Novye Izvestia
The Kremlin Sets Up Liberal Party
The presidential administration has come up with a plan to form a new ruling party. This liberal structure should become a counterbalance to United Russia and Rodina.
A member of the State Duma staff speaking on condition of anonymity has told Novye Izvestia that the presidential administration has almost completed preparations for the formation of the new pro-Kremlin party. Moreover, according to some sources, the party already has offices in 57 regions of the country. The need for this new force was above all prompted by the falling ratings of United Russia.
A source in the presidential administration in turn confirmed that the new structure would play the role of a liberal force.
According to analysts, the new project does not seek to replace United Russia but is meant to become its liberal complement against the general political background and deprive the West and domestic opposition of reason to criticize the authorities for a lack of freedom.
The current party system now has a sore, says Alexei Makarkin, the deputy head of the Center of Political Technologies. On the one hand, there is the bureaucratic party of the parliamentary majority, and, on the other, its patriotic clone in the form of Rodina. "This is why the new liberal party will include liberal ministers," Mr. Makarkin says. According to him, depending on the situation, United Russia could vote with the pro-Kremlin liberal party (when the issue concerns WTO accession or prospects of EU membership) or with Rodina (when terrorism or xenophobia are under discussion).
According to initial reports, the main actors in the new structure may be government officials - Minister of Economic Development and Trade German Gref, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin and Audit Chamber Chairman Sergei Stepashin. According to some experts, more information will become known about the new party in two weeks.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
Experts on Ramzan Kadyrov's Promotion
Chechen President Alu Alkhanov has taken another step to consolidate his position in the republic. On his request, Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's first deputy prime minister (and son of Chechnya's previous late leader Akhmad Kadyrov) has been appointed as an advisor to the Russian president's special envoy in the Southern Federal District [Dmitry Kozak] on cooperation with armed structures in the Chechen republic. Previous envoys had no such advisors, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reports.
Analysts differ on Mr. Kadyrov's appointment. "This rather emphasizes Ramzan's high status," says Dmitry Oreshkin, the head of the Merkator group. "Kadyrov's group is too influential to argue with it. Ramzan has retained both financial [Premier Sergei Abramov is the Kadyrov clan's candidate] and military clout. He is the leader of Chechnya's security structures and personally controls several thousand fighters."
Valery Khomyakov, the head of the agency of applied and regional policy, assesses this appointment "as an attempt to suffocate Kadyrov in an embrace and somewhat distance him from Chechnya", as "far from everybody in the Kremlin favors this figure." According to Mr. Khomyakov, this is "a purely Kremlin initiative" that will help keep the extremely ambitious Kadyrov on the leash.
The newspaper cites the example of Bislan Gantamirov, who was an influential mayor of the Chechen capital and had armed formations under his control. He was later sent to work in a plenipotentiary representative office and, when he returned to Chechnya a year later, he became a press minister who no longer had any influence or armed forces.
Vedomosti
Who To Be Trusted With Gazprom's Oil?
Contrary to all expectations, the new Gazpromneft company may be headed by Zarubezhneft's president, Nikolai Tokarev, who has kept a low profile until now. It had previously been assumed that Rosneft head Sergei Bogdanchikov would be put in charge of Gazprom's newly established subsidiary, as Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller had stated, Vedomosti writes.
Mr. Miller recently announced that Zarubezhneft was likely to be incorporated into Gazpromneft. His motivation was that a preliminary valuation of Rosneft by Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) showed that the company's assets were worth less than a 10.7% stake in Gazprom that had been earmarked for the swap. On Wednesday, Zarubezhneft circulated a statement saying that the company's incorporation into Gazprom was a "foregone conclusion."
An Economic Development and Trade Ministry spokesman told this paper that this Zarubezhneft statement pointed to the desire of its president, Nikolai Tokarev, to join in the jockeying for the top position in Gazpromneft. Besides, Mr. Tokarev himself said in the summer that he wanted "to try his hand at the domestic oil production market."
According to another government official, the candidacies of Bogdanchikov and Deputy Gazprom CEO Alexander Ryazanov are under discussion, while Mr. Tokarev is to remain the head of Zarubezhneft, which will be a separate entity within Gazprom.
But company staff confirmed that "the Tokarev candidacy is being seriously considered" and the current Zarubezhneft chief has high chances. In this situation, "Tokarev may benefit from his close acquaintance with Putin," the newspaper's source in Gazprom explained.
Gazeta
Court Obliges Kommersant To Pay Alfa-Bank $11 Million
The Moscow arbitration court on Wednesday ruled that Kommersant publishers must pay Alfa-Bank $11 million. This is the biggest claim made in Russian history against a media body. The core of the matter is an article, "Banking Crisis Takes to the Streets", which appeared in the paper on July 7 and alleged a run on Alfa-Bank branches by scared clients.
Alfa and then the court found the information did not correspond to reality and compromised the bank's business reputation. The conflict is described in today's Gazeta.
Kommersant's director-general, Andrei Vasilyev, does not rule out that the Alfa-Group consortium's head, Mikhail Fridman, explicitly told his men to ruin or buy Kommersant. Mr. Vasilyev thinks that Alfa Bank "wants to exploit this claim to score points with the Kremlin."
Experts are not ruling out a political version of the claim either. In the view of Alexei Makarkin, the deputy director-general of the Center of Political Technologies, this fits into the context of relations between Kommersant owner Boris Berezovsky and the Kremlin, and may be a matter of changing the publication's owner.
Meanwhile, Alexander Gafin, a member of the Alfa-Bank board of directors, categorically denies that the claim was filed to enable the subsequent purchase of Kommersant. "Five years ago we had a stake in the newspaper as collateral," he said. "We are not interested in buying it, simply you must answer for every word you say."
In the opinion of Kommersant's core shareholder Boris Berezovsky, the claim was motivated, on the one hand, by Fridman taking offence at Kommersant publishing a photograph that did him little credit eighteen months ago, and, on the other, by his desire to do a favor for the Kremlin, which is not interested in the publication's independence.
Vremya Novostei
Investors Will Decide What Should Be Built on Moskva Hotel Site
While speaking to reporters in Brussels yesterday, the mayor of Moscow, Yury Luzhkov, did not rule out that a grand square might appear on the site of the recently demolished Moskva Hotel. Mr. Luzhkov had previously announced that a replica of the hotel would be built on the site. However, he believes "serious arguments" have to be provided for him to abandon the original plan, writes Vremya Novostei.
Moscow's chief architect, Alexander Kuzmin, and Deputy Mayor Valery Shantsev have backed the idea not to rebuild the hotel.
Yury Bocharov, an architecture academician, also believes that the hotel should not be constructed, as Moscow is too built-up and lacks a pleasant city environment. Alexei Komech, the director of the State Art History Institute, advanced an alternative. "A city district used to be on that site and should be rebuilt. However, the buildings should have no more than two to four stories. The empty square will affect the Theatre Square's architectural ensemble, it will 'spread out,'" said Mr. Komech.
Mr. Luzhkov will apparently leave investors to make the choice. He said if the investors who stumped up the money to demolish the hotel and build a new one agreed with the square's construction, he would think it over.
