YAKOV KROTOV

PUTIN

Putin Vladimir, prime-minister - in support of the Moscow Patriarchy as the established church, December, 1999. His accesnsion 1.1.1999; Putin as provocator: October, 2001. Putin and the Moscow Patriarchy.

The accension of Putin to the Russian throne

Deification of Putine

I make also digest of Russian media. There is an incredible number of people who express their attutude towards Putin using the word "believe". "I have a faith into Putin." "Why shall I not beieve in Putin." It is especially striking because in Russia word "vera," "veryu" are almost identical to the "verovat'" and "doveryayu" (trust). People prefer to speal about faith, not about trust to Putin.

Any criticism is opposed by the suggestion: give Putin the chance, he'd just began (actually Putin leads the government from 1999.) Certainly, this doesn't mean that these people trust to others as well. No, they believe only to the leader, to the "good tsar." They will never agree "to give chance" to Yavlinsky or Sergey Kovalyov.

Putin and death penalty

On July 11, 2001 Putin made the statement which Rissian pro-governmental media proclaimed "sensational." During the meeting with James Wolfenson, director of International Bank, Putin said that he is against death penalty.

"Sensation" is that during last month many politicians (such as Metropolitan Cyrill) called to restoration of death penalty.

This "sensation" can be artificially planned by Kremlin propagandists in order to improve Putin's image in the West. What is most important: death penalty in Russia is supressed because of Russia's membership in the Council of Europe. To lose this membership is to lose money.

Above all, "humanism" of Putin's words (he even mentioned God, saying that "the right to take away human life belongs only to The Most High [Vsevyshniy]") is very cheap, because at the same time Putin continues genocide in Chechnya. You can thiis genocide "colonial war," the fact of mass killing will remain. And, certainly, sudden theological exercise of Putin sounds strange, making God a sort of executioner.

March 28, 2001, 22.30 AM, Moscow

Putin in the loo

I've enjoyed the translation of the famous (in Russia at least) Putin's words about Chechnya made by photojournalist Jean-Francois Leroy: "[T]he tsar Poutine spoke of "going to kick out the Chechenians, send them back into their shit", these are his own words. Numerous photographers were there" (http://www.mairie-perpignan.fr/perpignan_old/visa/visa.asp?langue=GB).

Actually, Putin used most rude expression from the cant of gangsters - mochit' - "to moisten", "to wet" - as "to kill". Mochilovo - "murder." He said that Russian troops are going to "mochit' chechentsev v sortire," "to kill Chechens in the loo." The meaning of the phrase was that Chechens are bad warriors, they can be caught by surprise.

I think that now Russians are divided into three parts: those who are delighted that their President speak such "macho" language, those who try to forget these words in order to reconcile with Putin, and those who are against Putin because political leader cannot speak such jargon. Bush is famous for the slips of his tongue, but Putin's words were not a slip, they were nicely calculated test in order to check how far he can go. It came out that he can go very far, too far...

Putin Not Fasting

Sergey Burlaku (KP, 21.3.2001) describes Putin's vacation in Hakassiya and mentions that Putin ate meat. That means that Putin is not the type of Russian Orthodox which is thought to be "normal" nowadays in Russia.

February 23, 2001, 22.20 PM, Moscow

Tyrants measured

I was asked to explain whether elections of Putin were honest. No, they were not -- at least two millions votes have been falsified. Vladimir Pribylosvky states that Putin received not 52% (as officially reported), but 48-49% (Novoye Vremya, #8, 2001). In English about this wrote Evgeniy Borisov in The Moscow Times, 09.09.2000. In Russian in details: Vladimir Pribylovsky himself, site "Russian Deadline," 15, 18, 19 December 2000 (http://www.deadline.ru/articles/politics/pribyl/default.asp?).

I think that the actual size of falsification had been even larger. In Russian province, in small national republics like Dagestan there is no problem of writing any figures. It is very funny how Russian "politologists" explain everything. When Yeltsin came to power they've explained that Yeltsin is popular because he has special Russian "spirit" ("charisma"), and even his drinking is the part of that "spirit." People love Yeltsin because he is just like they are. Now politologists explain that people love Putin because he doesn't drink and embodies their ideal of humble but resolute leader. Practically, it means that all totalitarian leaders can be divided into two types: "big" Mussolini, Franko, Yeltsin, Saddam -- and "small" Hitler, Stalin, Putin, Arafat. But such taxonomy is senseless, because it works too good. You cannot think of anyone who will be rejected as a possible tyrant because he doesn't fit into one or another class.