Today marks a milestone in Russia’s ambivalent transition from totalitarianism to democracy. And, alas, it does not bode well for the Russian democratic reformers in whom so many Western companies and governments invested their fortunes and political goodwill. Because Russian President Vladimir Putin (himself a former KGB agent) has effectively resurrected one of the most feared tools of repression in the old Soviet Union: the use of KGB agents to arrest and toss into the gulag anyone suspected of opposing Communist rule or dissenting from the Party line.
Indeed, as if to dramatize his zero tolerance of dissent, it seems Putin decided to make an example of the richest man in Russia (who, not insignificantly, is also a Jew). Therefore, on one day in October 2003, Mikhail Khodorkovsky went from running one of Russia’s most profitable companies and funding democratic reformers to being arrested and thrown in prison on charges of fraud and tax evasion. And, thus began an ordeal that ended today with
a prison sentence of 9 years (presumably to be served in the infamous Russian Gulag Archipelago). Nevertheless, it is important to appreciate that Khodorkovsky is merely road kill on the seemingly inexorable march towards the Putinization of Russia. After all, Putin has declared, unabashedly, his regret at the loss of the authoritarian powers that held Russia and the satellite states of the Soviet Union together for almost 50 years. And, he seems determined to reclaim those powers by consolidating absolute control within Russia and seeking to influence the internal affairs of those former states as much as possible.
Meanwhile, when asked in
today’s press conference at the White House about Khodorkovsky’s fate and Putin’s return to the Cold War methods of governance, President Bush muttered plaintively that:Here, you’re innocent until proven guilty and it appeared to us, at least people in my administration that it looked like he had been ajudged (sic) guilty prior to having a fair trial….We’re watching the ongoing case….But I told President Putin in private meetings we had recently that good relations with the US depended on his implementing the democratic reforms he assured the world would be forthcoming in Russia.
Yet, Khodorkovsky’s imprisonment is significant for the chilling effect it is likely to have on the formation of democratic opposition to Putin’s absolute rule (which, incidentally, makes the recent announcement by world chess champion Gary Gasparov that he intends to retire immediately
to organize political opposition to Putin seem daring, if not suicidal.) But his incarceration is also significant because it vitiates any goodwill extended towards Russian in the hope that Putin would implement democratic reforms to bring Russia in from the Cold War. News and Politics
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