FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 08, 2004
| Contact:
Dan Perrin
202.271.3959
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The American Defense Council Announces its Siloviki Initiative on Capitol Hill
(Washington, D.C. March 8, 2004) The American Defense Council announced today that it was undertaking a general education and awareness campaign on Capitol Hill about the Russian “siloviki.” These activities will include general briefings of groups of House and Senate staff, urging Members of Congress to write to President Bush, and other Hill actions to review the misuse of American taxpayer funds sent to Russia in the form of International Monetary Fund aid.
In this regard, the American Defense Council has substantial concern over recent events in Russia. These concerns center around two specific points: the selective use of the rule of law, and the predominance of Russian military-intelligence officers or “siloviki” (powerful ones) in key positions of power, who want to rein in any independent media, and minimize the influence of the private sector. These trends may signal a return of hardliners who are laying the groundwork for resurgence and a clamp down on the movement towards democracy and a free enterprise system.
In retrospect, a “rule of law” problem could be traced back to 1998, when Mr. Sergey Kirienko was Prime Minister. At that time, he was intimately involved in negotiations for $4.8 billion in International Monetary Fund aid to Russia. As was then reported in the New York Times, then U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin delicately stated to Congress that he “suspects that much of $4.8 billion in loans sent to Russia last summer by IMF” may have been siphoned off improperly.”” In fact, the $4.8 billion is still missing, and no Russian official has ever been prosecuted for this crime.
Once in office, Mr. Putin put case No. 18/221050-98 on "hold" for four years, which was the investigation by the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation into the "improper use" of the missing $4.8 billion IMF money. Mr. Putin appointed Mr. Kirienko to be one of the super governors of one of the most important regions of Russia.
Two recent news stories crystallize these concerns, one from Sunday’s Washington Post (March 7, 2004) is story titled “Russians’ Fear of the Kremlin Reemerge,” and the other is the San Francisco Chronicle story that ran the day before titled “Putin's government packed with former security and military officers”.
The San Francisco Chronicle story states in part: “But whereas previously these men tended to focus on national security, now they hold decision-making jobs in practically every sector -- from the economy to the courts to media oversight, said Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a sociologist who conducted a groundbreaking study of Russia's ruling elite… According to her analysis, nearly 60 percent of the people closest to the president and in the powerful Security Council come from security or military backgrounds. Some 35 percent of the deputy ministers appointed between 2000 and 2003 were siloviki.”
The American Defense Council will also direct some of its efforts within Russia itself, to find out the positions on these issues are from Russian legislators, executives and media.
The American Defense Council is a non-profit organization, which focuses on the impact of foreign affairs and defense issues on the United States. Its website is www.americandefensecouncil.com.
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