Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007
From: Sergei Roy <SergeiRoy@yandex.ru>
Subject: "Another Russia" vs. Russia
In the wake of the weekend's rallies of the "dissenters" (nesoglasnye, more literally translated as "disagreeables") and the roughing up they received at the hands of the police, quite a few media in the West have done their best to portray them as intrepid fighters against Putin's authoritarian regime, for democracy and freedom.
Contrariwise, in Russia, the ordinary people's view of these "disagreeables" was succinctly expressed by a neighbor of mine: 'Urody!' (loosely translated as "freaks"; I am omitting the accompanying epithets). Speaking as one of the masses, that view is typical of Russians' gut feeling about these clowns.
This sharp divergence of opinion, putting it politely, is due to a very simple fact: we, the people of Russia, know these freaky "disagreeables"; we have known them for more years than we care to remember; we have seen them in action, and we do not like what we have seen and suffered from. They've done Russia nothing good and a lot of harm, and we are certain that that is exactly why they enjoy such keen support of Russia-haters in the West. Our dislike for the West the USA above all is growing proportionately.
Politics in Russia are highly personalized. Always have been, from the Czars down to our times. So who are these people charitably known as "freaks"? Who are the personalities expected to stage an orange revolution in Russia? Who wants to supplant Putin against the expressed wishes of the 70-plus percent of Russia's population, to please what is known here as the Washington obkom (regional Party committee)? Who are these heroes of the Western media?
Perhaps the highest-ranking among them is ex-premier Mikhail Kasyanov, the disagreeables' candidate for presidency come 2008. Now, let's forget for the moment his soubriquet, Misha Two Percent, a tribute to his itchy fingers while in office. Let's forget the scandal over the estates near Moscow, a couple of state-owned dachas he "privatized" for peanuts before being kicked out of office (though how can we forget it it's the first things that come into anyone's mind as they see his sleek mug on TV, and anyone who forgets these facts need only open Kasyanov's file at kompromat.ru).
There is the simple question: What is he going to do when/if an impossible if he comes to power? Isn't it reasonable to assume that he would do the same things that he was up to three years ago, when in office?
We know what he was doing and going to do. Apart from his old-time shady dealings with Mabetex Co. and similar shenanigans, he signed production-sharing agreements with foreign companies, like those for the Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 projects which brought Russia nothing but irreparable damage to the environment and zero dollars in profits.
And the main thing, he was aiding and abetting Khodorkovsky's plans for involving foreign (primarily US) capital in the Russian oil industry to the point when the Russian state would lose all control over the industry, and Khodorkovsky and US-dominated multinationals would own Russia lock, stock and barrel, complete with a venal Duma and government to match.
It is therefore no surprise to learn that the functionaries of Kasyanov's Narodno-demokratichesky Soyuz (People's Democratic Union) are trained by officers of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, sent here from the United States by Mr. K. Scott Hubli, Director of Governance Programs. These people achieved considerable successes in Georgia and Ukraine, and are hopeful of doing the same in Russia. It is their luck that few people know of these background facts about Mr. Kasyanov, simply because the folks are not much interested in a back number like him.
Similarly, not too many people know that there is a considerable Chechen element in Kasyanov's slim entourage, although there have already been complaints from students of the Russian University of People's Friendship about the thuggish behavior of his Chechen security and the mob that accompanies him, only too prone to throw rocks and take pot shots at anyone they don't like.
To anyone with political ambitions in Russia, these associations are suicidal; that's mere commonsense. So why does Kasyanov, an acknowledged crook but not a complete imbecile, allow himself to be tarred with this kind of brush?
Not much mystery here. As long as Kasyanov is in the public eye, as long as he remains a public figure, any action against him will be written off as politically motivated, and he is assured of vociferous support from his hero-worshippers at the Washington Post and the local freaks. Take away the stink that may rise in case of his arrest and what do you have? Just another "hero" of the 1990s, with a file of misdeeds as thick as a telephone directory, up to his neck in fraudulent operations, kickbacks, etc. So catching at straws about describes Kasyanov's behavior, even if it is fraught with such unpleasantness as a random sock on the jaw most everyone has seen that on a vivid video.
Another "disagreeable" with a brief spell in government is Irina Khakamada, in 1997 head of the state committee for the support of small business. That term in office is mostly remembered by nasty-minded journalists as being of great help to the not-too-small business of her then husband and her surrealist advice to miners on a hunger strike to take up some other trade like gathering berries and mushrooms.
Khakamada's main talent, like Kasayanov's, lies in converting whatever political capital she has into more tangible assets. As candidate for RF presidency in 2004, she is said to have received $10 million (some say it was more like $30 million) from Leonid Nevzlin, former YUKOS CEO, Khodorkovsky's right-hand man, now a fugitive from Russian justice hiding in Israel. Subsequent inquiry by interested individuals to find out what part of that sum went into campaign efforts and what portion went to buy by an odd coincidence, precisely at the time of the campaign a couple of luxury apartments off Tverskaya Street, Moscow's main thoroughfare, for the hapless candidate, failed to shed any light on the matter.
Another trait that Khakamada shares with Kasyanov is her touching, undisguised consideration for the wishes of the abovementioned Washington obkom. I remember noting in the Moscow News back in 2004 that, before starting her election campaign, she paid a mandatory visit to Washington and apparently got the seal of State Department approval. This was enough for the leadership of the Union of Right Forces, of which Khakamada was a co-chair, to bid her goodbye. It seems that party is still careful about certain proprieties a Russian politician should keep up at least a pretense of caring more for the electorate than for outside sponsorship.
But the main hero of the march of the "disagreeables" last Saturday was neither Kasyanov nor Khakamada but Garry Kasparov who, if we are to believe the Washington Post, is "the moral force behind an umbrella group of opposition groups known as the Other Russia, which organized the rallies." With this "moral force" bit we are stepping right into the theater of the absurd, and one can only feel sorry for the Washington Post writer who, clearly unaware of Garry's antecedents and reputation, is making a laughingstock of himself.
Look, I belong to the loose circle of people known as "democrats of the first wave." Not much to boast about, seeing what all our dreams and hopes and projects eventually led to the robber capitalism of the 1990s. But anyway, we have long memories and are not too shy about sharing them.
Apart from being a chess prodigy, Kasparov was always a bit of a comical figure, with funny stories going round the Moscow intellectual circles of his being securely tied to his mother's apron strings; about Geydar Aliev, former head of Azerbaijan's KGB and later Politburo member, lavishing on the mother-son duo every Soviet luxury for the glory of Azerbaijan; the changing of his name from Vaynshteyn (his father's honest Jewish name) to that of his Armenian mother, Kasparyan, Russified to Kasparov.
Then there was a touch of sympathy for the poor fugitive from Armenian pogroms in Baku I guess it was about 1989, when Kasparov told the Ogonyok magazine, or it could have been the Moscow News, the moving story of how they had run for their lives across the tarmac for the plane that would take them to Moscow. Nowadays, whenever Kasparov opens his mouth to talk of "fascism" in Russia, I keep wondering why he doesn't go back to Azerbaijan to fight for freedom and democracy there. Most probably he knows that he would not get off with a twenty-pound fine if he dared violate public order in that no nonsense monarchy. A repeat of the nocturnal spurt across the tarmac is just not likely.
Back then, all our sympathy for the fugitive evaporated as Kasparov, a "child of perestroika," as he called himself, joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1991. At a time when all honest people had already burned their Party cards, many of them publicly, that was decidedly a faux pas.
Sensing that, Kasparov soon reneged and joined our bunch, the democrats, enlisting in the Democratic Choice of Russia. I recall his maiden speech at one of our mammoth rallies he just made a few stuttering sounds, fell abjectly silent, and had to be given fatherly encouragement by the chairman (economist Gavriil Popov, if I remember right) to be able to go on.
There was no future for a political nonentity like Kasparov among the heavyweights of Demvybor (Democratic Choice), so he scurried over to the nationalist Congress of Russian Communities, to Lebed and Rogozin, whereupon I, frankly, lost sight of him. There was some vague rumor about his going into business, where he quickly went bankrupt, barely avoiding prosecution.
In about 2004 Kasparov found at last his real calling as a mountebank on the fringes of Russian, or rather anti-Russian, politics. Like Khakamada, he is a pawn in the hands of Leonid Nevzlin, but his main loyalties are to his US backers. Unlike Khakamada, he is more openly an emissary of the US neocons in Russia, being a proud member of a fine US organization called Center for Security. That Center's agencies include the National Security Advisory Council (NSAC), where Kasparov is listed between Phyllis Kaminsky, former Press Officer for the White House National Security Council, and Alan Keyes, former Ambassador to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, as Garry Kasparov, World Chess Champion and President of Kasparov Consultancy.
Here is what that Center writes of itself: "The Center was founded in 1988 and has worked to great effect since then in the establishment of successful national security policies through the use of all elements of national power diplomatic, informational, military, and economic strength. The philosophy of "Peace through Strength" is not a slogan for military might but a belief that America's national power must be preserved and properly used for it holds a unique global role in maintaining peace and stability" (see this at http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/Home.aspx?SID=75).
All I can say is that it's a shame that the Russian electorate knows too little of Kasparov's pledge to spread US Peace through Strength all across Russia. On the other hand, though, Russian voters know enough of Kasparov and his kind to offer them a long series of zeros by way of electoral success.
It is simply beyond belief that the bunch ruling the US does not realize that. Support for these fringe-politics Lilliputians especially support for Limonov's extreme nationalist, Stalinist, legally banned NBP can only be regarded as blatant interference in Russia's internal affairs. And this is absolutely guaranteed to drive Putin's popularity ratings right through the roof.
I just keep wondering could it be that the White House, the State Department and the more prominent US media are chock full of Putin's secret sympathizers?