#6405
#1 - JRL 6404
BBC Monitoring
Moscow TV marks Russian privatization anniversary by
kicking its fathers
Source: Centre TV, Moscow, in Russian 0700 gmt 14 Aug 02
[Presenter] An unusual auction took place the other day in [the prestigious Moscow suburb] of Zhukovka. Personal belongings of the leaders of Russian reforms went on sale: [Mikhail] Gorbachev's dinner set, and a doll of [a Union of Right Forces leader Irina] Khakamada.
However, the highest price, over 8,500 dollars, was paid for [Russian power grid boss Anatoliy] Chubays' privatization voucher. It is not a surprise, as Russia marks today the 10th anniversary of the major re-distribution of property in Russia after the [1917] revolution, known as the voucher privatization.
[Correspondent Vladimir Khomyakov] Chubays' voucher privatization was prepared by the shock therapy of his comrade-in-arms [Yegor] Gaydar, which reduced to dust the savings of ordinary citizens and devalued the rouble. As a result, the people of Russia, with an exception of a handful of smart operators close to the new Russian authorities that became rich after the liberalization of prices, were from the very beginning deprived of any possibility to take part in the privatization this way or another.
Everything was based not even on a law, but an ordinary decree signed by [President] Boris Yeltsin. The Russian Committee of State Property, then headed by the energetic Anatoliy Chubays, was in charge of the process. Some 200 well-paid foreign advisors were active on the committee. They were at the head of not only a number of departments, but also the expert commission that had developed all privatization documents. It was the proposal of this office to replace personal cheques to be exchanged for shares of privatized enterprises by bearer vouchers, which later were bought from the semi-starving people by large profiteers for peanuts.
It was not by chance that Moscow mayor Yuriy Luzhkov had compared these privatizaters to a drunkard who takes belongings out of his home to sell to anyone at any price in order to buy another drink. For example, the famous Uralmash [machine-building plant] went off for vouchers worth some 2m dollars, that is on par with a good flat in downtown New York.
However, Anatoliy Borisovich [Chubays] was making no secret of the fact that the privatization had purely political aims. That is not transferring the property to people, but building capitalism in Russia in the shortest possible time.
The premature capitalism happened to be quite ugly and of criminal and nomenclature character. There could be no other way, as they tried to adjust the economy to political goals, as was the case many times in our history, and not vice versa.
Back to the Top Next Article
August 15, 2002:
#6404 #6405
- Back to the Top -