| MOSCOW, Sept. 27 - Energy executives and government
officials from Russia and the United States will meet in Houston
next week to discuss energy cooperation at a time when concerns
over the safety of world oil supplies have been heightened by
the Bush administration's push for Election results are usually
annulled by revolutions and coups d'etat. Last
Sunday the role of zealous revolutionaries was played by the Krasnoyarsk
election commission, which showed true proletarian commitment
to duty by
invalidating -- on its day off -- the results of the gubernatorial
election
on the basis of ... Well, no one actually knows what the commission
finally
based its decision on. Apparently the candidates spent far more
on the
campaign than is officially permitted.
The regional election commission was undoubtedly in the right.
The official
numbers on campaign spending in
Russia have as little to do with reality as
the tax returns filed by federal ministers. The Krasnoyarsk election
commission shouldn't stop at this chump change regional ballot.
It should use
the same criterion to invalidate the State Duma elections, the
election of
Presidents Vladimir Putin and Boris Yeltsin, and so on.
What really happened in
Krasnoyarsk?
The oligarchs whose candidate came up short got the bright idea
that if
governerships in
Russia can be viewed as assets in the same way as factories,
then ownership of these assets can be contested just as easily
as the results
of an additional share issue.
Technically, everything was done according to the letter of the
law. Russian
election law, however, contains a curious little loophole. The
Central
Elections Commission can't repeal the decision of a regional commission.
It
can dissolve the commission, but only at the close of the election
process.
The regional election commission's decision can be overturned
only by the
regional court. In the current battle of the titans, the court
will probably
sit on its hands for three months and decide nothing. Even if
it does rule,
its decision goes back to the regional election commission, which
can opt to
invalidate the election all over again.
While all this is going on,
Krasnoyarsk will continue to be run by acting
Governor Nikolai Ashlapov, with whom Russian Aluminum has an excellent
relationship. In the early 1990s, Ashlapov ran the Achinsk Alumina
Plant (it
was during his tenure that the plant was driven into bankruptcy),
then became
mayor of Achinsk and RusAl's man in Krasnoyarsk. From RusAl's
perspective,
invalidating the election only made sense to keep the loyal Ashlapov
in
power, not to benefit Alexander Uss, a questionable figure in
RusAl's books
who was said to be tight with Anatoly Bykov not so long ago.
It's not hard to figure out why RusAl was unhappy with the election
result.
Norilsk Nickel and the Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Plant, or KrAZ, are
roughly the
same size, but the year before last (the most recent data available,
unfortunately) Norilsk Nickel posted 137 billion rubles in sales,
while KrAZ
managed only 17 billion rubles.
"Sales volume" at KrAZ really means the volume of
tolling operations at the plant -- processing other companies'
alumina into other companies' aluminum. For some strange reason
the plant sets such rock-bottom prices for its processing services
that it barely breaks even.
As a result, Norilsk Nickel's tax bill accounts for 60 percent
of the
regional budget. Judging by the amount that KrAZ contributes to
the public
coffers, you'd think it was producing chicken parts.
Alexander Khloponin's victory at the polls threatened to put
a stop to
RusAl's free ride. For Khloponin's opponents, the response was
obvious: They
secured the regional election commission's decision, which will
serve as an
asset to be used in further negotiations, i.e. if you forget about
your
threats to outlaw tolling schemes, the election commission will
forget about
its decision.
Whether or not this logic will work is another matter. But there's
no need to
perceive the goings-on in
Krasnoyarsk as the death of democracy. Russian
elections had already become a mix of Krasnoyarsk and Nizhny Novgorod
in the
previous millenium. And the regional election commission's decision
is merely
an expansion of the financial instruments used by the oligarchs
in their
mutual and fruitful dialogue.
See also:
Regional
Elections
On the
scandal surrounding the elections in Krasnoyarsk Territory and
Nizhni Novgorod
www.yavlinsky.ru
by Grigory Yavlinsky | 