September 17, 2007 — Contents

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 17 CONTENTS

(1) Exposing Viktor Zubkov

(2) Zaxi Blog on Zubkov

(3) Putin’s Secret Cult of Journalists

(4) Annals of the Neo-Soviet Crackdown on Journalism

(5) Vladimir Putin, Neo-Soviet Madman

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

Exposing Victor Zubkov

The September 14th issue of the Moscow Times quotes newly-appointed Russian
Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov (pictured) as announcing “corruption is the major issue in our efforts to increase the effectiveness of the state administration.” The Times stated that “Duma Deputy Gennady Gudkov, who sits on the Duma’s anti-corruption commission, said Zubkov was ready to ‘seriously tackle’ the issue.”

Yet, according to the Times, many analysts were skeptical. It reported:

“Corruption is ubiquitous in Russia. It is the very texture of Russian life,” said Masha Lipman, an expert at the Carnegie Moscow Center. “It would need a deep restructuring of the whole political system and the process of policymaking. What drives corruption is the large-scale involvement of the state.”

“Everything here is rotted by corruption. I don’t think Zubkov is going to position himself as a reckless warrior against corruption,” said Stanislav Belkovsky, head of the Council for National Strategy and a former Kremlin adviser. “[His appointment] is just a public relations campaign. It is designed to concentrate people’s minds on the problem of corruption and distract them from other issues.”

Kirill Kabanov, head of the nongovernmental National Anti-Corruption Committee, said he did not see any efforts by the government to address corruption other than at the lowest levels. “I would like to see issues such as systemic corruption and the independence of the judiciary tackled,” he said.

So it’s possible that when Zubkov says he’s going to launch a war on corruption, he’s just blowing neo-Soviet smoke.

But there’s another possibility. A source with knowledge of the proceedings, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, tells me that just about the time Vladimir Putin came to power, the United States was helping many of the former Soviet republics set up what are generically called “Financial Intelligence Units” (FIU’s). In the case of Russia, Putin called his newly-formed unit the “Committee for Financial Monitoring” (Komitet po Finansovomu Monitoringu – FMC). Even in Russia, the use of the word “komitet” (it’s the “k” in KGB) was provocative, and true to form, Putin loaded it with ex-KGB guys.

My source tells me that everyone who was working with Russia on setting up their FIU, including the people from the international Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”) (the enforcement lever U.S. personnel worked with to ensure compliance with FATF standards and recommendations), was somewhat surprised by the zeal with which Putin set up the FMC, but it wasn’t long before they learned why: He cleverly turned all the tools they gave him for monitoring illegal financial flows into the best weapon imaginable against his political opposition. All he had to do was label them “extremist” if not “terrorist” organizations, and the rest quickly fell into place. Massive financial levers could be used to squeeze the victim, with the tacit approval of the Western powers — who could hardly object to his using a weapon designed to combat terrorist financing against only slightly less dangerous “extremists.”

So there you have it: the U.S. helped Putin create a new dimension to traditional Russian autocracy, helped bring it into the modern world, so to speak. The U.S. almost did the same in Ukraine, too, except that there the opposition was a little better developed, and they managed to seize power before the Russian-backed Kuchma/Yanukovych team was able to use the Ukrainian FIU against them.

And Viktor Zubkov was intimately involved in this process, ultimately being appointed by Putin to head the agency. So it’s quite possible that by elevating Zubkov to an even higher position now, Putin is setting the stage for a major escalation in the growth of what can only be called a neo-Soviet state, crushing the last gasp of life out of dissident politics and rival centers of commercial power. In other words, it’s possible Zubkov is quite serious about launching a war within Russia’s financial systems, but one which would in effect make the country more corrupt, not less.

This tactic has already been used in regard to freedom of expression. Putin’s government rammed through a so-called “Anti-Extremism Law” ostensibly to crack down on racist violence by skinheads against ethnic minority groups, but just as the law’s opponents had feared no sooner did the law come into effect than it was immediately turned against opposition political groups, driving many out of business. In Putin’s Russia, criticizing Putin is viewed as dangerously extreme.

My source had a number of personal meetings with Zubkov during the phase-up of the Russian FMC program, and refers to him as “an interesting guy.” When he headed up meetings, he was much more prone to genuine smiles than a typical soviet aparatchik, and he usually had a mischievous twinkle in his eye when he smiled, as if he were letting everyone in on a good joke — maybe like he was aware that the group’s assignment was a silly, politically-motivated exercise in futility and wanted everyone to know that he was aware of it too, but “let’s all pretend we’re taking it seriously, okay?” My source characterizes him as “by far the most likeable ex-sov I’ve ever met to this day.”

However, throughout their dealings my source always assumed that Zubkov was KGB, basically because every single staff member on the Russian side was too. After dealing with Zubkov for some time, my source was actually quite surprised and impressed that the KGB could produce such a person. Zubkov’s staff was found to be extremely cold to the idea of assisting other former Soviet republics to develop their own FIUs, and instead attempted to lobby for having Russia’s entity perform umbrella functions “as if Ukraine was still part of Russia, or someday would return to that status.” Later, my source realized there was another dimension to this as well: The Russians were openly (among themselves) planning to use the FMC and Anti-Money Laundering laws to disrupt the financing of the Russian opposition parties, and were afraid that if power changed hands in Ukraine (which it finally did, in the Orange Revolution), this weapon might be used against the pro-Russian parties.

Obviously, a slick experienced operator like Zubkov would be the perfect choice to spearhead a renewed effort to adopt a “final solution” on the Russian opposition groups; combined with the empowerment of a thug like Sergei Ivanov, and the tactics of physical liquidation that we have already seen applied to dissidents like Anna Politkovskaya and Alexander Litvinenko, this could give the Kremlin a powerful one-two punch that might lay the last vestiges of civil society in Russia firmly in its tomb. If Zubkov is a deep-cover KGB mole and the Kremlin intends to conceal this fact (rather than bragging about it, as it often does), that would be a still further ominous indication of how bleak things may rapidly become in Russia.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

Zaxi Blog on Zubkov

Zaxi blog considers the possibility that Viktor Zubkov is Putin’s darling:

A curious anecdote has made the rounds in Moscow that paints a grim picture for Sergei Ivanov – aka Russia’s next president until last week.

It seems that pretty much everyone in the Kremlin told Ivanov how he was about to be named prime minister. But somehow Viktor Zubkov was tapped instead and now the US State Department has to look up what that word “sovkhoz” means again.

The Kremlin’s political pointman Vladislav Surkov – author of the “sovereign democracy” paradox and more usefully charged with telling United Russia how to vote – was the first to start spreading the cheer. He told his deputy Vitaly Ivanov to leak out that Vladimir Putin was about to sign the official decree. He even described how it would look: Putin would dramatically appear live on television a la Boris Yeltsin on New Year’s Eve 1999. Boris begot Russia Vladimir and now Vladimir was to beget Sergei.

Vedomosti gloriously ran with the news – it never reported the television appearance bit – on the same day Putin chuckled and appointed a 66-year-old Communist collective farms boss who in 2004 prompted a brief run on the banks while acting as chief of “financial intelligence.”

Ivanov seemed nonplussed. He called Zubkov a “man who works without making noise or raising dust” – a fine observation about someone who stealthily steals your job. Ivanov also said Putin never advised him about the government changes. And this is where things get interesting.

The point about the prime minister’s post is that Ivanov does not personally need it to become president in March. He remains the most popular politician after Putin and had enough state media support this year to block coverage of most other news. His summer trip though Siberian factories alone led broadcasts for a week.

zaxi is also fairly confident that Ivanov had pretty much assumed that he will be president. He has given nationally aired press conferences outlining his views – same as Putin’s only more toxic when it comes to Western affairs – and would look foolish for putting so much effort into it were he not to run and win.

Putin all but anointed Ivanov on August 30 when he said the next president “should indeed be a figure well-known to voters.” This seemed to put a bullet in the head of any of the dark-horse Kremlin candidates rumored to be waiting for the president’s kiss on the cheek. It also left Ivanov with the simple challenge of Dmitry Medvedev – the Gazprom chairman and fellow first deputy prime minister who somehow inherited the liberal tag. Keeping Medvedev out of the prime minister’s chair was Ivanov’s one and only campaign item.

So what to make of Ivanov’s public and humiliating jilt? The all-too-obvious: Putin is going nowhere.

Any thought the appointment only kept Ivanov’s real rivals at bay vanished the morning Zubkov woke up with his new job title. Literally the first question posed to the man few could identify by name in a police lineup was whether he would run for president. “If I accomplish something as prime minister then I do not exclude that I will.” And the next day Putin agreed that Zubkov “gave the right answer.”

The question remains why Surkov would blow up Ivanov’s balloon only for Putin to pop it. Neither of the evident answers adds grace to Ivanov’s fall.

One is that Surkov – who is believed to back Ivanov’s presidential bid – was unsuccessfully trying to push his man on Putin and lock out Medvedev and the rest for good. This is the “very bad for Ivanov” option: it means he does not have Putin’s trust yet.

The other is that Surkov was simply spreading misinformation. This is the “even worse for Ivanov” option: it means the Kremlin wanted to demean Ivanov and send him a clear message that he was acting too presidential.

Both boil down to Putin’s jealous inability to cede any power and evident pleasure at watching his underlings scramble while hysterically trying to figure out whom to invest their pilfered profits with for the next term.

So Zubkov’s emergence is backed by solid Politburo logic. He is old. His political life depends on Putin. And he knows a lot about how the elite launders cash.

This concoction makes Zubkov into a viable stand-in for Putin until his return to the presidency for another four to 14 years – depending on how the Constitution is corrected for him. One former Kremlin adviser told the BBC that Zubkov knows more about Russians’ oversees accounts than any other person in government. The inference is that Zubkov will act as Putin’s watchman over the Kremlin’s competing business clans. Any false move by Rosneft or Gazprom will make the Yukos saga look like a stage rehearsal.

The former Kremlin adviser was actually talking about the period until Putin’s departure in March. But there no reason why Zubkov could not keep the boys in line for a few extra years as president until new elections are called once he claims fatigue.

Ivanov may yet emerge as president. But this debacle should remind him where the real power rests. Zubkov will be drafting the government Ivanov has to make due with should Putin smile on his old friend again. Ivanov will be shackled by a prime minister who answers to the old president and knows the combination number to the Kremlin’s Cyprus safety deposit box. And Ivanov – who was never really a part of any existing Kremlin alliance – will be isolated like few heads of state in the world.

Perhaps Ivanov’s tragic flaw was inherent: he was too much of a Putin clone. Putin could have justifiably feared that Russians would see no reason to go back to the old version of the new Putin.

Ivanov may have been too articulate and energetic to serve as Russian president.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

Putin’s Secret Cult of "Journalists"

Novaya Gazeta reports:

Last week Vladimir Putin had a regular secret meeting, we would say the traditional one, with journalists of different degrees of loyalty. It was the third meeting in the last two years. We won’t read about this meeting in the newspapers — thought it was a very important public event — nor did we about the previous ones. TV won’t tell us about it either because it had been arranged that the meeting would have a closed format.

The meeting was held at the presidential residence Bocharov Ruchei situated in the City of Sochi. Among notable figures present were chief editor of Russia Today channel Margarita Simonyan, head of NTV Vladimir Kulistikov, the chair of Russian Broadcasting Company Oleg Dobrodeev, also TV journalists Alexei Pivovarov and Nikolai Svanidze. About 40 people were present altogether. After the dinner everyone got his own personal several minutes of talk with the President.

Nikolai Svanidze told Novaya Gazeta that the meeting wasn’t dedicated to a particular topic. The participants talked a little about different things. Svanidze didn’t give the details, pleading an agreement about non-disclosure of the circumstances of the event.

But still there was one episode the discussion of which went beyond Sochi’s lobby. Margarita Simonyan raised the question of the fate of head of Educated Media Fund Manana Aslamazyan. It will be remembered that a criminal case was started against Ms. Aslamazyan at the beginning of this year on the allegation of smuggling. Investigators say that when returning to Russia from Paris Ms. Aslamazyan didn’t declare in the technically correct manner the sum of €9,550 and 5,000 roubles. A criminal case was started and all of the Fund’s documentation was arrested after which the Fund declared a temporary suspension of its activity. Ms. Aslamazyan is abroad at the moment.

The head of Glasnost Protection Fund and also the acting chair of Educated Media Fund Alexei Simonov believes that the President hadn’t expected to have that conversation. But being reminded of the gist of the matter, Putin said “she may come back to Russia. Of course, no one can release her from administrative responsibility for this mistake. But mistake and crime shouldn’t be confused.”

Having learnt in more details about the Fund’s work, Putin expressed his view that the Fund, being sponsored with foreign money, cannot teach our journalists anything good. Nevertheless, presidential press secretary Alexei Gromov confirmed the guarantees made by Putin, asking to give advance notice about the date of arrival of the head of Educated Media Fund to Russia so that she wouldn’t be detained at the border. Later the President returned to this topic about Ms. Aslamazyan when talking privately to Nikolai Svanidze. It sounded like a joke, but it sounded like “let her come back while I’m still President” Svanidze said.

It should be noted that the President doesn’t seem to be aware of law enforcement bodies’ plans regarding Manana Aslamazyan. The Investigative Committee of the Interior Ministry – after Putin’s talks with the press – underlined that no trial in absentia had been planned.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

Putin’s Secret Cult of "Journalists"

Novaya Gazeta reports:

Last week Vladimir Putin had a regular secret meeting, we would say the traditional one, with journalists of different degrees of loyalty. It was the third meeting in the last two years. We won’t read about this meeting in the newspapers — thought it was a very important public event — nor did we about the previous ones. TV won’t tell us about it either because it had been arranged that the meeting would have a closed format.

The meeting was held at the presidential residence Bocharov Ruchei situated in the City of Sochi. Among notable figures present were chief editor of Russia Today channel Margarita Simonyan, head of NTV Vladimir Kulistikov, the chair of Russian Broadcasting Company Oleg Dobrodeev, also TV journalists Alexei Pivovarov and Nikolai Svanidze. About 40 people were present altogether. After the dinner everyone got his own personal several minutes of talk with the President.

Nikolai Svanidze told Novaya Gazeta that the meeting wasn’t dedicated to a particular topic. The participants talked a little about different things. Svanidze didn’t give the details, pleading an agreement about non-disclosure of the circumstances of the event.

But still there was one episode the discussion of which went beyond Sochi’s lobby. Margarita Simonyan raised the question of the fate of head of Educated Media Fund Manana Aslamazyan. It will be remembered that a criminal case was started against Ms. Aslamazyan at the beginning of this year on the allegation of smuggling. Investigators say that when returning to Russia from Paris Ms. Aslamazyan didn’t declare in the technically correct manner the sum of €9,550 and 5,000 roubles. A criminal case was started and all of the Fund’s documentation was arrested after which the Fund declared a temporary suspension of its activity. Ms. Aslamazyan is abroad at the moment.

The head of Glasnost Protection Fund and also the acting chair of Educated Media Fund Alexei Simonov believes that the President hadn’t expected to have that conversation. But being reminded of the gist of the matter, Putin said “she may come back to Russia. Of course, no one can release her from administrative responsibility for this mistake. But mistake and crime shouldn’t be confused.”

Having learnt in more details about the Fund’s work, Putin expressed his view that the Fund, being sponsored with foreign money, cannot teach our journalists anything good. Nevertheless, presidential press secretary Alexei Gromov confirmed the guarantees made by Putin, asking to give advance notice about the date of arrival of the head of Educated Media Fund to Russia so that she wouldn’t be detained at the border. Later the President returned to this topic about Ms. Aslamazyan when talking privately to Nikolai Svanidze. It sounded like a joke, but it sounded like “let her come back while I’m still President” Svanidze said.

It should be noted that the President doesn’t seem to be aware of law enforcement bodies’ plans regarding Manana Aslamazyan. The Investigative Committee of the Interior Ministry – after Putin’s talks with the press – underlined that no trial in absentia had been planned.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

Putin’s Secret Cult of "Journalists"

Novaya Gazeta reports:

Last week Vladimir Putin had a regular secret meeting, we would say the traditional one, with journalists of different degrees of loyalty. It was the third meeting in the last two years. We won’t read about this meeting in the newspapers — thought it was a very important public event — nor did we about the previous ones. TV won’t tell us about it either because it had been arranged that the meeting would have a closed format.

The meeting was held at the presidential residence Bocharov Ruchei situated in the City of Sochi. Among notable figures present were chief editor of Russia Today channel Margarita Simonyan, head of NTV Vladimir Kulistikov, the chair of Russian Broadcasting Company Oleg Dobrodeev, also TV journalists Alexei Pivovarov and Nikolai Svanidze. About 40 people were present altogether. After the dinner everyone got his own personal several minutes of talk with the President.

Nikolai Svanidze told Novaya Gazeta that the meeting wasn’t dedicated to a particular topic. The participants talked a little about different things. Svanidze didn’t give the details, pleading an agreement about non-disclosure of the circumstances of the event.

But still there was one episode the discussion of which went beyond Sochi’s lobby. Margarita Simonyan raised the question of the fate of head of Educated Media Fund Manana Aslamazyan. It will be remembered that a criminal case was started against Ms. Aslamazyan at the beginning of this year on the allegation of smuggling. Investigators say that when returning to Russia from Paris Ms. Aslamazyan didn’t declare in the technically correct manner the sum of €9,550 and 5,000 roubles. A criminal case was started and all of the Fund’s documentation was arrested after which the Fund declared a temporary suspension of its activity. Ms. Aslamazyan is abroad at the moment.

The head of Glasnost Protection Fund and also the acting chair of Educated Media Fund Alexei Simonov believes that the President hadn’t expected to have that conversation. But being reminded of the gist of the matter, Putin said “she may come back to Russia. Of course, no one can release her from administrative responsibility for this mistake. But mistake and crime shouldn’t be confused.”

Having learnt in more details about the Fund’s work, Putin expressed his view that the Fund, being sponsored with foreign money, cannot teach our journalists anything good. Nevertheless, presidential press secretary Alexei Gromov confirmed the guarantees made by Putin, asking to give advance notice about the date of arrival of the head of Educated Media Fund to Russia so that she wouldn’t be detained at the border. Later the President returned to this topic about Ms. Aslamazyan when talking privately to Nikolai Svanidze. It sounded like a joke, but it sounded like “let her come back while I’m still President” Svanidze said.

It should be noted that the President doesn’t seem to be aware of law enforcement bodies’ plans regarding Manana Aslamazyan. The Investigative Committee of the Interior Ministry – after Putin’s talks with the press – underlined that no trial in absentia had been planned.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

Putin’s Secret Cult of "Journalists"

Novaya Gazeta reports:

Last week Vladimir Putin had a regular secret meeting, we would say the traditional one, with journalists of different degrees of loyalty. It was the third meeting in the last two years. We won’t read about this meeting in the newspapers — thought it was a very important public event — nor did we about the previous ones. TV won’t tell us about it either because it had been arranged that the meeting would have a closed format.

The meeting was held at the presidential residence Bocharov Ruchei situated in the City of Sochi. Among notable figures present were chief editor of Russia Today channel Margarita Simonyan, head of NTV Vladimir Kulistikov, the chair of Russian Broadcasting Company Oleg Dobrodeev, also TV journalists Alexei Pivovarov and Nikolai Svanidze. About 40 people were present altogether. After the dinner everyone got his own personal several minutes of talk with the President.

Nikolai Svanidze told Novaya Gazeta that the meeting wasn’t dedicated to a particular topic. The participants talked a little about different things. Svanidze didn’t give the details, pleading an agreement about non-disclosure of the circumstances of the event.

But still there was one episode the discussion of which went beyond Sochi’s lobby. Margarita Simonyan raised the question of the fate of head of Educated Media Fund Manana Aslamazyan. It will be remembered that a criminal case was started against Ms. Aslamazyan at the beginning of this year on the allegation of smuggling. Investigators say that when returning to Russia from Paris Ms. Aslamazyan didn’t declare in the technically correct manner the sum of €9,550 and 5,000 roubles. A criminal case was started and all of the Fund’s documentation was arrested after which the Fund declared a temporary suspension of its activity. Ms. Aslamazyan is abroad at the moment.

The head of Glasnost Protection Fund and also the acting chair of Educated Media Fund Alexei Simonov believes that the President hadn’t expected to have that conversation. But being reminded of the gist of the matter, Putin said “she may come back to Russia. Of course, no one can release her from administrative responsibility for this mistake. But mistake and crime shouldn’t be confused.”

Having learnt in more details about the Fund’s work, Putin expressed his view that the Fund, being sponsored with foreign money, cannot teach our journalists anything good. Nevertheless, presidential press secretary Alexei Gromov confirmed the guarantees made by Putin, asking to give advance notice about the date of arrival of the head of Educated Media Fund to Russia so that she wouldn’t be detained at the border. Later the President returned to this topic about Ms. Aslamazyan when talking privately to Nikolai Svanidze. It sounded like a joke, but it sounded like “let her come back while I’m still President” Svanidze said.

It should be noted that the President doesn’t seem to be aware of law enforcement bodies’ plans regarding Manana Aslamazyan. The Investigative Committee of the Interior Ministry – after Putin’s talks with the press – underlined that no trial in absentia had been planned.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

Putin’s Secret Cult of "Journalists"

Novaya Gazeta reports:

Last week Vladimir Putin had a regular secret meeting, we would say the traditional one, with journalists of different degrees of loyalty. It was the third meeting in the last two years. We won’t read about this meeting in the newspapers — thought it was a very important public event — nor did we about the previous ones. TV won’t tell us about it either because it had been arranged that the meeting would have a closed format.

The meeting was held at the presidential residence Bocharov Ruchei situated in the City of Sochi. Among notable figures present were chief editor of Russia Today channel Margarita Simonyan, head of NTV Vladimir Kulistikov, the chair of Russian Broadcasting Company Oleg Dobrodeev, also TV journalists Alexei Pivovarov and Nikolai Svanidze. About 40 people were present altogether. After the dinner everyone got his own personal several minutes of talk with the President.

Nikolai Svanidze told Novaya Gazeta that the meeting wasn’t dedicated to a particular topic. The participants talked a little about different things. Svanidze didn’t give the details, pleading an agreement about non-disclosure of the circumstances of the event.

But still there was one episode the discussion of which went beyond Sochi’s lobby. Margarita Simonyan raised the question of the fate of head of Educated Media Fund Manana Aslamazyan. It will be remembered that a criminal case was started against Ms. Aslamazyan at the beginning of this year on the allegation of smuggling. Investigators say that when returning to Russia from Paris Ms. Aslamazyan didn’t declare in the technically correct manner the sum of €9,550 and 5,000 roubles. A criminal case was started and all of the Fund’s documentation was arrested after which the Fund declared a temporary suspension of its activity. Ms. Aslamazyan is abroad at the moment.

The head of Glasnost Protection Fund and also the acting chair of Educated Media Fund Alexei Simonov believes that the President hadn’t expected to have that conversation. But being reminded of the gist of the matter, Putin said “she may come back to Russia. Of course, no one can release her from administrative responsibility for this mistake. But mistake and crime shouldn’t be confused.”

Having learnt in more details about the Fund’s work, Putin expressed his view that the Fund, being sponsored with foreign money, cannot teach our journalists anything good. Nevertheless, presidential press secretary Alexei Gromov confirmed the guarantees made by Putin, asking to give advance notice about the date of arrival of the head of Educated Media Fund to Russia so that she wouldn’t be detained at the border. Later the President returned to this topic about Ms. Aslamazyan when talking privately to Nikolai Svanidze. It sounded like a joke, but it sounded like “let her come back while I’m still President” Svanidze said.

It should be noted that the President doesn’t seem to be aware of law enforcement bodies’ plans regarding Manana Aslamazyan. The Investigative Committee of the Interior Ministry – after Putin’s talks with the press – underlined that no trial in absentia had been planned.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

Annals of the Neo-Soviet Crackdown on Journalism

The Moscow Times reports:

Nezavisimaya Gazeta said Friday that it feared the authorities were trying to silence its critical reporting by arresting its deputy editor on extortion charges. Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court on Friday sanctioned the arrest of the deputy editor, Boris Zemtsov, on suspicion of blackmailing a senior official, a court official said. “Having looked at the case materials, the judge ordered Boris Zemtsov, born in 1956, to be placed in custody,” Moscow City Court spokeswoman Anna Usachyova said Friday, Interfax reported. Zemtsov was detained Wednesday in a sting operation after threatening to publish damaging material if the bureaucrat did not agree to pay $30,000 per month, the Interior Ministry said.

Nezavisimaya Gazeta said Zemtsov was detained as it prepared to publish a report on rising grain prices that accused Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev of mismanagement. “It is pointless to pressure us,” the paper said in an editorial Friday. “We want to assure our readers that the editorial policy of our newspaper will not change, regardless of any pressure of possible provocations.” Nezavisimaya Gazeta said the extortion allegations were “absurd” and that it would be providing legal help to Zemtsov. Prosecutors denied pressuring the paper. “To accuse us of putting pressure [on the newspaper] is complete stupidity, and there is no need to comment on this,” a spokesman for the Prosecutor General’s Office said. He confirmed Zemtsov had been charged with extortion, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.

The Agriculture Ministry declined to comment on the case.

There have been several cases in the past when journalists have been prosecuted for demanding money from officials and businessmen in return for not publishing a potentially damaging report. Nezavisimaya Gazeta is one of the few national newspapers left in the country that has not been bought up in the past few years by a large, Kremlin-friendly corporation.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

Vladimir Putin, Neo-Soviet Madman

No wonder Vladimir Putin and George Bush are such fast friends. They speak the same language: Gibberish! The Moscow Times reports on some genuinely scary, genuinely crazy babbling from the “president” of Russia, who seems to have lost touch with reality in a classic neo-Soviet manner. First he jokes about rape in front of a diplomatic delegation, the about the basic principles of democracy, and now he jokes about presidential succession. Or even worse, maybe he’s serious. Either way, he’s a madman, pure and simple.

President Vladimir Putin said five people stood a real chance of succeeding him and identified three of them as Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky and Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, said a U.S. professor who spoke with Putin. Putin, however, did not mention acting First Deputy Prime Ministers Sergei Ivanov or Dmitry Medvedev until he was prodded on the sidelines of a meeting with foreign experts, said the professor, Marshall Goldman of Harvard.

Putin spoke during a visit Friday with about 40 academics and journalists at the presidential retreat in Sochi. During the three-hour meeting, the president also reiterated that he would remain in politics after his term ends next year, and he said he had not decided whether he would run for president in 2012, attendees said. Putin’s comments about the five candidates were his clearest signal yet about the shape of March’s presidential election. He mentioned Zubkov during a question-and-answer session with the group. Goldman said he approached Putin later and asked him for more information.

“I asked who were the five. That’s where it was very funny,” he said by telephone. Putin named Yavlinsky and Zyuganov, he said. “Then I said, ‘What about Ivanov?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, Ivanov too,'” Goldman said. “But he did not mention Ivanov or Medvedev [at first]. … It was a bit strange.”

Putin told the entire group that Zubkov had every right to run for president. “Zubkov, like any Russian citizen, can run for the presidency,” Putin said in remarks shown on state television. “Zubkov said he did not rule out running. I think that was a calm and balanced answer. “Now, at least five people have been named who could really stake their claim to be elected president in March 2008. Well, if another real candidate appears, then the Russian people will be able to choose among several people,” he said.

Zubkov, a previously obscure technocrat who was confirmed as prime minister Friday, said earlier in the week that he could not rule out a run for president. He is the first ally of Putin to publicly express interest in running. Political analysts said Zubkov would not have dared to make the suggestion without Putin’s approval. Some of them speculated that this might be a Kremlin decoy to cloud further the succession strategy.

Yavlinsky’s spokeswoman said Sunday that she had heard that Putin had named Yavlinsky but dismissed the information as “a joke.”

“If Putin had really named Yavlinsky among the five, a big scandal would have been created,” said the spokeswoman, Yevgenia Dillendorf.

Communist officials could not be reached for comment Sunday afternoon.

Putin — possibly worried about accusations of authoritarianism — might be backing away from an earlier promise to name a preferred successor and will offer voters a choice of three or four of his loyalists, said Sergei Mikheyev, a political analyst with the Center for Political Technologies. “And it is possible that after eight years of an active and relatively young Putin, Russia’s cautious voters would prefer the aged and conservative Zubkov over the younger and dynamic Medvedev and Ivanov,” said Dmitry Orlov, an analyst with the Agency for Political and Economic Communications. “Dispersing support behind these various candidates would be rational for Putin at the moment.”

The uncertainty over Putin’s preferred successor may become clearer after United Russia holds a conference Oct. 2 to finalize its federal ticket in the upcoming State Duma elections, said Masha Lipman, an analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center. “Whoever is there with [party leader Boris] Gryzlov and [acting Emergency Situations Minister Sergei] Shoigu could claim more legitimacy than others as a future Russian president,” she said.

Zubkov said Thursday that he would not join any party. The law, however, does not preclude him from running on a party ticket in the Duma elections. With his promotion, Zubkov had already become the front-runner, surpassing Ivanov and Medvedev, said Olga Kryshtanovskaya, who tracks Kremlin politics at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Putin lavished praise on Zubkov at the Sochi meeting, attendees said. “It was a real boost for this guy,” Goldman said. “He went through a long list of things: how well organized he was, he brought results. It was clear he was very much taken with him.” Putin spoke of how Zubkov did not play games, said Andrew Kuchin, Russia director with the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. “He doesn’t want anyone who will play around politically. He is entirely his man,” Kuchin said. But Kuchin said he had not taken Putin’s comments as an endorsement of Zubkov. “I thought he pretty much dismissed that when he said, ‘Why yes, Zubkov can run for the presidency like any other citizen of the Russian Federation,'” he said.

Ivanov also left a good impression on the visitors, whom he met late Wednesday in Moscow. “He comes across as very confident, in some ways as more confident than Putin,” Goldman said. “The Ivanov meeting was more interesting [than Putin’s],” Kuchin said. “He put on a terrific show, the performance of a world-class political leader. … He is probably the most likely candidate as president,” he said.

Putin emphasized the need for a strong successor at his meeting. “That’s not why I have sweated for all these years, to give Russia to a weak president,” he said, Kommersant reported Saturday. Putin also made it clear that he planned to remain politically active after he stepped down. Asked what role he would play, he said, “I will have to agree with the next president,” said Alexander Rahr, an analyst at the German Council on Foreign Relations who attended the meeting. He left open the door to whether he might run for president in 2012. Asked whether he wanted to return, he replied: “I don’t know. Inside I have not decided. It is difficult to predict,” Goldman said.

The only time Putin showed a flash of annoyance was when he was asked about Russia’s moratorium on the death penalty, Goldman said. Putin said talk about the death penalty only drew support for the Communists, who are calling for its return. “It’s a populist issue, but it is not good for the country to have the death penalty,” Putin was quoted by Goldman as saying.

The meeting did not end without a wry joke by Putin, participants said. In response to a question about cronyism in state business, Putin said the government would fight corruption and told the following anecdote: A general is asked, “Can your children become generals?”

“Yes, they can,” said the general.

“Can they become marshals?”

“No,” he answered.

“Why not?”

“Because marshals have children too.”

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September 16, 2007 — Contents

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 16 CONTENTS

(1) The Sunday Photos

(2) The Sunday Russophile Sociopath

(3) The Sunday Funnies

(4) The Sunday Debate: Point, Counterpsychopath

(5) Annals of Russian Military Aggression

(6) Parliamentarian Lugovoi?

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