| Political analysts and politicians held a round-table
conference concerning the YUKOS affair yesterday. Their forecasts were
distressing. Analysts used the words "repression", "police
state" and "criminal capitalism" very frequently.
Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky
said: "These developments are a direct result of the vital activity
of the existing system. This will be repeated at all levels down to beer
stalls. However, we cannot do anything with it. The fathers of this system
say that we created criminal capitalism. As a result, the system fights
against itself like Siamese twins."
According to the Yabloko leader, the leadership is now creating a police
state, which will not be able to exist without Stalin's principles of
control. This is why only the dismantling of this system can improve the
situation. The faction is now drafting a range of laws to resolve prior
tasks: separation of business from government, amnesty of large revenues,
modernization of the anti-monopoly legislation and socialization of large
business. As far as the latter task is concerned, Yabloko intends to implement
a system of measures aimed at rehabilitating the results of privatization.
Sergei Mitrokhin, deputy
head of the Yabloko faction, said that "this would be a civilized
project to resolve the problems of the results of privatization that the
elite might consolidate behind.
At present Yabloko is submitting decisions aimed at protecting Mikhail
Khodorkovsky to the Duma. For instance, Yabloko proposed an amendment
to the criminal code which stipulates that law enforcement agencies may
not arrest individuals suspected of economic crimes. However, Sergei Kurginyan,
president of the Experimental Creative center, believes that such methods
will not help. The analyst thinks: "This system will find raped children
if necessary."
Andrei Piontkovsky, director of the Center of Strategic Surveys, said:
"If the president sides with the security ministries I do not see
anything to save us from the transition to a police state."
Alexander Asmolov, head of the chair of psychology at Moscow State
University, found stylistic tracks of the system: "There was the
Dreiffus case. There was the Baylis case. Now we have the YUKOS case.
We currently observe a political and mental redistribution of power and
property." According to him, the second trend, which has become evident,
boils down to the use of ideological technologies to ensure repressive
control over mass consciousness. A statement by Boris Nadezhdin, deputy
head of the Union of Right Forces faction, was the harshest. The parliamentarian
said: "I read the accusation very thoroughly. I am sure that ten
million people, including those present here, could be found guilty for
these crimes."
Leonid Radzikhovsky drew a gloomy picture: "We are not free to
state that two and two is four, and that the decision to arrest Khodorkovsky
was taken by President Putin. Yeltsin's opponents were elected to the
Duma and became governors. It is hard to imagine that Putin's opponents can do this. The power liquidated NTV and currently
liquidates Khodorkovsky. The system has been built. Putin has devoted
his first term in office to the creation of this system. It is hard to
imagine what will happen during the second term in office."
Gleb Pavlovsky, president of the Effective Policy Foundation, made
a paradoxical statement (as usual): "The engine of popularity geared
to stop a wave of reaction, was built in 2000-01. At present it is being
built, and I ask you to contribute to its dismantling."
See also:
YUKOS
case
|
