orzhakov, arsukov, hubais:
The Plot Thickens.

"An Old Rumor Is Better Than Two New Ones"

The ascent of Anatoliy Chubais to the position of head of the president's administration confirmed a two-month-old rumor that Anatoliy Borisovich himself denied numerous times.

The most concise summary: the man got what he deserved. The lofty position of head of the administration only confirmed that Anatoliy Chubais was one of the real leaders of the victorious election campaign. As a financial expert he directed the necessary money to the necessary hands, and as an analyst he was able to anticipate the game accurately several moves ahead. Many people thought that Chubais was undermined at the press conference devoted to the black "nal" from the White House. But the decisiveness, quickness, and forestalling manner with which Anatoliy Chubais conducted this dramatic moment in Kremlin history evidently impressed the president more, and indeed were objectively more important, than the truth of what he said.

Evidently it was for different reasons that two "100- percent certain" rumors about the new head of the president's administration passed into oblivion. Just 10 days ago Pavel Borodin, the present head of the business office, was being referred to as definitely the next head of the administration. An experienced manager, Borodin seemed to have been able to maintain smooth working relations with all the major figures around Yeltsin. Like Yuriy Luzhkov, his degree of self-preservation lies in his distance from actual politics. It appears that Borodin was able to convince Boris Nikolayevich that he was needed in his former position. At the same time, it is not impossible that with the change in leadership certain functions of the president's administration will pass to the business office. At the very end Yuriy Yarov was mentioned as a new claimant to the job. If the rumors that the institution of vice prime minister was being eliminated with the exception of the first two (from the same sources--Ilyushkin and Yavlinskiy) were true, it would still be necessary to find positions for the remaining jobless "vices." It was considered highly likely that Yuriy Yarov would be the one to fall into the post of head of the administration. The chances of this option, many thought, depended entirely on whether the president ratified the new scheme of government.

All the same, it is Chubais. Whose party is bolstered in the Kremlin along with him? Obviously, it is the "young wolves" of liberal politics, each of whom can be awarded a medal for "Capture of the Kremlin-96." They are Vyacheslav Nikonov, Igor Malashenko, Vasiliy Shakhnovskiy. This is the liberal flank of a still-operating government where it is now worth listening to the opinions of Sergey Dubinin, Andrey Vavilov, Vitaliy Ignatenko, and Yevgeniy Yasin. There is one more, apparently very important circle for Anatoliy Borisovich, which can be designated as the coowners of ORT [Russian Public Television], headed by Boris Berezovskiy. Now that privatization and Chubais are separated, different relations can be expected between Anatoliy Borisovich and the man who is closest to the president today--Yuriy Luzhkov. The present story of Chubai's appointment as head of administration could be compared to Gaydar's appointment as prime minister. The only difference is that the rigid and highly organized Chubais may prove closer to the head of state than any prime minister. It is now obvious that a significant part of the team recruited by Korzhakov and Yegorov for the president's administration will not return from summer vacation. Above all this refers to all the various personnel specialists. On the other hand, it appears that the analysts will return to the administration.

The appointment of Chubais tells the country and all its various red and pink belts that no one should doubt the reform line. At the same time, the president has long been known as a master of creating all possible checks and balances in those around him. The appointment of Chubais may very well mean the early return of Aleksandr Korzhakov to the Kremlin. According to rumors, on the day when this issue of the paper was being signed to press there was a meeting between Boris Nikolayevich and Aleksandr Vasilyevich, who had returned from Sochi.

Well, we are now living through a time of paradoxes in job placement.

"Firing at Headquarters"

"I have revealed small things. You have not heard the most important and interesting part," "it is ludicrous to think that we had kept documents on the corrupt officials in the now sealed up offices," in such an intriguing manner ends his two interviews by Colonel Valeriy Streletskiy of the Presidential Security Service that hit the press over the last week. It is by his proxy that Aleksandr Korzhakov and Mikhail Barsukov, who were discharged but who kept silent for exactly two months, begin to respond to their opponents charges.

Their reactions, were expected any day now, in fact. Everybody realized that such holders of inside-and-outside-the-Kremlin information as the heads of the FSB [Federal Security Service] and the Main President Protection Directorate, would always have what to say in the language of incriminating evidence. "In his [Korzhakov's -- MN] hands there are a lot of materials which incriminate many officials and which may 'explode,"' Streletskiy says. One can assume: Two moths had to elapse before it became possible to understand the new alignment of forces in the Kremlin and the White House. Or, perhaps, Korzhakov and Barsukov were restraining themselves to let the time separate their names from Oleg Soskovets, the facts of whose not unselfish state activities are beginning to surface.

One way or another, the interview names the main opponents of the once powerful pair -- Chubais, Berezovskiy, and Gusinskiy. They, in Streletskiy's view, had organized the publication of the confessions of the former NFS president Boris Fedorov. Furthermore, Streletskiy contends that this recording was edited together from several conversations Fedorov conducted in a narrow circle of people at the LogoVAZ office. The "Korzhakov party" assesses the objective of its enemies very simply: access to government money, which is the easiest and the cheapest to get.

It should be noted that outlining a number of assumptions and hints, Streletskiy has so far revealed nothing sensational excepting his amusing rendering of a recent discussion between Korzhakov and Gusinskiy and revealing a new structure with perks like those the NFS had. This is a commission for humanitarian aid under the Russian Federation government led by Deputy Premier Oleg Davydov. "For this year," the colonel states, "they have been allocated two billion excise stamps for cigarettes at preferential rates. The treasury is not going to see the money accruing from these preferential rates."

There is a feeling that going on the war path, even such people as Generals Korzhakov and Barsukov, feel unsafe. It has been stated precisely on their behalf that should something happen to either of us -- all our information would be made public, this is our protection.

Like their opponents did in the situation involving the box of money [dollars] and the attempt to sink Inkombank, Korzhakov and Barsukov will, obviously, press into service mass media outlets and journalists close to them. For the time being each side has promised several stirring articles and a sensational interviews of Aleksandr Korzhakov himself this time around.

One can only guess how sensational and painful for society scandal is waiting to break out. Despite naming big names, the formidable fighter against corruption Streletskiy puts his professionalism in doubt by stating: You can spot a corrupt official in the White House right away -- those wearing costly suits take bribes, those wearing cheap suits, do not. The time chosen for injecting the damning information is unfortunate -- vacations. Finally, many people simply assume that had the president found for Aleksandr Vasilyevich [Korzhakov] and Mikhail Ivanovich [Barsukov] honorific government positions, they would have kept incriminating evidence to themselves.

The paradox of the situation is that it is unimportant for society in which way it is going to learn the facts of corruption and corrupt officials. Either because the FSB and GUOP [Main President Protection Directorate] are so alert, or because their former chiefs have become greatly offended by something. It is of fundamental importance that the quantity of information about our shaded authority should add to the quality of the latter.