"I think Vladimir Putin really meant it when he said that the state was not at all interested in the Yukos concern ruined or sliced.
"The state meant from the start to make the Yukos work for Russia-and Geraschenko's election promotes that goal," the expert said to Novosti.
Victor Geraschenko is an influential figure in the Kremlin and the government alike. He is independent enough in his opinions on the Russian economy, now in transformation. On the one hand, he has the conservative mind of an old-school bureaucrat. On the other hand, he sees well enough that the Yukos will need new opportunities, every now and then, with globalisation sweeping the world, Herr Rahr went on.
Geraschenko knows what to do to make the Yukos join the number of private corporations-on a par with the LUKoil and the Rosneft-which neither belong to the government nor work against the Kremlin, reassured our interviewee.
Alexander Rahr is Koerber Analytical Centre manager for Russian and CIS regional programmes.
