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Created: November 29, 2003
Latest Update: November 29 2003
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Transparency in Governance Issues

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, November 2003.
"Fair use" encouraged.

This essay was prompted by an article in the Los Angeles Times on Saturday, November 29, 2003: Russian Oil Giant Suspends Merger With Troubled Yukos "The eleventh-hour move by Sibneft raises eyebrows and questions. Some see the Kremlin at work, others the act of a jailed former CEO." By Kim Murphy. At p. A3.

The title alludes to the issue, that much is guessed at and little known. There is a specific reference to transparency at:

"In a country with notoriously opaque high-level political maneuverings, some analysts are even suggesting that Khodorkovsky may have sought to block the deal in the hope that easing the Kremlin's fears about Yukos' growing clout would help end his legal troubles."
Reference in article.

When we talk of the difficulties of maintaining transparency, of the dangers of letting the Other see into your soul, of the eyes in Modigliani's portraits, we are alluding to the interpersonal or microsociological aspects of transparency. Here, in oil deals that duuplicate the size of Kuwait's oil output, we've moved to a macro level. Same problem, same issues, but with immense power at stake.