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Chancellor Merkel was recently asked whether she sees the Russian President Medvedev as a "flawless market economist". Instead of giving a concrete answer she referred to Medvedev's experience of working with Gazprom. In this respect both leaders have recently shown what the concept of market economy means to them.

Both recently intervened in the market substantially. They tried to influence the merciless German domestic economy by fostering the acquisition of the insolvent German shipyards Wadan by a Russian investor. This will revitalise the area and the Russian company have even been able to rename it Nordic Yards. The support of the Chancellor and her Russian colleague in investing in more than one thousand new jobs is commendable and of course, not the problem.

It is also not a problem that the Wadan shipyards are coincidentally located near to Merkel’s electoral district. This is probably just politics in the election campaign. However, rather problematic is that the new Wadan investors can hardly be described as transparent. It is quite remarkable that the media did not dig deeper and haven’t clarified who exactly stands behind Igor and Vitaly Yusufov, the men involved in the investment. According to the media, the Yusufov’s only appear as intermediaries for a pool of Russian investors.

The backers are said to be the Unified Shipbuilding Corporation (OSK) and the ship builder WSS from Wyborg. OSK is supposedly controlled by the Russian investment banker Sergey Pugatchov and WSS by the Russian bank Rossiya. Some commentators have speculated about how close the Yusufov’s are to Putin and the Kremlin referring to their positions as members of the supervisory board of Gazprom and the head of the Moscow office of the Gazprom affiliate Nord Stream respectively. The public seems to accept contentedly that “some Russians” bought the shipyards.

There are undeniable connections to Gazprom. The very thought of the Russian state gas company suggests money – even if Gazprom have nothing to do officially with Wadan. Full of hope, the commentators have pointed out Gazprom’s recent announcement that it will erect a number of offshore gas production platforms by 2020. Gas platforms imply the necessity of special ships and LNG tankers. However, experts have stated that the Russian shipbuilding industry would not be able to meet the technical demands of the planned fleet.

In that case, will Wadan actually produce the necessary ships? Ominous further orders by Norilsk Nickel and the Gazprom affiliate Gazflot were referred to in the media and ought to secure a prosperous future for Wadan. That is all fine but in fact neither Gazprom, Gazflot nor Norilsk Nickel have ordered any single ship from Wadan. Moreover, President Medvedev, being a "flawless market economist", pointed out in Sochi that the Russian state would leave the ship orders to the Russian private sector. In addition to this less state intervention in the private sector has been demanded by Western politicians repeatedly.

Thus, the Russian private sector and desired saviour of Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kuprianov stated that Gazprom did not want to extend its fleet. That is flawless market economy. As well as the further fate of Wadan. Did Chancellor Merkel expect that Medvedev was such a "flawless market economist"?

Jakob Schirmer is a research assistant at the University of Goettingen.

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