Former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar
The Russian government has been widely blamed in the Western media for the recent murders of the Russian journalist Anna Politovskaya and former FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko. The day after Litvinenko died from radiation poisoning, Yegor Gaidar, the former Russian Prime Minister who served with President Boris Yeltsin, became violently ill while visiting Ireland.
Mr. Gaidar, along with Anatoly Chubais, was one of the architects of Russia’s “privatization” schemes during the 1990s, and as a result is not well-loved by ordinary Russians. I have heard Mr. Gaidar speak at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington D.C. twice in the last three years. In the years since he left government service, he has traveled around the world delivering presentations strongly critical of Putin’s administration.
If Gaidar had died as a result of poisoning, it would have been very difficult to argue that the Kremlin was not behind this recent wave of political assassinations. However, Mr. Gaidar survived, and the first thing he did when he became conscious enough to make his own decisions was to fly back to Moscow. Mr. Gaidar apparently feels safer receiving medical treatment close to the Kremlin than he does abroad. That fact should give Westerners who assume that the Russian government sanctioned these awful crimes pause.
People accusing Putin of having his enemies shot and poisoned should ask the following questions: why kill a journalist who has not been politically important for five years, who has been caught fabricating facts, and who was more well-known in America than in Russia? Why poison a former spy who defected seven years ago and has lost all credibility? In addition to accusing the FSB of blowing up apartment buildings in Moscow, Mr. Litvinenko claimed that Russian security services supported Al-Qaeda and the terrorists who committed the Beslan atrocity.
The last question which comes to mind is: why would a person who survived this apparent assassination campaign fly back to Moscow?
President Putin called Mr. Gaidar at a Moscow hospital and wished for him to get better soon. Gaidar’s daughter has been unequivocal: she and her father feel much safer in Russia than in Great Britain, where oligarchs the Russian government accuses of funding terrorism and murder enjoy political asylum.
We know that whoever ordered these murders timed them for the maximum amount of publicity and wanted Mr. Litvinenko’s death to be a media event. The idea that any sane government would kill someone in such a way as to leave a trail of radioactive material all over London pushes all bounds of plausibility.
Please read this short BBC News report from December 4, 2006:
Former Russian PM leaves hospital
Mr Gaidar was rushed to intensive care after collapsing in Dublin
Ex-Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar has left hospital in Moscow following a mystery illness, a spokesman has said.
Doctors have yet to reveal their diagnosis, but have said his internal organs suffered "radical changes".
Doctors in Ireland, where Mr Gaidar first fell ill, had already said he did not have radiation poisoning.
Last week, Mr Gaidar's daughter said she suspected his illness was linked to the fatal radiation poisoning of the former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko.
Mr Gaidar, a 50-year-old economist, served as Russia's prime minister under Boris Yeltsin following the break-up of the Soviet Union.
Allegation
Although Irish doctors ruled out radiation poisoning, there was no indication of why his health deteriorated so rapidly.
He fell ill a day after Mr Litvinenko died in London after being poisoned with the radioactive element polonium-210.
Mr Gaidar's daughter, Maria, quickly made the connection and claimed her father had been poisoned by people seeking to destabilise Russia.
When pushed to define who she meant, she said elements within the Russian security services and opponents of the government who were now living in exile abroad.
Comments
I'm having a hard time understanding the premise of this post (although I see "survival" has been replaced with "return to Moscow" in the header) - so, what's happening is the work of sinister forces trying to UNDERMINE the Kremlin? Berezovsky, Nevzlin? In that case, if any of this ever gets traced to them, they'll certainly lose their refugee status in England, Israel, or wherever they might go. Then, its off to Siberia to hang with Mr. Khodorkovsky. So, what's in it for them?
As for Gaidar, he is not just the author of "privatization schemes", but one of the individuals that dragged Russia into the modern age by liberalizing the economy and preventing widespread hunger (especially grain deliveries) that was about to begin in early 1992. The claim that he is "not well-loved" by the ordinary Russians is the reflection of the sad fact that the Kremlin is hard at work perpetuating the myth that the 1990's were a period of chaos and shame. Then, Mr. Putin swept in on a white horse and "stability" followed. Historical revisionism, nothing more. Gaidar mentioned all of this at his AEI lecture, which I was priviledged enough to attend as well.
Posted by: igor | December 6, 2006 5:28 PM
I want to say - thank you for this!
Posted by: Natasha | January 21, 2007 10:26 AM
The type of leader for for the type of country is what I basically stand for, for example the return of Comandante Daniel Ortega as president of Nicaragua, came no surpise to me, anyone who's ever been there knows that the 16 years of "democratic capitalism" has been an utter disaster! rampant corruption, High crime rates, collapsed infraestructure 98 hrs of energy outages(no matter that the company has been in private hands since the early 90's, and more than 80 percent of the country's population impoverished, and unemployment reaching above 60 percent!! and nearly 1.000.000 children with no classrooms. The people eventually came around and voted for something that actually works, and for one who actually knows how to get things to actually work!! His methods may not be accepted by "western standards" but as a former regular in the Sandinista Army, who knew what REALLY went on in the ground, who gives a flying @#!!**? KUDOS TO MR. VLADIMIR PUTIN, HE IS TRYING TO SAVE THAT GREAT NATION FROM FURTHER DESTROYING ITSELF WITH THE TACIT HELP OF THE "WEST'S" HAIRY HANDS. The Latin American people already are waking up (Hell! Even in the USA!!) And thank you Mr. Putin for supporting the recent transformations in the nations of the Condor and Quetzal, you have my unconditional gratitude and support!
Posted by: John P Ovando | January 31, 2007 9:04 PM
No politician is fully tested until he has not only fought for power in opposition but captured power and used it.For a rebel, the real examination begins when the long passage through the political wilderness is over and there is no one left to rebel against. what has he done to Russia since 1991? Was it what he set out to do? Is he the same man as he was in 1991?
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dhananjay
Trivia Game Challenge
Posted by: dhananjay | August 17, 2008 10:49 PM