They’re rich.

At least that would be the case if you ran the country, apparently.  This comes to light as Russian political scientist Stanislav Belkovsky, head of the National Strategic Institute, claims that President Putin of Russia has gathered a mass sum of money to the tune of $40bn from his various holdings in the many state run companies of Russia, not to unlike the many state run companies of China.

Belkovsky claims don’t come without some skepticism.  The man himself is a varying surveyor of Russian politics, sometimes playing at the table with the Kremlin and other times, like the one aforementioned, he goes against the grain of Kremlin thought.  At one point in 2005 he was giving the Kremlin idea(s) for a new constitution as the Kremlin weighed its own options for such a change of government to occur.

Though if you take a look at the situation, at least from outside of censored Russia where such a look can only be taken, it doesn’t seem very unlikely that Putin of all people could get rich of what would be dubbed “his governments” actions.  In late October of 2004, the Russian Government declared that Mikhail Khodorkovsky (at the time the 9th richest person of the world) CEO of Yukos, who at the time was producer of 20% of Russia’s oil exports and 2% of the world’s, committed tax evasion and therein his company and him owed the Russian government $9 to $30bn.  When in fact Yuko’s had actually been doing everything by the books, just not the books the Kremlin would have preferred.

With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russia’s leaders set up tax havens at the outer edges of Russian territory in order to spur economic development (11% compared to 30%).  Yuko’s which was formed out of several old Soviet run oil companies set up shop in these low tax areas.  Year’s later Putin used this subjugation of the intent of the law (which by the you can’t actually be breaking the law if you are not abiding by the intent of the law) to bring to a demise Khodorkovsky and Yukos.

Now Yukos had to pay the government a cool vast billion dollars and didn’t really have a vast billion dollars to hand over.  After filing for bankruptcy, the bankruptcy manager told the company it had to auction off it’s assets in order to pay up.  What’s interesting now, is who won the bid for Yukos’s assets, and therein how Putin may very well have actually made billions himself.

In the auction of Yukos’s assets it so ‘happened’ that State controlled Gazprom was pretty much the only company to buy the assets of course on the cheap.  So, in the end Putin wins being that he is in charge of the ‘State’ that sent Yukos to bankruptcy and it’s assets back to the State, and Putin.

Now it comes to light that after Putin hands over the Presidency to his hand picked personally supported successor Medvedev, Putin will take the reins of Prime Ministership.  But not only will he become Prime Minister but he may very well become chairman of Gazprom, oh and who just happens to be the current chairman of Gazprom? Medvedev.  My thought, why wouldn’t Putin go through all this trouble and not make a few billion in the process.