Western administrations have done their best to fashion a
perception of Vladimir Putin as some form of European social
democrat. The recent poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko in
London and the gunning down of the anti-Putin journalist Anna
Politkovskaya earlier in Moscow, as well as other "wet affairs,"
have brought that characterization sharply into question. The real
issue, however, is why such a benevolent representation ever
existed in the first place.
Little "Putka", as he was called by his boyhood friends on the
streets of Leningrad, has been a dedicated apparatchik
since his school days when his ambition to join the KGB first
began. He hasn't changed -- only the world around him changed --
and he has taken advantage of these changes.
Putin is a legitimate tough guy, not a poseur. He trained
himself mentally and physically, with the help of the Soviet
security system, to be so. More importantly he knows how and when
to use that toughness, a valuable asset for the leader of a country
seeking to reassert itself as an international power.
Along with his obdurate personality is a sense of national pride
that borders on the obsessive. Putin has no life other than his job
and his family. He works out vigorously to stay physically hardened
and capable of focusing his energies. He is no suburban jogger. His
commitment to judo and the Russian self-defense technique,
sambo, which began as a teenager, continues today. His
preferred sport personifies his world outlook, finding areas of
leverage and exploiting the advantage mindless of the pain involved
on either himself or his opponent.
Putin never would have authorized the killing of a loud but
lightweight dissident like Litvinenko. Such action placed Putin in
a vulnerable leverage position. Additionally he never would have
ordered the use of an exotic killing agent in a situation that
required "plausible denial." Along with his other attributes Putin
is the best educated and perhaps the smartest Russian leader since
Lenin -- in spite of what Mikhail Gorbachev might think.
The problem facing Putin nonetheless is of his own making. He
has allowed his "untouchables," both on-duty and retired Russian
security officers, to run rampant in their efforts to ensure
loyalty to Putin's form of democracy. This has been interpreted as
authorization to harass anyone who speaks out contrary to the
Kremlin line. At the same time sycophants have been unduly rewarded
and, according to the World Bank, corruption has become so wide
spread throughout the government that bribery and kickbacks have
become an integral part of Russian business.
The private holdings of the Yeltsin-era business tycoons have
been shifted over to government ownership under the control of
Putin stalwarts. The deposed "oligarchs" are either residing in
jail or, as in the case of Boris Berezovsky, Litvinenko's patron,
are using their stolen millions to support anti-Putin political
forces from abroad. Adding further to Russian domestic insecurity
is the continuing no-holds-barred battle against Chechen insurgency
that seems to produce a murder every few weeks in and around
Moscow.
So it appears that no matter how intelligent and well-schooled
Putin is, he does not have control of his own apparat. This is no
more apparent than in the growth of self-appointed guardians of
Putin's "new revolution." This possibly ex-KGB cadre is high on the
list of suspects in the growing number of unexplained
assassinations both within Russia and in cities around the world.
Today it is as if the good old boys had seen the Godfather
series far too often, with a little French Connection
thrown in on the side.
Whether or not the Russian domestic security service, FSB, was
directly involved in the recent killings, Vladimir Putin is
ultimately responsible for creating a security milieu that
encourages assassination as a political and personal weapon. By not
being vigorous in his disavowal and investigation of the poisonings
and murder in Russian political life, the dedicated judo champion
has lost the initiative and thus leverage in his leadership.
Putin's penchant for the establishment of the "Russian way," the
melding of Soviet central controls with elements of Western
representational government and market economy, has created a
Frankenstein monster. Russia's recent economic success has been
based to a great extent on an extraordinary increase in its oil and
gas revenues. Without this spike the Putin years would have been
deemed a failure.
After designating his successor Putin is hoping and planning to
sit out the mandated four years after the next Russian presidential
election, and then take over once more. No matter what it is
called, it is nothing more than old time Soviet pragmatism played
out in the charade of Putka's version of Russian democracy.
topics:
Vladimir Putin, Business, Russia, Oil
