ANOTHER SENATOR IS FIRED: THE KREMLIN TARGETS THE LEADER OF KALMYKIA
By Andrei Smirnov
Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
June 8 2006
Russia continues to be rocked by purges of the Federation Council,
the upper house of the Russian parliament, where deputies (often called
“senators”) represent regional governments.
On May 14, Sergei Mironov, speaker of the Federation Council,
dismissed four members of the Council. The ousted senators represented
a northern region (Nenets autonomous okrug), two Siberian regions
(Yamal-Nenets autonomous okrug, and Khakassia), and a region in the
Far East (Primorsky krai). After some local resistance, regional
parliaments approved Mironov’s decision (see EDM, May 25).
However, it soon became clear that more resignations were in the
pipeline. On June 2, Senator Levon Chakhmakhchyan was arrested by
officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB) on charges of bribery.
Chakhmakhchyan represents Kalmykia, a region in southern Russia is
and vice-president of the Association for Russian-Armenian Business
Cooperation. Chakhmakhchyan and Igor Arushanov, chief accountant
for the Association, were arrested at the headquarters of Transaero
Airlines. FSB officers confiscated a bag containing $300,000, which
they claimed was a bribe.
Chakhmakhchyan was arrested after meeting with Alexander Pleshakov,
the chairman of the Transaero board of directors. The senator said that
he had visited Pleshakov “to discuss a Transaero advertising campaign
in Armenia and Transaero’s possible membership in the Association”
(lenta.ru, June 5). After the meeting, Pleshakov told the senator to
take a bag sitting under the table; Chakhmakhchyan thought the bag
contained souvenirs for him. FSB officers were waiting outside and
detained the senator and the accountant as they left the office.
Speaking to Ekho Moskvy radio on June 5 Chakhmakhchyan said, “As soon
as the two of us were out of Pleshakov’s office, we were stopped by FSB
officers. The reasons for the detention were not given. My demands for
release and the arguments that I am a member of the Federation Council
were ignored. The agents behaved rudely and cynically, used physical
violence, treated me with contempt, including [making] comments of
nationalistic nature. Only two and a half hours later was I released.”
According to the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, the money
confiscated from Chakhmakhchyan and his associate were part of a
bribe to an official in the Russian Federation Board of Accounting
to close a case of tax evasion against Transaero. Armen Oganesyan,
Chakhmakhchyan’s father-in-law, works at the Board, so the senator had
suggested to Pleshakov that he could assist in solving the problem
for Transaero. Pleshakov, however, complained to Sergei Stepashin,
chairman of the Russian Board of Accounting, that Board officials
had blackmailed him.
Stepashin got in touch with FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev,
who ordered a special operation to arrest Chakhmakhchyan and his
father-in-law. Chakhmakhchyan was released due to his immunity as a
member of the Federation Council, but the next day proceedings were
initiated at the Federation Council to withdraw his mandate. On June
5, Mironov’s press service issued a statement saying that the speaker
had sent a representative to the parliament of Kalmykia recommending
that Chakhmakhchyan be recalled from the Federation Council before
his term expired (Interfax, June 5).
Despite the accusations of corruption, many observers and politicians
in Kalmykia and in Moscow regarded the attack on Chakhmakhchyan as an
attack by the central authorities on Kirsan Ilumzhinov, the president
of Kalmykia. According to Kommersant newspaper, Chakhmakhchyan and
Ilumzhinov are close friends, and Chakhmakhchyan helped Ilumzhinov
during the 2002 presidential elections in Kalmykia, which the latter
won despite resistance from the Kremlin. In 2004 the Kalmykian leader
returned the favor by helping Chakhmakhchyan to be elected by the
local parliament to represent Kalmykia in the Federation Council
(Kommersant, June 5).
“One can only regret this unpleasant accident,” Ilumzhinov said,
commenting on the arrest of Chakhmakhchyan. “I believe that the guilt
of the senator should be proved by the court.” At the same time,
the Kalmykian president added, “I have no grounds not to trust Sergei
Mironov. If he demanded the senator’s recall, it means he had grounds
for this.” However, Ilumzhinov also stressed that Chakhmakhchyan’s
guilt should be determined in court and he also pointed out that the
senator “did a lot of useful things for Kalmykia” (strana.ru, June 6).
Apparently Ilumzhinov does not have enough power to help his
old friend this time. He is under great pressure from the Kremlin
himself. The Russian authorities regard the Kalmykian leader as a too
independent regional governor. Moscow thinks that maverick governors
such as Ilumzhinov could be a problem as the Russian parliamentary
and presidential elections approach. President Vladimir Putin’s
administration is not sure that such governors will guarantee a
“correct vote count” during the elections.
The Kremlin was especially enraged by the Kalmykian leader’s recent
meeting with Garry Kasparov, the world chess champion and the
leader of the United Civic Front, a radical, democratic, anti-Putin
organization. On June 4, Ilumzhinov was reelected chairman of the
World Chess Federation. In his interview with Sport Express, Russia’s
leading sports newspaper, Ilumzhinov thanked Kasparov for providing
help in the elections (Sport Express, June 7). This statement was a
direct challenge to the Kremlin, and the Kalmykian leader flaunted
his independence by mentioning Kasparov.
The arrest and firing of Chakhmakhchyan may prove to be the Russian
authorities’ first steps in an anti-Ilumzhinov campaign. However,
there are no doubts that the campaign will not be easy, since the
president of Kalmykia has proven to be a formidable adversary for
the powerful Kremlin bosses.