Nevertheless the criminal wild attack of August 29th has caused such a rare unanimous indignation of the Russian public, and numeral protests of State Duma deputies from CPRF and Rodina, and even the condemnation by some official structures, and the unanimous condemnation by the mass media, that there were signs of a possible decline in Mr. Yakemenko’s career and possibly of the Nashi movement. Here are some of them. The media published information that the Kremlin is creating Grom, a new organization called to replace Nashi. The protest against the rapprochement of Yabloko and NBP (I only went to Saint Petersburg where I spoke in the office of the Yabloko department) near the office of Yabloko’s central office on Pyatnitska Street in Moscow was not held by the Nashi, but already by an organization called Young Russia. The United Russia party is creating an organization called Young Guard. A Nashist, a student from Tula, Julia Gorodnicheva was not admitted to the Public Chamber although the Nashi were boasting about her admission to the Chamber in advance. She was admitted in the second mandate but she is already representing the Walking Together movement. Besides four criminal cases on the mass beatings of nazbols were reunited into one and the investigation is coming to an end. Confrontations were held in the Main Department of Investigations of Moscow’s Prosecutor General’s office. Despite the pressure of the Kremlin they will have to take this case to court. And then these Romas the Prickly and Vasyas the Killers will probably receive a sentence, at least a suspended one. And most importantly their role in the Nashi movement will be made public. And with them, probably, Vasily Yakemenko’s star will wane and maybe, I hope, that of Asik Dudayev, the schemer and creator of fake parties and movements. (At the same time there are signs that the Nashi affair is still living. Thus, in September 150 Nashi “commissars” went to study in the Highest School of Management, where they will be taught by G. Pavlovsky, M. Leontiev, V. Solovyev, A. Karaulov, A. Tsipko and S. Markov). And what about the president? The president will come through unscathed. Although he “took the risk” to give the permission and the financing for an organization that beats up people with baseball bats and metal wires. Today it is November 9th and I was informed that the Sobol vehicle, the nazbols’ vehicle they tried to put on fire during the August 29th attack, was put on fire this night.
“BY HIS NATURE PUTIN IS NOT A POLITICIAN”
In their leaflet the nazbols have brought three accusations against Putin of carrying out a dull and sometimes criminal foreign policy. Point 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.” Point 6: “ The friendship with the monstrous regime of Turkmenbashi, who banished Russians from Turkmenia.” Point 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.”
In reality earlier crimes in the area of foreign economies can be brought against the president. This is the liquidation of the Russian naval bases in Lourdes (in Cuba) and in Kamran (Vietnam). The president has stated his motive then, during his first presidential mandate: the Russian Federation does not have the possibility to pay a supposedly unbearable rent. In total we were paying 500 million dollars per year. Of course this amount seems huge on the first sight. However it is less than 4% of the amount recently paid by the State Gazprom concern to the private shareholders of Sibneft, in particular to R. Abramovich. From the naval base in Lourdes we were controlling the Atlantic Ocean and we were perfectly close to the United States. If the US had tried to do something we would have had the possibility to respond immediately. From the base in Kamran (Vietnam) we were controlling two oceans: the Pacific and the Indian oceans. Putin’s decision to close down these bases has unquestionably left Russia without the status of a naval power. If Peter the Great has gotten us the status of a naval power at a great cost by making his way to the Baltic and Black Seas, then president Putin has closed this status. By himself.
Even with Yeltsin in the 1990s, having ousted ourselves from Europe and the world we were still remaining a large regional power. In these years the Kremlin was still “a source of legitimacy for the post-Soviet regimes” (expression used by the political scientist S. Belkovsky). “Openly and aggressively anti-Russian rulers (for example Zviad Gamsakhurdia or Abulfaz Elchibey), Belkovsky writes, did not stay in power for long. And the new elected heads of the CIS States were first eager to improve their relations with the big and generous, like grandpa Yeltsin, Russia. Besides, Moscow supported the viability of unrecognized States, guarantying the stability of a three-leveled post-Soviet construction: Russia as the legal successor of the metropolis – other CIS countries – rebellious enclaves with an unregulated status. Under Putin, Belkovsky goes on, the Russian Federation has hopelessly lost its status as the source of post-Soviet legitimacy and turned into the largest piece of yesterday’s great Empire. From the first geopolitical league where regional powers are playing (of the level of India or Brazil), we have passed to the second, where States like Paraguay or Algeria are fighting for a seat in history’s train wagon. (Obviously, the amount of oil and offshore money does not influence the State’s status in this case.) Now to obtain some legitimacy the head of a former allied republic goes directly to Washington and not to Moscow.”
Let us remember the speech made by Vladimir Putin, RF president, right after the grandiose terrorist act of all times and people on September 11th 2001. He has almost started to cry and promised any thinkable help to the United States. Including his influence on Central Asian countries, so that American planes could receive the landing grounds they need to invade Afghanistan where, supposedly, Ben Laden, who is, supposedly, responsible for the bombing of the Twin Towers in New York, was hiding. And he helped them. Four years passed since then and the United States have comfortably settled down in Central Asia. US military bases have appeared in the region’s countries: in Uzbekistan, in Kyrgyzstan and in Tajikistan. The Karshi-Khanabad air base in Uzbekistan, which has strategic significance in the region, was transferred to the Pentagon for carrying out operations in Afghanistan after September 11th and for Washington’s creation of a “global anti-terrorist coalition”. The C-130 squadron, about a dozen Black Hawk helicopters and about one thousand and a half military personnel were sent to Uzbekistan to reinforce the Central Asian flank of the coalition. American military personnel and equipment were dislocated in Uzbekistan according to a bilateral agreement between Washington and Tashkent signed in October 2001. (The same agreements were signed with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan). Although each side has the right to leave the agreement until May of this year, when the Andijan events took place nothing was threatening the US interests in Uzbekistan. The American military presence benefited Tashkent economically – it added 50 million dollars per year to the budget. It had also a political benefit. Uzbekistan became one of the US key partners in Central Asia. In other words, hello, Yankees, goodbye, Russia. All of this was made in accordance with the desire of the Russian president. In other words, in accordance with his desire the United States has received air bases south of Russia. There are only a couple of flight hours for the supersonic bombers from the bases of Karshi-Khanabade (Uzbekistan), Ganci (Kyrgyzstan), Dushanbe (Tajikistan) to Russia’s big cities situated along the border with Kazakhstan, such as Astrakhan, Volgograd, Saratov, Orenburg, Ufa, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Barnaul and others. We don’t need a president like that! – The residents of all these cities must say. He put us under fire. Ok, today the US seems to be friendly, but what about tomorrow?