Limonov vs. Putin

by Edward Limonov

  I cited this Nashist prose on purpose. On the meeting with the Nashists the president was wearing black jeans, black sneakers and a dark shirt with thin white squares – actually it is the typical uniform of a soccer hooligan. You can admire it in the July 27th issue of the Kommersant.

  Following the president’s advice “not to work in clichйs” soon the Nashists “got the opportunity to influence the situation in the country”. This is what they did and in such a way that now the president will have to distance himself from the Nashi at best. I am talking about the August 29th attack. And he is already taking his distances. And apparently Surkov, who drew Putin in this story, is having a bad time. It does not mean that the president felt ashamed. After all he was not ashamed of the tragedy of the Center on Dubrovka or Beslan. Simply on July 26th he was forced to meet a criminal gang and a month later this gang demonstrated to the entire country how it is carelessly criminal.

  What caused the August 29th attack on the NBP meeting? On August 26th the Supreme Court decided not to liquidate the NBP. Yakemenko was very saddened. Here is the statement he made on the same day: “We weren’t surprised by the appeal of the Supreme Court’s decision about the cancellation of the NBP liquidation by the Prosecutor General. We believe that good sense has to triumph, since the presence of legal fascists in Russia is monstrous. Today we are forced to watch how Limonov’s fascist sect’s members are trying to spit in the face of all our people who saved the world from the brown plague in the XX century. This low farce will last until all of us, the society, say ‘Enough!’ The NBP shamelessly continue to use fascist symbols and fascist rhetoric. This is why the Nashi young democratic antifascist movement will continue to say that the NBP is a fascist sect that represents, like any other fascist organization, a real social threat for our society. It is sad that our legislation does not allow our courts to judge the fascists because they are fascists. Maybe, finally, the time has come for our deputies to pay attention to this and to protect Russia’s citizens from the fascist threat in a legislative way.”

  The demagogy is absolutely shameless, demonical, if we consider that at least for five years now the NBP keeps talking about the restoration of the climate of political freedoms in Russia (destroyed by Putin), calls for free elections, to a multiparty parliament and a coalition government and a black hammer and sickle appears on the NBP red flag from the very foundation of the party. Hammer and sickle. Hammer and sickle.

  On August 29th, three days after the decision of the Supreme Court, at about 8 o’clock PM, the CPRF office where Moscow’s NBP organization was holding a meeting was attacked by scores of unidentified people in masks and white gloves. They beat seven nazbols who were guarding the entrance with baseball bats (they broke the bones on both arms of Dmitry Yelizarov), shot at them from traumatic guns, tried to put on fire the Sobol car that belonged to NBP with three nazbols who were inside with fire crackers (like white gloves, fire crackers are the best equipment of soccer fans). Then the attackers tried to escape on a PAZ bus. “The bus was arrested by the police when it was entering Lefortovski Tunnel, Kommersant writes on August 31st. The young people who were inside warned the police inspector that by arresting the bus “he’s making a big mistake’ and ‘most probably will pay for it’. Then they started to make cellphone calls. … The bus with the passengers was brought to the Danilovsky police station. … As the police officers of the Danilovsky police station told Kommersant, first things unfolded according to the standard scheme in such situations. The policeman on duty registered the coordinates of the arrested. Then the investigator had to make them write an explanation about the events. ‘We received a call from above ordering to release the arrested,’ one of the police officers told Kommersant. ‘These guys have honestly warned us that we shouldn’t bother because they will soon be released.’ However they were not released immediately, because the police station was already encircled by journalists and members of left-wing radical parties who were attacked. Then the police officers tricked them: they brought out the arrested from the police station by groups of three and left them a few blocks away. Kommersant obtained a list of 25 names of those who were brought to the police station (the list follows). The police officers added that there was a 26th young man whose name was Verbitsky, who, supposedly, was driving the bus. ‘He was convincingly promising to fire us,’ the police officers told Kommersant. ‘We remembered his face but didn’t put his name on the list. According to the nazbols’ lawyer Dmitry Agranovsky, a certain Nikita Ivanov, employee of the president’s administration, arrived to the police station and released the arrested.”

  On the following day Yakemenko declared: “This is not the first beating of NBP and other radical organizations’ activists by non-established individuals. The accusations addressed at Nashi commissars are totally baseless and most probably are a poor attempt made by these structures’ leaders to hide their internal squabbles that are taking these monstrous, violent forms. When NBP members are being beaten, stabbed in the neck, etc. – it is a natural process of NBP’s criminal, underground existence. It is obvious that they need to finance their underground fascist activities in some way. It is obvious that the NBP activists need to pay for their actions and this money is of a very dubitable origin. The basic principle of the Nashi movement is nonviolence.” And so forth, in the same incoherent manner.

  Nevertheless the criminal wild attack of August 29th has caused such a rare unanimous indignation of the Russian public, and numeral protests of State Duma deputies from CPRF and Rodina, and even the condemnation by some official structures, and the unanimous condemnation by the mass media, that there were signs of a possible decline in Mr. Yakemenko’s career and possibly of the Nashi movement. Here are some of them. The media published information that the Kremlin is creating Grom, a new organization called to replace Nashi. The protest against the rapprochement of Yabloko and NBP (I only went to Saint Petersburg where I spoke in the office of the Yabloko department) near the office of Yabloko’s central office on Pyatnitska Street in Moscow was not held by the Nashi, but already by an organization called Young Russia. The United Russia party is creating an organization called Young Guard. A Nashist, a student from Tula, Julia Gorodnicheva was not admitted to the Public Chamber although the Nashi were boasting about her admission to the Chamber in advance. She was admitted in the second mandate but she is already representing the Walking Together movement. Besides four criminal cases on the mass beatings of nazbols were reunited into one and the investigation is coming to an end. Confrontations were held in the Main Department of Investigations of Moscow’s Prosecutor General’s office. Despite the pressure of the Kremlin they will have to take this case to court. And then these Romas the Prickly and Vasyas the Killers will probably receive a sentence, at least a suspended one. And most importantly their role in the Nashi movement will be made public. And with them, probably, Vasily Yakemenko’s star will wane and maybe, I hope, that of Asik Dudayev, the schemer and creator of fake parties and movements. (At the same time there are signs that the Nashi affair is still living. Thus, in September 150 Nashi “commissars” went to study in the Highest School of Management, where they will be taught by G. Pavlovsky, M. Leontiev, V. Solovyev, A. Karaulov, A. Tsipko and S. Markov). And what about the president? The president will come through unscathed. Although he “took the risk” to give the permission and the financing for an organization that beats up people with baseball bats and metal wires. Today it is November 9th and I was informed that the Sobol vehicle, the nazbols’ vehicle they tried to put on fire during the August 29th attack, was put on fire this night.

  “BY HIS NATURE PUTIN IS NOT A POLITICIAN”

  (THE PRESIDENT’S WRONG AND CRIMINAL FOREIGN POLICY)

  In their leaflet the nazbols have brought three accusations against Putin of carrying out a dull and sometimes criminal foreign policy. Point 4: “The appearance of American military bases in Central Asia. You let them there after the events of September 11th 2001. You ingra
tiate yourself with the USA.” Point 6: “ The friendship with the monstrous regime of Turkmenbashi, who banished Russians from Turkmenia.” Point 8: “ The witless interference in the elections in Abkhazia and Ukraine. However difficult it was to spoil the relations with the friendly Abkhaz people, but you succeeded in this. And Ukraine, by your efforts, stands on the threshold of disintegration and civil war.”

  In reality earlier crimes in the area of foreign economies can be brought against the president. This is the liquidation of the Russian naval bases in Lourdes (in Cuba) and in Kamran (Vietnam). The president has stated his motive then, during his first presidential mandate: the Russian Federation does not have the possibility to pay a supposedly unbearable rent. In total we were paying 500 million dollars per year. Of course this amount seems huge on the first sight. However it is less than 4% of the amount recently paid by the State Gazprom concern to the private shareholders of Sibneft, in particular to R. Abramovich. From the naval base in Lourdes we were controlling the Atlantic Ocean and we were perfectly close to the United States. If the US had tried to do something we would have had the possibility to respond immediately. From the base in Kamran (Vietnam) we were controlling two oceans: the Pacific and the Indian oceans. Putin’s decision to close down these bases has unquestionably left Russia without the status of a naval power. If Peter the Great has gotten us the status of a naval power at a great cost by making his way to the Baltic and Black Seas, then president Putin has closed this status. By himself.

  Even with Yeltsin in the 1990s, having ousted ourselves from Europe and the world we were still remaining a large regional power. In these years the Kremlin was still “a source of legitimacy for the post-Soviet regimes” (expression used by the political scientist S. Belkovsky). “Openly and aggressively anti-Russian rulers (for example Zviad Gamsakhurdia or Abulfaz Elchibey), Belkovsky writes, did not stay in power for long. And the new elected heads of the CIS States were first eager to improve their relations with the big and generous, like grandpa Yeltsin, Russia. Besides, Moscow supported the viability of unrecognized States, guarantying the stability of a three-leveled post-Soviet construction: Russia as the legal successor of the metropolis – other CIS countries – rebellious enclaves with an unregulated status. Under Putin, Belkovsky goes on, the Russian Federation has hopelessly lost its status as the source of post-Soviet legitimacy and turned into the largest piece of yesterday’s great Empire. From the first geopolitical league where regional powers are playing (of the level of India or Brazil), we have passed to the second, where States like Paraguay or Algeria are fighting for a seat in history’s train wagon. (Obviously, the amount of oil and offshore money does not influence the State’s status in this case.) Now to obtain some legitimacy the head of a former allied republic goes directly to Washington and not to Moscow.”

  Let us remember the speech made by Vladimir Putin, RF president, right after the grandiose terrorist act of all times and people on September 11th 2001. He has almost started to cry and promised any thinkable help to the United States. Including his influence on Central Asian countries, so that American planes could receive the landing grounds they need to invade Afghanistan where, supposedly, Ben Laden, who is, supposedly, responsible for the bombing of the Twin Towers in New York, was hiding. And he helped them. Four years passed since then and the United States have comfortably settled down in Central Asia. US military bases have appeared in the region’s countries: in Uzbekistan, in Kyrgyzstan and in Tajikistan. The Karshi-Khanabad air base in Uzbekistan, which has strategic significance in the region, was transferred to the Pentagon for carrying out operations in Afghanistan after September 11th and for Washington’s creation of a “global anti-terrorist coalition”. The C-130 squadron, about a dozen Black Hawk helicopters and about one thousand and a half military personnel were sent to Uzbekistan to reinforce the Central Asian flank of the coalition. American military personnel and equipment were dislocated in Uzbekistan according to a bilateral agreement between Washington and Tashkent signed in October 2001. (The same agreements were signed with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan). Although each side has the right to leave the agreement until May of this year, when the Andijan events took place nothing was threatening the US interests in Uzbekistan. The American military presence benefited Tashkent economically – it added 50 million dollars per year to the budget. It had also a political benefit. Uzbekistan became one of the US key partners in Central Asia. In other words, hello, Yankees, goodbye, Russia. All of this was made in accordance with the desire of the Russian president. In other words, in accordance with his desire the United States has received air bases south of Russia. There are only a couple of flight hours for the supersonic bombers from the bases of Karshi-Khanabade (Uzbekistan), Ganci (Kyrgyzstan), Dushanbe (Tajikistan) to Russia’s big cities situated along the border with Kazakhstan, such as Astrakhan, Volgograd, Saratov, Orenburg, Ufa, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Barnaul and others. We don’t need a president like that! – The residents of all these cities must say. He put us under fire. Ok, today the US seems to be friendly, but what about tomorrow?

  Actually the Americans turned out to be more principled with Uzbekistan than Putin, even in detriment to their own geopolitical interests. After the events in Andijan the US have transferred Tashkent among “suspect regimes”, to the rank of a “corrupted, repressive regime”, which the US does not want to tolerate.

  Shortly, about what happened in Andijan. There on May 12-13th the government’s troops opened fire on peaceful residents who demanded social-political and economical reforms. According to the official version 187 “rebels” died. However according to the human rights organizations over 500 people were killed. President Karimov and his regime try to present this massacre as an anti-governmental rebellion. Still people were shot from machine guns. When the United States started to demand an independent investigation about the shooting in Abijan from the Uzbek authorities (in particular severe criticism was heard from the US Senate and from the democrats D. Baden and P. Likhi and from the republicans D. McCain, L. Grem and M. Divine), Uzbekistan’s authorities declared that they give 180 days to the American military to leave the country. The Americans started to negotiate a redislocation to Kyrgyzstan and to the country of Turkmenbashi.

  In Russia we know very well about what happens in Turkmenistan. According to the Russian Memorial human rights society the number of political prisoners in Karimov’s country is over 7 thousand people. Torture is widely used. Independent journalists are tracked down and beaten (like National-Bolsheviks in Putin’s country). Nosir Zakirov, correspondent of Freedom Radio, was sentenced to 6 months of detention. Correspondents from BBC, Voice of America, German Wave, many newspapers, journals and Internet agencies have suffered. The BBC broke down and closed its office in Uzbekistan. On September 20th the trial of the people accused of “terrorist acts and other heavy crimes” in Andijan began in Uzbekistan’s Supreme Court. On the first day the defendants have pleaded guilty and on the second they demanded a death sentence (!) In the end of October 2005 the leader of the oppositional Sun Coalition Sanzhar Umarov was arrested. His lawyer arrived to the basement of the police station in Tashkent where he was detained. “He waited a long time before they bring Umarov in the office. Then the police asked Umarov to go down to the basement. When he looked through the window of the cell the lawyer saw the following: Sanzhar Umarov, completely naked, was standing, holding his head in his hands, swinging side to side and did not react to what was happening, Novaya Gazeta told in its 81st issue, 2005. President Putin is glad to strike a smiling pose next to president Karimov on all CIS summits. The official Russia adopted Karimov’s point of view: the death of people on May 13th is defined as an anti-governmental rebellion organized by terrorists. Putin expresses his solidarity with the repressive regime. Still, Karimov’s regime will finally fall and the Uzbek people and Uzbekistan’s following government will look on Russia and Russians like on the allies of a butcher.

  But let us return to the American bases i
n Central Asia. In Kyrgyzstan the US military’s presence is legitimized by a bilateral agreement of October 2001. On November 8th 2005 the Americans held negotiations on the subject in Bishkek. Robert Mueller, FBI director, has heard Kyrgyzstan’s foreign minister Alekbek Jekshenkulov. No, Kyrgyzstan does not intend to say: “Yankees, go home!” to the Americans, Kyrgyzstan wants money, dollars. “The foreign minister noted the need to raise the rent of the Manas airport paid by the American side, to collect a payment for the air-navigation service and also to compensate the environmental damage from the use of the military base, Gazeta writes on 11.09.05. “Besides, it was proposed to increase the taxes, which have not yet corresponded to Kyrgyzstan’s tax legislation. (The 2001 agreement said that the non-residents among the foreign companies are freed from taxes for deliveries of products made on the Ganci US military base (The 376th air-expeditional corps of the US army with units of security and technical service are located on the Ganci base (in the Manas airport). Over 1200 militaries) and as a result the State budget, according to the republic’s finance ministry, has lost about 150 million dollars during the four years of the air base’s exploitation). … Pentagon representatives have expressed their readiness to examine the oncoming financial and legal modifications of the agreement.” The principal phase of the anti-terrorist operation in the neighboring Afghanistan was finished a long time ago, therefore the necessity of a future stay of the American military and their planes in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia in general is extremely dubious. After Karimov, infuriated by US criticism, refused to give the Khanabad air base to the US, on October 3rd, during his visit to Bishkek, the special representative of the NATO general secretary in Central Asia and Caucasus, Robert Simons, enlisted the support of Kyrgyzstan’s authorities concerning the continued use of the Ganci base. Moreover an agreement was reached about the enlargement of the air base’s military contingent – by transferring there subunits dislocated in Uzbekistan. A week after Simons, Condoleezza Rice arrived in Bishkek and received a confirmation from the president that the military base will be situated in the Bishkek Manas airport until the situation in Afghanistan completely stabilizes. The United States’ desire to have a military springboard is understandable, but it was the witless politician Putin who invited the US army there.