Russian prosecutor general’s office has resumed its hunt for media tycoon Vladimir Gusinsky. The chief the of Media-Most holding company and president of the Russian Jewish Congress will now be sought with the help of Interpol. Gusinsky himself, charged with fraud, has no intention to go into hiding.
Several months ago Gusinsky was arrested on fraud charges. However, later the businessman was released, the charges were dropped, and Gusinsky was even allowed to go abroad. Analysts wondered: why such indulgence toward a political opponent? Later on they learned that Gusinsky had signed an agreement to transfer the shares of his holding company to 50% state controlled Gazprom Media. The protocols included the one according to which the disgraced oligarch was guaranteed freedom and the chance to go abroad in exchange for shares. Under this document the scandalized observers saw the signature of the Russian Press Minister Mikhail Lesin.
Since then rumors began that the regime would inevitably take revenge on Gusinsky, who told about the methods being used to outbid holding companies in new Russia, and demonstrated the king was naked after all. And now the time for revenge has come: Gusinsky has been summoned for interrogation to the prosecutor’s office, he faces charges and is threatened with arrest if he does not report. And if he does, they are still undecided.
What does this all mean? The other day there was a newspaper report stating Gusinsky made a deal with his permanent enemy Boris Berezovsky to withstand the Kremlin together. Meanwhile the oligarchs not associated with power, such as Vladimir Potanin, Mikhail Fridman and other well-known personages, have begun negotiating to elaborate a joint policy against the so-called red directors of Arkady Volsky. The regime does not need such opposition, particularly against the background of reports that oil prices are about to drop. And the state is set to intimidate its possible opponents with the fate of Vladimir Gusinsky: for it, the businessman almost turns into a biblical character, a kind of the Eternal Jew, who is to be found and arrested in order the others sit quietly.
If I were in the shoes of the Russian power-holders, I would be more delicate. After the anti-Semitic utterances of new Kursk Governor Aleksandr Mikhailov, who considers his victory in the region the victory over the Russian Jewish Congress, an international search for the head of this very congress might scare not Russian businessmen, but the West. And no Interpol will be able to save the Russian leaders’ reputation, breathed on by both the Kursk canaries and overly diligent prosecutors.
