Several days ago, Boris Yeltsin advised the American bureaucrats not to forget
that the old Stalinist establishment of Russia is still holding their finger on
the nuclear button. Last Thursday, during a visit to China, Yeltsin lashed out
Bill Clinton who dare to remark about Kremlin's military campaign in Chechnya.
The indignant Yeltsin preached to media that Clinton has "forgotten that Russia
has a full arsenal of nuclear weapons," reviving the worst Cold War-style
rhetoric. Although Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, immediately toned things
down, saying Yeltsin did not mean to re-ignite the Cold War, Yeltsin's comment
underscores tensions between the two bureaucracies since the end of the Cold
War. It also indicates the beginning of the demise of the Clinton-Gore policy
not to be a super power in order to appease the Communist bureaucrats around the
globe and share most of the power with them.
A week ago, the KGB-FSB accused an American diplomat in spying. The Kremlin's
decision to expel that diplomat, who was allegedly seized in the middle of a
spying operation, was counterbalancing, and four days ago, the FBI-CIA-NSA came
up with a bug that was found in the State Department building and allegedly
belonged to a Russian spy. However, Clinton's fatigue really does work, and no
liberal media mogul bought these spy scandals for their nominal value, because
there was no a shred of evidence and even an elementary school student knows the
routine procedure if one finds a bug -- try to feed it with disinformation as
long as it possible and try to find out to whom it really belongs (a bug with
markings that it was 'made in USSR' is usually used by the FBI-CIA-NSA, and a
bug 'made in USA' is usually used by the KGB-FSB). And we know that Clinton is a
grand-master of the "wag the dog" policy. Therefore, it would be logical to ask
ourselves the question -- from what is the administration is trying to distract
our attention now?
Is it the Burton's Committee Hearing on "The Role of John Huang and the Riady
Family in Political Fundraising" to the Clinton-Gore campaign, which started
today, or is it the impending food fight a la Monica Lewinsky entertaining the
liberal Maryland court, which tries to create a martyr from Linda Tripp, or
there is something more sinister?
Of course, much of the latest international noise should be ascribed to the
domestic struggle of both bureaucracies -- for the Kremlin and for the White
House.
In the next year, the Russians will elect their chief-executive, and Putin
(nearly Ras-Putin), is likely to be as a candidate of the hard-liners. The next
Sunday, the Russians will elect their representatives in the Duma (legislative
body), and the pro-establishment party, which is eager to show that they still
can do a thing or two, is also scramble for seats, and it also have added fuel
to the latest Russo-American tensions.
The Chechnya campaign became popular after the KGB-FSB blasted a couple of
houses, killing a couple hundred Muscovites then accusing the Chechens in doing
those terrorist acts. Thus, a tough anti-American stand has become a lever to
boost the popularity of Putin and his Unity bloc ("Yedinstvo" - the
pro-establishment party of hard-liners) after the American bombing the Serbs.
The Russian bureaucrats felt betrayed by NATO's liberal bureaucrats who ignored
the Russian arguments against expanding NATO membership to the Poles,
Hungarians, and Czechs, and who decided to launch a military operation in
Yugoslavia over the Russian bureaucrats' objections. Besides, the Russian
bureaucrats are alarmed by the plans of the American bureaucrats to set up an
anti-missile shield that will definitely loose the cornerstone of a disarmament
pact.
Counterbalancing, the Kremlin bureaucrats hastily launched several test of
missiles as to prevent the possible American withdrawal from the 1972
Anti-Ballistic missile treaty. Then, they organized a summit in Beijing, making
a closer partnership with the old ideological comrades. Beijing and Moscow
formally split in 1960s over doctrinal differences; however, their interest to
survive in the post-Cold War era have been converging, and their close
cooperation became a pressing issue. And the basis for their truce is the common
fear of the Western bureaucrats and their own commoners.
The Western bureaucrats measure all local conditions of ruling on their own
manner -- with the generic human rights. The commoners measure the conditions of
own ruling by the own economic conditions. Neither one is at its acceptable
level in Russia and China, and therefore, the Chinese and Russian
chief-executives issued a joint communiqué denouncing the Western bureaucrats
who use the human rights as a pretext to intervene in other countries' internal
affairs. Thus, the Chinese bureaucrats specifically endorsed the Kremlin's
campaign in Chechnya, because they fear for their own record in Tibet.
NATO's intervention in Kosovo galvanized Moscow and Beijing bureaucracies
to seek a closer alliance in order to resist what they see as meddling of the
Western bureaucrats in their internal business. Following the Chechen military
campaign and the Western demand to halt it, only increased the mounting
suspicions of the Moscow and Beijing bureaucrats that the Western bureaucrats
are marching to hegemony. While they are separate, neither the Chinese nor
Russian bureaucrats have the strategic advantage over the Western bureaucrats;
but together, they can create a challenge to the Western interests in the
Balkans, Near East, and Southeast Asia.
The Chechen military campaign is supposedly against separatists who want more
power for the local Chechen bureaucrats; but, in reality, it is an election
campaign for the Kremlin. This election campaign is marked with extensive use of
artillery and aviation against civilians, and the Western bureaucrats consider
it as a "barbaric" form of ruling, though the Russian bureaucrats consider it as
unacceptable interference of the soft Western liberals into their internal
affairs. Translating the diplomatic jargon into a plain language, Igor Sergeyev,
the Russian Defense Minister, has accused the Americans in using the Chechnya
campaign to squeeze the Russian bureaucrats out of the strategically important
and oil rich Caucasus and Caspian regions.
Commenting on the last days events, the Russian liberal press, daily "Today" ("Sevodnya"),
thus characterized the situation, "a week before the polls, it has become clear
that 10 years after the Iron Curtain fell, the old bureaucracy has no other
argument to play on other than Chechnya and the nuclear button". However, we
have to acknowledge that they did it pretty well for those 10 years, and why
they should stop doing it now? If the Western liberals would not fear the demise
of the old Soviet bureaucracy in a civil war, the Russian commoners (including
the Chechens) would already enjoy the democracy and prosperity; and the American
commoners would not unwillingly spend some $20 billion per year, because
Clinton-Blair and Co. are trying to keep the brain-dead Soviet bureaucrats
alive.
Corruption and fear for their own future took unprecedented high among the top
Kremlin officials and, because they are paranoid with their own survival, the
Kremlin atmosphere became unbearable for many of them and even pressed one of
them to admit, that "we are faced with extremely frightened idiots in the
Kremlin, and it's very dangerous for all of us."
Their fear for own future compels them to be extremely corrupt and their extreme
corruption increases their fear because they are expecting a retaliation from
the masses, which they have been robbing for years. Therefore, there were no
surprises for the American investigators who bogged down in the Kremlin way to
do business under the counter through the Bank of New York, the founder of which
was killed several days ago in his home, in Monaco. Last week, the American
investigators came to the Kremlin bureaucrats with a request to check bank
statements, audiotapes and documents relating to the possible diversion of
nearly $15 billion of our money, which Clinton-Blair and Co. gave to the Kremlin
bureaucrats supposedly to feed the starved Russian commoners, who live on one
herring in three days.
According to those investigators, the Kremlin bureaucrats resorted to the
routine formula and called the request an "unnecessary intrusion" into their
internal affairs. Later, the Kremlin bureaucrats sent their own team of
fact-erasers (they call them - "fact-finders") to Washington, to find out what
the donors really know about their under the counter affairs. The emissaries, of
course, claimed not been shown any evidence supporting the corruption
allegations, though the American team claimed to show them "irrefutable
evidence" of billions of dollars laundered, including hundreds of documents
tracing the transfer of money from the Central Bank of Russia through the
American banks. Therefore, inoculated by their own boss in the stonewalling
technique, the American investigators were not surprised for that Kremlin
response.
This issue will be apparently erased and buried on this side of the Atlantic
Ocean, but the most damaging to the Kremlin bureaucrats allegations in
corruption were addressed at Boris Yeltsin and his family in Europe. The steady
stream of accusations, such as that of a Swiss construction firm, which paid
credit card bills of close on $1 million for Yeltsin and his two daughters, has
finally discredited his shaky leadership and panicked his staff. Yeltsin's
daughters received credit cards from Mabetex, a Swiss building concern that has
done more than $1 billion in business with the Kremlin bureaucrats, mostly
reconstructing and refurbishing the Kremlin and presidential residences. The
Swiss authorities have been looking into kickback allegations for a year and
they are moving closer to the top ranks of the Kremlin.
In the Russian press reports, virtually the entire old bureaucracy has been
accused in the looting of billions of dollars from the treasury and foreign
loans. And it is no surprise that a half of the Mediterranean fleet of yachts
belong now to the Kremlin bureaucrats and their families.
Despite the present day strained relations between the Russian and American
bureaucracies, some analysts assumed that they will restore more amicable
relations once the next year elections are over. Thus, a high-ranking Russian
diplomat told in an interview to a Moscow radio that, "a bad thing about the
American elections is that their candidates sacrifice anything, including
long-term national interests, to campaigning... Some in our country would like
to copy that habit, but it is a bad idea. Like it or not, Russia and the United
States will have to coexist and cooperate even after the polls". Translating the
diplomatic jargon into the plain language, whatever the outcome of the next year
elections, both bureaucracies will coexist and cooperate in the future ruling
and exploiting the American and Russian commoners.
That might be true; however, the question is, which of the commoners will more
"enjoy" their own exploitation?
The Russian commoners find themselves amid an economic and moral crisis, while
their American pairs find themselves amid only a moral crisis that largely flows
from the Oval Office. The Russian problems are more grave and severe because the
Soviet era dinosaurs are trying to survive. While they are trying to reinvent
the more effective and democratic methods of ruling, the Russian commoners are
sinking into the abyss of poverty and despair.
Corruption is inevitable when a half of a nation’s economy is controlled by
organized crime, which is a product of the bureaucrats' fear for their own
future. Their fear necessitates them to blow their superficial pro-democratic
faces and show their pro-totalitarian souls. Thus, a major Yeltsin's assistant,
Anatoly Chubais, betrayed himself when he rebuked his liberal opponent, Grigory
Yavlinsky, who suggested that it was time to start talks with the Chechen
separatists. Chubais told Yavlinsky that anyone who proposes that, in the
present conditions, "cannot be viewed as a Russian politician". It is not a
coincidence that the Chubais' formula reminiscent to our recent trend -- "who is
the real American". To me, it is clear that the "real" Americans or the "real"
Russians were, are, and will be only those of us, commoners, who support the
established bureaucracies... nothing more, nothing less.
The continuing economic and moral crisis of the Soviet era bureaucracy leads
them on the highway of violence and self-destruction. Trying to diffuse this
violent self-destruction, the NATO's bureaucrats have been nervously attempting
to avert a bloodbath in Chechnya and save the gist of the local resistance as a
lever that will keep the central Russian bureaucrats tight on the internal
matters for a long time, thus leaving the Balkans and Near East to Clinton-Blair
and Co. In their turn, the Kremlin bureaucrats are sniffing with whom they
can talk among the Chechens. In that end, they pronounced Malik Saydulayev as
the new chief of the Banana Chechen Republic and sent him to scout around with
the task to engage the moderate rebels in negotiations and to cut some deal
before the new year.
When the Kremlin hard-liners will win the first phase of the campaign in
Chechnya and in Moscow, when they will take visible control over Grozny
and the Duma, then, there will be a room for negotiations about the substantial
control.
The Kremlin bureaucrats understand that the Chechen separatist army, under
command of Aslan Mashkadov will retreat intact into the southern mountainous
region, from where they will make the nightly life of the Kremlin convoys
miserable. A protracted guerrilla war means for the Kremlin hard-liners mounting
casualties and further economic crisis that will leave them with very slim
chances on success in the second phase of the election campaign -- the military
control over the southern Russia and political control over the executive branch
of the Russian bureaucracy. That will give the Kremlin bureaucrats an additional
incentive after the new year to try harder the diplomatic means of war to divide
the separatists with concessions to the moderates, while isolating and
neutralizing hard-liners. Making long story short, they will follow the old
imperial rule - 'divide and conquer'.
Yevgeny Primakov, the former Prime Minister, thus assessed the situation, urging
the present Kremlin bureaucrats to avoid isolating themselves from the Western
bureaucrats over the Chechen separatists, while scoring some points among the
Russian patriotic commoners that will be enough to stay in power for the next
four years. Those of us "who are no longer welcomed in the West are now pushing
the country toward isolation... They need this isolation to stay in power. But
we should not allow Russia to cease being part of the international community"
of bureaucrats.
Although Primakov believes that the present Kremlin bureaucrats have overstated
their control over the Chechens, something drastic should be done to end the
banditry; which, by the way, is a form of an organized crime, and which was
organized 10 years ago by those same bureaucrats in order to stay in power but
which now is slipping away from their control. And Bill Clinton and his "dream
team" helped the Russian bureaucrats to organize the international banditry. Now
they are whining and moaning about international terrorism.
Hello! Mr. Clinton, did you get some of our billions that you gave the Kremlin
bureaucrats, who then laundered them in the Bank of New York? This is the global
encirclement of our money a la Bill and Hillary, and I am wondering if their
house in Chappaqua, New York, is a down payment of that organized crime?
12/15/99
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Victor J. Serge created this page and revised it on
04/10/03