Limonov vs. Putin

Let us stop to comprehend this information. It turns out that the president and his people take close associates of businessmen in hostages (in Gusinsky’s case it was Anton Titov and in Berezovsky’s case it was Glushkov. Two other employees of Aeroflot were arrested with him), and like Chechen terrorists or gangsters demand a ransom for the kidnapped person. In this case they demand company shares. Moreover, as Patarkatzishvili explains, the Kremlin made a mistake; in real fact Berezovsky was never linked to Aeroflot. Here is Patarkatzishvili’s explanation: “The Aeroflot case investigated since 1998 was cooked by a direct order of Primakov when he was prime minister and directed against Berezovsky. Dependently from Berezovsky’s relationship with the power it was closed and reopened again. When Berezovsky helped Putin on the elections the Prosecutor General closed down the case. When he went against Putin it reopened it. But since Berezovsky never worked in the Aeroflot it was impossible to tie him to this case, no matter how hard the Prosecutor General worked.

– But I am associating Berezovsky with Aeroflot too, the journalist notices.

– He didn’t work in Aeroflot – it’s clear. He didn’t work in Aeroflot – in other words he was never linked with any responsibilities, contracts or other actions that could be interpreted as his work with Aeroflot.

– Then why this staunch association?

– Because the power never controlled the ongoing processes and didn’t know who has Aeroflot shares; it always considered that we possess a significant share holding in Aeroflot. And wanted to strike a blow from this side.

– But stroked Glushkov instead, the journalist says.

But whom did Patarkatzishvili meet?

His answer: “Sergey Ivanov; he was still the secretary of the Security council back then.

– Did the initiative come from you or from the power? The journalist demands.

– From us, because we wanted to release Nikolay and understood what they wanted from us.

– Once they showed on television that you have met with Sergey Ivanov. Everybody thought that it was to discuss about some Georgian problems.

– No, it was when we talked about Glushkov. But everybody though it was about military bases in Georgia.

– How many times did you meet?

– Twice. Ivanov acted on Putin’s order. I was proposed to do any business but not to meddle with politics or mass media. And I have made only one condition: give us Nikolay back.

(How do you like this trade, comrades and gentlemen readers? Do you want Sergey Ivanov, merchant of living merchandise, to become Putin’s successor?)

– So how did the power formulate the conditions?

– That we sell the media empire and Berezovsky stops his political activities.

– All of your media or only e-media? The journalist asks.

– No, all of them including the newspapers. And Kommersant too.

– But if you had answered a categorical “no” it would have meant the end of negotiations about Glushkov’s fate.

– Exactly. But I didn’t say “no”. /…/

– So you left Sergey Ivanov’s office with some arrangement?

– The arrangement consisted of them telling us whom we should talk to before March 25^th.

They did. First they gave the name of Alekperov. “We had to agree with Alekperov about the selling of all of our media.” When Berezovsky and Patarkatzishvili did not succeed to agree about acceptable conditions for transferring their business they were hurried. On April 11^th (on April 9^th I arrived to Lefortovo) 2001 the FSB organized a provocation with an “escape attempt” by Glushkov from the hospital where he was just transferred under the guard of the FSB. (“Glushkov has a hereditary blood disease and he can die without a regular treatment,” Patarkatzishvili said.) “Any talks about Glushkov’s escape and the preparation to it are just a stupid FSB special operation related to the crumbling Aeroflot affair and the power’s maniacal desire to stop Berezovsky’s political activities.”

In the end Berezovsky was forced to sell his 49%-share holding of ORT to whom? -… To Putin’s close oligarch Roman Abramovich for an insignificant amount. Today Berezovsky filed a suit against Abramovich. “According to him Roman Abramovich forced him to sell his assets at a low price,” Vedomosti writes on 05.07.05 and cites Berezovsky: “It wasn’t a sale, it was a racket organized by Putin, Abramovich and the former head of the president’s administration Voloshin”, Berezovsky said.

For people who want to know where do negotiations about the fate of State hostages take place: here is what Patarkatzishvili said to the question “Where did your meetings with Ivanov take place? In the governmental residence on Kosigina, 34. On March 2^nd and 13^th 2001. Very confidentially. I was brought there by car.”

In November 2000 Berezovsky left Russia and now lives in Great Britain. As soon as ORT was taken away from him a campaign was started to take away the TV-6 channel from him. Mister Alekperov was put at work again. In Fall 2001 V. Alekperov’s Lukoyl obtained a court decision about the liquidation of TV-6 through his filial Lukoyl-Garant (junior partner of TV-6). In the beginning of January 2002 TV-6’s appeal of the court’s decision was rejected by the presidium of the Appeal Court despite the fact that the law, on which the decision was based, became invalid from January 1^st 2002.

On January 15^th 2002 president Putin announced that the State would not intervene in the situation around TV-6. In the night of January 21^st 2002 TV-6 stopped broadcasting. On January 29^th 2002 Putin gave the government an order to work out the question of creating a national sport channel in Russia. However on March 27^th 2002 the channel was given to the non-commercial partner Mediasocium headed by Evgeny Primakov and Arkady Volsky, in which E. Kiselev’s team was the junior partner. Actually the “victory” was only momentary. A few months later broadcasting on TV-6 was stopped and a sport channel started to broadcast from the TV-6 frequency.

In this chapter I have told only in general traits how the largest television channels were taken away in order to make them Kremlin’s property and Putin’s mouthpieces. Apart from this in the last years the Kremlin expropriated less significant channels, radio stations and hundreds of newspapers and journals.