RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Russia returning to the Dark Side?

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev warned Russians on Wednesday of the risk of a rebirth of Stalinism, saying their country was in danger of forgetting its tragic past.

"We should remember those who suffered, because this a lesson for all of us," Gorbachev told a conference marking 70 years since the start of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's Great Terror.

"We must squeeze Stalinism out of ourselves, not in single drops but by the glass or bucket," Gorbachev added. "There are those saying Stalin's rule was the Golden Age, while (Nikita) Khrushchev's thaw was sheer utopia and (Leonid) Brezhnev's neo-Stalinism was the continuation of the Golden Age."

During the Great Terror, 1.7 million Soviet citizens were arrested between August 1937 and November 1938, of whom 818,000 were executed, the human rights group Memorial said.

Historians estimate that up to 13 million people were killed or sent to labor camps in the former Soviet Union between 1921 and 1953, the year Stalin died.

Despite Stalin's record, recent polls have shown many young Russians have a positive view of the former Soviet leader and there have been attempts this year to play down his excesses, which have found an echo among the country's youth.

Fifty-four percent of Russian youth believe that Stalin did more good than bad and half said he was a wise leader, according to a poll conducted in July by the Yuri Levada Centre.

TELEVISION DOCUMENTARY

A prime-time television documentary drama series at the start of this year drew critical fire by attempting to portray Stalin in a new light, as a man with a conscience who sought a relationship with God in his final days.

President Vladimir Putin has never praised Stalin. However, he stirred controversy at a meeting with teachers when he appeared to play down the Great Terror, saying Russia "must not allow others to impose a feeling of guilt on us" and adding that the country had "not had such bleak pages (in history) as was the case with Nazism."

A new history teaching manual partly authored by Putin's chief political strategist Vladislav Surkov and unveiled in June described Stalin as brutal but also "the most successful leader of the USSR."

It gave few details of the Great Terror, instead emphasizing Stalin's achievements in rebuilding the Soviet economy after World War Two and industrializing the country.

"It was namely during his leadership that the country's area was expanded to the borders of the former Russian empire (and sometimes beyond them), victory was gained in the greatest war -- the Great Patriotic War, industrialization was achieved and cultural revolution accomplished," the textbook says.

Gorbachev, praised in the West as a man who ended the Cold War but vilified by many Russians for presiding over the Soviet Union's chaotic collapse, triggered a heated discussion at the conference about the new history manual.

"A massive campaign to revise the collective memory is under way," said Irina Shcherbakova, a Memorial project coordinator. "We plunge them (Russia's younger generation) into half-lies, half-truth, and in the end we get ready-made cynics."

Youth Groups Created by Kremlin Serve Putin’s Cause

• A youth movement’s main role is the ideological cultivation — some say indoctrination — of the first generation to come of age in post-Soviet Russia.

President Vladimir Putin said Monday he would lead the dominant party's ticket in December parliamentary elections and suggested he could become prime minister, the strongest indication yet that he will seek to retain power after he steps down as president early next year.

Putin is barred from seeking a third consecutive term in the March presidential election, but has strongly indicated he would seek to keep a hand on Russia's reins.

He agreed to head the United Russia party's candidate list in December, which could open the door for him to become a powerful prime minister — leading in tandem with a weakened president.

Putin called a proposal that he become prime minister "entirely realistic," but added that it was still "too early to think about it."

He said that, first, United Russia would have to win the Dec. 2 elections and a "decent, competent, modern person" must be elected president.

Putin's agreement to top the candidate list of United Russia sent an ecstatic cheer though the crowd at a congress of the party, which contains many top officials and dominates the parliament and politics nationwide. The move will likely ensure that United Russia retains a two-thirds majority in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, enough to change the constitution.

Leading the party's ticket does not mean Putin will take a seat in parliament; prominent politicians and other figures often are given the top spots to attract votes, but stay out of the legislature after elections. The 450 seats in the Duma will be distributed proportionally among parties that receive at least 7 percent of the votes.

The popular Putin has repeatedly promised to step down at the end of his second term in May, as the constitution requires, but has suggested he would maintain significant influence. He offered some initial hints at his strategy last month when he named Viktor Zubkov — a previously obscure figure known mainly for his loyalty — as prime minister.

With no power base of his own, Zubkov would likely play his preordained part in any Putin plan. If he became presiodent and Putin prime minister, Zubkov could be expected to cede specific powers to Putin or step down to allow him to return to the presidency. If he becomes prime minister, Putin would be first in line to replace the president if he is incapacitated.

Putin has amassed authority as president, but as he prepares to step down he has been setting up a system of check and balances that would weaken his successor by putting him at the mercy of rival centers of power. By leading the United Russia party list, Putin instantaneously creates the strongest such center, with himself as its head.

The move means that Putin's successor "will not be a czar," Kremlin-connected analyst Gleb Pavlovsky said on Ekho Moskvy radio. "There will be a new center of influence outside the Kremlin."

Sounds to me like the Berlin wall might be going back up soon.

Monitors say Russian vote unfair

Foreign observers and Russian opposition groups accused authorities Monday of manipulating a sweeping parliamentary election victory for the party of President Vladimir Putin, who hailed the results as a validation of his leadership.

With ballots from nearly 98 percent of precincts counted, Putin's United Russia party was leading with 64.1 percent of the vote, the Central Election Commission said — which would give it a sweep of 70 percent of seats in parliament.

The only opposition party to make it into parliament, the Communists, trailed with just 11.6 percent of the vote, with Kremlin-allied parties claiming the rest of Sunday's vote.

The Communists, Liberals and foreign observers criticized the vote as unfair. Opposition leader Garry Kasparov, the ex-chess champion, denounced the vote Monday as "the most unfair and dirtiest in the whole history of modern Russia."

But Putin and his allies praised the result as an overwhelming endorsement of his leadership and policies.

"Of course it's a sign of trust," Putin said in televised remarks. "Russians will never allow the nation to take a destructive path, as happened in some other ex-Soviet nations."

The election followed a tense Kremlin campaign that relied in part on persuasion and intimidation to ensure a rout for United Russia and the president, who has used Russia's energy riches in an effort to restore Moscow's influence on the global stage.

Putin is expected to claim the victory gives him the mandate to remain Russia's de facto leader even after he steps down as president in May, as required by the constitution.

It was "not a fair election," said Goran Lennmarker, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The election monitoring arm of the OSCE — regarded in the West as the most authoritative election monitor — did not send observers, saying Russia delayed granting visas for so long that the organization would have been unable to meaningfully assess election preparations.

Luc van den Brande, who headed the delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said Russian authorities exerted the "overwhelming influence of the president's office and the president" on the campaign, skewing its outcome.

In Berlin, government spokesman Thomas Steg said Germany considered Russia's vote neither fair nor free, adding that the country could not be considered a democracy.

The Bush administration and Britain's Foreign Office urged Russian authorities to probe alleged voting irregularities.

"In the run-up to election day, we expressed our concern regarding the use of state administrative resources in support of United Russia, the bias of the state-owned or -influenced media in favor of United Russia, intimidation of political opposition, and the lack of equal opportunity encountered by opposition candidates and parties," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council.

Kimmo Kiljunen, vice president of the OSCE's Parliamentary Assembly, called the elections "strange" and "problematic," citing reports of harassment of parties and confiscation of election materials.

"These elections, from my point of view, were done in a Russian way," he said. "I mean that there was the strange situation that the executive branch almost chose the legislative branch. It is supposed to be the other way round."

Turnout was about 63 percent, up from 56 percent in the last parliamentary elections four years ago.

The Kremlin portrayed the election as a plebiscite on Putin's nearly eight years as president. Putin is widely popular, in part because of Russia's oil-fueled economic boom and his ambition to revive Russia's status as a great power.

United Russia said it will name its presidential candidate at its congress set for Dec. 17 — most likely a figurehead who stands to be overshadowed by Putin.

Putin is constitutionally prohibited from running for a third consecutive term, but he clearly wants to remain in power even though he has ruled out changing the constitution to allow him to run for another term as president.

A movement has sprung up in recent weeks to urge him to become a "national leader," though it's not clear what that would mean.

United Russia's victory would give it 315 seats in Russia's 450-seat State Duma, election officials said. The Communists would have just over 50 seats.

Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov called the election "the most irresponsible and dirty" in the post-Soviet era and party officials vowed to challenge the results.

Two other pro-Kremlin parties — the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party and populist Just Russia — also appeared to have made it into parliament, with 8.2 percent and 7.6 percent of the vote, respectively.

Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB officer and the chief suspect in the London poisoning death of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko last year, will serve as a deputy from the Liberal Democratic Party.

"Now Mr. Putin and Mr. Lugovoi stand together as the emblem of Russia — the two people linked by a murder," Litvinenko's widow, Marina, said in a written statement. Litvinenko in a deathbed statement accused Putin of ordering his killing — which the Kremlin has denied.

No other parties passed the 7 percent threshold for gaining seats in the legislature. Both opposition liberal parties, Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces, were shut out.

Anatoly Chubais, head of Russia's electricity monopoly and a leader of the Union of Right Forces, called the vote a "disgusting" repeat of Soviet practices.

"United Russia is becoming monopolist and restoring a Soviet spirit and Soviet mentality," he said in a statement.

Many voters said they were pressured to cast ballots for United Russia, said Alexander Kynev, a political expert with the election monitoring group Golos. In Pestovo in the western Novgorod region, some said their they ballots already were filled out for United Russia, he said.

In Chechnya, where turnout was over 99 percent, witnesses reported seeing election authorities filling out and casting ballots.

European election monitors criticized changes in Russian election law that restricts voters to choosing only for a party, not candidates, and for making it more difficult for smaller parties to make it into parliament.

In previous elections, half the seats were chosen among candidates contesting a specific district, allowing a few mavericks to get in.

Just hours after Russia elected a new president, the Kremlin sent two strong signals that it doesn't plan to back down from its pull-no-punches foreign policy — a coalition of pro-government youth groups marched on the U.S. Embassy and the state-controlled gas monopoly reduced gas supplies to Western-looking Ukraine.

The decision to squeeze Ukraine and to use street protests to attack American foreign policy may be an early indication that Dmitry Medvedev, the president-elect, intends to continue the course set by his mentor, President Vladimir Putin — who has reasserted his country's power abroad while keeping a tight grip on society at home.

Nearly final results — from 99.45 percent of precincts — showed that the 42-year-old Medvedev had received 70.2 percent of the vote, the head of the elections commission said Monday.

Shortly after almost all the votes were counted, hundreds of young people marched through Moscow toward the U.S. embassy to criticize American policies in Kosovo, Iraq and the Muslim world.

While they toed the Kremlin line, Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, made good on a promise to reduce gas supplies to Ukraine. In addition to serving as first deputy prime minister, Medvedev is chairman of Gazprom.

Russia says the dispute over natural gas with Ukraine is strictly a financial one, a result of the alleged nonpayment by Ukraine for past gas deliveries. But the timing of the cutoff suggests a possible deeper motive: telling the world that despite his purported liberal leanings, Medvedev plans to rule with a firm hand — one perhaps guided by Putin himself.

The last time Russia cut gas supplies to Ukraine was in January 2006 in a move widely seen as punishment for the Orange Revolution that blocked a Kremlin-backed candidate from gaining Ukraine's presidency. Since then, Russia has expressed continuing anger over Ukraine's attempts to join NATO and forge stronger links with the European Union.

Chris Weafer, chief strategist for UralSib investment bank, said Medvedev may have been motivated by the need to appear tough in the face of Russia's dispute with Ukraine over gas payments.

"He found himself in that situation," Weafer said. "He didn't want to be seen as backing down."

Meanwhile, election observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said Monday that unequal access to the media called into question the fairness of the vote.

Andreas Gross, who led the 22-member mission, described Sunday's vote as a "reflection of the will of the electorate whose democratic potential unfortunately has not been tapped."

Two of Medvedev's three challengers alleged there were violations and threatened to challenge the results in court.

The influential Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe refused to send observers, saying restrictions imposed by Russian authorities monitors made it impossible to work in a meaningful way.

The campaign was dominated by Medvedev, the Kremlin's favorite, who refused to debate his rivals or formally campaign but received the bulk of the television coverage. In the end, no one was surprised by the result.

The liberal opposition alliance headed by former chess champion Garry Kasparov planned marches in cities around the country Monday. Riot police have used violence to break up similar marches in the past, and trucks of police were stationed early Monday near the square where the Moscow march was to begin.

The main outstanding question was who would be calling the shots in Russia once Medvedev takes over and, as is widely expected, names Putin prime minister. The outside world will watch closely how the new leadership in Russia, with its immense oil and gas reserves, engages with global rivals and partners at a time of rising commodities prices.

Most Russians expect the mild-mannered Medvedev to follow Putin's lead, at least at first.

In his rhetoric, Medvedev has presented himself as a pro-business liberal and more Western-leaning face to the rest of the world. But he has also helped implement Putin's drive to give the Kremlin a near-monopoly on political power and energy resources.

The teacher-pupil relationship will be tested after Medvedev's inauguration May 7. Medvedev has said he would propose making Putin his prime minister, and Putin has said he will accept the offer. But in Russia, the premier wields significantly less power than the president, and Putin may find his new chair confining.

Gazprom's reduction of gas to Ukraine could be an early signal of Medvedev's foreign policy. Another early sign could come in July at the summit of the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations: If Putin goes alone or accompanies Medvedev, that could signal his reluctance to relinquish control.

Some officials who know the quiet, unassuming Medvedev have said privately that he is tougher than his appearance and demeanor may suggest. Russian history also shows that rulers often like to get rid of those who backed their ascent to power.

Medvedev's election was not a wide-open contest.

Medvedev ran against three rivals apparently permitted on the ballot because of their loyalty to the Kremlin line. But Communist Party candidate Gennady Zyuganov and ultranationalist candidate Vladimir Zhirinovsky still alleged violations after the voting ended.

Zyuganov, Medvedev's nearest challenger with almost 18 percent in the nearly complete results, said he would dispute the result. Zhirinovsky, with 9 percent, threatened to do so as well.

Liberal opposition leaders Kasparov and Mikhail Kasyanov were barred from running after authorities decided they had not met the strict requirements for gaining a spot on the ballot. Voters across Russia say they were being urged, cajoled and pressured to vote in an effort to ensure that Medvedev scored a major victory.

A Russian bomber aircraft approached a U.S. aircraft carrier off the Korean coast on Wednesday and was intercepted by American fighter jets -- the second such incident in less than a month, U.S. defense officials said.

According to the U.S. officials, a Russian bomber came within three to five nautical miles and flew 2,000 feet (610 meters) above the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and its accompanying ships.

Two U.S. F/A-18 fighters were launched to intercept the Russian aircraft and escort it out of the area, according to one defense official.

Russian bombers over the past year have increased their flights near U.S. territory and U.S. naval assets, demonstrating their long-range strike capability.

In February, two Russian bombers approached the Nimitz near Japan and one flew over the carrier, escorted by a U.S. fighter jet. That was the first Russian overflight of a U.S. carrier since 2004.

Those operations come as Russian officials say they will revive some of the military power and reach allowed to collapse with the Soviet Union.

U.S. defense officials on Wednesday said they did not consider the Russian bomber flight a threat or concern.

This week's NATO summit in Romania will be Vladimir Putin's last appearance at a top-level international forum before he steps down as Russian president, still pushing to halt NATO's expansion into the stomping grounds of the former Soviet Union.


The Kremlin realizes it doesn't have the power to force the West to reverse its recognition of Kosovo's independence or persuade Washington to drop its plan to deploy missile defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic.

But Putin has had notable success in blocking NATO membership for its former Soviet neighbors — Ukraine and Georgia.

"Georgia's accession into NATO will be seen here as an attempt to trigger a war in the Caucasus, and NATO membership for Ukraine will be interpreted as an effort to foment a conflict with Russia," said Sergei Markov, a Russian parliament member with close links to the Kremlin.

Amid a litany of such threats from Moscow, some NATO members are reluctant to inflame tensions at the three-day summit that begins Wednesday in Bucharest.

On Monday, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said admitting the two countries to NATO was "not a matter of whether, but when." However, he said the launch of the membership process might be delayed at this week's gathering.

NATO decisions are made by consensus, and there is no hiding the divisions over whether to put Ukraine and Georgia formally on the road to membership. While Washington and new NATO members in central and eastern Europe strongly support it, Germany and some European partners are opposed.

Last week diplomats at NATO headquarters, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the summit would likely produce a statement of support for the Ukrainian and Georgian bids and an offer of increased cooperation, but no more than that.

"Many alliance members would prefer to avoid a move which would badly damage relations with Russia," said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the magazine Russia in Global Affairs.

The fact that Putin is attending the summit of former Cold War enemies is a powerful image of a world transformed. He is not going to sit in on the discussions, but to join the alliance leaders for brief talks about Russia-NATO relations on the last day, assuming it is clear by then that the Ukrainian and Georgian membership bids have been shelved.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Kremlin has watched in frustration as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has spread to Russia's borders by taking in three former Soviet republics and six former satellite countries.

For both historical and strategic reasons, membership for Ukraine and Georgia provoke the strongest resistance.

Putin has responded to Western policies by resuming strategic bomber patrols, sending a naval squadron into the Mediterranean in the most ambitious deployment since the Cold War, and warning that Russia might point its nuclear missiles at Ukraine if it joins NATO and hosts a missile defense system.

Ukraine is deeply divided, with its western regions backing NATO membership and the Russian-speaking east and south fiercely opposing it.

"We aren't going to just sit down and watch our people being dragged into NATO like slaves," said Markov, the Russian legislator.

Georgia's bid, meanwhile, is undermined by unresolved conflicts in two breakaway provinces, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Moscow has developed close ties with both, and Russia's Kremlin-controlled parliament has called for "speeding up" sovereignty for the secessionists if Georgia's NATO bid goes forward.

"If Georgia joins NATO, Abkhazia and South Ossetia will come to Russia's doorstep, pleading to save them from NATO," said Alexander Konovalov, head of the Moscow-based Institute for Strategic Assessment. "Russia will be forced to recognize their independence, even though it doesn't want to do so."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov left Russia's tactical position unclear Monday. "We cannot ignore the opinion of the parliament" on the separatist regions, he said, but "President Putin has stated numerous times that he stands for the territorial integrity of Georgia."

The Kremlin's defiance is encouraged by eight years of Russia's oil-driven economic boom that filled government coffers with petrodollars.

Putin says newly elected President Dmitry Medvedev, whom he will serve as prime minister, will be no less firm about defending Russia's national interests. Medvedev spoke strongly against NATO's expansion to Russia's borders in a recent interview.

Viktor Kremenyuk, deputy head of the USA and Canada Institute, a Moscow-based think tank, said that if NATO keeps its hands off Georgia and Ukraine, Putin will likely be more cooperative in his last five weeks as president and offer to boost cooperation with the alliance.

There are also hopes for easing the dispute over missile defense.

U.S. officials have proposed allowing Moscow to closely monitor the prospective missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, and after the summit Bush will visit Putin at his Black Sea residence in Sochi in hopes of resolving the dispute.

But Lukyanov doubts Russia will give ground until the Bush administration is gone.

Russia has accused the British Embassy's top trade official in Moscow of espionage, the British Foreign Office confirmed Friday.

The accusation appears likely to worsen Russian-British relations, already strained in part by the continuing fight for control at the TNK-BP oil company, which is jointly owned by the British company and Russian billionaires.

The Interfax news agency, citing a source in Russia's secret services, reported Thursday that the head of the embassy's trade and investment section, Christopher Bowers, was believed to be a senior British intelligence officer.

The British Foreign Office said the accused diplomat was acting head of U.K. Trade and Investment at the embassy and confirmed his name was Chris Bowers.

The former top trade official, Andrew Levi, was one of four British Embassy officials expelled from Moscow last summer.

The expulsions were retaliation for Britain's expulsion of four Russian diplomats after Russia refused to hand over the main suspect in the 2006 poisoning death of Kremlin critic and former Federal Security Service officer Alexander Litvinenko in London.

The new espionage accusation followed a report Monday by the BBC suggesting Russian government involvement in the killing of Litvinenko.

The Federal Security Service and Foreign Ministry both refused to comment Friday.

Russia's constitution will be amended by year's end to extend the presidential term to six years, lawmakers promised Thursday — a move that could pave the way for Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin.

It would be the first change to the Russian constitution since its adoption in 1993. A six-year term could mean 12 more years as president for Putin — the current prime minister — who has not ruled out getting his old job back.

President Dmitry Medvedev, a Putin protege, had suggested raising the term from four years to six Wednesday in his first state of the nation address.

The respected business daily Vedomosti quoted an unnamed Kremlin official as saying Medvedev may even step down as early as next year to get Putin back at the helm.

"Under this scenario, Medvedev could resign early, citing changes to the constitution, and then presidential elections could take place in 2009," the paper said.

Spokesmen for Putin and Medvedev could not be reached Thursday. Vedomosti reported that Putin's spokesman denied that the term extension was designed was linked to Putin's return.

Work on the amendments has already begun in the State Duma, parliament's lower house, speaker Boris Gryzlov said Thursday.

As Russia's president for eight years, Putin had declined to amend the constitution to allow himself a third consecutive term or to extend the length of his term. Vedomosti said this unpopular task may have been given to Medvedev, a former law professor who professes deep respect for the law.

Regardless of his title, Putin has continued to wield significant power in Russia since leaving the Kremlin in May.

A constitutional amendment would require a two-thirds majority in the State Duma, the lower house, where pro-Kremlin parties dominate. It would then need to be approved by two-thirds of Russia's regional legislatures, which also would not be expected to pose any difficulties for the Kremlin.

While supporters in parliament said there was nothing undemocratic about a six-year presidential term, opposition leader Boris Nemtsov called the plan "extremely dangerous."

"It is directed at the perpetuation of Putinism," Nemtsov said at a news conference, defining Putinism as "corruption, inflation and international isolation."

Former chess champion Garry Kasparov, a prominent anti-Kremlin activist, said the move was a sign the Kremlin was afraid of Russia's increasingly emboldened opposition movement.

Russian rights activists say that a new law drafted by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's Cabinet would allow authorities to label any government critic a traitor.

The draft extends the definition of treason from breaching Russia's external security to damage to the nation's constitutional order, sovereignty or territorial integrity.

A group of prominent rights activists, including head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alexeyeva and head of Civic Assistance Svetlana Gannushkina, said in a statement Wednesday that passage of the bill would return the nation's justice system to the times of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's purges.

The government systematically rolled back Russia's post-Soviet political freedoms during Putin's eight-year presidential tenure.

In some of his strongest criticism of his successors, Mikhail Gorbachev on Thursday likened Vladimir Putin's United Russia party to the worst of the communists he once led and helped bring down, and said Russia is today a country where the parliament and the judiciary are not fully free.