 |
| Itar-Tass
Yabloko
activists demonstrating Tuesday at UES headquarters, having
hoped that Chubais would retire as CEO when his term ended.
|
The government has extended Anatoly Chubais' contract as CEO of
power
monopoly Unified Energy Systems by five years, UES said Tuesday
-- much to
the dismay of the liberal Yabloko party.
Chubais' previous five-year contract expired Tuesday, and devoted
Chubais opponent Grigory
Yavlinsky, who heads Yabloko, had organized a "celebration
meeting" to mark the occasion near the entrance to UES headquarters
-- "At Last," the Yabloko material read, as it tried
not so subtly to usher the perennial powerbroker into retirement.
"In five years of management, Anatoly Chubais did so much
for our
country that it is indeed time for him to have some rest, to retire,"
Yabloko said in a statement, with tongue-in-cheek assurances that
150
million Russians would never forget all his "experiments,
reforms, [and]
affairs."
"We hope that Anatoly Borisovich will be brave enough to
leave his
post, to stop his feverish activity and to start doing something
useful,"
the statement continued, suggesting he take up charitable causes
or collect
expensive cars, since, given "his exclusive liking for hard
work, no one
doubts that Anatoly Chubais would be able to resist the desire
to touch a
cherished circuit-breaker again."
About 100 people assembled outside the building in southwest
Moscow,
and most of them were observed inflating balloons.
A likeness of Chubais was fashioned from a helium balloon and
released
into the sky, much the way that Moscow launched a giant bear balloon
to
conclude the 1980 Olympic Games.
UES responded in kind. "UES, with understanding, perceived
the desire
of Yabloko party members to celebrate Chubais' five years as CEO
of the
electricity holding, the successful completion of preparations
for energy
reform and the start of implementation of the company's 5+5 strategy,"
the
UES statement read..
Chubais said in the UES statement that he was aware of Yabloko's
wish
to see him leave UES, but cannot do so until he sees energy sector
reform
through to completion.
The government's reform plan calls for UES to be broken up into
smaller companies and cease to exist by 2006.
"The contract is for five years just because the old one
was simply
extended," UES spokesman Andrei Yegorov said.
The Yabloko event was Tuesday, the day Chubais' new term was
announced, though the contract itself was extended one month ago.
According to the UES charter, the chairman of the UES board
of
directors -- the Kremlin chief of staff, Alexander Voloshin --
must sign the
contract for it to go into effect. It was not clear Tuesday whether
the
contract had yet been signed.
See also:
the original at
www.themoscowtimes.com
Energy
Sector Reform
| 