Putin's Torture Colonies Ihe protest began after OMON [riot po a dog lunging from the leash." 'T\lice] had been brought to correctional The prison gantlet is just the welcome mat. X (colony No. 5 (Amur Oblast, Skovorod- At IK-1, a prisoner with a broken leg named ino Rayon, village Takhtamygda) and started Zurab Baroyan made the mistake of testifying massive beatings of the prisoners. People in to conditions at the colony to qstaffrepresenta camouflage and masks were beating with ba tive of the Human Rights Ombudsman of the tons inmates taken outside undressed in the Russian Federation. "After this," Mr.Baroyan re freezing cold— As a protest, 39 prisoners im ported, the commandant of the colony "threat mediately cut their veins open. enedto rotme in the dungeon. They did not com "Next day, on 17January, the 'special opera plete treating me in the hospital. The leg festers tion' was repeated in an even more humiliating [and] pus runs from the bandage... The fester and massive form. At that time, about 700 in ing has crossed over to the second leg." mates cut their veins open " Not surprisingly, suicide attempts at these ^ The description here comes coloniesare common. One convict, namedMish- is GLOBAL from a report received by the chikin,sought to commit suicide by swallowing VIEW -based Foundation for "a wire and nails tied together crosswise." As By Bret Defense of Rights of Prisoners. punishment, he was denied medical assistance § Stephens The time reference is to for 12 days. Another convict, named Fargiyev, 2008—that is, last month. This was held in handcuffs for 52 days after stabbing is not Alexander Solzhenitsyn's himself; he never fully recovered motor func . It's 's. And correctional tion in his hands. colony No, 5, located not far from the Manchu- Even the smallest of prisoner infractions rian border, does not even make the list of the can be metwithsavage reprisals. In onecase, au worst penal colonies in the country. thorities noticed the smell of cigarette smoke That distinction belongs to the newly re in a so-called "penalty isolator" cell where vived institution of Pytochnye kohnii, or tor seven convicts were being held. "A fire engine ture colonies. After all.but disappearing in the was called in— The entire cell, including the 1990s under the liberal regime of , convicts and their personal things, was flooded there are now about 50 pytochnye kolonii with cold water." The convicts were left in wet among the roughly 700 colonies that house the •clothes in 50 degree Fahrenheit temperatures bulk of Russia's convict population, according for a week. to FDRP cofounder Lev Ponomarev. And while As a legal matter, the torture colonies don't they cannot be compared to the Soviet Gulag in evenexist, and Mr. Ponomarevdoubts therehas terms of scope or the percentage of prisoners everbeenanexplicit directive from Mr. Putinor who are innocent of any real crime, they are fast dering the kind of treatment they mete. Rather, approaching it in terms of sheer cruelty. for the most part the standards of punishment The cruelty to prisoners often begins prior are determined at the whim of colony comman to their actual sentencing. "When people are dants, oftenin areas where the traditions ofthe transported from prisons to courts to attend Gulag never went away. their hearings, they are jammed in a tiny room That doesn't excuse the o wheretheycan barelystand. There's no toilet; if Kremlin, however. Under they have to relieve themselves, it has to be Yeltsin, the prison system 3 right there," says Mr. Ponomarev. "Then they had operated under a sun 2 are put on trucks. It's extremely cold in winter, shine policy, as part of a extremely hot in summer, no ventilation, no largereffort to distance Rus o heating. These are basically metal containers. sia from its Soviet past. "But They have to be there for hours. Healthy people when Putin came to power, a are held together with people with tuberculo new tone was set," Mr. Pono sis, creatinga breedinggroundfor the disease." marev says. "The sadists Once sentenced, prisoners are transported who had previously been in packed train wagons to distant correctional Lev Ponomarev •behaving' simply stopped colonies that, under Russian law, range from rel behaving." atively lax "general regime" colonies to Now reportsof torturearesystematicallyig "strict," "special," and (most terrifying of all) nored or suppressed while regional govern "medical" colonies. Arrival in the camps is par ments refuse to act on evidence ofabuse. Com ticularlyharrowing. According to prisonertesti mandants at "general regime" colonies can al w monies collected by Mr. Ponomarev, in the win ways threatenmisbehaving convicts with trans ter of 2005 convicts from one torture colony in fer to a torture colony—auseful way of keeping Karelia, near the Finnish border, were shipped them in line. The Kremlin,.too, benefits from Ch to the IK-1 torture colony near the village of the implied threat. "The correct word for this is Q Yagul, in the Udmurt Republic, about 500 miles Gulag, even if it's on a smallerscale," warns Mr. east of Moscow. Ponomarev. "This is the reappearance oftotali "The receipt ofconvicts 'through the corri tarianism in the state. Unless we eradicate it, it dor' takes place in the following manner," Mr. will spread throughout the entire country." Ponomarev reports. "From the [truck] in Readers interested in a closerlookatwhat is which a newly arrived stage [of prisoners] is described above may do a YouTube search for brought... employees of the colony line up, "Yekaterinaburg Prison Camp." The short equipped with special means—rubber trun video, apparently filmed by a prison guard and cheons and dog handlers with work dogs delivered anonymously to Mr. Ponomarev's or During the time of the run, each employee ganization, is a modern-day version of "One hits the prisoner running by with a trun Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich." It isn't easy cheon. . . . The convicts run with luggage, to watch. But it is an invaluable window on which significantly complicates the run. At what Russia has becomein theAge ofPutin, Per those [places] where employees with dogs son of the Year. are found, the run of the convict is slowed by Write to [email protected]. • THE TIMES INTERNATIONAL TUESDAY AUGUST 28,2007 Russia Arrests10 in Killing Of Writer andPutin Critic l^' r MurkyStatement Hints atan OfficialRole

ByC. J. CHIVERS cions Ihat it had been involved, MOSCOW, Aug. 27 — Russia's and ultimately to destabilize the prosecutoi" general said Monday Russian stale. That now-official '•"m ^ llmt 10 people had been arrested theory is markedly different from in the contract kilting of Anna one broadly accepted by her I#' Politkovskaya, the prominent peers, who have said she was journalist and Kremlin critic. killed in retaliation for her work Those arrested included a Che or to prevent additional articles chen crime boss and career offi from being published, cers from Russia's police and in Among those arrested, the telligence services, he said. prosecutor said, were a police The announcement, at once major and three former police of tantalizing and murky, pointed to ficers, who were working with a a possible official role in a crime criminal gang led by a Chechen. ihat drew international condem- Also arrested, he said, was a for /J nation. But it raised more ques mer officer in the F.S.B., the prin tions than it answered and was cipal successor to the K.G.B. denounced by Ms. Politkov- Mr. Chaika added that the kill skaya's former editor as a white ing had been ordered from wash intended to deflect blame abroad, although he refused to MIK(fAlL K1 IMI S':M V j'Hf SlCt SI I\t Pkf k\ i' ( from those who had ordered the identify the man suspected of be President Vladimir V. Putin greeted Nikolai P. Patrushev, the security director, yesterday. Yuri Y. journalist's death. ing the mastermind or disclose Chaika, center, the top prosecutor, separately announced arrests in s killing. The controversy arose because his whereabouts, and provided llie prosecutor, Yuri Y. Chaika, no evidence to support the claim. suggested that the motive for kill The prosecutor would not release foreign involvement. "We did not Gazeta, often at odds with the au the surveillance of Ms, Politkov ing had not been to silence Ms. the names of any of the suspects. get any information of that kind," thorities, said this year that they skaya and then to kill her. He said Pulilkovskaya, whose effoi'ts to His description of the motive he said. were cooperating closely with the gi'oup responsible for the kill uncover corruption and brutality aligned neatly with Mr. Putin's Ms. Politkovskaya. 48,had spe prosecutors while conducting ing had committed "several con under President Vladimir V. first public statements about the cialized in human rights issues their own parallel investigation, tract murders not only in Russia Putin had brought her interna killing last year and with a pat and in uncovering crimes related Ms. Poliikov.skaya's former but also on the territory of tional acclaim but scorn from offi tern of government contentions to the war in , a theme colleagues also had said that in Ukraine and Latvia," cials here. that foreigners were trying to un that few Russian journalists still the interest of not interfering He added that some of Ms. Rather, the prosecutor said, the dermine Russia and the Kremlin, pursue. with the work of the law en Politkovskaya's killers had been forcement agencies, they would killing was intended to discredit and (0 tarnish their reputations. She was also an author, and involved in the contract killing of the Kremlin, by raising suspi- had cxcoriated Mr. Putin for refrain from publishing their Paul Klebnikov, the editor of the It was swiftly criticized as an findings until prosecutors had an act of political convenience by what she described as his admin Russian edition of Forbes maga istration's cruelty, arrogance and nounced the official results. They Dmitri A. Muratov, editor in chief zine, in July 2004, and perhaps manifest corruption. had expressed hope for an honest of Novaya Gazeta, the independ the killing of Andrei A, Kozlov, a The targets of her scathing cri conclusion but also concern that top Russian bank regulator, last ent newspaper where Ms. Polit tiques were many and their back kovskaya worked. September, That claim seemed grounds varied- They ranged Mr. Muratov said that he not to square with past official from Mr. Putin himself and Ram- thought the 10 suspects were in statements about those cases, zan A. Kadyrov, the warlord- A prosecutor says a each of which had already led to volved in the killing, but that Mr. turned-Chechen president who Chaika's description of their mo homicide was meant separate arrests. Mr. Ciiaika did has liecome the Kremlin's princi not elaborate. tive had been tailored to the pal proxy in the war-weary re to injure the Kremlin. Russia's criminal code allows Kremlin's orders. He labeled the public, to low-ranking officers official version "a nightmare." suspects to be held for extended she accused of corruption, killing, periods before being charged. "Political interfei'ence is hin torture and more. Mr. Chaika said the arrests had dering the investigation," he said She was shot repeatedly with a Kremlin orders would undermine been approved by a court and by telephone. "The prosecutor pistol as she entered her apart the official investigation. that the suspects would be general is acting not like a pros ment building in Moscow on Oct. Mr. Muratov said Novaya charged and brought to trial after ecutor general, but a politician 7, 2006. The killer left a pistol on Gazeta had extensive evidence the investigation. who works at the instructions of the floor beside her — a common that "all of the resources of the Mr. Muratov said the arrested the president." practice of hired killers in Russia. special services had been used in F.S.B. officer was Lt. Col. Pavel A, He added that he had cooperat The killing, which occurred on committing this crime." He add Ryaguzov, who he said worked in ed with the government's investi Mr. Putin's birthday, sullied Rus ed that the newspaper would an internal affairs unit in Moscow gators on the case and had sia's reputation and drew inter publish its own results, in all like that specialized in investigating helped uncover evidence, but national calls for an honest and rnKRtNnH. U KOI'fAN lihood before the anniversary of crimes by F.S.B. officers. The that he had never found evidence Ms. Politkovskaya, a journalist thorough investigation. the killing. F.S.B. later confirmed on national supporting Mr. Chaika's claim of For months the investigation Mr. Chaika, speaking at a news and author, accused the Putin television that Mr. Ryaguzov had had been conducted quietly, and conference, said the investigators worked for the service in the cen administration of cruelty, ar Micliat'l Schivirtz contributed re there were hints that it was mak had arrested 10 men who had tral administrative district in rogance and corruption. porting. ing progress, Editoi-.s at Novaya worked in two groups to organize Moscow. INTERNATIONAL TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2004

Griefin Russia Mixes With Harsh Words for Government

BySETHMYDANS MOSCOW, Sept. 6 — As Russia be gan two days of national mourning for the victims of a school siege in North Ossetia, criticism mounted over the government's handling of the wave of terrorism that has taken more than 500 lives in the past two weeks. Television news programs showed processions of coffins in muddy fields where more than 150 people were buried Monday after the three- day siege at the school last week that left at least 338 people dead, about half of them children. Mourners left candles at makeshift shrines but also bottles of water, which the hostage- takers had denied their captives. A frightened, unshaven man, iden tified on state television as a cap tured hostage-taker, said the attack on the school in the town of Beslan in the southern Russian republic of North Ossetia had been intended to set off a war in the Caucasus region. Taking an unusually harsh tone, newspapers and independent com mentators said the government of President Vladimir V. Putin had failed to protect Us citizens from an escalating campaign of terrorism or to be honest about that campaign's roots in the decade-long war in the breakaway republic of Chechnya. Sergei Dolzhenko'Europcnn Presspholo Agency Just six months after riding a huge A girlat a funeral yesterday in Beslan held portraits ofclassmates killed in the school siege. More than 150 wave of popularity into a second victimswere buried yesterday, and people in St. Petersburg and other Russian cities gathered to mourn. term, Mr. Putin found himself facing the most direct criticism of his ten truth," said Sergei Brilyov, a com "By God, I did not shoot!" he vision station AI Arabiya said its ure. mumbled when asked if he had fired Moscow bureau chief was arrested "The president's contract with the mentator on the Rossiya station. Monday as he prepared to fly back to people is not being fulfilled," wrote Last Wednesday, on the first day on fleeing hostages. "By God, 1 have Moscow after covering the hostage Vladimir Ryzhkov, an outspoken in- of the school siege, authorities said not killed!" Asked by the soldiers if he had not crisis, Agence France-Presse report ,-dependent lawmaker, in the newspa there were 120 to 150 hostages. On had pity on the children he had held ed. The station gave no reason for the per Nezavisimaya Gazeta. Thursday, even as released hostages "The point to consider here is that were saying there were more than for 51 hours without food or water, he arrest of Amr Abdul Hamid, an pleaded: "Yes, I did have pity! I . President Putin has been given a 1,000 people inside the school, offi Egyptian-bom Russian citizen. have children, too." vast amount of power — personal cials maintained that there were no In Brussels on Monday, NATO's Speaking in a slurred voice, he power," he wrote. "The Parliament, more than 354. Finally the govern secretary general. Gen. Jaap de the political parties and the media ment put the number at 1,181. said, 'They gathered us in a forest, a Hoop Scheffer, called a meeting of person known as 'commander,' and have retreated into the background. Nevertheless, the impulse to play the NATO-Russia Council for Tues they said that we must seize a school ' Essentially, they are no longer inde down bad news appeared to remain day to discuss the hostage-taking. pendent. The president was awarded strong here. On Monday, the editor in in Beslan." He said the orders had "The intention is to demonstrate come from Asian Maskhadov, a Che a contract to restore order in Russia chief of Izvestia, Raf Shakirov, an solidarity with Russia in the fight chen rebel leader, and Shamil and ensure that Russia's people are against terrorism," said a NATO nounced his forced resignation after Basayev, a militant warlord. , safe. Today we see that this contract spokesman, James Appathurai. The man, whose name and nation • has been broken." In a speech on Saturday, Mr. Putin ality were not given, was said to have • Said Russia had let down its guard been captured as he hid behind a Embassy Open for Condolences Putin is taken to task group of children, firing with an auto ' after the collapse of the Soviet Union By The New York Times matic weapon. 13years ago and would now need to for his handlingof WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 - The rebuild its defenses against internal The television commentary said, "He is ready to answer all questions Russian Embassy here opened its and external enemies. Human rights terrorist attacks. doors to the public for two days groups said they feared that this providing we don't hand him over to the families of the victims." through Tuesday to allow visitors to might be a signal for a further re sign a book of condolences for those stricting of civil liberties. The desire to strike back in re sponse to the televised images of killed in the hostage taking last week The images of death and mourning publishing a front page on Saturday traumatized children also seemed to in Beslan. The embassy said it was seemed at least briefly to embolden that carried nothing but one huge, accepting donations for families of newspapers to take to task a govern focus on Mr. Putin, who found few de harrowing photograph of a man car the dead, through checks payable to ment that has been working hard to fenders on Monday. rying a wounded child. The Communist Party, which has the Victims of Beslan Attack. . tame public criticism, The presi- Speaking on Radio Liberty, Mr. *dent's explanations were not satis- survived as one of the last centers of Shakirov, who had built the former organized political opposition, ' factory, a number of them said. Communist government newspaper seemed to fire with all barrels as it The newspaper Kommersant said into one of the country's most forth Mr. Putin's emphasis in his speech blamed the government's shortcom right publications, said he had been ings for the hostage taking. ' on the evils of International terror forced by the newspaper's owner to ism was a dodge that "allows govern- It listed "economic breakdown; resign for what he called his "emo amassed social problems; unem ( ments all over the world not to as tional" coverage of the siege. sume their responsibilities for the ployment: a high crime rate; cor "We ran that photo to show what ruption, in particular in law enforce deaths of their citizens." this means to our country," he said. ,, "It's as if the children died not be ment departments; endless and "And basically this image was later cause of a war in Chechnya that has thoughtless reforms of law enforce been going on for 10 years, but be- confirmed. This was a war." ment departments; neglected inter- iCause international terrorism has Commenting on Mr. Shakirov's ethnic problems; weakening cultural teen on the attack," it said. dismissal, Viktor Loshak, the editor relations between the peoples of this The newspaper Vedemosti wrote, of the popular magazine Ogonyok, country, and the mistakes made in "It is strange that the president ne told the radio station, "This scares Chechnya." glected the question of Chechnya in me because we are moving far away Monday was the first of two days his address," trying instead "to shift from the country that we had been of mourning announced by the gov responsibility to the people who di trying to build for the past 10years." ernment, and in St. Petersburg as vided up the country in 1991." Among the most arresting televi many as 15,000 people gathered to Even state television, which had sion Images here on Monday, along observe a minute of silence. Other "characteristically played down the with the parade of coffins and the gatherings were held in the cities of "extent of the hostage taking at the keening of crowds of mourners, was Omsk and Sochi. A similar gathering school last week, conceded Sunday the face of a terrified man, gripped has been relentlessly promoted on • that the government had a duty to tightly by two masked soldiers, who television for Tuesday afternoon keep the public better informed. "At was identified as the only hostage- near Red Square in Moscow. such moments, society needs the taker to be captured alive. Meanwhile, the Dubai-based tele THENEWYORKTIMESINTERNATIONAL SWDAr.JUNE8,2003

ARimianAmneOyOfferFaiktoHakFightimin cAm i Russia,June7 siantroopswasambushedbyinsur Chechnya and Chechen' S'an"-oopswasambushed . ^ policeofficersbattledfor a second gents on Friday, accordingto the daywithrebelsin the eastern Che- Russian military. --'•easav.uis.ep.owardpeace tionsonFridayandtoday,killingfive «" ——have saidit today, infighting In?®Rus^anmilitarycommander is meaninglessbecause it denies thatkilledat least20peopleevenas soldiersandwoundingsevenothers Siioir®?' Yussupov.was an officialnftiniaitt, j ..in the*-"'6region's1.ocvcii' Moscow-oiners, ' clemencyto anybodyfoundtohave anamnestyofferto rebelscame into killedalongwiththreeRussiansol- m diers and two civilians,while14 backed administration said. tried to killfederalpoliceandserv effect, icemen. It also does not apply to pe amnesty,approvedthe day 10 others es- ^"ssian soldiers were retels orsoldierswhohavecommit Russia's Parliament, was caiwd, said a Russian military killedbya minein Grozny,andan- spokesman, Ilya Shabalkin. ted particularlygrave crimes- in heraldedas a step towardpeace, otherwaskilledin a firefightwhile cludingpremeditatedmurder,rape offeringimmunityfromprosecution Mr. Shabalkin said that bv this searchingforrebelsina nearbyvil evening, the fighting wasover lage,the official said. andhostage-taking- ortoforeign- b^Sep^t giveuptheirweaponsElsewhere In Chechnya, Russian Thefightingcameas an amnesty forcesfired artillery at suspected Alongwiththerebels,theamnesty Butfightingpersisted,particular Russian lymArgun,wherea convoyofRus Wrov^byfte Parliamentapplies to federal troops In du^ijis°th"°"\^cludingthesuburbsseveralof Grozny,places,thein The Kremlinhas presentedthe Chechnya,whoare accusedbyhu manrightsgroupsof committing THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY, JUNE 8, 2003

widespread abuses against civilians. human rights advocates say the Con The head of the Moscow-backed stitution and amnesty will not bring administration, Akhmad Kadyrov, peace as long as Moscow refuses to said rebels have been handing in negi^iate with rebel leaders. weapons and giving up separatist Russian forces withdrew from violence, and he predicted they Chechnya after a devastating war would do so in greater numbers with from 1994 to 1996 that left separatists the amnesty in place, the Interfax in charge. But they returned in 1999 news agency reported. However, after militants based in Chechnya there were no reports of any rebels invaded a neighboring region and disarming today. after the Kremlin blamed rebels for The amnesty follows a March ref apartment-building bombings kilidd erendum in which Chechens ap 300 people in Moscow and other cit proved a Kremlin-backed Constitu ies. tion that cemented the region's sta tus as part of Russia while promising it limited autonomy that has yet to be defined. But some lawmakers and cnnr. 'r.r. .r.gnnn v 'AVaiUd 1VMQ|1VMM3±MI samx HUOA MSN aHX

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VL^IKAV^,... Russia, Aug._ 21 their truck hit a land mine, the offi ^(AP) Ei^ Rum soldiers and cial said. 12^ rebels-have b^n km^ heavy •Chechen rebels carry out daily fighting in southein Chechnya, an small attacks on Russian forces, who official^: in - the region's^ far outnumber the insurgents but /b^ckfidfadminfstr^tion said today. have been imable to uproot them in II^Ruissian' Special Forces! combed nearly four years of fighting. •forests aroibid the southern villages Russian forces withdrew from of Serzhen-Yurt ^d Aytury, where Chechnya in 1996 after a 20-month the flighting took place on Wednes war, leaving separatists in control. day, and ^taryhelicopters shelled Russian troops returned in Septem the routes along which rebels could ber 1999after Chechnya-based insur have retreated after the battle, the gents mounted incursions into neigh official said.. boring Dagestan and after about 300 Elsewhere in Chechnya, Chechen people died in apartment-building rebels staged 19 separate attacks on bombings that the authorities said Russian ipilitarypositions inthepre were carried out by the rebels. vious i4 hours, with one Russian At least four Chechen militiamen killed and eight others wounded, the allied with Russia were killed today official said. In Grozny, the Chechen when rebels ambushed their truck in capital, two soldiers were killed and southern Chechnya, a district official .four woundedWednesdaynight when told the Interfax news agency. THE JOMAL. ONLINE' December 1,2007

PAGE ONE Gorby's Choice

He brought democracy to Russia. So why is he backing Putin, the man undoing his legacy?

St Petersburg, Russia

The last president ofthe Soviet Union was in this city recently to open a cancer center dedicated to his late wife. A local television reporter asked: Would you consider this $12 million clinic one ofthe most important achievements in your life?

. • Mikhail Gorbachev took a breath. The journalist posing the 'W^ question looked too young to remember his years in power. "It's one ofthe most important/705?-presidential ones," Mr. Gorbachev corrected, a twinge of impatience in his voice. "My most important lf|" W achievement isMoving from the totalitarian system to f democracy .... And ofcourse, a foreign policy that led tothe end of the Cold War." \ Two decades ago, Mr. Gorbachev was reshapingthe world. He Sartman iX. ii> r« » . f-r-. Opened up the Soviet system, helping to tree the nations or Eastern Europe and end the Cold War.

Other titans ofthe age —Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher ~ left the world stage with honor. Mr. Gorbachev, 60 years old when he stepped down as Soviet president in 1991, plunged into a political purgatory.

In the West, though lionized for destroying communism, he was also seen as having capitulated to the Americans. At home, the Soviet Union collapsed as his reforms took on a life of their own. Russians scornedhim. Russia's first president, Boris Yeltsin, marginalized and humiliated him. To raise money, Mr. Gorbachev did a Pizza Hut commercial.

So he responded warmly when Mr. Yeltsin's successor. President Vladimir Putin, extended him invitations to the Kremlin, a semi-official post and words of encouragement for Mr. Gorbachev's own political party. Mr. Gorbachev has returned the favor with a stream of endorsements of Mr. Putin.

But as Mr. Putin's Kremlin has steadily chipped away at the central elements of Mr. Gorbachev's legacy -- media freedom, open elections, even the arms-control agreements that sealed the end ofthe Cold War —that relationship increasingly presents a dilemma. Openly attacking Mr. Putin would be a ticket back to political Siberia. Continuing to defend him jeopardizes Mr. Gorbachev's credibility. So the former president, now 76, has sought an ever-narrowing middle ground, supporting Mr. Putin even as he criticizes his Kremlin.

Perestroika's Values 'Destroyed'

"I think he's secretly worried" about his legacy, says Dmitry Muratov, a close family friend and editor ofthe newspaper Novaya Gazeta. "The values ofperestroika? They're being savagely destroyed."

The threat to those values will be on vivid display SEE A PHOTO SLIDESHOWC^ this weekend, in Russia's parliamentary elections. With opponents sidelined and muzzled, the pro-Kremlin party is expected to win by a landslide on Sunday. Mr. Putin has said he might become prime minister after his presidential term ends next spring, or seek another way to remain what allies call Russia's "national leader" and what critics deride as a modern-day czar.

1 As liberty recedes in Russia, Mr. Gorbachev's - j..-, u u stance raises a question: Is the former Soviet President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev .... exchanged pens after signing a treaty toeliminate president a savvy politician who sees democratic intermediate-range missiles in 1987. instincts in Mr. Putin that his critics have missed? Or has he been seduced by the Kremlin's attentions into becoming an apologist for the former KGB agent who is undoing the revolution Mr. Gorbachev began?

"It's very much to the benefit ofthe Kremlin to use Gorbachev, and he allows himselfto be used this way," says Lyudmilla Telen, a journalist and Gorbachev friend who edits a small Internet news site. "He will keep balancing as long as he can."

The former president says he isn't being manipulated. "I think Putin is a democrat," he says in an interview. Some "authoritarian" steps were needed, he says, to restore order after the chaos ofthe 1990s. He credits Mr. Putin with rebuilding Russia's living standards and international prestige. "This isn't the democracy that we will ultimately get to - it's a transitional democracy."

Mr. Gorbachev's support ofMr. Putin may surprise many in the West. But that cognitive dissonance reflects the gap between how Russia's past 20 years are viewed at home and abroad. Many outside Russia see the 1990s as a time ofdemocratic promise for Moscow. Inside Russia, it was seen as a decade ofdeprivation and chaos. Like millions ofRussians, Mr. Gorbachev wanted the end ofcommunist totalitarian rule, not ofthe Soviet Union itself He believes the West took advantage of Russia's weakness in the 1990s and is now uncomfortable with Mr. Putin, who has returned it to strength.

Combine Driver Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev started out as a combine driver in southern Russia. He rose though the ranks ofthe Communist Party to become its general secretary, the most powerful person in the U.S.S.R. He introduced glasnost, or openness in media and political debate, and encouraged once-suppressed dialog about Stalin-era crimes. In 1990, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to ending the Cold War.

Mr. Gorbachev blames Boris Yeltsin for derailing GORBACHEV ON RUSSIA perestroika, his policy ofeconomic reforms, and "Yesterday when they asked me in which country I'd dissolving his country out from under him in 1991. like to live I said. 'In a free and denriocratic country.' What else one could wish? As regards institutions, Within days ofgiving up his post, Mr. Gorbachev this is a matter for the political elite. Therefore I think was evicted from his Moscow apartment, the first that to create an authoritarian regime... No, I think that this willnot happen. Putin is a modem person." ofyears ofpetty humiliations dealt out by the - Mr. Gorbachev on the future of democracy in Kremlin. Russia Read edited excerpts from Mr. Gorbachev's The government kept his pension for much of the ' conversation with .^Journal. I 1990s at the equivalent of $2 a month, he says. ' The new Russian government had promised office space for his Gorbachev Foundation, which is devoted to political studies. As Mr. Gorbachev fiercely attacked the new president, the Kremlin raised the rent and forced him out. Mr. Gorbachev says he paid for a new building with proceeds from international lectures and the Pizza Hut ad.

His efforts to rebuild a political following foundered as millions ofRussians blamed him for the economic collapse that followed the Soviet Union's demise. He ran for president against Mr. Yeltsin in 1996 and got 0.5% ofthe vote. He blames the Yeltsin Kremlin for silencing his campaign. Polls show Russians still overwhelmingly think he had a negative impact on their country.

Call From Putin

Mr. Putin, however, had none ofthe personal history that poisoned relations between Messrs. Yeltsin and Gorbachev. He was respectful and solicitous ofthe former Soviet president from the start.

In 1999, Mr. Putin, by then Russia's prime minister, called Mr. Gorbachev to offer assistance when Mr. Gorbachev's wife, Raisa, fell ill with leukemia and needed treatment in Germany. Mr. Putin attended Raisa's funeral. Mr. Yeltsin didn't.

GORBACHEV ON PUTIN In the 2000 Russian presidential election, Mr. Gorbachev initially dismissed Mr. Putin as a Yeltsin-clan creation and supported a rival. But he says Mr. Putin, who'd been in national politics for less than a year, gradually won him over. Kasparov: "Disproportionate measures were used against Kasparov. He violated Mr. Putin invited Mr. Gorbachev to his the law. but to lock him up for five days Is disproportionate .... I think this was local inauguration in the Kremlin and months later to a law-enforcement's fault, their nerves gave out." private meeting to discuss politics, Mr. On allegations of potential vote fraud and Gorbachev's first as former president. The new manipulation: 'The elections willbe democratic, president also encouraged Mr. Gorbachev to form but with great shortcomings." his own party, which became known as the On Mr. Putin's decision to lead tiie party list for Social-Democratic Party, the former president the pro-Kremlin United Russia party: "Idon't really likethis party.... I'm not ecstatic that he has says. joined the election campaign." Mr. Gorbachev added that the huge billboards all over Moscow calling on voters to cast ballots for Mr. Putin make The personal detente served Mr. Putin well. In him "uncomfortable." public, Mr, Gorbachev repeatedly insisted that the On Putin's rule: "I'm on Putin's side .... Putin has new leader wouldn't thrust Russia back to perfonned a great service to Russia." 'That doesn't mean we're kissing up to Putin, pardon me, there authoritarianism. The endorsement was important are reasons for criticism .... This is political in foreign capitals: Mr. Putin was still a cipher honesty." abroad, where his pressuring ofthe media and On Putin's plans to remain influential after his presidential term ends: "Idon't think Putin has political rivals had raised concerns. decided .... Nothing surprises me anymore." In 2001, Mr. Putin asked Mr. Gorbachev to run the Russian side ofthe St. Petersburg Dialog, a semi-official discussion group between Russian and German business and cultural leaders that Mr. Putin had set up with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder.

At the Dialog sessions,heavily covered in both countries'media, Mr. Gorbachevhas defended the Kremlin's record on press freedom and other issues. He has also contributed commentaries to Western newspapers, last year defending the Kremlin's controversial initial public offering of shares in state oil giant OAO Rosneft.

Meanwhile, in other venues, Mr. Gorbachev attacked government attempts to centralize controlof the political systemand rein in the media.Mr. Gorbachev has longhelped fund Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia's lastremaining independent newspapers. Themuckraking paper, witha limited reach, has seenthreeof its reporters murdered in recent years.

In 2000, shortly after Mr. Putin became president, the government beganpressuring the tycoon who owned NTV, Russia's main independent national TVnetwork, to give upcontrol. Mr. Gorbachev agreedto lead an advisory board of prominent figuresthe tycoon set up to parry the Kremlin assault. Theformer president spoke outharshly as the campaign intensified, at one point saying, "the democratic reforms of the last 15 years are at risk." But after each meeting at the Kremlin, he publicly refused to blame the president, insisting that Mr. Putin remained committed to a free press.

In 2001, Russia's state-owned gas companytook over the TV networkand replaced mostof its news staff.NTV adopteda staunchly pro-Kremlin line.

"When I hearhimcalling Putin a democrat, I wantto breaksomething," saysYevgeny Kiselyov, a top NTV journalist who helped recruit Mr. Gorbachev to theadvisory board and left after the takeover.

Though Mr. Gorbachev's position was too softfor Mr. Kiselyov and others, it was too harsh for some in the Kremlin, officials involved in the episode say. His access to the president was reduced. His criticisms ofthe Kremlin now get little media attention, and he's rarely shown on state-controlled television. Recent appearances have been edited, aides say, to exclude attacks on the Kremlin.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says President Putin values objective criticism and Mr. Gorbachev's "positive assessments" ofMr. Putin.

The Party's Over

Earlier this year, Mr. Gorbachev's Social-Democratic Party was shut down under a new Kremlin-backed law on political parties that effectively eliminated dozens ofopposition groups. Mr. Gorbachev refused to fault Mr. Putin. "I don't think the president was double-dealing," he told reporters this fall.

SEE ENLARGED IMAGE (D Few colleagues share that view. Gavriil Popov, another Social-Democratic leader, sat silently next to Mr. Gorbachev as he gave that answer. "That's ail wrong .... Putin was double-dealing," he said in an interview later. "But it's not good for Mikhail Sergeyevich to position himself against the president" because it would limit his freedom to

maneuver. tm

Mr. Popov was one ofthe prominent politicians of perestroika, elected Moscow mayor in 1990. He says Mr. Gorbachev might go into open opposition if the Kremlin goes too far in undermining democracy. "He doesn't talk about that and doesn't want to think about it," Mr. Popov says.

That moment may be nearing.

Kremlin-supported manuals for high-school teachers issued earlier this year highlight the achievements ofdictator JosefStalin and write warmly ofLeonid Brezhnev, who presided over a tightening ofstate control in the 1970s. Mr. Gorbachev is criticized for vanity and a refusal to share power with rivals. In June, Mr. Putin said Russians shouldn't be made to feel guilty about Stalin-era purges because other countries have "more horrible" pages in their histories.

To combat what he sees as revisionism, Mr. Gorbachev's foundation has published once-secret Soviet Politburo documents and hosted conferences on Soviet history that typically draw modest crowds of specialists. In September in Moscow, the foundation marked the 70th anniversary ofStalin's Great Terror, one ofSoviet history's bloodiest chapters.

Stalin's 'Golden Age'

At the start ofthe symposium, Mr. Gorbachev lamented recent efforts to portray Stalin's rule as "a golden age" that was later reprised under Brezhnev. "Gorbachev's perestroika just disappears," he said. The speakers who followed compared Stalin's totalitarianism to what they called the increasingly authoritarianrule ofMr. Putin. As the day wound to a close, Mr. Gorbachev conceded alarm at the current official line.

"It's started to smell ofBrezhnevism, ofStalinism again," he said. But he denied Mr. Putin has built an authoritarian regime. "If you put all he's done on the scales, the positive outweighs," he said.

As Mr. Gorbachev went on in support ofMr. Putin, a woman stood up. "This is more than I can take," she grumbled as she left.

Outside Russia, Mr. Gorbachev's message is even less critical ofthe Kremlin. He still spends about halfhis time traveling the world, speaking to student and business groups on behalfof the Gorbachev Foundation, his Green Cross International environmental charity and the Raisa Gorbacheva Foundation, which supports leukemia treatment in Russia. His agent says his speaking fee is in line with those ofother former top officials, such as Colin Powell; those who've hired him put it in the low six figures.

Internationally, he retains an aura ofcelebrity. Last year, he flew to the south ofFrance with a Russian billionaire friend to recruit Elton John to play at a benefit. Fund-raisers for the Raisa foundation have become a fixture on the London social calendar, attracting Naomi Campbell, Madonna and J.K. Rowling. This fall, to raise money for Green Cross, he appeared in glossy magazine ads for Louis Vuitton luggage.

He's still instantly recognizable, though his face has softened and the birthmark on his forehead is framed now by grayer hair. In the place ofthe late Raisa, their daughter, Irina, often travels at his side. Mr. Gorbachev proudly plays the role ofdoting grandfather to Irina's two daughters, who are in their 20s.

After a sudden hospitalization late last year for a blocked artery in his neck, and then a fall on his way back from the sauna at his dacha earlier this year, Mr. Gorbachev says he wants to slow down and give up some international responsibilities.

Reagan's Famous Speech

But in October, he was on the road in the U.S. First stop was Miami, at a prep school where a wealthy parent paid his speaking fee. Next was a speech in Louisville sponsored by the nonprofit World Affairs Council, then a two-day Green Cross meeting in New Orleans.

After a day off, he was in Dallas for a double-header. Before lunch, he posed for photos with dozens of local oilmen and their wives at the Texas Oil and Gas Association's annual conference. Chairman Joseph O'Neill III made the introduction.

"All ofus here are very proud ofRonald Reagan and his famous speech, 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,'" he said, referring to Mr. Reagan's comments in Berlin in 1987.

The comment got the session offon the wrong foot. Mr. Gorbachev disputes that President Reagan forced Russia into capitulating in the Cold War; instead, he says, the movement started at home. Taking the floor, Mr. Gorbachev said: "Mr. Reagan's first profession was as an actor, and so he was speaking for the stage." The crowd laughed politely. Mr. Gorbachev then lectured them on the threat ofglobal climate change and the need for sustainable development. He catalogued what he called the misguided policies ofthe U.S., whose leaders suffered from a post-Cold War "victor's complex." He defended Kremlin policies, saying the transition to democracy will take years and that the U.S. needs to get used to a Russia that can stand up for its interests.

In the late afternoon, Mr. Gorbachev met students at the University ofDallas before being hurried to a speech downtown for university donors. At the podium, he squinted and asked for the spotlights to be turned down. "This reminds me ofmy maternal grandfather and how they tortured him with bright lights," he said, referring to one ofseveral relatives caught up in Stalin's terror. He delivered the line as a joke. The audience laughed.

He launched into the speech, the same outline as at lunch. By the time he headed for dinner at the lavish home ofa top university donor, his stride had slowed.

Last Stop, Edlnburg

The next morning in his hotel suite, Mr. Gorbachev looks tired. Aides pack bags before the last stop on his U.S. tour.

In an interview, he remembers his childhood in a village with no electricity. The conversation turns to foreign policy. He says that in 2004, Vice President Dick Cheney rejected his suggestion that Moscow and Washington avoid toughness and work as partners.

"He told me, 'Reagan took a hard line and he got what he wanted,' saying something like [the Americans] put us on our knees," Mr. Gorbachev recalls. "I said, 'I think you're wrong.'... But he doesn't care. Cheney's some kind ofspawn," he says, using halfofthe Russian phrase for "spawn ofthe devil."

Mr. Gorbachev says that during his last meeting with Mr. Putin, over the summer, the two had a "big, substantive conversation" about what Mr. Gorbachev called Russia's "new stage." He says Mr. Putin made clear the Kremlin will strengthen, not weaken, democratic institutions.

"I know him well now," Mr. Gorbachev says. "He's a very normal person."

His daughter, Irina, joins the conversation. Her younger daughter, Anastasia, is in her last year at university in Moscow, studyingjournalism and working part-time rewriting celebrity-news releases for a glossy fashion magazine.

Anastasia had an internship a few years back at Novaya Gazeta, the Gorbachev-backed independent paper that has lost three journalists to murder. Irina says hard news is not in her daughter's future.

"I can't take a risk like that with my children," she says. "Journalism now is a dangerous business."

By evening, the last Soviet leader is in Edinburg, Texas, a city ofstrip-mall sprawl near the Mexican border. The crowd is so large that some will have to watch on monitors in a neighboring building. Mr. Gorbachev sits backstage in a white-cinderbiock dressingroomas latecomers are seated. The conversation drifts to Stalin and his secret police.

"He used to watch and give them pointers" in the torture chambers, Mr. Gorbachev marvels, looking to his bodyguard. The guard, a former KGB agent, nods.

Irina complainsthat the new Kremlin-backed textbooksplay down the tens of millions who died as a result ofStalin's policies. "They couldn't have published that textbook without approval," Mr. Gorbachev says.

The crowd greets him with a cheer when he walks out on stage. The next morning, he is off to Germanyto prepare for another meetingof the St. PetersburgDialog, where he'll lead the closing session alongside Mr. Putin.

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