The author argues that society has become far too tolerant of corruption, even though almost anyone can fight it: all it takes is making use of media reports, filing complaints with the prosecutor’s office, going to court, and relying on support from employees within the companies themselves who are outraged by abuses. He acknowledges that securing prison sentences has not yet been possible, and that investigations and criminal cases are often dragged out, so he is also considering the possibility of applying pressure through foreign mechanisms of corporate oversight. More broadly, he describes Russia’s political system as one based on trading political loyalty for the elites’ right to enrich themselves, argues that the authorities are not monolithic, and is convinced that multiple centers of civic pressure can change the situation.
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Our problem is that we've somehow
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grown used to corruption. Our level of
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tolerance toward it has already
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dropped, because, yes, we read
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the newspapers every morning: yes, a billion was stolen,
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yes, and then we move on to the
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culture section. In other words, it seems like no one is
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even affected anymore by descriptions of these monstrous
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schemes, but they affect me. I
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read this, and after reading it I don't just say:
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"Those bastards should be shot
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for that." I don't stop
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there. I sit down and spend 10 minutes
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writing to the Prosecutor General's Office
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(Russia's top prosecutorial authority). Prosecutor General,
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such-and-such newspaper has published
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information containing
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evidence of a crime having been committed.
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We ask that this be reviewed in accordance with the established procedure
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and that I be informed. Ninety-nine percent of my cases
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began with this simple letter. And in that
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sense, anyone can simply tomorrow
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pick up that newspaper and, if they are
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a shareholder in the company, start a case. If they are not,
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they can buy a share on principle and
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start the case. In the case of the Cyprus
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VTB bank, and with RSB, it was all based on
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a publication in the newspaper Vedomosti.
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Tankred's investigation into Gazprom was also
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a publication in Vedomosti. So
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a significant portion of the materials I
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receive are simply completely open
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sources from the mass media.
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Then, in the course of checking all this, I
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try to find some additional
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material. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.
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If we're speaking specifically about
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the VTB case and my proceedings against VTB,
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a significant portion of the materials I
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received came from people—former
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and current employees of VTB Bank—
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which has tens of thousands of staff,
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and naturally, 80% of them
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are not crooks. A VTB bank employee
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is driven ten times crazier by this corruption
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than an ordinary person who
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reads about it in the newspaper, because he
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knows how it is done. And maybe
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he is even servicing the interests of that
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crook who is stealing something like 100
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million. And so that person feels far more
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emotion about it and is ready
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to support me. And what I offer
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are mechanisms and procedures that are fairly
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simple, basic: to file an appeal
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together with me through the online public reception office,
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where he can do it together with me. Well,
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as for the question of whether I have put any of these
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crooks in prison, unfortunately I can answer:
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"No, no one has gone to jail yet." I am sure that
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sooner or later it will happen, but even
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the process itself has value. Against Gazprom
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I have initiated several criminal cases, right?
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But in most cases, well, what happens is this
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back-and-forth: the police refuse
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to open a criminal case. I get their
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decision overturned in 90% of cases, fairly
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successfully, through the courts or the prosecutor's office,
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and then it starts all over again. Unfortunately, under
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our laws, this can
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drag on indefinitely. Right now we are trying,
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we are working on moving some of these
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proceedings abroad. All these companies
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are listed, for example, on
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the London Stock Exchange. That means they
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are required to meet certain standards of
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corporate governance. Yes, if in
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that same VTB people are stealing, and the audit
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committee, headed by a foreigner,
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Warnig, knows that theft is taking place—and he does
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know, because I write him official
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letters—if he has not initiated an official
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investigation, then under the standards of
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UK corporate governance
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he too is committing violations. And
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of course, it is another matter that conducting proceedings
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abroad is quite expensive and
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difficult, but nevertheless we are looking for
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ways to test
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these mechanisms. I do not believe that
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nothing can be changed. I am absolutely
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certain that it can be changed. And I am
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absolutely certain that I, and people like me, will change it.
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I am 100% sure of that. I do not see
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any monolith of power. Yes, they
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are capable, of course, of crushing, imprisoning,
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destroying, bankrupting any
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person, any company, or any
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dozen companies, yes, but overall this is
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a fairly fragmented, amorphous
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community of people who have simply
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ended up in power for now and are
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tearing apart those oil
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and gas revenues. They may be united
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by some common motivation, but
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there is no monolith. That is why the task
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for me and people like me is to create points of
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pressure. They can withstand one point of
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pressure, two, 32, but 132 points
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they will not be able to withstand. Even I
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sometimes win court cases against this government.
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People who operate on nothing but empty
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slogans. There are absolutely tons of them
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right now—more than enough,
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far more than are needed. So I'd rather
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stick to my paperwork. But everyone,
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everyone understands what I do. If there's an obvious
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crook, I write about him. If there's an obvious
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crime, I describe it. My work is
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clear, and anyone can
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join in. There are people
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who say, "Yes, we don't like
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what's happening now, but under Yeltsin
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it was even worse," or "What's the alternative?" and so
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on. Well, unfortunately, very
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simply put, the people who were trusted,
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who carried out reforms, whom people
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followed, and who promised a better life,
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unfortunately, for the most part
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turned out to be greedy crooks. That,
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naturally, planted
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a tremendous sense of disappointment in all of us. And
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we still feel the consequences to this day. But
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even so, almost everyone understands
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that everything happening
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now is wrong and has to
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come to an end. Our bourgeoisie is made up of the same
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old Komsomol people (former members of the Soviet Communist youth organization). Well, if I mean
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the top tier of that bourgeoisie, they
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live in a perfectly comfortable
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compromise. They delegated political power to the security apparatus/state system,
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and in return received
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economic rights. All our
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regional elites, who are also generally
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unhappy with what's happening, nevertheless
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live in a system where they
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provide political cover for all of
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this. They simply rig elections, and
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in return they're allowed to steal
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without limit. As for Putin, this is
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a conscious choice, and it's the only
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way of governing the country that he
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can afford. He rules, he
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controls the country not through fear and not through
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some, uh, mysterious security men
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or shadowy enforcers who
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support him. Those security people would
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support anyone who gives them
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money. He allows the elites to enrich themselves:
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take, grab, make money, and so on,
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but give me this political
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stability. Entire regions of the country
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are not under control. Who can say
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that there is real state authority now in Chechnya,
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Dagestan, or Ingushetia? Those are essentially
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territories where there is no federal
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authority, no laws at all. I mean,
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if police officers and FSB officers are being killed there
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every day, if not a single
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lawyer in the country can travel to a
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Chechen court in order to handle a
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case because they're simply afraid.
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So in Chechen courts, absolutely anything
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can happen. So what we were told at the
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beginning—that yes, through
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administrative rent-seeking, we had at least ensured
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a governable country—now it is becoming
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obvious that this is not true. The country is not governable.
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The only thing that has been
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ensured is portraits. Yes, in
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every crook's office there hangs a portrait of
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Putin and Medvedev. For Putin now
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there is no other way out. Either he will
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remain in power to the end, or he will
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end his days behind bars. He
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understands perfectly well that as soon as he
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gives up power—really gives it up,
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not the way it happened now
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with Medvedev—within six months, a year,
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or two, they will start going after him. Him,
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his businessmen, all those endless
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members of the Ozero dacha cooperative (a well-known circle tied to Putin), all those
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brothers, Bank Rossiya, all of
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Gunvor—they'll all be pursued. And
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their money will start being taken away too,
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just as they took it from others. So
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for him there is simply no
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political or even physical future
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other than that. I'm used to the fact that
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people think someone is backing me.
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Just as everyone thinks that I
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became Vedomosti newspaper's Person of the Year because of some deal.
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A significant number of people are convinced that I
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paid for it. By now I've made enough
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enemies who are always ready
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to fuel such theories. Besides, for the same
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employees of companies like VTB,
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Rosneft, and Gazprom, it's much
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more appealing to believe that I am being
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funded by some enemy of theirs, rather than that
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I do this because I hate
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them for being crooks. Gazprom people,
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running around complaining about me to someone,
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say, "Well, he must have
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Sechin behind him, because Sechin is trying
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to bring Miller down." Yes, and when I
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do something about Rosneft, they
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run around saying, "Well, he was paid by Yug
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and
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>> But you live on that much."
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>> Yes, I'm not hiding how I live,
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I'm a lawyer, I have paying clients,
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and there are cases I take on simply because
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I want to. It gives me satisfaction that
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that Kostin, Miller, Sechin, and so on
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sometimes, even if it's just some toothache or other
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some little one there winces because of my
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activities. With