Amy Knight’s expose book on the Putin Regime begins with an
eye-opening depiction of how the current political system evolved and how it
works. After the fall of the Soviet Union, President Boris Yeltsin disbanded
the KGB spy service. This released a flood of spies who used their connections
and skills to obtain positions in various areas of government and economy. Some
began using their covert skills in support of the rising rich, some switched to
other government branches, some became employees of the growing organized crime
organizations. Relationships between former KGB agents knit these three groups
together in a form of mutual support. There would always be competition between
various factions and individuals, even killings, but they understood that
maintaining their position depended on each other.
Then “Yeltsin, an impulsive, erratic leader, whose
commitment to democracy was half-hearted, faced popular opposition and thus
needed the police and security organs to keep him in power. So he
systematically rebuilt these agencies…By the time Vladimir Putin became Russian
president in 2000, the security services had become every bit as powerful as
the former KGB” (Knight, p. 32). With Putin, a former KGB administrator, the
cooperation between new security agencies, organized crime, new wealthy
oligarchs and government became even more cohesive. The new president appointed
many former KGB colleagues to the highest posts in government, called “power
ministries.” These individuals are called “Siloviki.” They are “former members
of the Communist Party. But they believe in economic nationalism, a
centralized, authoritarian government, and the restoration of the supposed
greatness of the Soviet Union” (Knight, p. 33). They also believe in amassing
personal wealth and are willing to use corrupt practices to do so. With such
cohesive power, economic ambition and their web of connections, they tolerate
no internal dissent, political opposition or media scrutiny of their dealings.
Hundreds of reporters and opposition politicians have been assassinated.
Because police and security agencies are part of the system
that orders assassinations, subsequent trials convict trigger men, but not the
functionaries ordering these murders. Even if a persistent, unconnected
investigator or attorney were able to make a case, “telephone justice”
determines the outcome: “a call from someone higher in rank than the judge or
prosecutor giving instructions as to how the case should be resolved…telephone
justice, accompanied often by monetary bribes, and even threats of violence,
prevails…because Russia has no tradition of a democratic legal process”
(Knight, p. 58).
After this depiction, Knight focuses specifically on the
most high profile murders of pro-democracy politicians and journalists. This is
where the author’s narrative moves from solid historical evidence to facts
mixed with fuzzy speculation. Her examples exhibit a spectrum of reliability.
On one end of this spectrum are murders that were likely carried-out by Putin’s
government, such as the 2006 poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London.
There, the “British High Court in January 2016” concluded “that Litvinenko was
killed most probably on Kremlin orders” (Knight, p. 8). On the other end of the
spectrum are doubtful claims and a few frankly crack-pot theories, like the
assertion that the Boston Marathon bombers of November 2011 were “pawns in the
hands of Russian security services” (Knight, p. 254). In between these extremes
are a multitude of cases tried in Russia where culpability cannot be properly
ascertained due to government interference and absence of evidence. This is
hardly a ringing endorsement of the author’s investigative prowess or the
strength of her cases. But even if one assassination of a pro-democracy victim
were carried out by the Putin regime, it is an indictment of that regime’s
integrity. Would the citizens of any legitimate democracy tolerate a murder
committed by their president?
The question that should concern most US citizens, given
Russia’s combined government-espionage-crime-business system, is: What kind of
business relationship does Donald Trump have with Russia? The CIA, FBI and NSA, agree that Russian espionage efforts attempted to disrupt
US elections to favor Trump. Business relations do exist between Trump and this
nefarious Russian system. Donald Trump, for his part, has expressed a
perplexing, admiration for Putin that has persisted in spite of hacking and
international aggression by Russia. Trump has even gone so far as to defend the
murders discussed in Knight’s book. When Fox News Host, Bill O’Reilly, reminded
Trump that “Putin was a killer,” Trump responded “We’ve got a lot of killers.
What, you think our country’s so innocent?” (Knight, p. 280). The current
President of the United States even fired the FBI director investigating
Russian election interference, and bragged to Russian diplomats that he did it to
ease pressure from the investigation.**
The connection between Trump’s businesses and Putin’s criminal system
should be fully disclosed.
Amy Knight writes with aplomb that Putin is directly
responsible for the ever growing piles of journalist and opposition politician
corpses in Russia. She catalogs the evidence and conclusions of others with the
dedicated hand of a court stenographer. But, for all of her confidence, she is
not a convincing prosecutor. She lacks both the necessary evidence and the
sleuthing ability to place a smoking gun in the hands of a Putin functionary.
The most she can do, from the safety of North America, is to introduce the
statistical likelihood that, out of the crushing hundreds of assassinations,
Putin is responsible for at least a few. The victims deserve a more probing
book. Unfortunately, most of those who attempted first-hand investigation have
already been killed. So perhaps being an ally to opposition journalists and
compiling the cases is all we can ask a writer to risk.
However, this does not detract from what the book provides
for US and international audiences. First, it creates a clear picture of the collaborators
with, and agencies of, Putin’s regime. Second, it presents a record of
assassinations, revealing a consistent pattern of violence against regime
critics. Though a reader will not observe a direct connection between Putin and
any individual crime, she will find her view of Russian politics expanded.
Knight, Amy. Orders to Kill. The Putin Regime and Political
Murder. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2017.
**https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/19/us/politics/trump-russia-comey.html.
“Trump Told Russians That Firing ‘Nut Job’ Comey Eased Pressure From
Investigation.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 May
2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/05/19/us/politics/trump-russia-comey.html.
No comments:
Post a Comment