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23 years after the complete defeat, the “crying Bolshevik” unexpectedly took revenge.  He voted, as Putin expected [FRAGMENT]

23 years after the complete defeat, the “crying Bolshevik” unexpectedly took revenge. He voted, as Putin expected [FRAGMENT]

Mikhail Zygar “All the people of the Kremlin”, Agora Publishing House – excerpt:

March 1, 2014 was a doomsday. Vadimir Putin officially asked the Federation Council – the upper house of the Russian parliament – for permission to use the armed forces outside the country. It is required by the constitution, but of course it is pure formality and never before has any Russian president done it. Boris Yeltsin did not ask parliament for permission to introduce troops to Chechnya, and Dmitry Medvedev did not ask for Georgia. But both argued that these situations were not a war, but an “anti-terrorist operation” or a “peace-making operation”. Putin, however, deliberately addressed parliament – the gesture itself was already symbolic. In this way, he threatened the world.

And the world was not prepared for it. The reaction was shock. But the biggest shock was Valentina Matvyenko, the president of the Federation Council, who had a day off (it was Saturday) and not much time to gather her protégés and unanimously approve the president’s decision. There was no doubt as to the results of the vote – the senators approved everything unanimously. But how to collect them?

When Valentina Matvijenko, who had been a pioneer camp tutor in her youth, found out that she needed to gather at least half of the senators, she burst out laughing hysterically. In fact, the task was one of the impossible ones. The Federation Council is not a body that works like a watch. Officially, the upper house of the Russian parliament meets in Moscow twice a month – not counting the entire winter and summer when senators are on vacation. So senators only have 15 to 20 working days a year, but not all attend meetings anyway. Turnout is usually around 50%. (this is enough to reach a quorum). But in status, senators are equal to members of the government and receive the same salary as federal ministers. But most senators do not need this salary at all. Billionaires often become members of the Federation Council and need confirmation of their position with the presence in the most important state institutions. Or they are former criminal “authorities” (and billionaires, by the way) who need senatorial status as a safeguard against criminal investigations. And only in rare cases, deserved retirees become members of the Federation Council, who have been sent away for a well-deserved rest due to great politics.

The spring session has not started yet, the Olympics in Sochi have just ended – all the senators were on vacation: some in the Alps, others on the islands. During the day, it would be difficult to reach everyone – let alone get them to work. The senators were frantically called by Matvievenko herself, her deputies, committee heads, governors – those who had private planes were ordered to take others with them – to deliver comrades of misery to Moscow, even if it meant an interruption of vacation.

The meeting was scheduled for six in the afternoon. But at six there was no quorum. Nevertheless, the chairwoman, Valentina Matvyenko, announced that it was a “technical failure” and suggested that we should start anyway – as she claimed, a few more senators had promised to arrive during the meeting. And indeed, soon the number 90 appeared on the board – latecomers were brought in.

Delivered from the French Alps, the senators were unanimous. If an unprepared viewer heard their speeches, he might think that the Federation Council approves the introduction of troops not to Ukraine, but immediately declares war on the US. “Barack Obama has crossed the red line, he has offended the entire Russian people!” – vice-chairman Vorobyev made a row. He was known as the best friend and longtime deputy of the Minister of Defense Sergei Shoygu. And as the father of the governor of the Moscow region; leaving the post of governor near Moscow, Shoygu handed it over to the son of his best friend and his godson. “Russia should recall its ambassador from Washington,” demanded the senator.

But no one spoke as dramatically as 84-year-old Senator Nikolai Ryzhkov. He didn’t say anything new. That there was a “coup d’état” in Ukraine, “brown plague” came to power and that it was the result of a conspiracy by “Americans and other Swedes”. who had already “routed Yugoslavia, Egypt, Libya, Iraq, etc.” This is the standard rhetoric of the old communist. But for Ryzhkov, both his speech and the vote itself meant triumph and complete rehabilitation. Nikolai Ryzhkov was the penultimate prime minister of the Soviet Union.

It was he who carried out the economic reforms of perestroika, which were later deemed disastrous. In 1990, he quarreled with Gorbachev, suffered a heart attack and resigned, criticizing the president of the USSR and accusing him of destroying a great country. In 1991, Ryzhkov tried to return to politics – he was the main rival of Boris Yeltsin during the first historic Russian presidential elections. Yeltsin then won in the first round, and Rizhkov took second place, receiving only 16 percent. votes. On this his political career, it would seem, ended. Ryzhkov was forgotten – although he still held some official positions, and in 2003, at the age of 74, he became a senator.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the planned economy were a life tragedy for Ryzhkov. Over the past 20 years, he has stigmatized the liberals in power, most notably Alexei Kudrin. He publicly enjoyed his dismissal. Ryzhkov and Kudrin had completely opposite views. One – former head of the economy department of the CPSU Central Committee, apologist for Marxist-Leninist philosophy; the second – a strong supporter of the market economy. Even in the late 1980s, during perestroika and the first Congresses of People’s Deputies, Ryzhkov was almost the main enemy of Anatoly Sobchak, the future mayor of St. Petersburg, head and teacher of Kudrin and Putin. In his memoir, The Road to Power, Anatoly Sobchak devoted an entire chapter to Ryzhkov, entitled “The Weeping Bolshevik Nikolai Ivanovich”. In it, he describes the prime minister as an ideal screw in the Soviet mechanism, as a representative of the nomenclature who is ready to defend its interests to the last breath.

But 23 years after his complete defeat, the “crying Bolshevik” unexpectedly recovered. The Soviet Union, of course, did not recover, but Ryzhkov’s old Soviet rhetoric suddenly became relevant, relevant, and popular. Moreover, Ryzhkov was present at a meeting of the Federation Council, during which it was decided to introduce Russian troops to Ukraine. And he himself came from Ukraine. He was born in the Donetsk region to a mining family. The “Weeping Bolshevik” was happy.

Ryzhkov, it must be said, was not the only “Ukrainian” senator voting for the introduction of troops. The president, Valentina Matvyenko, was also born in Ukraine – only to study she left for St. Petersburg, the hometown of Putin, Kudrin and Sobchak.

All members of the Federation Council voted in favor. However, the next day, Valentina Matvyenko received a reprimand, first from the presidential administration, and then another – from Putin himself that attendance was so low during the historic meeting. Only 90 people out of 168 senators.

On March 16, a referendum was held in Crimea. On the same day, the US and the European Union published the first lists of Russian prominent officials under sanctions. They included Valentina Matvyenko and senators who were the most active in bringing troops to Ukraine. Including 84-year-old Nikolai Ryzhkov. Thanks to the sanctions, Nikolai Ryzhkov suddenly became a hero. Films began to be made about him, and the federal newspapers interviewed him, calling him “the last prime minister of the empire.” The discovered patriarch of Russian politics denounced the “traitors” – Gorbachev and Yeltsin – and praised Putin for the revival of the country.

The Russian war against Ukraine continues. There is information about houses destroyed, wounded and killed. Needs are increasing hour by hour. That is why Gazeta.pl joins forces with the Polish Center for International Aid (PCPM) Foundation to support humanitarian aid for Ukrainians and Ukrainians. Anyone can join the fundraiser by making a deposit via Facebook or the website. More information in the article:

Source: Gazeta

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