We continue our remarkable fight to make the heads of the largest state-owned companies, Russian Railways (RZD) and Rosneft, disclose their income declarations.
By "remarkable," we mean it is remarkable that this is something we have to fight for at all. These are state-owned companies, their management and boards of directors are appointed by the state, they beg for money from our oil piggy bank, yet they do not want to show their incomes to the citizens of that state.
As you may remember, in the previous installment we received a response from the government confirming that the executives of both Rosneft and RZD are required to publish their declarations for public viewing.
Armed with this response, the Progress Party wrote to the Prosecutor's Office demanding that the companies be compelled to do what the government says.
The Prosecutor's Office reply was written in the finest traditions of mutual cover-up:
"The decision on publication is made by the Government, and we do not oversee the Government." So they seem to acknowledge that Rosneft and RZD were "created to carry out state tasks," but basically, "let the government force them itself — we're too scared."
OK. We're not scared, and we will continue pushing for the declarations to be published. We are waiting for a response from the Government, since apparently only it can resolve this.