Regime of repression
From Oleg Gordievsky
Sir: The discovery I have made in Britain is that many academics wear pink glasses. Paul Robinson claims, The government of Vladimir Putin is probably the most benign in Russian history.' (`Putin's might is White', 10 January). He concludes by stating that his activities are 'the best hope of liberal democracy in Russia'. It sounds good, but it doesn't correspond with the truth. In the four years of tenure, Putin liquidated independent television channels and most of the opposition newspapers. Thus the government has a total freedom for propaganda and indoctrination. The brightest and the most successful entrepreneurs (Khodorkovsky, Gusinsky, Berezovsky) have been imprisoned or expelled from Russia. He put into the administration predominantly KGB people and army generals. The influence of the KGB is growing steadily, but there is no Central Committee of the CPSU to control it. Instead there is Vladimir Putin, himself a KGB lieutenant-colonel.
In all those four years Putin waged a brutal war against the nation of Chechnya. He is using the airforce, gun helicopters, artillery, vacuum bombs, concentration camps, illegal arrests, torture and the execution of Chechen men. The capital, Grozny, looks like Stalingrad in 1943.
So much for the hope of liberal democracy in Russia.
Oleg Gordievsky
London WC2
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