Yeltsin’s choice of a successor looks all the more incomprehensible if we remember that in August 1999 began the invasion of Dagestan by two thousand Chechen fighters headed by Basayev. The invasion was a complete surprise for the RF leaders. Because the Federal Security Service headed by Putin has slept over the invasion. And that person that has failed on the post of FSB director is appointed a premier and successor. A mystery? Not. Yeltsin needed to secure his impunity after his retiring.
Putin spent eight months on the post of prime minister. In essence he was doing his pre-electoral campaign on this post. Two pre-electoral goals stood before him: pacify Chechnya (militants have invaded Dagestan), create a base for the victory of Putin’s Kremlin on the December 1999 elections and also get popular in the political sense.
On September 4th 1999 a car loaded with explosives caused the explosion of a residential building in Dagestan’s city of Buynaxk. On September 9th 1999 a house was blown up on Guryanov Street in Moscow. On September 13th a house was blown up in Volgodonsk. All of these events have caused Putin’s harsh reaction. The successful military operations in Dagestan and Chechnya that have followed these bombings have rapidly increased Putin’s rating. Later, since the finding of explosives and detonators in the basement of a Ryazan house looked extremely suspicious (The FSB claimed it was a “training operation”), part of our society started to suspect that the bombings of September 1999 were organized by the FSB in order to raise the ratings of the presidency candidate V. V. Putin. There was no independent investigation on this case and therefore it is impossible at the present time to prove or to refute such frightening accusations. Maybe we will learn the truth when we will have another president. Maybe we will never learn it. Minimally the Ryazan’s story is extremely suspicious.
A quite banal economic program was written for Prime Minister Putin. Also very harsh tax conditions were created in order to fill up the State’s budget. As a proof of his efficiency on his prime minister post on October 31st 1999 on Sergey Dorenko’s talk show Putin gave the growth rate of industrial production: 7%. On December 31 1999 Yeltsin spoke on television too, he said he is resigning before term and Putin became president interim.
What was Edward Limonov doing these months? On august 24th 1999, on Ukraine’s Independence Day members of the National-Bolshevik Party peacefully occupied the tower of the Sailors Club in Sevastopol. On a 36 meters altitude they hung out NBP flags and the banner “Sevastopol is a Russian city!” They spread leaflets with the text: “Kuchma, you will choke on Sevastopol!” After a few hours of siege the tower’s doors were forced. Sixteen National-Bolsheviks were arrested and spent six months in Ukrainian prisons. On January 29th 2000 I took the boys from a prison in Moscow where they arrived from Ukraine. A different political climate was in the country then and the prison commandant even shook my hand, thanking me for the courage of my party members. In Ukraine, especially in Crimea this action created an unseen arising among the millions of Russian-speaking as well as Ukrainian citizens who consider Sevastopol the holy city of Russian national glory. Never did any Russian political organization hold such a striking and big action during Ukraine’s eight-years history.
On February 23rd 2000 the National-Bolshevik Party formed a column on Pushkin Square. In the front we were carrying two black 20 meters-long banners. One read: “Down with autocracy and throne succession!” and the other: “Putin, we didn’t call for you, leave!” Columns of other opposition parties angrily looked at our slogans and us. They did not agree with us then. Today they do.
SECOND BLOCK
Against Putin
On December 14th 2004 39 activists of the National-Bolshevik Party entered the public reception room of the President’s Administration and after occupying one of the offices they demanded to meet president Putin. The protesters were spreading leaflets of the following content:
Appeal to the RF President V. V. Putin
Mr. President, we have a long list of pretensions to you. On your conscience you have:
1. The manipulation of elections – both for State Duma and for president.
2. The deprivation of the citizens of Russia of their electoral rights: passage from the election to the appointment of governors. These are State coups, the destruction of the federative state.
3. The robbing of the people through the “monetization of benefits”. Only naive people believe in the fairy tale about the villains Zurabov and Gref gone out of hands. We know: nothing in the State of the Russian Federation is done without your approval. It was possible not to abolish, but to double and to triple the benefits with the present prices on oil.
4. The appearance of American military bases in Central Asia. You let them there after the events of September 11th 2001. You ingratiate yourself with the USA.
5. The transfer of Russian territories to China. 35 years ago border guards have conquered the islands on the Far East in bloody battles. Judging by your saying, you intend to do the same with the Kurils – give them to Japan. And Kaliningrad to comrade Gerhard?
6. The friendship with the monstrous regime of Turkmenbashi, who banished Russians from Turkmenia.
7. The closing down of independent TV channels. Thanks to you the television ceased to show the truth and is daily lying to the people.
8. The witless interference in the elections in Abkhazia and Ukraine. However difficult it was to spoil the relations with the friendly Abkhaz people, but you succeeded in this. And Ukraine, by your efforts, stands on the threshold of disintegration and civil war.
9. The victims of Nord-Ost and Beslan. There is no “international terrorism” whatsoever, there is a war in Chechnya. Which you could not win and which now you do not have the courage to end. Confess that this war is conducted not for national interests, but for your personal rating, for your “tough guy” reputation.
10. The renewal of political repressions in Russia. The National-Bolsheviks Gromov, Tishin, Globa-Mikhaylenko, Bespalov, Korshunsky, Yezhov, Klenov, who stood up against the robbing of the people are political prisoners. The victims of political arbitrariness are such people as the physicist Danilov and the lawyer Trepashkin, punished altogether only for their independent behavior.
These are not all the claims to you, but these are already sufficient. It seems that you imagined yourself a Tsar, and not a President, elected by the people and responsible before the people. You forgot the words of oath, which you gave at your inauguration: “I swear… to respect and to guard human and civil rights and freedoms, to respect and to protect the constitution of the Russian Federation, to protect the sovereignty and independence, safety and integrity of the State, to serve the people loyally”. Possibly, you don’t act by evil will; simply you do not have political talent. All the more, find courage in yourself and retire. The more rapidly you do this, the better it will be for Russia.
The National-Bolsheviks.
INDIFFERENCE AND LIES