EDITORIAL: Putin the "silovik" (11/09/03)

EDITORIAL

Putin the "silovik"

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been in the headlines of late, but the news hasn't been good. The most recent articles have focused on Mr. Putin and his band of "siloviki" (from the Russian word for power: "sila"), former KGB and military men, who, according to all indications, are now running Russia. Foremost in the news has been the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, which has elicited appropriate worldwide reaction questioning Russia's justice system. Russian leaders are spinning the case as no different from American investigations into Enron, but a group of well-known human rights activists (among them Yelena Bonner and Vladimir Bukovsky) has said that the imprisoned Yukos CEO is in fact a political prisoner as the criminal case directed against him was politically motivated. Meanwhile, RFE/RL reported that Mr. Khodorkovsky "is not only being punished for economic crimes but for violating a tacit understanding between the Kremlin and the oligarchs" whereby the oligarchs get to run their lucrative businesses - many of them obtained under less than, shall we say, transparent circumstances - but refrain from interference in politics.

But the Khodorkovsky affair is just the latest sign that the Russian president is returning to Soviet-style control and that in today's Russia all power is Mr. Putin's.

Let's not forget Mr. Putin's tight leash on the news media. Nick Paton Walsh of The Guardian (United Kingdom) noted in an October 6 article headlined "Back in the USSR" that "since [Mr. Putin] rose to power, the majority of newspapers have become state-owned, or -controlled, or have been closed, as have all independent TV channels; political reporting is effectively outlawed during election campaigns; and journalists have been jailed for libel and espionage."

Nor is the fate of Chechnya under Mr. Putin's strongman rule to be forgotten. Russia's brutal acts in Chechnya were presented to the world as Russia's own just battle against terrorism, akin to President George W. Bush's war against al Qaeda. Unfortunately, some quarters bought this line of reasoning, while others chose to remain silent for the sake of the fragile alliance against "evil-doers" such as Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

Then there's a case closer to home, or should we say the homeland, i.e. Ukraine. Russia's attempt to grab the tiny island of Tuzla in the Kerch Strait from Ukraine might seem curiously funny to some quarters in the United States who understand neither geography nor foreign affairs, however Russian attempt to seize the strategic islet is proof of something deeper: a sinister Russian foreign policy. In fact, Russia's leaders would not even refer to the country's policy toward Ukraine as foreign. After all, Russia considers Ukraine and other formerly Soviet-dominated states to be part of what it likes to call "the near abroad," territory that still lies within the Russian sphere of influence, nay, even control. Mr. Putin at first found it convenient to ignore Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma's request for information regarding Russia's intentions. Then members of Mr. Putin's circle began to question whether Tuzla was really Ukrainian territory. The matter has yet to be resolved as a meeting between the prime ministers of Ukraine and Russia yielded two very different interpretations about the facts related to Tuzla and what was agreed to.

All of the foregoing flies in the face of President Bush's oft-cited pronouncement two years ago that he had looked his Russian counterpart in the eye, peered into his soul and found him to be "straightforward and trustworthy."

It is Mr. Putin's actions, we underscore, that reveal his true character. And Mr. Putin's Soviet-style tactics cannot be accepted.

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