Scandal of day
RUSSIAN RICHELIEU
Soon after Vladimir Putin became the president of Russia, presumptions began to appear in Russia's mass media that one of the most odious politicians of Yeltsin's Russia - Alexander Voloshin, the head of the president's administration, would soon resign.
Much consideration has been given to the "heroic deeds" of this bureaucrat, who began his career as an assistant locomotive engineer. What, for example, is the swindle with the "Char" bank worth? As a result of this swindle, devised and realized by Voloshin in 1994, the bank went bankrupt, depriving many Russians of their savings. Or the activity of Voloshin in 1995-1997 as an executive official in the Federal Foundation Corporation (FFC), the structure which directly organized and carried out auctions relating to privatization of Russian state property. These auctions were organized by Voloshin in such a sly manner that as a result of privatization of only one oil company "Sibneft," the Russian treasury did not receive, in accordance with the valuation of experts, more than two billion (!) dollars.
Right now, it is no longer a secret to anybody that Voloshin got the post in the FFC and then in the president's administration under the patronage of Boris Berezovsky, with whom he became acquainted at the beginning of the nineties. Voloshin has been working all this time in the interests of Berezovsky.
Occupying an important position, Alexander Voloshin became a full-fledged (and one of the most significant) members of the powerful Yeltsin "family," which seemed to be invincible.
However, everything moves and changes. And now a new president - Vladimir Putin, has been elected in Russia. Voloshin retains his post and continues to work in spite of all the rumors. So what is it? Does this person have unlimited power and influence over President Putin?
According to our information, the situation is entirely different. As our high-ranking source from the administration of the Russian president affirms, right after Putin was designated to the post of acting president, Voloshin vowed fidelity, promising to forgo former actions and undesirable acquaintances. Evaluating the situation in a sensible manner, the Russian president decided not to discharge Voloshin right away, since, in spite of his rather ambiguous reputation, Voloshin was a good organizer and was able to get the administration working the way it should.
But after making such a choice, Voloshin immediately fell under the pressure of his former friends and a number of provocative details about the bureaucrat's former life came to light. So, it became known that one of Voloshin's friends and advisers, Vyacheslav Aminov, has a videotape on which moments of "rest" of the head of the administration in the company of underage girls are recorded. Waving the videotape under Voloshin's nose, Aminov, who scraped together a billion dollar fortune with the aid of his "friend," warned him: either everything remains the way it was or the videotape will be aired. And to make Voloshin think faster, several Russian mass media hinted in a rather transparent manner that there was some pornographic, compromising material, and he had to accept Aminov's conditions.
But, as the Russian slogan goes - misfortunes never come singly. Soon Aminov was arrested by the Russian police on the charge of giving bribes. Through his assistants, Aminov gave an ultimatum to Voloshin: immediate freedom or the tape will be shown on television. It is not known what Voloshin did, dropped to his knees before the president, personally vouching for Aminov, or something else, but after several days Aminov was set free.
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