Strongman (45 page)

Authors: Angus Roxburgh

BOOK: Strongman

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Chapter 8. A New Cold War

1
. Interview with Stephen Hadley, 24 January 2011.

2
. Rather was at the centre of a controversy after publicising documents critical of President Bush’s military service during the 2004
presidential campaign. The documents’ authenticity was later disputed, and in November Rather announced he would retire the following March, but there was never any suggestion that Bush
had put pressure on CBS to fire him.

3
. Interview with Damon Wilson, 2 March 2011.

4
. Interviews with Nicholas Burns, 21 January 2011, and Condoleezza Rice, 20 June 2011.

5
. Wikileaks cable in the
Guardian
, 1 December 2010.

6
. Interview with Oleg Mitvol, 14 April 2010.

7
. These events are reconstructed from interviews with Condoleezza Rice, Bill Burns, Sergei Ivanov, Igor Ivanov, Sergei Lavrov and others.

8
. Some of Litvinenko’s colleagues later ‘returned’ to the FSB fold and accused him of having tricked them into making this
appearance. For an excellent account of all the conspiracy theories and intrigues surrounding the case, see Martin Sixsmith,
The Litvinenko File
(London: Macmillan, 2007).

9
. Yelena Tregubova, http://viperson.ru/wind.php?ID=413357&soch=1 (last accessed 7 September 2011).

10
. Interview with David Miliband, 7 July 2011.

11
. Interview with Sergei Lavrov, 25 October 2010.

12
. Sixsmith,
The Litvinenko File
, pp 303ff.

Chapter 9. Media, Missiles, Medvedev

1
. Dmitry Peskov, interviewed on Dozhd television, 4 October 2011.

2
. US companies are obliged to declare fees received from foreign principals for ‘political activities’. For the period January to
June 2008, the fee declared by Ketchum and its partner The Washington Group for work done in North America and Japan on behalf of the Russian Federation was $2,436,600. GPlus received a similar
sum for its work in Europe, making a total of almost $5 million for that six-month period. The initial contract for the G8 year has been rolled over year by year, with the fees for each new
contract varying somewhat.

3
. Dmitry Peskov, interviewed on Dozhd television, 4 October 2011.

4
. See, for example,
The New Times
, 16 March 2009.

5
. See Luke Harding,
Mafia State
(London: Guardian Books, 2011).

6
. Lilia Shevtsova,
Lonely Power
(Moscow: Carnegie Endowment, 2010), pp 98ff.

7
. Interviews with Dan Fata, 1 March 2011, and Eric Edelman, 4 March 2011.

8
. Dmitri Trenin, ‘
Moscow the Muscular’: The Loneliness of an Aspiring Power Center
(Moscow: Carnegie Moscow Center Briefing,
volume 11, issue 1, January 2009).

9
. Interview with Sergei Prikhodko, 30 June 2011.

10
. Off-the-record interview with senior Russian official.

11
. Interview with Condoleezza Rice, 30 June 2011.

12
. Interview with Stephen Hadley, 24 January 2011.

13
. Interview with Eric Edelman, 4 March 2011.

14
. Interview with Robert Gates, 16 May 2011.

15
. Interview with Sergei Lavrov, 25 October 2010.

16
. Interview with Anatoly Antonov, 2 April 2011.

17
. Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov,
Putin: Itogi
(Moscow: Novaya gazeta, 2008).

18
. Michael McFaul and Kathryn Stoner-Weiss, ‘The Myth of the Authoritarian Model’,
Foreign Affairs
, volume 87, number 1,
January/February 2008.

Chapter 10. The Descent into War

1
. Interview with Damon Wilson, 2 March 2011.

2
. Interview with Mikheil Saakashvili, 31 March 2011.

3
. Interview with Jean-David Levitte, 12 March 2011.

4
. Interview with Robert Gates, 16 May 2011.

5
. Interview with Stephen Hadley, 24 January 2011.

6
. Interview with Radoslaw Sikorski, 25 November 2010.

7
. Interview with Condoleezza Rice, 20 June 2011.

8
. Interview with Frank-Walter Steinmeier, 20 June 2011.

9
. Angus Roxburgh, ‘Georgia Fights for Nationhood’,
National Geographic
, volume 181, number 5, May 1992.

10
. Quoted in Thomas de Waal,
The Caucasus: An Introduction
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), p 208.

11
. Interview with Damon Wilson, 2 March 2011.

12
. http://www.rferl.org/content/Did_Russia_Plan_Its_War_In_Georgia __/1191460.html (last accessed 7 September 2011).

13
. Interview with Giorgi Bokeria, 30 March 2011.

14
. Interview with Batu Kutelia, 29 March 2011.

15
. Interview with Nino Burjanadze, 29 March 2011.

16
. Interview with Mikheil Saakashvili, 31 March 2011.

17
. Interview with Sergei Prikhodko, 30 June 2011.

18
. I do not regard Saakashvili as a particularly reliable witness. His interview for the TV series contained at least two
‘memories’ that are verifiably false. He has a clear tendency to embellish stories to his own advantage.

19
. Interview on Ekho Moskvy, published 7 August 2011.

20
. Medvedev interview with Russia Today, PIK-TV and Ekho Moskvy, published 5 August 2011.

21
. Interview with Condoleezza Rice, 20 June 2011.

22
. Interview with Radoslaw Sikorski, 25 November 2010.

23
. I accept that this is an oversimplification. The ethnic balance of Abkhazia changed hugely over the decades: the Abkhaz were once the
majority ethnic group, and huge numbers of Georgians and Russians were brought into the region during the Soviet period – a deliberate Georgian policy, the Abkhaz say, to turn them into a
minority.

24
. Interview with Jean-David Levitte, 12 March 2011.

25
. Medvedev interview with Russia Today, etc, 5 August 2011.

26
. Interview with Condoleezza Rice, 14 April 2011.

27
. Interview with Sergei Lavrov, 25 October 2010.

28
. Interview with Mikheil Saakashvili, 31 March 2011.

29
. Interview with Robert Gates, 16 May 2011.

30
. Interview with Stephen Hadley, 24 January 2011.

31
. In a live television phone-in programme on 4 December 2008 Putin was asked by a viewer, ‘Is it true that you promised to hang
Saakashvili by “one place”?’ Putin paused for a moment, smiled, and replied: ‘Why by “one”?’

Chapter 11. Resetting Relations with the West

1
. Interview with Michael McFaul, 15 April 2011.

2
. Interview with Sergei Ryabkov, 27 October 2010.

3
. Interview with Sergei Prikhodko, 30 June 2011.

4
. Interview with James Jones, 4 March 2011.

Chapter 12. The Strongman and His Friends

1
. Interview with Alexei Kudrin, 14 December 2010.

2
. Interview with German Gref, 7 December 2010.

3
. Sergei Guriev and Aleh Tsyvinski, ‘Challenges Facing the Russian Economy after the Crisis’, in Sergei Guriev, Anders Aslund and
Andrew Kuchins (eds),
Russia After the Global
Economic Crisis
(The Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2010), p 21.

4
. Interview with Arkady Dvorkovich, 29 June 2011.

5
.
Kommersant
, No. 124, 13 July 2010.

6
. Currently available only in Russian and Swedish.

7
. http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings (last accessed 7 September 2011). The top ten countries for ease of doing business are, in order:
Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, UK, USA, Denmark, Canada, Norway, Ireland, Australia.

8
. http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2011/05/24_a_3627341.shtml (last accessed 7 September 2011).

9
. http://news.kremlin.ru/transcripts/9368 (last accessed 7 September 2011).

10
. Report by INDEM foundation, quoted in V. Milov, B. Nemtsov, V. Ryzhkov and O. Shorina (eds),
Putin. Korruptsiya. Nezavisimyy
ekspertnyy doklad
(Moscow, 2011).

11
. http:// eng.kremlin.ru/news/752 (last accessed 7 September 2011).

12
. http://www.vedomosti.ru/politics/news/1247042/skandal_s_zakupkami_tomografov (last accessed 7 September 2011).

13
. http:// ria.ru/trend/belevitin_case_02062011/ (last accessed 7 September 2011).

14
.
Financial Times
, 12 November 2010.

15
. http://en.rian.ru/russia/20110706/165063309.html (last accessed 8 September 2011).

16
. See http://russian-untouchables.com/eng/ (last accessed 7 September 2011).

17
.
Guardian
, 21 December 2007. In a different interview, with
Die Welt
, Belkovsky put Putin’s stake in Gunvor at 50
rather than 7 per cent.

18
. Putin’s own website reprints an article from the opposition newspaper
Novaya gazeta
about the prime minister’s network
of business friends and interests: http://premier.gov.ru/pda/eng/premier/press/ru/4558/ (last accessed 7 September 2011).

19
.
Financial Times
, 15 May 2008.

20
. Milov, Nemtsov, Ryzhkov and Shorina (eds),
Putin. Korruptsiya. Nezavisimyy ekspertnyy doklad.

21
.
Guardian
, 1 December 2010.

22
. http:// navalny.livejournal.com/526563.html.

23
. http:// rospil.info/results.

24
. See Julia Joffe’s excellent account of Navalny’s work in
The New Yorker
, 4 April 2011.

Chapter 13. Tandemology

1
. Interview with Dimitry Muratov, 14 December 2010.

2
. Interview with Arkady Dvorkovich, 29 June 2011.

3
. Interview with Olga Kryshtanovskaya in
Svobodnaya pressa
, 8 February 2011, svpressa.ru/politic/article/38451 (last accessed 7
September 2011).

4
. http://www.bfm.ru/news/2011/08/29/dvorkovich-zubkov-ne-ujdet-iz-gazproma-do-1-oktjabrja.html (last accessed 7 September 2011).

5
.
Guardian
, 1 July 2011.

6
.
Financial Times
, 20 June 2011.

7
. http://www.rferl.org/content/medvedev_talks_reform_in_st_petersburg/24238558.html (last accessed 7 September 2011).

Conclusion

1
. I notice that my book about the Gorbachev years ended very hopefully. See Angus Roxburgh,
The Second Russian Revolution
(London: BBC
Books, 1991).

2
.
Sunday Times
, 14 August 2011.

3
. http://valdaiclub.com/history/29960.html – 18 August 2011 (last accessed 7 September 2011).

ENDNOTES

1
. The magistrate who rejected the extradition request for Berezovsky (and also for an exiled Chechen leader, Akhmed Zakayev, who was also wanted by
Moscow) was Judge Timothy Workman. A few months later, in January 2004, an 83-year-old man with the same surname, Robert Workman, was shot dead when he opened his front door to a stranger in a
quiet village north of London. No motive for the murder has been established and the killer has not been found. There was speculation that the murder could have been a case of mistaken
identity.

2
. The word
silovik
is often translated as ‘strongman’, but it really means ‘a member of the security forces’. It
derives from the term
silovye struktury
, or ‘power structures’, in other words the FSB, ministry of defence, police, and so on. In effect the
siloviki
are men (I
can’t think of any female
siloviki
) who derive their power from having worked in one of these structures.