastly more at stake here than the innocence or guilt of
Chubais. This move, if combined with the arrest of Ulyukaev, signals
a major cleanup of corrupt elements who, beginning even before 1991,
organized to sell Russia to the CIA and Western speculators like
George Soros.
Some history
that has generally been blacked out in the West about the true role
of Anatoly Chubais and the Yeltsin Presidency are instructive to also
understand the irrational rage of Washington and US banks and
oligarchs directed at Putin and at everything he does to re-establish
Russian sovereignty and stability.
Part
4 - Oligarchs buy Yeltsin re-election
By 1996,
with the Russian economy deep into hyperinflation, Yeltsin faced
certain defeat in scheduled elections. The head of the Communist
Party, Gennadi Zyuganov, promising a return to stability, was far
ahead in the polls. Some of Yeltsin’s close advisers ever suggested
canceling the elections and declaring a de facto dictatorship. By
then Yeltsin’s daughter, Tatyana Borisovna Yumasheva, had become
her father’s closest adviser, together with Berezhovsky, Guzinsky
and the other USAID and CIA-made oligarchs. Russian media labeled the
clique controlling Russia, especially after Yeltsin’s heart attack
that year, “The Family,” as in mafia family, not blood family,
though with daughter Tatyana the de facto Capo di tutti capi of the
family owing to her influence over the President.
Following
the Russian Communist Party success in the December 1995
parliamentary or Duma elections, the International Monetary Fund made
an extraordinary $10.2 billion loan to the Yeltsin government in
which $1 billion was secretly intended by Washington for the campaign
to keep Yeltsin President in the 1996 elections. Tape recordings of
conversations between Clinton and Yeltsin later made public, showed
that in return, among other favors, Yeltsin would exempt longtime
Clinton supporter and campaign donor, Arkansas-based Tyson Chicken’s
exports to Russia–then a $700 million annual business–from a
threatened 20% tariff increase.
Berezhovsky
and Guzinsky, the Washington-backed new Russian oligarchs, fearing
loss of their stolen billions to the opposition communists, formed
what they called the “Group of Seven,” which included Berezovsky,
Gusinsky, Khodorkovsky, Potanin, Vinogradov, Smolensky, and Friedman.
With aid of US Madison Avenue spin doctors, the Group of Seven–which
owned the two major TV stations with the third still state owned, and
as well major press– ran a US-style media campaign assault, at the
same time blocking Zyuganov from buying media time. Yeltsin posters
carried the slogan, “Choose with Your Heart.” Another ad featured
Yeltsin family photos, while Yeltsin in TV spots recalled events in
his childhood: as an athlete, a rebel, a father, and a grandfather.
All the while, sentimental music…
The
oligarchs hired Anatoly Chubais, the man responsible for creating
their fortunes, as Yeltsin’s campaign manager. He created a private
fund called the Center for the Protection of Private Property and
received $5 million from the Group of Seven for the campaign. Fake
newspapers were created and printed stories claiming discovery of
secret minutes of a Communist Party leadership meeting where Zyuganov
was alleged to have said, “We will not be able to give the
people anything that we promised.” Gaidar’s re-election fund
also funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars, a fortune in the time
of hyperinflation of the ruble, to major journalists to write
fraudulent articles in praise of Yeltsin and discrediting Zyuganov.
The fact
that the oligarchs had a near monopoly on Russian TV and print media
made it possible to tilt the vote to Yeltsin 54%. The Russian
Corporate Politburo was now firmly in the saddle, with Yeltsin and
Chubais their horses.
The human
cost of the US-imposed Russian Shock Therapy brought by Anatoly
Chubais, Yegor Gaidar together with George Soros, Jeffrey Sachs and a
stable of CIA-linked financial and legal operators such as Jonathan
Hay and Andrei Schleifer, was beyond belief. Between 1991 and 1997,
Russian GDP – the value of all goods and services that Russia
produces – collapsed by 83%. Farm production declined 63% as state
support for agriculture ended and cheap US imports such as Tyson
chickens replaced their domestic production. Industrial and other
investment decreased 92%. More than 70,000 factories were closed
down. That led to Russia producing 88% fewer tractors, 76% fewer
washing machines, 77% less cotton fabric, 78% fewer TV-sets and on
and on. In a country without unemployment under the Soviet era, 13
million people lost their jobs. Those who still had work had their
wages cut in half. The average life span for men had been shortened
by six years, down to the same level as in India, Egypt or Bolivia.
Alcoholism became epidemic as depression and unemployment spread
among the population. It was a shock indeed, the kind of shock a
country experiences only in a major war. The average life span had
decreased, in just a few years, to the same level as in India, Egypt
and Bolivia.
The fact
that Anatoly Chubais is now under enormous pressure and likely to be
prosecuted is about far more than corruption of a corporate director.
It goes to the heart of the corrupt circles that have tried since the
ascent of Vladimir Putin in December 1999 to resume the Wall Street
rape of Russia, so far without success. For them Putin is the symbol
of that defeat. For the vast majority of Russians who lived through
the rape of their country in the 1990’s, Anatoly Chubais is the
symbol of that devastation and destruction.
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