[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 124 (Thursday, September 26, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H6770-H6771]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        WELCOMING MEMBERS OF RUSSIAN DUMA AND FEDERATION COUNCIL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to pay 
tribute to what has been a very exciting week.
  Members of this body and the other body played host to four separate 
groups of our colleagues from the Russian Duma and Federation Council. 
These groups were involved in intense discussions involving cooperation 
on antiterrorism, on projects involving health care, energy, programs 
to improve the conditions of the people of Russia and the relationship 
between the U.S.
  In fact, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton) chaired one 
delegation, and we had Members of other groups in the Congress chair 
other delegations. The gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) was 
hosting a group that was focusing on veterans benefits and ways to 
construct housing support for the military in Russia. It has been a 
good week.
  Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday a group of our colleagues, 12 to be exact, 
from both sides of the aisle played host to one of the rising young 
companies in Russia, an energy company known as ATERA and their CEO 
Igor Makarov. The members of the bipartisan delegation that traveled to 
Russia last May were hosted by ATERA as they had been hosted in 
previous delegations by the officials from GASTFIRM, LUKoil and other 
major energy companies, including Yukost and our friend Mikhail 
Korofko.

[[Page H6771]]

  In response to the hospitality shown to us in Moscow, we agreed to 
host a dinner here in Washington for Makarov and the ATERA Corporation, 
and so on Tuesday evening in the Library of Congress almost 30 Members 
of this body from both parties and members of the other body assembled, 
along with diplomats from eight nations and approximately 18 members of 
the Russian Duma and Federation Council. In addition, we were joined by 
officials from various Federal agencies.
  It was a very productive dinner, as we heard the progress of this 
young energy company, 10 years old, that now has an annual revenue 
approximating $5 billion.
  There were also some serious discussions because, as with other 
merging companies in Russia, there have been allegations and 
accusations, as there have been with other energy companies and other 
banks and institutions in Russia, that the companies are perhaps not 
transparent enough, perhaps they have items that we have to confront 
and ask them about.
  In this case, what was absolutely refreshing was that the chairman of 
the board of the ATERA, Igor Marakov, a young 34-year-old champion 
bicyclist from Russia, openly in front of our entire assembled group 
offered to provide to us the complete list of all of the owners of this 
privately held corporation. That in itself was significant because they 
are a private corporation. They gave us the list at my request of not 
just the owners of the company but also the members and employees of 
their Esau who, in fact, were revealed to us so that we now know the 
true ownership of this corporation as they move to be accepted on the 
New York Stock Exchange.
  Secondarily, because of concerns that we raised with them and 
concerns that we have had with other companies that are emerging in 
Russia, they announced that they have agreed to form an outside 
independent board that would monitor and review the board activities of 
ATERA, and they have announced that they are accepting, and I have 
provided to them suggestions for prominent Americans that can reflect 
upon the kind of work that this company is engaged in, and in fact, 
they had meetings this week with former CIA Director Jim Woolsey, 
former Energy Secretary and former CNO of the Navy Jim Watkins and, in 
fact, took their constructive suggestions and have agreed to put into 
place an aggressive effort to open up the inside operations of the 
company, the kinds of activities they are involved in, the extent of 
their operations and to have a formal process for these kinds of 
officials that will, in fact, come from America and perhaps other 
companies to bring true transparency to their company.
  For these things I applaud ATERA. I am not saying that we have 
answered all the questions, but I am saying that we have made a good 
start, and this company deserves to be given credit for coming to 
Washington and telling the elected officials of this body that it wants 
to be open, it wants to engage with American energy corporations. It 
wants to have the bipartisan look of not just Members of Congress and 
our agencies but also of those individuals in America that can help 
them chart a new course, a course of integrity, honesty and openness as 
they grow into a company that hopefully will become a true 
multinational organization.
  I thank my colleagues for joining with me in hosting that event, in 
particular the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Brown) and the gentleman 
from Florida (Mr. Shaw) from Jacksonville, who hosts the corporate 
headquarters of this company, and I applaud those other Russian 
companies that are looking to make the same strides in moving toward 
open ownership and openness and moving toward the kind of transparency 
that American companies must provide to get the investment from the 
people of this country and people from around the world who have 
confidence in the American free enterprise system.

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