Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin Speak out Against Putin’s Reforms

Soviet Union’s last president Mikhail Gorbachev and Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin expressed criticism regarding Vladimir Putin’s proposed reforms in Russian electoral system. Statements by Yeltsin and Gorbachev were made in exclusive interviews to Moskovskie Novosti (The Moscow News) weekly, and will be published in that newspaper’s Friday issue. MosNews, which is a partner publication of Moskovskie Novosti, posted full translation of both statements on our website on Thursday.

Our common goal is to do everything possible to make sure that bills, which, in essence, mean a step back from democracy, don’t come into force as law. I hope that the politicians, voters, and the president himself keep the democratic freedoms that were so hard to obtain, — reads Mikhail Gorbachev’s statement. Soviet Union’s last president, who ruled the country from 1985 to 1992, is convinced that Russian authorities “must search for political solutions, negotiate with the middle-of-the-road militants, separating them from the unappeasable extremists”.

His successor Boris Yeltsin, whose second presidential term ended on December 31, 1999, with a surprise announcement of his voluntary resignation (

Vladimir Putin was named acting president three months before actually getting elected in March 2000), calls on the Kremlin to refrain from undermining the existing constitutional framework, despite the necessity of fighting terrorist threats.

I firmly believe that the measures that the country’s leadership will undertake after Beslan will remain within the framework of democratic freedoms that have become Russia’s most valuable achievement over the past decade. We will not give up on the letter of the law, and most importantly, the spirit of the Constitution our country had voted for at the public referendum in 1993. If only because the stifling of freedom and the curtailing of democratic rights is a victory by the terrorists. Only a democratic country can successfully resist terrorism and count on standing shoulder to shoulder with all of the world’s civilized countries, — Yeltsin says in his statement.

Boris Yeltsin’s statement is viewed as a surprise move by many observers in Moscow. Unlike Mikhail Gorbachev, who is still active on Russian political scene, Yeltsin chose to refrain from public comments about Vladimir Putin’s politics ever since his retirement. Recently Boris Berezovsky, an exiled tycoon, renowned for his criticisms of Kremlin and Putin, published an open letter to Russia’s first president, urging Yeltsin to speak up and reminding him of his responsibility for the establishment of Russian constitutional democracy. Yeltsin makes no mention of Berezovsky’s call in his statement, but some observers tend to link his decision to break silence with the exiled oligarch’s request.

Christian Science Monitor

from the August 19, 2004 edition -

Russian civil rights groups see threat in Putin oversight The State Duma is to consider a series of regulations that could restrict or heavily tax funding for Russia's NGOs.

By Fred Weir | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

MOSCOW - Veronika Marchenko spends much of her time locked in struggle with the Russian government.

But she insists there's nothing unpatriotic about her group, Mothers' Right, which provides legal aid and advocacy services to parents whose sons have died in peacetime military service.

"We find ourselves perpetually in a state of opposition," she says. "Our main goal is to make Russian officials work effectively and according to the law. Unfortunately they do not always do so, and without Mothers' Right, many bereaved parents would be left with no legal assistance at all."

Ms. Marchenko's position seems to dovetail neatly with President Vladimir Putin's emphasis, in a May speech, on the need to build "a mature democracy and a developed civil society" to speed Russia's integration with the modern world.

But Mr. Putin sent chills through Russia's small community of human rights, environmental, and independent journalists' groups by adding this proviso: "Far from all [nongovernmental organization] are geared toward defending the people's real interests," he said. "For some [the priority is] obtaining funding from influential foreign and domestic foundations. For others, it is servicing dubious groups and commercial interests."

A package of tax code amendments presently before the pro-Kremlin State Duma would give teeth to Putin's thought by creating a commission to control funding for NGOs. According to the draft regulations, all foreign or domestic donors will have to go through a tough registration process and provide full details of how the money will be spent. Any "unregistered" contributions are to be taxed at a rate of 24 percent.

As with many Kremlin initiatives under Putin, the proposed rules to govern NGOs have triggered a sharp debate between experts who see them as normal government supervision over social institutions, and those who fear it heralds an authoritarian crackdown on independent grassroots activism.

"There is nothing dramatic going on," says Vyacheslav Nikonov, head of the independent Politika think tank in Moscow. "There is some concern in government that there's a lot of foreign funding of things the state doesn't like. That's nothing new."

Russia currently has about 350,000 civic organizations, most of them sports or hobby clubs, collectors' societies, veterans' associations and other nonpolitical groups. Few receive money from abroad - most have no regular funding at all - and some even say they would welcome more government intervention.

"Any state policy would be preferable to the present chaos," says Alexander Saversky, head of Russia's League for Protection of Patients' Rights, which runs a hot line for reporting medical abuses. Mr. Saversky says he is forced to work part time as a real estate agent to keep the group's work going. "Maybe a state department for the affairs of public organizations would help support groups like ours," he says.

Critics argue the new NGO rules are part of a Putin-era pattern that has included the gagging of independent TV networks, electoral controls that have reduced parliament to a Kremlin rubber stamp, and the arrest of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who had funded opposition groups. Now, they say, the Kremlin is aiming to straitjacket independent groups that work in human rights, environment, press freedom, and military affairs.

"The situation in Russia has really changed. There are no more independent media or political parties," says Dimitry Bentsis, press secretary for the Moscow-based Movement for Human Rights, which is almost entirely funded from Western sources. "Putin said he supports dialogue with Russian citizens, but it has in fact come to an end," he says. "We think this spells the end of democracy in Russia."

Mr. Bentsis says his group is increasingly under fire from Russian officials for accepting grants from abroad. But "Rus- sian sponsors are afraid to support human rights groups," he says. "They fear that if they give money, they'll end up like Khodorkovsky."

Sergei Markov, head of the Kremlin-connected Center for Political Studies in Moscow, admits that some in the Russian government may be hoping to restore a Soviet-style civil society composed of state-controlled front organizations. But he insists that Putin genuinely desires a strong civil society to help press the cause of reform. "The Kremlin wants groups that will criticize bureaucracy. It wants democracy that really works," he says.

The main problem with many foreign-funded human rights groups, Mr. Markov suggests, is that they still have the Soviet-era mentality of absolute, unbending opposition to the state. "Not only the government should move toward compromise, but some of these civic groups should take some steps to cooperate with the state as well."

Marchenko says that Mothers' Right, which is funded by several Western foundations, doesn't feel any need for the "illusion of cooperation" with government. "The way the state is treating public organizations is terrible. We've got nothing to talk to them about," she says.

She says Mothers' Right will go on assisting soldiers' families with death benefit and pension disputes - something the Russian military is often loathe to provide - even if the new rules do portend a crackdown on independent groups. "Anything can happen in Russia. But we still remember how tough things were when we got started" in the early1990s, she says. "If we get squeezed out of our office, we'll just go back to working in our kitchens. We're certainly not going to give up."

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Putting Putin on the spot The Christian Science Monitor

Last Updated 5:42 pm PDT Saturday, September 4, 2004

(CSM) - Having promised stability for Russia, if not full democracy, since becoming president five years ago, Vladimir Putin has lately come up short on both.

His problems have already spilled across Russia's borders, mainly in boosting world oil prices. Now he needs help from established democracies.

Europe and the U.S. so far have largely made empty complaints as Putin has, among other things, silenced most independent media, and legally assaulted oil giant Yukos for challenging him (creating hikes in oil markets).

Most of all, his foreign friends have done little about his attempt to "normalize" the breakaway province of Chechnya with rigged elections and continuing Russian military operations. Putin's actions in Chechnya have failed - if failure is defined as an inability to prevent the kind of terrorism inflicted on Russia's civilians in the past two weeks by what appear to be Chechen separatists.

Those attacks have included downing two airliners, blasting a subway, and now taking hostage some 300 adults and children at a school. Putin is asking the U.N. Security Council to endorse his claim that al-Qaida is involved with the nationalist cause of Chechnya terrorists. Evidence is slim to support that claim.

Any U.N. nod toward Putin's notion that he's up against "international terrorism" would give him license to pursue even rougher tactics against Chechnya than Russia has used since the conflict began there soon after the fall of the Soviet Union. (Chechens have suffered terribly through two phases of the war.) U.N. approval might also give license for Russian forces to oust Chechyna militants supposedly hiding in neighboring Georgia.

It's urgent that Europe and the United States push Putin to try new peaceful methods to resolve the Chechnya crisis before such terrorist attacks escalate further. Already attacks have been made on international oil pipelines in the region. Perhaps an international peace conference should be proposed.

Putin's increasingly despotic ways in both ruling Russia and ignoring Chechnya's interests do not deserve foreign support. But he can be more vigorously urged to change his ways.

Putin Woos Voters With Christian Confession

From Antipas, My Faithful Witness

By Ben Aris, in Moscow, Feb. 12, 2000

IN A clear bid to soften his autocratic image, Vladimir Putin, Russia's acting president, and former KGB chief, claimed yesterday that he had been secretly baptised during Soviet times.

The clear favourite to win Russia's presidential election next month made the disclosure in a phone-in with readers of the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. He said: "When I was a few months old, my mum and her neighbour in our communal apartment took me to church without telling my father - he was a Communist Party member - and baptised me."

Christianity was severely repressed during the 70 years of Communist rule, but the Orthodox Church has enjoyed a renaissance since the fall of the Soviet Union and is a powerful pro-government force. Russian leaders are regularly shown attending church services on important feast days, and a law passed in 1998 effectively banned most other religions from operating in Russia.

Mr Putin's admission was seen as an attempt to soften his image as an ice-cold former spymaster. Two days ago he was pictured with his pet poodle. Journalists have shied away from asking about his KGB days from 1975 to 1992, including several years in East Germany. Mr Putin has remained a dark horse, saying little about what he would do as president.

His popularity has soared on the back of military successes in Chechnya, but with the fall of Grozny last week, the Kremlin is casting about for new themes to promote him.

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It appears Putin is quite the politican...he can even make himself over as a Christian.

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