This article originally appeared in Kommersant.
MOSCOW - In February 2010, there was an article published in the Russian newspaper Vedomosti that investigated allegations of corruption against Elena Skrinnik, then the Agriculture Minister.
That article could have easily provided the basis for a criminal investigation, but Skrinnik continued working for the government until May 2012, and the government didn't really take an interest in the corruption allegations until last November. Now Skrinnik is being brought in for interrogation, as are many other former ministers and government officials.
Compare that to the case of Vladimir Pekhtin, a member of the ruling party and head of Parliament's ethics committee. A blogger revealed he has an undeclared property in Miami, and Pekhtin stepped down almost immediately.
Even a year ago, this would have been impossible. Government agencies weren't paying attention to the media, especially not blogs. But the rules of the game have changed, say representatives of the government and business elite.
Signs of a massive crackdown on the country's elite began last year, a few months after new laws were passed to restrict street protests and create strict controls on non-profits. Last August, the government began considering a bill to ban civil servants and elected officials from having a foreign bank account or owning foreign property.
A law on foreign bank accounts was passed - but went almost unnoticed. Under the new rules, Russians and permanent residents in Russia are required to do all their transactions through Russian bank accounts. That means, for example, that if someone is paid into a foreign bank account, that money must be transferred to a Russian account - the only exception being for Russian citizens who live abroad and do not come back to Russia even once a year.
"This rule makes it possible to catch almost everyone. Most middle-class people have foreign bank accounts - people use them to pay for studies, medical care and to keep their money somewhere reliable, where privacy is respected," explained an accountant who helps people set up foreign accounts. "Of course, they don't tell the government or tax service about these accounts. Now this is illegal, although in effect, the tax service does not have the resources to find all Russians and their foreign accounts. But the real danger is that if you are in trouble for some other reason, they will come after your foreign accounts and confiscate it all."
Nationalizing the elite
In October, the government started a new program of "nationalization of the elite." That's a term that was thought up by Konstantin Kostin, an advisor to President Vladimir Putin. Kostin says the Kremlin is aiming to change the mentality of many elite Russian business people, who see Russia as a country to exploit, but who end up going to live elsewhere.
Other sources close to the Kremlin agreed that there was another motivation for these laws. They said that this "nationalization of the elite" was a direct response to the mass protests last year demanding honest elections in Russia.
"The government is convinced that there are foreign governments behind these protest movements," said one source.
