RENEGADES WITH CALCULATORS
by Anastasia Kornya, Alexei Nikolsky
Translated by A. Ignatkin

Source: Vedomosti, June 6, 2006, p. A2
Agency WPS
What the Papers Say Part B (Russia)
June 6, 2006 Tuesday

Corruption scandal in the Auditing Chamber; The Auditing Chamber itself
is at the center of a scandal – for the first time in its history. One
Auditing Chamber official has been arrested, and several others have
been suspended. Auditing Chamber Chairman Sergei Stepashin promises
that further action will be taken.

Auditing Chamber Chairman Sergei Stepashin has given his own version
of the situation involving Kalmykian Senator Levon Chakhmakhchjan and
some Auditing Chamber officials. Stepashin told Interfax yesterday
that Transaero CEO Alexander Pleshakov had informed him that some
mediators were asking for $3 million to intercede with the Auditing
Chamber on Transaero’s behalf. The Auditing Chamber audited Transaero
recently and decided that the company owed 14 million rubles to
customs authorities. Informed that a fraud was under way, Stepashin
went directly to Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Nikolai
Patrushev. President Putin and the heads of both houses of parliament
were informed in advance of the planned arrests. Hence the swiftness
with which the Federation Council set out to clean its slate. The
operation took place last Friday, June 2, and the following day
Sergei Mironov was already appealing to the Kalmykian authorities to
recall their senator. Once Chakhmakhchjan is stripped of senatorial
immunity, the question of pressing criminal charges against him will
be considered, a source in the Prosecutor General’s Office said.

Transaero and the Economic Development Ministry signed an investment
agreement in 1999 (procurement of ten TU-204 planes by Transaero in
return for no more customs duty on imports of foreign planes into
Russia). Then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed the agreement
as well. The expected investments in the Russian aircraft industry
never materialized. The Prosecutor General’s Office appealed to the
government in 2004 to demand compensation from Transaero. The Economic
Development Ministry tried to have the courts annul the agreement,
but failed. Minister Herman Gref and Pleshakov signed a supplement
to the agreement, extending it to 2007.

Insiders report the arrests of Igor Arushanov and Armen Oganesjan
under Article 195 of the Criminal Code (fraud). The former is a
book-keeper with the Russian-Armenian Business Cooperation Association,
headed by Chakhmakhchjan; the latter is an assistant auditor and
Chakhmakhchjan’s son-in-law. “The detainees demanded $1.5 million
from a certain businessman in return for deleting negative conclusions
from an audit report drawn up by the Auditing Chamber,” a source said.

Stepashin promises that other crooks will be exposed as well.

Experts are skeptical, saying that auditors are unlikely to be
really involved. Ex-auditor Vladislav Ignatov maintains that amending
documents drawn up by the Auditing Chamber is easier through technical
personnel. “Auditors only draw a report and forward it to the Board
for endorsement. It is the Auditing Chamber bureaucratic machinery
that is responsible for the final text of the document,” Ignatov said.

Kirill Kabanov, the head of the National Anti-Corruption Committee,
points out that this is the first corruption scandal to involve
Stepashin’s Auditing Chamber.