Intelligence Chief Names Oligarchs as Criminals – Kick-off For the US Campaign to Back Medvedev for Re-election
John Helmer, for The Global Post, discusses the relationship between Russia's political elites and the country's oligarchs in the post-Yeltsin period.
Helmer comments that several oligarchs have been suspected of breaking the Kremlin's unspoken rules, including Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is in jail today. He notes that Khodorkovsky made the mistake of thinking that he owned YUKOS, and could do what owners think they can do.
Helmer cites, Admiral Dennis Blair, US Director of National Intelligence, who recently told the US Senate that when it comes to threats to the US from Russia, there is something systematically criminal about the way Russian business is linked to the state in what he called the "Growing Threat from International Organized Crime." He argued that the Russian oligarchs are a criminal threat that has gotten worse since the crisis of 2008.
Blair's testimony identified President Dmitry Medvedev and his modernization campaign as the panacea the US is looking for against the Russian oligarch risk. He said: "In addressing nationwide problems, Medvedev talks about Russia's need to modernize the economy, fight corruption, and move toward a more rule-of-law-based and pluralistic political system, but he faces formidable opposition within the entrenched elite who benefit from the status quo." Blair added: "However, moving forward on issues such as reforming Russia's state corporations or creating conditions more conducive to foreign investors could produce a backlash by those forces who might lose from competition."
Helmer concludes that it looks like a US Government strategy to support Medvedev's campaign for re-election in 2012.