The New Tsar (93 page)

22 
. The newspaper
L’Espresso
published excerpts of conversations D’Addario secretly recorded during her tryst with Berlusconi on July 20, 2009. According to diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks, American diplomats also took note of the deepening relations between and mutual admiration of Berlusconi and Putin, noting that they had to warily rebuff Berlusconi’s efforts to serve as an intermediary when relations with the United States soured badly.

23 
.
Putin: Itogi
also appeared on Nemtsov’s website,
nemtsov.ru
. An English translation by David Essel, cited here, appears on the
La Russophobe
blog,
larussophobe.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/boris-nemtsovs-white-paper-in-full/
, under the title “Putin: The Bottom Line.”

24 
.
Wall Street Journal
, June 11, 2008.

25 
. The article about Timchenko and his company, Gunvor, appeared in
The Economist
on Nov. 29, 2008. After Timchenko sued for libel, the magazine ran a clarification on July 30, 2009, saying that it accepted “Gunvor’s assurances that neither Vladimir Putin nor other senior Russian political figures have any ownership interest in Gunvor.”

26 
. The existence of the CIA’s study was disclosed to the author by two American government officials familiar with it, though it has never been made public and they would not discuss it in detail. Belkovsky first made his allegations about Putin’s wealth in an interview with the German newspaper
Die Welt
, published on Nov. 12, 2007, and repeated them in December
to
The Daily Telegraph
and thereafter to pretty much anyone who would listen.

27 
. The details of the flight were first reported by Boris Nemtsov in his blog on Dec. 18 2010, when he was fighting a libel suit filed by Timchenko because of Nemtsov’s description of him as a friend of Putin’s in a subsequent paper on corruption in Russia:
b-nemtsov.livejournal.com/93781.html
. Reuters also described the flight and the construction of the palace in an article that was part of an investigative series called “Comrade Capitalism,” May 21, 2014. The allegations—along with considerable evidence—came from one of their partners, Sergei Kolesnikov, who went public in late 2010 with an open letter to Dmitri Medvedev about the scheme. He has since described the palace in numerous interviews, including, especially, in
The Financial Times
, Nov. 11, 2013. Karen Dawisha also details the scandal in
Putin’s Kleptocracy
, pp. 295–304; as does Ben Judah in
Fragile Empire
, pp. 116–21.

CHAPTER 19: THE REGENCY

1 
. See Solzhenitsyn’s interview in
Der Spiegel
a year before his death, July 23, 2007,
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/spiegel-interview-with-alexander-solzhenitsyn-i-am-not-afraid-of-death-a-496003.html
.

2 
.
New York Times
, Jan. 28; Sakwa,
Crisis of Russian Democracy
, p. 279.

3 
.
New York Times
, Jan. 29, 2008.

4 
. From a diplomatic cable by a senior State Department official, dated June 20, 2008, released by WikiLeaks.

5 
.
New York Times
, July 17, 2008.

6 
. Roxburgh, p. 237.

7 
. According to the subsequent investigations by the European Union and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), only two Russian soldiers died in the initial barrage, while several others were wounded.

8 
. Yuri Ushakov, the former Russian ambassador who had returned to Moscow to serve as Putin’s foreign policy adviser in the prime minister’s office, cited in a diplomatic cable from the American ambassador in Moscow, John Beyrle, dated Aug. 26, 2008, released by WikiLeaks.

9 
. The timing of Putin’s calls to Medvedev remains a matter of dispute. Medvedev has maintained that he issued the order to begin military action before he spoke with Putin, but Putin and other officials say there were repeated contacts between the two on the first morning, with Putin pushing for a more vigorous response.

10 
. Medvedev’s remarks during his presidency are also archived at the
Kremlin.ru
archive, Aug. 8, 2009.

11 
. Bush, p. 434.

12 
.
According to the European Union’s report, which laid blame on both Russia and Georgia, the losses for all sides in the fighting totaled 844. South Ossetia reported 365 deaths, including uniformed personnel and civilians; Georgia lost 170 soldiers, 14 police officers, and 228 civilians; Russia 67. Many hundreds were wounded, and thousands displaced from their homes in South Ossetia and parts of Georgia.

13 
. Bush, p. 435.

14 
. RIA Novosti, Aug. 10, 2008.

15 
.
New York Times
, Aug. 21, 2008.

16 
. Rice, p. 688.

17 
. Diplomatic cable by John R. Beyrle, Aug. 26, 2008, released by WikiLeaks.

18 
. This conversation was reported by Sarkozy’s adviser, Jean-David Levitte, in
Le Nouvel Observateur
. Although initially denied by Putin’s spokesman, the entire article was later posted on the website of the prime minister’s office:
http://archive.premier.gov.ru/eng/premier/press/world/1182/print/
.

19 
. Human Rights Watch’s report on the conflict, “Up in Flames” (2009), p. 130. The organization reported war crimes by all parties in the conflict and called for investigations that never happened.

20 
.
New York Times
, Nov. 16, 2008.

21 
. Sergei Guriev and Aleh Tsyvinski, “Challenges Facing the Russian Economy After the Crisis,” in Anders Aslund, et al., eds.,
Russia After the Global Economic Crisis
(Washington, DC: Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2010), p. 17. The study provides an overview of the crisis and the government response and many of the details cited here.

22 
. Ibid., p. 24.

23 
. Anders Aslund, Sergei Guriev, and Andrew Kuchins, “Russia’s Course: Viable in the Short Term but Unsustainable in the Long Term,” in Aslund et al., eds.,
Russia After the Global Economic Crisis
, p. 259.

24 
. Roxburgh, p. 280.

25 
.
New York Times
, Nov. 6, 2008.

26 
. The derailing of Medvedev’s agenda is based on an interview with a senior aide who would only speak on condition of anonymity. The vetting of the speech and Medvedev’s discomfort with the language that was inserted was described in a State Department cable from the American ambassador, dated the day of the speech, which was disclosed by WikiLeaks.

27 
.
New York Times
, Nov. 6, 2008.

28 
. An account of the incident, with video, can be found on
www.theotherrussia.org
, in a post dated Dec. 14, 2008.

29 
. A State Department cable by the acting chief of mission in Moscow, Eric Rubin, dated Nov. 19, 2008, and released by WikiLeaks.

CHAPTER 20: ACTION MAN

1 
. Steven Fortescue, “Putin in Pikalevo,”
Australian Slavonic and East European Studies
23, no. 1–2 (2009).

2 
. The governor’s remarks were quoted on the website
www.theotherrussia.org
, May 21, 2009. See also Anna Arutunyan,
The Putin Mystique: Inside Russia’s Power Cult
(Northampton, MA: Olive Branch Press, 2014), which includes a detailed chapter on “The Pikalevo Effect”; and
New York Times
, June 5, 2009.

3 
. Daniel Treisman, “Russian Politics in a Time of Economic Turmoil,” in Aslund et al., eds.,
Russia After the Global Economic Crisis
, p. 54.

4 
. The reports of Putin’s detachment in the initial months of 2009 were discussed in a State Department cable dated March 4, 2009, and disclosed by WikiLeaks.

5 
. The internal machinations over Putin’s decision to upend the WTO talks were discussed by the officials themselves in discussions with frustrated American and European officials, as detailed in a State Department cable, dated June 19, 2009.

6 
. See UNESCO’s website,
whc.unesco.org/en/list/900
.

7 
. Schrad, pp. 354–56.

8 
.
Kommersant
, April 28, 2010.

9 
. The closing of the investigation into Morozov’s accusations was reported without comment by RIA Novosti on April 12, 2012. Morozov detailed his accusations in an interview with
Novaya Gazeta
, published June 4, 2010. Morozov’s experience was also featured in a documentary,
Putin’s Games
, released in 2014. The author has a copy of his appeal for political asylum, which was granted in April 2010.

10 
. Details of Sergei Magnitsky’s case are from Ellen Barry’s reconstruction in
The New York Times
on Dec. 23, 2010, along with interviews with William Browder and documents he provided to the author, as well as his book
Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015).

11 
. Angela Stent,
The Limits of Partnership: U.S.-Russian Relations in the Twenty-First Century
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014), p. 231.

12 
. The FBI released hundreds of documents related to the investigation, code-named Operation Ghost Stories, on its website:
http://vault.fbi.gov/ghost-stories-russian-foreign-intelligence-service-illegals/
.

13 
.
Kommersant
, July 25, 2010.

14 
. Peter Earley, who wrote a biography of Tretyakov called
Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russia’s Master Spy in America After the End of the Cold War
(New York: Berkley Books, 2007), and considered him a friend,
reported on the circumstances of his death on his website:
www.peteearley.com/2010/07/09/sergei-tretyakov-comrade-j-has-died/
. A year later, the Russians tried and convicted, in absentia, another intelligence officer, Aleksandr Poteyev, accusing him of having betrayed the sleeper agents.

15 
. Interviewed on
Gazeta.ru
, March 30, 2010.

16 
. Several officials who worked for one of the two leaders described their agreement to respect their responsibilities as prime minister and president, though no one maintained that Putin did not have the ultimate authority.

17 
. Senior official interviewed by the author, April 2013.

18 
. The blog appeared at
top-lap.livejournal.com/1963.html
.

19 
. See Helena Goscilo, “VVP as VIP
Objet d’Art
,” p. 8; and Julie A. Cassiday and Emily D. Johnson, “A Personality Cult for the Postmodern Age,” p. 43, both in Helena Goscilo, ed.,
Putin as Celebrity and Cultural Icon
.

20 
.
Gazeta.ru
, Oct. 28, 2010.

21 
. The doctor’s remarks—and the extent of Putin’s cosmetic surgery—appeared in October 2012 on an industry website:
http://tecrussia.ru/starplastica/308-vladimir-putin-plasticheske-operacii-foto.html
.

22 
.
Rossiyskaya Gazeta
, Sept. 6, 2010.

23 
. Luzhkov’s defiant letter appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on Sept. 29, 2010,
http://www.rferl.org/content/Text_Of_Yury_Luzhkovs_Letter_To_President_Medvedev/2171682.html
.

24 
. See a report on the project by CEE BankWatch, a non-governmental organization promoting corporate governance, at
http://bankwatch.org/public-private-partnerships/case-studies/moscow-st-petersburg-motorway-section-15–58-km-deal-involvi
.