“I’ve seen Zubkov”
While our editorial staff was discussing the Cabinet’s resignation on Wednesday, I was nearly the only one who saw the prime-minister-to-be in person. Moreover, I’ve seen him several times, and every time not in Russia. It is because I frequently visit international financial conferences, and so does Viktor Zubkov. It was his duty to combat money laundering and to improve Russia’s image among the international community. Zubkov did his duties well.
“In the last six months, the KFM [the Financial Monitoring Committee, now called the Federal Financial Monitoring Service.—Kommersant] detected three-thousand-five-hundred-eighty-nine money laundering schemes, initiated one-hundred-eighty-five criminal cases, discovered twenty-five-thousand-seven-hundred-eighty-three illegal financial operations, and sent four-hundred-thirty-five orders to the Bank of Russia,” that was the manner in which Viktor Zubkov delivered his reports. I had an impression of attending a conference of the Communist party in Soviet times. It was impossible to distract Zubkov by a question or to draw him into a discussion. “Right, right…,” he would say a little absently, and go on with his “one-hundred-eighty-five criminal cases and twenty-five-thousand-seven-hundred-eighty-three financial operations”. Nothing excessive, no emotions at all.
Several years ago in the Novo-Ogarevo presidential residence, Vladimir Putin asked Viktor Zubkov to carefully handle the data in possession of his federal agency. “You have very important powers. You have a large amount of information, and it should be a priority of your activities to protect that information,” the president said back then. It seems to me that Zubkov still remembers that request.
He always wears a white shirt, and sometimes a dark-blue one, on especially official occasions. He wears his tie in a simple ‘choker’ knot. He doesn’t have any second pairs of shoes, cuff-links, pink shirts, or multicoloured ties. He is dressed in a Soviet-like modest style. His suit must have been made by Bolshevichka factory, but I do not insist, I don’t know for sure.
Besides, Viktor Zubkov is one of those rare state officials who did not get mixed in the so-called conflicts of interests, unlike our key ministers, for instance. They struggle in intra-governmental intrigues, do not greet each other in halls, they exchange cutting remarks during conferences. Meanwhile, Zubkov never does all that. Everyone who knows him says that Viktor Zubkov talks equally to everybody, despite ranks. He behaves calmly during conferences. If the floor is given to him, he delivers his report, in his own words (and not reading out from a paper), always within the allotted time. If he is asked, he answers. If not, he keeps silence.
The prime-minister-to-be supervised a very complicated sphere. However, he seemed to be a neutral figure in the story with banker Frenkel, for instance. Yet, I do not doubt that it was his federal agency that initiated the conflict. Naturally, not on its own initiative. As an acquaintance of mine said yesterday, Zubkov knows the ‘aim!’ order. When he receives it, he shoots. And he never misses his aim.
Liza Golikova, editor of Kommersant’s finances department
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 13, 2007
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