A remarkable interview with VEB Chairman Dmitriev. — VEB is criticized for the lack of transparency in how borrowing companies are selected. How justified are these accusations? — I categorically disagree. At the supervisory board, we adopted a special document that systematized the criteria for selecting borrowers; it is available on VEB’s website. We ourselves have never encountered any complaints about violations of the principle of equal treatment of borrowers. — Perhaps that is because VEB has never named the companies that received financing under this program. Why don’t you disclose that information? — We left the right to make that information public to the borrowers themselves. There was an informal understanding between us on that point. At the time, the borrowers were negotiating with foreign creditors, and in some cases it was disadvantageous for them to admit that they had turned to the state for help. So, translated into plain English: We’re spending taxpayers’ money, but we won’t say on what. Through informal arrangements, we’re helping borrowers more or less screw over foreign creditors. The fact that today a borrower screws over a foreign creditor, and tomorrow may start screwing over VEB itself, apparently does not bother them. I simply do not understand how, IN PRINCIPLE, it is possible for companies receiving state aid not to be disclosed. And here’s another one: — Is it true that since the beginning of the year VEB has wound down another anti-crisis program — support for the stock market? — We spent about 168 billion rubles out of the 175 billion rubles allocated for these purposes from the National Wealth Fund (Russia’s sovereign wealth fund), and in accordance with a Finance Ministry decision at the end of last year, we stopped working with equities. But we believe it is possible to continue working with bonds. — What is the mechanism for VEB’s investment decisions when it uses National Wealth Fund money to buy securities from one issuer or another? — In coordination with the Finance Ministry, VEB’s supervisory board approved the procedure for using these funds on the stock market. In particular, a list of instruments was defined — generally debt securities issued by VTB, Sberbank, Rosneft, Gazprom, and a number of other reliable issuers. There are private companies among them as well, but I would prefer not to disclose the full list. Translated into plain English: we threw 170 billion rubles of taxpayers’ money into the trash, while traders close to us made a killing on insider information. We will not disclose information about the trades, so that no one can expose our fraud. Characteristically, Dmitriev says “the state” every other word. The state this, the state that, the state will decide, the state will agree, the state will refuse. What kind of “state” is this, exactly? Where is it? Point your finger at something sitting at the table and signing off on a resolution in the name of “the state.” What I see so far is not at all impressive.