Taxman famed for role in Yukos affair becomes Sechin aide.

Filipp Sterkin and Nadezhda Ivanitskaya, Vedomosti, 28.05.2008

Sechin has confirmed that Anton Ustinov was appointed his aide some while ago. He considers him a qualified legal specialist and is certain that Ustinov’s experience with the Federal Tax Service will help in his new work of examining and evaluating legislative proposals.

Anton Ustinov lost his post at the Tax Service in early February when 22 departments were reduced to seven. Others who participated in the Yukos affair also ceased to work for the Service at that time. Sources then said that Ustinov might move to Rosneft or to another part of the Tax Service.

Anton Ustinov was “manager” of the Yukos affair, recalls Sergei Pepelyaev, senior partner at Pepelyaev, Goltsblat & partners, who defended Yukos. Then deputy director of the presidential administration, Sechin was considered the ideologist of the process that led to the bankruptcy of Yukos, says political commentator Dmitry Badovsky. The main assets of Yukos went to Rosneft, the State-owned company of which Sechin was and remains the board chairman.

Among the other cases dealt with by Anton Ustinov’s team at the Tax Service were the attempts to sequester the shares of Russneft and enterprises of the Bashkortostan fuel and energy complex under Article 169 of the Criminal Code (being involved in transactions that contradict the foundations of the legal order and of morality).

A lawyer with a major Russian holding company recalls that under Anton Ustinov strong pressure was exerted on judges. It was not Ustinov himself but his superiors who were responsible, says lawyer Alexei Melnikov: Ustinov was merely conscientious in carrying out the work he was instructed to do. The sums raised by the Tax Service through the courts increased from 34 billion roubles in 2000 to 561 billion roubles in the first half of 2006.

As a member of Sechin’s team, which is responsible within the government for key sectors of the economy, Anton Ustinov might become an influential figure, says commentator Dmitry Badovsky: lobbying no longer takes place at the ministerial level but through the members of the cabinet and the deputy premiers. Ustinov is a well-trained legal specialist, says the deputy director of the tax committee of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Sergei Belyakov. “He has shown himself by his deeds to be a member of the block of siloviki,” concludes lawyer Andrei Melnikov. “So his appointment may be considered logical and even, probably, well-earned.”