Yelina Bilevskaya, Ivan Rodin
Anticorruption drive claims new victims
The scandals surrounding the founding fathers of United Russia, Vladislav Reznik and Valery Draganov, which erupted shortly before the party's jubilee congress marked the start of an anti-corruption drive. They also sent an important signal: there would no longer be untouchables in the party after Vladimir Putin became its head. As a result, even top political figures are in a risk group. This paper's experts see this as a message to the representatives of the old federal and regional elites that their time is over.
Two high-ranking members of United Russia were under criminal investigation early this week. The Spanish police searched the villa owned by Vladislav Reznik, a member of the presidium of the United Russia General Council, as part of a police operation against the so-called Tambov-Malyshev criminal group members who had settled in that country.
The Supreme Court has found criminal activity in the actions of Valery Draganov when he was chairman of the State Customs Committee under the abuse of office article (part 3, Article 286 of the Criminal Code). These are events that took place in 1998-1999. So far the SKP has not requested that the State Duma strip him of his immunity. That will happen if the Supreme Court turns down Draganov's challenge of its previous ruling that allows the SKP to resume the criminal proceedings against him.
The 1990's elites are under pressure from various directions. While Reznik and Draganov are under criminal investigation, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) is looking into the activities of the Kemerovo Region Governor Aman Tuleyev.
While Aman Tuleyev is arguably a member of the old gubernatorial guard, Reznik and Draganov have a strong claim to being the founding fathers of the party that is now in power. The former took part in creating the Unity Party and the latter, the Fatherland-All Russia block in 1999. In 2001 both of them were active in bringing about a merger of their parties to form United Russia. Interestingly, the UR of whose General Council Draganov is a member, is not in a hurry to come to his rescue. While United Russia members were falling over themselves to defend Vladislav Reznik, the head of the Duma Financial Committee, the only voice in support of Draganov so far has been that of Andrei Vorobyov, the head of the UR Executive Committee.
As our correspondent was told yesterday at the party's office at the Duma, "we are not sure what our reaction will be." By the way, the situation around Reznik and Draganov was not discussed at yesterday's meeting of the Supreme Council and Presidium of the General Council of the Party.
Meanwhile the buzz in the Duma is that Valery Draganov was the casualty of an anti-corruption campaign. He does not belong to any of the groups within the party and the party bosses may choose not to intervene on his behalf now that a purge within the UR is under way.
Besides, as the head of the economic policy committee in the previous Duma, Draganov managed to quarrel with many and even had to resign from the Duma early to take up business, various Duma sources say. However, he did not stay in business long and again became a Duma deputy. True, Draganov's name is said to have been put on the party ticket at the 11th hour. The new surge of activity of the Investigation Committee which reopened the case of the Customs Committee and its Chairman in 1998-1999 may be attributed to the SKP's need to be seen fighting corruption. However, time for the SKP is running out: under the Criminal Code of the RF the statute of limitations will apply to the case in the spring of 2009.
Experts see Draganov's case as an attempt to make him a victim of a high-profile campaign. "The fight against corruption must offer lambs to be slaughtered; this is its whole point. It would serve to boost public approval ratings of President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin," Olga Kryshtanovskaya, Director of the Applied Politics Institute, is convinced.
The fact that these scandals occurred simultaneously may send a signal to the elites that there are no longer any untouchable figures in the ruling party. This initiates the process of the change of elites both at the federal and regional levels. The Director-General of the Political Information Centre, Alexei Mukhin, is sure that the process is under the personal review of the party's leader, Vladimir Putin: "You may recall that when Putin became the head of the party in April he made it clear that the organisation should become an effective political instrument. For this to happen, the United Russia leadership must acquire a new quality in order to meet the challenges of the times."
Nevertheless, the expert believes that United Russia decided to make do with trifles: "They purged non-existing members, but had no guts to do more. They faced Putin's inquiring look which seemed to say: this is not enough; this is not what I want. The party leader's patience probably ran out and he decided to clean up its ranks himself. Although he is a skilful apparatchik, he is above all an idealist, he wants the party to be a clean instrument. He needs clean hands and ardent hearts." Alexei Mukhin has no doubt that it is only the beginning of the process: "We are going to see a lot of interesting things happening before the Congress."
The head of the Regional Studies Department at the Political Technologies Centre, Rostislav Turovsky, discerns a pattern in the two events that occurred shortly before the United Russia Congress in November. The Congress is expected to see a major reshuffle of the party's cadre. In Mr Turovsky's opinion, many party figures at the centre and in the regions have exhausted their potential: "They have played their roles. The party is burdened by unwieldy bureaucracy which does not always act quickly enough. Instead of being an assemblage of elites which use the party as an umbrella to further their interests, it should become a full-fledged structure." According to Turovsky, the criminal scandals involving Reznik and Draganov, whoever may have initiated them, send an important signal to the elites to shape up and play according to new rules.