Johnson's Russia List #4127 23 February 2000 The West Must Reexamine Its Policy Toward the Kremlin Signed: Elena Bonner, human-rights activist and widow of Andrei Sakharov; L. Batkin, LLD; Yuri Burtin, writer; Yuri Samodurov, director of the Saxharov Foundation; Vadim Belotserkovsky, writer; A. Piontkovsky, director of the RAN center for strategic research; Sergei Grigoryants, chairman of the board of the Glasnost Fund. The great paradox of recent Russian history is that while the West has applauded the democratic and market reforms of the various Yeltsin governments, under the cover of and as a result of these reforms, Russia is suffering from the establishment of a modernized form of Stalinism. Under Stalin, approximately a third of the population worked for either nothing or for symbolic wages. Now, two thirds do. The state of medical service for 80% of the population is today worse than it was during the Stalin era. More than a million people are imprisoned under the most appalling conditions, and one third of them sit there for two or three years awaiting trial. Under Stalin, about 20 million people were shot or perished in labor camps, in exile or from starvation over a period of 25 years. Today, because of the dreadful living conditions, the population is shrinking by one million people a year. Add to that the victims of the two Chechen wars. Plus the Mafia terror throughout the country. Yet today, all the citizens of the country are free people and may even freely go abroad. Modernization! Under Stalin, there was no free press and there were no free elections. Today, there are. But the rise in prices for magazines and newspapers combined with the impoverishment of the populations has resulted in a 40% drop in the circulation of periodicals, and an average ratio of 20 people to one copy of a newspaper or magazine. In addition, almost all the newspapers and television are under the control of oligarchs in league with the state authorities, which ensures a censor-like guidance of the means of mass communication for the benefit of the authorities. Elections in such conditions are a farce. The mass media pour filth upon all serious opponents of the Kremlin and almost prevent them from being heard. Vote counts are routinely falsified. In the Soviet era, there were at least real elections of new officials to the Central Committee and Politburo of the Communist Party, whose members were political figures representing various agencies or branches of the government. Under Yeltsin, the real election of leaders occured within the President’s inner “Famil.” As a result of such elections, the world now sees Vladimir Putin, a colonel of the KGB and Federal Security Forces and a new variant of the all-powerful Presidential bodyguard, (Valery?) Korzhakov. Under Putin we see a new stage in the introduction of modernized Stalinism. Authoritarianism is growing harsher, society is being militarized, the military budget is increasing, “special detachments” of the security services are being re-established in military units, military education is being introduced into the schools, reserve officers are being trained and students are being drafted. Nationalist and anti-western propaganda is increasing. Such hostility toward the West both in the mass media and among the population did not even exist in the Soviet era. The security agencies are gaining influence. They flamboyantly stress their kinship with the former “agencies,” and celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Cheka—KGB-FSS. Putin personally laid a wreath on the grave of the odious KGB boss Yuri Andropov, a participant in the bloody suppression of the 1956 Hungarian uprising and the originator of the practice of confining dissidents in psychiatric prisons. The mass media portray civil rights organizations as unpatriotic, defeatist (in regard to the Chechen conflict), and operating in the interests of the West for Western money. Three fourths of the civil rights organizations have been stripped of the right to conduct legal activity. In many regions of the country, the legal authorities and the courts have stripped the natioinal minorities — Germans, Jews, Armenians, Koreans, etc. — of their legal standing and their social organizations. The assault on freedom of the press has become vicious. The case of the Radio Liberty reporter Andrei Babitsky illuminates the unparalled amorality of the Russian authorities, their intolerance of free speech and their cynical contempt. So far, the West’s policy towards Russia bas been aimed at supporting the Boris Yeltsin regime as a “guarantee of stability.” This support has been granted despite the anti-democratic and criminal actions of his administration, from the constitutional coup in 1993 to the Chechen war of 1994-96. As a result, Russia has become an increasingly unstable country with an increasingly anti-Western orientation. Now, the same policy is beginning with regard to Putin. For example, the decision of the (European Parliament?) merely to postpone granting Russia membership until April facilitates the continuation of genocide in in Chechna and increases Putin’s prestige. Such a policy not only encourages the anti-democratic and inhumane activities of the Russian authorities but, even worse, demoralizes Russian society. Despite everything, the West still enjoys prestige among a great many Russians and unprincipled connivance with Russian leaders on the part of Western governments weakens the resistance of the democratic public in Russia. We fear that under the present government, our country can expect, in the foreseeable future, shattering upheavals that could impact surrounding countries as well. And we appeal to the governments and public of the West to re-examine their attitude toward the Kremlin leadership, to cease conniving in its barbaric actions, its dismantlement of democracy and suppression ofhuman rights. Specifically, we expect support from the democratic world for: ——our efforts to stop the war in Chechnya ——restoration of freedom of the press and the activity of civil rights and national-minority organizations. Such a shift in policy toward the Kremlin by itself could increase the odds that Russia will some day become a safe and stable country, safe for other people and safe for its own population. ********