Top-level Russian officials seen escaping president’s anti-corruption strictures

Text of report by the website of Russian business newspaper Vedomosti

The report of Konstantin Chuychenko, chief of the Control Department, on malfeasance in the purchase of tomographic scanners from federal budget funds gave rise to the righteous anger of the president (“shameless, crude theft”). The president demanded systemic measures, including firings at all levels.

Are systemic results and the said firings to be expected? Previous high-profile corruption sagas indicate that there is an invisible barrier, beyond which the president’s instructions lose strength and slip through the cracks. What sort of barrier is this? Most simply put: is there, for example, an official level which it is not possible for the president to reach, get an inquiry going, dismiss, that is?

The president has already both replaced governors and dismissed distinguished generals – Pronin, chief of the Moscow Main Interior Administration, for example. But it is obvious that with chiefs of the middle tier everything gets through easily, and chiefs of the level of deputy ministers, governors, regional ministers, and chiefs of services, the DMV, for example, are sometimes successfully sorted out. And there are those that cannot be touched: federal ministers and above.

Sports Minister Vitaliy Mutko is a well-known example. Following the unsuccessful Winter Olympics, Dmitriy Medvedev, just as now, fulminated and demanded the punishment of those to blame. Leonid Tyagachev, head of the Olympic Committee, had to go. But Mutko, following the report of the Comptroller’s Office on the preparations for the Olympics, which was extremely unfavourable towards him, stayed both spring and summer.

Figures of ministerial level who in a normal state would be real candidates for departure have as of late been Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev and Emergencies Minister Sergey Shoygu.

What decisions have been made? It is intended to give the Ministry of Emergencies, which proved unprepared for the fires, even more money. The head of Moscow Oblast forestry, who did not return from leave, came in for the fulmination and firing. The officer commanding the naval station at Kolomna, who valiantly, without any assistance from the command or the Ministry of Emergencies, fought the fire. But proved to be a convenient fall guy.

Things are still more surprising with the MVD. We recall that in February, following the high-profile statements about the need for reform in the MVD, 15 generals, two deputy ministers among them, were fired. The proceedings involving the death in pre-trial detention of Sergey Magnitskiy, lawyer for the Hermitage Capital Management investment fund, instituted only following direct orders from the president, is making little headway. The material on “the investigators, judges, prison employees, and members of the organized crime group who are party to the murder of Sergey Magnitskiy and the embezzlement that he uncovered” made public more than a month ago on the Internet by “friends of Sergey Magnitskiy and simply people that cannot remain indifferent” has evoked no interest in the law-enforcement authorities, despite official appeals to the Department of Internal Security of the MVD, the attorney general, and the president. Only yesterday did Interior Minister Nurgaliyev learn from reporters about video clips on the Internet and instructed the department to investigate the charges levelled at the investigators. Nurgaliyev himself, who has long been mercilessly criticized, is not only firmly ensconced in his post but is also undertaking the militia-police reform.

Nothing has been heard for a long time about the shocking case of kickbacks in the purchase of Mercedes for official needs. Medvedev gave the instruction for this business to be investigated back in April. The investigation is dragging on, there is no information or explanation. Perhaps the point is that chiefs of the Federal Protective Service, MVD, MoD, and Moscow City Hall are above the “prohibited” level?

We recall, incidentally, that in June the president expressed unhappiness with the execution of his orders – the premier swiftly reprimanded six deputy ministers.

We would venture to assume that we will hardly hear in the tomographic scanner case about anyone higher than the level of deputy. It is clear that it is not simply a question of the deputy level (it is explicable by the mechanics of vertical integration, about which separately). The problem is more complicated. But overcoming the “invisible barrier” is a task that the president could tackle. Otherwise the fight against corruption will remain a “proxy” fight.

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