A Russian Diary Read Online Free PDF Page A

civil society, yet they chose to say that the Russian Army was being reborn in Chechnya, and that anybody who thought otherwise was a traitor who was stabbing the Russian troops in the back.”
    “So who else could Yabloko now unite with against the war in Chechnya?”
    “Now? I don't know. If the Union of Right Forces were to admit thatthey had been wrong, we could discuss the possibility of an alliance with them. But while Nemtsov is pretending to be a dove of peace and Chubais* is talking about the liberal ideal, you'll have to forgive me, I'm not prepared to discuss that possibility. Whom else we could unite with I don't know.”
    “But it was not the Union of Right Forces who began the second Chechen war.”
    “No, it was Putin, but they supported him as a candidate for the presidency and, incidentally, legitimized him as a war leader in the eyes of the intelligentsia and the entire middle class.”
    “You are at daggers drawn with the Union of Right Forces. You don't want an alliance with them, but you have embarked on a number of compromises with the president and his administration in order to obtain some degree of administrative support for your campaign. As I understand it, and there have been many rumors to this effect, the war in Chechnya is precisely the compromise in question. You have agreed not to make too much noise about the Chechen issue, and in return you have been guaranteed the necessary percentage of votes to get you into the Duma.”
    “Don't rely on rumors. That is a completely wrong approach. There are rumors about your own newspaper too. No other paper is allowed to write about Chechnya, but you are not shut down for doing so. The rumor is that they give you that leeway so they can go to Strasbourg and wave your newspaper about to show what a free press we have. See what is being written about Chechnya in Novaya Gazeta! I don't suppose for a moment that is really the way things are…”
    “All the same, please give a straight answer.”
    “I never struck any such deal or agreed to any such compromise. It is out of the question.”
    “But you did have talks with the administration?”
    “No, never. They talked about giving us money, back in September 1999.”
    “Where was that money coming from?”
    “We didn't get down to that kind of detail, because I said it was unacceptable. I said I was not against Putin—I had only just set eyes on theman—but to say I would endorse everything he was going to do six months in advance was impossible. I was told, ‘Then in that case we cannot reach agreement with you, either.’ Later, after the elections, when the leaders of the parties were invited to the Kremlin and seated in accordance with their percentage of the vote, one of the most highly placed officials in the land said, ‘And you could have been sitting here…’ I replied, ‘Well, that's just the way it is.’ This time they didn't even offer.”
    “When did you last speak to Putin?”
    “On July 11, about the Khodorkovsky affair and the searches at Yukos.”
    “At your request?”
    “Yes. They assembled the entire State Council and the leaders of the political parties at the Kremlin to discuss economic programs, etc. The meeting ended at half past ten at night and I told Putin I needed to talk to him urgently. At half past eleven I met him at his home. We discussed various problems, but the main one was Khodorkovsky.”
    “Did you realize that Khodorkovsky would be imprisoned?”
    “There was no knowing that in advance, but it was clear that the affair was being taken very seriously. I realized something bad would happen to Khodorkovsky when the Financial Times in London published an enormous article with photographs of Khodorkovsky, Mikhail Fridman,* and Roman Abramovich, under a very large headline, which they don't usually do. The story was to the effect that those oligarchs were transferring their wealth to the West and preparing to sell everything here. There were quotes