MOSCOW, April 25 (RIA Novosti) – Officers of the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency operated as consultants to Anatoly Chubais, the Russian deputy prime minister who oversaw the privatization of the country’s economy in the early 1990’s, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.
“In Chubais’ entourage, it has now turned out, CIA officers worked as consultants,” Putin said at a live QA session with the Russian public.
Putin also said “intelligence officers” had been prosecuted in the United States for illegally “enriching” themselves “during the course of privatization in Russia.”
He gave no further details.
Putin also said “many mistakes” had been made during the controversial privatization of Russia’s post-Soviet economy, but praised Chubais and the other reformers for their “courage” in taking the measures they deemed necessary.