Stanislav Belkovsky

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Stanislav Alexandrovich Belkovsky (Russian: Станислав Александрович Белковский^[1]) (born 1970, Riga, USSR) is a Russian political scientist. He is a founder and director of the National Strategy Institute.

1 Biography
2 Views and allegations
3 The term "Puting"
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Biography

In 2002 he founded a non-profit organization The Council for National Strategy. In 2003 the Council published a series of reports: "State and oligarchy" (June 9), "New Vertical of Power" (September 22). The publication of the former report, which inter alia alleged the ongoing preparations by Russia's oligarchs for a coup d'état, closely foreshadowed the start of the criminal prosecution against Yukos and its top managers. The report specifically mentioned Mikhail Khodorkovsky as one of the alleged conspirators.^[2]

Since 2004 Belkovsky has been head of the National Strategy Institute, which is a think-tank of several Russian political scientists and analysts.

[edit] Views and allegations

During president Putin's second term in power, amidst the heated debate in Russia about Putin's further intentions, Belkovsky has been forecasting that the president will relinquish political power altogether, and assume a post designed simply to guarantee his personal security and wealth.^[3]

The Nov 12, 2007, Die Welt^[4] published his sensational allegations about Putin's personal wealth: Putin "controls a 4.5% stake in Gazprom, 37% in Surgutneftegaz" as well as 50% in the oil-trading company Gunvor, which is run by his close friend Gennady Timchenko.

However, some commentators questioned the true motives behind statements of Stanislav Belkovsky since he has been actively engaged in a campaign to discredit Mikhail Khodorkovsky. They even went so far as suggest that he made the disclosure about Putn's wealth to convince Putin that he must remain in power and protect his illegal personal wealth ^[5] ^[6].

[edit] The term "Puting"

Belkovsky is said to have authored the journalistic cliché "Puting" (Путинг), derived from the name of Russia's president since 2000 Vladimir Putin, to denote the process of renationalisation of Russia's oil industry assets.^[7].