002: Dorian Gray in Russia

Putin had a soul when he took over as Russia’s president in 1999. But he also had a mission of becoming Russia’s life-long dictator by eliminating all internal threats.

 

He made an offer to Russian Oligarchs: pay part of your wealth, give up all your political power, in exchange for safety and continued prosperity. If not, you will lose your power and assets.

 

Frightened, the media mogul Vladimir Gusinksy went into exile in 2000. Boris Berezovsky took the next plane out of Russia. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia’s richest man then, refused. He had contributed to parties that were not Putin’s and was politically ambitious.  

 

Khodorkovsky was charged for fraud and embezzlement, his company and assets confiscated. He was imprisoned for the next ten years. Putin was ruthless enough to rob him of everything including his freedom; but decent enough not to kill him. Putin’s mind might have said, “Misha, my mission is to rule Russia all through, and you came in my way. I had to do this Misha, sorry. Nothing personal.”

 

In that sense, Putin is like a robot from Asimov’s books. His dictatorship is not the Soviet all-invasive type. Foreign companies can sell their products in Russia, it’s ok for Moscow’s Gorky Street to dazzle like New York’s fifth avenue, Russians can have holidays abroad. Russians can do virtually anything except getting into politics, or speaking out their mind. In his first decade, high prices of oil and commodities, Russia’s riches, allowed Putin to gain the population’s silence, if not support.

 

The next speed-breaker in the path was a young guy Alexey Navalny. He spoke his mind, and for some reason, masses began listening to him. In the last ten years, Navalny has been repeatedly charged, tried, arrested. Before the presidential election, he was convicted on bogus charges to ensure he becomes ineligible as a candidate. Putin lines up candidates including a communist and a fascist in their seventies. This is to ensure the elections are multi-party as they should be in any democratic state.

*****

On 12 September 2018, I watched Putin attending an international forum at Vladivostok. Britain had just published CCTV images of two Russian men who had gone to Salisbury to kill Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy, and his daughter. A deadly chemical agent “Novichok” was applied to their house gate and spread around. Skripals were ill for a month but survived. In collateral damage, one British woman, two guinea pigs and a cat died.

 

In the Vladivostok conference, Putin was asked a question about those two men. He smirked and said he had found out who those men were. They were ordinary civilians. The following day, RT arranged an interview with those “ordinary” men, which was so badly scripted that even the well-briefed anchor couldn’t keep her face straight. The pair (implied to be gay, to remove all doubts they could be spies) said they had visited Salisbury as tourists to look at its beautiful church.

 

Private investigation revealed the men were in Russia’s secret service. GRU colonel Anatoly Chepiga (named Ruslan Bashirov for the Skripal mission) had received an award “Hero of the Russian federation” from Putin himself in 2014. Their photo together was available.

*****

Putin smirks before he lies. Some people blink their eyes, some have their ears going red. Putin smirks. In September 2018, when he lied in front of the global cameras, he smirked, but it was a new type of lie. Politicians lie regularly, but the smart ones make sure the lies are of the type that can’t be caught with evidence.

 

Putin not only lied recklessly; he arranged that ridiculous interview with the two spies posing as Russian peasants. This fabrication convinced me he simply didn’t care anymore. He took the Russian population for granted. That day, I lost whatever little respect I had left for him.

***** 

Putin has not called Alexey Navalny’s name aloud. Not once. ‘The character you mentioned’, ‘the blogger’, ‘this gentleman’ ‘the abovementioned citizen’. Putin will use any variation to avoid saying that name.

 

Alexey Navalny is a man with nine lives. Prisons didn’t break him, Novichok didn’t kill him. He released a well-researched two hour film “Putin’s Palace- story of the world’s largest bribe.” It was viewed more than 40 million times. It encapsulates how Putin with his trusted circle of friends have looted Russia over the last two decades.

 

Khodorkovsky was eventually pardoned and sent in exile to Switzerland. He promised not to interfere any more in Russian politics (or else…). Navalny has been the new unpleasant obstacle. Kremlin explains Putin doesn’t name him because he doesn’t want Navalny to get free publicity. I think the real reason is the huge discomfort Putin feels every time he thinks of the man. His being alive haunts him. He is paranoid about the man who cannot be named. Why else would a president of a superpower avoid pronouncing an opponent’s name for fifteen years?

***** 

Oscar Wilde’s lovely novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” talks about a handsome, young man wishing that his portrait should age instead of him. That’s what happens. Dorian Gray remains young and handsome, becomes narcissistic, sells his soul. Over the years, unchanged, eternally youthful and handsome, he pursues a life of pleasure and sin. Devoid of conscience, he murders the artist who created his portrait. I won’t mention the end in case you wish to read this beautiful novel.

 

Putin’s career reminds me of Wilde’s novel. It’s possible Putin had a soul and conscience at some point in his life. (Only George W. Bush managed to see his soul). To remain in power for ever, Putin sold his soul, lost his conscience. Like Dorian Gray, his crimes and sins have accumulated over the years. Just like the novel, Putin’s narcissism is a long and tragic story. Only in this case, it is also tragic for the world he occupies.

 

Ravi