Expert: “Everyone is to understand: if the president starts to fight corruption, it should be started from Ustinov”

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Co-Chairman of the Council on the National Strategy Iosif Diskin commented to a REGNUM correspondent on resignation of Russian Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov accepted by the Russian Federation Council on May 2.

“I would rather not look for profound reasons, but, first of all, pay attention to the statement made by Ustinov himself a week ago. In the statement he said that corruption was in all the governmental institutions and penetrated Russian provinces. This mere statement is practically an appeal for resignation, because in this way he acknowledged he is unprofessional and failed to fulfill his duties. Otherwise, his words sound as an accusation against the president, to whom the statement was addressed. Thus, had the president provided no reaction to it in a proper way, it would have looked as appeasement. So, the reasons for the resignation are evident.

”Recently, the president has been strongly concerned over the people and various social groups’ attitudes towards the state. He spoke about it in his State of the Nation, because lack of people’s trust in the authorities results in erosion of the government system. From certain governmental officials, whom the political elite used to accuse of various things in private talks, most accusations were directed against Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov. Some very influential persons (I would not give their names here) were talking about “the Prosecutor-General’s Office turning into a boutique selling legal services.” The Federation Council even did not made inquiries about reasons for the resignation, because everyone knows everything without it. Everybody understands that if the president really starts fighting corruption, he should start from Prosecutor-General Ustinov.

“It is absolutely clear, that Vladimir Putin switched from remonstrating with businessmen and governmental officials to taking resolute actions, as remonstrations bore no results. Evidently, this should be marked with recruiting new people to the governmental bodies. A number of high-ranking officials in the Federal Security Service have already been dismissed, and dismissals in other governmental bodies are to follow. A person with clean hands, not involved in any shady deals should assume prosecutor-general’s office. I do not rule out that the president would appoint Dmitry Kozak to the position, whose candidature was proposed by him six years ago and then withdrawn, and instead of Kozak, Ustinov was appointed. For these six years, Kozak, who is a good lawyer indeed, has earned significant experience in political practice in the Southern Federal District. He is no longer an armchair specialist, but a person who came through a most difficult school in the Southern Federal District.”