The arrest of the Minister Uljukaew is the next stage of the war between Kremlin hawks and doves?

Some Russian media, as well as non-governmental organizations claim that the charges against the Minister Uljukajew were fabricated. They say that this is just another stage in the struggle for influence in the Kremlin, between a group of силовики (hawks) and liberals. The arrested politician was associated with the camp of the liberals, that wanted to reform the Russian budget and make cuts, which in the face of presidential elections, could trigger social unrest.
The current situation of the Russian economy requires intensive remedial action. The budget deficit in 2016 is estimated at 4.3%. The reason for such a large budget gap is primarily a decrease in income from oil trading, following the collapse of oil prices in 2014. Another important economical factor in this particular situation is that 70% of Russian industry value is state-owned. Economic growth close to zero, foreign reserves assets significantly declined,inefficient spending of public money, no signs of increasing the role of the free market in Russian economy.
Vladimir Putin denies economic problems. During the September G20 summit in China, the Russian president assured that the domestic economy is stabilizing and promised to reduce the budget deficit, as well as the independence of state coffers from oil and gas exports.


In fact, the circumstances of the arrest of the Minister, and the charges against him, seem to be quite strange.First of all, the amount of the bribe, that Minister is suspected to take is as for the Russian standards, ridiculously low. For the record, allegations concern the case of the privatization of the oil giant Basznieft, while bribe for Uljukaew is only $ 2,000,000. It's enough to remind Dmitry Zakharchenko's story - Russia's anti-corruption boss arrested with over $130 million.
It is also hard to believe that at corruption deal at this level, someone is using a cash. There are many safer and more convenient ways of gratification for the benignant politicians - there are shares in the companies, offshore accounts, real estates abroad and many more.


Currently former Minister is under house arrest. He faces up to 15 years in prison and a penalty of up to $ 200 million.