Eagle-eyed residents of Moscow have been bemused, over the last eight months, to note the sudden appearance of large, prominently placed billboards advertising an economic analyst named Andrei Bunich, and his website Bunich.ru.

Twenty-foot high Bunich billboards can be seen on Pushkinskaya, on Leninsky Prospekt, next to GUM and opposite Lubyanka. At one point, they covered the entire façade of Detski Mir. All they show are Bunich’s smiling face, his web site address, and the mysterious words ‘Privatization and Nationalization’.

No economic or political commentator has ever staged such a large publicity campaign in Moscow. It looks more like a campaign for president than for a lowly economic pundit.

At the same time, Mr Bunich has suddenly flooded the internet. In addition to his Russian language site at http://www.bunich.ru/, he has English language sites at http://www.bunich.com/ and http://www.bunich.org/, all of which were launched in the last six months. He is also publishing a book in October, in English and Russian, called ‘The Fall of the Oligarchs’.

Who is this Bunich, I wondered, who has suddenly mushroomed onto the political scene in Moscow? And why are he or his backers spending so much money promoting an economics website?

I tracked Bunich down to his handsome offices on Varvarka Ulitsa, near the hotel Rossiya, a few days later. A large remont was under way. “We’re installing a TV studio, for web-casts”, explained Bunich.

Mr Bunich’s personal office looks remarkably governmental – leather sofas, gold-leaf desk, large Russian flag and portrait of the President. Bunich explains: “It used to be the office of the deputy minister of trade in the USSR. I’ve kept it the way it was, because I like the décor”, says Bunich.

I ask him where exactly he stood on the issue of ‘privatization and nationalization’. He says: “Putin has no chance to improve the situation in Russia without the deconstruction of the oligarchic system.” Bunich wants to declare illegal the loans-for-shares auctions of 1995. He says: “The auctions went against the first article of the law on privatizations which my father wrote, which states any privatizations need Duma approval.”

It emerged his father was Pavel Bunich, a well-known economist of the Perestroika years and close associate of Andrei Sakharov. Pavel Bunich wrote Russia’s first law on privatization, and headed the Duma council on privatization under president Boris Yeltsin.

Andrei Bunich worked as an advisor to his father, who has since passed away, but he says their political views differ. “My father was of a more romantic generation, while I realized the reality beneath the labels of 'free market' and 'democracy'. The reality is a corrupt oligarchic bureaucracy without social responsibility.”

While the elder Bunich was an advocate of free market liberalism, the younger Bunich says he supports the activities of the Siloviki clan of deputy head of the presidential administration Igor Sechin and Vladimir Ustinov of the General-Prosecutor’s office, who worked together to take control of Yukos.

He says: “At the moment, bureaucrats like Sechin do very good things, but in a bad manner. They don't explain their actions and motives, perhaps because they are former KGB, and aren't used to handling publicity. So people are very suspicious.”

Bunich junior says he sees his role as to explain and justify the actions of the Siloviki. He says: “The state can be a more socially responsible owner who makes bigger investments. You need to explain that to people, to connect with them.”

Bunich acknowledges that, with the nationalization of Yukos and the sale of Sibneft to Gazprom, most of the loans-for-shares companies are already in state hands. The exception is Norilsk Nickel, and Bunich says the General Prosecutor office should investigate Potanin next.

Following comments made by Bunich at a press conference in March, Potanin has instigated a $100,000 libel case against Bunich, who says: “Those were private remarks made to a journalist after the press conference. I didn't sign anything.”

Bunich says he funds his activities by contributions from companies connected to his NGO, the Union of Entrepreneurs and Leaseholders, which was set up by his father 15 years ago. He says: “Many people have a commercial interest in the deconstruction of the oligarchic structure, including smaller businesses.” He will not specify which companies.

He denies he receives funding from any Siloviki government bodies, though he says the General Prosecutor’s office “welcomes our activities and is very interested in them”. The deputy General Prosecutor, Vladimir Kolesnikov, was scheduled as the key-note speaker at a recent conference organized by Bunich. He didn’t show up, but a speech by him was distributed at the conference.

Bunich admits he has political ambitions himself. “But I don't like the present political groups. The situation will change, and new groups will appear in a year or two.” Some people believe Kolesnikov may be the preferred presidential candidate for the Sechin-Ustinov clan, and Bunich may be a small component of their campaign preparations.

Some Russian experts say Bunich will go far. Alexander Neklessa, deputy director of the Economics Strategies Institute in Moscow, says: “Russia is pregnant with a new political elite at the moment, and Bunich will be a prominent member of that new elite.” Neklessa says Bunich’s interests “co-incide with those of the Siloviki” but said “time will reveal” whether Bunich actually has the financial backing of the Siloviki.

Other economists, however, were more dubious. Evgeny Gavrilenkov, chief economist at Troika Dialog, says: “His father was very well-known, but Bunich the younger is not considered a major economist.” Several analysts confessed to never having heard of him.

His website has some bizarre features. The English language version publishes articles which mention Western economic experts such as Robert Rubin or Stephen Roach. But the material is lifted from the internet without being read, and includes articles on an American musician called Robert ‘magic fingers’ Rubin and a Mississippi real estate broker called Stephen Roach.

The site also uses some strange features to attract traffic. For example, if you misspell mail.ru and write maill.ru, you go to Bunich’s site. “That’s probably a trick of my PR people”, says Bunich. “They’re smart guys.”

What conclusions can we draw from the strange case of Mr Bunich? He clearly has enjoyed a sudden cash injection over the last eight months from unspecified supporters. While he won’t say who is supporting him, the group who stand to benefit, if his recommendations are put into action, are clearly the Sechin-Ustinov clan. If they are the ones supporting him, it shows they are thinking ahead to the 2008 elections, and trying to work out how they can ‘reach out’ to the general population and the West to explain their property grabs. Bunich, in this model, is the human face of the Siloviki.

He’s also a good example of the mushroom theory of Russian politics – how new figures can suddenly appear on the political scene, because they are seen as useful for a particular interest group. All they need is a bit of credibility and a lot of financial and PR support, and you have an instant star. The classic example of this, of course, is Mr Putin.

To be fair to the president, his professionalism as president has surprised and confounded those who thought he was a nobody manipulated by powerful interest groups. Bunich, on the other hand, still has some credibility to gain.

Julian Evans is a British freelance journalist based in Moscow. The article is written specially for "Eurasian Home".

October 19, 2005