|
|
От
|
Виктор Олевич
|
|
|
К
|
All
|
|
|
Дата
|
03.03.2001 23:42:00
|
|
|
Рубрики
|
Прочее;
|
|
604. Путин
About the secret dossier of Putin's criminal misdeeds
Too Hot to Handle
the eXile
November 9, 2000
Moskovsky Komsomolets had it. So did Versiya. In fact, the following
document - a dossier on then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, prepared first
by the FSB, then added to by the investigative department of the MVD under
Vladimir Rushailo - has been circulating around the newsrooms of Moscow
publications for over a year. Until this week, when the eXile's sister
publication, "Stringer", decided to run it, the information in the document
has only been hinted at in the press.
Some history on this story. Last summer, when the Russian political elite
finally became disenchanted with then-Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin, a
conflict arose over who should take over the reins of government. As has
since become clear, the successor to Stepashin needed also to be a suitable
replacement for Boris Yeltsin, whose departure from the scene was already
being prepared for. Anti-Kremlin oppositionist politicians Yevgeny Primakov
and Yuri Luzhkov were enormously popular at the time and seemed a realistic
threat to sweep the upcoming Duma and Presidential elections. According to
various sources, Kremlin insiders (including the key members of the
"Family", i.e. Boris Berezovsky, Anatoly Chubais, Alexander Voloshin, and
Tatiana Dyachenko) were sufficiently alarmed by Luzhkov's and Primakov's
popularity that they focused on siloviki, members of security structures,
as potential replacements for Yeltsin. The reasoning behind this strategy
was that the future head of the government had to be a person who could be
relied upon to resort to unconstitutional measures to keep the current team
in power. In this atmosphere two apparently-qualified candidates emerged
who attracted the interest of the family-then-head of the FSB Vladimir
Putin, and Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo.
According to Stringer's sources, Putin was the favorite of Dyachenko,
Chubais, and Kremlin Property Chief Pavel Borodin. Rushailo, on the other
hand, had the support of Berezovsky and Voloshin.
Both sides prepared mightily for the behind-the-scenes campaign. Putin's
team prepared their own dossier on Rushailo, bits and pieces of which
leaked out in the local press. Among other things, reports surfaced in a
number of Russian newspapers that Rushailo owned a dacha next to Berezovsky
and former ORT director Badar Patarkatsishvili. Rushailo was also linked to
various Chechen warlords in reports which asserted that Rushailo's
effectiveness in negotiating the release of hostages from Chechnya was due
to the fact that he kept close relationships with the bandits.
Rushailo's team, meanwhile, prepared its own attack on Putin. Among other
things, it obtained and prepared for public release an existing dossier on
Putin that had been prepared by the FSB, several years before, after Putin
was first called to Moscow to work for Borodin. The FSB at the time was
headed by Nikolai Kovalev, considered an ally to Berezovsky. To this FSB
report Rushailo apparently added information from the files of RUBOP, the
anti-organized crime squad which he had headed before assuming control of
the Interior Ministry.
Information from this dossier appeared in the reports of the newspaper
Versiya and in Moskovsky Komsomolets, in the articles of Alexander
Khinshtein, throughout last fall. Versiya, for instance, mentioned Putin's
connection to Petersburg casinos on a number of occasions. But the full
document was never published.
The eXile's sister publication, "Stringer", decided to publish the document
this month after holding on to it for several months. While the paper was
ultimately unable to confirm independently the information in the document,
it was able to confirm the source of it - the FSB. When they presented the
document to us, we agreed to run it only after satisfying ourselves as to
the reliability of their sources. We can't reveal who those sources are,
but we can say that it was an official very close to Kovalev who confirmed
the authenticity of their report.
In any case, without further ado, here is the "Spravka v otnosheniye V.V.
Putina":
Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich, born in 1952, graduated from the legal
faculty of Leningrad State University (LGU) in 1975. From 1975 through
1990, he was in the employ of the Soviet KGB, worked in Germany, then
worked as an assistant on international questions to the dean of LGU.
In 1990, he became an assistant to Mayor A. Sobchak. From 1990 through 1996
he worked in the mayor's office in St. Petersburg. In 1994, he was named
first deputy to the mayor of St. Petersburg. A. Sobchak called him his
"student."
After the defeat of A. Sobchak in the 1996 elections, Putin moved to
Moscow, where he assumed the post of deputy to the director of the Kremlin
Administration
Since 1998, he has worked as the director of the FSB. [This and other
passages were apparently added to the original FSB document. -ed.]
In the opinion of many people who know Putin well, the latter's
determination to achieve personal enrichment, as well as his absence of
moral barriers, appeared from the very beginning of his career.
In the middle of 1990 a group of deputies from the Lensovet, under the
direction of Marina Saliye and Yuri Gladkov, undertook a special
investigation connected with Putin's role in the distribution of licenses
to export natural resources and precious metals. The Petersburg lawmakers
accused Putin of ineffective use of his authority and of corruption. In
particular, the conclusion of the commission related a story involving the
distribution of licenses for the export of natural resources in return for
shipments of food products, which in fact never arrived in Russia. A.
Sobchak was advised to released Putin from his duties.
Putin was involved with privatizations, including:
* BMP, or Baltic Sea Shipping. Control over BMP allowed for the sale of
Russian ships at reduced prices. In addition, all of these actions were
conducted through the criminal group headed by I.I. Trabera;
* The "Samtrest" alcohol distillery (the privatization handled through the
criminal gang headed by M.M. Miralashvili, or "Misha Kutaisski");
* The Astoria Hotel.
In the fall of 1998 a tender was held for the sale of 40% of the shares in
the Astoria Hotel. Putin tried to increase the size of his own personal
stake in the company that won the tender. He did not succeed: the shares
instead went to the directory of the alcoholic beverage factory "A.F.B.-2",
A.V. Sabadazh. Putin threatened that he would destroy the factory and deal
personally with the director. In the end, a compromise was reached:
Sabadazh paid off Putin with a one-time payment (about 800 thousand U.S.
dollars).
In the course of the privatization (with Putin's participation) of TV
Channel 11, the St. Petersburg Channel, and its sale to the station
"Russian Video," violations of the privatization law occurred.
A criminal case has been opened in connection with "Russian Video". The
case is being overseen by the senior detective in the department of
extremely important matters of the Prosecutor's office of the Russian
Federation, Y.M. Vanyushin. On the basis of the evidence in the case, the
director of Russian Video, Dmitri Rozhdestvensky, was arrested.
Rozhdestvensky financed trips abroad for Putin's wife.
Pornographic films were shot illegally by "Russian Video". Leading this
effort was Rozhdestvensky and Roman Linkov, the assistant to deceased
former State Deputy Galina Starovoitova. The deputy to the director of the
General Prosecutor's department of extremely important matters, V.A.
Lysenko, has additional materials on the case. Deputy General Prosecutor
Katishyev is familiar with the situation around the "Russian Video" case.
Putin is attempting to influence the direction of this case independently.
As vice-mayor of St. Petersburg, Putin was responsible for the distribution
of licenses to casinos. He received between 100 thousand and 300 thousand
dollars for each license given out. Beyond that, he is listed as one of the
legal founders of many of the elite nightclubs in St. Petersburg.
Putin's closest commercial contact is R.I. Tsepov, the director of security
for the company "Baltic-Export" (a company founded by a certain Zolotov,
who in the past worked as the head of personal security for A. Sobchak, now
head of personal security for Putin). In 1994, Tsepov was charged according
to article 222 of the Russian criminal code, i.e. for improper possession
of a firearm.
Despite this, Tsepov remains a registered officer of the 7th department of
RUBOP in St. Petersburg. It was Tsepov who personally collected all the
money for the licensing of casinos in the city. For example one can look at
the "Konti" casino, in which Miralishvili makes a monthly payment to Putin
through Tsepov. The firm "Farmavit" pays Putin $20,000 a month.
In 1995 Tsepov gave Putin's wife an emerald which he had won at cards from
"Botsman", a local crime lord. The latter had stolen the emerald in 1994 in
South Korea. The emerald is listed in the 1995-1996 Interpol catalogue as a
missing item. Tsepov offered his services to Putin in exchange for the
guarantee that Putin will "cover" for his activities. Through Putin, Tsepov
has received 5 separate documents, identifying him as a member of the staff
of such organizations as the FSB, the SVR [foreign intelligence
agency-ed.], and the MVD.
In March of 1998 the Deputy General Prosecutor Katishev revived a criminal
case against Tsepov (the case is under the direction of the above-mentioned
Vanyushin). At the current moment Tsepov is hiding from the authorities in
the Czech republic, to whence he traveled with false documentation (a
foreign passport made up under an assumed name by the UFSB in St.
Petersburg).
The security structures Putin relies upon the most are the FSB and RUBOP.
It was former RUBOP heads Shakhanov and Milin, together with Putin and the
head of the St. Petersburg UFSB, Grigoriev, who arranged the emigration of
A. Sobchak to France. Just prior to the planned interrogation of Sobchak, a
special rapid reaction unit (SOBR) of RUBOP transported Sobchak to the
hospital at Putin's request. There, at the hospital, the chief of the
Military-Medical academy, Mr. Shevchenko, arranged for a "false" diagnosis.
Later, a similar diagnosis would be made for R. Linkov.
In the criminal case conducted by Vanyushin, there exist materials which
describe how, at the request of Sobchak and Putin, Shakhanov and Milin
conducted an illegal search of the home of former Sobchak aide Y.T. Shutov,
the goal of which was the seizure of tape recordings in which Sobchak
allegedly converses with an agent of the French secret services. In 1992,
an attack on Shutov's person was organized, the result of which was a
skull-brain trauma which left Shutov in the hospital.
Also according to Vanyushin's report, the former head of the St. Petersburg
bureau of ritual services, one Makutov, made a regular monthly payment to
Putin of $30,000.
With the help of St. Petersburg vice-governor Grishanov (the former
commander of the Baltic Fleet) Putin, through the Lomonosov port, sold
military sea vessels.
The abovementioned port, located on the territory of a former military port
and created by Sobchak, Putin, and Cherkesov, has been a key throughpoint
through which contraband natural resources have been exported out of
Russia, and through which foreign products have been imported. The latter
functions of the port were at least partially controlled by the marine
department of Russian Video.
In the spring of 1996, during the re-election campaign of Sobchak, some $30
million were sent from the "Tsarskoselskiy" bank to a Swiss bank. The
transfer was undertaken by Putin, Cherkesov, and Grigoriyev. (Information
about this transfer is kept in the office of the chief of SKROSO UFSB, B.O.
Desyatnikov).
The chief of the administration of the Vasiliostrovsky Region, V. Golubev,
is an acquaintance of Putin going back to the days when they both served in
the first department of the UKGB in Leningrad. The former colleagues
organized a series of companies, through which budget money first
"circulated", then was ultimately taken.
As Vice-Mayor, Putin organized the sale of military submarines abroad
through the Leningradsky Admiralteisky Union. In 1994, the deputy director
of this Union was killed (one of the versions was that he was killed for
refusing to illegally export military property).
BFG - the Baltic Financial Group (run by General Director Kapish) -
provides financial assistance to Putin and Cherkesov every month. In
1994-95, a disagreement arose between one of the founders of the petroleum
terminal at the marine port and Kapish. Kapish ordered the murder of the
port founder. For $50,000, Putin convinced the founder of the port to
settle his differences with Kapish, after which he convinced him to
emigrate to Israel.
According to information in our possession, Kapish in 1996 gave Putin $6
million, ostensibly for the Presidential campaign. The money went through
one of the oblast banks, which was subsequently closed.
During the 1998 crisis, Putin worked closely with V. Gusinsky in the
planning of aggressive political actions, including the announcement of the
arrival of the so-called "Vremya-Ch" (the materials on this investigation
are located in the files of Y.M. Vanyushin, in the interrogation of
Karakpuchko).
The "XX Trust", created by Putin in conjunction with Lensovet deputies
Nikeshin and Goldman, sent budget monies - including those allocated for
the "Peter the Great" business center - to Spain, where they were used to
buy a hotel in Torviecho. A portion of the stolen monies was used to buy a
villa for Putin in the Spanish town of Benidor (materials related to this
investigation are located in the files of the KRU of the Ministry of
Finance of the Russian Federation).
Putin and Cherkesov in 1997 illegally sold the building belonging to the
newspaper "Chas-Pik" (a case is extant in arbitration court on the matter).
The newspaper "Moskovsky Komsomolets" lost several hundred thousand dollars
on the deal.
Putin is preparing kompromat materials on the current governor of the
Leningrad region, V.A. Yakovlev, and is preparing for early elections
(Chubais and Kudrin are being put forward as candidates).
For the realization of these plans the necessary funds are being sought and
concentrated.