Limonov vs. Putin Read online

  In contrary to Yeltsin’s times of banal embezzlement, Putin, by putting trusted people on key businesses, has made the power to become a business. It privatized key branches of the economy for itself: oil, gas, transport, and nuclear energy. In other words basic branches that bring the main profits into the budget. The new oligarchs, leaders of the president’s administration, have a consolidated budget and one boss – the president (since the assignment of posts is in his power).

  The new oligarchs are fantastically rich. “The gross profit of the companies controlled by the Administration in 2003 was about 45 billion dollars. In 2004 it was 89,828 billion dollars,” Novaya Gazeta writes in issue 8 for 2005. In 2005 Gazprom acquired Sibneft, which by the end of the year will give a minimal increase of the total profit of 8,9 billion dollars. Obviously Rosneft, which obtained Yuganskneftegaz, will also improve its indicators. If to this wealth we add the fact that it is the president’s administration that establishes the tariffs on the production of the natural resources sector, then they have unlimited possibilities for enrichment. The RF government becomes an increasingly technical body that serves the Administration.

  After it took over the financial power, the president’s Administration did not reject the political power. Moreover, it is not only the president who formulates the State’s policy but the gentlemen from the president’s Administration. On September 29th 2004 Komsomolskaya Pravda published an interview with the deputy head of the president’s Administration Vladislav Surkov, entitled “Putin strengthens the State and not himself”, which is the Kremlin’s program document. In essence it is not an interview; it is known that this text was proposed by the president’s Administration first in other national newspapers, however one or two publications demanded to add at least a couple live questions to the text and were answered a firm “no”. So they put the text in Komsomolskaya Pravda, which, apparently, does not ask questions to the president’s Administration.

  In the text “Putin strengthens…” Surkov is mostly justifying himself. For Beslan: “Question: – In the days of Beslan’s tragedy again we heard calls to negotiate with the terrorists… The answer: – Yes, like someone gave a signal to them… Maybe I missed something but all these years I never had the chance to hear clear proposals to regulate the crisis. Everything the power does is declared wrong. But what is right? Negotiations? Go ahead! About what? With whom? What are the negotiation positions? What has to be the result? I don’t hear you!”

  This is a lie, naturally. As we already know clear demands were made: stop the war and withdraw the troops. The result had to be the saving of all the hostages and if it appeared impossible the result could have been insignificant losses among the hostages. But never 331 killed and 580 wounded by the RF army children and women.

  Surkov is justifying himself about the appointment of governors: “Question: – Could you explain how the new order of electing governors and deputies of the State Duma can help in the fight against terrorism? The answer: – The principal task of the interventionists is the destruction of the Russian Statehood. In the face of such a threat the president was simply obliged to realize the constitutional principle of unity of the executive power. The unity of power is the necessary condition of the nation’s unity. Of course, the elections of the regions’ leaders by legislative assemblies by the president’s presentation will not guarantee a victory over the enemy by themselves. But they will significantly increase the resistance reserve of our political system, adapt the State mechanism to the extreme conditions of an undeclared war,” – and so forth. And this is a lie too. Acts of terrorism on the RF territory are made by Chechen fighters-wreckers. Their goal is to stop the war, to get the withdrawal of Russian troops. Naturally, with his policy of repressing Islam in the Caucasus the president has outraged other Caucasus’ regions, but the war in Chechnya, going on for eleven years now (!) is the only reason of the acts of terrorism in Russian cities.

  Another justification: Question: – And still there is an opinion that Putin used Beslan’s events to strengthen his personal power and to cut back on democracy. In what measure are the fears expressed by some Russian and foreign politicians on this issue are founded? Answer: – The Western politicians have to know that Russia is the only federation in the world whose subjects can have the status of national republics. I think the people in Washington would understand us better if, for instance, the African-American republic or the Spanish-Jewish Autonomous region were part of the USA. Our country is unique and demands a corresponding system of government.”

  Here again there is a justification and a lie. Nobody forces the Russian Federation to have national autonomous republics or regions. Tomorrow we can rename then into districts. And multinationalism is common to the USA, to India and to the majority of the countries on the planet. Surkov’s task is to justify the absolutism and the brutality of Putin’s group.

  This is the reason of all these complaints: our country is unique therefore we will act like the murderers of our own citizens whenever we want. Further in this interview Surkov explains and justifies the creation of the Public Chamber, this double of the State Duma, makes justifications directed at the ears of the opponents and the doubtful: “Skeptics affirm that the parliament has to fulfill all these functions. Yes, it has and it does. Only on its manner. Parliamentarism’s birth trauma is to look back on the elections, past and future. Parliamentary discussions are always and everywhere more or less tainted with populism. And with our rather low level of political culture they often turn into a farce. The experts of the Public Chamber will depend far less from the political conjuncture…” Here in Surkov’s words there is apparently also a disappointment in the State Duma deputies of 2003. They spend a long time sorting them out, but they still did not satisfy the expectations of the Administration. They vote obediently but apparently Surkov does not like them either esthetically or because they plan to be reelected for the next term and are not only squinting at the Kremlin but at the elector as well, which is naturally an unforgivable freethinking.

  In conclusion Surkov shows the internal enemy: “Question: – Aren’t you afraid that the skeptics from the public and political activists you mentioned will refuse to cooperate with the power in the frames of the Public Chamber and beyond it? Answer: – The refusal to participate in a joint work is also a position. … Although, of course, there are people who are lost forever for partnership. Practically a fifth column of left wing and right wing radicals has appeared in the besieged country. Lemons and apples are now growing on the same branch. The fake liberals and the real Nazis have more and more in common. Common sponsors from abroad. Common hate. As they say, hate to Putin’s Russia. But in reality it is hate to Russia as such. Dostoevsky was writing about such people. And today all these Smerdyakovs and Lyamshins are having a good time in all sorts of committees waiting the eighth year when they preach the need to defeat their own country in the war with terrorism. God be their judge. We will do without them.

  Also Vladislav Yurievich Surkov conjures the readers of Komsomolskaya Pravda: “We all have to realize that the enemy is at the gates. The front passes through every city, every street, and every house. We need vigilance, solidarity, mutual aid and union of efforts of the citizens and the State”…

  While Vladislav Yurievich was lying in raptures on September 29th, just now on August 2nd the State Duma adopted the law about the monetization of benefits. What solidarity, what mutual aid is this?

  THE CREATION OF THE NASHI CRIMINAL ASSOCIATION

  39 nazbols could not accuse Putin of creating a criminal association. 39 nazbols were already in prison when the State criminal association Nashi was created. Putin has met the Nashi and thus encouraged the thugs with his authority; gave them his permission. How did it happen? Surkov’s program interview appeared, I remind, in Komsomolskaya Pravda on September 29th 2004. And on August 2nd the portrait of president Vladimir Putin was flying out of the window of minister Zurabov’s office, taken in flight by
TV and photo cameras, both Russian and foreign ones. Maxim Gromov, a National-Bolshevik, is now paying for this portrait by his uninterrupted presence in the punitive isolation ward of a prison near Ufa. And the power made its conclusions, counted the “lemons” and some “apples” as its enemies, its own enemies of course, but since it is megalomaniac, they are Russia’s enemies too. In response to the action of half a hundred nazbols who “made a run” over the Health ministry they have put forward the concept “kill the enemy!” in that article – “Putin strengthens the State and not himself” in fall. And although the definition of the enemies was pattered out, as it was not important, the public understood everything; they all got it.

  If the National-Bolsheviks were afraid and had disappeared, melted into the background, the Nashi would not exist. But the National-Bolsheviks were not scared, and on December 14th they “made a run” over the reception room of the president’s administration, forty of them. They had to be arrested although they only demanded to meet Putin and were ready to meet him with his advisers, with Illarionov even.

  It is then, in the last days of December and the beginning of January, when the commoner is buying up everything he needs to meet the New Year, that the project of creating the anti-NBP-organization Nashi was born in the Kremlin, in Vladislav Yurievich Surkov’s head. In other words, apparently everything was like in the series of jokes of the writer Kononenko: “One day in the beginning of August Vladimir Vladimirovich was examining the fresh newspapers and journals. And in most of them he saw his own portrait, thrown out of a window. Vladimir Vladimirovich composed the number of his Administration’s head, Vladislav Yurievich Surkov:

  – Did you see the portraits? – Vladimir Vladimirovich sternly asked.

  – I did, – Vladislav Yurievich sternly answered.

  – So what are we gonna do, bro?

  – We’ll create the Nashi organization, – Vladislav Yurievich sternly said.

  – Who are these Nashi?

  – Oh, some scum, hoodlums. RUBOP will teach them how to beat up the Limonovists and Yakemenko will head them. These days he keeps wasting his time; he fights with Rosental near the Bolshoy Theater.

  So they did as they said, they started the project.

  But this isn’t how it really was. One day in December Vladimir Vladimirovich was sitting in his Kremlin’s office and was bored as usual. The phone rang. The voice of the deputy head of the Administration Vladislav Yurievich Surkov said:

  – Listen, bro, there’s some Limonovists in the reception room of your Administration; they’re waiting for you.

  – Really? – Vladimir Vladimirovich was surprised, – And how many are they?

  – Forty, one is not even fifteen years old. They demand your dismissal; they say that you don’t have the talent to rule a country. What are we gonna do?

  – I have to think, bro, - Vladimir Vladimirovich thoughtfully said.

  – And while you’re thinking, what am I gonna do with them? – Vladislav Yurievich asked.

  Vladimir Vladimirovich remained silent.

  – I understand that it’s hard for you, – Vladislav Yurievich said.

  – Here is what I propose. Let’s send them to different prisons; we will judge them for an attempt to capture the power and meanwhile we will create the Nashi organization.

  – Who are these Nashi? - Vladimir Vladimirovich asked.

  – Oh, some scum, hoodlums. RUBOP will teach them how to beat up the Limonovists and Yakemenko will head them. These days he keeps wasting his time; he fights with Rosental near the Bolshoy Theater. Agree?

  – All right, - Vladimir Vladimirovich sighed, – we’ll do like you said. These Limonovists have really gotten out of hand. One day they drop a portrait; the other they capture a reception room… And Vladimir Vladimirovich put down the Kremlin phone.”

  Despite the anecdotal character of the version of the Nashi organization’s creation, I suppose that this is how it was, in this spirit. Russia was informed about the Nashi organization for the first time by Kommersant on 02.21.05, by Peterburgskie Novosti on 02.21.05. and by Moskovski Komsomoletz on February 24th in the article “The hyperboloid of engineer Yakemenko”. Further I will linger in detail about these articles and will cite them. Now I want to say that the first actions of the Nashi organization have already taken place on January 29th and February 12th, they were directed against the National-Bolsheviks and were openly criminal actions. The students will join later, but the thugs were already formed into a military wing already in January. On January 29th was made the first attack on the office of the General Line newspaper situated on Maria Ulianova Street, 17, 1, Moscow. The NBP central office was situated at the same address then. There were about forty attackers; they arrived in cars and a microbus and were armed with baseball bats. In the result of skillful actions the nazbols were able to block five attackers and give them to the police. There were five injured among the nazbols.

  The second attack was made in a subway wagon where about ten nazbols with CPRF members were returning from a meeting on February 12th. A crowd of thugs broke into the wagon and started to beat up the nazbols. Two attackers were arrested. There were two injured among the nazbols.

  On March 5th another attack was made on the General Line office, which was also the NBP office. The attackers managed to capture the office with the exception of some rooms. A TV camera of the ORT channel “accidentally happened to be” there and the attackers were giving interviews from the NBP office, feeling they were totally safe. The police had to arrest nine of them. There were nine injured nazbols; Yakov Gorbunov, veteran of the war in Chechnya was particularly severely injured.

  And finally on August 29th the same numbers of a few dozens of people arrived in a bus and attacked the National-Bolsheviks who were having a meeting in the CPRF municipal committee on Avtozavodskaya Street. Armed with baseball bats, fire crackers and traumatic weapons, hiding their faces behind masks and wearing white construction gloves the thugs attacked seven nazbols who were guarding the entrance. Five nazbols were hospitalized. Thanks to the vigilance of a police officer the bus with the attackers was arrested. 25 people were protocoled by the police.

  Here I will cite the declaration made by the injured National-Bolsheviks and given to the Prosecutor General right after the third attack in March 2005.

  “Declaration about the opening of a criminal case. The production of the investigation department of Moscow’s Lomonosovksy police station has two criminal cases on the facts of an attack on the office of the joint-stock company Honest Businessmen, the office of the General Line newspaper published by the inter-regional public association “National-Bolshevik Party” (NBP) and NBP members situated on Maria Ulianova Street, 17, 1, Moscow. We are the victims in these cases.

  1. Attack (01.29.05.) Criminal case 39068, opened on 01.29.05. on part 2 article 213 of the RF Criminal Code (under investigation, investigator G. A. Fomicheva), the victims (names follow).

  2 . Attack (03.05.05.) Criminal case 39194, opened on 03.15.05. on part 2 article 167 and part 2 article 213 of the RF Criminal Code (under investigation, investigator Y. B. Delivron), the victims: NBP members (names follow).

  In both cases the attackers belonged to a single organized group, they acted according to a single plan, they were similarly armed with baseball bats, they were equipped with means of communication, they used automobile transportation and pursued the same goals of capturing the office of the General Line newspaper published by the NBP, taking NBP members in hostages and discrediting the NBP as a political public organization.

  Besides, Moscow’s police investigation department is investigating the criminal case 118177, opened on 02.12.05. on part 2 article 213 of the RF Criminal Code about an attack on the participants of a united meeting of the NBP and CPRF that occurred right after the end of that activity (investigated by D. A. Chepasov), the victims: NBP member (name) and CPRF member (name).

  The same individuals are under accusation in the criminal case
s 39068 and 118177 (names).

  On March 1st 2005 the Internet site http://www.kreml.org/news/80171044 published a statement made by the leader of the Walking Together public movement Vasily Yakemenko about the creation of “the Nashi antifascist youth movement” whose mission is to prevent the activities of “the political youth corrupter Limonov and his wannabe nazis” This statement was spread by the Interfax news agency.

  Based on the information above we ask you to verify if these facts contain criminal actions on the part of the defendants as stipulated by article 282 part 1 of the RF Criminal Code (the organization of a criminal association).

  Signatures (eleven victims in total).”

  In the beginning of November 2005 all the four criminal cases were united into one (and the investigation is coming to its end) in the Main investigation department of Moscow’s Prosecutor General’s office. We hope that the case will finally reach the court, although it is clear that many forces would not like a trial to happen.

  But let us return to February 2005. On February 21st Kommersant writes in the article “Plain fascism”: “The Kremlin prepares a new youth project to replace the Walking together pro-Putin movement. The organization doesn’t have a name yet, but the functionaries call it Nashi between themselves. Departments of the movement have to be created in all Russia’s big cities under the direct patronage of Kremlin’s administration. The deputy head of the president’s Administration Vladislav Surkov met Saint Petersburg’s Nashi members last Thursday and promised to create a new political force based on the movement and that, by 2008, will possibly become the new party in power. The meeting was not publicized anywhere. As Kommersant managed to learn, the meeting took place in a normal rented apartment reequipped as headquarters. Over two hours Surkov talked with 35-40 young men who were entrusted with the role of the new movement’s “commissars”. Vasily Yakemenko, the ideologist of the Walking Together has also taken part in the meeting. … The organizers are planning to reach a membership of 200-250 thousand people. … Concerning the new project, Yakemenko first appeared in Saint Petersburg in the middle of January and in a few weeks he succeeded in ‘recruiting’ a few dozens of people. Preference is given to young people aged 18-22, mainly students. Already now the signs of a clear internal organization appear in the movement. Thus, all the members are divided by sectors: some will hold mass actions; other will do the analysis and the journalistic work. The ‘combat sector’ was also foreseen, on its base they plan to create the ‘youth forces of order’. In the beginning of February in a hotel near the city the first conference was held, where the future ‘commissars’ underwent testing, participated in geopolitics seminars and psychological training. Subsequently they were promised summer camps and from September 1st - a certain Leadership Institute. … Yakemenko demonstrated Kremlin’s support to his supporters on the same meeting, on which Vladislav Surkov arrived to everybody’s surprise accompanied by only one guard. In the conversation that lasted for over two hours he mainly spoke about the general situation in the country, international and domestic politics, Russia’s history in the 1990s. Surkov made a special emphasize on the fact that the participants of the movement need ‘to go till the end’. Surkov who largely used citations from classical authors in his speech made an impression on the youth, as the participants confessed. After they have negatively spoken about all the existing parties (not only the SPS and Yabloko but also Rodina and United Russia were criticized), Surkov and Yakemenko said that by 2008 a new party will be possibly created on the base of the Nashi and it will have the task of replacing the party in power.” The text of the article in Saint Petersburg’s newspaper coincides with the Kommersant publication, so there is no need to cite it.