ABSTRACT
Ministry accounts and the movement of money from one part of the government to another provided Menatep with liquid capital which it could use to provide credits for lucrative imports and exports. The object of privatisation was to create a new generation of enterprise managers whose main objective would be profit maximisation. Privatisation led to many of the top officials in the holding companies becoming heads of joint-stock companies. Oneksimbank managed money for the ministries of finance and foreign trade. Russians consider there to be four natural monopolies: gas, telephones, railways and oil pipelines. The loans for shares episode is an important turning point in Russian politics. It marked a return to the policy of 1991 when Boris Yeltsin offered economic benefits for political favours. In August 1999, a deputy Russian Prime Minister complained that Gazprom was selling gas cheaply to middlemen who then sold it on at enormous profit.
