He is the highest official to have ended up in handcuffs in recent times. But he is certainly not the first. Allegations of corruption in Russia are just a mean of selective justice. And Ulyukayev might not be an exception.
Let’s not consider the charge of taking a $ 2 million bribe – which could definitely be true – and let’s focus on the context. Arrests for bribes in Russia are never random. In a country like Russia, with endemic corruption even at the highest levels, a real fight against the phenomenon would be like trawling. If the net, however, only catches a few individual fish it is legitimate to suspect that the law is not equal for everyone.
Aleksey Ulyukayev, Minister of Economic Development from 2013, has been probed by the powerful Investigative Committee – the super legal body, directly under Putin’s control – and immediately put under arrest. In the office he held, he had to oversee the acquisition of the public Bashkortostan oil company, Bashneft, by Igor Sechin’s oil giant Rosneft. Sechin, a powerful figure even among the powerful siloviki and always very close to Putin, has reportedly been disgraced in the last months. In addition, it’s not clear who would have paid the bribe to favour the Rosneft acquisition. Seen from here, Ulyukayev’s detention – he is not one of the circle of siloviki – could be nothing more than yet another head falling. And, perhaps, even a way to weaken Sechin, who will probably now have to watch his back too.
Nothing really new
Something already started moving during the summer, when just in a few days, the head of the Federal Customs Service, Andrei Belyaninov, was forced to resign after his house had been searched by the FSB; three senior officers of the powerful Investigative Committee, including the rising star and deputy director of the Moscow section, Denis Nikandrov, were arrested; and in just one day, July 28, four new regional governors – for Sevastopol, Kaliningrad, Yaroslavl and Kirov – were appointed; and eventually, Putin’s closest ally Sergej Ivanov was dismissed from his place as head of the Presidential staff.
At the same time, the plenipotentiary envoy for the district of Crimea, Oleg Belaventsev, has been moved to the North Caucasus region, taking the place of Sergey Melikov. The latter was appointed deputy head of the new National Guard, under the newly appointed head Viktor Zolotov, former commander of internal forces and former head of Putin’s personal security. Finally, Mikhail Zurabov was removed from the post of Ambassador to Ukraine. Commenting on the appointment of governors, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that the choice was made by Putin himself.
Balancing power
Cleaning at the highest levels of the Russian government has reached a peak in recent months, but it didn’t begin yesterday. In recent months, the governor of the Tula region has been replaced, while the governors of the regions of Kirov and Sakhalin ended up in handcuffs on charges of bribery. And if we look at the lower ranks too, from officials to mayors, there have been several dozen arrests and dismissals this year. The charge is always the same: bribery.
Tatyana Stanovaya, a political analyst with years of experience, wrote that after the carousel of nominations “the structures which continue to be Putin’s personal support are dramatically gaining political momentum, namely the FSB and the National Guard of Russia. Secondly, structures managed by the heads of ‘the second tier’ are become weaker; the MIA is now much weaker”.
The goal of Putin, in short, is always the same: to balance the role of the main antagonistic internal forces, so that none of them gets enough power into its own hands.
The choice of the man to take Ulyukayev’s place will tell us something more.
@daniloeliatweet
He is the highest official to have ended up in handcuffs in recent times. But he is certainly not the first. Allegations of corruption in Russia are just a mean of selective justice. And Ulyukayev might not be an exception.
