The Chubais Appointment: A Possible Putin Olive Branch To Biden And The West

A Kremlin decree published December 4, 2020, announced that "Anatoly Borisovich Chubais will be appointed as special representative to the President of the Russian Federation for relations with international organizations to achieve sustainable development goals."[1] The Chubais appointment aroused controversy in Russia. Putin has consistently evoked the bitter memories of the 1990s when following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia experienced severe economic privation and was seen by many Russians to have been reduced to a vassal state of the West. In successive elections, Putin and his supporters have recalled the bad times as a major reason for keeping him in power. Now Putin was appointing Chubais, a figure who was demonized for his prominent role in these bad times. Chubais was in charge of privatizing the economy a process that resulted in massive layoffs and the wiping out of savings. It also resulted in the enrichment of a few oligarchs who purchased assets for a song. In 1995-1996, Chubais was the Russian governor of the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development lending credence to the charge that he was a minion of global capital.  Although out of politics for over twenty years, the rancor towards Chubais has not abated. When Chubais' horse died earlier this year, the leader of the Communist Party of Russia, Gennady Zyuganov made the following comment: I saw that Chubais's horse had died. He says that we must immediately switch to innovation. And I think, at least I would say, you did everything with Yeltsin so that we were left without a base for innovation. You destroyed 80 thousand enterprises, entire industries. "[2]

Some Putin loyalists attempted to portray the appointment as a demotion, as Chubais had recently been sacked from the chairmanship of Rusnano a company steering investment in nanotechnology or claimed that he had not been given a public service appointment. Some commentators however, viewed the Chubais appointment as a signal to the West. Chubais enjoyed a good reputation there and the contacts that he had established could perhaps be exploited to improve Russia's position there.

A report on the Chubais appointment and reactions to it follows below:

Putin with Chubais (Source: Kremlin.ru)

The Villification Of Chubais Continues

Senator Alexey Pushkov commented on the Chubais appointment and dismissed Chubais as a mediocre figure who showed himself ineffective as head of Rusnano, and had been a failure in the political arena as proven in the collapse of the Union of Right Forces party that Chubais had helped found.

"He was only effective in privatizing assets" Chubais' goal as a manager was not to develop the economy, but to "drive the nails into the coffin of communism... Each plant sold for a penny or given away for nothing." Pushkov doubted that the recently unemployed Chubais would be more successful in a dialogue with international financial organizations.[3]

Zhuganov, who has a personal animus against Chubais, as the latter managed Boris Yeltsin's campaign against him in 1996, preferred to "emphasize the positive" namely Chubais' dismissal from Rosnano. He wrote the following on his Twitter account: " The media are crying about Chubais getting fired from Rusnano. It was long overdue! Except that with respect to this decision the president was 20 years too late.

What breakthrough technologies or the latest inventions did Chubais give to our country? There none of those! Everyone has in their pockets, I believe, not a Russian phone, but an American spy [an American phone]! [4]

Perhaps anticipating the backlash, Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov specified that Chubais will not be a public official and will not enter the staff of the presidential administration. [5] Kp.ru cited unnamed analysts, who minimized the appointment: " Many analysts believe Chubais' current appointment to be an honorable pension. He was not entrusted with any specific area of work like the Arctic or climate change, nor he got an important position of a minister, senator or plenipotentiary. He received something amorphous, non-specific."[6]

The conservative Regnum.ru outlet surveyed comment on the web and did not find anyone who spoke favorably of Chubais. Here are some reactions: "It's [the same situation, that happened] with [ex-premier Dmitry] Medvedev. It seems that he [Putin] announced to the whole country that he had removed him, but in fact he simply brought him closer to money, [Chubais] is from the untouchable caste!" – wrote Sergey F.

Nadyezhda wrote: "So, Rusnano did not bring the expected money? We, naive, thought that this "privatizer" would be removed from the eyes of the people altogether, but what a great deal! "Special Representative"

The commentators also believed that Chubais's connections with the Americans was a minus and not a plus.

"Hakuna Matata" wrote: "During Yeltsin's time, Mr. Chubais was a "solver". All American issues went through him. Even when they wanted to remove him from politics, it was the American side that put pressure on Yeltsin, saying, 'we will only work with Chubais'. Back in those days I was thinking about the incomprehensible 'love' of the Americans for Chubais. People like him are unsinkable. They just don't get retired."

Whereas "Pravdolyub" scoffed at Chubais' new title: "Chubais, as the President's Special Representative for Relations with International Organizations, will probably establish contacts with bandits the world over. In order to achieve the sustainable development goals for our runaway billionaires and dual citizenship deputies and officials. In other words, he will prepare the ground for their immigration abroad."[7]

Dr. Dmitry Travin is Academic Director of the Center for Modernization Studies and Professor of Economics at the European University in St. Petersburg, who supported Chubais' policies in 1990s is amazed at the depth of hatred for Chubais especially given his retirement from politics.

" The demonization of Chubais has gone so far, that even now there are people who believe that Chubais rules Russia from behind the scenes, or at least comes to Putin through the back door for crucial consultations on the introduction of terrible liberalism into beautiful Putinism. Such demonization seems to be a unique case for Russia, and perhaps in world history (if I'm wrong, provide other examples)."[8]

Another Take: Chubais Will Be Putin's Personal Envoy To The West

Another school of thought mostly composed of Russian liberals believed that the Chubais appointment was not a retirement present but an attempt by Putin to reach out to the West.

Alexei Venediktov, editor-in-chief of the liberal Echo of Moscow radio station said.

"The Chubais's appointment is a form of recognition for Biden's election to the office of president." Venediktov stressed that Russia has no connection with Biden's Democratic Party, and claimed that Chubais had successfully forged ties with Hillary Clinton and others.[9].

Chubais meets President Bill Clinton in the company of Russia's President Boris Yeltsin (Source: Senat.org)

Venediktov believed that the amorphous job description was actually a positive:

"He [Chubais] will not follow orders of the head of the Administration. He is superior in this respect than an assistant to the president or adviser to the president. He reports directly to Putin. He will not follow orders of the government, of [Premier] Mishustin. He is not a public official...This is definitely a promotion. Because, first of all, he is relieved of responsibility for a not very effective state monopoly [Rusnano]."[10]

The next day Echo of Moscow republished the Meister Telegram blog that shared Venediktov's appraisal:

"Historically, Anatoly Borisovich Chubais from the Russian political perspective can be categorized as an enfant terrible - he was appointed to be 'guilty of everything' by the first president of the Russian Federation, Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin...

"The former head of Rusnano, who was one of the key ideologues of the liberal reforms of the 1990s era, became the 'President's Special Representative for Relations with International Organizations and [tasked with] achievement of sustainable development goals,' however without the status of a public official.

"What's interesting about this wording? - Every word [is interesting]. A president's special representative is his personal emissary, who works outside the system (but possibly interacts with the presidential administration and the ministry of foreign affairs), having a direct contact with whoever he represents and those with whom he must coordinate his work.

"Chubais has a lot of experience with International organizations: the UN, the IMF, the World Bank, the IBRD, and a number of other structures: in 1998 he was the President's Special Representative for Relations with International Financial Organizations. In particular, he was able to obtain an IMF loan in the amount of 11.2 billion USD."

"Putin needs Chubais because the official diplomatic channels are insufficient. One needs to understand the situation as a whole. In general, world diplomacy is in an unprecedented decline since the Second World War: the very idea of ​​negotiations with opponents on the most important issues of the world order causes heartburn (or fear of [incurring] immediate accusations in treason) to many West politicians.

"What should one do in such circumstances? – The same as always: when formal channels don't work, the informal ones appear. Not being a public official, and at the same time having official powers, granted to you personally by the first person, is in fact a formula from Dumas's novel [The Three Musketeers]- 'what the bearer of this [Richelieu's letter] did was done on my orders and for the good of the state... Do you remember this quote?

"Chubais can (thanks to his long-standing connections) and must (due to his obligation in accordance with the decree of the head of state) contact his colleagues ([who might be] similarly authorized persons who do not necessarily hold formal positions. After all, are there not enough groups and clubs of interest in the world that convene influential people, who are capable of solving problems? The fact that ABCh [Chubais] is part of such groups has been known for a long time. Well, let him do [this job], maybe there will be benefits."[11]

The aforementioned Kp.ru, article also admitted this possibility citing historian Pavel Pryanikov.  "In his new office, Chubais may be tasked with building relations with the democratic administration of Joe Biden. It is clear that it is necessary to somehow negotiate [with the Americans], under Obama and Trump so many mistakes were made. So Chubais, as a prominent representative of Russian liberals, has good relations with the US Democratic Party. It is important that Americans are not allergic to him either. On the contrary, he personifies market reforms and the democratic wing in Russia. Few of them have remained at the heights of power...

 "When you are an adviser or assistant, you need to bring your proposals first to the head of the administration or his first deputy, so that they will put their signatures ... It is bureaucracy... And being a free person, Chubais is likely to be able to communicate with Putin directly. You will see that Chubais will feel a wind under his wings.[12]

Kommersant's Mikhail Gurevich Kommersant took the international organizations part of Chubais' title seriously:

"The country's international positions have been shaking in recent years, to put it mildly. You don't have to look far for examples: literally on the day of the appointment, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands confirmed the right of the former Yukos shareholders to hunt for Russian property totaling $ 57 billion, and the head of the Ministry of Justice, Konstantin Chuychenko, announced that a legal war had been declared on us. Let me remind you about the proceedings in the OPCW in the case of the Navalny poisoning. The Dutch court, of course, is not part of the UN, but the Chemical Weapons Convention was adopted at the General Assembly in 1992.

"The list of problems is endless, and most of them are simply unrealistic to solve in working order - our arguments are too weak and controversial. This means that new negotiators are needed, especially with a positive image in the West, just the same as that of Chubais, who in one appearance reminds his overseas partners of Yeltsin's former friendship with Clinton and is today the closest Russian official to the new American administration.

So, in fact, instead of a pension and still more a prison sentence, Chubais received a promotion and access to the international level. So far, the situation looks like win-win. The UN has already announced that they are looking forward to the start of interaction, and the newly-minted representative himself wrote in his Facebook profile that the upcoming business is not only significant for the country, but also interesting to him personally. It remains only to understand what he will have to negotiate and what difficult compromises he will have to agree to in order to remain 'guilty of everything' if something happens."[13]