U.S. Allies II: Russia (updated Nov. 1)
In an NPR interview
with Vladimir Putin in the fall of 2001, there is the following moving exchange:
"Mr. Siegel: You have just been to Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan, and I want to ask you first your reactions on seeing that.
"President Putin: It was a very emotional experience. Of course all of this I had already seen a number of times on television, and I must tell you that as far as the official schedule of my visit, the trip to New York was not part of it. However, I could not help but come here, both to New York itself and of course the Ground Zero, the disaster site. And it made a very big impact -- not just on me personally, but on Russia as a whole. And what I wanted to do was not just to go visit that place, but to pay my respects to those who had suffered in this tragedy. And I wanted to once again by doing that, by going to the site, to attract the attention to this tragedy, to do everything that I can to make sure that nothing like this happens in the future, that there is no repetition of this in the future. And I would like to express my admiration for the courage displayed by the New Yorkers. I also would like to say that there was a poster across the street from the Russian flag, because of course there were some Russians among the casualties -- and I signed the poster. And what I wrote there was that, quote, 'This great city and the great people of America will no doubt prevail,' unquote."
Surely Putin is, to flog a cliche, an enigma. In a joint statement after their "mini-summit," just a few days ago, Putin and Bush agreed that neither Iran nor North Korea should have nuclear weapons, but they disagreed as to next steps. Russia will continue to help Iran build a nuclear generating station, which could be used to enrich plutonium for weapons. Putin says he will urge Iran to co-operate with international nuclear weapons inspectors, while Bush would like him to make a much tougher stand. There's something funny here--an ally says let's leave it to the inspectors, and the U.S. grudgingly agrees.
On Korea, Putin thinks that if the U.S. demands a dismantling of nuclear weapons, it should guarantee North Korea's security; Bush is not willing to do this.
On Iraq, Russia is sounding like France: no commitment to re-building Iraq until there is a new UN resolution, and the resolution should provide for other countries to be involved in decision-making. He also seems to agree with France that Iraqi self-government should proceed more quickly than the U.S. is providing for.
There seem to be question marks about Putin mainly because of his long KGB career, Chechnya, and the possibility that he is not totally committed to democracy.
Two recent Slate articles: one by Ed Finn focusses on Chechnya's election today; "Chechnya's Sham Elections."
"The election has been almost universally derided as a one-sided sham, largely because Russia's chosen candidate for the job, Akhmad Kadyrov, has forced all serious competitors to drop out of the race with a combination of money and brute force. The race is particularly ridiculous because Chechnya's incumbent president is leading rebel forces in their battle against the Russians."
This rebel leader, Aslan Maskhadov, elected in 1997, is a Moslem, but he denies any connection to Al Qaeda or international terrorism. A French paper gleefully points out that not a single Chechan was found fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Apparently Bush buys what Putin says: he is not fighting Chechan nationalists, but international terrorists--the same ones Bush is fighting. In the NPR interview Putin says roughly that authentic Chechan nationalists were left in charge in 1995, when the Russians pulled out, but terrorists and fundamentalists took advantage of the situation and began using old Chechan disputes to hurt Russia.
Putin's chosen candidate, and by election day, the only candidate, was Kadyrov, who has made a name for his brutality.
Another piece is by Kim Iskyan; "Tolerating Putin's Evil Empire." The gist seems to be that Putin is tightening control over the press, and when one of the super-rich oligarchs made some moves to become a leader of the political opposition, Putin cracked down on him under laws that are normally not enforced.
Again the focus is: why does Bush not criticize Putin?, and: is Putin itching to be a dictator for life?
Ed Finn says Bush now has a nickname for Putin, "Pootie-Poot." So friendly have they been, notwithstanding some real disagreements, that Jim Pinkerton says:
"The UN Security Council opposed [Bush]; he couldn't even get the vote of his "friend," Russian chief Vladimir Putin. Parenthetically, one must note with wonder that Bush has never figured out that the ex-KGB man has been playing him like a balalaika. As he hosts Putin at Camp David tomorrow, it can be said that no president has been so trusting of the Russians since Franklin D. Roosevelt clinked glasses with Josef Stalin during World War II."
Update: The New Yorker (Oct. 13) has an article on Putin by David Remnick.
High points: Putin had a somewhat mediocre career both in the Communist Soviet Union and in post-Communist Russia. He was promoted quickly by Gorbachev and Yeltsin largely because he served the pro-reform and pro-Gorbachev forces in Leningrad (now once again St. Petersburg) loyally and bravely--even though one of the coup leaders in 1991 was an old friend and KGB mentor of his.
Putin has been criticized for restoring a Soviet hymn, albeit with new words. In general he favours a mixed collection of national symbols, "some tsarist, some Soviet, some sui generis." He is convinced this is what the people want--they feel some nostalgia both for the pre-Soviet period, and for the Soviet period when they were considered in some ways equal to the United States. One of Putin's favourite lines is "Anyone who does not regret the collapse of the Soviet Union has no heart, but anyone who wants it restored has no brain."
Putin seems to want to be known above all as in many ways an ordinary person, but also a person of demonstrated competence in comparison to his predecessors.
"There is constant talk in Moscow political circles about Putin's lack of commitment to democratic principles, especially civil liberties." There is a comparison, lasting a few paragraphs, with Silvio Berlusconi of Italy. Putin, one source says, is closer to Berlusconi than Blair, but still a democrat. The comparison to Berlosconi may be especially apt in that it is the media, above all, of which Putin does not want to yield control.
The military is in drastic need of complete reform, which has barely even begun.
Putin has proved flexible enough to support the U.S. in Afghanistan (contrary to what many of his advisers suggested), and yet to stay at more of a distance over Iraq. His initial "pro-American" stand after 9/11 gave him a world forum in which to say fighting Chechans is now part of the larger fight against international terrorism. Remnick says matter-of-factly that "Key Chechan militant groups have accepted help from Islamic radicals, including Al Qaeda."
Update Nov. 1: a nice post by Andrew Stuttaford
on The Corner about the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Stuttaford says, I suspect wisely, that it is hard to know what is going on,and then quotes some words of wisdom from Khodorkovsky.
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