Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin–Maxim Shipenkov/AFP/Getty Images Images Shipenkov/AFP/Getty Vladimir Putin–Maxim and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev Russian President The Age of Impunity: Russia After Communism and Under Putin

By Michael Weiss and Julia Pettengill

Copyright Henry Jackson Society, 2011 About the Henry Jackson Society The Henry Jackson Society: Project for Democratic Geopolitics is a cross-partisan, British think-tank which seeks to pursue, protect and promote the principles of free and democratic societies. Our founders and supporters are united by a common interest in fostering a strong British, European and American commitment towards freedom, liberty, constitutional democracy, human rights, governmental and institutional reform and a robust foreign, security and defence policy and transatlantic alliance. The Henry Jackson Society is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales under company number 07465741 and a charity registered in England and Wales under registered charity number 1140489. For more information about The Henry Jackson Society’s activities, our research programme and public events please see www.henryjacksonsociety.org

Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Taylor Brudos, Dr Paul Gunn, Belgin Palaz, Katharine Thane, Erik Tropp and Edward Winfield for their research assistance.

2 About the Authors Michael Weiss Director of Communications A widely published journalist, Weiss has expertise in the Israel-Palestine conflict and human rights in the Middle East. He recently wrote HJS’s Media Briefing: “Fatah-Hamas Reconciliation: A Preliminary Assessment” and co-wrote “The Syrian Opposition: Analysis with Original Testimony from Key Figures”. Weiss has been published in Slate, The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, The Daily Telegraph, The New Criterion, The Guardian, Beirut’s Daily Star, Asharq Alawsat, Foreign Policy, Prospect, Standpoint, Democratiya and The New Republic. He keeps a regular blog on foreign policy and the Middle East for the Daily Telegraph and one on culture for The New Criterion.

Julia Pettengill Research Fellow Julia Pettengill is the co-author of “Regional Actors and the Fatah-Hamas Unity Deal,” and “A Guilt Beyond Crime: The Future of Genocide Prevention in the Anglo-American Sphere”, published by the Henry Jackson Society in 2009, and cited in the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission’s 2010 report “Those Who Bear the Greatest Responsibility.” Pettengill holds an MA in Modern History from the University of St Andrews, and worked as a writer and researcher prior to joining HJS as a Research Fellow in May 2011.

3 Introduction

“The clock of communism has tolled its final hour. But the concrete structure has not completely collapsed. Instead of being liberated, we may be crushed beneath the rubble.”

Alexander Solzhenitsyn made this prediction just prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the revival of Russian autocracy in the last decade has sadly demonstrated the prescience of Solzhenitsyn’s prophecy.1 This is not to say that the Russia of 2011 was fated to endure the “sovereign democracy” of Vladimir Putin, as is all- too-often suggested. As the country prepares for its next round of pantomimed elections, it is important to reflect upon the developments and decisions which led the country to its current state. Indeed, a closer inspection reveals a country which is reaping the consequences of poor decisions made in the panicked days of the first post-Soviet decade. Seven decades of totalitarianism left the country with a devastated economy, atomised society and perverse political culture. The political developments of the twenty years following the collapse of the Soviet Union bear significant implications for Russia’s future political development, and important lessons for transitioning societies around the globe. This report provides an overview of the key developments of post-Soviet Russia which contributed to the current status quo, including the formative decisions of the Yeltsin era; the origins and reasons for the success of “Putinism;” the merger of oligarchic and state interests under Putin; the decline in political freedom; Putin’s economic policy and foreign policy.

Protestors on the Berlin Wall near Brandenburg Gate in 1989. -- Robert Maass/Corbis

4 “THE REVOLUTION BETRAYED”: THE YELTSIN YEARS

Boris Yeltsin was elected president revolutionise the economy through been established in every Russian of the Russian Federation in “shock therapy” was headed by region, with local branches in December 1991, riding a wave of Yegor Gaidar, Anatoly Chubais and hundreds of cities and towns. popular support after facing down Dmitry Vasiliev, rebel idealists who While the infrastructure was in the attempted coup by hardline had read Hayek and Friedman under place, the GKI erred significantly in members of the Politburo in 1991. the covers during the Brezhnev its two-phased programme to win Yeltsin rose to prominence as a era. The Financial Times’ former political support. The first mistake democratic populist during the years Moscow correspondent Chrystia was to offer workers and managers of glasnost and perestroika and, as Freeland memorably dubbed them up to 40 per cent shares in their president, brought in the economic “McKinsey revolutionaries”: while old companies and to grant them “young reformers” responsible for they all had a “Big Idea” about how the right to buy 51 per cent of the managing Russia’s transition for to transform their country, they voting shares at cut-rate prices. The communism to the free market. The were less interested in overseeing managers took advantage and then reformers’ hopes of privatising Soviet the detail-oriented execution of that some. Soon followed the spate of assets and building a widespread transformation.4 The result was a so-called “Red directors”— former middle-class did not materialise as shock therapy administered without factory managers who became envisioned: by the time Yeltsin left circuit breakers. wealthy rent-seekers overnight but office in 1999, ten per continued to run their cent of the population businesses like corrupt owned half of Russia’s and unaccountable state wealth, 50 per cent enterprises. Instead of owned less than a fifth, free enterprise, a kind of and between 30 and 40 kleptocratic feudalism million people subsisted persisted. According to below the poverty line.3 Joseph Blasi, a Rutgers After the collapse of the University professor Soviet Union in 1992, the who advised Chubais weakened rule of law, and GKI, two-thirds an acquaintance with of medium and large market principles and the Russian companies institutions underpinning retained their old Soviet social and political directors because of stability presented a the GKI’s over-generous daunting combination incentives package.5 of challenges for the The most ruthless and newly-formed Russian Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin stands atop an armoured personnel carrier urging self-aggrandising of Federation. Many Russians to resist a central government takeover by Soviet hardliners– AP these Red directors of the most important building The economic reformers took their were the gazoviki and neftyaniki – blocks of the new state were put practical inspiration from the broadly the managers of Russia’s enormous into place incorrectly or not at all. successful and unprecedented natural gas and oil companies, The Supreme Soviet, (the Soviet- privatisation policies imposed who lacked any regard for minority era parliament) was not dissolved in Poland beginning in the late shareholder rights or corporate until 1993 in an action which 1980s. However, unlike their Polish governance. Not that this was provoked a constitutional crisis; counterparts, the young reformers entirely their fault for none had what had remained of the pre- had no political base of their own had a crash course on ethics, democratic body was dominated by – they served exclusively at the transparency or even proper apparatchiks and Bolshevik managers pleasure of Yeltsin and with the bookkeeping methods. The historian of publicly owned enterprises. backing of Western economists Robert Conquest recalled visiting St Their political predominance – and relied on coaxing wary a Petersburg toward the end of the hobbled a comprehensive and Soviet elite into accepting mass Soviet era and inquiring about the principled economic liberalisation privatisation. In 1991, Chubais state of Russian roads. He was first programme, leading to governance founded the State Privatisation met with shrugging complacence: by half-measures and compromised Committee (GKI) to administer the “Our roads are bad.” expediencies. auctioning off of vast state assets. By the end of the year, GKI offices had “...Yes. Why is that?” The team appointed by Yeltsin to

5 “It’s our weather - an isotherm runs majority stake in the tin factory. organisations engaged in unlikely down the Finnish border.” business practices. In one of the Red directors also typically owned most infamous examples of this “And seriously?” more shares than they were lawfully practice, the Russian Orthodox entitled to, a fact which the GKI “They were built by the state.” Church imported cigarettes and overlooked and which the chaotic alcohol duty-free. Elsewhere, “Yes, but we have roads in England legal system was unable to redress. misbegotten tax havens, known as which were built by the Roman state As a result, although most Russian ofshornaya zona, were established nearly two thousand years ago, and firms were successfully privatised by to give start-up companies limitless some of them are still sound.” 1994, the majority continued to be profits in exchange for expensive run like mismanaged public entities. “Ah, but then the centurion would registration fees, which of course Journalist Mikhail Berger termed check that the six layers of stone had the knock-on effect of enriching this phenomenon “corruption for had been laid down. Here, the tax haven specialists. Some of the sake of democracy.”7 Chubais inspector asks the foreman if these offshore registration moguls himself lamented the monster he they have been laid down and is then parlayed their wealth into 6 had helped create, but maintained answered with a bottle of vodka.” political influence, as when Mikhail that privatisation would recover Gutseriev, a tax haven registrar in The young reformers’ cut-corners from its infancy of lawless Ingushetia, purchased seats in the approach to privatising Russia made rapaciousness and give way to a Duma for Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s no allowances for rehabilitating future equilibrium. According to ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic this culture of impunity—an liberal politician Sergei Kovalyev, Party of Russia.10 omission which would have lasting Chubais once said that the Red consequences for the subsequent directors: “... steal and steal and The uncertainties and insecurities decade. steal. They are stealing absolutely created by Russia’s “Wild West” To take one well-known example, everything and it is impossible economic landscape proved even after the majority of the state- to stop them. But let them steal unattractive to Russian-born owned gas giant Gazprom had entrepreneurs. In the early been privatised, the state still 1990s, capital flight cost retained maximum authority “Corruption for the Russia between $10 and $20 in the company’s dealings. billion per year. By 1994, The company charter allowed sake of democracy.” Russia lost an estimated managers to overrule private $5 billion in tax revenue, transfers of shares, and because of and began to be treated a secret agreement – which was and take their property. They will with suspicion by the International later nullified – managers were also then become owners and decent Monetary Fund (IMF), which was 8 allowed to buy additional shares for administrators of this property.” heavily invested in the country’s economic recovery.11 The difficulties themselves well below market price. Instead, they led to a new class of that Russia faced during this time Gazprom was also exempt from a host Russian oligarchs, many of whom were compounded by Yeltsin’s of export and import tariffs, as well as leveraged their old Communist conspicuous deficiencies as a leader. value-added tax. connections into preferential His willingness to incorporate the financial deals and were then able Another notorious case was the Novyke Russkyi, or new business to amass astounding fortunes Novosibirsk Tin Factory, whose class, into the machinery of state very quickly. State industries that Red director, Aleksandr Dugelny, paralleled the reign of the Soviet had been given away to citizen embraced the new economic nomenklatura; it also undermined “shareholders” in the form of regime with the criminal zeal of popular faith in the possibility of vouchers worth approximately $60 Al Capone. Dugelny intentionally achieving genuine democratic reform. undervalued the company’s (USD) each were bought up by a assets in order to seize majority small group of people including The lucky few who thrived under ownership, and then sold off Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Boris Yeltsin’s market reforms lived part of the tin factory to another Berezovsky and Roman Abramovich flamboyantly and imprudently, 9 company with which he had for a fraction of their value. The with little interest in investing personal financial dealings. He scheme was disastrous; it effectively in the long-term futures of their further manipulated the factory’s sold off a large part of the Russian companies, let alone in that of labour force into selling him their economy for a mere $9 billion, Russia herself. Free capitalist own legally designated shares by divesting citizen shareholders from societies will always suffer from refusing to pay their wages until their stake in the new capitalism. graft, payola and cronyism, but at least there are law enforcement they gave in. Despite being found Another significant blunder was bodies in place to pre-empt or guilty of violating Russian law, the provision of tax loopholes punish the malefactors. These Dugelny received only a nominal through which various non-industrial fine and was allowed to keep his did not exist in Yeltsin’s Russia in

6 any meaningful way. The lack of purchase ORT, the state-owned fixed auctions. Loans-for-shares effective anti-monopoly legislation television company. Berezovsky worked simply. In the first three also enabled the growth of transformed ORT into a propaganda months, the state would pay its financial-industrial groups (FIGs) channel for Yeltsin and was oligarch creditors at a low interest – banks linked to major media or particularly helpful in supporting rate. Once the loans ran out, which energy companies – which claimed the Kremlin’s “Party of War” in they were scheduled to do in total dominance of entire markets. their efforts to escalate the already September 1996, the government The failure to enforce and build devastating conflict in Chechnya. would either have to repay them up effective campaign finance ORT also became Berezovsky’s in full or sell its shares outright to and conflict-of-interest laws also personal counterweight to Vladimir the lenders for a price equal to 30 allowed FIG owners to parlay their Gusinsky’s muckraking NTV percent of the difference between economic fiefdoms into political television station, which had given a the market value of those shares “clans,” all of which vied for pre- fair hearing to Chechen separatism and the original amount lent to the eminence within the Kremlin. and was known for its anti-Kremlin government. A second round of Thomas E. Graham, a former senior investigative journalism. In auctions would then take place after political analyst at the US embassy retaliation, Aleksandr Korzakhov, the 1996 presidential race, thereby in Moscow, wrote a much-discussed Yeltsin’s bodyguard and the leading linking the loans-for-share scheme article in Nezavisimaya Gazeta in Party of War champion, ordered inextricably to Yeltsin’s re-election 1995 arguing that five or six elite the Presidential Security Service campaign. clans, each with its own FIG behind to chase Gusinksy’s motorcade Although theoretically open to all, it, engaged in the kind of political through downtown Moscow. The loans-for-shares was in fact rigged tug-of-war that had formerly farcical scene ended in bloodshed from the start; foreign investors, defined the relationship between when Security Service agents who were viewed with the Russian executive and suspicion both in the legislative branches from Soviet and post-Soviet 1989 to 1991.12 By May eras, were barred from 1998, there were over 80 bidding on the extremely registered FIGs in Russia enticing state holdings representing 1,000 industrial as were most domestic companies and 100 banks.13 investors outside the small In this way, FIGs effectively consortium of Red directors allowed seven bankers and oligarchs who had been to manipulate Russia’s pre-approved as lenders. economy while they also Potanin’s Oneximbank self-interestedly determined (not coincidentally) Yeltsin’s economic policies. Exiled Russian billionaire and fierce Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky organised the entire Vladimir Potanin, one —AFP/Getty Images auction process. Thus were most of the original oligarchs and the bludgeoned Gusinsky’s private non-approved bidders found head of Oneximbank, used his detail in front of more than 30 to have “irregularities” in their pedigreed Soviet background (he international news cameras, all applications. Mikhail Khodorkovsky attended Moscow State Institute with Berezovsky’s facilitation and purchased Yukos – a giant oil for International Relations, which Yeltsin’s presumed acquiescence.15 company that had absorbed was practically a finishing school for The “loans-for-shares” scheme and hybridised pre-existing oil future Foreign Ministry officials) to cemented the hold of the oligarchs enterprises, from extraction acquire the State Customs Agency, over the Kremlin. This disastrous plants to refineries – for $9 million which controlled 10 percent of arrangement was cooked up in 1994 above the starting price of $159 Russia’s GDP at the time.14 after Vladimir Potanin offered to million. Khodorkovsky prevailed The semibankirshchina, or reign “manage” the mineral production over a formidable troika of banks of the seven bankers, inevitably company Norlisk Nickel in exchange competing to buy the fantastically escalated into full-on gang warfare for a sizeable commercial “loan” to undervalued company17. Berezovsky culminating in the infamous “faces the government, issued by his own bought Sibneft, the newly-created on the snow” incident of 1994. Oneximbank, intended to combat conglomerate that merged an oil Boris Berezovsky, the head of the high inflation.16 The scheme was refinery with a production company Avotaz car manufacturing empire, also seen as a quick way to correct for a mere $300,000 above the had leveraged his cosiness with the earlier problem of allowing Red starting price of $100 million. Even Yeltsin’s cabinet, particularly the directors to horde all the state’s Chubais complained that loans- president’s daughter Tatyana industrial assets; instead, the seven for-shares was the exact opposite Yumasheva, to convince the oligarchs would now gain control of of free enterprise: “There is no government to allow him to key oil, steel and gas assets through competition, no openness,” he

7 reportedly told Potanin. “It is not in regulations and transparency into pocketbooks of the new billionaire our tradition.”18 Despite the flagrant the economy that he formerly elite, Yeltsin unsurprisingly chose abuses of the system, the GKI assumed would spontaneously the latter. In the meantime, no effort allowed these practices to continue, fall into place. Yet Chubais and was made to institute the necessary as did Western governments and the other young reformers safeguards to immunise Russia from economic institutions, which cast a completely underestimated the impending economic collapse. Nelsonian eye on a scheme sure to political ramifications of their great That collapse began in 1997 when open up the Russian market further experiment. As Gaidar told Chrystia the Asia markets plummeted and oil to outside investment. Freeland, “We did not foresee how prices followed, falling from $18 a short-sighted the strategy of the so- The Russian people became barrel at the start of the year to $15 called oligarchs would be, to what so disaffected with the Yeltsin by the end.22 On October 28, 1997, degree they would prove unable to government over this and other the Russian stock market dropped understand their own self-interest. corrupt practices that, in 1996, they by 20 per cent. Shocked by the scale They were the very richest and so appeared poised to elect Communist and depth of the Russian meltdown, they stood to suffer the most if the leader Gennady Zyuganov president. the IMF froze $700 million of its Russian market fell.”20 Worried that their patron would $10 billion loan to Russia, and only be ejected from power, and their The fundamental incompatibility agreed to release the funds after loans-for-shares gambit would be between oligarchy and the state concluded a few major nullified, the oligarchs entered into democratisation became apparent investment deals. In May 1998, an agreement known as the “Davos almost immediately after Yeltsin’s the second wave of the crisis hit Pact” because of venue – that year’s re-election. Gusinsky believed he even harder when Russia proved World Economic Forum –where the was entitled to a prize for using unable to find a single bidder for agreement was made. Namely, they his Most Media empire to help Rosneft, the last remaining state- would use their considerable owned oil company to be financial power and political sold off. Rosneft’s auction clout to ensure Yeltsin’s re- was expected to generate election. Berezovsky’s ORT $2.1 billion in public revenue and Gusinsky’s NTV mounted but share prices across a vigorous propaganda the board had dropped 10 campaign to depict Yeltsin as percent in a single day. By a brave and capable leader the end of May, the whole and to smear Zyuganov, of the Russian market was often with outright lies about down to 40 percent of its where he planned to take former value. Interest rates Russia once elected. As one skyrocketed to 150 percent. NTV insider put it, “We’ve The government’s hard produced so many versions Head of the Russian Nanotechnology Corporation (Rosnano) Anatoly Chubais currency debt stood at $140 – RIA Novosti [of Zyuganov’s economic billion, with a repayment plans] that the communists the Kremlin; he wanted to be schedule mandating payments of a themselves can’t remember which is the sole bidder for Sviazinvest, a crippling $1-1.5 billion per week.23 the real thing anymore.”19 much-desired telecommunications The catastrophe propelled Chubais umbrella company.21 However, Yeltsin’s eventual victory in 1996 back into the Kremlin inner circle, Chubais, now a convert to “pure” not only solidified the oligarchs’ as he was seen as the only Russian free enterprise, vowed that collective kingmaker status, economist whom Western lenders Sviazinvest’s auction would be but also rewarded them with would ever trust. However, initial open and fair. When Potanin took official influence. Potanin was promises by the United States Chubais at his word and decided named deputy prime minister; and the World Bank to provide to compete with Gusinsky for Berezovsky was appointed deputy Russia with a sorely needed bail- Sviazinvest, he provoked the so- head of the Kremlin Security out of $10 billion were rescinded called “Bankers’ War,” wherein Council; and Chubais, a principal after Yeltsin’s new prime minister, the old court-whispering allies enabler of the oligarchs, became Sergei Kiriyenko, failed to follow- turned on each other. By war’s end, Yeltsin’s chief of staff, a role he up on the aid promise with the Chubais’ comrades, who never had a embraced by vowing an end to Clinton White House, a lapse which political following of their own, had very patronage system that he seriously undermined Washington’s been dismissed from government had helped formulate. Chubais by confidence in Moscow’s economic and Chubais himself had lost his now believed that having secured stability. After much coaxing by positions as minister of finance and Russian democracy, however the oligarchs, Chubais agreed to deputy prime minister. In a choice tenuously defined, he could finally head the international negotiating between capitalist idealism and the begin to introduce necessary team tasked with saving Russia

8 from bankruptcy. He secured $22.6 troika of emergency measures rejoined the Kremlin as a political billion in aid from the IMF and other after sustained lobbying by the strategist, while Primakov was international institutions over the US government. Russia returned expelled. next two years.24 to Soviet-style austerity, including Berezovsky and Khodorkovsy the all-too-familiar sight of long Although such manoeuvres helped founded a new party called Unity, queues on cold city streets. About in the short term, they ultimately which merged with its onetime $13 billion of government debt failed to bring the economy back rival, Fatherland-All Russia in 2001 affected by the default was owned on track owing to a phenomenon to form Putin and Medvedev’s by foreign investors. Long-Term nicknamed by Western bankers current political party, United Capital Management, a Connecticut- the “Foreign Investor Exit Facility.” Russia.29 Berezovsky lobbied for the based investment fund, nearly Instead of letting the Kremlin correct presidential candidacy of Vladimir collapsed. By the time the market its cash-flow crisis and restore Putin, the newly appointed prime re-stabilised, Western banks that had investor confidence in the Russian minister and former director of bought Russian currency recouped market, the foreign aid merely gave the FSB (successor to the KGB), a mere three to five cents on the foreign investors more time to sell and transformed him into a media dollar.27 The impact on the general off their assets and holdings and quit darling overnight. Berezovsky’s ORT public was even more intense and the country altogether. By August also worked concurrently to smear immediate: retailers lost thousands 1997, capital was haemorrhaging the reputations of Putin’s rivals, of dollars in a week, with even from Russia. More alarmingly, the namely Yevgeny Primakov and Yuri the price of a cup of tea varying men who had become symbols for Luzhkov, the mayor of Moscow. wildly throughout the course of a economic stability – Chubais and Despite Putin’s warning that “[those] given day. Many burgeoning small- Sergei Dubinin, the chairman of the who have money shouldn’t control businessmen scrambled to exchange Central Bank of Russia – spent the society... the oligarchs must not, their increasingly worthless roubles worst part of the financial crash on and have no right to influence for US dollars. holiday as the rest of the Yeltsin government decisions,”30 the government acted as if nothing had The average Russian’s response oligarchs were convinced that Putin gone wrong. was characteristic of a people was their man. His inscrutable accustomed to disappointment persona and intense personal loyalty, In the first eight business days of and pessimism. Rather than reject demonstrated during his tenure in August 1998, the Central Bank the economic reforms of shock the office of St Petersburg mayor of Russia lost $300 million per therapy, they rejected the reformers. Anatoly Sobchak, were invaluable day.25 On August 11, SBS-Agro and “We trusted the promises of our commodities to a cabinet riven by Inkombank defaulted on a margin government and of our Central internecine treacheries. Yeltsin’s call, creating a ripple effect that hit a Bank,” a 35 year-old accountant support for Putin is likely to have series of other banks to which those told Chrystia Freeland. “They said: hinged on the latter’s willingness to two giants were linked by mutual ‘Trust the commercial banks, put bury the crimes of the “Family.” As loans. Ordinary Russians began your money there, they will pay president, Putin’s first official act was withdrawing their cash en masse as you higher interest.’ Now I will to grant Yeltsin and his allies legal the Central Bank estimated that it never trust a Russian government immunity from prosecution. would need $1 billion to keep the again. I only trust the International rouble within its 6.2 to 1 ratio to Ultimately, Russia’s “second Monetary Fund. Why can’t they the dollar.26 As pleas to devalue the revolution” was betrayed, too. send us some intelligent Western rouble poured in from commercial Neoliberal principles and the government and send our own banks, Yeltsin refused to adjust the hard work of institution-building ministers to some desert island?” 28 Russian currency. were compromised for the sake The crash destroyed the oligarchs’ of political expediency and get- By the end of the crisis, the Russian bank holdings, although their rich-quick schemes for a lucky few. government was compelled to industrial ones remained intact, The result was a Frankenstein’s implement three emergency giving them the leverage for one monster of Soviet-style bribery and measures: a moratorium on last political regrouping. The the most avaricious tendencies commercial debt repayment, a interregnum between the end of of unregulated capitalism. In this default on domestic debt and the Yeltsin’s reign and the beginning climate, it was hardly a surprise that devaluation of the rouble. The of Putin’s was marked by bitter ordinary Russians beaten down by IMF criticised Chubais for not factionalism and a manic-depressive the disappointments of the crazed instituting taxation and budgetary governing style. Berezovsky was 90’s would seek a strong leader to reform before the crisis struck. run out of the Kremlin by Yevgeny save them from economic hardship IMF managing director Michel Primakov, one of the five prime and restore a sense of certainty and Camdessus even threatened to expel ministers Yeltsin appointed in a order in their lives. Vladimir Putin Russia from the body’s membership; two-year merry-go-round of cabinet easily cast himself as the right man he only agreed to support the replacements. Berezovsky later for the job.

9 THE STRONGMAN COMETH: THE RISE OF VLADIMIR PUTIN

When Boris Yeltsin decided to step his own personality cult complete dictatorship of the proletariat. down in 1999, just a few months with socialist realist depictions of He also introduced a number of prior to the 2000 presidential his anointed role as restorer and necessary and welcome economic elections, he appointed his prime rebuilder. As early as 2000, the reforms, including a flat tax to minister, Vladimir Putin, as acting following sentence appeared in a encourage retailers to abandon president. Yeltsin insisted that popular Russian children’s textbook: the black market; legislation that “the new century must begin “Putin had so many friends—the allowed for the private ownership of with a new political era—the era entire country of Russia—and land; and the repayment of foreign of Putin.”31 Putin—a former KGB they elected him president. Now loans using the revenue created by operative stationed in Bonn and the everyone says: ‘Russia, Putin, high oil prices. grandson of Stalin’s cook32—took Unity!’”34 At the same time, Putin’s power at time when governance was Russia was suffering increasingly a severe crisis in defined by the type national confidence. of authoritarian Not much was measures rooted known about in his KGB past. He Putin by anyone installed a coterie outside rarefied of loyalists in the political circles, Kremlin, drawn but within just a from the ranks of few months this the FSB as well as rather nondescript from the tight-knit apparatchik milieu from his days had cultivated a in the St Petersburg messianic aura as mayoral office. This the one true saviour new elite became of an exhausted known as the siloviki, and ruined Russia. Boris Yeltsin thanks Vladimir Putin for his services– RFE / RL or “strongmen.” Putin would restore Russia’s self- Despite his retrograde rhetoric, By the time Putin’s first term in confidence through the promotion Putin initially committed to a office ended in 2004, the secret of a version of nationalism which programme of reform, promising services and military comprised combined certain Slavophile tropes to build a law-abiding state, lower an estimated 25 per cent of senior adopted by Stalin during and after bureaucratic barriers, allow private governmental posts, up by nearly 15 World War II with an increasingly investors to contribute to the per cent from the Yeltsin era.35 The explicit nostalgia for the Soviet economy, develop small and middle siloviki were united in their belief Union itself; a hybridisation businesses and tackle social ills that the privatisation programme embodied by Putin’s 2005 remark (alcoholism, poor health). Putin of the 1990s had been disastrous, that the collapse of the old system declared a “dictatorship of the and that the new government was “the greatest geopolitical law” as the guiding principle of should recapture control of Russia’s catastrophe of the 20th century.”33 his presidency, already an implicit strategic industries. Putin moved quickly to promote nod to the Leninist notion of the

10 KREMLIN, INC: PUTIN AND THE OLIGARCHS

On 28 July 2000, Putin invited Kremlin and oligarchic interests undisguised thieving at the heart of Russia’s most important oligarchs to reaffirmed the existing culture of Russia’s state capitalism. Navalny’s a meeting at the Kremlin, at which opacity and impunity in Russia’s website RosPil routinely uncovers he made it clear that he would not business community with an bogus government contracts, and reverse the privatisation efforts added innovation: public servants reveals how the relatives of top begun in the 1990s, but only in themselves became the new government officials often control exchange for the oligarchs’ promises oligarchs, handed profitable big businesses. For example, the to stay out of politics.36 Monopolistic directorships of remaining state former governor of one oil-rich practices would be allowed to enterprises or renationalised private province – who spearheaded the continue so long as the monopolists ones. Today, Russia’s most powerful conglomeration of companies in didn’t use their wealth to undermine businesses are stacked with either that province – named his son to the new president. While some Kremlin officials or individuals run the conglomerate. The governor oligarchs consented to this quid with close ties to the Kremlin. For of another region has a 22 year-old pro quo arrangement, others were example, Gazprom-Media, which niece who owns a major stake in unwilling to cede their political includes Berezovsky’s former holding a multi-million dollar pipe factory. influence. In fact, some had Another governor’s 18 year-old actually become politicians: Boris daughter owns a plywood mill and Berezovsky was now a deputy local businesses. As Navalny put in the State Duma (the lower on Russian television, assailing a house of Russian parliament) member of United Russia directly: and, despite his early support for “How does all this wonderful Putin, quickly bristled at these entrepreneurial talent appear only newfound restrictions. in the children of United Russia members? What business schools After learning that the Kremlin did they attend?”40 was paying deputies bribes of $5,000 to vote to restructure the Navalny noticed that Transneft, Federation Council (the upper the state oil-transport monopoly house of Russian parliament), in (which has the Russian energy the summer of 2000 Berezovsky minister as chairman of the reportedly offered the deputies board), had claimed to donate $7,000 to vote against the $300 million to charity in 2007; proposal.37 According to many a sum equal to more than 10 observers at the time, Berezovsky percent of Transneft’s profits had expected to continue to that year. As a shareholder in operate from behind the scenes; Transneft, albeit a small one, when Putin would not allow Boris Nemtsov, joint leader of opposition bloc Party of People’s Navalny asked to see the list him to do this, he began to Freedom, speaks during a news conference in Moscow – Reuters of philanthropies Transneft challenge Putin openly. The starkest supposedly made such a substantial ORT, was acquired by Rossiya Bank manifestation of that challenge donation to, but his request was in 2005 for just $166 million. Rossiya occurred during the government’s denied. He then asked the Russian Bank’s chairman is Yuri Kovalchuk, a horrible mishandling of the Kursk Interior Ministry to open a criminal long-time associate of Putin.39 Even submarine disaster of August 2000. investigation, but when Transneft at the regional level, local United Berezovsky’s media empire went refused to provide testimony, the Russia politicians are found to have to work exposing the lethargic and case was closed. When Navalny relatives with no prior commercial incompetent Kremlin response to appealed to the court, the detective experience in charge of hugely a national crisis, a provocation that in charge of the case claimed to have profitable enterprises. Civil servants, eventually led the government to lost the case materials.41 who officially make five-figure accuse Berezovsky of embezzlement salaries, are found to be the owners Boris Nemtsov, former deputy and fraud. Berezovsky left the of multi-million dollars dachas, or prime minister under Yeltsin and country for exile in London in 2001 wearing luxury watches that would a currently a leading opponent of where he continues to live today. His cost half their yearly earnings. the Putin regime, has published holdings were sold to still-loyal Putin a five-part series of white papers, allies Roman Abramovich and Oleg Alexey Navalny, a prominent anti- co-authored by Vladimir Milov, Deripaska.38 corruption campaigner, has dedicated exposing the economic, political and himself to exposing the laughably This new merger between cultural deficiencies of Putinshchina.

11 In one paper, Nemtsov and Milov Roman Abramovich’s Millhouse, an official annual salary and military analyse the style and breadth of and the powerful oil trader Gunvor? pension amounting to around Russian corruption and name names Can it really be that some Danish, $148,000.43 If true, this would make belonging to this occlusive class of Swedish, Finnish and Chukotsk him one of the ten wealthiest men in beneficiaries. “There remain too businessmen have come to own a the world. Yet here is what is publicly many other unpleasant questions to good half of Russia without sharing disclosed as Putin’s real estate be asked of Putin and his entourage,” with Putin?”42 Indeed, international holdings: “a 77m2 flat, a small plot of Nemtsov and Milov have written. analysts estimate that Putin’s own land, and a garage.”43a “Who is the real co-owner of net worth hovers somewhere Surfugtneftegaza, Megafon, Sky Link, between $20 to $40 billion, despite

THE YUKOS AFFAIR: THE PRICE OF DOING BUSINESS IN PUTIN’S RUSSIA

The state-sponsored prosecution the country’s business prospects. American company owning a of Yukos Executives Mikhail Yukos proved of particular interest controlling interest in Russia’s Khodorkovsky and Platon for two reasons: the massive second largest oil-producer was Lebedev and the expropriation value of the company and the not one that Putin was willing to of the company by the state increasingly strident, anti-Putin tolerate. Within a few hours of the was a watershed moment in political activities undertaken by meeting, the Kremlin ordered raids the assertion of Putinism as Khodorkovsky. on Yukos’ offices and announced the operating framework of that it held evidence of tax In July 2003, Platon Lebedev, the Russian government. Yukos evasion by the company. On the CEO of Yukos’ holding company was a state-owned oil company 25 October 2003, Khodorkovsky Group Menatep, was arrested on purchased at a knockdown price was arrested by FSB agents who a troika of trumped-up charges. by Khodorkovsky during boarded his private jet at the loans-for-shares Tolmachevo airport. scheme of the mid-90’s. The Prosecutor’s Office Initially, Khodorkovsky’s froze 44 per cent of Yukos’ management of the shares—the first time that company was just as private assets on this scale unethical as his fellow had been interfered with by oligarchs, but between the post-Soviet state. The 1999 and 2000, action sparked fears of a Khodorkovsky executed stock market crash and the a dramatic volte face, withdrawal of international and Yukos became the investment, and provoked first Russian company alarmed protests from to adopt Western Western government standards of corporate Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev wait in the court dock in Moscow representatives and governance, transparency — Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images business leaders. The and shareholder rights. The At the time, Khodorkovsky was state increased its charges against measures were adopted in the engaged in negotiations with Khodorkovsky and Lebedev to hopes of securing the company’s Chevron and ExxonMobil for a multiple counts of fraud and theft fiscal future, attracting Western deal to sell a minority stake to through corporate accounting investors and transforming the an American partner in return schemes which Yukos, in common company into a global operation, for investment, technology and with almost every other large-scale and met with astonishing success. expertise. However, at an October Russian company—had employed Yet Khodorkovsky’s success was meeting at the Kremlin between to minimise their tax liability. not welcomed by all: Yukos was Putin and ExxonMobil Chairman targeted by the elements of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev’s Lee Raymond, Raymond told Putin the Kremlin’s inner circle who trial commenced in 2004, and that another potential deal had sought to renationalise key consistently failed to meet been mooted in which a majority industries, but realised that the international standards of stake of Yukos would be sold to state could not do this outright justice. On 31 May 2005, the two ExxonMobil. The prospect of an without severely undermining executives were found guilty of

12 six of the seven charges levelled then increasing their demands. it outright. On 1 August 2006, against them and sentenced to Although the apparent political a court order formally declared nine years imprisonment in a motivations behind the Yukos affair Yukos bankrupt and order the Siberian Labour camp.44 Shortly sparked international outrage, liquidation of all assets. Several before Khodorkovsky and Lebedev Putin was able to use the issue to cases have been brought against would have become eligible for great effect as a populist rallying the Russian government in various parole—at a time inconveniently cry against the deeply unpopular international courts, and several close to the 2008 Presidential oligarchs in the 2004 presidential have affirmed the violation of elections—new charges were campaign. The siloviki’s grip on the rights of the accused and a lodged and new trials held in power was cemented in February fundamental lack of due process 2009; in 2010 the two men were 2004, when Putin fired his throughout the affair. sentenced to an additional six liberal prime minister, Mikhail The expropriation of Yukos years in prison.45 Both men Kasyanov—one of the last voices was a decisive win for the have been designated prisoners in government objecting to the siloviki, bringing strategic assets of conscience by Amnesty type of illiberal tactics displayed back under state control and International, and Khodorkovsky during the Yukos affair. In 2004, inaugurating new opportunities has emerged as one of Russia’s the Kremlin forced the auction of for graft and patronage by political more unlikely dissidents. Yukos’ most important subsidiary, officials. Far from eliminating the Yuganskneftegaz, and then The government bled Yukos oligarchs, the Kremlin bought them purchased the company through dry, holding out the prospect out and made them the servants a front rather than re-nationalise of a financial settlement and of state capitalism.

“ORTHODOXY, AUTOCRACY, NATIONALITY”: THE CULTURE OF PUTINISM

Russian media has been increasingly newspaper Novaya Gazeta, speech and freedom of assembly. restricted since Putin took office was murdered in the lift of her For example, in September 2003, in 2000. Television, where the apartment block. Although three State Duma deputies and journalists majority of Russians get their news, men were eventually charged for petitioned the Constitutional Court is almost entirely state-owned, and her murder, all three were acquitted to overturn a series of clauses in the newspapers have been persecuted under extremely suspicious voters’ rights law that restrict the through pseudo-legal measures to circumstances.48 media’s ability to carry out objective restrict their content and enforce reporting during the Duma a culture of self-censorship. The campaign. The Duma Deputies internet remains relatively free, but and journalists argued that the only because Russia has lacked the legislation was limiting their ability technological capacity to effect a to fulfil their professional duties.49 Chinese-style crackdown on web Political plurality and free content through a government association have been subjected firewall—although providers are to similar constraints. Opposition required to install a device that demonstrations are routinely—and diverts internet traffic through an violently—dispersed by the riot FSB terminal.46 A shrine for murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya — AP police (known as OMON) and anti- Today, Russia is one of the least Pseudo-legal manoeuvres have Kremlin activists are repeatedly and safe countries for journalists been the Kremlin’s preferred arbitrarily imprisoned simply for worldwide: between 2000 and way of eroding Russia’s short- turning up. New political parties 2009, 17 reporters investigating lived experiment in civil rights are frequently denied registration corruption across Russia’s political and political freedom: the due to supposed technical and economic establishments were favoured tactic of the hypocritical “errors” in their applications. killed, a statistic matched only by authoritarian state. Laws have been The current statute requires two the Philippines and Iraq.47 In one passed which heavily compromise million signatures from at least of the most disturbing episodes, the foundational civil rights 40 of Russia’s 83 provinces in Anna Politkovskaya, the famous enshrined in the Constitution of order to successfully apply for war correspondent and anti- the Russian Federation, including party registration.50 One party Putin reporter for independent freedom of the press, freedom of recently denied registration, the

13 People’s Freedom Party, is headed Medvedev – now a lame duck bureaucracy and law enforcement, by former prime minister and slotted to become prime minister – any of which can be marshalled leading liberal politician Mikhail has announced plans to lower this into action for retributive purposes Kasyanov—hardly a fringe figure. figure to five per cent.52 against a personal enemy or rival Instead of allowing Kasyanov to interest. Rather than ban political freely participate in the political competition outright, the Kremlin As ever, authoritarian tactics system, the Kremlin has instead prefers its usual tactic of retaining inevitably become self-perpetuating constructed Potemkin “opposition” the pretence of the democratic by necessity: if the current rulers parties such as the new Right process whilst securing a fixed were to relinquish power, their Cause, the leader of which, the result. Electoral irregularities are lives and freedoms would almost billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, was commonplace, and are expected certainly be at risk. One popularly recently taken to task for daring to to be repeated in the upcoming bandied reason that Putin has exert actual control over his own parliamentary and presidential recently announced he will return party. Prokhorov accused to the Russian presidency the Kremlin of attempting (no Russian or Western a “hostile takeover” of “I already know that they will media outlet bothers Right Cause and resigned about the formality of his as party chairman on try to create problems for me. re-election to that post any September 15 of this year. They will crush us in a tough longer) is that if he were to In a blog post titled “Game retire from public office, he Over,” posted the following and uncompromising way. I am would likely be prosecuted day, he forecasted a or killed by an antagonist fate for himself and his ready for this.” silovik. Ironically, Putin first associates similar to elections. That’s only the outward ran for president on a platform of that which befell Khodorkovsky: appearance of the current Russian shoring up the rule of law, yet his “I already know that they will political system. Internally, the tenure in office – both as president try to create problems for me. Kremlin is as divided into clans and and prime minister – has only They will crush us in a tough and factions today as it was during the cemented Russia’s reputation as uncompromising way. I am ready Bankers’ War – only now, these a society of lawlessness. By 2008, for this.”51 Eight other parties were clans are ruled by a more dangerous Russia had become the country also determined not to be viable combination of ex-KGB officials with the most complaints submitted contenders this year for either and new-minted state corporatists. to the European Court of Human the forthcoming parliamentary or (Medvedev became president Rights; the government has lost presidential elections. The vote after ceding his chairmanship of over 90 percent of those complaints threshold for sending candidates Gazprom.) As with Hezbollah’s heard.53 to the Duma is a prohibitively high “deep state” in Lebanon, the siloviki seven percent, although President all control their own arms of state

The Kremlin—CORBIS

14 TOTALITARIAN REDUX: HOW NOT TO REMEMBER STALINISM

Liberalisation was never going to be allowed only by court decision.”56 missionary work, especially a hallmark of a leader so infatuated The FSB has evaded this clear Catholics. by the totalitarian past. In December proscription against spying on or Putin’s presidency has proved 1999, then newly appointed prime harassing Russian citizens by using poisonous for the education of minister, Putin reinstalled a plaque top-down orders from security younger generations of Russians of Yuri Andropov, the feared KGB officers. In 2009, FSB Director who, judging by the announced chief who persecuted Soviet Alexander Bortnikov increased the return to the presidency, will dissidents in Lubyanka Square number of generals who could have been born, raised and following its removal during the “initiate petitions to conduct graduated into adulthood under attempted Communist hardliner counterintelligence measures that the supervision of the one leader. coup against Mikhail Gorbachev restrict the constitutional rights Although Putinism is not an ideology in 1991. The plaque was only of citizens”; in other words, a properly defined, it does have the beginning: the rehabilitation license for unchecked wiretapping, certain ideological aspects. These of Andropov and of the broader surveillance and home searches, attributes have been articulated and “Sword and Shield” legacy of the free of judicial oversight. propounded by Vladislav Surkov, Stalinist secret police has become a The KGB-isation of Russia has Putin’s chief of staff, who coined the cultural by-product of Putinism. In also featured czarist overtones term “sovereign democracy” to refer 2004, to mark the 90th anniversary of religiosity, evincing the outré to the current political system and is of Andropov’s birth, schools were marriage of Stalinist invigilation with the architect of Nashi, the ardently renamed for him, a 10-foot nationalist, pro-Kremlin youth statue was unveiled, adulatory movement reminiscent of the pseudo-histories of his KGB Soviet Komsomol. leadership were published, and celebrations were held in Surkov has dubbed Nashi his hometown Nagutskaya. the “combat detachment of our political system,” and Such gestures are indicative at a recent meeting with of Putin’s unwillingness to Nashi “commissars” (hardly honestly confront Russian a promising choice of title) history. Soviet state security instructed them to “train archives remain mostly closed More than 50,000 members of the pro-Kremlin movement Nashi take part in their muscles” in advance and those that had been an anti-corruption rally in Moscow, April 2011 – RIA Novosti of the 2011-2012 elections, opened in the 1990s as part of a Russian Orthodoxy. According to which Surkov made clear needed half-cocked lustration process have Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, to be won by Medvedev, Putin now been re-shuttered. Two million authors of The New Nobility: The and United Russia.59 The annual documents dated roughly between Restoration of Russia’s Security Seliger Youth camp, hosted by the the Russian Civil War and World State and the Enduring Legacy of state’s Federal Youth Agency in the War II have been shown only to the KGB, “The alliance between the Khimki forest outside of Moscow surviving family members of victims Church and the FSB seems quite and organised by the founder and of Communist oppression.54 The logical: the FSB helped to protect the former head of Nashi, is a similar Moscow-based human rights group Orthodox sphere of influence against example of this type of xenophobic Memorial claims that de-classified Western proselytizing; in return the ultra-nationalism. Photos of camp documents from the Soviet Central Church blessed the secret service activities are shockingly redolent of Committee have been removed from in its struggle with enemies of the the Hitler Youth. Typically on offer the state archive at the behest of the state.”57 FSB Lieutenant General are books that promote Stalin as Russian foreign intelligence service.55 Sergei Markov earnestly described a war hero, “fifth column” prizes his regiment as a “brotherhood of Article 23 of the 1993 Russian awarded to “liars, falsifiers and monastic knights who sacrificed Constitution states: “Everyone those who blacken our homeland’s their liberty, their blood, and their shall have the right to privacy reputation” and, perhaps most lives for Russia.”58 The Orthodox in correspondence, telephone disturbing of all, “breeding Church has also worked closely conversations, and postal, tents” designed to facilitate the with the FSB to prevent religious telegraph, and other messages. proliferation of ethnic Slavs.60 minorities from performing Limitations of this right shall be

15 KILL THE LAWYER: THE SERGEI MAGNITSKY AFFAIR

Alexander Litvinenko, Anna owed $1 billion to the three shell lawyers at Firestone Duncan, Politkovskaya, Sergei Magnitsky. companies, all of which had been including Magnitsky. Browder All are names that have become registered by a convicted murderer suspected that his attorneys were synonymous with the deterioration named Viktor Markelov. The three in severe danger and offered of human rights in Putin’s Russia shell companies had sued the to relocate them to London at (in Litvinenko’s case, the rights subsidiary in three separate courts his own expense. Magnitsky were violated in a foreign country), around Russia; bogus lawyers were refused to leave Russia, believing killed for their refusal to keep hired by the subsidiary who then that he would be vindicated as quiet about their government’s pled guilty to $1 billion in liabilities. a whistle-blower in due course. policies or its state-perpetrated In December 2007, Hermitage He testified before the Russian theft. In Magnitsky’s case, a $230 filed a complaint with the three State Investigative Committee million tax fraud, the largest in main law enforcement agencies and named Kuznetsov, as well as Russian history, manifested as in Russia which mapped out the his colleague Maj Pavel Karpov, more than just another episode intricacies of the fraud. as the orchestrators of the fraud. of underpaid public officials Within a few months, Magnitsky In response, on 5 June 2008, skimming off the top – it led to the was arrested on the preposterous Magnitsky received a letter which false imprisonment, torture and charge of acting as the director of revealed that bank accounts had agonised death of an attorney who two Hermitage companies that had been opened in the three shell was punished for doing his job. allegedly failed to pay taxes in 2001 companies’ names at an obscure (he wasn’t a director of either). On 4 June 2007, a Russian Russian bank called Universal Interior Ministry police unit Savings. One of these accounts Magnitsky’s case was overseen raided the offices of Hermitage had received a $230 million by Interior Ministry senior Capital Management, then-the deposit–the precise figure of the investigator Oleg Silchenko, who largest investment fund in post- tax liability Hermitage paid in justified the arrest by alleging that Soviet Russia, as well as those of 2006. The facts of the case became Magnitsky was a flight risk to the Hermitage’s law firm, Firestone clear to Magnitsky: the phoney UK. Magnitsky was subjected to Duncan. The police unit, led by tax liability made it possible for physical and psychological torture Lt Col Artem Kuznetsov, claimed the tax authorities to claim that in prison in an attempt to get him to be investigating a possible tax Hermitage had turned no profits to confess to stealing the $230 fraud related to one of Hermitage’s in 2006 and was therefore entitled million and to implicate Browder client’s companies despite the fact to a substantial refund. The $230 in a massive tax crime. He was that they had all had been regularly million was processed within 48 consistently refused medical care audited and paid their annual taxes hours, on 24 December 2007, and during his 358 days in jail and in full. Vanloads of documents wired to several banks in Moscow held in appalling conditions that were hauled away from both raids, including Universal Savings, which were completely inconsistent including the corporate seals of was owned by Dmitry Kluyev, a with international human rights many of Hermitage’s investment convicted criminal, before leaving standards: prison cells without companies. Russia to be laundered through windows, floors covered with raw several international banks. By sewage, and lights kept on all night Magnitsky, a young lawyer at February 2008, Kluyev liquidated to induce sleep-deprivation.61 Firestone, was asked to investigate Universal Savings. The Russian what appeared to be a tendentious In July 2009, Magnitsky began Interior Ministry would later case brokered on a mysterious to suffer from severe abdominal claim that the bank’s records court judgement passed against pains, and was diagnosed with had all been destroyed in a truck one of Hermitage’s registered “calculous cholecystitis;” it explosion. subsidiaries. Magnitsky discovered was recommended that he be that the judgment had in fact been In July 2008, Magnitsky and transferred from Matrosskaya made after three shell companies Hermitage filed several criminal Tishina prison in Moscow had sued the subsidiary; the complaints for the stolen $230 to alternative facilities with documents seized from Hermitage million with several government emergency medical capabilities. In and Firestone’s offices were agencies. The Interior Ministry a letter to the head of the Interior used to forge retroactively dated responded by launching criminal Ministry’s Investigative Committee, contracts claiming that Hermitage investigations into all Hermitage’s Magnitsky suggested that “with

16 Silchenko’s participation or with his was provided to Sergei Magnitsky 2010, the Moscow Helsinki tacit approval, inhuman conditions in Matrosskaya Tishina when it was Group, a prominent human were created for me in the urgently required and for which rights organisation, petitioned detention centre, which humiliate purpose had been transferred authorities to launch a proper human dignity... While in custody, from Butyrka Prison. An ill person investigation, naming specific situations have been created for in severe condition was effectively individuals. Their petition was me where I was deprived of the left without medical attention – rejected. Russian inaction and the right to have a weekly shower, for 1 hour 18 minutes – to die in flagging attempts of civil society to watch television, to use a an isolation ward.”63 Magnitsky’s to secure redress prompted refrigerator, and simply to live family were denied an independent Browder—now permanently under normal conditions...”62 pathologist to examine his body. relocated to London—to launch a Moreover, Moscow Morgue multi-national lobbying effort to Instead, Silchenko had Magnitsky Number 11 claimed that because its convince democratic parliaments moved from Matrosskaya refrigerators weren’t working, the to impose sanctions and travel Tishina prison in Moscow to body would have to be transferred restrictions on 60 Russian officials Butyrka—the infamous detention immediately to a different morgue. involved in the conspiracy. The centre that under Stalinism A traditional Russian wake was United States Senate is now served as a halfway house for also prohibited by the Prosecutor’s floating a bill that would do exactly political prisoners en route to Office. When burying Magnitsky, his that, although its purview is not the gulag. The Public Oversight family saw signs of torture on the confined just to the Magnitsky Committee (POC), an independent body. case but has broader application prison monitor, reported that to those foreign officials found to Matrosskaya Tishina officials be guilty of “gross human rights justified the move on the basis violations” in any country. If of a planned prison renovation passed, the Sergei Magnitsky Rule on Magnitsky’s floor though they of Law Accountability Act would presented no evidence of any represent a cataclysmic shift in U.S. such renovation ever having taken human rights policy. place. Magnitsky was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis soon after The Russian Interior Ministry his transfer on 13 November 2009 officially “closed” the tax fraud and was left without doctor’s care case in April 2011. According to for an entire weekend. When one official, “Our investigation did

Butyrka’s head doctor, Larissa Sergei Magnitsky—AP/Getty not find anything criminal in the Litvinova, returned on Monday, conduct of tax-service workers. Magnitsky’s condition had Russia’s New Times magazine They were confused.”65 Many of deteriorated to the extent that would later uncover evidence the officials involved in the fraud she requested his transfer back to that the FSB had worked with and persecution of Magnitsky were Matrosskaya Tishina for emergency the Interior Ministry to frame promoted or simply transferred medical care. Litvinova’s request and jail Magnitsky. The report to new jobs. Prison officials not was denied by the head of Butryka. also found that $6 million was in any way related to Magnitsky’s allegedly paid to the conspirators incarceration or neglect were Magnitsky died on 16 November in this case.64 The Russian police fired by President Medvedev 2009 while waiting to be treated admitted that there was evidence as a cosmetic gesture at prison for severe pancreatitis. He was of theft but rather than launch a reform, only to then be hired by handcuffed to a bed in an isolation serious investigation, they allowed different facilities. Justice has yet cell in what could only have been Kuznetsov to oversaw a cryptic to be visited upon the framers excruciating pain for over an hour. investigation that led to token and murderers of Magnitsky and The prison authorities attempted sentences of five years apiece the entire affair, which has had to obscure their culpability for handed down to Markelov and an emotive and political impact Magnitsky’s death, claiming that to a convicted burglar named similar to the assassination he had suffered a heart attack, Vyacheslav Khlebnikov in an of Sergei Kirov in 1934 – an despite having documented his “expedited procedure” closed to assassination orchestrated by inflamed abdomen and the results the public. Authorities continued, Stalin as a means of curtain-raising of an echocardiogram administered well after Magnitsky’s death, to the Great Terror – has become before his death which did not assert his guilt in the tax fraud. another wearying example of the substantiate that diagnosis. The fate of those who attempt to hold The cover-up provoked widespread Public Oversight Commission’s the system to account in Putin’s outrage in Russia. In March concluded that “no medical help Russia.

17 A TOP-HEAVY PETROSTATE: PUTIN’S ECONOMIC RECORD

While it is clear to many people beyond Russia herself, as a collapse in production, investment international observers that demonstrated in the 2006 “gas wars” and income.72 The decision to defend Putinism has been a largely negative that the Kremlin waged against the rouble-to-dollar exchange rate and regressive political force, Georgia and Ukraine in retaliation for resulted in over $200 billion in gold many still credit Putin with the the “colour revolutions” that rocked and currency reserves being spent to positive economic changes that those former Soviet republics.69 plug the hole, to no effect.73 Tellingly, have occurred during his reign. one of the Kremlin’s first responses to The Kremlin’s over-reliance on a Living standards and income have the crisis was to reduce the tax on oil petro-economy, and the failure improved significantly under his companies, raise the energy tariffs, to nurture entrepreneurship, has tenure. The Russian economy grew and increase the tax on individual meant that the economic success from $998 billion a year in 2000 to salaries.74 enjoyed over the last decade has $2.26 trillion in 2008. Productivity rested on quicksand. As Nemtsov Putin and Medvedev effectively per person rose from $6,798 in and Milov warned in 2008: scuttled the one measure that 2000 to $11,698 in 2008 (at 2000 “Gazprom’s capitalisation rose from might have led to short-term prices). The Russian population’s less than $10 billion in 2001 to $350 improvements in the economy disposable income (accounting for billion today, despite the fact that following the crisis: taxing the oil and depreciation) grew from 6.5 trillion its gas production has not increased gas giants. In 2009, the government roubles to 38.2 trillion roubles in while its costs and debt have risen issued $6 billion in tax breaks to the same period. As a result, the threefold as it prefers to buy assets oil companies and refused to raise Russian populace increased rates for Gazprom, which their spending on personal was absolved of $4 billion in consumption by over 500 back taxes. Russia will also percent.66 The number of pay $4 billion a year to rent billionaires in Russia has also the Sevastopol naval base, risen dramatically: there were with the Ukraine getting none in 1999-2000, and 53 by paid in cheaper gas. (In 2007, with a total net worth contrast, the Americans pay estimated at approximately $800 million for their largest $282 billion.67 naval base on Okinawa and These improvements tend $660 million for their base to obscure some of the in South Korea). Gazprom deep-rooted problems which will be compensated for this Oil rig, Tyumen oil field, Siberia – AP have festered under Putin’s arrangement by being freed leadership, signified principally by rather than to bring new deposits of export tax on these deliveries, the facts that Russia has yet to build on line. What is this if not a bubble, an arrangement estimated to yield a solid middle-class or diversify a bubble that may burst with a very a loss of $40 billion to the Russian its still energy-reliant economy. big bang?”70 budget over ten years.75 Like Yeltsin, There are seven small businesses Putin’s government depleted its Six months after making this per thousand people in Russia own coffers when it should have prediction, the bubble did burst and state-controlled oligarchs still been replenishing them, with state when the global financial crisis disproportionately determine the businesses and their boards of hit. Russia suffered far worse country’s GDP. The special treatment directors are cosseted by the Kremlin consequences than the West and its of Gazprom—not to mention the as middle-class wage-earners are left neighbours. GDP shrank by 7.8 per close ties between the Kremlin and to fend for themselves. cent in 2009 whereas eight of the 12 its board—is a particularly egregious countries in the Commonwealth of Putin’s capital investments have example of crony capitalism. Independent States (CIS) experienced also been foolhardy. In an effort Today, 11 of the 18 members of growth. It became clear that the to bypass Ukraine’s gas pipe transit Gazprom’s board worked in the St boom of the late 2000s was largely system – and thus undercut a Petersburg mayoral administration, a consequence to $140 billion in main competitor and sometime the privatised Port of St Petersburg foreign speculative loans.71 When the political adversary – the Kremlin Authority, other Petersburg oil economy imploded, those loans has earmarked $25 billion to lay the companies, or the FSB. All have abandoned Russia as quickly as they so-called South Stream pipeline, clear links to Putin.68 Gazprom had done in 1998. The economy projected to have a maximum transit has thus become a state racket, also suffered a severe cash shortage, capacity of 30 billion cubic metres of controlling the fates of millions of which devalued the rouble and led to gas per year. That will not be enough

18 to obviate the Ukrainian pipeline, invest in the type of infrastructure in supply in the global natural gas which carries 130 billion cubic and practices which would secure market. Shale gas deposits in the metres per year directly to Europe.76 the long-term health of the industry. United States and Poland continue Private companies beholden to Most natural gas reserves in the to drive down gas costs. And Israel’s shareholders and annual audits country are running to completion, recent discovery of two major gas would no doubt have averted such a with only one major new gas field, fields off the Mediterranean coast, costly miscalculation. Zapolyarnoe, having been tapped estimated to contain, respectively, since Putin came to power. Gazprom 9 trillion and 18 trillion cubic feet of The unsustainable nature of Russia’s is also under-performing at a natural gas, is sure to bring prices reliance on its energy market has time when it needs to bolster its down even further.77 been worsened by its failure to competitiveness due to an increase PEOPLE PROBLEMS: RUSSIA’S DEMOGRAPHIC AND HEALTH CRISES

Putin has failed to address the women who give birth to a second hindrances on Russia’s economic problems which threaten Russia’s child, and trebling the tax on beer growth, in 2010 Putin halved the very survival—most significantly, (with its relatively low alcohol budget for maintenance, repairs and the country’s tremendously high content) whilst raising the tax on development of Russian roads. mortality rate, estimated to be the vodka by a mere tenth—a measure Even Putin’s touted virtues as an fifth highest in the world. (The birth which merely led to the increased enforcer of Russian “sovereignty” rate is terribly low, too, estimated consumption of heavily alcoholic and security do not withstand close to be 174th globally.78) Russia is spirits.83 inspection. Despite his infamous suffering from a toxic combination The failure to invest in health boast as prime minister in 1999, of alcoholism, drug abuse, and services has been mirrored in Putin’s following the series of Moscow AIDS (the country is ranked 11th unwillingness to tackle Russia’s apartment bombings, that he would in the world for people living with deteriorating infrastructure. The rein in Islamic terrorism – “If it’s HIV/AIDS).79 The average male life quality and safety of Russian roads in the airport, then in the airport. expectancy is 59 years, equivalent (recall Robert Conquest’s late-Soviet You’ll forgive me, but if we catch to that of developing them in the toilet, countries.80 Sixty per cent we’ll wipe them out in of deaths in Russia are The average male life the outhouse”85 – his caused by cardiovascular presidency was soon diseases, indicative of expectancy in is 59 years, met by two horrific a poor national diet hostage crises: the and lacklustre medical Nord-Ost theatre siege care. Over 16 percent equivalent to that of by Chechen separatists of Russian men have (2002) and the Beslan health problems related developing countries. school massacre (2004) to alcoholism, compared exchange) declined precipitously in North Ossetia, both of which were to 6.4 percent in the UK and 5.5 during Putin’s presidency: road arguably worsened by the security percent in the USA.81 The World construction fell from an average of service’s bungled responses. More Health Organisation also reports that 6,100 kilometres per year to now recent acts, such as the Moscow over 1.83m Russians are believed no more than 2-3,000 kilometres Metro bombing in March 2010 to inject drugs, compared to 1.86m annually. Moreover, the surfaces and the Domodedovo Airport Americans, despite the fact that the of most roads need major repairs bombing in January 2011, have USA population is roughly double every 14-15 years, and for a country been executed on a grander scale that of Russia.82 that spans 11 time zones, it has and closer to the heart of Russian Regardless of its unmatched status just 49,000 kilometres of official government. Moreover, the atrocity- as the “Sick Man of Europe,” Putin’s highway, with less than half that laden military campaign was waged government has not undertaken length designated as Category 1 and with untrammelled brutality in any significant efforts to improve 2 (i.e. 2 lanes or more). 84 This has Chechnya has nominally ended with health services or increase its annual severely hampered the transport the installation of the notoriously budgetary expenditures on medical of goods. Driving from downtown cruel, rebel-turned-Kremlin-puppet care. Putin has largely responded to Moscow to the nearest port takes Ramzan Kadyrov as President— the health crisis with token gestures, 48 hours on average when it ought hardly a promising future to such as dispensing cash bonuses to to take 18. Yet despite these serious bequeath to this war-ravaged region.

19 THE BEAR BITES BACK: FOREIGN POLICY UNDER PUTIN

The troubling turn of Russian rapprochement between Russia Russia demonstrated a retrograde foreign policy under Putin has and the US. The new American paranoia about the power of NATO demonstrated the truism that President’s faith in his ability to by consistently attempting to stymie oppressive domestic policies repair diplomatic relations was the the alliance by regularly carrying almost always engender aggressive basis of his much-vaunted Russian out provocative bomber flights in foreign policies. The move towards “reset” policy: in reality, this NATO territories. Boris Nemtsov a more belligerent and paranoid amounted to a tacit agreement by has described this fixation as a foreign policy is partly the cynical the US to ignore Russian oppression consequence of “non-professionals calculus of the neighbourhood at home and aggression abroad in with Soviet instincts ... coming to bully, and partly symptomatic of the hopes of securing cooperation power.”87 the identity crisis which continues in countering Iranian nuclear The Kremlin’s treatment of the to afflict post-Soviet Russia. From proliferation. As a concession to USSR’s former satellite states in the deterioration in US relations to induce Russian cooperation, the Eastern Europe and the former the revival of revanchism towards US not only stopped pressing the Soviet Republics has become Russia’s “near abroad,” foreign country substantially on human steadily more worrying over the policy under Putin has taken on a rights issues, but also reneged past decade. The 2008 Russo- wearyingly familiar, and increasingly on a plan to install a missile Georgian pushed the trend of disturbing, aspect. defence shield in Eastern Europe— Russian interference in its near essentially abandoning the stalwart Russian-American relations have abroad beyond energy-related former-Eastern bloc countries who changed from the warmth of the blackmail to naked revanchism. In stood with the US throughout the 1990s to the frosty relations of the fact, Russia continues to stand in most difficult days of the War on later days of the George W Bush violation of the European Union Terrorism, and demonstrating the administration—a state of affairs cease-fire signed at the close of the effectiveness of Russian bullying. which has largely remained in 2008 conflict in Georgia, continuing place. After a period of cooperation Touted achievements of the “reset” its military occupation of sovereign following the beginning of the policy include Russia’s cancelation Georgian territory and retaining its Afghan War, relations with the of its sale of S-300 air-defence air de facto annexation of Abkhazia and US broke down most noticeably to Iran and its support of tougher South Ossetia. over the Iraq War. Putin parlayed US-imposed sanctions against the Putin has consistently supported his consistent opposition to the mullahs—yet these measures have authoritarian figures in the region controversial war into diplomatic had little practical impact in dealing willing to follow the party line set kudos, yet the evidence suggests with Iran’s nuclear proliferation. In by the Kremlin, and done his utmost that his stance was far from fact, the decree banning Russia’s to dismiss and undermine popular principled: the toppling of Saddam sale of the S-300 air defence system pro-democracy movements in the Hussein’s regime threatened to Iran carried a clause allowing region, including Europe’s “last to derail lucrative oil contracts Moscow to rescind the entire dictator,” Belarussian President between Russia and Iraq, not to proposal at any point in the future if Alyaksandr Lukashenko. The mention the kickbacks accepted by it saw fit. Russia continues to outfit Kremlin’s meddling in Ukrainian Russian officials from the infamous Iran with other kinds of advanced politics is well known – extending “oil-for-food” programme.86 The weaponry, and conducts business even to the suspected poisoning fallout between the two countries with Iran’s oil and gas sectors, in of the former Ukrainian President over Iraq coincided with the contravention of international Viktor Yuschchenko during his 2004 continued introduction of new sanctions. presidential bid – and has effectively despotic measures by Putin, and Although Russia has helped NATO overturned the democratic the soured relationship between efforts in Afghanistan by allowing progress made in the 2005 Orange the American President and Putin easy passage through the northern Revolution. In retaliation for the seemed to make the US increasingly supply corridor for air shipments, Ukrainian people’s refusal to accept willing to criticise the Kremlin Moscow has concurrently pressured the fraudulent election results openly for its human rights abuses former Soviet republics in Central of 2005, Russia demanded that and bullying behaviour in their near Asia not to assist the US and country pay market rates for its abroad. NATO effort in Afghanistan—for usually-subsidised natural gas, and The inauguration of Barack instance, leaning on Kyrgyzstan to briefly cut of the gas pipeline until Obama in 2009 raised hopes of a close its American military base. the Ukrainian government acceded

20 to their pressure. This tactic has Russia, and, according to the New a mania with the Americans; it’s not been repeated against countries York Times, “Nashi laid siege to our problem,” one advisor to Putin including Belarus and Georgia the Estonian Embassy in Moscow, said in 2009.94 The Bushehr nuclear when they have failed to toe the throwing rocks, disrupting traffic reactor in Iran would not have been Kremlin line, and remains a tacit and tearing down the Estonian built without Russian scientific threat underpinning relations with flag. Nashi members, including the assistance, and Putin himself has countries such as Germany, who group’s leader, Vasily G. Yakemenko, laughably denied that there is depend on Russia for a considerable accosted Estonia’s ambassador, any evidence that Iran is seeking portion of their energy needs: for Marina Kaljurand, at a news a nuclear weapons programme. instance, Germany imports an conference in early May. Her guards Counterpose this breezy attitude to estimated 37 percent of its gas had to use pepper spray to defend a messianic theocracy’s acquisition supplies from Russia.88 her.”90 The Russian Federation of WMD to Putin’s fiery polemics Council –completely dominated against Islamic terrorism at The other colour revolutions in by Putin’s United Russia Party – home and his brutal campaign in formerly imperial holdings have called this act by an independent Chechnya. The Kremlin also has similarly been quietly undermined EU country an “attempt to legalise not shied away from facilitating by the exigencies of living in fascism.”91 Estonia was then radical Islamists in the Middle Moscow’s neighbourhood. subjected to cyber-warfare that East— provided there is a profit to Indeed, it does not appear to be a shut down its mainly electronic be made. Earlier this year, militant coincidence that the former Soviet government and froze its internet groups Hamas and Hezbollah have republics saw their freedom been found with Russian- rankings decline sharply made weaponry such as the between 2000 and 2010, laser-guided Kornet anti-tank according to a recent report missile, apparently smuggled by the US-based human into Gaza and Lebanon rights monitor Freedom through Syria. Israeli House. 89 This includes intelligence claim Russian Ukraine, which declined from weaponry is routinely sold a “free” status is 2005 to to Syria and Iran, who then “partly free” in 2010 due to distribute the materials to the policies of Kremlin ally Vladimir Putin watches a military exercise— Itar Tass/Reuter their Hamas and Hezbollah Viktor Yanukovych. commerce for a full day, costing proxies—clearly contributing to the The pro-Kremlin youth movement the country millions. Many of the ongoing strife afflicting the Middle Nashi was set up in 2005 in hackers’ ISP addresses were traced East. response to the pro-democratic to offices inside the Kremlin.92 Putin’s warm relationship with colour revolutions then sweeping Russia’s policy in relation to Iran tottering Arab autocrats and their the Caucuses, and has been has been decidedly unhelpful to proxies is taken for granted to responsible for all manner of those members of the international such an extent that any question Kremlin mischief in the years community seeking to rein in of supporting UN Security Council since its founding. In 2007, Nashi the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sanctions against the Assad regime fomented nationalistic furore over ambitions. Russian exports to the would be considered fanciful. This the removal of a Soviet World War Islamic Republic increased from is one of the reasons why Russian II memorial from a busy intersection $250 million in 1995 to more than flags are being burnt alongside in Tallin, Estonia—an act presented $3 billion in 2008.93 Despite the Iranian and Chinese ones in Syria by as an insult to Russian pride. In West’s justified insistence that an pro-democracy activists, and why fact, the memorial was relocated Iranian nuclear bomb would pose Putin and Medvedev are regularly to a nearby veterans’ cemetery. an enormous threat to international singled out for denunciation by the Nevertheless, Nashi intimidated security and Mideast stability, the Syrian protestors. and harassed ethnic Estonians in Kremlin seems unperturbed: “Iran is

21 CONCLUSION

“Vertical power”, “dictatorship of the law”, “sovereign democracy”—these euphemisms underscore the Kremlin’s favoured tactic of coating authoritarianism with the patina of pseudo-democracy and pseudo- legality. Hypocrisy is the compliment vice pays to virtue, and Russia under Vladimir Putin and the Putin- Medvedev “tandem” (another coy euphemism) has increasingly become a country in which this is accepted as standard practice. This was by no means inevitable. Poor decisions, half-measures and inept leadership in the post-Soviet period, characterised by insufficient attention to the passage of vital laws and the building of key democratic institutions, bungled Russia’s transition from a command to a free economy. Crucial errors in the first post-Soviet decade laid the foundation for the revival of Brooks Brothers czarism under Putin, who now aims to return to power in 2012. With new Constitutional “reforms,” he will likely remain in office until 2024, Putin and Medvedev Matryoshka dolls—Reuters almost meeting Stalin’s quarter-century mark for nakedly undisputed dictatorship. “Crucial errors in the first A survey of the two decades following the collapse of the Soviet Union reveals as many missed opportunities post-Soviet decade laid the as inevitable pitfalls. At a time when much of the Arab world is seeking to transition from authoritarianism foundation for the revival to democracy, the lessons of the Russian example of Brooks Brothers czarism are particularly timely; and with almost two decades past since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the under Putin, who now aims to developments of this period should give the Russian people—and the international community—pause. return to power in 2012.”

22 Endnotes

1 Remnick, David, Lenin’s Tomb, Vintage: 1994, p369; see also original Solzhenitsyn essay Solzhenitsyn, Alexander “How to Revitalize Russia”, published in a special edition brochure accompanying the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, 18/09/1990, available at http://lib.ru/PROZA/SOLZHENICYN/s_kak_1990.txt (Russian language). Ironically, in the last years of his life, Solzhenitsyn actually expressed qualified support for Putin. For example, see “Wikileaks cables: Solzhenitsyn praise for Vladimir Putin,” by Luke Harding, The Guardian, 2 December 2010, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/02/wikileaks-cables-solzhenitsyn-vladimir-putin 3 Freeland, Chrystia, Sale of the Century: The Inside Story of the Second Russian Revolution, Abacus: 2000: p16. 4 Ibid., p 32 5 Ibid., p 87 6 Conquest, Robert, Reflections on a Ravaged Century, WW Norton & Co.: 2001, p 103 7 Ibid., p 67 8 Ibid. 9 Sixsmith, Martin, Putin’s Oil, Continuum Books: 2010, p 31 10 Freeland, Chrystia, Sale of the Century, Abacus: 2000, p 102 11 Ibid., p 99 12 “Russia’s new non-democrats,” by Thomas Graham, 23 November 2005, Nezavisimiya Gazeta, available at http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-18170228.html, reprinted in April 1996, Harper’s Magazine, available at http://www.harpers.org/archive/1996/04/0007948 13 Jensen, Donald, “How Russia is Ruled-1998,” Demokratizatsiya:1998, available at http://www.demokratizatsiya.org/bin/pdf/DEM%2007-03%20jensen.pdf,p 358 14 Freeland, Chrystia, Sale of the Century, Abacus: 2000, p 125 15 Ibid., p 156 16 Ibid. 17 Ibid. p 178 18 Ibid., p 167 19 Ibid., p 204 20 Ibid., p 262 21 Ibid. 22 Ibid., p 285 23 Ibid., p 292 24 Ibid., p 297 25 Ibid., p 301 26 Ibid., p 303 27 Ibid., p 314 28 Ibid., p 312 29 Baker, Peter & Glasser, Susan, Kremlin Rising, Scribner: 2005, p 296 30 Ibid., p 326 31 Baker, Peter & Glasser, Susan, Kremlin Rising, Scribner: 2005, p 59 32 “Stalin, his father and the Rabbit,” by Simon Sebag Montefiore, 6 September 2007, The New Statesman, available at http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2007/09/stalin- father-egnatashvili 33 “Putin deplores collapse of Soviet Union,” BBC, 25 April 2005, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/4480745.stm 34 Baker, Peter & Glasser, Susan, Kremlin Rising, Scribner: 2005, p 38 35 Baker, Peter & Glasser, Susan, Kremlin Rising, Scribner: 2005,p 252 36 Ibid., p 46 37 Baker, Peter & Glasser, Susan, Kremlin Rising, Scribner: 2005, p 85 38 “The world’s billionaires: #701 Boris Berezovsky,” Forbes, 3 November 2009, available at http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/10/billionaires-2009-richest-people_Boris- Berezovsky_V7GU.html 39 Nemtsov, Boris & Milov, Vladimir, “Putin: the Bottom Line,” available at http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.nemtsov.ru/&ei=D7c_Tu2YOtOBh QfwramzAg&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCwQ7gEwAQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dboris%2Bnemtsov%2Bwebsite%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en- gb:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7GGLL_en%26prmd%3Divnso p 10, p 6 40 Ioffe, Julia. “Net Impact,” The New Yorker, 4 April 2011, available at http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/04/04/110404fa_fact_ioffe 41 Ibid. 42 Nemtsov, Boris & Milov, Vladimir, “Putin: the Bottom Line,” available at http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.nemtsov.ru/&ei=D7c_Tu2YOtOBh QfwramzAg&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCwQ7gEwAQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dboris%2Bnemtsov%2Bwebsite%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en- gb:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7GGLL_en%26prmd%3Divnso p 10 43 Ibid; see also Stanislav Belkovsky’s speculation in 2007 that Putin’s personal wealth was “at least $40bn;” “Kremlin, the power struggle and the $40bn fortune,” by Luke Harding, 21 December 2007, The Guardian, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/dec/21/russia.topstories3 43a Nemtsov, Boris & Milov, Vladimir, “Putin: Corruption,” available at http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.nemtsov.ru/&ei=D7c_Tu2YOtOBh QfwramzAg&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCwQ7gEwAQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dboris%2Bnemtsov%2Bwebsite%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom. microsoft:engb:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7GGLL_en%26prmd%3Divnso, p45 44 Ibid., p 202 45 “Profile: Mikhail Khodorkovsky,” 30 December 2010, BBC, available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12082222 46 “Country reports on human rights practices: Russia,” US State Department, 25 March 2002, available at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/eur/8331.htm 47 “Anatomy of Injustice: the Unsolved Killings of Journalists in Russia,” a special report of the Committee to Protect Journalists, September 2009, available at http://www.cpj.org/ reports/CPJ.Anatomy%20of%20Injustice.pdf 48 “Anna Politkovskaya: No Justice,” by Tanya Lokshina, Human Rights Watch, 20 February 2009, available at http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/02/20/anna-politkovskaya-no- justice 49 “Country reports on human rights practices: Russia,” US State Department, published 25 February 2004, available at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2003/27861.htm 50 “Russian Opposition Party Barred From Vote,” Lynn Berry, Associated Press, 22 June 2011, available at http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=13900542 51 “Billionaire Prokhorov Tempts Khodorkovsky Fate in Kremlin Clash,” Bloomberg, published 26 September, 2011, available at http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-09-26/ billionaire-prokhorov-tempts-khodorkovsky-fate-in-kremlin-clash.html 52 “Medvedev to ease election rules, wants own party,” by Gleb Bryanski, 24 June 2011, Reuters, available at http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/06/24/idINIndia-57904220110624

23 53 European Court of Human Rights: Annual Report, 2008”, available at http://www.echr.coe.int/NR/rdonlyres/D5B2847D-640D-4A09-A70A-7A1BE66563BB/0/ANNUAL_ REPORT_2008.pdf, 138-9 54 Borogan, Irina and Soldatov, Andrei, The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia’s Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB, PublicAffairs: 2011, p 99. 55 Ibid. p 98 56 Constitution of the Russian Federation, Article 23, available at http://www.constitution.ru/en/10003000-01.htm 57 “The mindset of Russia’s security services,” Andrei Soklatov & Irina Borogan, 29 December 2010, Agentura, available at http://www.agentura.ru/english/dossier/mindset/. See also Borogan & Soklatov, The New Nobility: the Restoration of Russia’s Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB, PublicAffairs: 2010 58 Borogan, Irina and Soldatov, Andrei, The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia’s Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB, PublicAffairs: 2011, p 6 59 “The Kremlin’s Mr Surkov Comes to Washington,” by Vladimir Kara-Murza, 9 June 2011, World Affairs Journal, available at http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/new/blogs/kara- murza/The_Kremlins_Mr_Surkov_Comes_to_Washington 60 “Sex for the motherland: Russian youths encouraged to procreate at camp,” by Edward Lucas, 29 July 2007, The Daily Mail, available at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ article-471324/Sex-motherland-Russian-youths-encouraged-procreate-camp.html 61 “Report of Public Oversight Commission for Human Rights Observance in Moscow Detention Centers on the Inspection of SL Magnitsky Containment Conditions at PTDCs (Pre- Trial Detention Centers) of Moscow 62 Ibid. 63 Ibid. 64 “They killed my lawyer,” by William Browder, Foreign Policy, 22 December 2009, available at http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/12/22/they_killed_my_ lawyer?page=full 65 “Crime and Punishment in Putin’s Russia,” by Bill Alpert, Barron’s, 16 April 2011, available at http://online.barrons.com/article/SB5000142405297020456960457625931326685 2054.html#articleTabs_panel_article%3D1 66 Statistics available at http://stats.oecd.org 67 Nemtsov, Boris & Milov, Vladimir, “Putin: the Bottom Line,” available at http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.nemtsov.ru/&ei=D7c_Tu2YOtOBh QfwramzAg&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCwQ7gEwAQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dboris%2Bnemtsov%2Bwebsite%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en- gb:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7GGLL_en%26prmd%3Divnso, p 43 68 Nemtsov, Boris & Milov, Vladimir, “Vladimir Putin: the Bottom Line—Part II: Gazprom,” available at http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www. nemtsov.ru/&ei=D7c_Tu2YOtOBhQfwramzAg&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCwQ7gEwAQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dboris%2Bnemtsov%2Bwebsite%26hl%3D en%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7GGLL_en%26prmd%3Divnso, p 2 69 Ibid. 70 Nemtsov, Boris & Milov, Vladimir, “Putin: the Bottom Line,” available at http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.nemtsov.ru/&ei=D7c_Tu2YOtOBh QfwramzAg&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCwQ7gEwAQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dboris%2Bnemtsov%2Bwebsite%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en- gb:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7GGLL_en%26prmd%3Divnso, p 45 71 Nemtsov, Boris & Milov, Vladimir, “What Ten Years of Putin Have Brought,” available at http://www.putin-itogi.ru/putin-what-10-years-of-putin-have-brought/ p14 72 Nemtsov, Boris & Milov, Vladimir, “Putin’s Crisis,” available at http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.nemtsov.ru/&ei=D7c_Tu2YOtOBhQfwram zAg&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCwQ7gEwAQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dboris%2Bnemtsov%2Bwebsite%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-gb:IE- SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7GGLL_en%26prmd%3Divnso, p 2 73 Ibid., p 3 74 Ibid., p 7 75 Nemtsov, Boris & Milov, Vladimir, “What Ten Years of Putin Have Brought,” available at http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.nemtsov. ru/&ei=D7c_Tu2YOtOBhQfwramzAg&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCwQ7gEwAQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dboris%2Bnemtsov%2Bwebsite%26hl%3Den%26rls %3Dcom.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7GGLL_en%26prmd%3Divnso, p 26 76 Ibid., p 24 77 “Gas Pains,” by Lee Smith, Table Magazine, 27 June 2011, available at http://www.tabletmag.com/news-and-politics/72836/gas-pains/ 78 “CIA—The World Fact Book: Russia,” updated 14 July 2011, available at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rs.html 79 Ibid. 80 Ibid. 81 Statistics available at http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcohol_report/profiles/rus.pdf; http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_ alcohol_report/profiles/gbr.pdf; and http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcohol_report/profiles/usa.pdf 82 Statistics available athttp://www.who.int/hiv/topics/idu/LancetArticleIDUHIV.pdf pp 3-6 83 Nemtsov, Boris & Milov, Vladimir, “What 10 Years of Putin Have Brought,” available at http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.nemtsov. ru/&ei=D7c_Tu2YOtOBhQfwramzAg&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCwQ7gEwAQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dboris%2Bnemtsov%2Bwebsite%26hl%3Den%26rls %3Dcom.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7GGLL_en%26prmd%3Divnso, p 10 84 Ibid., p 17 85 Baker, Peter & Glasser, Susan, Kremlin Rising, Scribner: 2005, p 55 86 Ibid., p 218 87 Nemtsov, Boris & Milov, Vladimir, “Putin: the Bottom Line,” available at http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.nemtsov.ru/&ei=D7c_ Tu2YOtOBhQfwramzAg 88 “BP statistical review of world energy,” June 2011, available athttp://www.bp.com/assets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/reports_and_publications/statistical_ energy_review_2011/STAGING/local_assets/pdf/statistical_review_of_world_energy_full_report_2011.pdf 89 Puddington, Arch, “Promise and Reversal: The Post-Soviet Landscape Twenty Years On,” Freedom House, 2011, available at http://www.freedomhouse.org/template. cfm?page=696 90 “Youth Groups Created by Kremlin Serve Putin’s Cause,” by Steven Lee Myers, The New York Times, 8 July 2007, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/world/ europe/08moscow.html?pagewanted=all 91 “Tensions flare up over Soviet memorial,” by David Nowak, The St Petersburg Times, 27 January 2007, available at http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_ id=20161 92 “Russia Group’s Claims Reopen Debate on Estonian Cyberattacks,” by Chloe Arnold, Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, 30 March 2009, available at http://www.rferl.org/content/ Russian_Groups_Claims_Reopen_Debate_On_Estonian_Cyberattacks_/1564694.html 93 “Iran and Russia,” by Mark Katz, the United States Institute of Peace, available athttp://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/iran-and-russia 94 “Sunshine Policy,” by David Kramer, 7 July 2009, Foreign Policy, available at http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/07/07/sunshine_policy

24