Word: illarionov
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...enough.” He went after the oligarchs that did not support him, like Mikhail Khodorkovsky, yet suspiciously overlooked friendly others such as Roman Abramovich. Furthermore, the increasingly complacent Parliament was cajoled into passing strict controls on civil liberties. In a move almost unnoticed by Western media, Andrei Illarionov, a top economic adviser to Putin, resigned last week, loudly proclaiming Russia to be “no longer a free country.” To our journalists, it seems gas is ultimately more important than testimonies regarding the status of democracy...
...making the case that Russia is worthy of the leadership of the G-8, which it will take for the first time this year. But no one will be giving him the benefit of the doubt after the dramatic resignation of his economic adviser, the outspoken liberal reformer Andrei Illarionov, 44. The economist, a Kremlin maverick, fought to curb state interference in the economy, particularly in the energy sector. But with Moscow tightening its grip on oil and natural gas, Illarionov was recently stripped of a key post with the G-8 and had his staff cut. Illarionov implies...
...Illarionov: There is no such thing as a gas market prices, because there is no such thing as gas market. What they are doing to Ukraine is obvious price discrimination. Because Russia offers quite different terms for analogical (i.e., former republics that surround Russia) countries, while nobody has even suggested that the fuel basket price be calculated for Ukraine, the way they do for Germany, say. When watching all this, one can't avoid the impression that this price escalation during the negotiating process aims at NOT reaching the agreement rather than at reaching one. One feels that the main...
...Illarionov: I see the reduction of the volume of political freedom, more restrictions clamped on political parties, the media, public expression-all this is obvious. The trends that have been long accumulating, found their completion and finally shaped up in 2005. That Freedom House report I mentioned came six months ago-nobody in Russia has even tried to deny it officially. Now that Russia has passed this new law restricting NGOs, I think it will push Russia's next year rating even lower...
...Illarionov: I wish Russia would be a G-8 member as a developed, free and democratic country. I worked to that end. At the time when Russia was invited to the political part of G-8, nobody suspected such changes in political trends. But they would have hardly accepted Russia, if the Yukos affair and all other things that started in 2003 were happening even then...