Today everyone is gleefully discussing how Surkov, the "great" "creator" of the Kremlin's "political" "system," is being publicly rubbed face-first into the table by Investigative Committee spokesman Markin in a shabby pro-Kremlin newspaper. And he's clearly being humiliated with the highest-level approval, complete with all the little jabs usually reserved for "opposition figures—hirelings of the West." "No point complaining while looking on from London," "a pitiful song within the walls of the London School of Economics," "a foreign target audience."
What used to be the favorite refrain of some people in charge of major projects? Basically: our job is to deliver large-scale results, and if in some places people are simply skimming and stealing, that's not our department—that's just a failure on the part of auditors, investigators, and other law enforcement agencies. But times change, and with them the excuses and mantras of "effective managers". Now, on the contrary, whenever large-scale projects fail to produce results, the Investigative Committee will always be to blame. Either they show up at eight in the morning to search the offices of the creative guys, strictly in accordance with criminal procedure, or they scare off a foreign guest in the corridors of Skolkovo with procedural actions. And how, under such conditions, is anyone supposed to promote innovation and attract investment?
It should be noted that these days "effective managers" have a new fashion. The moment there's a search of some vice-governor's multi-story mansion in a poor region, his colleagues immediately start shouting about a political hit job and satraps from the Investigative Committee and the Accounts Chamber. ... Perhaps that is precisely why the handlers of especially effective managers prefer to perform the aria of the Moscow guest straight from London, before their target audience. They call this groaning a song. And what a pitiful song it is, right there within the walls of the London School of Economics: "The Investigative Committee is moving too fast, loudly declaring abuses at Skolkovo." http://izvestia.ru/news/549923 As for Surkov, everything is clear. An ordinary con man and fraudster who posed as a political philosopher and great political strategist as long as he had the ability to dispose of undeclared party cash hauled out of VTB and VEB (major Russian state banks) in suitcases, direct paid propaganda on state TV, and sic Markins like this one on people to fabricate criminal cases. As soon as those opportunities disappeared, his amazing political talents and "sixth sense" vanished somewhere too. Even clutching a volume of Fukuyama to his chest doesn't help. Instead of spouting portentous political pseudo-theory, he now has to babble, "I was a successful businessman" (right—on state service since 1999, a businessman indeed), in order to somehow explain the appearance of a vast fortune that "stuck to his hands" while distributing money for United Russia, the Nashi youth movement, and everything else. In Surkov's place now sits Volodin, dumb as a post. He doesn't hang Che Guevara portraits on the walls and probably doesn't know the word "transcendental," but he likewise hands out undeclared cash from state banks to puppet parties and "cultural figures," pushes paid propaganda through the idiot box, and points out who should be framed in criminal cases. Everything works even better now, because Volodin doesn't get distracted hiring "literary slaves" to write plays in his name. But what I'm really writing is more of a postcard to Major General Voldemar Markin and his boss, Pan Bastrykin, who in their article in Izvestia seem terribly puffed up with self-importance. Look at us, they say—we're afraid of nothing, we're even investigating Skolkovo. How brave and impartial. I would like to draw your attention, gentlemen Markin and Bastrykin, to the fact that the phrase "effective managers," used twice in quotation marks in your article, is now used by many people in this context, but was originally borrowed from my post "How They Steal at VTB," which describes—with all the documents—the story of how VTB state bankers siphoned off $150 million through elementary fraud.
Four years have already passed, and we have spent those four years in endless court cases and disputes, including with your agency, which categorically refuses to investigate this matter. During this time, without any help from the Investigative Committee, we found all the documents and exposed everyone involved, yet there still has been no criminal case. And there is no case precisely because the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation is busy blocking it. Could it be because VTB is still shipping out undeclared party cash, while its head, Kostin, sits on the Supreme Council of United Russia? 2. I would also draw your attention to the fact that regarding the "Forbes-list citizen who is not exactly in need," Vekselberg, mentioned in the article, our Anti-Corruption Foundation has also long been conducting an investigation into how this very Vekselberg, with the help of crooks in the government and a sham tender, bought a building in central Moscow and then, a day later, sold it to the Ministry of Regional Development for a price $90 million above market value.
Further developments in the case are here, here, and here. And once again we are spending months and years battling the Interior Ministry and the Investigative Committee to get them to start investigating this case, while they display remarkable ingenuity in avoiding exactly that.
They are ready to sue us—anything to avoid troubling fraudsters like Vekselberg and Basargin (a former minister who went on to serve as governor of Perm Krai, a region in Russia). A criminal case has still not been opened. For some reason, Generals Markin and Bastrykin do not write articles about that. It would not make for such a heroic story.