Putin's team consolidates

Yesterday the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs replaced three members lost from the Board, former YUKOS CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Chairman of Supervisory Board at Industrial and Construction Bank Vladimir Kogan and Vice President of the Union Viktor Dombrovsky.

They were replaced by LUKoil President Vagit Alekperov, Metalloinvest and Gazmetall co-owner Alisher Usmanov and Kuzbassrazrezugol CEO Andrey Bokarev.

President Putin, spent more than 15 years as a Federal Security Service (FSB) agent, he then returned to study at the St. Petersburg Mining Institute. One of the most prestigious academic institutions in Russia, which traces its history to 1773. Since 1994 its rector has been Vladimir Litvinenko, who also serves as a member of the government's newly created Energy Commission.

Litvinenko was rector when Putin (then 44) in 1997 presented his doctoral dissertation examining how natural resources can contribute to regional economies and strategic planning in Russia.

Two years later, Putin -- then the director of the FSB -- wrote an article for the mining institute's journal "Mineral Natural Resources In The Development Strategy For The Russian Economy."

In it, Putin argued that hydrocarbons were key to Russia's development and the restoration of its former power. He argued that the most effective way to exploit this resource was through state regulation of the fuel sector, and by creating large and vertically integrated companies that would work in partnership with the state.

Putin worked in the St. Petersburg mayor's office, where he headed the Foreign Economic Relations Department and he developed his views on ebergy as a strategic tool.

In that office Putin worked with:

Aleksei Miller, now CEO of the state-controlled Gazprom monopoly

Dmitry Medvedev, a lawyer, the head of the presidential administration, First deputy prime minister (appointed November 2005), and chairmen of the board of directors at Gazprom is seen by some as Putin's successor.

Igor Sechin, ex KGB, who is currently the deputy head of Putin's administration as well as the chairman of the board of directors at the state-owned oil company Rosneft.

Classmates / mayoral and former agents of the KGB, the predecessor to Putin's FSB, also enjoy crucial influence in the Kremlin, and are known as the "siloviki," or "power men, (sometimes the Sechin/Ivanov men).


They have a major impact both government energy policy and the way in which it is implemented.

Aleksandr Ryazanov, the deputy chairman of Gazprom, and reportedly the head of the "siloviki" faction within the gas giant. Ryazanov became chief executive of the Sibneft oil company after it was purchased by
Gazprom in 2005. He has also been appointed head of UkrGazEnergo, the newly created
Ukrainian-Russian joint venture to act as an intermediary between Ukraine's state-run
Naftohaz Ukrayiny and the mysterious Swiss / Austrian-based RosUkrEnergo.

Viktor Ivanov, another deputy head of the presidential administration who has a colorful history. A graduate of the Leningrad Bonch-Bruyevich Electrical Technical University. Before joining the KGB in1977 after working as an engineer NPO Vektorhe fought with Soviet forces in Afghanistan. Upon his return, he rose to the head of the anticontraband department of the Leningrad Oblast KGB. He retired from service in 1994 with the rank of colonel and Putin made him head of Administration of St. Petersburg city hall.1996-1998 was head of Russian-American joint venture ZAO Teleplus, a satellite TV company broadcasting 30 channels, including CNN and Euronews.In 2002 he was elected chairman of the board of directors at PVO Concern Almaz-Antei, which produces the S-300 surface-to-air missile system (the supersonic / stealth missiles). The company was set up by presidential decree and formed from 46 state enterprises and companies.

In February 2003, Yuri Svirin resigned due to "ill health" from Almaz-Antei and Igor Klimov was appointed acting general directorin May 2003, Igor Klimov was killed in Moscow by persons unknown.

Deputy Federal Security Service (FSB) director for economic security Yuri Zaostrovtsev is seen as the link between the FSB and the "siloviki".

Putin is forming a Board of Directors composed of friends and work colleagues, who set the agenda for Russian energy policy and in fact control the country's vast energy resources.

The change of governance of the Russian state which has accompanied Putin's rise to power. where he runs a parallel political system which exists behind the facade of an elected President and Duma; the coterie of the "siloviki"; the men from the KGB, the GRU, the MVD, the FSB and the other "control organs" have slipped back into power under the cloak of Putinism.

There is no mystery about their growth and strength. A "college" of former Chekists who moved in with Putin from St. Petersburg and who first replaced the Yeltsin "Family" and then the Chekists associated with Yeltsin; thereafter they moved to take on the oligarchs.

What Putin is establishing is a system of power where the nation's key economic assets are run on behalf of the state by a group of close associates. Those assets are a guarantee that those people retain political power. The creation of the super corporation Gazpromneft is another brick in the construction of Putin's Russia; another step towards the implementation of the project launched by the Chekists to transform Russia into an authoritarian capitalist regime.

Marx's pamphlet the "Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte" demonstrates how the class struggle in France forced Napoleon to create himself as head of a state run by the security organs and the bureaucracy. "Bonapartism" has been used to describe a government that forms when a military, police, and state bureaucracy intervenes to establish order.

Putin is forming a Board of Directors composed of friends and work colleagues, who set the agenda for Russian energy policy and in fact control the country's vast energy resources.

Their influence should not be underestimated.Their activities should be carefully observed in the West. The recent spat over Ukraine gas supplies emphasises that these guys play hardball.