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The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin

Page 31

by Masha Gessen


  Page 151 Kremlin’s historic Great Palace: Andrei Kolesnikov, Ya Putina videl! (Moscow: Eksmo, 2005), p. 13.

  Page 151 suffered a trauma at birth: Movement specialist Brenda Connors quoted in Paul Starobin, “The Accidental Autocrat,” Atlantic, March 2005. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/03/the-accidental-autocrat/3725/. Accessed May 9, 2011.

  Page 151 Watch for the Left-handed: Shamil Idiatullin and Olga Tatarchenko, “Pora perevodit’ chasy na pravuyu ruku,” Kommersant, May 18, 2000. http://www.kommersant.ru/Doc/148145. Accessed May 19, 2011.

  Page 152 white-gold Patek Philippe: “Kakiye chasy nosyat prezidenty i oligarkhi,” unsigned story on newsru.com, posted Feb. 17, 2005. http://www.newsru.com/russia/17feb2005/watch.html. Accessed May 19, 2011.

  Page 152 “an old man of short stature”: Kolesnikov, p. 16.

  Page 152 “I would like to report”: Vitaly Yaroshevsky, “Operatsiya ‘Vnedreniye’zavershena,” interview with Olga Kryshtanovskaya, Novaya Gazeta, Aug. 30, 2004. http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2004/63/43.html. Accessed May 19, 2011.

  Page 153 ”He called me in”: Author interview with Mikhail Kasyanov, Moscow, May 18, 2011.

  Page 154 defense spending would be increased: Masha Gessen, “Lockstep to Putin’s New Military Order,” New York Times, Feb. 29, 2000, p. 21.

  Page 155 claimed no knowledge: Sergei Parkhomenko, “Besedy na yasnom glazu,” Itogi, May 11, 2000. http://www.itogi.ru/archive/2000/20/111020.html. Accessed May 21, 2011.

  Page 158 One thing was clear: Original reporting for Masha Gessen, “Leningradskoye delo,” Itogi, July 18, 2000. http://www.itogi.ru/archive/2000/29/112897.html. Accessed May 23, 2011.

  Page 159 “There are no charges”: Author interview with Nina Lepchenko, July 3, 2000.

  Page 160 stopped being a threat: Masha Gessen, “Leningradskoye delo,” Itogi, July 18, 2000.

  Page 161 release him pending trial: “Glava ‘Russkogo video’ Dmitry Rozhdestvensky umer ot serdechnogo pristupa,” unsigned news story on lenta.ru. http://lenta.ru/russia/2002/06/06/rusvideo/. Accessed May 23, 2011.

  Page 163 debts would be forgiven: Mikhail Kasyanov, Bez Putina (Moscow: Novaya Gazeta, 2009), pp. 70–73.

  Page 163 but also by the press minister: Dmitry Pinsker, “Ulika nomer 6,” Itogi, Sept. 26, 2000. http://www.itogi.ru/archive/2000/39/114667.html. Accessed May 25, 2011.

  Page 163 Gusinsky said publicly: “Gusinsky ne budet ispolnyat’ soglasheniya s Gazpromom, potomu shto oni podpisany pod ugrozoy lisheniya svobody. Ugrozhal yemu lichno Lesin,” unsigned news story on www.polit.ru. http://old.polit.ru/documents/320557.html. Accessed May 25, 2011.

  Page 164 Putin refused to interfere: “Putin schitayet, shto konflikt mezhdu Gazpromom i Media-Mostom—spor khozyaystvuyushchikh subyektov, reshat, kotoryi dolzhen sud,” unsigned news item on www.polit.ru.www.polit.ru.http://old.polit.ru/documents/329155.html. Accessed May 25, 2011.

  Page 164 reprimanding his press minister: “Kasyanov snova publichno otchital Lesina. Na tom delo i konchilos’,” unsigned news item on www.polit.ru.http://old.polit.ru/documents/334896.html. Accessed May 25, 2011.

  Page 166 “Death is on board with us”: Boris Kuznetsov, “Ona utonula…”: Pravda o “Kurske,” kotoruyu skryl genprokuror Ustinov (Moscow: De-Fakto, 2005).

  Page 167 confirm there were no survivors: “Gibel atomnoy podvodnoy lodki ‘Kursk.’ Khronologiya,” unsigned item on RIA Novosti. http://ria.ru/society/20050812/41140663.html. Accessed June 1, 2011.

  Page 168 “I was screaming”: Author interview with Marina Litvinovich, July 1, 2008.

  Page 169 “‘Do you believe that the guys’”: Kolesnikov, p. 35.

  Page 170 “‘Cancel the mourning immediately!’”: Ibid., pp. 38–39.

  Page 171 “You saw it on television?”: Programma Sergeya Dorenko ob APL Kursk, aired Sept. 2, 2000. http://sergeydorenko.spb.ru/news-1-24.htm. Accessed June 1, 2011.

  Page 173 “It sank”: Larry King Live, “Russian President Vladimir Putin Discusses Domestic and Foreign Affairs,” aired Sept. 8, 2000. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0009/08/lkl.00.html. Accessed June 1, 2011.

  Page 174 Testifying in a London court: Alexander Voloshin, London Commercial Court testimony, November 14, 2011.

  Page 174 “I wrote about an American journalist”: Author interview with Boris Berezovsky, June 2008.

  Page 174 “I’ve always told people”: Yelena Bonner, press conference, Moscow, Nov. 30, 2000.

  Page 175 “What a shitty time”: Yuri Samodurov, press conference, Moscow, Nov. 30, 2000.

  EIGHT. THE DISMANTLING OF DEMOCRACY

  Page 177 “In December 2000, I went”: “A Year of Putin,” a roundtable discussion held in Moscow, Dec. 26, 2000. The speakers were Leonid Ionin, dean of applied political science at the Higher School of Economics; Duma deputy Vyacheslav Igrunov; political adviser Simor Kordonsky; philosopher Alexander Tsipko; and Carnegie Center scholar Andrei Ryabov.

  Page 180 “I spent six years”: Yuli Rybakov, interviewed by Marina Koroleva on Echo Moskvy, Jan. 17, 2001. http://www.echo.msk.ru/programs/beseda/13380.phtml. Accessed June 7, 2011.

  Page 181 an undercover KGB agent: Leonid Drachevsky worked in Soviet embassies in Spain and Poland.

  Page 181 KGB officers from Leningrad: Viktor Cherkesov and Georgy Poltavchenko.

  Page 181 a police general: Petr Latyshev.

  Page 181 army generals: Viktor Kazantsev and Konstantin Pulikovsky.

  Page 182 “I assert that the most”: Boris Berezovsky, “Lichniye svobody—glavny zakon demokraticheskogo obchshestva. Otkrytoye pismo prezidentu Rossiyskoy federatsii Vladimiru Putinu,” Kommersant, May 31, 2000. http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/149293/print. Accessed May 1, 2011.

  Page 182 group voting became routine: OSCE Election Observation Mission Report 2004. http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/russia/33101. Accessed June 8, 2011.

  Page 183 Darya Oreshkina: Full disclosure: A couple of years after defending her dissertation on the topic, Darya became my life partner.

  Page 183 more of their power to decide: Darya Oreshkina, Kartograficheskiy metod v issledovanii elektoral’nogo povedeniya naseleniya Rossiyskoy Federatsii, Ph.D. dissertation defended at Moscow State University in 2006.

  Page 184 “a powerful inoculation”: Ilya Kolmanovsky interview with Alexander Margolis, St. Petersburg, June 2008.

  Page 184 depended on their vote: Golos press conference, Moscow, March 14, 2004.

  Page 188 An exhaustive study conducted: Soyuz Zhurnalistov Rossii, “Predvaritel’niy otchyot o monitoringe osveshcheniya s SMI vyborov Prezidenta Rossiyskoy Federatsii 14 marta 2004 g.” http://www.ruj.ru/news_2004/news_040331_1.html. Accessed Dec. 3, 2011.

  Page 190 “One cannot but weep”: “Putin obyavil o perestroike gosudarstva posle tragedii v Beslane,” unsigned news item on newsru.com, and the full text of Putin’s speech, Sept. 13, 2004. http://www.newsru.com/russia/13sep2004/putin.html. Accessed June 9, 2011.

  NINE. RULE OF TERROR

  Page 199 “Just three weeks ago he was”: “Terrible Effects of Poison on Russian Spy Shown in First Pictures,” unsigned story, Daily Mail, Nov. 21, 2006. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-417248/Terrible-effects-poison-Russian-spy-shown-pictures.html. Accessed June 22, 2011.

  Page 199 A few hours later… he was dead: Author interview with Marina Litvinenko, London, April 24, 2011.

  Page 203 found evidence: Alexander Litvinenko and Yuri Felshtinsky, FSB vzryvayet Rossiyu (New York: Liberty Publishing, 2004).

  Page 203 other evidence began to emerge: Alexander Goldfarb with Marina Litvinenko, Sasha, Volodya, Boris… 2nd ed. (New York and London: AGC/Grani, 2010), p. 236.

  Page 205 “They were very happy”: L. Burban et al., “Nord-Ost. Neokonchennoye rassledovaniye. Sobytiya, fakty, vyvody,” Moscow, April 26, 2006, Appendix 6.5, “Opisaniye sobytiy poterpevshey Karpovoy T. I.” http://www.pravdabeslana.ru/nordost/pril6.htm. Accessed June 23, 2011.

  Page 205 “Esteemed President”: Burban et al., Khr
onologiya terakta. http://www.pravdabeslana.ru/nordost/1-2.htm. Accessed June 23, 2011.

  Page 208 “You are welcome and”: Elaine Sciolino, “Putin Unleashes His Fury Against Chechen Guerrillas,” New York Times, Nov. 12, 2002. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/12/international/europe/12RUSS.html. Accessed June 23, 2011.

  Page 208 the video of him lashing out: See, for example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-6ejE1KG8A. Accessed June 23, 2011.

  Page 209 Khanpash Terkibaev: Author interview with Ahmed Zakaev, London, June 6, 2011.

  Page 209 gave him all the information: “Litvinenko: FSB ubila Yushenkova za pravdu o Nord-Oste,” unsigned story on grani.ru, April 25, 2003. http://grani.ru/Events/Terror/m.30436.html. Accessed June 24, 2011.

  Page 210 Moscow, he said: Anna Politkovskaya, “Odin iz gruppy terroristov utselel. My yego nashli,” Novaya Gazeta, April 28, 2003. http://politkovskaya.novayagazeta.ru/pub/2003/2003-035.shtml. Accessed June 20, 2011.

  Page 211 caused by an unknown toxin: “K zaklyuchehiyu kommissionnoy sudebno-meditsinskoy expertizy o pravilnosti lecheniya Shchekochikhina Yuriya Petrovicha, 1950 goda rozhdeniya,” Novaya Gazeta, July 1, 2004. http://2004.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2004/46n/n46n-s05.shtml. Accessed June 20, 2011.

  Page 211 possible secret-police involvement: Author interview with Ahmed Zakaev, London, June 6, 2011.

  Page 212 Her plan was to act: Sergei Sokolov and Dmitry Muratov, “Anna Politkovskaya otravlena FSB,” Novaya Gazeta, Sept. 4, 2004. http://tapirr.narod.ru/politkovskaya2005.html#OTpaBeлeHa. Accessed June 20, 2011.

  Page 216 312 people died: “Pravda Beslana.” http://www.pravdabeslana.ru/pravda_beslana.pdf. Accessed June 26, 2011.

  Page 216 not even heightened security: Anna Politkovskaya, “Shto delalo MVD do Beslana, vo vremya i posle,” Novaya Gazeta, Aug. 28 2006. http://politkovskaya.novayagazeta.ru/pub/2006/2006-77.shtml. Accessed June 26, 2011.

  Page 219 “Women should not be”: Alexei Chadayev’s blog, March 21, 2006. http://kerogazz-batyr.livejournal.com/365459.html?thread=4023699#t4023699. Accessed Dec. 3, 2011.

  Page 220 “We disagreed occasionally”: Alexander Litvinenko, “Annu Politkovskuyu ubil Putin,” Chechenpress, Oct. 8, 2006. http://alexanderlitvinenko.narod.ru/myweb2/article3.html. Accessed June 27, 2011.

  Page 220 he encountered a picket line: “V Dresdene Putina nazvali ubiytsey,” unsigned, grani.ru, Oct. 10, 2006. http://grani.ru/Society/Media/m.112666.html. Accessed June 27, 2011.

  Page 220 “That journalist was indeed”: Putin speaking at a press conference in Dresden, Oct. 10, 2006. http://www.newstube.ru/Media.aspx?mediaid=511BE4A2-5153-4F4E-BEA2-3086663E96D4. Accessed June 27, 2011.

  Page 223 “As I lie here”: Goldfarb and Litvinenko, p. 335.

  Page 225 Putin had him killed: Author interview with Alexander Goldfarb, London, June 6, 2011; Sasha, Volodya, Boris…

  TEN. INSATIABLE GREED

  Page 227 “The… elections… failed”: OSCE PA International Election Observation Mission Statement of Preliminary Findings and Conclusions. http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/russia/18284. Accessed June 14, 2011.

  Page 228 condescending but approving editorial: “Russians Inch Toward Democracy,” unsigned editorial, New York Times, Dec. 8, 2003. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/08/opinion/russians-inch-toward-democracy.html. Accessed June 14, 2011.

  Page 228 mammoth news story: David Holley and Kim Murphy, “Election Bolsters Putin’s Control,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 8, 2003. http://articles.latimes.com/2003/dec/08/world/fg-russelect8. Accessed June 14, 2011.

  Page 228 whole story right in the headline: “Racists, Killers and Criminals Run for Duma,” National Post, Dec. 6, 2003.

  Page 228 “a democrat’s nightmare”: “Putin’s Way,” Economist, Dec. 11, 2003. http://www.economist.com/node/2282403. Accessed June 14, 2011.

  Page 229 considerably less enthusiastic: “Bush and Putin: Best of Friends,” BBC News, June 16, 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1392791.stm. Accessed July 11, 2011.

  Page 229 abrogation of an agreement: Robert O. Freeman, “Russia, Iran and the Nuclear Question: The Putin Record,” a publication of the Strategic Studies Institute. http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/pub737.pdf. Accessed July 11, 2011.

  Page 229 several billion dollars a year: See, for example, “Russia Signs Arms Deals with Arab States Totaling $12 Billion,” unsigned news story on pravda.ru. http://english.pravda.ru/russia/economics/22-02-2011/116979-russia_arms_deals-0/. Accessed July 11, 2011.

  Page 230 appointed a liberal economist: The economist was German Gref, and the think tank was Tsentr strategicheskih razrabotok (Center for Strategic Initiatives).

  Page 232 something remarkable happened: Author interview with Andrei Illarionov, Moscow, June 2011; Andrei Illarionov, “Slovo i delo,” Kontinent, no. 134 (2007), pp. 83–147.

  Page 234 “The esprit de corps was like”: Author interview with William Browder, London, May 13, 2011.

  Page 235 devising ways to squeeze cash: Hoffman, The Oligarchs.

  Page 236 “Those who wanted to make”: Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Leonid Nevzlin, Chelovek s rublem. http://lit.lib.ru/n/newzlin_l_b/text_0010.shtml. Accessed July 16, 2011.

  Page 236 “I would go to our oil rigs”: Ludmila Ulitskaya and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, “Dialogi,” Znamya, no. 10 (2009). http://magazines.russ.ru/znamia/2009/10/ul12.html. Accessed July 16, 2011.

  Page 237 “Until that point… I saw”: Ibid.

  Page 238 “Before Pricewaterhouse came along”: Author interview with Pavel Ivlev, New York City, July 2, 2011.

  Page 238 “We would set up”: Author interview with Charles Krause, New York City, June 30, 2011.

  Page 239 I had heard it once: This talk was given in Zvenigorod on Oct. 27, 2002.

  Page 240 Khodorkovsky told Litvinovich to return to Moscow: Author interview with Marina Litvinovich, December 2009.

  Page 241 two to three times those in the government sector: “Korruptsiya v Rossii—tormoz ekonomicheskogo rosta,” a slide presentation acquired from the Khodorkovsky Press Center in Moscow, June 2011.

  Page 241 “Everyone thinks”: Kolesnikov, Ya Putina videl!, p. 284.

  Page 242 He got the same smirk on his face: Video footage of the meeting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KLzF3_-ShU&NR=1. Accessed July 17, 2011.

  Page 242 “It took three or four attempts”: Author interview with Mikhail Kasyanov, Moscow, May 2011.

  Page 242 had “of course” been cleared by the Kremlin: Author interview with Leonid Nevzlin, Greenwich, Conn., July 1, 2011.

  Page 243 “He did not go”: Author interview with Andrei Illarionov, Moscow, June 2011.

  Page 243 “We should… fully support [Putin]”: Moscow Times, Jan. 21, 2004. Full text: http://hermitagefund.com/newsandmedia/index.php?ELEMENT_ID=312. Accessed July 17, 2011.

  Page 247 he argued he should be released: Sergei Magnitsky court testimony, unpublished document.

  Page 248 more corrupt than 86 percent of the world: Transparency International, Global Corruption Reports 2003 and 2010. http://www.transparency.org/publications/gcr. Accessed July 17, 2011. The actual rankings are 86 for 2003 and 154 for 2010, but because of the changing total number of countries in the reports (133 in 2003 and 178 in 2010), I give the figures here as percentages.

  Page 248 “Everyone had their own turning point”: Author interview with Andrei Illarionov, Moscow, June 2011. Illarionov’s subsequent comments are from the same interview.

  Page 249 “different set of rails”: Andrei Illarionov, “Drugaya Strana,” originally published in Kommersant, Jan. 27, 2006. http://www.liberal.ru/anons/312. Accessed July 17, 2011.

  Page 250 he fired his cabinet: “Kasyanov, Mikhail,” unsigned Lentapedia dossier. http://lenta.ru/lib/14159606/full.htm. Accessed July 17, 2011.

  Page 252 To visit their client: Author interview with Karina Moskalenko, Strasbourg, July 5, 2011.

  Page 253 now run by Putin’s former deputy: “Miller, Alexei,” an unsigned Lentapedia dossier. http://lenta
.ru/lib/14160384/. Accessed July 18, 2011.

  Page 253 lasted all of two minutes: Yelena Lubarskaya, “‘Yuganskneftegaz’utopili v ‘Baikale,’” lenta.ru, Dec. 20, 2004. http://lenta.ru/articles/2004/12/20/ugansk/. Accessed July 18, 2011. Denis Skorobogat’ko, Dmitry Butrin, and Nikolai Kovalev, “‘Yugansk’ kupili ludi iz ‘Londona,’” Kommersant, Dec. 12, 2004. http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/534631?isSearch=True. Accessed July 18, 2011. “Russia to Hold Yukos Auction Despite US Ruling,” unsigned news story on MSNBC. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6726341/. Accessed July 18, 2011.

  Page 254 in the course of a rigged auction: “‘Rosneft’ kupila ‘Baikalfinansgrup,’ poluchiv control nad ‘Yuganskneftegazom,’” unsigned news story, newsru.com. http://www.newsru.com/finance/23dec2004/rosneft.html. Accessed July 18, 2011.

  Page 254 net worth at $40 billion: Luke Harding, “Putin, the Kremlin Power Struggle, and the $40bn Fortune,” Guardian, Dec. 21, 2007. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/dec/21/russia.topstories3. Accessed July 18, 2011.

  Page 255 “we knew this was not money”: Author interview with Sergei Kolesnikov, Helsinki, June 2011.

  Page 257 the Black Sea project existed: Roman Anin, “Dvortsovaya ploshad 740 tysyach kvadratnykh metrov,” Novaya Gazeta, Feb. 14, 2011. http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2011/016/00.html#sup. Accessed July 19, 2011. Pavel Korobov and Oleg Kashin, “Vot chego-chego, a kontrollerov u nas khvatayet,” Kommersant, April 20, 2011. http://www.kommersant.ru/Doc/1625310. Accessed July 19, 2011.

  Page 257 “Either you have me help you”: Author interview with Yuli Dubov, London, June 6, 2011.

  Page 258 Putin pocketed the 124-diamond Super Bowl ring: Jacob Gershman, “Putin Pockets Patriots Ring,” New York Sun, June 28, 2005. http://www.nysun.com/foreign/putin-pockets-patriots-ring/16172/. Accessed July 19, 2011. Donovan Slack, “For Putin, It’s a Gem of a Cultural Exchange,” Boston Globe, June 29, 2005. http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2005/06/29/for_putin_its_a_gem_of_a_cultural_exchange/. Accessed July 19, 2011; “Vladimir Putin poluchil persten s 124 brilliantami,” unsigned news item, Kommersant, June 30, 2005. http://www.kommersant.ru/news/984560. Accessed July 19, 2011. Putin’s comment that he “could kill someone with this” was recounted by Robert Kraft’s wife, Myra; see “Myra Kraft: Putin Stole Robert’s Ring,” Jewish Russian Telegraph, March 18, 2007. http://www.jrtelegraph.com/2007/03/myra_kraft_puti.html. Accessed Oct. 31, 2011.

 

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