The State Duma's anti-corruption commission has issued a report saying Nuclear Power Minister Yevgeny Adamov illegally continued to engage in business activities - worth millions of dollar - after becoming minister in 1998, and used his post to appoint business associates to key positions in Russia's nuclear sector.
The 20-odd page report, which was commissioned by the Duma, offers detailed proof of allegations printed earlier by the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, many of which Adamov has denied. The text of the report - which, according to the Segodnya newspaper, was "declassified" Friday - was posted on the web site of the Russian branch of the environmental organization Greenpeace (www.greenpeace.ru), a consistent critic of the Nuclear Power Ministry.
According to the report, Adamov, who from 1986 to 1999 headed NIKIET, a secret energy technologies institute that was the key developer of Chernobyl-type nuclear reactors, violated many security regulations and created "various commercial organizations in Moscow and abroad and continues to be actively involved in entrepreneurial activities."
The anti-corruption commission does not have the right to prosecute people, but its report concluded that the Prosecutor General's Office and the Federal Security Service should launch a formal probe into Adamov's activities. Copies of the report were to be sent to President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov. Commission officials were not available for comment Sunday.
The report cited a speech made by Adamov to the Duma in which he said he had not engaged in business since his appointment as minister in March 1998.
"There have been no deposits to my personal [bank] account since I've been minister," the report quoted him as saying. But the entire report is devoted to debunking Adamov's statement.
It is not clear from the document whether the companies founded by Adamov were directly involved in the nuclear sector. Some of them were described as consulting firms, others worked in real estate. But, according to the report, the companies' Russian offices were set up at security-sensitive nuclear research facilities, and Adamov's NIKIET institute became home to several companies, some of which list Adamov's wife Olga Pinchuk as a co-founder.
The report also said that until 1998 Adamov served as president of a U.S.-based consulting, management and investment company he founded in 1994 called Omeka, Ltd. and registered in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. His wife became the company's representative in Russia and Omeka's local office was registered at Adamov's home address, the report said. In 1998, around the time he was appointed nuclear minister, Adamov resigned as president of Omeka in favor of his U.S. partner Mark Kaushansky.
However, according to the report, at the end of 1999, the company's $5 million in assets were controlled by Adamov ($3.15 million), his wife ($1.5 million) and Kaushansky ($410,000). It was unclear whether these three individuals were the company's sole shareholders or controlled the assets through a more complicated ownership scheme.
The report, which says Adamov has admitted having a U.S. social security card, went on to say that when Adamov applied for a Diner's Club card in 1996, he stated his total annual income at over $120,000.
It also said Omeka provided Adamov's NIKIET with $34,000 worth of flooring supplies and continues to provide the institute with computer equipment to the tune of $50,000 a year.
According to the report, Omeka owns stock in a "housing services" company in Pennsylvania and a medical services center in Michigan, along with investments in Russia and Ukraine.
The report says the company bought a $200,000 house for Adamov in Pittsburgh. Omeka is also reported to have bought real estate and opened a $250,000 account in Switzerland, where Adamov's daughter attends university in Bern. The dates of these transactions were not clear from the report.
But it said that both Omeka and Adamov's other U.S.-based company, Energy Pool Inc., transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars for Adamov and other Nuclear Ministry officials through the Logic Realty real estate company registered at the address of his NIKIET institute. The report identified Adamov's wife as an Energy Pool shareholder.
In 1996, when Adamov headed NIKIET, it signed a contract with Iran's nuclear agency to conduct an expert assessment of plans for a nuclear facility in Iran. The contract, the report said, violated regulations governing such contacts and, in December 2000, the Prosecutor General's Office opened an investigation into the "illegal export" of technologies related to weapons of mass destruction and military equipment.
"The fact that Adamov engaged in commercial activity while he was director of NIKIET and nuclear power minister has been fully proven," the report said.
It also listed a number of cases when Adamov appointed people with no experience in the nuclear industry to key positions in the ministry and state companies controlled by the ministry. Some of these officials were also listed as shareholders of private companies formed by Adamov before he became minister.
As minister, Adamov initially saw to it that the ministry's international deals - reported to total about $2 billion in exports annually - were channeled through the ministry-affiliated bank Konversbank. Then, according to the report, he ordered the bank's officials to sell the bank's controlling stake to MDM-Bank, an institution associated with Kremlin insiders Alexander Mamut and Roman Abramovich. Thereby, the report said, MDM got control over such lucrative deals as a $12 billion contract for processing weapons-grade plutonium.
"At the present time, the purchase of Konversbank stakes for the benefit of MDM-Bank continues," the report said.
MDM has been reported to have assets worth $850 million, while Konversbank has some $400 million to $500 million on its books.
In its press release, Greenpeace speculated that the report's appearance Feb. 20 could have been the reason behind the Duma's postponement of the second reading of a controversial bill allowing the import of spent nuclear fuel into Russia, which was scheduled for Feb. 22. But Segodnya, which said it had obtained a copy of the report from the Duma, wrote that the interests of the anti-nuclear lobby pale before the power of Adamov's other enemies, such as power monopoly Unified Energy Systems, or UES.
Vladimir Kuznetsov, director of the nuclear and radiological security program of the Russian Green Cross, said in a phone interview Sunday that he did not believe there was any connection between the report and the vote postponement.
He said the report proves what has long been known in the industry - that Adamov was a corrupt official. He also said the long-running attack against Adamov was part of the struggle for the nuclear industry among Russia's financial and political groups.
"The gas industry, oil industry and non-ferrous metals have all been divvied up," Kuznetsov said. "What remains to be divided is the nuclear power industry. The fight for it is underway."
Commento: ora basta trovare gli amichetti di Adamov in occidente e risolviamo il problema. Partiamo dal Non-Proliferation Trust.