I H of the Italian songs; but it was fascinating cover of a novel near Caines's head (it was cable foe). Instead Klebnikov gives us Z m to see him summarily and radically edit Elective Affinities). They tapped on the three hundred harrowing pages to convey his work for the requirements of a differ- glass to tr\' to get him to acknowledge that Berezovsky is the "godfather of god- ent venue. their presence. He told me later that after fathers." When Klebnikov first invoked the Caines is a genuinely .surprising artist. the third tap, he learned that if he sighed g-word, in a Forbes profile in December The same month, for the "Deli Dances" or shifted his weight slightly when they 1996, Berezovsky sued for libel. Recently, m series, where dancers peribrmed in knocked, he satisfied their demands and the Russian won the rightt o sue the Amer- Chashama's storefront window, he con- they stopped. ican magazine in a British court. With the c structed two installations. In one, wearing Some day, I have no douht, he will put appearance of Godfather of the Kremlin, CD shorts and an eyeshade, he simply slept however, it may be time for Berezovsky I- that lesson into play in a dance. At the (or tried to sleep) on a mat for two hours, moment, for November performances at to sue Klebnikov for impersonating his o with a small collection of over-the- The Construction Company, Caines is publicity agent. counter remedies for insomnia lined up preparing a trio to four Worid War I-era next to him. In the second, he slept—this songs by Hindemith, vvith tragic lyrics by ORIS ABRAMOVICH BEREZOVSKY time in pajamas, with a blanket—while the poet Christian Morgcnstern. The was bom in Moscow in January Hess, in a nightgown, meditated with her songs are rarely performed and, until B 1946", a baby boomer. Klebnikov back to the street; at half-hour intervals, Montano tackled them this year, they provides no details of Berezovsky's child- marked by an alarm clock, they exchanged seem never to have been recorded. When I hood or early adulthood, except to note places and activities. During the total of asked what the dance would look like, that his subject took a degree in electron- four hours that these installations lasted, Caines spoke of spiders, lobsters, bitter ics and computer science at Moscow's hundreds of passers-by stopped to com- drops, and black angels. "It's going to be Forestry Institute, a cover for work on the ment (and to smile) in perhaps a score of pretty dark," he said. I was not filled with Soviet space program. In 1970, Berezov- languages. Some of them remarked on the foreboding. Darkness is bearable, it is sky earned the equivalent of a doctorate smallest details, such as the names of the even to be welcomed, in an artist who is at the Mechanical-Mathematical Depart- herbal preparations. They studied the also a master of light. • ment of Moscow University. The previous year he had taken up an appointment at the Control Sciences Institute of the Sov- iet Academy of Sciences, where he would spend the next two decades, first as a researcher and ultimately as Correspond- ing Member. He wrote several dozen sci- The Information entific articles and three monographs about complex systems and information management (none of which are cited or Specialist quoted in Klebnikov's book). He helped to establish and directed a research team for the study of systems design, which was ^//STEPHEN KOTKIN called cybernetics—a term taken from the American Norbert Wiener, who coined it Godfather of the Kremlin: in the late 1940s for the science of infor- mation and information systems control. Boris Berezovsky and the Looting of Russia As we shall see, Berezovsky remains an hy Paul Klehnikov information specialist. {Harcourt, Inc., 400 pp., $28) Klebnikov presents the tycoon as the poster boy, if not also the explanation, for everything that has gone wrong in Sale of the Century: Russia's Wild Ride Russia since 1991: the "failure [sic] of democracy and capitalism," "the robbery from Communism to Capitalism of the century-,'' "the corruption and crony hy Chrystia Freeland capitalism epitomized by Boris Berezov- sky," and so on. But Klebnikov also works (Crown Business, 389 pp., $27.50) against himself, showing in some of his L ing tycoon, writes Paul Klebnikov, "once book's best passages the extraordinary told the Financial Times that he and six degree to which shady market practices MID THE COLLECTIVE hys- other financiers controlled 50 percent of became widespread already in the Soviet teria that passes for report- the Russian economy and had arranged period. He also weaves a discussion of the ing and commentary on Yeltsin's re-election in 1996." Yes, he did pre-oligarch patterns of oligarch behav- Russian affairs, perhaps no say that. But could such boasting have ior: the channels of secret financing for issue incites more misin- been remotely true? foreign Communist parties, the KGB shell Aformed commotion than that of "the oli- Klebnikov abjures the path of ridicule companies and banks in offshore loca- garchs." And among the oligarchs, the open betbre him. Nor does he have much tions, the foreign trade contracts rigged to king of the hysteria is Boris Berezovsky. time for Berezovsky's grand failures, such evade international laws, the old tax treaty The diminutive, excitable, eyebrow-danc- as the scheme to seize control of Russia's with Cyprus permitting KGB money laun- gas monopoly-$9 billion in admitted ex- dering operations, and the covert opera- STEPHEN KOTKIN'S new book, The Soviet port revenue—which came to absolutely tions windfalls derived from secret sales of Collapse, 1970-2000, will be published naught (aside from turning the well- Soviet timber and oil abroad at world by Oxtbrd Universitv Press next fall. connected George Soros into an impla- prices. What his book superbly demon-

34 : OCTOBER 9, 2000 strates, but does not argue, is that, despite to produce a lousy car that it took a U.S. or the population's demand for tbe cheap the many levels of discontinuity before Japanese factory to produce a good one." cars knew no bounds. It was by such and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Yet one person's white elepbant is another means that "red directors" and their asso- the crookedness and breakdown of the old person's fountain of gold. In May 1989, ciates "privatized" and stripped tbe assets and the crookedness and breakdown of when Mikhail (iorbachev revived and of state property across eleven time zones. the new are of a piece. expanded some of Kosygin's measures, Tbis happened long before anyone fi'om At the same time Klebnikov misses legalizing small capitalist-like enterprises, Harvard or Wasbington arrived to adxise the extent to which Berezovsl^ (along Berezovsky formed a "joint venture" with the "young reformers" about privatization. with Vladimir Putin) was a product of the Italian firm Logo Systems in Turin Conveniently, there was no worry tbat unsuccesstlil Soviet-era economic poli- and the general director of AvtoVaz. Joint without the revenue side (auto sales) the cies. In 1965, Prime Minister Aieksei ventures were meant to eneourage foreign cost side (auto production) would bring Kosygin tried to introduce greater flexi- investment and technology transfers, for on insolvency at AvtoVaz, since govern- bility for enterprises and other innova- which they received tax advantages and ments continued to issue Soviet-style tions to overcome sluggishness, but the could transfer profits abroad. They be- credits to tbe giant employer, or simply invasion of Czechoslova- allowed it not to pay its kia three years later eleetrieity bills. undercut the will for Berezovsky parlayed an experimentation. Instead, obscure joint venture to in the 1970s and 1980s, sell software into the the Kremlin placed a big country's most extensive bet on the computeri- network of car dealer- zation of production and ships, wbieh accounted planning, and on tbe for 10 percent of national acquisition of Western sales. Tbis alchemy re- technolog>', despite Cold quired more than con- War restrictions on trans- nections to a red director fers. Putin's KGB col- and Moscow officials, and leagues in East Germany more than a talent for set up front companies rudimentary flini tlam. and conducted remark- The early 1990s in Russia ably successfiil industrial was a time when Soviet- espionage. Completely in- era criminals came up dependent of this, Bere- from the underground, zovsky worked on making aping the gangsters in Soviet indu.strial processes pirated Ainerican videos, more efficient. riding Kalashnikov- Just as very few of the stuffed Land Cruisers KGB's numerous acqui- without license plates, sitions made it into lum- and launching grenade bering Soviet enterprises, attacks to expand "market so computerization failed share." Cash auto sales to take off. By the 1970s, were especially violent. close to 100 pereent of For security' and enforce- American firms with more ment, in the absence of a tban 500 employees had eivil service, and a reliable mainframe computers. In police and judicial system, the Soviet Union, only Berezovsky appears to one-third of the equiva- have employed a private lent enterprises did. By army of Chechens. By the 1980s, the Soviet Boris Berezovsky by Vint Lawrence for The New Republic 1993, tbey were besieged Union had 200,000 in a "'mob" turf war by microcomputers, while the United States eame an ideal legal instrument for a time- Russian gangs. On June 7, 1994, as Bere- had 25 million—a number that was about honored Soviet practice: free use of the zovsky's armored Mercedes 600 ambled to sk\Toeket. Tbe bet on "perfecting" the resources of state companies for private down a Moscow street, a remote control planned economy lost. Berezovsky, like gain. bomb detonated. It was the capital's most Putin, was part of the debris. As the planned economy imploded, powerful explosion (in a highly competi- Here Klebnikov picks up the stor\- Berezovslw, like tens of thousands of oth- tive year). "Berezovsky stumbled out of noting tbat one of Berezovsky's responsi- ers, was vigorously rearranging the pieces. his car, his clothes smoldering," Klebnikov bilities involved consulting for the Sov- His new company, LogoVaz, was sup- writes. "His bums were severe, requiring iet automaker A\toVaz, which had been posed to supply automation software, but months of treatment in a Swiss clinic." His built in the 1960s by Fiat. AvtoVaz was a it became instead a middleman for selling bodyguard lo.st an eye. His driver was Soviet showease—in other words, a mon- AvtoVaz cars. The factory, like innumer- decapitated. ument to monumentalism. It made more able post-Soviet enterprises whose bilk- It eomes as no surprise, perhaps, that cars tban any otber factory in the world, ing expanded, was selling its products, Berezovsky had already sought to diver- witb an assembly line a full mile and a Lada jalopies and Niva Jeeps, to Bere- sify. Back in 1991, he had ditched his quarter long. Klebnikov remarks tbat "it zovsk>' and his partner, the carmaker's Italian software partner Logo systems, took AvtoVaz thirty times the man-bours general director, at a loss—even though reineorporating LogoVaz as a joint ven-

THE NEW REPUBLIC : OCTOBER 9, 2000 : 35 I ture with tbe Swiss trading firm Andre & from tbe currency repatriation rules of tbe stood its power and its importance. Using Cie and the all-important carmaker Avto- Russian Central Bank. Tbis, presumably, his point man Badri Patarkatsishvili, an m Vaz. The new LogoVaz obtained a privi- was done to oficr retroactive protection all-purpose fixer who had worked in the m leged export license from the Ministry of from cbarges of misdirecting Aeroflot auto repair business in Georgia before Foreign Trade, signed by tbe minister money. In 1999, tbe offiees of Aerofiot, 1991, Berezovsky's LogoVaz got a piece of P>otr Aven (today a top businessman Andava, and otber companies in Russia 70 Channel l's advertising sales, which were associated with Putin). Domestic prices and Switzerland were raided, Okulov fired handled by Sergei Lisovsl^. Tben Bere- m for oil, aluminum, and strategic raw all LogoVaz people, and Berezovsky lost zovsky began lobbying Korzbakov, and on c materials had not been liberalized, and wbatever control he had over Aeroflot's occasion Yeltsin, to privatize the station, Berezovsky', like many otbers with their cash flow. A warrant was issued for his promising, evidently, that it would be the export licenses in hand, sold them abroad arrest—the first and only in his heetic President's station and repel the attacks at world prices. Tbe sizeable differentials career—and then quickly rescinded. He against him in other media. brought in really big dough, and Bere- claims to have long ago severed bis con- But someone else had already raised the zovsky acquired choice spreads in Mos- nections to the Swiss-based companies idea of privatizing Channel 1: Vlad List- cow, London, and southern France. Wben under investigation. Tbe case remains yev, a distinguished producer and proha- pvTamid schemes emerged as the next open. bly the eountr;''s most popular TV host. To frontier, he got a piece of tbat action, too— How did an auto dealer and commodi- get the network out from under the state, in partnership, again, with the director of ties trader who was almost killed by a Listyev tried to enlist Berezovsky's belp. A\toVaz, as well as with Alexander Volo- gangland bomb come to know a son-in- Instead Berezovskv' helped himself. In shin, who later became bead of the presi- law of tbe Russian president? Klebnikov late 1994, the Kremlin announced the dential administration at the end of Boris rehearses the familiar story, told by creation of a new company called ORT Yeltsin's second term, and retains that Yeltsin's intimate and bodyguard, Alek- (Russian Public Television), in whieh it position under Putin. sandr Korzbakov, of bow the president's sold a 49 percent stake. There was no auc- ghostwriter and surrogate son Valentin tion, of course, and tbe tycoon put up LL OF THIS is well known. Kleb- Yumashev brought Berezozvskv' into tbe some chump change for bis acknowledged nikov's contribution lies in expos- Kremlin on the pretext of publishing 8 pereent stake, doling out tbe other 41 A ing Berezovsky's next move. When Yeltsins second memoir. (This was the percent of private shares to surrogates. the Soviet-era airline, Aeroflot, was par- memoir that was designed to explain why But Listyev battled to retain control. On tially privatized—49 percent went to he had to bomb tbe mutinous parliament Mareh 1,1995, be was found on his apart- workers and managers, wbile 51 percent in October 1993.) An important support- ment stairwell landing, shot in the head. remained in state bands—Berezovsky ing reference from the well-known Avto- In the completely unregulated Repub- managed to install his own people from Vaz general director—whom Yeltsin had lican paradise that is Russia, being called LogoVaz to run the business on behalf of considered for prime minister in 1992— a gonif is perhaps not the most sting- the state's controlling packet. He also set helped to overcome any hesitancy about ing indictment. No, the stinger of Kleb- up a Swiss company called Andava, in tbe then obscure Berezovsky. He brought nikov's book is tbe Listyev murder. And partnership with bis Aeroflot manager, out the book quickly and handsomely, yet be can marshal only circumstantial to handle the airline's billing and foreign depositing "royalties" in a London bank speculation and innuendo. At the book's banking operations. Andava squeezed account for the president, or delivering outset, Klebnikov announces bis inten- Aerofiot for eommissions, but according bricks of casb ("from book sales") direetly tion to be as conservative as possible in to Klebnikov it "performed no task that to tbe Kremlin. piecing together "tbe fragments of truth" Aeroflot could not perform itself." As a reward, Berezovsl^ became a from interviews and rumors, though he Klebnikov should know: he visited member of tbe Presidential Tennis Club, warns that it is necessary' to "bridge the Andava and a related company in Lau- the center of court societ>'. One member gaps witb assertions." 'As I looked into sanne, and found few employees and little of the club, Korzhakov, who ran the Krem- Berezovsky's meteoric career," he begins, activity. Despite huge operating profits, he lin while Yeltsin lay in hospital or moodily "I discovered a history replete witb bank- writes, the airline was losing money and disappeared, became a special target of rupt companies and violent deaths." He its planes were being impounded for fail- Berezovsky's attention. The car dealer also soon adds, however, tbat "there is no evi- ure to pay for leasing. Klebnikov shows befiiended Tanya Dyachenko, Yeltsin's dence that Berezovsky was responsible tbr that Aeroflot paid usurious fees not just favorite daughter, on whom he bestowed a any of the deaths." to Andava, but also to a string of compa- Niva ofl'-roader and tben a Chevrolet. nies, which sbared tbe same managers, When Berezovsky began bragging about UCH IS THE challenge of tbis bankers, accountants, and, presumably, his tight links with "the family," long-time prosecutorial book. To conneet owner. Berezovsky bimself once bragged insiders became afraid to cross him. Tbis S Berezovsky to the most grisly events, to Russia's leading newspaper Kommer- was the information specialist's method: Klebnikov quotes the tycoon's published scint—-which be later bought, with the the more he talked up his eonnections, the denials. To illustrate Berezovskys profit- help of a front man—that he intended to more power be began to exercise in prac- able commodities trading, Klebnikov de- "privatize" the profits of Russia's major tice. It was just a matter of time before be scribes another eompany. After a long set airline. Klebnikov broke tbe Andava story realized tbat he needed his own media. piece about a corrupt aluminum dealer in Forbes in early 1997, and it was picked named Mare Rich, Klebnikov writes tbat up in the Russian and Swiss press. A crim- "there is no evidence that Berezovsky ever inal investigation, alleging $200 million n. did busine.ss witb Marc Ricb or even met to $300 million in illegal transfers, was VEN THOUGH Channel 1 of Russ- him." Then wby, in a book on Berezovsl^, launched. ian state television reached one mention Rieh, and link bim to Berezovsky, In March 1997. however, Boris Yelt- E hundred and eight>' million poten- even witb a denial? "It is not impossible," sin's son-in-law, Valer\' Okulov, arrived as tial viewers throughout the fomier Soviet Klebnikov explains in a footnote, "that Aerofiot's new general director, and not Union, a result of thirty years of invest- LogoVaz was fronting for Marc Rich." long thereafter tbe airline was exempted ment, few people seem to bave under- Many times Klebnikov repeats Korzba-

36 : OCTOBER 9, 2000 kov's allegation tbat Berezovsky "begged chairman, Rem Vyakhirev, who had been edges that Berezovsky was far from Rus- him" repeatedly to kill another oligarch, figbting over aluminum plants with Ana- sia's biggest commodities trader. He was Vladimir Gusinsky, apparently to soften toly Chubais, the head of the United indeed "only one of a score of new busi- tbe reader for the coming Listyev murder Energy power monopoly, a major Gaz- ness magnates," and "by no means the suspicions. Only late in tbe text do we prom eustomer (and deadbeat). Vyakbi- wealthiest." learn tbat Korzbakov's allegation emerged rev, whose job Berezovsky bad once eon- Consider also that in 1995 the suppos- as part of a "sleaze war" in tbe autumn nived to take, brought in Berezovsky and edly all-powerftil tycoon lost his eontract of 1996. Klebnikov's information about Abramovich to undercut Chubais, under to be the dealer for AvtoVaz. Wbile Bere- Berezovsky being a suspect in the Listyev the ancient principle that the enemy of my zovsky's companies were bandling Aero- murder comes from an anonymous source enemy is a useful tool for screwing my flot's perfectly respectable cash stream, in the Moscow city vice squad—wbich enemy. Klebnikov could bave noted that the reports to Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, a close Cars, commodities trading, airline rev- other tycoons' private banks were manag- associate of Gusinsky, who is Berezovsky's enues, oil, aluminum: add it up, and ing the billion-dollar superfiands of tbe areh-enemy. pretty soon it begins to sound like money. Finance Ministry: state customs duties Klebnikov empbasizes that right after And it was. But it was also a lot of noise. and national tax receipts. It would have the murder, detectives "swarmed" I^go- Have Berezovsky's dimensions ever really been wortb mentioning, too, that Berezov- Vaz headquarters. With Yeltsin out of approached the big, swinging depiction sky only accidentally backed into Aero- town, Berezovsky went to Korzhakov and in the press? Even Klebnikov acknowl- fiot. Gusinsky had secured the Aeroflot made a video appeal to the President, arguing that the murder was a setup of Berezovsky" to barm the president. Kleb- nikov reprints a purported transcript of the video from the Russian press, and THE REPUBUCAN PARIY HAS asserts that Korzbakov protected Bere- zovsky. (Tbe men in cbarge of the investi- gation were fired: they worked for the city A NEW STRATEGY and Mayor Luzhkov, wbo was tben one of Korzhakov's prime targets.) Berezov- sky h;is denied involvement, in an inter- view with Klebnikov and elsewhere. Tbe NOW READ THE PLAN author notes tbat investigators also ques- tioned Lisovsky. Listyev had announced his intention to break Lisovsky's monop- oly on allocating advertising sales on Feb- ruary 20, 1995, eight days before being killed. The murder has never been solved. Berezovsky came to control the network. To recap, Berezovsky paid perhaps a few million bucks for his lucrative Avto- Vaz car dealership, and nothing for his control over Aeroflot's nifty cash flow,an d $320,000 for bis minority ownership and fiill control of the country's dominant TV network. And when his pyramid scheme went bust, he walked away unscathed, witb around $50 million. (On Wall Street, he would be feted as a genius.) Next came oil. .lust before tbe sleaze privatizations of 1995-1996 were scbeduled to close, a new eompany, Sibneft or Siberian Oil, appeared out of nowhere; and with the rationale that the "president's" TV net- work (Channel 1) needed cash, Korzhakov helped guide Sibneft to Berezovsky and his partner Roman Abramo\ich, an oil "THE ART OF POLITICAL WAR IS A trader and close as.sociate of Leonid Dyachenko, the President's son-in-law. PERFECT GUIDE TO WINNING ON They paid about $100 million, after some- THE POLITICAL BATTLEFIELD." one else's bid of $170 million was "disqual- ified." —Karl Rove Cbief Strategist for tbe Most recently. Berezovsky and Abram* Busb Presidential Campaign ovicb also appear to bave acquired a major stake in the aluminum smelting business. Klebnikov writes about Bere- zovsky's "initiative" in 1999 to take over Available in bookstores the aluminum business; but insiders say that the deal was tbe work of Gazprom's

THE NEW REPUBLIC : OCTOBER 9, 2000 : 37 T account, as a government decree an- grand strategies, complex intrignes, and think that it was done hecause Bere- nounced, but then an expose—in one of socializing—ultimately they are all the st^ mentioned it. Gusinsl^s newspapers!—about an "in- same thing—has neither the steady tem- m centive" (free shares in a Siberian tin fac- perament nor the steady technique to dis- Here was the Eureka moment for Kleb- tory paid to the Kremlin point man on the cipline the moveable kleptocratic feast. nikov; but he rolls right over it. In the deal) caused a reversal of the decision. Be He knows it, and they know it. They pay pages that follow, he goes on to discuss m that as it may, Berezovsky eventually lost him with flattery,an d with the implemen- Berezovsky's promotion and removal of his grip on Aeroflot, as on AvtoVaz. And tation of directives or initiatives, and in "0 prime ministers, without adducing any c during the giveaway privatizations, other some cases viith genuine talent. What evidence tor these colorfiil claims, though CD players acquired much bigger companies, keeps the whole flotsam afloat is his he does pause to concede that Berezovsky I— especially in oil. True, Berezovsky was delight in hosting the endless party, in did not control the government "com- O later handed a major share of Russia's proper Russian style, as well as his shrewd pletely." In Klebnikov's account, nothing is valuable aluminum production, but only intelligence and his engaging sociability, beyond the evil genins, not "mastemiind- after having been rebuffed trying to grab his access to the court and layers of gov- [ing] two successful presidential elections the real prize, gas. In .sum: the editors at ernment, and his spactacular skill at pro- (in 1996 and 2000)" and placing "his cho- Forbes, which once estimated Berezovsky's jecting an image. sen candidate on the throne," not instigat- net worth at $3 billion, do not bother with ing the Second Chechen War. The tycoon an estimate anymore. N THE END, it all comes down to in- is made to appear ubiquitous and omni- formation. Berezovsky, with Korzha- potent, just as he would like it to appear. HI. I kov's assistance, is alleged to have set up a private electronic eavesdropping HRYSTIA EREELAND DOES nOt LL THAT LOOTING, and late in the firm, which relied on KGB expertise and share Klebnikovs grasp of the book Klebnikov reveals that Bere- state-of-the-art technology, and gathered CSoviet inheritance in coiTuption or A zovskj' "was perpetually strapped material for blackmail. As Deputy Secre- gangsterism, but as the former Moscow for cash." Hows that? Sure, his expenses tary nnder the president of the Security bureau chief of the Financial Times she on the villas, the private plane, the chil- Council, and later as Executive Secretary enjoyed access to several dozen top play- dren's boarding schools, the security, the of the CIS, Berezovsky made endless ers, and by effective juxtapositions she compromising dossiers, the politicians, high-level contacts, picking up cell phone punctures their individual puffery. In the and so on, were substantial—but the "god- numbers throughout the central and pro- case of Berezovsky; for example, she shows father of godfathers" strapped for cash? vincial bureaucracy and the former Soviet in her book that although some meetings Klebnikov does not explain. I would sug- republics. In the corridors and the dachas of the Yeltsin re-election effort in 1996 gest that Berez()vsk\''s multifarious—and of the political and propertied class, in the took place at LogoVaz Honse, a great many often disorganized ventures leaked money Chechen hills, or among the numerous people helped to organize the campaign, like a sieve. In the Aeroflot shenanigans, journalists whom Berezovsky employs or above all Anatoly Chubais and Igor Mal- Klebnikov implies that all the skimmed supports, ingratiators came to understand ashenko. (Berezovsky himself once told cash went to the top gny, but Berezovsky's that the quiekest way to his good graces, Komnier.sant that the key was bringing the "people" were no doubt taking substantial and his money, was to call him with the lat- presidents younger daughter Tanya into cuts for themselves up and down the line. est scoop, whatever he learned of before a the team, and opening a direct channel to The same goes for the oil business, and public announcement he would rush to the reclusive president, and that this had the relationship with Abramovieh, whose claim as his own idea, and the media, been Valentin Yumashev's idea.) apparent looting of Sibneft Klebnikov including those he does not own, would mentions but fails to assess adequately. As take his assertions of patrimony at face Of course, whatever the work of politi- for Berezovsky's appropriation of huge value, flattering his vanit\' and increasing cal operatives and the media manipula- sums associated with Yeltsin's re-election their viewership or the circulation. tion, tens of millions of educated Russians campaign in 1996, Klebnikov, citing em- went to the polls, and the candidates who Only the tiniest number of people has bezzlement estimates of between $200 lost were poor campaigners with circum- seen all the way behind the curtain. One million and $300 million, does not ex- scribed appeal. To guard against losing is Sergei Kiriyenko, the wunderkind cho- plain how many people had access to the sight of a country while illuminating the sen (briefly) by Yeltsin as prime minister money stream, and who stole from whom. world of "the oligarchs," Freeland follows between the long-serving gas king Cher- Within the looting, there was looting. her high-jinks narratives of scams and nomyrdin and the academic-diplomat crashes with "working family" interviews. Anyone who has spent time observing Primakov. Kiriyenko (a.k.a. Bambi) de- Her account of the falling-ins and falling- Berezovsl^ from the inside, the people mystified the Berezovsky- phenomenon for outs among the high and whining exhi- he receives, the phone calls, the brain- Klebnikov. "After spending five months bits a keen appreciation of the interplay storming sessions, can see that he is not at my job," the flred prime minister told between "oligarch" back-stabbing and co- especially focused on the details of busi- the author, dependency. By contrast, her adherence to ness. Hi.s operation, rim out of the old the fictiono f "young reformers," whom she Smirnoff mansion, which he refurbished I got the impression that all the stories calls "McKinsey Revolutionaries," intro- and renamed LogoVaz Honse, resembles a that Berezovsky tells about his ability to duces the air of a morality play; but this Russian novelist's depiction of life on a influence the presid(;nt directly are pure characterization is falsified by her own nobleman's estate, with concentric circles fiction. Berezovsky is able to project a narrative, let alone by what she neglects to of favorites, "hunting" partners, and lack- demonic image quite brilliantly. He does report, such as the shifty Chubais reign at eys, as well as musicians, painters, actors, this thanks to the fact that he has access the United Power monopoly. Some read- and other sponges. Wherever Berezovsky, to good information and as soon as he ers may also feel that even as Freeland known as "Borya," moves in, they move in finds out that someone, somewhere, is diminishes Berezovsky- and captures the right behind him, considering anything trying to do something, he immediately studied duplicity of the "blue blood" oli- that they encounter theirs for the taking. appears in public with a similar sugges- garch Vladimir Potanin, she is perhaps The "baron," who busies himself with tion, so that the next day, everyone will less exacting with Vladimir Gusinsky.

38 : OCTOBER 9, 2000 Gusinsky, to make a long and brutish their prize, but then the decree mysteri- ALASHENKO TOLD David Rem- story short, is a Soviet-era black market ously "got lost." By way of explanation, nick, v^ithout elaborating, "that hustler (jeans, New Age copper bracelets), Klebnikov points to jealous TV producers, M television turned out to be an gypsy cab driver, and youth festival im- who somehow managed to block a presi- 'incredibly profitable' business." That is a presario who, during perestroika, founded dential directive but capitulated when mysterious statement. The entire televi- MOST, a real estate and construction firm Gusinsky threatened to stage a car acci- sion advertising market in Russia is esti- that grew fat from city hall contracts dent—a piece of entertaining slander put mated at no more than $200 million, under Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, and really fat out hy Berezovsky. Freeland has the real which is not enough to operate NTV and after MOST 'S accounting department be- story: Kiselyov and Malashenko, making ORT, let alone the full spectrum of sta- came a bank to manage vast public money the rounds, accidentally discovered that tions. Whatever its political value, tele- from Moscow's municipal accounts. This Yeltsin's tennis coach, who kept a Kremlin vision in Russia certainly looks like an was the basic enrichment scheme that office, was eyeing Channel 4 for an all- invitation to financial bankruptcy. NTV created all the oligarchs, and Gusinsky sports network. When assured that NTV has survived only because the gas monop- pioneered it. Gusinsky s easier time with would have extensive sports program- oly, in which the government is the largest Freeland may result less from svTiipathy ming, he stepped aside. The elated duo shareholder, made a substantial invest- than from sources. Rather than rely on the paid a licensing fee that was all license ment in the station, in exchange for a 30 media echo chamber of self-promotion and no fee, for one of only a handful of percent stake—which has grovm to nearly and denunciation by Berezovsky and national TV stations. half as Gazprom extended "loans" to NTV Gusinsky, she cross-examines a viide and Klebnikov aptly describes NTV's early that were pledged against shares and are voluble circle, but Korzhakov adds a wild programming—during the six prime time unpaid. ORT, which is 51 percent state- card: he turned against Berezovsl^, but hours on what had been the country's owned and is therefore supposed to Luzhkov and Gusinsky remain fast allies, educational channel—as "pornography, receive federal budget financing, is in leaving us with considerably less first- horror, and gore (even hy American stan- roughly the same boat: in the spring of hand dirt on "the Groose." dards)." He also observes that the fledg- 1996, according to Mickiewicz, it received ling venture developed lively and popular just $30 million of the $220 million nec- essary to cover operating expenses from IV. news programs. These came in handy when it lucked into the graesome First the govemment. Berezovsky as minority Chechen War of 1994-1996, which as owner may have supplied some funding, LTIMATELY, ALL THE fi.lSS SUr- but unpaid debts accumulated. rounding Berezovsky and Gusin- Mickiewicz recounts, boosted ratings U sky arises not because they epito- "suddenly and substantially." NTV had But in a sense Malashenko was right. mize crony capitalism—the upper ten reporters on the frontline, gave airtime to People in Russian television have been percent of Russia's 145 million people do the Chechen side, and showed images that making very good money. Mickiewicz that—but because they control the coun- exposed official lies and the coverage on writes of "kickbacks and payola determin- try's top two television stations, ORT Channel 1. Korzhakov and others in the ing whose songs were played, whose firm and NTV. The eye-popping story of NTV Kremlin went berserk. With its license was covered as a news item," and of Duma (Independent Television) has never heen at stake, NTV became more cautious in politicians looking for coverage who must presented systematically, though Free- 1995, as Freeland notes, broadcasting pay their way on the box. Elections are land and Klebnikov tell parts of it, as did some government statements on the war El Dorado for the networks. (Sound famil- David Remnick in Resurrection and Ellen that its producers knew to he false. iar?) One executive told Mickiewicz in Mickiewicz in Changing ChanneU. It is a Still, it continued to let the images of 1993 that "some 82 percent of all televi- tale of parallel plots, fantastic fortunes, disorganized slaughter speak for them- sion airtime had been sold, or 'ordered' by skilled journalism, hyper-commercialism, selves. In just two years, NTV emerged as a interested parties," though she concedes and crashing overdue debt. Freedom of force to be reckoned with on the Russian that over time the extent of camouflaged the press, like any other right, can be sus- scene. It was largely in response to NTV's infomercials "was extremely difficult to tained only when it is adequately and coverage of Chechnya that President Yelt- identify." Ofren, Mickiewicz notes, "it was properly financed. sin and Korzhakov decided to cede con- the individual correspondent, not the NTV came about in 1993 on the initia- trol of ORT to a jealous Berezovsky. "Por- channel, who sold [the option of becom- tive of Yevgeny Kiselyov, host of Wrap- traying Gusinsky as a menace," Freeland ingj news stories." At NTV, the process Up, the popular Sunday night franchise on writes, "helped to enhance Berezozvsk>''s may be more organized, or more hierar- Channel 1 (the future' ORT), and Mala- own power." Indeed. Yet in a perverse way, chical. At the same time, according to shenko, an erstwhile think tank analyst the establishment of ORT may also have people with direct experience, rates for and Gorbachev aide, and latterly a state TV helped save NTV, for it made license revo- planting a two-minute "news" piece on executive. The boss at the state channel cation seem less urgent. More importantly NTV have declined over the years from drove these two talents to establish their for the new network, in March, 1996 MaJ- around $30,000 to $10,000. Other own production company, for which they ashenko signed on as chief media opera- stations, such as the fiilly private TV-e— sought backing from Gusinsky, who sug- tive for the Yeltsin re-election campaign. acquired by Berezovsky when its co- gested doing a vi'hole network that he NTV collaborated out of a mixture of con- founder, CNN, pulled out—have taken to would finance. Initially, NTV got permis- viction and self-interest: it opposed the tracking down victims of companies that sion to broadcast a few hours on the Communist candidate for president, and paid for "news stories" shown on NTV to regional St. Petersburg channel, also avail- it sought the rights to Channel 4's entire advance their interests. able to viewers in Moscow. During Yelt- broadcast day. "We understood," Mala- The opportunity to become the subject sin's \aolent clash with parliament in shenko told Freeland, "that if Yeltsin won of a positive feature or to defame one's ene- 1993, the infant network supported the the elections, then we would get that chan- mies, all in the guise of news, is for president and began lobbying for the nel." In the fall, afrer the electoral victory, sale to "sponsors" on both Russia's main right to broadcast on the more substantial NTV did get the extended hours, doubling networks, but the level of professionalism Channel 4. its airtime. Russia now had not one but on NTV is superior, and up to now it has The "entrepreneurs" appeared to obtain two Rupert Murdochs. provided far more of a counterweight

THE NEW REPUBLIC : OCTOBER 9, 2000 : 39 I to the government. Folloviing the brief Tragically, it required a Russian sub- thing. He had spent nearly a year sorting arrest of Gusinsky in June, which incon- marine to blow itself up, leaving its crew out a civil war among the bloated mili- gruously transformed him into a martyr, at the ocean floor, beyond rescue by their tary brass over the direction of military m the Kremlin pressured NTV s sugardaddy, own navy, for the world to rediscover the reforms, finally announcing that troop Gazprom, a partially state-ovnied com- banaJ fact that the Soviet Union has still strength would be cnt from 1.2 million to pany, to use the networks massive out- not finished collapsing, and that Vladi- 800,000, even tbongh the mobilization standing debt to force an ownership mir Putin is still in some ways a career for the Second (and ongoing) Chechen transfer. After releasing Gusinsky, who mid-level official with uncertain political War produced well under 100,000, c fled and remains abroad, the Kremlin instincts and with more problems than gmnts so that mercenaries bad to be CD pushed through the appointment of its power. And then the Promethean Soviet- hired. Putin did win a \ictory when the r— own heavy, and one-time Gusinsky casu- era television tower incurred a damaging Duma passed a flattax , reducing tax rates. o alty, as chief of a new gas monopoly sub- fire, and the Russian president, who was Now if only he could reduce Russia's army sidiary, called Gazprom Media, which has supposed to arrest the decline, howled of tax collectors, who calculate their ovm taken eharge of NTV forfeiture "negotia- at the dilapidated state of the country's "tax" rates, and often collect for them- tions," in tandem viith the state prosecu- infrastructure, and the need to do some- selves. • tor. Over at debt-ridden ORT, not long ago, Putin's Kremlin renewed Berezov- sk^''s operating license—bnt more recently he, too, was served with an ultimatum to relinquish his 49 percent stake or face criminal charges. Future control over both ORT and NTV remains unclear, and in the The Art of the balance hangs the fate of both Berezovsky and Gusinsky as "oligarchs." What does not hang in the balance is the fate of Rns- Temporary sia, whose daily life and far-flung regions are almost invisible on the Moscow-based "national" networks. By ADAM KIRSCH Collected Poems in English UTRAGED AT WHAT he sees in Russia, Klebnikov thinks that he by Joseph Brodsky O has the answer. Even though much of what appears in his book has edited by Ann Kjellberg nothing to do with Boris Berezovsky, (Fat-rar, Straus & Giroux, 540 pp., $30) Klebnikov relentlessly insists upon the tycoon's centrality with such hyperbole OSEPH BRODSKY, who died in tion—is, to put it bluntly, the goal of our as "he hijacked the state." But this mis- 1996 at the terribly early age of species." Brodsky even made the claim, takes symptom for disease. The Russian 55, now enjoys at least three contrary to his beloved Auden, that litera- state consists of millions of central and posthumous lives. First, and by ture is of direct moral and political benefit provincial officials, who are mostly con- far most important, is the Russ- to its readers: "I'll just say that I believe- trolled by no one, and certainly not by Jian poet who was frequently called the not empirically, aJas, but only theoreti- President Putin. This disarray in the state best poet of his generation, the heir to cally—that for someone who has read a lot inhibits the establishment of either an Akhmatova, Mandelstam, and Tsvetaeva. of Dickens, to shoot his like in the name of effective regulatory civil service or an This body of work is inaccessible to most some idea is somewhat more problematic effective dictatorship (let alone a "retum American readers, this writer included, than for someone who has read no Dick- to totalitarianism"). This is also what but Brodsky himself saw it as the heart of ens." When Brodsky made sueh asseri:ions, allows Berezovsl^—and many, many oth- his achievement. In 1987, after he received his audience could not easily dismiss ers at various levels—to poach and to "pri- the Nobel Prize, an interviewer asked him them, because his own life was an example vatize" select officials, systematically or if he had won as an American poet of of poetry saving a soul from tyranny. on a one-time basis. If there really were a Russian origin or a Russian poet living The story of that life has been told and Russian state to hijack, Berezovsky would in America, and he firmly replied: "A retold, though seldom by Brodsky himself. not exist as a phenomenon whose sig- Russian poet, an English essayist, and, of {"For a writer to mention his penaJ experi- nificance virtually everyone (not least in conrse, an American citizen." ences," he wTote, "is like dropping names Washington) loves to inflate. Brodsky's second legacy is his uniquely for normal folk.") In his early twenties, he Freeland, who offers a rounder and passionate and humanistic defense of was savaged in the Soviet literary press subtler criticism of the oligarchs, is skep- poetry, made in the face of Soviet repres- and hauled before a Leningrad tribu- tical that Putin can "discipline" or sweep sion and American indifference. He was nal, which demanded: "Who included yon them away, popular as such a step would one of the few writers and thinkers in our among the ranks of the poets?" His reply— be domestically and internationally. The time who wonld argue, without embar- "No one. Who included me among the problem extends beyond specific indi- rassment, that "poetr>- occupies a bigher ranks of human beings?"—has become viduals, wbo would simply be replaced. position than prose, and the poet, in prin- legendary, but at the time he paid for it Reaching for the big picture, Freeland ciple, is higher than the prose wTiter"; and with a year and a half in an Arctic labor compares Russia to an heiress consuming more, that "literature—and poetry in par- settlement. Prevented from publishing, her inheritance. "After a decade of almost ticular, being the highest form of locn- Brodsky was eventually expelled from the no investment," she concludes, Russia's Soviet Union in 1972, never to see bis Soviet-era infrastructure "is beginning to ADAM KIRSCH v/rites frequently about family or his country again. The courage decay." Beginning? poetry for The New Republic. with which he then remade his life and

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