Yuri Skuratov: "Chubais is largely responsible for the fact that the economy does not work"

He talked about how he took up such a high post, whether he considers privatization a crime and what he thinks about Chubais; commented on a story with a scandalous sex video; explained why the murder of Vlad Listyev remained unsolved; shed light on the criminal cases against Anatoly Sobchak.

On the career ladder and the position of the Prosecutor General of Russia

I have the initials SUI - Skuratov Yuri Ilyich, and I thought that the pinnacle of my career would be the fact that if I became the head of the Sverdlovsk Law Institute, this is the maximum that I was counting on.

How he became the Prosecutor General of Russia can be answered in one word: fate. So she ordered. Overall, I think a lot of factors played a role.

First of all, the failure to appoint Alexei Nikolaevich Ilyushenko. He is, as they say, the eternal I.O. remained, in this regard, the range of search was expanded. But not without a subjective factor.

We were very friendly with the now deceased, unfortunately, Gennady Semyonovich Ponomarev, the prosecutor of the city of Moscow, who had good contacts with the federal security officials, and with the director of the FSB, and with Alexander Vasilyevich Korzhakov, and when the topic arose, he prompted them. He says you need an independent person, not from a crowd, so to say, not connected with any corruption ties, and so on, and so, pay attention to Yuri Ilyich.

About privatization

When I figured out this situation, of course, I realized that privatization in Russia is not being carried out properly. Well, Anatoly Borisovich himself (Chubais - note "NI"), the chief architect of privatization, expressed the essence of the problem: we must at any cost find new owners in order to form a new class.

But the task of privatization is different - to find effective owners.

Hungary is still in the process of privatization. And we gave such a country, gave it to someone who was closer, who had some kind of criminal capital.

The privatization was unfair. I'm not even talking about the corruption component.

On whether Anatoly Chubais is considered a criminal

Legally, no. There have been several attempts to bring him to justice. But this man had both a flair and a sufficient level of professionalism, and respected his lawyers.

Therefore, he always walked, so to speak, on the edge. But legally he is not a criminal. If we take political responsibility, then he is largely responsible for the fact that the economy in Russia is still not working, that at one time our people suffered so many disasters and hardships. But legally he is not a criminal.

Accusations against Anatoly Sobchak

He was accused of accepting a bribe in the interests of one of the businesswomen, who was engaged in the restoration of old buildings and then resold them. He did a lot in her interests.

Of course, Narusova saved him in many ways. I won't say how she behaved. It would not be entirely correct to make it public. But, nevertheless, she did everything in order not to bring charges against him and not to choose a preventive measure.

About Yeltsin

I can say directly that I knew Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin not since 1991, but earlier. I lived and worked in Sverdlovsk. He was the first secretary of the regional party committee.

I want to say that in this capacity he was one of the best. That is, he did a lot of useful things, and we were, so to speak, all fascinated by him.

But, after he came to power, the situation began to develop differently. I was very impressed by his attempt to carry out a coup d'etat.

And, of course, a person who loves alcohol more than his country is, of course, the wrong leader of our state.

Why the murder of Vladislav Listyev has not yet been solved

First, the extremely unsuccessful actions of the investigative-operational group before we started working.

Second, this is, of course, the pressure exerted by the people who committed this crime on those who worked with Vlad.

Third, this is the first time we have encountered such desperate resistance to the investigation.

And fourth: this is the impotence of our technical departments, because it was very difficult to wiretap mobile phones. There is a whole complex of reasons.

About scandalous sex video

First of all, it did not happen. Secondly, I, to some extent, made a mistake that I did not clearly formulate my position when I said that it was necessary to wait for the results of the investigation.

Many took it in such a way that I seemed to admit it. But I hoped that people would understand that I was not putting pressure on the investigation.

You can watch the entire interview with Yuri Skuratov here.