{"id":290,"date":"2015-08-27T03:03:01","date_gmt":"2015-08-27T09:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/supportthebitkovs.com\/?post_type=news&p=290"},"modified":"2015-10-31T03:12:58","modified_gmt":"2015-10-31T09:12:58","slug":"english-putin-economy-based-on-theft-cant-survive-let-alone-develop-bitkov-says","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/supportthebitkovs.com\/en\/news\/english-putin-economy-based-on-theft-cant-survive-let-alone-develop-bitkov-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin Economy, Based on Theft, Can\u2019t Survive Let Alone Develop, Bitkov Says"},"content":{"rendered":"By:<\/strong>\u00a0Paul Goble
\nReference:<\/strong>\u00a0Window on Eurasia 2<\/a><\/p>\n

Staunton, August 27 \u2013 Vladimir Putin\u2019s economy based on theft and the destruction of entrepreneurialism can\u2019t survive let alone develop, according to Igor Bitkov, a Russian businessman from whom the Kremlin took his company and ran it into the ground while accusing him of running a scam and hounding him and his family into jail in Guatemala.<\/p>\n

In a commentary on Ekho Moskvy this week, Bitkov, currently behind bars in Guatemala on trumped up charges of passport fraud that Moscow appears to have encouraged, says that the inevitable collapse of Putin\u2019s system reflects the impact on Russia as a whole of the means the Kremlin used to steal his business (echo.msk.ru\/blog\/echomsk\/1609372-echo\/<\/a>).<\/p>\n

After detailing the ways in which he and his wife built their paper industry between 1993 and 2008, Bitkov describes the classic \u201craider\u201d actions of Kremlin-linked banks when he refused to pay bribes or enter into corrupt schemes to provide money in other ways to Putin and his people.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe preferred,\u201d he writes, \u201cto remain non-party entrepreneurs free from government obligations.\u201d\u00a0 But precisely because he and his wife were committed to that, \u201cour business was taken away from us by the classical application of tested Putin methods\u201d \u2013 getting the banks to call loans, using bankruptcy law to freeze assets, and then charging the victims with crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, seven years after this happened,\u201d Bitkov continues, \u201cit is possible to sum up the results. Our factories are not functioning.\u201d The banks involved are caught up in fights over the division of property. Much of the new equipment and all of the resources have been \u201cstolen by the bankers themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bitkov and his wife have been found guilty without trial, and Moscow is seeking their extradition after they fled abroad when Putin moved against them. (On their travails there and Moscow\u2019s failure to help, see \u201cThe Bitkov Case \u2013 a Dangerous Sign of the Times,\u201d windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com\/2015\/08\/the-bitkov-case-dangerous-sign-of-times.html<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the course of seven years, no one has been concerned about restoring the work of the enterprises\u201d that were taken from him, Bitkov says. \u201cReality turned out to be more horrific than my most pessimistic expectations. Putin\u2019s oprichniki, having gained control over the factors, did not even support them at their previous level of operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, the imprisoned Russian businessman says, \u201cthey preferred to steal all that they could \u2026 If we are scam artists, then why did we increase the income of the company by seven times over seven years,\u201d while they, the supposed law-abiding people, have simply run it into the ground?<\/p>\n

Now, Bitkov says, \u201cwe can answer this question quite simply: The entire essence of Putin\u2019s economic policy from the very beginning consists in theft. Businesses were taken from loyal oligarchs \u2026 Then came the turn of mid-level entrepreneurs including us.\u201d And when the Kremlin ran out of disloyal people to steal from, it began to focus on loyal ones as well, people like Luzhkov, Baturin, Pugarchev, and Yevtushenkov.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am certain,\u201d he continues, that as a result, \u201cthe circle of loyalists will gradually shrink,\u201d forcing the regime to look for ever more people to steal from until there are none left. As long as oil prices were high, this fundamental problem with the Putin regime was hidden from many; now it cannot be hidden from any.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main investor of Putin\u2019s Russia is the state and state companies, that is, the president himself,\u201d Bitkov says. And that is why he invested mostly in \u201cgrandiose\u201d projects that celebrate himself and his greatness rather than in those sectors which are productive and give promise of improving the country.<\/p>\n

All that ran out when oil prices crashed, and trying to find new money by taking it from education and health care, as Putin is doing, \u201cwill not boost the standard of living and will have just the same negative, long-term consequences as was the case in the USSR.\u201d\u00a0 Add to that \u201cthe isolation political and financial\u201d caused by Putin\u2019s aggression and Russia faces disaster.<\/p>\n

To distract attention, Putin is putting out the idea that import substitution will lead to economic rebirth; but \u201cwhere will Putin actually be able to find domestic entrepreneurs who will risk carrying out new projects? Will he amnesty those [he\u2019s put in prison or forced to emigrate]? Will he let them out of prison? Will he return them from abroad?\u201d<\/p>\n

Putin isn\u2019t going to do that: \u201che is a proud guy unaccustomed to give way before the slaves,\u201d Bitkov says. Moreover, \u201cthe present-day business elite of his closest circle \u2026 have never tried to create a business operating on their own resources.\u201d They haven\u2019t had to and they can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

All this is fated to end \u201csadly,\u201d he says. \u201cHaving destroyed entrepreneurs like us,\u201d Bitkov argues, \u201cthe Putin system has wiped out the class of entrepreneur workers, innovators, and investors. Young people now adapting to reality strive to fill the ranks of corrupt bureaucrats. No one wants to get involved in entrepreneurial activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Bitkov concludes: \u201cThe Putin economy, constructed on thefts, extortions, and high oil prices is not capable not only of developing but even of surviving.\u201d\u00a0 And he adds that as the Bible points out, \u201c\u2019by their fruits you will know them.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 The people living around the plants Putin has shuttered after stealing as much as he could already do.<\/div>

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