While America leads a "coalition of the willing" in spreading liberty and economic prosperity in developing countries, Russia appears to be rushing headlong back to its communist roots.
"MOSCOW, Dec 28 (AFP) - A top economic adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday slammed the government's takeover of the main asset of the Yukos oil giant as the "swindle of the year" and warned of growing state interventionism.
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Gazprom, the state-controlled gas monopoly, had been seen as the likely winner of the forced auction, but it withdrew from the bidding because of a US legal injuction barring it from participating.
In the end, Yuganskneftegaz, a company that pumps a million barrels a day and owns 17 percent of Russia's vast oil reserves, was sold to the previously unknown Baikalfinansgroup.
Rosneft, which is to merge with Gazprom shortly into a new state-run energy corporation, subsequently announced that it had bought Baikalfinansgroup.
Analysts said that the sale, officially to pay off 27.5-billion-dollar tax claims levied against Russia's biggest oil producer, was a means for the Kremlin to reassert control of the strategic energy sector and crush a powerful political opponent, Yukos' imprisoned founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
The attack on Yukos and Khodorkovsky is believed to have been orchestrated by Igor Sechin, a senior Kremlin official who is part of an influential group of ex-KGB hardliners who surround Putin, himself a former spymaster.
Illarionov lamented the "destruction of the most efficient oil company in Russia" and described it as "expropriation".
The economist did not rule out that other Russian companies might suffer the same fate as Yukos.
He said Russia had abandoned the path of economic liberalism and "has moved to an interventionist model".
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And now other firms have come under fire as analysts warn that government officials appear to have a green light to abuse their authority and go after the private sector.
One of them is Russia's largest cell phone operators, VimpelCom, which faces 157 million dollars of tax claims that are seen as the result of a commercial dispute between the company's owners and a government minister."
The message is clear - private investment and private commercial success in Russia are only safe if you stay on the good side of the relevant government minister.
Very, very, scary. The WSJ Ed Page has been on this since the Yukos takeover.
This underscores the importance of the Ukrainian elections. Had Putin been able to exercise control of a large, neighboring republic, we'd have really seen the inchoate underpinnings of a new Sovietism.
Our hope is the lack of any kind of economic foundation. They have nukes but no food. Not a great recipe. Yet if Ukraine takes off economically under free market principles, it might spread.