Getting Personal, Putin Voices Defiance of Critics Abroad
MOSCOW, Dec. 23 - President Vladimir V. Putin on Thursday strongly defended Russia's takeover of the main subsidiary of the Yukos oil company by a state oil company. He also expressed deep irritation at the West's support for popular uprisings in post-Soviet states and what he described as Western double standards for elections.
Mr. Putin's remarks, made at an annual holiday-season news conference in the Kremlin, amounted to a forceful restatement of widely known positions and a sometimes layered explanation of the views driving Russia in an increasingly autocratic direction this year. But even as Mr. Putin maintained a calm demeanor, at times speaking softly, his statements were notable for their sharp tone.
The fate of Yukos was a clear example. The main subsidiary of Yukos, once Russia's largest and most profitable company, was auctioned on Sunday for a fraction of its estimated value to a previously unheard-of shell company, and later resold to Rosneft, a company owned by the state. No final sale price has been disclosed, and the process remains cloaked in mystery. Industry analysts have characterized the transfers as Kremlin-rigged farces.
Mr. Putin said the sales were perfectly justified and suggested they righted past wrongs. He neglected to mention that as recently as late September, he said Russia had no intention of nationalizing the oil giant and had vowed transparency since then.
"You all know very well how privatization took place here in the early 1990's, and how, using various tricks and sometimes violating the laws that were in effect at that time, many market participants got hold of state property worth many billions," he said. "Today the state, using absolutely legal market mechanisms, is securing its interests. I consider this to be quite normal."
But later, Washington criticized the sale of the oil giant.
"We certainly don't think it's been disposed of in a transparent or open way," a State Department spokesman, Adam Ereli, said, according to Agence France-Presse. "We think this sends the wrong signals to foreign investors and could negatively impact Russia's role in the global economy."
He added that the case "raises serious concerns about the rule of law as applied in Russia and the way that justice is perhaps politically or selectively applied."
Mr. Putin also engaged in personal attacks in his comments. Speaking of a United States Bankruptcy Court judge in Texas, who issued an injunction last week trying to block the auction of Yuganskneftegaz, the Yukos subsidiary that now belongs to Rosneft, he set aside any pretense of tact.
"I am not even sure that the judge knows where Russia is," he said. Then, even as he insulted the judge, he added that her work "fails to comply with international politeness."
Mr. Putin was also personally dismissive of President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland, who helped mediate the impasse in Ukraine after the fraudulent president election there on Nov. 21, and who recently said in an interview that a Ukraine free of Russia's sway was better for the world's leading countries.
Assuming a biting tone, he suggested that Mr. Kwasniewski was an opportunist who was playing to the West. He noted that the Polish leader in his youth worked for Soviet interests as a member of the Communist Party's youth wing, the Komsomol.
"We in Russia, though not I personally, know him from the times he was working with the Komsomol with us," said Mr. Putin, who served with the K.G.B. "I get the impression that this is not a statement by an incumbent president, but a statement by an individual who is seeking employment in connection with the end of his term of office."
Mr. Kwasniewski later released a statement that called Mr. Putin remarks "unjust."
"This is the price Poland and I personally pay for participation in the settlement of the political crisis in Ukraine," his statement said.
In all, it was an afternoon of practiced defiance of Western critics. Mr. Putin expressed irritation over what he called double standards in Western assessments of elections in troubled states - with critics pointing out, for instance, that the recent presidential elections in Chechnya were unsound in part because of the continuing conflict there, and yet the United States intends to continue with elections in occupied Iraq.
He also criticized the continuation of revolution in post-Soviet nations, as occurred in Georgia in 2003 and Ukraine this fall. "The most dangerous thing is creating a system of permanent revolutions," he said. "One should get used to living in line with the law."
Yet at moments, the display was carefully calibrated, showing signs that he has apparently decided whom he should avoid confronting head-on. Many Russian politicians, including several close to him, have accused the United States of underwriting and encouraging the mass demonstrations in Ukraine. But Mr. Putin signaled a general satisfaction with Russia's relationship with the United States, saying the two nations are cooperating in fighting terrorism and in nuclear nonproliferation.
"I would say, without any exaggeration, that our relations are not those of partners, but of allies," he said. "Behind all of these current things of the here and now, semi-scandalous things or simply things that attract public attention because of tactical reasons, I would urge you not to forget these fundamental things that lie at the basis of our relations with the United States."
And he pointedly expressed his own satisfaction with his relationship with President Bush. "Bush himself, in my view, is a very decent man and a consistent man," he said. "We have said repeatedly in public that our opinions do not always coincide, but I fully trust him as a partner."
Mr. Putin rarely appears for extended periods in public, and journalists' access to him is limited; on Thursday, he seemed at times to enjoy this unusual bit of give-and-take. Even when expressing irritation or disgust, or when offering straight-faced comparisons that strained credulity - for example, drawing a parallel between the election abuses in Ukraine and what he called intimidation of voters in the presidential election in the United States - he appeared comfortable and relaxed.
After an hour and 45 minutes, an aide tried to stop the news conference, but Mr. Putin continued, calling on journalists himself. After two-and-a-half hours, he said he would take five last questions. He then took 11 more.
His body language throughout spoke of someone eager for a bit of sparring. When he was asked questions, he often leaned far back in his chair and rolled his shoulders or adjusted his spine, an athletic gesture vaguely suggestive of a man between weight-lifting sets, except that sometimes as he repositioned his frame, he sipped tea from a fine china cup.
When each question ended, he pushed himself forward to the desktop in front of him, rested his weight onto his forearms and offered long, detailed answers. Working without notes, his command of the finer points of obscure areas of public policy - the monthly wage of a private serving in Chechnya, the percentage of cargo carried by rail in Germany, the clauses of a 1956 declaration between the Soviet Union and Japan over the fate of four islands - suggested a busy micromanager.
"I have tried to read documents I have to deal with," he said.
He also indulged in jokes. By law Mr. Putin is limited to two consecutive terms, and he is serving the first year of his second term now. The possibility of a third term, either through a change in Russia's Constitution for the 2008 race or a return to politics in 2012, has been a source of steady speculation. Asked directly whether he would run again in 2012, he said: "Why not in 2016? I still hope to be fit."
He added, somewhat cryptically, "I do think about how we will negotiate the landmark of 2008."
C. J. CHIVERS
NY Times
Mr. Putin's remarks, made at an annual holiday-season news conference in the Kremlin, amounted to a forceful restatement of widely known positions and a sometimes layered explanation of the views driving Russia in an increasingly autocratic direction this year. But even as Mr. Putin maintained a calm demeanor, at times speaking softly, his statements were notable for their sharp tone.
The fate of Yukos was a clear example. The main subsidiary of Yukos, once Russia's largest and most profitable company, was auctioned on Sunday for a fraction of its estimated value to a previously unheard-of shell company, and later resold to Rosneft, a company owned by the state. No final sale price has been disclosed, and the process remains cloaked in mystery. Industry analysts have characterized the transfers as Kremlin-rigged farces.
Mr. Putin said the sales were perfectly justified and suggested they righted past wrongs. He neglected to mention that as recently as late September, he said Russia had no intention of nationalizing the oil giant and had vowed transparency since then.
"You all know very well how privatization took place here in the early 1990's, and how, using various tricks and sometimes violating the laws that were in effect at that time, many market participants got hold of state property worth many billions," he said. "Today the state, using absolutely legal market mechanisms, is securing its interests. I consider this to be quite normal."
But later, Washington criticized the sale of the oil giant.
"We certainly don't think it's been disposed of in a transparent or open way," a State Department spokesman, Adam Ereli, said, according to Agence France-Presse. "We think this sends the wrong signals to foreign investors and could negatively impact Russia's role in the global economy."
He added that the case "raises serious concerns about the rule of law as applied in Russia and the way that justice is perhaps politically or selectively applied."
Mr. Putin also engaged in personal attacks in his comments. Speaking of a United States Bankruptcy Court judge in Texas, who issued an injunction last week trying to block the auction of Yuganskneftegaz, the Yukos subsidiary that now belongs to Rosneft, he set aside any pretense of tact.
"I am not even sure that the judge knows where Russia is," he said. Then, even as he insulted the judge, he added that her work "fails to comply with international politeness."
Mr. Putin was also personally dismissive of President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland, who helped mediate the impasse in Ukraine after the fraudulent president election there on Nov. 21, and who recently said in an interview that a Ukraine free of Russia's sway was better for the world's leading countries.
Assuming a biting tone, he suggested that Mr. Kwasniewski was an opportunist who was playing to the West. He noted that the Polish leader in his youth worked for Soviet interests as a member of the Communist Party's youth wing, the Komsomol.
"We in Russia, though not I personally, know him from the times he was working with the Komsomol with us," said Mr. Putin, who served with the K.G.B. "I get the impression that this is not a statement by an incumbent president, but a statement by an individual who is seeking employment in connection with the end of his term of office."
Mr. Kwasniewski later released a statement that called Mr. Putin remarks "unjust."
"This is the price Poland and I personally pay for participation in the settlement of the political crisis in Ukraine," his statement said.
In all, it was an afternoon of practiced defiance of Western critics. Mr. Putin expressed irritation over what he called double standards in Western assessments of elections in troubled states - with critics pointing out, for instance, that the recent presidential elections in Chechnya were unsound in part because of the continuing conflict there, and yet the United States intends to continue with elections in occupied Iraq.
He also criticized the continuation of revolution in post-Soviet nations, as occurred in Georgia in 2003 and Ukraine this fall. "The most dangerous thing is creating a system of permanent revolutions," he said. "One should get used to living in line with the law."
Yet at moments, the display was carefully calibrated, showing signs that he has apparently decided whom he should avoid confronting head-on. Many Russian politicians, including several close to him, have accused the United States of underwriting and encouraging the mass demonstrations in Ukraine. But Mr. Putin signaled a general satisfaction with Russia's relationship with the United States, saying the two nations are cooperating in fighting terrorism and in nuclear nonproliferation.
"I would say, without any exaggeration, that our relations are not those of partners, but of allies," he said. "Behind all of these current things of the here and now, semi-scandalous things or simply things that attract public attention because of tactical reasons, I would urge you not to forget these fundamental things that lie at the basis of our relations with the United States."
And he pointedly expressed his own satisfaction with his relationship with President Bush. "Bush himself, in my view, is a very decent man and a consistent man," he said. "We have said repeatedly in public that our opinions do not always coincide, but I fully trust him as a partner."
Mr. Putin rarely appears for extended periods in public, and journalists' access to him is limited; on Thursday, he seemed at times to enjoy this unusual bit of give-and-take. Even when expressing irritation or disgust, or when offering straight-faced comparisons that strained credulity - for example, drawing a parallel between the election abuses in Ukraine and what he called intimidation of voters in the presidential election in the United States - he appeared comfortable and relaxed.
After an hour and 45 minutes, an aide tried to stop the news conference, but Mr. Putin continued, calling on journalists himself. After two-and-a-half hours, he said he would take five last questions. He then took 11 more.
His body language throughout spoke of someone eager for a bit of sparring. When he was asked questions, he often leaned far back in his chair and rolled his shoulders or adjusted his spine, an athletic gesture vaguely suggestive of a man between weight-lifting sets, except that sometimes as he repositioned his frame, he sipped tea from a fine china cup.
When each question ended, he pushed himself forward to the desktop in front of him, rested his weight onto his forearms and offered long, detailed answers. Working without notes, his command of the finer points of obscure areas of public policy - the monthly wage of a private serving in Chechnya, the percentage of cargo carried by rail in Germany, the clauses of a 1956 declaration between the Soviet Union and Japan over the fate of four islands - suggested a busy micromanager.
"I have tried to read documents I have to deal with," he said.
He also indulged in jokes. By law Mr. Putin is limited to two consecutive terms, and he is serving the first year of his second term now. The possibility of a third term, either through a change in Russia's Constitution for the 2008 race or a return to politics in 2012, has been a source of steady speculation. Asked directly whether he would run again in 2012, he said: "Why not in 2016? I still hope to be fit."
He added, somewhat cryptically, "I do think about how we will negotiate the landmark of 2008."
C. J. CHIVERS
NY Times
posted by R7 | 12/24/2004 10:25:00 AM
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