The majority of Russians believe major privatisations carried out in the 1990s were questionable, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in remarks published on Friday. Putin did not say if he shared that view. He was responding to a question about Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed founder of crippled oil company YUKOS, which was built out of privatised state assets.
"I must say that many decisions taken in the early and mid-1990s during the privatisation process are viewed as questionable, to put it mildly, by the overwhelming majority of Russian society," Putin said.
Following the legal onslaught on YUKOS and its owners, investors are watching the Kremlin carefully for signs that other firms could be targeted.
Putin's remarks were posted on official website www.kremlin.ru. They were made in an interview to Israeli television in advance of his visit to the Middle East next week.
Khodorkovsky is being tried on charges of fraud and tax evasion for which prosecutors are seeking a ten year jail term. The judge is to give her verdict on April 27.
In parallel, YUKOS has been stripped of its main production unit and left close to bankruptcy after it was hit with a $27.5 billion tax bill.
The trial and tax bill are widely seen as a Kremlin campaign to punish Khodorkovsky for dabbling in politics and to regain state control over strategic parts of the economy.
The privatisations of the 1990s handed over prize assets at knockdown prices to a narrow circle of businessmen with connections to then President Boris Yeltsin and his entourage.
They became almost instant billionaires while ordinary Russians saw their savings disappear and incomes plummet as market reforms bit.
Opinion polls show many Russians support a review of the privatisations. Putin has built an effective public image as a champion of the ordinary people.
"I am sure that simple citizens in any country ... are going to ask themselves: 'How, in a normal economy, by obeying the law, can you acquire personal wealth of $6 billion or $7 billion in the space of five or six years'," Putin said in the interview.
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