the eXile - Other Shite

Issue #10/91, May 25 - June 8, 2000

Other Shite

SOUND FAMILIAR

“President Vladimir Putin named as Prime Minister today a chief foreign-debt negotiator and a liberal economics expert. The long-predicted move, some experts said, bodes well for efforts to tame Russia’s feral style of capitalism.”
— New York Times, May 11, 2000

If the above passage about newly-appointed Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov sounds familiar, it might be because it is. When the New York Times ran that lead, it helped Ol’ Misha Two Percent join an elite club of Russian officials whose rise to power were heralded as “encouragin signs” in the fight against organized crime and crony capitalism. Just check out this selection of quotes and headlines from the Moscow Times over the years:

Putin stresses stability and a mix of market and statist policies, along with patriotism and the need to fight corruption and organized crime.
Thursday, December 30, 1999

Alexander Lebed, Russia’s new national security council secretary, is on a mission to stamp out corruption and crime....The former parachutist says he will stamp out everything from capital flight to the illegal privatization of state property, but he lacks any technical understanding of financial crime.
Thursday, June 20, 1996

Nemtsov, speaking on Russian public television on Saturday night, said the key to fighting corruption was “glasnost,” or openness. He said if the government widely published upcoming purchase needs, and the bids received, then bribery would be much more difficult.
Anticorruption Fight Gets Public Kickoff - Tuesday, April 15, 1997

Chernomyrdin demanded that Russia’s top cop, Interior Minister Anatoly Kulikov, quickly draft a plan on how to crack down on the spread of contraband arms. He said he expected to see Kulikov’s report on his desk within two weeks.
Kremlin Renews Call to Fight Crime- Friday, December 5, 1997

“The reason why the bankers are afraid of [Kiriyenko] is that he has said very clearly I do not want oligarchical capitalism in Russia; I want people’s capitalism. ...
Michael McFaul, April 24, 1998

[Stepashin] reminded the governors of anti-corruption and anti-organized crime operations his ministry has conducted in the Krasnoyarsk and Novorossiysk regions, and indicated he wanted to make the shady sector of economy “civilized.”
Tuesday, May 18, 1999

The address came even as the newly appointed interior minister, Anatoly Kulikov, is launching a cleanup campaign in the force, trying to rid it of corrupt officers and to force it to solve more crimes.
Saturday, August 26, 1995 Yeltsin Urges Crime Battle

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