Friday, June 28, 2013

Review 2009 - 2011: Page 9

via Russia and The West: News and Opinions - Россия и Запад: Новости и Мнения » Putin by Admin - News Review* on 4/19/10
В.Путин подверг критике Росрыболовство за недостаточную оперативность принятия решений – АЭИ "ПРАЙМ-ТАСС"
"Постановление вышло в феврале, а путина в ноябре. Вы что, не могли с февраля до ноябрь разобраться, что там что-то не так?" – спросил В.Путин главу Росрыболовства.
Putin-fish
А.Крайний ответил, что все это время Росрыболовство вело дискуссии с Минфином, который не поддерживал ведомство в этом вопросе. По его словам, "нужно было время, чтобы убедить" министра Алексея Кудрина.
"Не надо Кудрина превращать в какого-то монстра, надо своевременно все делать. Что Кудрин, Кудрин? На него все можно свалить, ему и так достается. Ждали, когда жареный петух клюнул, тогда и начали убеждать", – сказал В.Путин. "Надо оперативнее принимать решения", – добавил глава правительства.

В.Путин подверг критике Росрыболовство за недостаточную оперативность принятия решений – АЭИ "ПРАЙМ-ТАСС"

Filed under: Обзор Печати, Путин, Press Review, Putin        

via Russia and The West: News and Opinions - Россия и Запад: Новости и Мнения » Putin by Admin - News Review* on 5/2/10
К нам ничто не пристаёт. Не то, что некоторые обезьяноподобные, которым бы только в “Куклы” играть. Или всякие там журналутки со своими грязными вопросиками…Хорошо работаем, пиар-маги Кетчум – недаром вам миллионы платим…
Putin and his bears: nice job, Ketchum!
Vladimir Putin measures a polar bear on Franz Josef Land archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. The Russian Prime Minister expressed concern for the fate of polar bears threatened by climate change
Vladimir Putin measures a polar bear on Franz Josef Land archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. The Russian Prime Minister expressed concern for the fate of polar bears threatened by climate change
Putin gets to grips with polar bear during visit to Russian outpost – Europe, World – The Independent
Mr Putin was visiting Franz Josef Land, a frozen archipelago inside the Arctic Circle, 600 miles from the North Pole, inhabited only by polar bears, the scientists who study them, and a small battalion of border guards.
Known for taking an unsentimental approach to foreign and domestic politics, Putin might seem an unlikely environmentalist. But he has often let a soft spot for nature show though his steely exterior.
In the past he has been pictured on Siberian ponies and dived in a submarine to the floor of Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest freshwater lake. On another memorable occasion, he "saved" a group of scientists by shooting a Siberian tiger with a tranquilizer gun after it escaped from its handlers.
No such heroics were on display this time, but like all Putin photo opportunities, this one was heavily choreographed. According to one Russian paper the polar bear, which is the symbol of Mr Putin’s United Russia party, was apparently captured specially for his visit.
No such heroics were on display this time, but like all Putin photo opportunities, this one was heavily choreographed. According to one Russian paper the polar bear, which is the symbol of Mr Putin’s United Russia party, was apparently captured specially for his visit.
But the Prime Minister’s affection for animals sometimes gets the better of him. At a press conference last year said that "the better I know people, the more I like dogs," before quickly back-pedalling when asked if he was talking about his ministers.
Putin gets to grips with polar bear during visit to Russian outpost – Europe, World – The Independent
Vladimir Putin measures a polar bear on Franz Josef Land archipelago in the A…

Putin polar bear
The Russian bear: Vladimir Putin (right) and scientists measure a polar bear on the Franz Josef Land archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. Photograph: Alexey Nikolsky/AFP
Why we should consider the privacy of animals | Brett Mills | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Putin Tags Polar Bear in Russia’s Arctic – CBS News
He has been spearheading Russia’s re-emergence as a regional power, including the country’s claims over the Arctic’s formidable natural resources. Some 90 billion barrels of oil and one-third of the world’s undiscovered natural gas lie hidden in the Arctic region, the U.S. Geological Survey estimates.
"Geopolitically, Russia’s deepest interests are linked to the Arctic," Putin said. "Here Russia’s security and defense capabilities is provided for. Here there are vitally important transport communications."
Canada, the U.S., Russia and Denmark have competing claims before a United Nations commission regarding extend their undersea boundaries into areas previously blocked by Arctic ice.
Moscow dramatically staked its claim to the region by dropping a flag on the ocean floor at the North Pole in 2007.
Since then, all four countries have agreed to cool their rhetoric and allow scientists to finish their surveys.
Putin adores the media spotlight when it accentuates his macho side. He has been photographed fishing bare-chested in Russia’s Altai region, and was shown on television diving into an icy river and swimming the butterfly stroke.
He has also tackled predators in the wild before, shooting a tiger with a tranquilizer gun and releasing leopards.
Putin Tags Polar Bear in Russia’s Arctic – CBS News

Путин одевает ошейники на животных по совету опытных магов
В склонности премьера Владимира Путина надевать на тотемных для российских регионов животных ошейники знатоки оккультных практик увидели признаки ритуальных действий. По мнению знатоков шаманизма, в этих пиар-акциях Владимира Владимировича консультируют опытные маги, пишет "Новый регион".
Путин одевает ошейники на животных по совету опытных магов
(author unknown)
Sat, 01 May 2010 15:50:00 GMT

Путин и медведи
Отчеты российской прессы о визите Владимира Путина на Землю Франца-Иосифа напоминают привычную для «свободных» СМИ сказку о добром, сильном, но строгом хозяине страны. Впрочем, в каждой сказке есть доля правды. В данном случае она присутствует в отношениях господина Путина со специально усыпленным к его приезду медведем. Я, честно говоря, думал, что Медведя отправили в объятия Морфея задолго до приезда начальника. Примерно за полгода или год до выборов президента РФ в 2008 году. При этом сон, как мы все знаем, не лишает пациента возможностей говорить и передвигаться.
Путин и медведи
ДМИТРИЙ СИДОРОВ
Sat, 01 May 2010 05:15:00 GMT

Putin In Cold War To Save ‘Master Of Arctic’
Russia’s Vladimir Putin has proved to be a friend to all creatures after helping scientists track endangered polar bears in the Arctic.
Putin In Cold War To Save ‘Master Of Arctic’ 
(author unknown)
Fri, 30 Apr 2010 10:00:54 GMT

Putin’s Meeting With ‘Master Of The Arctic’ – Sky News
Tough guy Vladimir Putin caresses polar bear – Telegraph
Mr Putin donned Arctic gear and caressed the anaesthetised wild polar bear when taking part in a bid to weight and fix a collar to it during his visit to the Russian archipelago of Franz Joseph Land. When the process was completed Mr Putin said "excuse me" to the scientists accompanying him, and knelt down beside the 36st bear, stroking the animal and shaking his paw.
Tough guy Vladimir Putin caresses polar bear – Telegraph
Putin’s Meeting With ‘Master Of The Arctic’
Sky News
Russia’s Vladimir Putin has proved to be a friend to all creatures after helping scientists track endangered polar bears in the Arctic. …
World briefsDallas Morning News
Russian PM Putin orders Arctic cleanupWashington Post
Putin Orders Arctic CleanupThe Moscow Times
Treehugger -ISRIA (registration) -BigPond News
all 270 news articles »
Putin’s Meeting With ‘Master Of The Arctic’ – Sky News 
(author unknown)
Fri, 30 Apr 2010 09:17:53 GMT

Vladimir Putin lends hand to polar bear scientists
Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, has visited the Arctic to lend a hand to scientists studying polar bears and the effect pollution is having on their habitat.
Vladimir Putin lends hand to polar bear scientists 
(author unknown)
Fri, 30 Apr 2010 08:42:25 GMT

Putin gets to grips with polar bear during visit to Russian outpost

Vladimir Putin managed to combine his macho image with a environmental message yesterday, when he helped Russian scientists put an electronic tag on a 231kg polar bear.
Putin gets to grips with polar bear during visit to Russian outpost 
(author unknown)
Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:00:01 GMT

От редакции: Раздел медведя
Владимир Путин слетал на Землю Франца-Иосифа и окольцевал белого медведя. Конечно, можно считать это действие символическим – все-таки лидер партии «Единая Россия» должен быть с медведями на короткой ноге.
Путин прибыл в Арктику, заявил о коренных арктических интересах России, подкрепил заявление визитом на погранзаставу за 10 дней до того, как президент Медведев договорился с Норвегией о разделе спорных арктических территорий. А в публичное пространство новость попала только вчера.
От редакции: Раздел медведя 
(author unknown)
Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:00:00 GMT

Россия приберет Арктику для себя
Российские официальные лица после окончания острой фазы кризиса вновь потянулись в Арктику. Вчера премьер-министр РФ Владимир Путин в ходе посещения архипелага Земля Франца-Иосифа принял участие в работе научной экспедиции Института проблем экологии и эволюции имени Северцева и выступил с рядом заявлений о геополитических амбициях России в Арктике. Традиционно поездки Путина имеют и весьма сильную имиджевую составляющую: перед телекамерами премьер-министр измерил и надел ошейник на усыпленного белого медведя, после чего призвал провести в Арктике «генеральную уборку». Геополитическая риторика возвращается в лексикон российских лидеров…
Россия приберет Арктику для себя 
info@politcom.ru (Татьяна Становая)
Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:00:00 GMT

Putin: Polar bear tagged in the Arctic – Global Adventures, LLC

BBC News

Putin: Polar bear tagged in the Arctic
Global Adventures, LLC
Franz Joseph Land (Global Adventures): Russia wants to do more to study and protect the estimated population of 6000 polar bears that live in the Russian …
Russian PM Putin orders Arctic cleanupWashington Post
Polar Putin explores Russia’s farthest NorthChannel News Asia
Vladimir Putin hugs polar bear on Arctic tripThe Guardian
Bernama -The Voice of Russia -National Post
all 231 news articles »
Putin: Polar bear tagged in the Arctic – Global Adventures, LLC 
(author unknown)
Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:23:36 GMT

Russian PM Putin orders Arctic cleanup
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has ordered that a million abandoned barrels of Soviet-era fuel be removed from the Arctic because they are polluting the environment.
Russian PM Putin orders Arctic cleanup 
(author unknown)
Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:40:13 GMT
Pravda On The Potomac | The New Republic
For the past four years, Russia has been building its global media and public relations presence.
But, to whitewash its increasing authoritarianism, the Kremlin did something it had never done before: It hired a Washington, D.C. communications firm to press its case. The same month Cheney was calling on Russia to reform, Ketchum Inc., a major p.r. outfit that represents Kodak, IBM, Nokia, and FedEx, won a $2 million contract to "pursue several communications activities to facilitate a relationship between Russia’s Presidency of the G-8 and the media." (Ketchum shares the account with GPlus Europe, a London- and Brussels-based p.r. company owned by its parent firm, Omnicom.)
The G-8 meeting was set at Konstantinovsky Palace and Peterhof, eighteenth-century castles that once belonged to Peter the Great, and it served as a "three-day tutorial on Russia’s revival," as The Washington Post described it. This was a time of rising oil prices and, thus, increasing Russian confidence in its ability to dictate the course of global events. But Ketchum eased the Russian bombast with a little Washington finesse: Twenty-five Ketchum employees headed to St. Petersburg, where they arranged interviews for reporters with senior Russian government leaders, established podcasts featuring Russian officials, and set up a webcast of the conference with the BBC. Ketchum later bragged that it "succeeded in helping … shift global views of Russia to recognize its more democratic nature"; the company won a "Silver Anvil" prize from the Public Relations Society of America and a PRWeekGlobal Campaign of the Year Award for its work.
The Russians were no doubt impressed, because in January 2007 they signed an $845,000, two-month contract with Ketchum and its lobbying subsidiary, The Washington Group, for "public relations counsel, lobbying and media relations support." (The account, which ended late last year when The Washington Group merged with another lobbying firm, was handled at one time by John O’Hanlon, a longtime fund-raiser for the Democratic Party. Today, Ketchum is in the process of hiring another lobbying firm to represent Russia’s interests in Washington.) In August, Ketchum began providing media relations support for Gazprom, the Russian state energy company, to the tune of nearly $250,000 per month. According to The Hill, since 2006, Ketchum and The Washington Group have earned more than $7.5 million in fees from the Russian government.
Pravda On The Potomac | The New Republic

Ketchum Inc. – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lobbying for the Russian government
Ketchum Inc and its subsidiary GPlus Europe are among the PR agencies used by the Russian government to tout the alleged benefits of working in partnership with Russia.[1] The Russian government reportedly spends millions on these operations. GPlus specializes in recruiting former EU officials and eminent journalists. Gregor Kreuzhuber, who leads the company’s pro-Gazprom operations, was previously European Commission industry spokesman. Peter Witt is a retired German deputy ambassador to the EU before he was hired by GPlus. Angus Roxburgh, another GPlus worker, covered the war in Chechnya for the BBC.[2]
In October 2009 the EUObserver reported of a new pro-Russia campaign in Brussels.[3]
Ketchum Inc. – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Filed under: Обзор Печати, Путин, Press Review, Putin        

via Russia and The West: News and Opinions - Россия и Запад: Новости и Мнения » Putin by Admin - News Review* on 5/4/10
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has "promoted a climate of pumped-up national pride that encourages the persecution of dissidents and freethinkers", the report contends.
BBC News – Media watchdog group names freedom "predators"

Filed under: Press Review, Putin        

via Russia and The West: News and Opinions - Россия и Запад: Новости и Мнения » Putin by Admin - News Review* on 5/31/10
Это очевидный факт. Потому что только в свободном обществе человек может реализоваться. А, реализуя себя, и страну развивает, и науку развивает, и производство развивает – по самому высокому стандарту. Если этого нет, то наступают последствия – стагнация. Это очевидный факт и всеми понимается.
Сайт Председателя Правительства Российской Федерации В.В.Путина – События – Председатель Правительства Российской Федерации В.В.Путин встретился с участниками и организаторами благотворительного литературно-музыкального вечера «Маленький принц»

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via Russia and The West: News and Opinions - Россия и Запад: Новости и Мнения » Putin by Admin - News Review* on 9/10/10
Russia: Power to the powerful
In an off-the-record briefing to a visiting group of foreign academics and journalists this week, a senior official of the Russian government spoke in tones verging on contempt about the victims of the forest fires that ravaged central Russia this summer. He argued that there had never been a proper fire service in the forests around Moscow and that everyone who lived there knew it. For every hero in the fire service who sacrificed his life for others, there were a hundred others who never pitched up. But rather than accept the collective responsibility for failing as a government to organise a functioning fire service, he drew the opposite conclusion. He said it was up to each owner to have their own fire bucket. Why should the state help those who could not, or would not, help themselves? The narod are mugs.
As chilling as these comments are, they nevertheless represent an attitude prevalent in the elite around Vladimir Putin who run Russia. Some are now people of considerable wealth, as proximity to power is profitable. While paying lip service in public to the corruption of bureaucrats and the deindustrialisation of an economy dangerously dependent on the price of oil and gas, they themselves do little in practice to stop either. What interest would they have in changing a system on which they thrive? The modernisation of which they speak is about means, not ends. It is about implanting progress from above, dropping a Russian Silicon Valley on to the forests of Skolkovo (when there are cities with strong scientific centres languishing through lack of investment) or building an international ski resort above the subtropical city of Sochi. God forbid that economic liberalisation should lead to political change, the creation of real political parties, a functioning civil society, and institutions independent of the governing elite. There is no exact equivalent in English of Putin’s "soft autocracy", and that may be telling in itself. Even benign despotism implies a will to improve the lives of ordinary people.
Russia itself is languishing. Its economy contracted by nearly 8% last year, its worst annual economic performance since 1994, and – despite being so dependent on the stuff – it is producing less oil now than the Soviet Union did in the 1970s. Soviet oil accounted for 35% of global production in 1985. Oil from Russia accounts today for just 17% – a marked decline even after the partial loss of oil from the Caspian basin is factored in. Russia’s economy has shrunk twice in the last decade, and deindustrialisation is making itself felt in Russia’s mono-cities – those reliant on a single industry. It is against this background that the billions of dollars thrown at baubles like Skolkovo and Sochi should be judged.
Speaking in Sochi this week, Mr Putin made little secret of his dislike of elected local officials. He even described how one of them did a bunk through the back door rather than face popular wrath after one disaster. The implication is that Russia is not ready for democracy and the system of Kremlin-appointed bureaucrats is here to stay for some time to come. In a conference in Yaroslavl today, President Dmitry Medvedev will attempt to claw back some of the limelight lost to his senior partner in recent months. The president’s speeches often include strident criticisms of the political system of which he is an intrinsic part. Two and a half years into his term of office, Russian liberals wait in vain for the president’s cavalry to arrive. By all accounts, it has yet to be formed. In judging the balance of power between Mr Putin and Mr Medvedev, the former wins hands down even though, on paper, he has fewer powers.
Michael McFaul, President Barack Obama’s top adviser on Russia,argued yesterday that, historically, autocracies have been less instrumental than democracies in economic modernisation. He is right, but the greater threat Russia faces is stagnation, under the grip of an elite increasingly unwilling to share the spoils of power.
Russia: Power to the powerful | Editorial | Comment is free | The Guardian

Filed under: Press Review, Putin        

via Russia and The West: News and Opinions - Россия и Запад: Новости и Мнения » Putin by Admin - News Review* on 9/10/10
By Neil Buckley in Moscow
Published: September 9 2010 18:49 | Last updated: September 9 2010 18:49
The talk from Russia a few months ago was of a “thaw” under Dmitry Medvedev, its youthful president; there were even comparisons with Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika era.
But sit down with the country’s intellectuals and businesspeople today, and they draw parallels with a different era: Leonid Brezhnev and the 1970s.
That was a period of relative comfort, by drab Soviet standards. High oil prices after the 1973 oil shock helped authorities keep at least a minimum of goods in the shops.
But the Brezhnev era is remembered, too, as a time of stagnation. Energy revenues provided a cushion that helped the Communist party general secretary stifle proposed economic reforms.
Growth was far slower than in the early decades of Soviet industrialisation. Dissent was crushed, elections an exercise in rubber-stamping party candidates. Citizens took to grouching in the privacy of their kitchens.
Drawing comparisons with today might seem strange. Many Russians enjoy a standard of living undreamt of three decades ago. The country’s cities are clogged with Audis and Toyotas, and ringed with shopping malls.
In spite of the Kremlin’s dominance of the media, a freedom of speech exists that would also have been unthinkable in Brezhnev’s day – especially online. There is no utopian ideology. Russians can travel freely abroad.
Yet, if the more liberal Mr Medvedev seemed briefly to be gaining political traction, many Russians are increasingly convinced that Vladimir Putin is planning a return to the presidency in 2012. After two terms as president and two years as prime minister, Mr Putin has had an unusually energetic summer.
He has ridden a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, chased whales and driven a Lada 1,200 miles across east Russia. An unofficial 2012 re-election campaign seems to have begun.
After a constitutional change extending future presidential terms to six years, that could see Mr Putin in power until 2024, aged 72. He could end up being Russia’s most powerful politician for a quarter of a century.
That, to many Russians, promises a continuation of the stifling political climate and stage-managed elections that have been reinstituted in the past 10 years. Mr Putin warned in an interview during his far-east road trip that demonstrators holding rallies without official permission could expect to be “whacked on the head”.
For all Mr Medvedev’s talk of reform, meanwhile, the president has delivered little. Electoral pledges to end Russia’s legal “nihilism” and install the rule of law have taken only baby steps forward.
At the Valdai Discussion Club’s annual conference, which ended this week, Russian and foreign experts who debated Mr Medvedev’s programme to build a high-tech economy rated his chances of success as low.
The biggest obstacle, they agreed, was that corruption – bribe-taking by officials, kickbacks in state contracts – has reached record levels.
Another problem is that Russia’s sense of urgency last year about diversifying its economy, as its output shrank the fastest among G20 nations, evaporated as quickly as oil prices returned to $70 a barrel.
“The feeling we had in 2009 that we can’t go on this way has gone,” says Alexei Makarkin, an analyst at Moscow’s Centre for Political Technologies. “Once again, there is a feeling we can live on oil.”
Most economists believe that even without economic reforms, current oil prices would enable growth of about 3 per cent a year. But that would be well below the past decade’s levels of at least 7 per cent and also those of Russia’s Bric counterparts. It would also be too slow to catch up with poorer European Union members’ per capita output.
Restiveness among what Russia calls its “elites” is, however, unlikely to move beyond today’s equivalent of those 1970s kitchens. Tycoons remain cowed by the example of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who clashed with Mr Putin and has been in prison for fraud since 2003.
This week Mr Putin launched another tirade against the former Yukos oil boss. That bodes badly for Mr Khodorkovsky’s acquittal chances in a new trial that could leave him in jail for 20 more years.
That leaves the chances of Mr Putin encountering any obstacles in attempts to return to the presidency in 2012 – or continuing as prime minister for years to come – looking slim.
FT article: Russia’s intellectuals recall Brezhnev era

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via Russia and The West: News and Opinions - Россия и Запад: Новости и Мнения » Putin by Admin - News Review* on 9/10/10
In fact, the question of Mr Putin’s return is artificial, for he has never really left power in Russia, but simply switched job title.
More than two years into his presidency, Dmitry Medvedev seems no more powerful than when he was, in effect, appointed to the job by Mr Putin. There are signs, however, that the Kremlin wants to draw a stylistic distinction between the two men. This may explain Mr Medvedev’s decision not to meet the Valdai club, as he did last year. On September 9th and 10th he was due to stage his own show in the Russian city of Yaroslavl, on his favourite theme of modernisation, which he advertised a year ago in an online article: “Go, Russia!”
Despite the commanding words, there has been precious little progress. After a few days of anguished discussion about Russia’s direction, the Valdai club gloomily concluded that the country was stagnating—an opinion shared even by most Russian participants. The club said in a report that “there is practically no real modernisation, restructuring or diversification, oil and gas remain the main sources of revenue, corruption continues unchecked and there is almost zero innovation.”
When these conclusions were put to Mr Putin, however, he largely rejected them as empty chatter that ignored his government’s concrete deeds. He cited the abolition of import duties on high-technology equipment and spoke of Russia’s successful diversification into different industries. He talked up the amount of foreign investment, even though he admitted that most of it was in the energy sector.
But what his answers demonstrated was a firm belief in the virtues of today’s political system. The overriding purpose of modernisation is not to change the political set-up or overhaul state institutions, but to refine and preserve the system and justify the central role of the state (and the unchecked power of its security services).
Only the state and its guardians are capable of taking a country of Russia’s size and history forward, the argument goes. As Vladimir Yakunin, the head of Russia’s railways and a former KGB officer who is close to Mr Putin, argued in a letter to The Economist last week, state capitalism of the Chinese kind “simply works better”. Russia’s past attempts to “reject all history and tradition, combined with the blind imitation of foreign experience, impeded the country’s political and economic development for 20 years.”
Yet the real problem is not that the state in Russia is too powerful or ambitious, but that it fails in its basic functions of providing adequate health care, security, justice and infrastructure. At the same time, corruption has become institutionalised. Earlier this year, at a forum in Krasnoyarsk that gathered the country’s business and political elite, most participants were stuck to name one state institution that works.
Paradoxically, the statist rhetoric is combined, in the minds of many officials, with extremely low expectations of what the state is supposed to accomplish. This was starkly revealed in another Valdai interview, with a top official. Responding to accusations of government ineffectiveness in tackling the summer’s forest fires, he said it was never any use relying on the fire brigade, which always came too late. People had to look after themselves. The official argued that this was true everywhere, even in central London, where he owns a flat. The idea of an accountable state providing public services was clearly absurd (unlike the idea of Russian bureaucrats owning expensive flats abroad).
The main role of the state, to Mr Putin and his entourage, is to keep political order; or, to put it differently, to protect the state and the vested interests of its bureaucracy. Public protests organised by opposition leaders are provocations. Those who join them deserve what they get. As Mr Putin put it (thrice) in a recent interview with Kommersant, a daily newspaper, “Go out [to demonstrate] without a permit—you get a whack on the head. That’s all there is to it.” (The message is frequently and dutifully put into practice by Moscow’s riot police—most recently during a demonstration on August 31st.)
Russian politics: Why Russia needs me | The Economist

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via Russia and The West: News and Opinions - Россия и Запад: Новости и Мнения » Putin by Admin - News Review* on 9/18/10
The Country’s New Nobility
17 September 2010
In December 2000, then-director of the Federal Security Service Nikolai Patrushev proudly described the FSB’s rank and file: “Our best colleagues, the honor and pride of the FSB, don’t do their work for the money,” he said in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda. “They all look different, but there is one very special characteristic that unites all these people, and it is a very important quality. It is their sense of service. They are, if you like, our new nobility.”
Patrushev hit the nail on the head. Throughout the 2000s, the FSB indeed became the country’s new elite, enjoying expanded responsibilities and immunity from public oversight or parliamentary control. Putin made the FSB the main security agency in Russia, allowing it to absorb much of the former KGB and granting it the right to operate abroad, collect information and carry out special operations.
At the same time, Putin gave the FSB a new and riskier role. As a former KGB officer, Putin viewed the FSB as the only state agency he could trust. He gave the FSB a key responsibility: to protect the stability of the Kremlin’s rule — and, by extension, the stability of the country. In the 2000s, the security services became the main resource of human capital for filling positions in the state apparatus and state-controlled corporations.
Not surprisingly, for many dissidents, journalists and even members of the security service, these changes represent a revival of the Soviet-era KGB. But the reality is more complicated. The KGB was all-powerful, but it was also under the control of the political structure. Throughout the Soviet period, every KGB section, department and division answered to the Communist Party. The hierarchy and subordination was clear. But now, the FSB is impenetrable to outsiders.
As a result, the FSB has evolved into a force that is much more powerful than the KGB. Never before did an officer from the security services lead the country for a decade. By the next presidential election in 2012, Putin will have been at the helm for 12 years. Once he is re-elected — which is all but guaranteed — Putin will rule the country for another 12 years (two presidential terms of six years each). It’s worth noting that former Soviet leader Yury Andropov — the longest-
serving and most popular KGB chief among FSB rank and file — was not a trained KGB agent but a Communist Party apparatchik appointed by the Politburo to oversee state security.
Although the FSB has never tried to change economic rules in Russia, it has significantly changed the country’s political culture. The security services reduced the space available for open discussion of politics and public life. In addition, Russia’s scientific community was intimidated with a series of harsh verdicts against scientists accused of espionage, and the work of nongovernmental organizations was restricted under the false pretense that they were agents of foreign states.
But the powers that Putin has granted to the security services failed to bring the expected results. The FSB invested energy in hunting down foreign spies, but the methods it used raised questions about whether the threat was real or trumped-up. Likewise, the FSB targeted nongovernmental organizations out of fear that such groups might inspire a popular revolution against the Kremlin. This was a clear miscalculation. The organizations in question were too small to be significant threats, did not command widespread support in Russia and did not advocate an uprising against the regime. The security services meddled in politics — perhaps to demonstrate their power and loyalty to the Kremlin — but they clearly misjudged the threat of any opposition to the popular president.
Much more important though, the FSB has miscalculated the nature of the enemy in the war against terrorism. Faced with guerrilla warfare, the security services tried to eliminate a generation of Chechen warlords both within the country and abroad. But when these leaders were wiped out, new ones took their place. Over and over again, the leadership of the FSB blamed terrorist attacks on outsiders, such as al-Qaida and other Arab extremists who infiltrated Chechnya, or foreign intelligence services — including Georgia’s — which purportedly assisted al-Qaida operatives and other insurgents in the North Caucasus. But the focus on external enemies has been misplaced. Arabs were present in Chechnya, but they were always subordinate to Chechens, and the tactics and methods used by terrorists were largely masterminded by former Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev.
Putin opened the door to dozens of security service agents, allowing them to move up in the main institutions of the country. Putin clearly hoped that the large presence of former FSB and KGB agents would prove a vanguard of stability and order for his regime, but once they had tasted the benefits, agents began to struggle among themselves for the spoils.
FSB officers now regard themselves as the only force capable of saving the country from internal and external enemies. They also consider themselves genuine patriots who are saving a nation damaged by the chaos, corruption and servility to the West that marked the 1990s under President Boris Yeltsin. But their mindset has been undeniably shaped by Soviet history. Their excessively suspicious, inward-looking and clannish mentality has translated into weak and ineffective intelligence and counterintelligence operations. In addition, since security agents are everywhere in the government, it also undermines the effectiveness of state governance as a whole.
Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan are co-founders of Agentura.ru. Their book “The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia’s Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB” will be published in September by PublicAffairs.
The Country’s New Nobility | Opinion | The Moscow Times

Filed under: FSB, KGB, Press Review, Putin        

via Russia and The West: News and Opinions - Россия и Запад: Новости и Мнения » Putin by Admin - News Review* on 9/18/10
The New Nobility: Russia’s Security State
September 13th, 2010 by Steven Aftergood
“The Soviet police state tried to control every citizen in the country.  The new, more sophisticated Russian [security] system is far more selective than its Soviet-era counterpart;  it targets only those individuals who have political ambitions or strong public views.”  That’s what Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan discover in “The New Nobility,” their impressive new book on the resurgence of Russia’s security services in the post-Cold War era.
Soldatov and Borogan, Russian journalists who have produced some of the boldest reporting on the subject over the past decade, are also the creators and editors of Agentura.ru, a pioneering web site devoted to public interest research on Russian intelligence policy and related matters.
In “The New Nobility,” they present many of the decisive episodes in the recent history of the FSB, the primary Russian security service, from the 2002 Moscow theater siege, to the 2004 Beslan school massacre, the war in Chechnya, and more.  Overall they present a picture of a security service of increasing power and influence, uneven competence — but virtually no accountability to parliament or the public.
“The Soviet KGB was all-powerful,” Soldatov and Borogan write, “but it was also under the control of the political structure: The Communist Party presided over every KGB section, department, and division.  In contrast, the FSB is a remarkably independent entity, free of party control and parliamentary oversight….”
The book is based on the authors’ original reporting, which itself is a demonstration of unusual courage and commitment.  A reader soon loses track of the number of times their computers are seized by authorities, how often their papers’ web servers are confiscated, and how many times they are summoned for interrogation or even charged with crimes based on their reporting.  Yet they persist.
Their book is full of remarkable observations.  For example:
  •     In 2006, the FSB organized a competition “for the best literary and artistic works about state security operatives.”
  •     The history of Moscow’s Lefortovo prison has never been documented.  “Even the prison’s design [in the shape of the letter K] remains a mystery.”
  •     The Russian security services in Chechnya have made extensive use of the tactic known as “counter-capture,” which involves seizing the relatives of suspected terrorists in order to induce them to surrender.
Fundamentally, the authors contend, Russia’s FSB has gone astray by acting as an agent of state authority instead of representing the rule of law.  “In today’s Russia,… the security services appear to have concluded that their interests, and those of the state they are guarding, remain above the law.”  An American reader may ponder the similarities and differences presented by U.S. security services.
“The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia’s Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB” by Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan is being published this month by Public Affairs Books.
“To those following the increasingly hostile environment for journalists in Russia, Soldatov’s career is a curiosity,” according to an internal profile of him prepared by the DNI Open Source Center in 2008.  “Despite being questioned and charged by the FSB on several occasions, Soldatov has continued to cover hot-button issues such as corruption, security service defectors, and the increasing role of the special services in limiting free speech in Russia.”
The New York Times featured Agentura.ru in “A Web Site That Came in From the Cold to Unveil Russian Secrets” by Sally McGrane, December 14, 2000.
The New York Times has also published Above the Law, a continuing series of stories by Clifford J. Levy on “corruption and abuse of power in Russia two decades after the end of Communism.”
The New Nobility: Russia’s Security State | Secrecy News

Filed under: FSB, KGB, Press Review, Putin        
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