You only need to see the queues of excited families at Moscow airport, heading for holidays abroad, or visit the Gulag Museum with its displays from Stalin’s camps, or go to a theatre production of Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, or look at Russian websites and blogs, or simply eat and shop in Moscow today, to understand that communism is well and truly buried.
I am tempted to end by quoting Sir Rodric Braithwaite, a former British ambassador to the Soviet Union, whose affection for the country and understanding of its people leads him to a rare understanding of Russia’s situation. ‘There are many flaws in the Putin system’, he wrote. ‘But it has restored Russian self respect, and laid the ground for future prosperity and reform. As the process goes forward, the rest of us are better employed in keeping our mouths shut, rather than offering advice which is sometimes arrogant and insulting, and often irrelevant or useless.’3
That is precisely what the Clinton and Bush administrations failed to do, and, as the events described in this book show, the advent of a new Cold War was probably due as much to American insensitivity as it was to Putin’s stridency in pursuing his legitimate goal of restoring Russian pride and status. As we have seen throughout this book, both sides fall too easily into stereotyped thinking, rooted in an era when two ideologies fought for world domination. That era is gone: there is no ‘Russian ideology’, and wishing to have a say in world affairs is a far cry from the Soviet ambition to spread communism around the globe. Yet the Cold War thinking and frictions remain – on both sides, each winding the other up instead of trying to understand the other’s fears.
Russians showed during the Gorbachev and Yeltsin period that they aspired to democracy and freedom, but they hated the chaos that accompanied it. Putin brought greater stability but curtailed democracy. Russians have yet to find a leader who can provide them with both.
NOTES
Chapter 1. The Secret Policeman’s Ball
1. Strobe Talbott, The Russia Hand (New York: Random House, 2002), p 416.
2. Interview with Konstantin Kosachev, 16 December 2009.
3. Talbott, p 397.
4. Stephen F. Cohen, Failed Crusade: America and the Tragedy of Post-Communist Russia (New York: W.W.Norton & Co, 2000), p xii.
5. Interview with Toby Gati, RIA Novosti, 22 March 2011.
6. Vladimir Putin, Ot pervogo litsa (http://archive.kremlin.ru/articles/bookchapter3.shtml – last accessed 7 September 2011).
7. For a good account of this part of Putin’s career, see Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the End of Revolution (New York: Lisa Drew, 2005), pp 47ff.
8. Ibid., p 53.
Chapter 2. Courting the West
1. Interview with George Robertson, 9 March 2011.
2. Interview with Jonathan Powell, 9 March 2011.
3. Guardian, 18 April 2000.
4. Interview with Mikhail Margelov, 29 April 2010.
5. Interview with Condoleezza Rice, 14 April 2011.
6. Interview with Stephen Hadley, 24 January 2011.
7. Interview with Colin Powell, 3 March 2011.
8. Interview with Igor Ivanov, 11 December 2010.
9. Interview with Sergei Ivanov, 29 October 2010.
10. Yelena Tregubova, Bayki kremlevskogo diggera (Moscow: Ad Marginem, 2003), pp 160ff.
11. Bob Woodward, Bush at War (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), p 119.
12. Interview with Colin Powell, 3 March 2011.
13. Interview with Condoleezza Rice, 20 June 2011.
14. Bolton interview with Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, quoted in Kremlin Rising, p 131.
15. Interview with Sergei Ivanov, 29 October 2010.
16. White House translation, quoted in Woodward, Bush at War, p 118.
17. In 2009 the Russians finally tried to force the Kyrgyz government to eject the Americans from Manas by offering loans worth $2 billion. The price paid by the US to be allowed to stay was a quadrupling in the rent and the renaming of the air base into a less permanent-sounding ‘Transit Centre’.
18. John Bolton, Surrender is not an Option (New York: Threshold Editions, 2007), p 71.
19. Interview with Gerhard Schröder, 8 June 2011.
20. Interview with George Robertson, 9 March 2011.
21. Interview with Sergei Prikhodko, 30 June 2011.
22. Interview with George Robertson, 9 March 2011.
23. Interview with Colin Powell, 17 May 2011.
24. Interview with Stephen Hadley, 24 January 2011.
25. Interview with Igor Ivanov, 11 December 2010.
26. Interview with Colin Powell, 17 May 2011.
27. Interview with Sergei Ivanov, 29 October 2010.
28. Interview with Condoleezza Rice, 20 June 2011.
Chapter 3. The Battle for Economic Reform
1. Interview with Alexei Kudrin, 14 December 2010.
2. Interview with German Gref, 7 December 2010.
3. Interview with Andrei Illarionov, 27 January 2011.
4. Interview with German Gref, 7 December 2010.
5. Mikhail Kasyanov, Bez Putina (Moscow: Novaya gazeta, 2009), p 216.
6. Interview with Mikhail Kasyanov, 16 February 2011.
7. See Marshall Goldman, Petrostate (New York: OUP, 2008), chapter 5.
8. Interview with Vladimir Milov, 16 February 2011.
Chapter 4. The Darker Side
1. Interview with Viktor Shenderovich, 14 December 2010.
2. Komsomolskaya Pravda, 11 February 2000.
3. Novaya gazeta, 27 March 2000, reprinted in Anna Politkovskaya, Nothing but the Truth (London: Harvill Secker, 2010).
4. Mikhail Kasyanov, Bez Putina (Moscow: Novaya gazeta, 2009), p 217.
5. Interview with German Gref, 7 December 2010.
6. David E. Hoffman, The Oligarchs (Oxford, Public Affairs Ltd, 2002), p 449.
7. John Browne, Beyond Business (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2010), p 145.
8. Interview with German Gref, 7 December 2010.
9. Martin Sixsmith, Putin’s Oil (London: Continuum, 2010), p 52.
10. Interview with Mikhail Kasyanov, 16 February 2011.
11. My account of this meeting is based on interviews with those present, on (edited) video of the event and on the versions given by Sixsmith, Putin’s Oil, and Andrei Kolesnikov in Kommersant, 20 February 2003.
12. Interview with Leonid Nevzlin, 14 May 2011.
13. Interview with Andrei Illarionov, 27 January 2011.
14. Interview with Mikhail Kasyanov, 16 February 2011.
15. Kasyanov, Bez Putina, pp 199ff.
16. Quoted in Sixsmith, Putin’s Oil, p 153.
17. Observer, 2 November 2003.
Chapter 5. New Europe, Old Europe
1. Interview with George Robertson, 9 March 2011.
2. Interview with Jonathan Powell, 9 March 2011.
3. Interview with Dan Fried, 27 January 2011.
4. Interview with Nicholas Burns, 15 July 2010.
5. Interview with Nicholas Burns, 21 January 2011.
6. Interview with Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, 20 June 2011.
7. Die Zeit, 5 April 2001.
8. Interview with Gerhard Schröder, 8 June 2011.
9. Interview with Alexander Kwaśniewski, 24 November 2010.
10. Interview with Igor Ivanov, 11 December 2010.
11. Interview with Nicholas Burns, 21 January 2011.
12. Interview with Sergei Ivanov, 29 October 2010.
13. Interview with Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, 20 June 2011.
14. Interview with Condoleezza Rice, 14 April 2011.
Chapter 6. Putin Mark II
1. Interview with Igor Ivanov, 11 December 2010.
2. Interview with Nino Burjanadze, 29 March 2011.
3. Interview with Mikheil Saakashvili, 9 May 2005.
4. See Thomas de Waal, The Caucasus: An Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), pp 194–5.
5. Interview with Colin Powell, 3 March 2011.
6. de Waal, The Caucasus, p 197.
7. Interview with Mikheil Saakashvili, 31 March 2011.
8. Wall Street Journal, 30 August 2008, Daily Telegraph, 23 August 2008.
9. de Waal, The Caucasus, p 199.
10. Interview with Eduard Kokoity, 4 April 2011.
11. The cause of the fire, which left only the outer walls intact, has never been fully established. The destruction of the historic building (erected after the Napoleonic fire of 1812) provided an excuse for its total reconstruction, which was criticised by conservationists for distorting the original architectural vision.
12. Komsomolskaya Pravda, 28 September 2004.
13. Surkov on Chechen television, 8 July 2011, quoted by Interfax and Reuters.
14. Dmitry Trenin, ‘Moscow the Muscular’: The Loneliness of an Aspiring Power Center (Moscow: Carnegie Moscow Center Briefing, volume 11, issue 1, January 2009).
Chapter 7. Enemies Everywhere
1. Interview with Leonid Kuchma, 22 March 2011.
2. Interview with John E. Herbst, 16 May 2011.
3. Interview with Gleb Pavlovsky, 18 February 2011.
4. Interview with Sergei Markov, 30 June 2011.
5. Interview with Oleh Rybachuk, 28 November 2010.
6. Interview with Viktor Yushchenko, 29 November 2010.
7. Interview with Alexander Kwaśniewski, 24 November 2010.
8. Interview with Leonid Kuchma, 22 March 2011.
9. Interview with Alexander Kwaśniewski, 24 November 2010.
10. Washington Post, 9 February 2010.
11. Gleb Pavlovsky, Nezavisimaya gazeta, 7 December 2004.
12. Nezavisimaya gazeta, 7 December 2004.
13. Interview with Tony Brenton, 5 April 2011.
14. ICNL (The International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law), volume 9, issue 1, December 2006.
15. Interview with Lyudmila Alexeyeva, 23 February 2011.
16. Interview with Jonathan Powell, 9 March 2011.
17. Interview with Mikhail Kasyanov, 16 February 2011.
18. Interview with Viktor Yushchenko, 29 November 2010.
19. Interview with Damon Wilson, 2 March 2011.
20. Interview with Oleh Rybachuk, 28 November 2010.
21. Interview with John E. Herbst, 16 May 2011.
Chapter 8. A New Cold War
1. Interview with Stephen Hadley, 24 January 2011.
2. Rather was at the centre of a controversy after publicising documents critical of President Bush’s military service during the 2004 presidential campaign. The documents’ authenticity was later disputed, and in November Rather announced he would retire the following March, but there was never any suggestion that Bush had put pressure on CBS to fire him.
3. Interview with Damon Wilson, 2 March 2011.
4. Interviews with Nicholas Burns, 21 January 2011, and Condoleezza Rice, 20 June 2011.
5. Wikileaks cable in the Guardian, 1 December 2010.
6. Interview with Oleg Mitvol, 14 April 2010.
7. These events are reconstructed from interviews with Condoleezza Rice, Bill Burns, Sergei Ivanov, Igor Ivanov, Sergei Lavrov and others.
8. Some of Litvinenko’s colleagues later ‘returned’ to the FSB fold and accused him of having tricked them into making this appearance. For an excellent account of all the conspiracy theories and intrigues surrounding the case, see Martin Sixsmith, The Litvinenko File (London: Macmillan, 2007).
9. Yelena Tregubova, http://viperson.ru/wind.php?ID=413357&soch=1 (last accessed 7 September 2011).
10. Interview with David Miliband, 7 July 2011.
11. Interview with Sergei Lavrov, 25 October 2010.
12. Sixsmith, The Litvinenko File, pp 303ff.
Chapter 9. Media, Missiles, Medvedev
1. Dmitry Peskov, interviewed on Dozhd television, 4 October 2011.
2. US companies are obliged to declare fees received from foreign principals for ‘political activities’. For the period January to June 2008, the fee declared by Ketchum and its partner The Washington Group for work done in North America and Japan on behalf of the Russian Federation was $2,436,600. GPlus received a similar sum for its work in Europe, making a total of almost $5 million for that six-month period. The initial contract for the G8 year has been rolled over year by year, with the fees for each new contract varying somewhat.
3. Dmitry Peskov, interviewed on Dozhd television, 4 October 2011.
4. See, for example, The New Times, 16 March 2009.
5. See Luke Harding, Mafia State (London: Guardian Books, 2011).
6. Lilia Shevtsova, Lonely Power (Moscow: Carnegie Endowment, 2010), pp 98ff.
7. Interviews with Dan Fata, 1 March 2011, and Eric Edelman, 4 March 2011.
8. Dmitri Trenin, ‘Moscow the Muscular’: The Loneliness of an Aspiring Power Center (Moscow: Carnegie Moscow Center Briefing, volume 11, issue 1, January 2009).
9. Interview with Sergei Prikhodko, 30 June 2011.
10. Off-the-record interview with senior Russian official.
11. Interview with Condoleezza Rice, 30 June 2011.
12. Interview with Stephen Hadley, 24 January 2011.
13. Interview with Eric Edelman, 4 March 2011.
14. Interview with Robert Gates, 16 May 2011.
15. Interview with Sergei Lavrov, 25 October 2010.
16. Interview with Anatoly Antonov, 2 April 2011.
17. Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov, Putin: Itogi (Moscow: Novaya gazeta, 2008).
18. Michael McFaul and Kathryn Stoner-Weiss, ‘The Myth of the Authoritarian Model’, Foreign Affairs, volume 87, number 1, January/February 2008.
Chapter 10. The Descent into War
1. Interview with Damon Wilson, 2 March 2011.
2. Interview with Mikheil Saakashvili, 31 March 2011.
3. Interview with Jean-David Levitte, 12 March 2011.
4. Interview with Robert Gates, 16 May 2011.
5. Interview with Stephen Hadley, 24 January 2011.
6. Interview with Radoslaw Sikorski, 25 November 2010.
7. Interview with Condoleezza Rice, 20 June 2011.
8. Interview with Frank-Walter Steinmeier, 20 June 2011.
9. Angus Roxburgh, ‘Georgia Fights for Nationhood’, National Geographic, volume 181, number 5, May 1992.
10. Quoted in Thomas de Waal, The Caucasus: An Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), p 208.
11. Interview with Damon Wilson, 2 March 2011.
12. http://www.rferl.org/content/Did_Russia_Plan_Its_War_In_Georgia __/1191460.html (last accessed 7 September 2011).
13. Interview with Giorgi Bokeria, 30 March 2011.
14. Interview with Batu Kutelia, 29 March 2011.
15. Interview with Nino Burjanadze, 29 March 2011.
16. Interview with Mikheil Saakashvili, 31 March 2011.
17. Interview with Sergei Prikhodko, 30 June 2011.
18. I do not regard Saakashvili as a particularly reliable witness. His interview for the TV series contained at least two ‘memories’ that are verifiably false. He has a clear tendency to embellish stories to his own advantage.
19. Interview on Ekho Moskvy, published 7 August 2011.
20. Medvedev interview with Russia Today, PIK-TV and Ekho Moskvy, published 5 August 2011.
21. Interview with Condoleezza Rice, 20 June 2011.
22. Interview with Radoslaw Sikorski, 25 November 2010.
23. I accept that this is an oversimplification. The ethnic balance of Abkhazia changed hugely over the decades: the Abkhaz were once the majority ethnic group, and huge numbers of Georgians and Russians were brought into the region during the Soviet period – a deliberate Georgian policy, the Abkhaz say, to turn them into a minority.
24. Interview with Jean-David Levitte, 12 March 2011.
25. Medvedev interview with Russia Today, etc, 5 August 2011.
26
. Interview with Condoleezza Rice, 14 April 2011.
27. Interview with Sergei Lavrov, 25 October 2010.
28. Interview with Mikheil Saakashvili, 31 March 2011.
29. Interview with Robert Gates, 16 May 2011.
30. Interview with Stephen Hadley, 24 January 2011.
31. In a live television phone-in programme on 4 December 2008 Putin was asked by a viewer, ‘Is it true that you promised to hang Saakashvili by “one place”?’ Putin paused for a moment, smiled, and replied: ‘Why by “one”?’
Chapter 11. Resetting Relations with the West
1. Interview with Michael McFaul, 15 April 2011.
2. Interview with Sergei Ryabkov, 27 October 2010.
3. Interview with Sergei Prikhodko, 30 June 2011.
4. Interview with James Jones, 4 March 2011.
Chapter 12. The Strongman and His Friends
1. Interview with Alexei Kudrin, 14 December 2010.
2. Interview with German Gref, 7 December 2010.
3. Sergei Guriev and Aleh Tsyvinski, ‘Challenges Facing the Russian Economy after the Crisis’, in Sergei Guriev, Anders Aslund and Andrew Kuchins (eds), Russia After the Global Economic Crisis (The Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2010), p 21.
4. Interview with Arkady Dvorkovich, 29 June 2011.
5. Kommersant, No. 124, 13 July 2010.
6. Currently available only in Russian and Swedish.
7. http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings (last accessed 7 September 2011). The top ten countries for ease of doing business are, in order: Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, UK, USA, Denmark, Canada, Norway, Ireland, Australia.
8. http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2011/05/24_a_3627341.shtml (last accessed 7 September 2011).
9. http://news.kremlin.ru/transcripts/9368 (last accessed 7 September 2011).
10. Report by INDEM foundation, quoted in V. Milov, B. Nemtsov, V. Ryzhkov and O. Shorina (eds), Putin. Korruptsiya. Nezavisimyy ekspertnyy doklad (Moscow, 2011).
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