#11 - RW 261
Moscow Times
June 12, 2003
Expect Swift Retribution for Klimov's Death
By Yulia Latynina

On the morning of June 6, Igor Klimov, head of Almaz-Antei Concern, was gunned down in Moscow. The murder was unprecedented. The producers of Russia's air defense systems are not in the habit of using bullets to settle their differences. Later that same day Sergei Shchitko, commercial director at Almaz-Antei's subsidiary RATEP, was shot to death in Serpukhov, a city south of Moscow where RATEP is located.

Almaz-Antei was formed in April 2002 as part of a defense industry-wide centralization program spearheaded by Ilya Klebanov, the minister of industry, science and technology. On paper, the program called for consolidation of the entire industry in four dozen holding companies. In reality, it produced a few military-industrial fiefdoms ruled by top government officials.

Almaz-Antei became the sphere of influence of Viktor Ivanov, a deputy head of the presidential administration, personal friend of President Vladimir Putin and the head of one of the most powerful clans in Russia. Ivanov was appointed chairman of Almaz-Antei's board of directors. The company was run by Klimov, who advised Ivanov on defense industry issues. Whoever ordered the hit will face retribution no less swift and sure than if he had put out a contract on a childhood friend of the director of the CIA.

Almaz-Antei is a loosely structured enterprise. It was being torn apart by internal tensions, above all by the bitter rivalry between Almaz and Antei, the two air defense producers that gave the new concern its name. The two companies have been at each other's throats since the days of Lavrenty Beria. Industry experts say that neither Klimov, nor his predecessor Yury Svirin, could come up with a workable operating strategy for Almaz-Antei. To my mind, this was simply an impossible task. More than 40 companies merged to form Almaz-Antei, but this behemoth was reminiscent of Noah's Ark: It could stay afloat only on the ocean of a socialist economy. There is no strategy for removing the Ark from Mount Ararat after the flood subsides.

Klimov did attempt to overhaul the finances of all of the company's subsidiaries, however. The Prosecutor General's Office launched a number of criminal investigations, one into RATEP, another concerning the Obukhov factory, and a third into the management at Antei. When Antei sold the Tor M1 air defense system to Greece, some $45 million of the purchase price was diverted to Montenegro, while $16 million vanished into thin air.

After Klimov sacked some directors and put the thumbscrews on others, a crowd of would-be replacements, including other St. Petersburg clan members, started to smell blood.

And then last Friday Klimov was shot to death.

It is unlikely that Klimov's murder is related to Almaz-Antei's consolidation strategy or to the battle for the director's chair. Issues of that magnitude are decided at a much higher level. Ruling out some common or garden crime, two explanations remain.

The first version is that some heavy-hitter was sending a message to the St. Petersburg chekists or to Viktor Ivanov personally: "If we can get to Klimov, we can get to you too."

The second version is that some petty thugs were behind it. The dying defense industry has been bled dry by hundreds of leeches. Klimov not only fired directors at Almaz-Antei, he also demanded that they give back what they had stolen. In a sense, this was no different to demanding that looters put everything back on the shelves after a riot.

It's hard to escape the thought that Klimov was murdered by a couple of cretins who couldn't even think two moves ahead. Contract murders over money always leave a trail in the form of previous criminal investigations, feuds and threats. The prosecutors normally throw up their hands, saying: "We have too many suspects, and we can't throw any of them behind bars." But this time around, law enforcement will no doubt come down on everyone like a ton of bricks. And if a few innocent heads roll, well, they'll be compensated in the next world.

Klimov's murder will probably be solved -- very quickly, and quite possibly out of the public eye.

Yulia Latynina is host of "Yest Mneniye" on TVS.

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