A Russian Diary Read online

  Putin's meeting with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry was much calmer, though. He sees the chamber as being in a different category from the RUIE. The president of the CCI, that wily old Soviet fox Yevgeny Primakov, read his speech and quoted Putin on five occasions, prefacing his words with “as Vladimir Vladimirovich has correctly remarked …” Primakov assured Putin that “an oligarch and a major entrepreneur are quite different things… The word ‘oligarch’ sounds pejorative. After all, what is an oligarch? Someone who gets rich through devious manipulation of, among other things, his tax bill, who may trip up his business comrades or make crude attempts to interfere in politics, corrupting officials, parties, deputies …” and so on. Primakov's entire speech was in the register of Soviet servility, and Putin clearly loved it.

  Then it was time for questions. Naturally, they asked whether there was to be a review of the results of privatization. Even if they are not the oligarchs’ trade union, the Yukos affair was on everybody's mind.

  Putin suddenly bawled like a market trader, or a prison guard, “There will be no review of privatization! The laws were complicated, muddled, but it was perfectly possible to observe them! There was nothing impossible about it, and those who wanted to, did! If five or ten people failed to observe them, that does not mean everybody failed to! Those who observed them are sleeping soundly now, even if they didn't get quite so rich! Those who broke the law should not be treated the same as those who observed it.”

  “To be sleeping soundly now” is also a Russian euphemism for being in the grave.

  After Putin's outburst, the proceedings continued smoothly. The businessmen made their reports to Putin and gave “socialist undertakings” to meet various targets, just as in the days of the USSR. Primakov carried on doing what nobody had sunk to since the advent of Gorbachev, namely licking the boots of the country's leader and vowing that no words could be more profound than his.

  (In December 2003 this grated on the ear and many were dismayed by Primakov's behavior. It subsequently became clear that he was just the first to see the way the wind was once more blowing. Soon everybody who made speeches in Putin's presence was quoting him copiously— just as was the practice in the Brezhnev era—and not asking him awkward questions.)

  Valeriya Novodvorskaya, the leader of the Democratic Union Party, received the Starovoytova Award in St. Petersburg for “her contribution to the defense of human rights and strengthening democracy in Russia.” The award is named after Galina Starovoytova, leader of the Democratic Russia Party, who was murdered by special operations hitmen from the Army's Central Intelligence Directorate (GRU) in the entrance to her own home. At the ceremony, Novodvorskaya said, “We are not in opposition to, but in confrontation with, the present regime. We shall not take part in the forthcoming elections. We shall boycott them, although this will not change anything.”

  The opposition in Russia is first and foremost words, but Novod-vorskaya uses them with exceptional accuracy and is the first to take on the state.

  The Moscow municipal court has increased the compensation awarded to one of the Nord-Ost widows, Alla Alyakina, whose husband, a businessman, died in the theater siege on October 26, 2002, by two kopecks [a fraction of a penny].

  December 24

  The first meeting of the United Democratic Council of Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces, at which the main issue is the prospects for joint political survival. An item about fielding a presidential candidate representing a united democratic front was removed from the agenda. From a conversation with Grigorii Yavlinsky:

  “Why is Yabloko refusing to participate in the presidential election?” “Because our elections are no longer even relatively democratic.” “Then why did you take part in the parliamentary elections?” “It was precisely the questionable results of the parliamentary elections which made it clear that things could not go on like that. During the last elections unsanctioned political involvement of business was crushed. No businessman now dares to contribute money to a political cause without permission from the Kremlin.” “How do you see the future for Yabloko?”

  “The same as for the rest of Russia. They will probably set up a decorative pseudodemocratic parallel party, or fight us to extinction. I don't suppose for a moment that we shall be left in peace to prepare for the next elections.”

  “A one-party Duma? But the Communist Party is still in there.”

  “Formally, yes. But if you took five people from the remaining parties,

  put them in different rooms, and asked them crucial questions like,

  ‘What should be done in Chechnya? How should the army be reformed?

  What should be done about education and health? What should our relations be with Europe and America?’ they would all give the same answers. We have a pseudo-multiparty parliament, pseudo free and fair elections, a pseudoimpartial judiciary, and pseudoindependent mass media. The whole setup is a Potemkin village, a sham.”

  “Do you see this lasting for a long time?”

  “Things are changing rapidly, and anybody who thinks any of this will last for a long time is mistaken. Although to you and me, perhaps, it will seem quite long enough.”

  I take an interest in what Yavlinsky has to say almost from force of habit. Other journalists are completely uninterested.

  In Moscow, the victorious United Russia Party holds its conference. Boris Gryzlov, the newly appointed speaker of the Duma, declares, “More than 37 percent of Russia's citizens, more than 22 million people, voted for us. We have obtained a majority in the Duma, which lays a great responsibility on us, and I do not believe in walking away from responsibility. I submitted an application to Putin and he made the arrangements for my transfer to the Duma. Permit me to express my especial gratitude to President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. It is by following his course that victory has been assured. Our candidate in the forthcoming elections is already known: the president—Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Our duty is to ensure that he wins decisively.”

  After the conference came the first meeting of the parliamentary United Russia Party. Gryzlov told us about his vision of the Duma's political role. Political debate, it seems, is mere chatter and should be excluded. For Gryzlov, a Duma without debate will be a step forward.

  The Central Electoral Commission has registered a lobby group of electors proposing Putin's candidacy. As of today they can conduct their campaign officially, as if they haven't been doing just that until now.

  December 26

  The fifteenth conference of the misleadingly named Liberal Democratic Party begins in Moscow under the slogan “Russians are tired of waiting!” Zhirinovsky will not stand for president. “We will put forward a complete unknown, but I personally will lead the party during the election of the president,” he announced. The conference nominated Oleg Malyshkin, a wrestling coach who is Zhirinovsky's bodyguard and a complete imbecile. In his first television interview as a presidential candidate he had some difficulty remembering what his favorite book was.

  Putin does not simply lack a field of competitors against whom to run. The whole background against which the election is being organized is an intellectual desert. The affair has no logic, no reason, no sparkle of genuine, serious thinking. The candidates have no manifestos, and one cannot imagine them being able to conduct a political debate.

  What can we do? Election campaigns and hustings have been devised by democratic societies partly in order to allow the population some input into the deciding of their future, to give candidates advice and instructions.

  We have been told just to pipe down. Candidate No. 1 knows best what everybody needs and accordingly requires no advice from anyone. There is nobody to moderate his arrogance. Russia has been humiliated.

  December 27

  Sterligov, the coffin maker, has been disqualified from standing by the Central Electoral Commission. Viktor Anpilov, a clown from the Workers’ Russia Party, promptly put himself forward. A horseradish is no sweeter than a radish.r />
  December 28

  At last they have found a worthy opponent for Putin: Sergey Mironov,* the speaker of the Soviet of the Federation, has been proposed by the Party of Life (another of the dwarf parties set up by the presidential administration's deputy head, Vladislav Surkov*). He immediately announced, “I support Putin.”

  The conference of the Russian Communist Party is taking place. The Communists have proposed Nikolai Kharitonov, an odd, garrulous man who used to be a KGB officer. How wonderful!

  Ivan Rybkin has announced he will stand. He is the creature of Putin's main opponent, Boris Berezovsky,* now in exile abroad. Rybkin used to be the speaker of the Duma and chairman of the National Security Council. Who is he today? Time will tell.

  Meanwhile, Moscow is at a standstill. The rich haven't a care in the world; they are abroad on vacation. Moscow is very rich. All the restaurants, even the most expensive, are crammed or closed for corporate parties. The tables are laden with delicacies beyond the imaginings of the rest of Russia. Thousands of dollars are spent in an evening. Is this the last fling of the twenty-first century's New Economic Policy?

  December 29

  The first sitting of the new Duma. Putin announced that the Parliament “must remember that power derives from the people. Our main priorities are first and foremost to concentrate on issues affecting the quality of life of our citizens… It has taken considerable time and effort to move the Duma away from political confrontation to constructive work… It is essential to break through on every front… We have every right to call this a time that is seeing the strengthening of parliamentary democracy in Russia… All debate is useless…”

  Vladislav Surkov, from the presidential administration, was also present. He is the spin doctor to whom United Russia owes its constitutional majority, a designer of political parties, slippery and dangerous.

  Vladimir Ryzhkov,* an independent candidate from the Altai Region, announced that he intends to challenge the composition of the Duma in the courts. “The electorate did not give United Russia the mandate for a constitutional majority.” Really? Well, what are you going to do about it? We're living in times when the state authorities are entirely without shame.

  Sergey Shoygu, minister for emergency situations and a leading functionary of United Russia, and by no means the stupidest of them, suddenly proposed that “United Russia should become the party providing public accountability in the fulfilling of the president's decisions.”

  Irina Khakamada may after all stand for president. All the democrats and liberals are condemning her in advance, saying the administration has offered her a deal in order to have at least one intelligent opponent for Putin to defeat. Viktor Gerashchenko, formerly the head of Tsen-trobank and now a deputy of the Rodina Party has also decided to stand.

  December 30

  Irina Khakamada has confirmed she will stand as a candidate. She thought it over for twenty-four hours after a lobby group proposed it to her. Was it sent by the Kremlin?

  She has until January 28 to collect two million signatures. Viktor Gerashchenko will not need to collect signatures, because Rodina is a party with seats in the Duma. Rodina was dreamed up by Vladislav Surkov and is financed by various oligarchs. Sergey Glaziev, also from Rodina, will stand as an independent.

  Putin needed competitors, and he has received them as a New Year's gift. The new candidates have all promptly declared that the main thing is not to win but to take part.

  December 31

  It is a sad farewell to 2003. The Duma elections were a great victory for Putin's absolutism, but how long can you go on building empires? An empire leads to repression and ultimately to stagnation, and that is where we are heading. Our people have been exhausted by having political and economic experiments conducted on them. They want very much to live better lives, but do not want to have to fight for that. They expect everything to come down to them from above, and if what comes from above is repression, they resign themselves to it. The joke most popular on the Internet: “It is evening in Russia. Dwarfs are casting enormous shadows.”

  The viewers of NTV's Free Speech program have voted for the Russian of the Year. Among the nominations were Vladislav Surkov (for bringing about the crushing victory of United Russia); academician Vitalii Ginzburg (Nobel Prize 2003, for work in quantum physics); the Novosibirsk film director Andrey Zvyagintsev (whose first film, The Return, won the Lion d'or at the Venice Film Festival); Georgii Yartsev (who coached the Russian soccer team to victory against Wales); and Mikhail Khodorkovsky (for creating the most honest and transparent company in Russia, becoming the country's richest man, and ending up in jail).

  The viewers chose Ginzburg. Surkov came last.

  At the end of the program, the presenter Savik Shuster revealed the rating of the nominees in a poll commissioned earlier from the ROMIR public opinion survey service. There too Ginzburg came first and Surkov last. This shows the divergence between the Putin administration's model of reality and what actually exists.

  The virtual world of the official television stations is quite different. Vremya, the country's main news program, also ran a popularity poll for 2003. In first place was Putin, in second Shoygu, and in third Gryzlov. So there!

  Now, as it is almost time for the Kremlin chimes to ring out at midnight, a final thought for the year. Why are so many people emigrating? In the past year, the number of our citizens applying to live in the West has increased by 56 percent. According to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Russia is ahead of every other country in the world in terms of the number of its citizens seeking to emigrate.

  January 4, 2004

  The conference of the Party of Life confirms Sergey Mironov as its presidential candidate. He repeats that he hopes Putin will win.

  Mironov is one of a number of props for the candidacy of Putin. Leaving nothing to chance is one of the main features of this campaign. Why are they so worried?

  In the Chechen village of Berkat-Yurt, Russian soldiers have abducted Khasan Chalaev, who works for the Chechen militia. His whereabouts are unknown.

  January 5

  Putin holds a cabinet meeting. “We need to explain the government's priorities to the Duma deputies,” he insists repeatedly. He is not in a good mood. The Rose Revolution* has triumphed in Georgia and [Mikhail] Saakashvili* is celebrating victory. Provisional results suggest he gained about 85 percent of the vote. This is a wake-up call to the heads of the other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States.* All those sitting around the table with Putin are well aware of this. There is a limit to how long you can trample people underfoot. When they really want change, there is nothing you can do to stop it. Is this what they are afraid of?

  January 6

  The final day for presidential candidates to lodge their documents. Kharitonov, Malyshkin, Gerashchenko, and Mironov have been proposed by parties in the Duma. There are now six independent candidates (Putin, Khakamada, Glaziev, Rybkin, Aksentiev, and Bryntsalov). Khaka-mada has problems with her right-wing political colleagues. Neither the Union of Right Forces nor Yabloko is in any hurry to support her or help with the collection of signatures. This makes her something of an outcast, which in itself might make Russians vote for her. We like pariahs, but we also like winners. People admire Putin for the way he manages to cheat everybody else. Those in the middle lose out.

  This is the night before the Russian Orthodox Christmas, when people traditionally give presents and do good deeds (although not in public). Putin flew by helicopter to Suzdal. He has an election to win, so his personal life is public property. In Suzdal he walked around the ancient churches, listened to the singing of the novices in one of the convents, and posed for the television cameras and, no doubt, the press pack at the beginning of the Christmas service. The television shot was arranged to show Putin alone with the simple village congregation of little children and local women in their headscarves. Not a bodyguard in sight. He crossed himself. Thank God, there is progress in th
e world; he crosses himself very competently nowadays.

  Another Russian tradition is that those at the top and bottom of our society might as well be living on different planets. Exhibiting Putin among ordinary people at Christmastime does not mean life will change for them. I set off to see the most underprivileged of all in a place where none of the elite set foot: Psycho-Neurological Orphanage No. 25 on the outskirts of Moscow.

  Moscow's outskirts are not like the city center, which nowadays is improbably opulent. The outskirts are quiet and hungry. Here there are no benefactors with toys and gifts, books and Pampers. Not even at Christmas.

  “Let's go to see the children,” says the wise Lidia Slevak, director of this orphanage for the very smallest children, in a tone that suggests this will answer all my questions.

  Little Danila is sticking out like a candle from the adult arms of a caregiver. He seems to be with you, in that he has almost put his arms around you, but also not with you, lonely, distant. The world has passed him by, he is on his own. He holds his thin little back very straight, like a yogi. His shock of fair curly hair is like the candle's flame. The slightest breeze wafting in through the door from the corridor makes his silken locks flicker. He is a Christmas miracle, an angel.

  The only question is: to whom does this angel belong? Nobody is allowed to adopt him because of our idiotic laws. Danila's official status is a problem to which there is no solution. His natural mother did not officially renounce her maternal rights before running away. The militia are supposed to track her down, but they have more important things to worry about. This means that he cannot be adopted, even though he is such a little wonder. The sooner he is adopted, the better his chances in life will be, the sooner he will recover and will forget all that has happened to him. But the state too has more important things to worry about.