Soviet Union is back; the Cold War resumes...

Many in the West would prefer to herald the Beslan tragedy as an opportunity for greater U.S.-Russian cooperation in combating terrorism. In reality, however, relations between Washington and Moscow are following a downward spiral. In Russia we find an emerging dictatorship that espouses a subtle anti-American propaganda. What was previously hidden has come into view: the totalitarians are still in charge. Putin’s pretext for strengthening his dictatorship is found at Belsan, in 350 body bags.

What actually happened at Beslan (where hundreds of children were slaughtered by terrorists)? We still don’t know the facts.

Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya says that the FSB poisoned her on a flight from Moscow to Rostov, effectively keeping her from reaching Beslan. She was not alone in being hindered. Journalist Andrei Babitsky was detained at Vnukovo airport on “a specious pretext.” Russian security personnel drugged Georgian journalist Nana Lezhava’s coffee, putting her out of action at a critical moment. The 55-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) took note of these and other incidents in a “scathing” report on the Kremlin’s handling of the Beslan affair. According to the OSCE, the Kremlin forfeited its credibility by preventing journalists from reaching Beslan. From the outset, Russian authorities told one lie after another. As if to prevent accurate information from reaching the outside world, Russian authorities also interfered with foreign journalists, confiscating television footage.

With Beslan as a pretext, Putin has moved to consolidate his already formidable powers. Russia’s so-called “democracy” is now being liquidated. This is not surprising for those of us who have watched the changes in Eastern Europe since 1989. From the outset, secret totalitarian structures were left beneath the surface to guide the process of liberalization, to herd the new business class and infiltrate the various governments. Organized crime became a prominent tool in this process. The secret creatures of the totalitarian apparatus came to power, as “dissidents” or as “reform communists.” Capitalism and freedom were set up in Eastern Europe with this endgame in mind. It was a confidence scheme; and now the scheme has played itself out. Moscow’s strategic gains have been absorbed, now the reversion begins.

Russia’s so-called “oligarchs” have been driven into exile, frightened into cooperation or arrested. The Kremlin has “cemented its control” over the Russian energy sector. The old Soviet anthem is back. Soviet battle flags have been restored. The founder of the Soviet secret police, whose birthday is Sept. 11, is now openly celebrated. The old KGB has taken Russia by the throat. The West’s alarm, however, is muted by hope. Nobody wants to admit that America’s Cold War victory was equivocal; that step-by-step it is coming undone.

Given the Kremlin’s dishonest behavior during the Beslan affair, would it be outrageous to suggest that the tragic massacre was a provocation organized by the FSB/KGB?

Already Izvestiya is calling Putin’s power-grab “The September Revolution.” Other Russian publications are calling it a “restoration.” Wednesday’s Washington Post featured a story by Peter Baker titled, “Critics Say Putin Must Address Security Corruption.” According to Baker, “Putin … had been planning to centralize … political authority for months and took advantage of the school seizure in Beslan to unveil the decision.” This begs the question. If the liquidation of Russian democracy was planned in advance, then how did Putin think he would justify his blatant power grab to the Russian people? Surely he had something in mind.

The following changes have been proposed by Putin: (1) Regional governors, instead of being elected by the people, will be appointed by Putin and confirmed by regional assemblies; (2) Duma representatives will be selected from party lists, making parliamentary opposition all but impossible; (3) the restoration of the death penalty is being contemplated (suggesting a return to the sanguinary “discipline” of the Stalin era). In keeping with recent developments, we can expect that private companies will be seized on various pretexts, bank accounts will be frozen and businessmen will be arrested as the Kremlin rebuilds its totalitarian machinery. Already the Russian government has announced a 50 percent pay increase for the military.

This so-called “September Revolution” has been greeted with dismay in Washington and London. As one might expect, Vladimir Putin will have none of it. He bluntly tells his Western counterparts to “stay out of Russia’s business.” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says that America has no right to impose its democratic ideals on others. “This is our internal affair,” he explained. “We, on our side, do not comment on the U.S. system of presidential elections.”

Moscow’s attitude is nothing new. The most distressing fact in all of this, however, is the ultimate non-reaction of the Western elite. There is a strong tendency to self-deception in Washington, especially where Russia is concerned, and this tendency is struggling mightily against truth. And what is this truth? Former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko spelled it out in his book when he described Putin’s objective as “the total destruction of the foundations of a constitutional society built on the admittedly frail but, nonetheless, democratic values of a market economy” in Russia.

The failure of freedom in Russia is a major event. No other country is as dangerous as Russia. No other country has thousands of nuclear weapons pointed at America. None has missiles as advanced as Russia’s. None has a submarine fleet as large. To rate Russia as “just another country” is to negate the last 100 years of history.

I should like to end with a quote from Bill Gertz’s new book, Treachery: “The record of Russian proliferation – to Iraq and other dangerous countries – is long. Classified intelligence reports show that for more than a decade Moscow used its arms sales to rogue states as a strategic hammer against the United States.”

Putin Declares War by J. R. Nyquist Sept 9, 2004

Last week, in the Russian town of Beslan, nameless terrorists killed hundreds of children and adults. On Saturday Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a declaration of war, calling for his country’s mobilization. Grim before the television cameras, Putin blamed the breakup of that “vast great state,” the Soviet Union, for Russia’s sorry condition. “Despite all the difficulties,” said Putin, “we have managed to preserve the core of the colossus that was the Soviet Union.” And that core has come under attack. “Someone” wants to destroy what remains of the USSR. “We showed weakness,” Putin explained, “and the weak are trampled upon.”

There are many curious aspects to the Beslan massacre. In Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal, Russian chess champion Garry Kasparov noted the Muslim world’s “lack of interest” in the North Caucasus. So what was the Beslan terror spree about? According to Kasparov, Putin’s speech was “uncomfortably familiar to anyone who has lived under Soviet rule.”

As it stands today, the Russian security services control the Russian government. They control the “former” Soviet republics (even where there is a pretense of independence). They oversee the army districts of the “former” Soviet Union. They direct and coordinate organized crime. They continue to work with overseas communist parties, including the Chinese Communist Party. But there is more, much more, to this emerging picture. According to former FSB Lt. Col. Alexander Litvinenko, Russian state security regularly uses terrorism against the Russian people. This claim may sound outrageous to the uninformed, but Moscow built the infrastructure of global terrorism. Moscow trained and inspired a generation of terrorists.

Last week Litvinenko asked a question and provided an answer: “Who is the chief of the Islambuli Brigades who took credit for recent terrorist attacks in Russia? This chief is a high-ranking KGB officer named Mohammed al-Islambuli. He and his brother Khaled assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981. And now that organization is named in honor of Khaled. To tell the truth, they are mafia – they trade drugs and weapons in Russia.”

In 2002 Litvinenko wrote a book on the FSB/KGB’s involvement with organized crime and terrorism. The book’s English title is Blowing Up Russia: Terror From Within. The book documents “acts of terror, abductions and contract killings organized by the Federal Security Services of the Russian Federation.” Former KGB structures have used crime and terrorism to establish control over Russia’s economy and government. Litvinenko wrote, “To this must be added the corresponding line in foreign policy: a move towards Russia’s political isolation through confrontation with the West; militarization of the Russian economy; the beginning of a new arms race; an increase in the smuggling and sale of Russian weapons and military technologies to governments hostile to the developed nations of the world; the use of FSB channels for the smuggling of narcotics under the control and protection of the FSB….”

The Kremlin has played the Beslan massacre like classic provocation. “Some want to cut a juicy morsel from us,” explained Putin, referring to the oil-rich Caucasus region. “Others are helping them. They are helping because they believe that, as one of the world’s major nuclear powers, Russia still poses a threat to them, and therefore this threat must be removed. And terrorism, of course, is only a tool for achieving these goals.” In other words, “someone” wants to smash the Russian federation. They want to get hold of Russia’s oil. They want to break the back of the Russian state. They want to deprive Russia of its nuclear arsenal because it “still” threatens them. “This is a challenge to the whole of Russia,” Putin warned, “to the whole of our people. This is an attack on our country.” The plan is to “intimidate” Russia with “inhuman cruelty,” to “paralyze our will and demoralize our society.” The Russian president added: “It would appear that we have a choice of resisting them or agreeing to their claims, surrendering or allowing them to destroy and split Russia….”

The choice is clear. Destroy or be destroyed, kill or be killed. “One cannot fail to see the obvious,” said Putin. “We are not just dealing with separate actions aimed at frightening us, or separate terrorist sorties. We are dealing with direct intervention by way of terrorism against Russia, with total, cruel and full-scale war in which our compatriots die again and again.” The best course of action, explained Putin, is the “mobilization of the country in the face of a common danger.” The Russian people must unite. “Fellow countrymen,” he warned, “the aim of those who sent the bandits to carry out this horrific crime was to divide our people, to frighten Russia’s citizenry, to unleash a fratricidal bloodbath in the North Caucasus.” In response to this conspiracy the Russian president promised “measures to strengthen the unity of the country.” He promised to “create a new system for … controlling the situation in the North Caucasus.” According to Putin, “This is the only way for us to defeat the enemy.”

And who is this mysterious enemy that seeks to frighten and split Russia? Here is a hint: It is the same old enemy as before – the enemy of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. And was the Beslan massacre a provocation? Here is another hint: the FSB was previously known as the KGB. Provocation was the KGB’s specialty. There is a great deal of evidence and testimony that President Putin came to power through FSB-sponsored terrorism. Russian state security provoked the Second Chechen War. Putin’s agents planted the bombs that leveled Russian apartment buildings in 1999. Furthermore, Chechen terrorists who take hostages have been publicly identified as Kremlin agents.

On Wednesday the Washington Times ran a story titled “Putin rips Washington’s calls for diplomacy with Chechens,” by Nicholas Kralev. According to this article, Putin has accused the United States of “undermining” Russia’s war on terrorism. Putin also accuses American officials of meeting with Chechen leaders. Even more blameworthy (from Putin’s standpoint), the United States granted political asylum to Ilyas Akhmadov, a Chechen rebel leader and foreign minister. The Kremlin uses this and other facts to show that Washington supports Chechen terrorism; that Washington seeks to demoralize and split Russia through “a fratricidal bloodbath in the North Caucasus.”

Do not mistake this for “Russian paranoia.” What we are hearing and reading is calculated propaganda. Characteristically, the mass murderer accuses his intended victim of harboring identical intentions to his own. It effectively appeals to the willing dupes, useful idiots and fellow travelers of the anti-American left. At the same time it covers President Putin with a halo of innocence.

Russian policy has entered a new phase. President Putin’s declaration of war against an unnamed country, his mobilization of Russia, his call for unity, his nostalgia for the Soviet Union already characterizes this new phase. Russia’s policy is clearly anti-American and anti-capitalist. As former FSB Lt. Col. Litvinenko stated in his book, “The philistine argument that ‘it’s just not possible’ is merely an expression of the potential victim’s psychological inability to accept the worst.”

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