It's a position that some critics say Putin doesn't deserve because of his government's rollback on freedoms in Russia.
Putin has suggested this summer's G8 summit in his home city of St. Petersburg focus on energy security, reflecting Moscow's aspirations to convert oil wealth into political influence. It hopes projects like a prospective Baltic Sea pipeline to deliver Russian natural gas to western Europe would bolster its clout and muzzle Western criticism of its democracy record.
"Moscow hopes to use energy as a trump card to persuade the Western leaders that it's a powerful player to reckon with," said Yevgeny Volk, head of the Moscow office for the conservative Heritage Foundation.
While the other members of the G8 club — the world's seven wealthiest countries — have voiced concern about Russia's backtracking on democracy under Putin, they will likely avoid strong criticism to help Russia maintain a respectable profile as their chairman.
"Despite its discontent, the West won't toughen its attitude to Russia," said Lilia Shevtsova, a leading researcher with the Carnegie Endowment's Moscow office. "It will likely apply behind-the-scenes pressure and the tactics of acting on the basis of reciprocity."
The Group of Seven — the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada — first sought to engage Russia in 1991, inviting participation by then-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to encourage his campaign to reform the Soviet Union.
The U.S.S.R. collapsed later that year. And the G-7 began inviting Russia's first president, Boris Yeltsin, to the annual meetings of its national leaders in a bid to support Russia's free-market reforms and help safeguard its huge arsenal of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
While Kremlin leaders attended the summits and Russia was eventually added to create the G8, Moscow never has been included in all economic and financial discussions. That reflects the fact that despite rapid oil-driven economic growth, the Russian economy ranks only 16th in the world and is far smaller than that of the other seven members.
Putin has sought to integrate Russia more closely in the G8, but the Kremlin's authoritarian streak has strained relations with the West and prompted some members of the U.S. Congress to call for Russia's suspension from the group.
Since Putin became Russian president in 2000, his government has established a firm grip over all national broadcasters, the parliament has become a rubber-stamp for the Kremlin and popularly elected provincial governors have been replaced with Putin appointees.
And while the Kremlin has sought to encourage foreign investment, the carve-up of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's Yukos oil company in what was widely seen as a Kremlin vendetta for his political ambitions has underlined doubts about the rule of law in Russia and kept many investors wary.
Those concerns were deepened Tuesday when Putin economic adviser Andrei Illarionov quit, saying he no longer wanted to work for a government that tramples on freedoms.
Illarionov, who earlier this year had been stripped of the job of Russian envoy to the G8, said Russia has turned into a "corporate" state where giant, government-controlled enterprises stifle competition and enrich their owners at the public's expense.
"Illarionov's departure has made it more difficult for the Kremlin to pretend that Russia is moving in the same direction as the rest of the civilized world," said Volk of the Heritage Foundation.
In the latest Kremlin effort to tighten controls over public life, Russian lawmakers this month endorsed a bill imposing tight restrictions on human rights advocates and other non-profit groups.
Relations between the West and Moscow also have been strained over relations with former Soviet republics.
Moscow says the United States and other Western countries are encroaching on its traditional sphere of influence. The West accuses the Kremlin of strong-arming Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, including using Russia's state-controlled natural gas monopoly to apply pressure.
"Russia is actively using gas diplomacy for its expansion over the ex-Soviet space in a bid to become a regional superpower," said Shevtsova at the Carnegie Endowment.
Despite the assertive stance at home and abroad, most analysts predict the West will avoid confrontations because of Russia's increasingly important role as a global energy supplier.
"Russia's place in the world's most exclusive club has been determined — it's that of an energy reservoir," said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs magazine.
Swiss Court Extradites Former Nuclear Head Back to Russia
Switzerland's highest court announced Thursday that Russia's former nuclear energy minister, held in a Swiss jail and facing charges from both the United States and Russia, will be sent to Russia for trial. The decision reverses a decision by the country's Justice Ministry to transfer Yevgeny Adamov, 66, to the United States, where he has been charged with conspiracy to transfer stolen money and securities, conspiracy to defraud the United States, money laundering and tax evasion.
U.S. prosecutors contend that Adamov, a nuclear physicist, embezzled at least $9 million in U.S. government funds earmarked for the protection of Russia's nuclear facilities. The funds were allegedly diverted to private accounts, including in Pennsylvania, which were used to finance business projects in the United States, Ukraine and Russia. The alleged fraud took place in the 1990s when he was head of a nuclear research institute that received American funding. He later became a minister in the government of then president Boris Yeltsin, overseeing military and civilian nuclear programs. Adam
ov, who was dismissed by President Vladimir Putin in 2001, has said he put the money in private accounts to protect the funds from hyperinflation. He denies all the charges. "Dr. Adamov is ready to come to the United States to fight these charges and he wants to clear his name both in Russia and the U.S.," said Lanny Breuer, Adamov's Washington, D.C.-based American attorney, who said his client tried to negotiate coming to the U.S. to defend himself but as a free man. "He's a great Russian patriot and has not stolen a penny."
Mary Beth Buchanan, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, said in a statement that her office, which issued the U.S. indictment, was "disappointed" by the Swiss ruling. "We acknowledge the Russian government's representations to the Swiss Court that it will prosecute Mr. Adamov upon his return to Russia, and we intend to honor any requests for cooperation from Russian prosecutors," she said. An American business partner of Adamov's, Mark Kaushansky, has also been charged in the case. Kaushansky, a former Soviet citizen, moved to the United States in 1979, where he worked as a nuclear power plant engineer. He pleaded not guilty in May and is free on a $100,000 bond.
Adamov was arrested when he went to Switzerland to visit his daughter. Almost immediately after his arrest, Russian authorities charged him with separate crimes of fraud and abuse of office and sought to have him returned home rather than to the United States. Adamov agreed to be extradited to his homeland. Some Russian officials feared that U.S. authorities could pump Adamov for information on Russia's nuclear programs and its nuclear cooperation with countries such as Iran.
Adamov himself fueled those fears. "If I spend at least a night in a U.S. jail, there will be problems with state secrets," Adamov said in a telephone interview this with Echo Moskvy radio earlier this year. The Swiss Justice Ministry, explaining its decision, said that if Adamov were returned to Russia, he could not subsequently be extradited to the United States because he is a Russian citizen. But if he is extradited to the United States first, he could be sent to Russia later for prosecution.
Adamov appealed that decision. A five-judge panel of the Swiss Federal Court in Lausanne rejected the ministry's reasoning in a ruling made on Dec. 22, but released Thursday. "With the extradition to Russia, it can be guaranteed that the crimes under investigation will be examined for overall judgment in the country primarily affected," a court statement state. The decision cannot be appealed by the United States. The court also noted that the Russians filed their extradition request before the official U.S. request reached Switzerland almost two months after the arrest warrant was acted on.
The Russian charges relate to Adamov's period in public office, when he is accused of stealing $17 million in state funds. Russian prosecutors gave written guarantees to the Swiss authorities that they will also investigate the U.S. charges , according to the court ruling. "We are satisfied with the decision of the federal court of Switzerland," said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
Putin's outspoken economic adviser resigns Aide says he could not work for government insensitive to political freedom
MOSCOW - An outspoken economic adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Tuesday that he was resigning, saying he could no longer work in a government that had done away with political freedoms. The government later said Putin signed a decree dismissing him. Andrei Illarionov, the lone dissenter in a Kremlin dominated by Putinfs fellow KGB veterans, was stripped of his duties as envoy to the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations earlier this year. However, he had remained Putinfs economic adviser.
Illarionov made the move after harshly criticizing the Kremlinfs course last week, when he said that political freedom in Russia has steadily declined and that government-controlled corporations have stifled competition and ignored public interests. gIt is one thing to work in a partly free country, which Russia was six years ago. It is quite another when the country has ceased to be politically free,h he said Tuesday, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.
Illarionov, who has also criticized what he says is a return to inefficient state control of the economy, complained that he was no longer able to speak his mind. gI considered it important to remain here at this post as long as I had the possibility to do something, including speaking out,h he said, according to ITAR-Tass. gUntil recently, no one put any restrictions on me expressing my point of view. Now the situation has changed.h
Illarionov, 44, a liberal economist, had worked in the Russian government in the 1990s and became Putinfs adviser in 2000. Putin fires him after resignation Several hours after Illarionov spoke, Putinfs press service said the president signed a decree relieving the adviser of his duties.
Viktor Chernomyrdin, a longtime Russian prime minister who is now ambassador to Ukraine, said Illarionovfs criticism of the government was unfounded. gThere was so much malice in him, he was being overly negative,h Chernomyrdin said, according to the Interfax news agency. gIt was a mistake to keep him in the Kremlin for so long.h
But Yevgeny Ikhlov, who leads the group For Human Rights, described Illarionov as gthe last liberal in the governmenth who dared to expose the authoritiesf crackdown on political freedoms. Illarionov increasingly fell out of favor after he became a vocal critic of moves to restore state control over the strategic energy sector, in particular lambasting the effective nationalization of the Yukos oil empire of jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2004 as the gswindle of the year.h
Reason: State control of economy
Illarionov said he had a number of reasons for his decision to resign but said that his main concern was the development of an increasingly state-controlled economy, with major public companies run by self-interested bureaucrats. gSix years ago when I came to this post I dedicated my work to increasing economic freedoms in Russia. Six years on, the situation has changed radically,h he said. gThis is a state model with the participation of state corporations, which although they are public in name and status, are managed above all for their own personal interests,h said Illarionov. Russiafs biggest carmaker Avtovaz on Thursday elected a new board with top managers representing the state, cementing control of a key company after parallel moves to increase the statefs hold on the energy sector.
Nationalizing oil
Under Putin, Russia has moved to snap up chunks of the strategically important oil sector and the state now controls around 30 percent of the national oil industry. Last December the biggest oil fields of Yukos — once Russiafs No.1 producer — were transferred to the state to reclaim billions in disputed tax bills. This year, the giant gas monopoly Gazprom bought the privately held OAO Sibneft oil company. Illarionov said last week that after state-owned Rosneft took over OAO Yukosf main subsidiary, Yuganskneftegaz, the unitfs revenues dropped and costs soared. The announcement of his resignation came as the Russian parliament gave final approval to legislation that will impose strict curbs on human rights and other nonprofit groups. Critics say it is another step by Putin to tighten control of society after moves to put the state in charge of all national broadcasters, impose a Kremlin-loyal parliament and end the direct election of governors in Russiafs sprawling regions in favor of officials effectively appointed from Moscow.
Russian shoppers sickened by mystery gas
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - A gas attack in a home-supply store on one of the busiest shopping days of the year sickened scores of people in an incident that police called likely motivated by a commercial dispute or blackmail attempt. Boxes containing timers wired to glass vials were discovered at the scene of the attack and three other stores in the same chain in Russia’s second-largest city.
Seventy-eight people sought medical care: 66 were briefly hospitalized and sent home without any lasting ill effects, officials said. Police said that the store where the people were sickened had not yet opened for the day and all those affected were store employees or police, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. A police spokesman told The Associated Press that some customers had been sickened.
Officials with the Maksidom home-supply chain, which sells furnishings, home-repair material and other domestic articles, said they had received recent threats that sales would be disrupted around New Year’s, when Russians traditionally give holiday gifts.
Doing business with violence
Most efforts to undermine competitorsEsales in Russia’s sharp-elbowed free market take the form of negative advertising or damaging rumors. Business-related violence nonetheless remains a feature of the cutthroat capitalism that enveloped Russia following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. The first reaction is that it is one of the competitors of this store chain,ESt. Petersburg Gov. Valentina Matviyenko said in televised comments. St. Petersburg police spokesman Vyacheslav Stepchenko said the gas appeared to be methyl mercaptan, a gas that smells like rotten cabbage and is both naturally occurring and manufactured for use in plastics and pesticides. Chemist Lev Fyodorov, head of an environmental group called For Chemical Safety, said in an NTV television report that the gas rarely has long-lasting effects.
The smell of garlic
Employees at the branch where people were sickened told officials they heard a sharp noise, like a clap or pop, before people inside smelled a garlicky odor and began to feel ill. Police and security officers called to the scene found a mechanism with a timer attached to shattered ampules, Stepchenko said. Patients complained of nausea and vomiting Ealong with chest pain and high blood pressure that probably resulted from nervousness, nurse Alexei Afanasyev said on NTV. Stepchenko said that a custodian at another branch discovered a suspicious box before opening time and found ampules attached to wires and a timer inside. The woman inadvertently broke one of the ampules and noticed a repulsive smell but was not sickened, he said. Boxes with glass containers attached to timers were found in two other stores by employees who carried them outside and covered them with buckets; police explosives experts defused them, Stepchenko said
Russian lawmakers pave way for strict curbs on activists
The State Duma, parliament's lower house, voted 357-20 to pass the bill on the third of three required readings. The upper house is expected to approve the legislation early next week before President Vladimir Putin signs it into law.
Putin ordered lawmakers to water down the measure after strong protests from Russian and foreign NGOs as well as from Western governments. The changes included dropping a requirement for foreign groups to re-register their Russia branches as local entities, which will be subject to stricter controls.
But the country's leading human rights body, Memorial, and other groups warned that the bill remained draconian and could force them to close.
"This will mean the destruction of civil society in Russia," Memorial's executive director, Tatyana Kasatkina, told The Associated Press.
Thomas Melia, executive director of the U.S.-based group Freedom House, said the legislation violates "freedom of expression, undermines the independence of existing civic groups" and will set back development of civil society in Russia.
Sponsors of the legislation said it was necessary to stem terrorism and extremism.
Yet critics and supporters alike say the bill has grown out of the Kremlin's increasing displeasure with NGOs that criticize the government, advocate democracy and promote human rights before parliamentary and presidential elections in 2007 and 2008.
Such groups, many financed by Western institutions, played significant roles in the mass demonstrations that helped bring opposition leaders to power in the former Soviet republics of Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, alarming Moscow and other governments in the region.
Putin, at a meeting with human rights activists in July, warned that Russia would not allow foreign organizations to finance political activities in the country.
The bill provides for a new agency to oversee the registration, finances and activities of Russia's hundreds of thousands of NGOs. The agency would have the power to determine if an NGO should be dissolved. It would require stringent, continual accounting to the government, which NGOs say would draw too many staff and resources away from their real work.
"The essence of the law is that instead of reinforcing control of civil society over bureaucrats, the control of bureaucracy over civil society has been reinforced," opposition Communist lawmaker Oleg Smolin said.
Alex Goldfarb, director of the New York-based Foundation for Civil Liberties, predicted authorities will use the law to go after groups that challenge the government. His group is financed by Putin opponent and self-exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky.
Goldfarb suggested that among the targets would be NGOs promoting prisoners' rights and the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, which has campaigned against Russia's compulsory military service and in favor of peace negotiations to end the conflict with Islamic separatists in Chechnya.
Kasatkina said NGOs are being targeted after a series of measures tightening Putin's control over Russian society, including the elimination of independent nationwide broadcasters, moves to effectively appoint regional governors and the solidification of a pro-Kremlin majority in parliament.
"Now they are going after the last independent force — NGOs," she said.
The U.S House of Representatives in a non-binding resolution last week urged Russian lawmakers to either withdraw or redraft the proposed law.