CHAPTER l: THE END OF THE COLD WAR AND THE FALL OF THE USSR
20 bring the normal life to my people. The daylight. A metaphor I adapted from the mirror-smashing scene in a movie that had only just become quite popular in the USSR, Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon!
21 shaking its political structure to the roots. George H. W. Bush and Brent Scowcroft, A World Transformed (New York: Knopf Doubleday, 1998), Kindle edition, locations 10106–07.
21 the republics will have their independence. Fred Waitzkin, Mortal Games: The Turbulent Genius of Garry Kasparov (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1993), Kindle edition, locations 594–95.
22 trying to save everything he can. Ibid.
29 a $2.5 billion aid package that had been delayed. Curt Tarnoff, U.S. Assistance to the Former Soviet Union 1991–2001: A History of Administration and Congressional Action, CRS Report for Congress, updated January 15, 2002.
29 against its enemies, both internal and external. Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism (New York: Knopf Doubleday, 2004), Kindle edition, locations 4284–85.
CHAPTER 2: THE LOST DECADE
33 crisis since the end of World War II. The US and the USSR both agreed on the creation of Israel in 1948 and were the first two countries to recognize it.
35 consensus for the American role in the world. Bush and Scowcroft, A World Transformed, Kindle edition, locations 11416–20.
37 much bloodier than we thought. David Halberstam, War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001), 29.
38 yesterday America elected the leader of the world. Garry Kasparov, “Moral Principles Must Underpin U.S. Leadership,” Wall Street Journal, November 4, 1992, A14.
40 and advancing the cause of peace. President Bill Clinton statement to the American people on Kosovo from the White House, March 24, 1999. Full text and video at http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/speech-3932.
CHAPTER 3: THE INVISIBLE WARS
42 though most are blessedly peaceful today. The Wikipedia page “Disputed territories in Europe” is fascinating reading and excellent trivia.
49 what you would have to say to him about that? President Bill Clinton’s news conference with President Boris Yeltsin of Russia in Moscow, May 10, 1995, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=51336.
50 without even telling Yeltsin. Kommersant newspaper, May 18, 1995. Referenced in John W. Parker, Persian Dreams: Moscow and Tehran Since the Fall of the Shah (Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2008), 116.
50 who promoted close political and economic ties with Iran. Ibid. 117–188.
50 a more cooperative relationship in the future. Tarnoff, “U.S. Assistance to the Former Soviet Union 1991–2001: A History of Administration and Congressional Action,” CRS report for Congress, updated January 15, 2002.
51 manage the conflicts they themselves had provoked. Steven Erlanger, “Five Years Later: Eastern Europe, Post-Communism—A Special Report; East Europe Watches the Bear, Warily,” New York Times, October 21, 1994.
52 territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine. Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, 1994, http://www.cfr.org/nonproliferation-arms-control-and-disarmament/budapest-memorandums-security-assurances-1994/p32484.
CHAPTER 4: BORN IN BLOOD
67 I can stand death—lots of it—but you can’t. Halberstam, War in a Time of Peace, 420.
69 I can’t help it. It is my character. From the film Confidential Report, aka Mr. Arkadin (1955), written and directed by Orson Welles. Later written as Welles’s only novel.
77 we’ll wipe them out in their shithouses. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s press conference in Astana, Kazakhstan, September 24, 1999.
79 Russians believed the security forces were involved in the apartment bombings. An April 2002 Levada opinion poll revealed that 43 percent of Russians thought this, while 38 percent excluded the possibility; http://www.levada.ru/press/2002041600.html.
81 liabilities that are too heavy to overcome. Garry Kasparov, “Russia’s Best Election Yet,” Wall Street Journal, December 21, 1999.
81 the most destroyed city on Earth. BBC News, “Scars remain amid Chechen revival,” March 3, 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6414603.stm.
81 has fallen in the second Chechen war. Anna Politkovskaya, A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 29.
CHAPTER 5: PRESIDENT FOR LIFE
90 the empire it served and protected: the USSR. Masha Gessen, The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin (New York: Penguin, 2012), 132.
90 the ultimate international political performance artist. Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy, Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2015), Kindle edition, locations 322–27.
91 resign early and thrust him into the presidency early. Recounted by Tatyana Yumasheva, Yeltin’s daughter and close advisor, on her website; also as reported in the Telegraph on January 23, 2010, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/7063201/Boris-Yeltsins-daughter-attacks-Vladimir-Putin.html.
92 final historical triumph of the first president of Russia. Garry Kasparov, “Yeltsin Offers New Hope for the New Year,” Wall Street Journal, January 3, 2000.
93 followed the principles of free society. George Soros, “Bitter Thoughts with Faith in Russia,” Moskovsky Novosti, February 2000.
94 very much alive and politically kicking. Andrei Piontkovsky, “For Whom Putin Tolls?” Russia Journal, February 21–27, 2000.
101 Soviet music was both obvious and shocking. Critics of American exceptionalism like Putin should keep in mind the new Russian anthem lyrics also include “You are unique in the world, one of a kind”!
CHAPTER 6: THE SEARCH FOR PUTIN’S SOUL
103 worried him most about Putin in the early days. Through all of our arguments over the years, Steve’s insight and experience make him one of my favorite “sherpas” on how the American foreign policy establishment views Russia, and why. I recommend his articles and books highly, even the ones I disagree with.
104 how are we ever going to get this right? Personal email from Steve Sestanovich to author, April 19, 2015.
105 infamous phrase of British prime minister Tony Blair. Ian Traynor and Michael White, “Blair courts outrage with Putin visit,” Guardian, March 11, 2000, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/mar/11/russia.ethicalforeignpolicy.
105 never done anything like that. It’s illegal! Interview with President Bill Clinton on Echo of Moscow radio, June 4, 2000. Cited in Michael Wines, “Clinton in Moscow: The State of Democracy,” New York Times, June 4, 2000.
106 beatings, torture and, on occasion, rape. Malcolm Hawkes, Human Rights Watch statement, March 11, 2000. Cited in the Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/mar/11/russia.ethicalforeignpolicy.
111 the Cold War really is over. Condoleezza Rice, No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington (New York: Crown, 2011), Kindle edition, locations 1450–54.
111 we will stand together. George W. Bush, Decision Points (New York: Crown, 2010). Kindle edition, locations 3589–91.
115 developing under conditions of intolerable isolation. Andrei Sakharov, “A Letter to the Congress of the United States, August 21, 1973,” published in Sakharov Speaks (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974), 211. Alexei Navalny and I borrowed this technique when we called the Magnitsky Act an “anti-Putin and therefore very pro-Russian piece of American legislation.”
115 it was taken as a rank insult! Anatoly Dobrynin, In Confidence (New York: Times Books, 1995), 163.
116 without which there can be no mutual trust. Sakharov, “A Letter to the Congress of the United States, August 21, 1973.”
116 anti-Soviet deed, but a Trotskyist deed. Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB (New York: Basic Books, 2000), 317.
116 the Soviets had to be confronted, not appeased. Natan Sharansky and Ron Dermer, The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror (New York: PublicAffairs, 2004), 3.
118 at greater risk than ourselves, who dare to resist. For some reason this remarkable historical document is difficult to find even in our era of total information. The first Google result for this quote is my own Twitter account! The speech can be found in full for download on the Jackson Foundation’s website, http://www.hmjackson.org/publications.
118 no INTERNAL AFFAIRS left on our crowded Earth! Out of respect I preserve the capital letters Solzhenitsyn used for “internal affairs” in his Nobel lecture manuscript.
119 especially if your hands are tied. Another infamous Rice statement was referring to strongman Alexander Lukashenko’s Belarus as “the last remaining true dictatorship in the heart of Europe” in 2005. This has been remembered and repeated endlessly only as Lukashenko being “the last dictator in Europe.” Worst of all, she said it while in Moscow! Even if few were ready to call Putin a dictator in 2005, why flatter him so? In 2014, Lukashenko had some revenge by saying that since Putin invaded Ukraine nobody was calling him the last dictator of Europe anymore. He was right.
121 here with the specific purpose to end the war. Quotes are from various Russian news reports; several are in English at this BBC report: “Hostage-takers ‘ready to die,’” October 25, 2002, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2360735.stm.
125 rise of anti-Semitism last year. Masha Kondrachuk and Stephen Ennis, “Jews reject Russia claims of Ukraine anti-Semitism,” BBC report, November 12, 2014, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29991777.
128 a fair trial, by Russian legal standards. Quoted in a Russian report at Grani.ru in October 2003. Ambassador Vershbow also expressed concern about Russian justice being “applied selectively.”
131 and I wish you courage! It’s available here, also with audio: http://www.rferl.org/content/Text_Of_Closing_Statement_By_Mikhail_Khodorkovsky/2208523.html.
CHAPTER 7: OFF THE BOARD, INTO THE FIRE
137 to fight for those people and to fight for those things. Garry Kasparov, “The Great Game,” Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2005.
139 orders to arrest you if you try to go. J. F. O. McAllister; Paul Quinn-Judge; Yuri Zarakhovich, “The Talks that Failed,” Time, September 13, 2004.
139 I was going to Beslan to set up talks. J. F. O. McAllister; “Communication Breakdown,” Time, September 12, 2004.
140 broke their silence to denounce it as a cover-up. “Beslan School Siege Inquiry ‘a Cover-up,’” Herald (Scotland), February 10, 2007, http://www.heraldscotland.com/beslan-school-siege-inquiry-a-cover-up-1.829305.
141 hostages who could have been saved were burned alive. David Satter, Weekly Standard 12, no. 9, November 13, 2006.
146 we will all be to blame! Gessen, The Man Without a Face, 193–94.
157 Western-style values and universal values. President George W. Bush, speaking to the pro-democracy organization Freedom House, March 29, 2006.
CHAPTER 8: OPERATION MEDVEDEV
171 “intelligent” and “of another generation.” USA Today Editorial board interview with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, December 11, 2007, http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/rice-transcript.pdf.
171 “troubling” record on human rights. All quotes are from the set of articles on Putin in the December 19, 2007, Time Person of the Year section. These included an interview in which Putin was asked why Russia’s elections weren’t more open and why I had been jailed. Putin’s amazing response: “Why did Mr. Kasparov, when arrested, speak out in English rather than Russian? When a politician works the crowd of other nations rather than the Russian nation, it tells you something.” Of course, I was addressing the many foreign reporters in English after already speaking in Russian.
172 is a potential danger to its own security. Time, “Adolf Hitler: 1938 TIME man of the year,” January 2, 1939.
175 “gravely concerned” and “strongly condemn.” Quotes from statements of the Extraordinary European Council meetings on the situation in Georgia in August 2008.
184 caused more damage to the Russian government than her writings. A remark Putin made to the press in Germany on October 10, 2006, four days after Politkovskaya’s murder.
184 dizzy with the smell of oil and gas! Václav Havel, quoted widely at the time after the event and cited in the film’s press kit.
184 highest quality in the world. All quotes are from press coverage of Medvedev’s statements at the World Russian Press Congress in Moscow on June 11, 2008.
186 Russian cities as well as on foreign soil. The 2009 murder of Kadyrov rival Sulim Yamadayev in Dubai being the most sensational. Dubai police accused Kadyrov’s cousin (and state Duma member) of the murder. Yamadayev’s brother Ruslan was killed in Moscow in 2008.
187 if NATO had approved Georgia’s MAP [Membership Application Plan] application. Bush, Decision Points, 7945–7947.
CHAPTER 9: THE AUDACITY OF FALSE HOPE
189 with Marshall and Acheson and Kennan. Said by Obama during an interview on Fareed Zakaria GPS, December 28, 2008. Obama went on to praise the foreign policy of President George H. W. Bush.
191 in all lands, everywhere. A version of this appears on a plaque in the stairwell of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.
194 inspiring rhetoric with decisive action. In my November 5, 2008, op-ed for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate and published widely. Full text available here with no paywall: http://www.theotherrussia.org/2008/11/05/kasparov-on-obama-and-how-russia-sees-america/.
195 condemn Russia’s “aggressive action.” All quotes from campaign press releases, which came out at a furious pace.
196 American exceptionalism projected by President Bush’s first term. Ben Smith, “‘Invasion of Georgia’ a ‘3 A.M. moment,’” Politico, August 9, 2008.
197 the independence of former Soviet Republics. Senator McCain’s entire August 11, 2008, statement on Georgia is worth reading: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/08/mccain_statement_on_georgia.html.
202 Mr. Putin and Mr. Medvedev should decide. Interview with Igor Yurgens at Gazeta.ru, February 2010.
207 memorably referring to BP as “Bolshoi Petroleum.” Quoted widely in the press, January 14, 2011. Representative Markey was the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee at the time.
210 policy toward Russia has been: “We give, Russia gets.” Mitt Romney, “Bowing to the Kremlin,” Politico, March 27, 2012.
210 dismissed his claims as political bluster. Mitt Romney, No Apology: The Case for American Greatness (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2010), Kindle edition, locations 4916–20.
216 docile people and they were attacked unfairly. Transcript of the Fox News video clip that’s still available online: http://video.foxnews.com/v/1624799524001/anti-putin-rallies-continue-in-russia/?#sp=show-clips.
CHAPTER 10: WAR AND APPEASEMENT
226 Rotenberg alone received $7.4 billion in contracts. “Castles in the Sand,” Economist, July 13, 2013.
233 Tokyo in 1940 and Rome in 1944. They were canceled due to the outbreak of World War II. The next Olympic Games were in London in 1948.
233 a piece of Putin’s neo-USSR. Garry Kasparov, “Les Jeux et la vérité,” Le Monde, February 24, 2014.
234 before I’d finished saying the word “Berlin.” My aide Mig Greengard started calling this “the Hitler eye roll” during my many interviews before and during Sochi. He also noted that the eye rolls over these comparisons mostly stopped after Putin annexed Crimea as I’d warned he would.
238 “It’s not meant in a personal way.” John Kerry press conference in London, March 14, 2014.
244 wishes about “mobilizing the international community.” Obama actually said this (“Remarks by President Obama and President Poroshenko of Ukraine After Bilateral Meeting,” September 18, 2014). Many of his remarks look like a parody of diplomatic doubletalk: “And we are going to continue to seek to mobilize the international community to say to Russia that Ukraine desires to have a good relationship with all of its neighbors, both East and West, and that there should be a way in which Ukraine is able to negotiate and trade, and continue the people-to-people links between Ukraine and Russia, but that Russia cannot dictate to them their ability to work effectively with other partners in order to better the situation for the Ukrainian people.” Russia had just invaded Ukraine!
CONCLUSION
251 Kim Jong-il and those similar to him understand. Václav Havel, “Time to Act on N. Korea,” Washington Post, June 18, 2004.
256 calling the murder a “provocation.” Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, expressed this just hours after the murder. Putin repeated it the next day.
258 justice that seemed further away all the time. The entire 2011 Nemtsov report “Putin.Corruption” is available online in Russian and English at http://www.nemtsov.ru/old.phtml?id=706613. Thousands of printed copies were seized and destroyed as “extremist literature,” of course.
260 not merely a cockpit in a Tower of Babel. Actually titled “Sinews of Peace,” it’s simply known as the “Iron Curtain Speech” forevermore. It’s worth reading, or hearing, in full if only to marvel at how Churchill, famous for soaring rhetoric, was also keen to discuss an array of details and policy in his speeches. Text and audio here: http://www.winstonchurchill.org/resources/speeches/1946-1963-elder-statesman/the-sinews-of-peace.
260 the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. Mark 2:22 (New International Version).
263 “wake me up when they take Poland.” As actually said to me by Bill Maher on his show Real Time on May 1, 2015.