Scams give Yelts

MOSCOW, AUG 5: Russian President Boris Yeltsin returns to Kremlin on Tuesday after his month-long vacation in holiday retreats at the pictu...

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MOSCOW, AUG 5: Russian President Boris Yeltsin returns to Kremlin on Tuesday after his month-long vacation in holiday retreats at the picturesque lakeside dacha in Karelia and Volga river resort of Volzhsky Utyos in Central Russia.

Back here, the President has to deal with a number of financial scams and corruption charges levelled against his pro-reform allies, First Vice-Premier Boris Nemtsov and Vice-Premier Alfred Kokh, in the wake of the recent sale of a major chunk of Russian telecommunications holding company Svyazinvest.

The Russian media has accused several key liberal ministers in the government of corruption, saying they lobbied for the interests of a powerful financial group. The attack came after the Mustcom Consortium led by Uneximbank and backed by US businessman George Soros won a 25 per cent share in the Svyazinvest.

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The allegation against Yeltsin’s allies in the government is the latest in a series of financial scandals that have rocked Kremlin during the President’s holiday, including the MiG-59 scam.

Russian Premier Viktor Chernomyrdin has already stepped into the Svyazinvest fray, ordering a thorough inquiry into the privatisation deal. He has reportedly asked Russia’s Justice Ministry, the State Anti-Monopoly Committee and the Federal Security Service (FSB) to check on the details and rule on whether the purchase was in line with legislation.

Chernomyrdin’s intervention was provoked by the media war which followed the Svyazinvest auction recently. Media tycoons Vladimir Gusinsky and Boris Berezovsky attacked Uneximbank’s president Vladimir Potanin for the alleged “dubious financial operations.” Last week, Gusinsky, head of the powerful MOST group, publicly called on Chernomyrdin to reconsider the sale.

Gusinsky’s call to Chernomyrdin gave a new turn to the battle for Svyazinvest, suggesting that MOST Group which controls the NTV television station and the Segodnya newspaper is hoping to trigger political opposition to young reformers. NTV has already repeatedly attacked Nemtsov.However, analysts say Chernomyrdin is unlikely to break up with the new guard of the Kremlin reformers.

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“Chernomyrdin is always slow to act. He is a cautious, calculating man,” said Yuri Korgunyuk, an analyst with the Moscow INDEM think-tank.