Reuters - 01.12.2001

 

Reuters

Russia's Top Prosecutor Blasts 'Corrupt' Officials

By Daniel Mclaughlin

OSCOW, Jan. 12 — Russia's Prosecutor-General tore into his colleagues and the country's businessmen and politicians on Friday, saying the legal system was riddled with corruption and government officials took more bribes than ever.

Vladimir Ustinov launched his tirade a day after President Vladimir Putin praised prosecutors for their political independence and democratic outlook as he tries to fulfil an election vow to submit Russia to a "dictatorship of the law."

"The bureacratic system is riddled with bribe-taking as never before," Ustinov said in comments quoted at length by Russian agencies and shown on television.

"Almost everywhere, federal and regional elites have become closely associated with financial-industrial and criminal groups." He challenged a national conference of prosecutors over kickbacks secured through the murky and quick-fire privatisation of state enterprises since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

"Will many of you be able to boast that after their intervention they earned state packets of shares in enterprises?" Ustinov said, before calling for more powers for prosecutors to fight corruption.

"Lots of questions have arisen over the official figures in regional power -- why did they not run tenders when privatising enterprises, why did auctions break laws? Because sometimes they involved only one person taking part."

He said prosecutors' independence could only be assured by introducing  new system of appointing regional prosecutors and by giving the prosecutor-general the right to bring his own legislative initiatives before the constitutional court.

"All this strengthens the mechanism of implementing the measures which the Russian president is carrying out," Ustinov said.

NO POLITICS, NO MASKS

The prosecutor's office has been accused in recent months of being used by the Kremlin to pressure Vladimir Gusinsky, a wealthy businessman and founder of Russia's only independent media empire. He has been jailed briefly once and is now in Spain fighting a Russian extradition order on fraud charges.

"We will do everything so that the legislator stops the prosecutor from becoming a victim of political ambitions," Ustinov said. He said prosecutors should stop resorting to heavy-handed tactics, including the armed raids by masked officers which secure prominent television coverage.

"No masks. Who are we intimidating? Who are we hiding from, if nobody intends to offer resistance, if they are ready to produce the documents which interest us?" he asked.

Putin has said his dictatorship of the law is not aimed at an increasingly authoritarian state but making sure people and businesses know what to expect from the judicial system, and creating a level playing field. Ustinov followed Putin's line. 

"It is impossible to safeguard the development of the economy without creating a unified economic area," he said. "The duty of prosecutors is to get involved in processes every time the state suffers damage and there are many examples of this."  

He said reforms had to help underpin "unified and strong state power, to defend the interests of the Russian Federation, her integrity against money-grabbing."  

Ustinov said prosecutors could help Russian authorities ensure country wide application of the law.  "There are contradictions in the country between federal and regional legislation," he said. "Prosecutors' supervision acts here like a just instrument of the will and decisions of the Russian president."