All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works. SOME of Russia's billionaires could soon be parted from their new-found wealth.
Moves are afoot to overturn the controversial privatisations of the post-Communist era.
A lawsuit launched in Moscow yesterday centres on a vast Arctic mining complex that has become a byword for the ill-gotten gains of Russia's business elite. The Prosecutor's Office formally announced that it was suing the owners of Norilsk Nickel, which produces much of the world's nickel and platinum, on the grounds that they robbed the State of hundreds of millions of dollars when taking control of the company three years ago. Yevgeni Primakov, the country's best-known elder statesman, suggests that inefficient privatised firms should be renationalised. Norilsk Nickel has its headquarters in a gleaming Moscow office block, but its grimy heart lies nearly 2,000 miles to the northwest and up to half a mile beneath the Arctic permafrost. On the surface, nine tenths of Russia's nickel ore is processed in smelters that poison the local population and cast a pall over the surrounding snows big enough to be seen from outer space.