Look out, Anatoly Borisovich!

From Reuters:

Putin slams power monopoly after big Moscow outage
Wed May 25, 2005 9:23 AM ET, By Christian Lowe

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Moscow was plunged into chaos on Wednesday after a big power outage that President Vladimir Putin blamed on the state-owned electricity monopoly headed by a liberal politician viewed with suspicion by the Kremlin. [...]

Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said the breakdown was caused by a fire and explosion overnight at an electricity substation. There was no evidence of a terrorist attack, he said.

But Putin, who delayed a provincial trip because of the crisis, pointed the finger at the management of Unified Energy System whose chief executive is Anatoly Chubais, one of the architects of the post-Soviet market revolution whose liberal views sit uneasily with Kremlin hard-liners.

"It is entirely possible to talk about a lack of attention on the part of RAO UES to the current activity of the company."

"They should work not only on global problems about company policy and its restructuring, but also pay attention to current activity," Putin said in televised remarks.

Chubais, one of Russia's best known figures who survived an assassination attempt in March, was quoted as saying he accepted full responsibility for the outage.

Putin was clearly suggesting that Chubais was spending too much time on his widely-publicised plans for a corporate restructuring of the electricity behemoth and was losing sight of the operational running of the firm. [...]

While he has generally refrained from open criticism of Kremlin policy, Chubais was one of the few public figures inside Russia to condemn the prosecution of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky who is on trial for fraud and tax evasion.

Chubais may soon be looking for people to condemn his own prosecution:

Russia opens criminal case against UES management
Wed May 25, 2005 10:05 AM ET

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian prosecutors on Wednesday opened a criminal case against the management of power monopoly Unified Energy System (UES) after a major power outage in Moscow, Interfax news agency reported.

The case was opened to investigate possible negligence, the agency quoted the prosecutor general's office as saying.

Under Russian law, prosecutors must formally open a criminal case to allow police fully to investigate the incident. It does not necessarily lead to prosecution.

President Vladimir Putin has already blamed UES Chief Executive Anatoly Chubais for the power cut which left much of the capital without power, saying management had neglected the company's problems to concentrate on a restructuring plan.

Chubais, a leading political liberal who is spearheading the reform of the electricity giant, is viewed with suspicion by Kremlin hard-liners.

He seems to wisely be trying to get out in front of the issue:

Chubais ready to bear responsibility for Moscow power outages
May 25 2005 4:19PM

MOSCOW. May 25 (Interfax) - Unified Energy Systems (UES) CEO Anatoly Chubais told reporters in response to President Vladimir Putin's criticism of the UES management that he was ready to bear responsibility for the trouble in power supplies in Moscow.

"UES and its chairman are responsible for energy supplies," he said. "I am not shirking responsibly," he said.

Chubais said he was aware of the presidential criticism adding, "there can be no difference of opinion on that."

"It is my key task in the next few hours to revive power supplies. Everything else will be done later," he said.