The Putin Mystique: Inside Russia’s Power Cult (43 page)

That kind of state, with tendencies towards absolutism, reflects not just the vulnerability of the people in the face of state power, but also the people’s own implicit expectations of what state power should be like. If there is so little to unite a society apart from language and culture – which, incidentally, is not shared by a number of ethnic republics – people will look to state power to fulfil that role. The harder it is to establish horizontal networks and bonds, the more one is tempted to conflate God and Caesar, looking to his powers to step in where society has failed.

Separateness and atomization – and the compensatory, often dysfunctional collectivization that these factors produce – should not be viewed as a disease that needs to be fixed, but as a circumstance that needs to be understood and accepted. Russia may never have the close-knit communities that helped foster the kind of democratic and legal institutions that flourished, over hundreds of years, in Europe. Or, it could be that, in a digitalized world, new, unforeseen avenues of community-building will arise – because they are already arising. Russian society may continue looking to the state to play a central, unifying role – as, in times of crisis, will other societies. The use of one’s public office for self-enrichment might never be eradicated in Russia, because it has not been eradicated anywhere, but it may be accepted and regulated in order to avoid catastrophic human rights violations like the death and trial of Sergei Magnitsky or the corruption scandals we have related in this book. It could well be that Russia might eventually come to terms with itself as a feudal, fragmented state – stopping the cycle of revolution and despotism that have largely been the key forces fighting feudalism and fragmentation. Russia might never have the rule of law in the Western sense, but it could, perhaps, find a better equilibrium between the legal-rational and the patrimonial states.

Or it may simply fall apart and go the way of empires that grappled with similar problems before it: Byzantium, the Ottomans, and Austro-Hungary, giving way to an entirely new kind of Russian state.

For now, however, the Russian is in many ways rather alone, gazing upward, willingly giving up his powers to a higher being that he looks to for answers, because finding answers alone is too difficult.

Moscow. November, 2013.

I AM INDEBTED to a great number of people who helped make this book possible. The following are just a few.

My husband, Mikhail Vizel, not only encouraged me to write this book, but inspired the idea when he told me, one day in 2007, that I should try to see past the politics at what was really happening in Russia.

Anthony Louis spent an enormous amount of time advising me on the text, an editor and a critic at once.

Karl Sabbagh, of Skyscraper, made me look at this book from the reader’s perspective as he edited the manuscript.

Vladimir Sharov and Vladimir Shlapentokh, in different ways and from different continents, inspired and encouraged this work.

Stanislav Konunov traveled with me to Pikalyovo and helped gather interviews for this book.

Andy Potts, Tim Wall and Natalia Antonova gave me support and advice, reading earlier versions of the draft.

My agents, Julia Goumen and Natasha Banke, put their faith in this project when it was just beginning. The phrase “make it happen” was made for them.

Finally, I would not have had the strength to write this book without the support of my family.

* * *

The people who agreed to speak to me and share their thoughts and experiences make up much of the content of this book. Some requested to remain anonymous. I am grateful for all their help, because a lot of these stories are their stories, as varied, contradictory and multifaceted as all people and books are.

¹
During a Q&A session with youth groups at the Seliger forum in August, 2011, Vladimir Putin fielded such a question.

A girl who identified herself as Natalia told Putin, demurely, that she wanted to marry a military officer and asked what her “outlook” would be if she did so. “You’ll have two or three children, that’s for certain,” Putin told her.

From an official transcript and video on the prime minister’s website.
http://premier.gov.ru/events/news/16080/

²
An oprichnik was a member of Tsar Ivan the Terrible’s secret police during the 1560s. In modern Russia, the term is often used negatively to describe security officers.

³
Ignatius, Adi. “A Tsar is Born.”
Time
. December 19, 2007. American journalists were so enthralled by Putin’s stare that they devoted the leading paragraph to it.

⁴
If US President George Bush saw Putin’s soul, then Russian President Boris Yeltsin, upon anointing his successor, described his eyes as “interesting”.

⁵
Sakwa, Richard.
The Crisis of Russian Democracy: The Dual State, Factionalism, and the Medvedev Succession
. Cambridge University Press: New York, 2011.

⁶
Shlapentokh, Vladimir.
Rossiya kak feodalnoye obshchestvo
. Stolitsa-Print: Moscow, 2008.

⁷
Pastukhov, Vladimir.
Restavratsiya vmesto reformatsii. Dvadtsat let, kotoryie potryasli Rossiyu
. OGI: Moscow, 2012, p. 229.

⁸
From a documentary about Putin aired on NTV on October 7, 2012.
Tsentralnoye Televideniye
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-0Y6FAxZ1E

⁹
Hertzen, Alexander.
Byloye i dumy
. From: Complete collection, Pravda: Moscow, 1975. Volume 4, pp. 159-160.

¹⁰
According to a Levada Centre poll conducted in September 2012, 20 percent of women said they would like to marry Putin.
http://www.levada.ru/05-10-2012/20-rossiyanok-khoteli-vyiti-zamuzh-za-vladimira-putina

¹¹
From an interview with Marina Razbezhkina, whose students produced a documentary film
Winter Go Away
, about the protests.
“Rossiya na Marse, kuda ne doletet.”.
Russky Reporter. October 2, 2012.
http://rusrep.ru/article/2012/10/02/russia

¹²
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees officially expressed concern over the disappearance of Leonid Razvozzhayev in front of a UNHCR office in Kiev in October 2012.
http://unhcr.org.ua/en/2011-08-26-06-58-56/news-archive/827-press-release-the-un-refugee-agency-is-deeply-concerned-about-the-disappearance-of-asylum-seeker-from-russian-federation

¹³
Barry, Ellen. “Russian Opposition Figure Says Abductors Threatened His Children.” The New York Times. October 24, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/world/europe/leonid-razvozzhayev-says-abductors-threatened-his-children.html

¹⁴
Svetova, Zoya. “Umalivshiye osnovu.” The New Times. June 11, 2012.
http://newtimes.ru/articles/detail/53272/

¹⁵
The name has been changed at the request of the person.

¹⁶
Sologub, V. A. Perezhitye dni.Russky Mir, 1874, p. 117.
http://az.lib.ru/w/were-saew_w_w/text_0130.shtml

¹⁷
Pushkin, A. S. Puteshestvie iz Moskvy v Peterburg. Sobraniye sochinenii v 10 tomakh. Russkaya Virtualnaya Biblioteka.
http://www.rvb.ru/pushkin/01text/07criticism/02misc/1050.htm

¹⁸
“Premier vserossiiskogo teatra.” Gaze-ta.ru.
http://www.gazeta.ru/culture/2011/04/29/a_3599681.shtml

¹⁹
See Sakwa, Richard.
Putin. Russia’s Choice
. Second Edition. Kindle Edition, 2009.

²⁰
Based on an interview, conducted on conditions of anonymity, with a hotel administrator in the town of Pikalevo, May 2011.

²¹
Based on an interview with a driver at the Pikalevo minerals plant in May 2011. With reference to Putin’s staged performance, both the hotel administrator and the driver spoke in similar terms.

²²
Cassiday, Julie A; Johnson, Emily D. “Putin, Putiniana, and the Question of a Post-Soviet Cult of Personality.” The Slavonic and East European Review. Volume 88, No. 4. October 1, 2010, pp. 681-707.

²³
Gudkov, Lev.
“Priroda putinisma.”
Russian Alternatives conference, December 8, 2009.

²⁴
The t-shirts were distributed by the Foundation for Effective Politics in the spring of 1999. The author used to have one; now, threadbare, it has retired to the spare clothes drawer of the family dacha.

²⁵
Petrov, Nikolay. “Elections.” Between Dictatorship and Democracy: Russian post-communist political reform. Michael McFaul, Nikolay Petrov, Andrei Ryabov. Washington, 2004: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, p. 48.

²⁶
As quoted in: Baker, Peter; Glasser, Susan.
Kremlin Rising. Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the End of Revolution
. A Lisa Drew Book/Scribner. New York, 2005. (Kindle Edition).

²⁷
Based on an interview with one of several applicants in Moscow’s central Reception Office, conducted by the author in February 2011. All further information about Sergei Kvitko’s case is based on his own words, unless otherwise noted.

²⁸
“Priyemnyie Putina ishyut istochniki finansirovania.”
Kommersant. 13 (4068), January 27, 2009.

²⁹
According to a document of the gasification programme posted on an official Tula region website.
http://tula.news-city.info/docs/sistemsd/dok_ierizb.htm

³⁰
From an official transcript of a speech by Putin dated September 25, 2008.
http://archive.premier.gov.ru/visits/ru/6068/events/1975/

³¹
Ivanov, Maxim. “Overwhelmed with Pleas.” Kommersant. July 30, 2009.

³²
http://blog-medvedev.livejournal.com/22187.html?thread=167595

³³
http://yarik-kolosov.livejournal.com/642.html

³⁴
Glavvrach RDKB: Godovaly Yaroslav Kolosov seichas na lechenii v Germanii. RIA Novosti. May 18, 2011.
http://www.rian.ru/society/20110518/376193906.html

³⁵
Lally, Kathy. “Medvedev meets the press.” The Washington Post. May 18, 2011.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/medvedev-meets-thepress/2011/05/18/AFQ6QX6G_print.html

³⁶
From an official transcript on
www.premier.gov.ru

³⁷
From a telephone interview with a caseworker at the reception office in October, 2011. The caseworker spoke on conditions of anonymity.

³⁸
Pushkin, Alexander. Boris Godunov. Kessinger Publishing, 2004.

³⁹
Kolesnikov, Andrei.
“Ne ukaraulili sem poselkov.”
Kommersant. .138. July 31, 2010.

⁴⁰
Ibid.

⁴¹
Sharov, Vladimir. Iskusheniye revolutsiyei (Russkaya verkhovnaya vlast). Moscow: Arsis Books, 2009, p 23.

⁴²
See Arutunyan, Anna. “Is Russia Really that Authoritarian?” Foreign Policy in Focus, January 11, 2007.
http://www.fpif.org/articles/is_russia_really_that_authoritarian
.

⁴³
“Despite Putin’s calls to bolster social order and implement federal laws over the entire country, the Kremlin allowed local leaders to see themselves as feudal lords as long as they remained loyal to the Kremlin and were prepared to support Putin in his fight against his enemies.” Shlapentokh, Vladimir.
Rossiya kak feodalnoye obshchestvo
. Stolitsa-Print: Moscow, 2008. See pp. 187-188.

⁴⁴
Levinson, Alexei. “Nashe my: Vertikal, vid snizu.” Vedomosti, 207 (2725), November 2, 2010.

⁴⁵
Kolesnikov, Andrei. “Ne ukaraulili sem poselkov.” Kommersant. N
o
138. July 31, 2010.

⁴⁶
According to Boris Sviridov, a legal expert at the Constitutional Housing Right Committee, a Moscow-based NGO, in an interview with the author.

⁴⁷
From an interview with Sofyin in June 2011. These and subsequent interviews were conducted in Pikalevo by the author together with Stanislav Konunov.

⁴⁸
“Vse budet Pikalevo.” Gazeta.ru, June 5, 2009.
http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2009/06/05_kz_3207526.shtm
. See also: Belton, Catherine. “Debt pressure rises for Deripaska.” Financial Times. February 23, 2009.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/627e2eac-01d6-11de-8199-000077b07658.html#axzz1TxYigXAL
.

⁴⁹
RBC St. Petersburg. March 27, 2009.
http://spb.rbc.ru/free-news/20090327151015.shtm

⁵⁰
Arutunyan, A. “Small town erupts.” The Moscow News. May 25, 2009.
http://mnweekly.rian.ru/news/20090521/55377597.html

⁵¹
Courtesy of Mikhail Panfilov’s personal video archive.

⁵²
The Public Opinion Foundation. From a poll of 2000 respondents across 100 residential areas in 44 Russian regions.

⁵³
Ivanov, Alexei. Khrebet Rossii. Azbuka-Klassika, Moscow: 2010, pp 107-111.

⁵⁴
Clarke, Simon. The Development of Capitalism in Russia.(Routeledge Contemporary Russia and Eastern Europe Series). Kindle Edition. T & F Books UK. 2009.