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

mosnews.com ^ | 9/16/2004 | Staff

[Luis Gonzalez]

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.

[MarMema]

Putin had something like 90% of the vote going into the last election, but supposedly he had to make secret agents plant bombs and blow up their fellow citizens in order to win.

Ranks right up there with the conspiracies about the Israelites supposedly being behind our 9-11.

[StoneFury]

I haven't read most of your (long) posts, so you may have answered this already, but what is your opposition to Putin potentially becoming dictator? The question is academic to me, since as I've stated already that I'm indifferent to Russian politics, but it would satisfy my curiosity.

[Destro]

Well you are delusional because they don't claim Putin is restoring societisim or communisim. And the article you cited as your proof of Societisim and evil just described a brutal war where the Russians are less brutal then their Muslim enemy.

Put up or shut up.

[CWOJackson]

"I haven't read most of your (long) posts, so you may have answered this already, but what is your opposition to Putin potentially becoming dictator? The question is academic to me, since as I've stated already that I'm indifferent to Russian politics, but it would satisfy my curiosity."

Hmmmmmm? How to explain this? We have Putin, an ex-KGB agent who has publicly bemoans the demise of...what was it called...oh, yes...the Soviet Union.

For some years now he's been moving to consolidate his power and rollback democracy...and now there's that other nagging thing...oh, yes...suspending popular elections, silencing the press, consolidate power in himself.

Where's the problem with that? Hmmmmmm.

Let's try this. How about the fact that we spent 50 years fighting the cold war with the ideals he embodies. Or the fact that millions of people suffered under the regine he wishes to restore.

You may be indifferent to Soviet politics but the rest of the world remembers what it caused before.

[Destro]

I knew you were nostoligic for those days gone by. Old people get that way. It's ok old timer. The Kaiser is not returning either.

[CWOJackson]

Luis, you will love this...makeovers for dictators.

Independent.co.uk News

’Dictator’ Putin getting a makeover

Sunday 7th March 2004

Kremlin woos foreign journalists in attempt to prove to the rest of the world that their President is not a totalitarian.

The Kremlin is engaged in an all-out and urgent effort to improve the international image of Russia and its President, Vladimir Putin, before he embarks on his second term.

Russian officials are concerned that while Mr Putin enjoys record ratings at home, there are many negatives weighing on his image abroad that threaten Russia’s effectiveness on the world stage. The gravest in their view is the perception that Mr Putin represents a rush back to Soviet-style totalitarianism. Worried officials held what was described as a "brain-storming" session a few weeks ago to find strategies that could help counter the view of Mr Putin as a budding dictator.

The Kremlin appears to be genuinely taken aback by the growing disaster that is Mr Putin’s image abroad. Both administration officials and Russian journalists cannot quite comprehend how the Putin they know and write about has come to diverge so sharply from the one depicted in the Western media. They find it hard to appreciate that what plays well at home often creates a quite opposite impression abroad. The hard line taken by Mr Putin over Chechen separatism, for example, is popular in Russia, while it is condemned as ruthless and short-sighted abroad.

The enforced exile of several "oligarchs" and the continued imprisonment without trial of Sergei Khodorkovsky, former head of the Yukos oil company, are applauded by many Russians, who see these super-rich individuals as thieves and parasites. They do not realise that abroad their treatment looks more like political persecution, laced with anti-semitism, as most of the targets have been Jews.

The "all Putin all the time" newscasts on state-owned channels and the closure of independent television stations and is greeted with equanimity in Russia. Many argue that the independent channels were closed not for political reasons, but because they made hopeless losses. They say the state channels are far more diverse in their content than they were in even late Soviet times, and that any television monopoly is compensated for by the plethora of radio stations, newspapers and magazines of all varieties and views.

Among the first tangible results of the Kremlin "summit" was a series of visits for foreign reporters that were designed to show "the real Russia" - not just the showcases of Moscow and St Petersburg, but parts of the far-flung provinces, (some) warts and all.

The programmes read like a list of the last taboos of the Soviet era, including many that survived the years of Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost and Boris Yeltsin’s free-for-all: top-secret military sites; newly restored religious shrines; social projects on such hitherto taboo subjects as domestic violence, drug abuse and poverty among the elderly.

The five-day trip in which I participated last week took in the headquarters of Russia’s nuclear research programme in one of the closed military cities that have always been out of bounds, except with special clearance. We were also taken to Russia’s first destruction facility for chemical weapons: the visits included no-holds-barred Q&A sessions with the directors, who appeared to have been briefed that all questions were permissible and all answers within their discretion.

The bright, young officials accompanying us steadfastly declined to offer any comment or interpretation of what we were seeing. We travelled hundreds of miles through rural areas by road, which would have been unheard of in Soviet times. Those of us familiar with those days found noticeable improvements: new roofs, extensions, better clothes, infinitely better supplies.

Again, for those accustomed to the ponderous presentations of the Soviet period, this was a whole new style: flexible and devoid of ideology. But it was not quite without glitches. Permission was refused at the last moment to see the building where chemical weapons are destroyed. A visit to the premier strategic bomber base was also cancelled. Several local officials seemed not to have entered the new era of "telling it how it is". President Putin’s writ runs far, but not yet everywhere.

[Luis Gonzalez]

You want a link as proof?

Here you go.

[MarMema]

Thanks for the link.

"The requested document does not exist on this server"

[StoneFury]

But where are the gulags? Where are the 20 million political prisoners? Where are the forced re-locations of entire ethnic groups? Where has Putin claimed something to the effect that he will "bury us"? Where are the land grabs? Where is the massive militarization (last I heard, Russia disbanded a few divisions)? Where is the Iron Curtain?

Putin has a long way to go to if his mission is to turn Russia into a new Soviet Union. I'd go so far as to say he's failed miserably, if this is his plan.

[StoneFury]

Too funny.

[CWOJackson]

"Putin has a long way to go to if his mission is to turn Russia into a new Soviet Union."

Yes, dismissing popular elections and consolidating the power into his own hands will accomplish little. LOL!

Don't worry about it...as you said, you don't care...go back to sleep and the same folks who fought the Soviets will fight their favorite son again for you.

[StoneFury]

The silence is deafening.

[EaglesUpForever]

> negotiate with the middle-of-the-road militants

Hey, that's John Kerry's specialty! Maybe he will find a job in Russia after the next election.

[StoneFury]

Yes, dismissing popular elections and consolidating the power into his own hands

But surely those alone don't make Russia=Soviet Union. Hell, Kuwait matches that description.

[CWOJackson]

Excerpts from a NYT article by Steven Lee Myers, Sept 14th:

Putin, in special session outlined what would be the most sweeping political restructuring and his most striking single step to consolidate power in Russia in more than a decade. Critics immediately said it would violate the constitution and stifle what political opposition remains.

Under Putin's proposals, which he said required only legislative approval and not constitutional amendments, the governors or leaders of the country's 89 regions would no longer be elected by popular vote but rather by local legislatures and only after the president's nomination.

In addition district election of the lower house of the parliment would be suspended and replace with national party slates which he could control.

"The electoral changes require the approval of parliament, but because the party loyal to Putin, United Russia, controls more than two-thirds of the 450 seats, that is almost a foregone conclusion. Mitrokhin said that although Putin's proposals "contradict the letter and the spirit of the constitution," challenges to them would be futile."

Signed, sealed and delivered...Comrade Putin, here's your empire.

[CWOJackson]

Nope...I've been to Kuwait twice. It's nothing like the Soviet Union.

[CWOJackson]

Star News, 14 Sept 2004

Vladimir Putin: Stalin in a suit?

The mass murder of school children has given Russia's president a pretext to become Russia's dictator. Vladimir Putin is seizing that opportunity.

Already the dominant politician in a country accustomed to autocrats, the chilly former KGB man is offering his fearful people security in exchange for servitude – not that he can keep his end of the bargain.

Mr. Putin's brutal and clumsy war to suppress the Chechen independence movement almost guarantees the creation of more terrorists who will stop at nothing, not even the murder of children. Yet Mr. Putin vows to persist in that bloody folly, claiming, with little evidence, that the underlying problem is Islamic terrorism.

Nor is there reason to believe that Mr. Putin's corrupt and incompetent military and security forces can protect Mother Russia's children, any more than they protected the children of Beslan.

Yet the politicians Mr. Putin orders around seem ready to give him vast additional powers. Essentially, he would control the national legislature and the governors of all 89 regions. The people would lose the right to vote for those local officials. Yet Mr. Putin says no constitutional amendments are needed, only the consent of his obedient legislature.

Mr. Putin and his buddies already control much of the news media and try to intimidate the rest. He is refusing to allow an independent investigation of the government's lies and failures at the doomed school. He is calling for the banning of organizations and religions his government doesn't like. One Russian critic says, "we are coming back to the U.S.S.R."

The lash, the Siberian exile and the bullet in the back of the head may not be coming back, but centralized power in the hands of one man seems to be.

The United States can't control what happens in Russia, but it can speak out against what appears to be the imminent disappearance of anything that resembles democracy.

[MarMema]

It is sad that they don't understand and are so fast to hate and criticize. What happened at Beslan was an atrocity, and nothing anything like it has been done by Russian soldiers.

They raped the young girls on the first day at Beslan and made a video of it, which they sent out for delivery to Putin.

When the Russian forces were moving in and they ran out of ammo, they began grabbing children and stabbing them in the back.

These people are not human beings in our sense of the word and Putin knows it. Russia is a place where bribery and corruption have been part of the game for so long that it will take a long, long time to clear it out.

In that long, long time, another Beslan or worse will happen precisely because officials will be bribed yet again, as they have been repeatedly, to look the other way as explosives are planted in advance. Or as chechen women are allowed on a plane to blow themselves up.

This is the only way that Putin can see to put in high places the people he believes will not bow to bribery. It is in fact, a natural response to chaos under you, to take stronger control.

I don't see any other way myself. As much as I love the Russian people, they are simply used to doing business differently then we do it. And it will take many years to change this.

In fact it is the Russian people themselves who have been strong critics of Putin for his lack of internal security. I read the Russian news almost every day. Although some are unhappy with this move, the majority are tired of worrying about bombs on the Metro in the morning or afternoon and want to see more action taken to stop it.

I will call some Russian friends in Moscow tomorrow and see what they think. I am betting they are not worried about being returned to the USSR.

[StoneFury]

Nope...I've been to Kuwait twice. It's nothing like the Soviet Union.

Thank you for proving my point. Kuwait, who does not have popular elections, and where power remains in the hands of a few, is nothing like the Soviet Union.

But Russia is because why?

[CWOJackson]

Putin tightens grip on regions and MPs

Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow, Tuesday September 14, 2004, The Guardian

President Vladimir Putin made constitutional changes yesterday designed to increase his personal control of the regions and parliament, saying the government needed "strengthening" because it had failed at Beslan in its fight against terrorism.

He told regional governors, cabinet colleagues and senior bureaucrats: "We have not achieved visible results in rooting out terrorism and in destroying its sources.

"The organisers and perpetrators of the terror attack are aiming at the disintegration of the state, the break-up of Russia."

But some analysts said his changes, which amounted to the biggest single shakeup of his four years in power, would not help fight terrorism, but would further strengthen his already tight grip on power.

Mr Putin said he wanted to appoint the currently elected regional governors himself, subject to vetting by the weak regional assemblies, and he wanted all MPs elected by proportional representation.

At present half the Duma, the lower house of the federal parliament, is directly elected by constituencies, the rest according to the party vote. The new system could in theory give smaller parties seats in in parliament, but the current rules let only parties with more than 7% of the vote take seats, disqualifying most.

Mr Putin made two other announcements of more apparent relevance to the Beslan disaster.

He made his head of administration, Dmitri Kozak, his personal envoy to the North Caucuses region, which includes North Ossetia and Chechnya, and appointed Vladimir Yakovlev minister for reconstructed nationalities, a post designed to ease ethnic tension in the south which he abolished when be became president.

Mr Putin hinted at plans for a Russian version of the US homeland security department, established after September 11, saying: "We need a single organisation capable of not only dealing with terror attacks but also working to avert them, destroy criminals in their hideouts, and if necessary, abroad."

In a rare mention of the social causes of terrorism, he hinted at the huge amount of unemployment and poor health of the North Caucuses.

He said terrorism's roots lay in "unemployment, in insufficiently effective socio-economic policy, and in insufficient education ... The district's unemployment rate is several times higher than Russia's average ... All of this provides fertile soil for extremism to grow."

Lilia Shevtsova, a senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment, said the changes were the "logical extension" of Mr Putin's desire to have vertical control the regions.

"The constitution still says that the Russian people are the source of power, but [now] there is nothing left in the constitution to that effect."

The changes would not make him a dictator, however, since he still valued his invitations to the Group of Eight industrialised countries, and the Russian authorities were too corrupt to be authoritarian.

Vladimir Pribyovsky, head of the thinktank Panorama, said: "Terrorism is being used as a pretext to change the federal structure of the country."

He said that the planned change to the constitution might lead to Mr Putin trying to alter the constitution to allow himself a third term at the elections in 2008.

Before he was re-elected in March Mr Putin ruled out any changes to the constitution.

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"Mr Putin hinted at plans for a Russian version of the US homeland security department..." Putin's KGB rising from the ashes.