Russkii Kurier June 9, 2004. TO NATIONALIZE EVERYTHING Economic efficiency may become a reason for nationalization Author: Konstantin Frumkin [from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html] [From 2005, the Russian government may have the right to nationalize any enterprise it chooses. A nationalization bill submitted by the Cabinet will be passed in the first reading this autumn. This means that decisions to nationalize private property will be made by executive bodies.]
From 2005, the Russian government may have the right to nationalize any enterprise it chooses. Victor Pleskachevskii, head of the Duma's property committee, said yesterday that a nationalization bill submitted by the Cabinet will be passed in the first reading this autumn. Pleskachevskii acknowledges that this is "a very bad bill." He said: "However, we intend to pass it in the first reading in autumn in order to prevent political parties from submitting their own bills concerning this issue." Most interestingly, Pleskachevskii says he is "90% sure that the bill will be passed without amendments." This means that decisions to nationalize private property will be made by executive bodies.
This will be a historic event in Russian legislation. Over ten versions of nationalization bills have been submitted to the Duma in the past decade. One of them was passed in the first reading in January 2002. However, that precedent caused much controversy, and the Duma had to invalidate the bill under pressure from the Presidential Administration.
But this time the bill is destined to succeed. Oleg Morozov, deputy speaker of the Duma, recently said that United Russia is preparing its own version of the bill. According to Morozov, the state would be able to recover property and enterprises used ineffectively by their private owners.
He said: "Economic efficiency may become a reason for nationalization."
Boris Gryzlov, leader of United Russia, said last week: "The faction is not considering any such bills. We are not working on any such documents at the moment."
However, he noted that this issue may be raised during the autumn session of parliament.
So there are no bills - but the issue may be raised. Maybe this confusion has been caused by the fact that United Russia doesn't really distinguish between its own bills and the government's. United Russia is always ready to claim responsibility for popular bills, while shifting the blame to the government for anything that proves controversial.
A statement by Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov yesterday indicates that the issue of nationalization has already been decided. Commenting on the hunger strikes in the Rostov region and Khakassiya, Mironov said that the government ought to pass a law on nationalization in order to prevent such incidents. He said: "If the owner of an enterprise manages the property inefficiently, the state must have the right to recover this property and sell it to another owner at a low price."
Mironov noted that some Duma members, including members of United Russia, have submitted similar proposals in the past. Mironov said: "If the matter concerns this scheme, I support it." Mironov said he is sure that such a bill would be approved by the Duma and the Federation Council.
Translated by Alexander Dubovoi
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