Death of a Dissident - Alex Goldfarb [94]
“We shall see about that.”
“But why do you need it? I don’t get it. Have you suddenly become altruistic?”
“Not at all. It’s self-preservation. You are right about Putin. He is going after the governors, he is squeezing Goose because he has cast them as the enemy. Because they supported Primus. He and Voloshin are simply continuing last year’s fight, finishing them off. The problem is, he may not realize that, but he is destroying the framework in the process. If he succeeds, my turn will come too, sooner or later, because I cannot be his servant. I have my own interests. But now I still have a chance to persuade them, because Volodya sees me as part of his team. I am not seeking a confrontation. That is why I am not teaming up with anyone—doing it alone. If he sees that I am serious, he will realize he is making a mistake, and he will reverse course.”
The publication of Boris’s open letter to Putin on May 30, 2000, confused everyone, none more than American Russia watchers who arrived in Moscow in advance of a June summit, the first for Putin and the last for Clinton. Wasn’t Berezovsky supposed to be Putin’s main backer? Did it mean that Putin was also at odds with Voloshin, a Berezovsky man? Was Putin in collusion with the military? What was the meaning of the crackdown on Gusinsky?
“We Americans are simple people who like to know whom to root for in any competition, political or athletic,” wrote David Ignatius in a June 4 Washington Post column entitled “A Complicated Kremlin Scorecard.” “Putin vs. Berezovsky” appears to be a “most interesting political contest,” but “whom should we root for?”
Bill Clinton could not make up his mind either. Before leaving Moscow, he dropped in to say hello to his old friend Boris Yeltsin and to share his reservations about the “new guy,” whom he had just seen.
Clinton’s aide Strobe Talbott reproduced the conversation in Russia Hand. Yeltsin told his “friend Bill” that Putin’s main qualifications for the job were twofold. He was “a young man and a strong man.” Yeltsin’s daughter Tatyana “nodded solemnly”: “It really was very hard, getting Putin into the job—one of the hardest things we ever pulled off.”
“Boris, you have got democracy in your heart,” said Clinton to Yeltsin “You have got the fire in your belly of the real democrat and real reformer. I am not sure Putin has that. Maybe he does. I don’t know.”
The next shoe to drop was the arrest of Goose himself. He spent three days in mid-June in Butyrka prison and was released with orders not to leave town—just like Sasha. It shook Boris more personally than the federalism fight. The latter might be an honest mistake by a president who wanted an efficient government. The former was clearly an act of revenge.
Goose’s arrest happened while Putin was on a state visit in Spain. As soon as he returned Boris went to see him. He wanted to make one last attempt: perhaps Volodya was not beyond redemption.
“Volodya, why did you put Goose in jail? It served no purpose, and it harmed you internationally.”
“Boris, good heavens, of all people! Wasn’t he number one on your enemies list? He had threatened us with jail, have you forgotten?”
“Yes, but we’ve won, this is a senseless vengeance.”
“When he threatened me, he should have known better. But he is free now, so what do you want? In any case, go speak to Voloshin. Goose is his favorite project.”
“Goose is a traitor,” Voloshin told him. “He stabbed us in the back, and he will do it again. He said that we blew up those houses.”
“But you didn’t, did you?”
“We did not, and he had no right to say that. Anyway, no one will harm him, but he must give up NTV, and he will. He has no way out. He is cornered.”
Boris gave a series of interviews comparing Putin’s policies to those of Chile’s Pinochet: a free economy combined with a lack of political freedom. “This will not