Zhirinovsky's Russian Empire
- Thread starter Pellegrino
- Start date
Well, for the short term Central Asia (excluding Kazhakstan) will be a virtual Somaliland in the UIS, their membership despite not asking or agreeing to enter the UIS will be adress soon. But once Zhiri gets what he wants in Russia and Europe, he will be moving south. As for Korea, I doubt we will se much from them. Korea just doesn't interest Vlad much, and he really has no use for Kim Il Sung. He is only going to focus on his Greater Russia for the short term. Now China, which has a existing border dispute with Russia, well, that may be a different matter in later years...
Well, for the short term Central Asia (excluding Kazhakstan) will be a virtual Somaliland in the UIS, their membership despite not asking or agreeing to enter the UIS will be adress soon. But once Zhiri gets what he wants in Russia and Europe, he will be moving south. As for Korea, I doubt we will se much from them. Korea just doesn't interest Vlad much, and he really has no use for Kim Il Sung. He is only going to focus on his Greater Russia for the short term. Now China, which has a existing border dispute with Russia, well, that may be a different matter in later years...
I actually meant the Koreans and Chinese in the Russian Far East, like in Vladivostok etc.
Also, could any of his family get involved in this timeline? As in have a part in the government?
Ahh, well, I don't think the Koreans will be much of an issue for him, but the Chinese might have a rough go of things in the coming years.
as for him family...I doubt it. But once again, you never know!
Ahh, well, I don't think the Koreans will be much of an issue for him, but the Chinese might have a rough go of things in the coming years.
as for him family...I doubt it. But once again, you never know!
Also, when is he going to punch Tony Blair? I believe it was advertised, i am expecting it.
Can't wait!
Feels like real life.
Also, when is he going to punch Tony Blair? I believe it was advertised, i am expecting it.
*wink wink nudge nudge*
Also, when is he going to punch Tony Blair? I believe it was advertised, i am expecting it.
.
Hate to say it, but not until after he becomes PM. Which In OTL happens in 1997. So you guys might be waiting for awhile.
Hmmm, great questions. The great thing about this TL is that although I have some ideas and a general plan on how things move forward, I've already made some radical changes from what I originally planned (Gennady Burblis was originally a bit player in this TL, but now i have so much fun writing his "autobiography" that he's almost the second star of this TL). So some of these questions I don't feel ready to answer since I might switch gears on. As you might have noticed, I like to follow current events and try and tie them into the TL whenever I can and I love the suggestions from members and ideas that I've gotten from you guys as well. Since 1, 2, and 5 won't become issues in the short term, perhaps in 1994 or so, I have not yet committed to anything there.
as for free vodka, yes, I think so, but I'm debating two different angles with it (he takes power and this is his first act, or he is losing power and tries to bribe people into liking him again). Polygamy was an idea that I didn't even consider until I started this TL, but has really interested me since. I am considering a few things on that as well. And rearming Russia? We will absolutely see that. Right now i have some ideas on the next two posts(Romania and Yugoslavia and the UDR to UIS transition), but after that I will be looking at how things developed and input from you guys to decide where to go from there.
Wow, this is amazingly well-written. The articles feel real and they really seem like they were pulled out of the past. Very realistic, well done. Mad props to you, homie.
The incident with the German chancellor made me lulz hard.
Thank you!
PART TWENTY SIX: A TRUE RUSSIAN
PART TWENTY SIX: A TRUE RUSSIAN
PART TWENTY SIX: A TRUE RUSSIAN
Russian protesters storm parliament building, Government collapses!
By James Maxwell
Reuters
July 16, 1992
UDR President Viktor Alksnis as he declared a state of emergency in the UDR
UDR President Viktor Alksnis declared a state of emergency today after opposition protesters, proclaiming a "white revolution," stormed the Russian Parliament forcing the Russian Prime Minister to flee to the German embassy and seek asylum. However, Alksnis’ orders appear to be falling on deaf ears with the UDR military, where soldiers appear to have gone on strike over the federal government’s inability to pay them.
In scenes almost identical to the "people power" protests in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Eastern Europe just three years ago, over one hundred thousand Russians took to the streets last week to support the Russian President after he was arrested for throwing horse feces at the American embassy in Washington. The brief trial captivated the country and after the verdict was handed down thousands of protesters stormed various government buildings, including two of the offices of the UDR state media: VGTRK and Yunov. However, it appears that for many Russians, the protests are aimed not at bringing democracy to the former Soviet Union, but rather ending it.
“We were told for decades on Voice of America that the United States would help us if we ever chose to embrace capitalism,” yelled protester Vladimir Peretyatko, “well we did, and what did we get? Sanctions and economic ruin! We extended our hand in friendship to them and they spit on us!”
It is a sentiment shared by tens of thousands of Russians, who are not seeking more freedom, but an end to the economic policies that have wiped out almost every Russians’ life savings and made even the most basic items prohibitively expensive.
“I make just over 10,000 rubles a week at a factory,” Peretyatko added, “and right now a bag of flour cost 350,000 rubles! They never adjusted our salaries for these changes they forced down our throats! Of course, if you worked in the Duma, they remembered you then. I noticed Silayev voted to raise his pay twice after he implemented these so called reforms!”
Over ten thousand Russians demanding Prime Minister Ivan Silayev resignation took to the streets of the capital Moscow while troops under the command of UDR Marshal Alexander Lebed stood aside.
As the UDR plunged deeper into crisis, early indications are that UDR president Alksnis’ orders are being ignored as more and more members of the now crumbling federal government have abandoned their post. Russian President Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who has captured the support of many of the protesters, has promised that “the short, horrible era of Russian groveling has come to an end” and indicated that the Russian government will no longer be honoring their obligations to the UDR federal infrastructure, although he has come short of calling for a complete dissolution of the union that holds Russia and the former republic’s of the USSR together.
“We will still honor all of our obligations in regards to the UIS treaty we signed with Armenia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Georgia,” he told supporters, “we will still be a unified country and we will still extend membership into the UIS to other former Soviet republics that have not been permitted to vote on the issue such as Uzbekistan and Latvia. But we will no longer work with the UDR if they are unwilling to defend Russians from not only Germany, America, and Estonian fascist thugs, but from something as simple as inflation and corruption.”
Protesters in Moscow on July 16th, 1992 (AP)
“My Russia- An Autobiography by former Russian Prime Minister Gennady Burbulis”
Published by Interbook, © 1998
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
I stood up when I heard the protesters break into the Duma. I was not going to let them see me defeated and weak. Aleksandr Korzhakov had cursed himself for not bringing his gun; he wanted to end it there. But secretly I was glad he didn’t. I wasn’t going to go out like Boris Pugo. I was going to look Zhirinovsky in the face and let him know I wasn’t afraid of him. I was going to show him that I still remember him as the weak, little man who was afraid to come to the White House last year during the coup. Just because he had hundreds of men with him didn’t change the fact that he was a coward! I almost relished it, because even if they tore me apart right then and their, deep down, Vladimir Zhirinovsky would know that I faced death like a man. All his nationalistic talk couldn’t change one simple fact. That deep down, in his soul, he knew I would always be more of a Russian, and more of a man, than he would ever be.
The door was kicked open and knocked off its hinges. Now there was no question. We were dead. We had left the door unlocked, and the fact that this crazed group of thugs couldn’t be bothered to check the door before kicking it in told us that all reason had abandoned them. I said a silent prayer and prepared to face the man who single-handedly destroyed Russia. I only hoped they would not beat me first, that perhaps he would walk in and they would shoot us quickly and not feel the need to drag us through the streets and hang us from Kymsky Bridge like Mussolini. However, once they saw us, the crowd froze.
“Comrade President,” a young man with a rope in front yelled, “I found them! They are here, hiding like dogs!”
“I am not hiding,” I spat back at the young man, “you can only hope that you face death with as much courage and resolve when you die!”
Zhirinovsky walked into the room and slowly pushed a chair away from the door. He looked around and glared at me.
“Where is Silayev?” he asked angrily, “where is the traitor Silayev?!”
Though I hated Zhirinovsky, I was not going to dignify Silayev’s cowardice with any feeble attempt to defend his acts.
“He fled.” I said, “He ran off and defected to the German embassy.”
“Why didn’t you join him?”
“Because I am not a coward,” I said, “I am willing to stay and die for my country if that is what it takes.”
My words must have given Korzhakov some resolve. He stood up and looked right in Zhirinovsky’s eyes and said: “As will I. I would rather die a Russian patriot, standing here for my country than to run from a man like you.”
I saw a young man in front open his jacket and pull out a small handgun. Where was Lebed? How could he let a few thousand fascists take over the Duma? Where was his martial law when we needed it? Although I knew this was preferable to being dragged and beaten in the streets, I still felt my knees buckle. But I would not give them the satisfaction of knowing I was scared.
“What are you doing?” Zhirinovsky yelled at the young man with the gun, “put that thing away!”
The young man sheepishly put the gun back in his pocket and cowered before Zhirinovsky like a dog that had just been scolded. I was devastated. He was going to make a spectacle of this. He was going to hang us from the Kymsky Bridge.
Zhirinovsky then did something that still shocks me to this day. He grabbed me and hugged me as hard as he could and lifted me into the air and laughed.
“Comrade Burbulis has shown us what a true Russian is!” Zhirinovsky said as he turned and faced the crowd, “he has shown us that a Russian, a true Russian, will look death in the eye without flinching and die for his country! We could all learn something from this great patriot! With a men like this fighting for our country, I know the Turks and Germans don’t stand a chance!”
I looked over at Korzhakov whose jaw was open as the crowd all took turns grabbing his hand and patting him on the back. He looked over at me as if he was not sure if it was some sort of strange dream.
“Comrades!” Zhirinovsky said as he climbed onto the table to face the crowd, “With the help of great, great patriots like Comrade Korzhakov and Comrade Burbulis we have succeeded in taking back out country from the German spy Ivan Silayev! Now is your hour! And I promise you this! By this time tomorrow, those traitors who stole your money will no longer be able to steal from you again! By tomorrow night they will all be spending eternity with the German spies and American imperialist at the bottom of the Moskva River!”
Rioters storm the Russian Duma
UIS Presidential Candidate Vladimir Putin in an interview with the BBC on August 1, 2011.
Discussing his decision to join the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia in July of 1992.
Putin: Like many former KGB agents, I found that my failure to rally behind Viktor Ivanenko during the failed coup had hurt me. I had no job, no income. So when General Dubynin called me and asked me to take over the Russian KGB from Director Ivanenko, who was being promoted, I gladly accepted. General Dubynin recognized that, as radical changes swept through the country, people stopped really paying mind to who supported the communists the previous year. That was yesterday’s news. What was important today was who could be counted on to end the lawlessness that was threatening to destroy the country. He saw how Marshal Lebed was unwilling to send troops to stop Zhirinovsky’s fascist thugs from seizing the Duma. All Marshal Lebed had to do was send one hundred soldiers to the Duma to protect it from Zhirinovsky, but he refused. General Dubynin and I saw what was going on: Lebed wasn’t done with Vladimir Zhirinovsky, not yet. But we were not going to let twenty thousand fascists destroy our country. There were better ways to get rid of Ivan Silayev.
BBC: But then why join joined the Liberal Democratic Party and pledged an oath to support President Zhirinovsky?
Putin: You need to understand, once he had General Dubynin arrested, I had to take steps to protect myself. I couldn’t do anything if I were sitting in a jail cell like General Dubynin. After Vladimir Zhirinovsky seized control of the Russian government from Ivan Silayev, everything changed. The night after the mob seized the Russian Parliament over 100 Muscovites were killed. Mostly members of the opposition Party for a Free and Democratic Russia and independents like Silayev. Many of those who were joining the LDP didn’t really agree with its policies, they did so out of fear or for a desire for power. Five hundred former communists who switched parties formed the Communist Wing of the LDP in August of 1992! How could you have a Communist Wing of the LDP? The party didn’t care if you were a communist or a fascist or even a monkey! As long as you paid fealty to Zhirinovsky, and didn’t question the party’s nationalistic rhetoric and strong armed tactics, that was all that mattered. You could be a communist and rant and rave about Lenin and central planning, but as long as you finished the sentence with “thankfully we have a man like Zhirinovsky who is standing up to the West like Lenin did,” then they didn’t mind. The biggest problem was if you said you wanted freedom and democracy. That could get you arrested.
BBC: Many people openly question your criticism of these policies considering the fact that you, as head of the KGB, ordered many of these actions. Amnesty International called you the “architect of the official State policy of mass disappearances and mass shootings” that you claim now to be appalled by.
Putin: (Long Pause): Until you live in a country ruled by a man like Vladimir Zhirinovsky, you can never truly appreciate how difficult it is to speak up against crimes like these.
CNN interview with Jack Matlock, former ambassador to the USSR
August 18, 2000
CNN: Why did Zhirinovsky recruit men like Aleksandr Korzhakov and Gennady Burbulis, both former liberals, as well as a former KGB agent like Vladimir Putin?
Matlock: It is hard to say; probably the biggest reason was because there was still a chance of civil war between the liberals and hardliners. His success in seizing the Duma had less to do with the number of his supporters than it did with the fact that the military and the police were on strike. And also keep in mind that, thanks to Zhirinovsky’s disastrous plan of flooding Russia with AK-47s, many supporters of Mikhail Arutyunov had guns and lots of them. They all saw this day coming since the failed coup, and had armed to the teeth as a result. So by recruiting liberals into the new government it was enough to fool the liberals and the Arutyunov supporters into believing that this would look a lot like the previous government that it replaced: with an even balance between liberals and hardliners working together to slowly implement change, but not embrace radical change like the unpopular “shock therapy” of the Silayev government. And for the conservatives like Putin, well, Zhirinovsky discovered that former Gorbachev loyalist Anatoly Lukyanov still remained one of his strongest supporters after his infamous “I am not Stalin speech”. Zhirinovsky was very clever that way; he would give those people who had nothing a second chance and they tended to be the most loyal supporters.
CNN: So why was Zhirinovsky so determined to kill off the UDR and get rid of Viktor Alksnis? Didn’t that run contrary to his dream of a greater Russia?
Matlock: Yes, but NATO expansion became so frightening to him that he was willing to gamble with the country to stop it and counter it. He knew that the UDR couldn’t just annex countries into it, but a looser confederation, or at least a looser confederation on paper, could claim that they were simply a Slavic version of NATO and do so. But Alksnis still refused to believe that he was not leader of the country. He was unwilling until the very end to surrender power, and until that mob got to him he remained defiant that the UDR was the true successor state to the USSR, and not the UIS.
German Chancellor Reiterates calls for Zhirinovsky’s resignation; calls UDR President a “nobody”
The Scotsman
July 22, 1992
The German Chancellor Helmut Kohl spoke to reporters in Berlin today, and reiterated his position that Vladimir Zhirinovsky was a “dangerous despot” and also reiterated the official German and British position that sanctions would not be lifted until the Russian president was removed from office.
“Claims by the Russian government that the Zhirinovsky threat has been neutralized clearly have been proven incorrect,” commented Chancellor Kohl at a press conference, “he has shown time and time again that he has no regard not only for international law, but for Russian law as well.”
The Chancellor also indicated that the German government will no longer recognize the UDR confederation, calling it “a political fiction that no longer serves any purpose or exercises any real power inside the borders of the former Soviet Union.”
Kohl told reporters that Germany would also take steps to recognize the independence of all of the former Soviet Republics. He indicated that this would also include Belarus, and Ukraine, two republics that, as of yet, had not taken any steps towards independence. He also referred to UDR President Viktor Alksnis as “a nobody” and indicated that the Germans would no longer recognize that he held any authority in the country.
“After watching Russian troops stand by and watch as Viktor Alksnis was dragged from his home and beaten up by an angry mob, it is clear that he does not control the country,” Kohl told reporters, “the fact that Mr. Alksnis was only able to save his life by pledging fealty to Vladimir Zhirinovsky proves what the German government has been saying all along: that it is Zhirinovsky who really controls the country.”
The Russian embassy in Berlin fired back an angry response to the threats of formal recognition of Belarus and Ukraine, indicating that the UIS now recognized the independence of Bavaria, Saxony, and Adenauerallee Street in downtown Bonn.
CNN interview with James Baker, former Secretary of State under President George H.W. Bush
July 13, 1997
CNN: Why did President Bush follow Chancellor Kohl’s’ lead in formally ending recognition of the UDR in July of 1992? Didn’t that just help Zhirinovsky continue his consolidation of power?
Baker: I don’t think so. By July 20th it was clear that Viktor Alksnis had no power and the UDR was finished. When he was dragged from his home by that mob, it was over for him. His screams that he was a loyal LDP member sounded almost comical, and when he pleaded his undying support for Vladimir Zhirinovsky as the mob kicked him and spat on him, there was no way he would ever emerge as a viable opponent to Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
CNN: But didn’t the threat to preemptively recognize the independence of Belarus and Ukraine also threaten to alienate moderate Russians who might have emerged?
Baker: Yes, but we hoped that it would motivate the Ukrainians and Belarusians to take the initiative and break free from Moscow. We wanted them, and all the republics, to know we would support them.
CNN: But why would they believe you when the Americans had already broken their promise of support in regards to the free-market reforms of the Silayev government?
Baker: In hindsight we didn’t appreciate the fear that Azerbaijan and the Zhirinovsky takeover in Moscow had created all across the former Soviet Union. Nobody would dare stand up to Zhirinovsky after that.
CNN: So that is how Zhirinovsky became a full fledged dictator?
Baker: Yes...but...the interesting thing is in hind sight we missed some very unusual clues. You know, nobody ever harassed General Ivanenko or General Lebed. And it was Lebed troops who were supposed to be protecting Alksnis. They were the ones who let the mob seize him. And even after Zhirinovsky seized power, the generals and the military always seemed…I don’t know…immune.
PART TWENTY SIX: A TRUE RUSSIAN
Russian protesters storm parliament building, Government collapses!
By James Maxwell
Reuters
July 16, 1992
UDR President Viktor Alksnis as he declared a state of emergency in the UDR
UDR President Viktor Alksnis declared a state of emergency today after opposition protesters, proclaiming a "white revolution," stormed the Russian Parliament forcing the Russian Prime Minister to flee to the German embassy and seek asylum. However, Alksnis’ orders appear to be falling on deaf ears with the UDR military, where soldiers appear to have gone on strike over the federal government’s inability to pay them.
In scenes almost identical to the "people power" protests in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Eastern Europe just three years ago, over one hundred thousand Russians took to the streets last week to support the Russian President after he was arrested for throwing horse feces at the American embassy in Washington. The brief trial captivated the country and after the verdict was handed down thousands of protesters stormed various government buildings, including two of the offices of the UDR state media: VGTRK and Yunov. However, it appears that for many Russians, the protests are aimed not at bringing democracy to the former Soviet Union, but rather ending it.
“We were told for decades on Voice of America that the United States would help us if we ever chose to embrace capitalism,” yelled protester Vladimir Peretyatko, “well we did, and what did we get? Sanctions and economic ruin! We extended our hand in friendship to them and they spit on us!”
It is a sentiment shared by tens of thousands of Russians, who are not seeking more freedom, but an end to the economic policies that have wiped out almost every Russians’ life savings and made even the most basic items prohibitively expensive.
“I make just over 10,000 rubles a week at a factory,” Peretyatko added, “and right now a bag of flour cost 350,000 rubles! They never adjusted our salaries for these changes they forced down our throats! Of course, if you worked in the Duma, they remembered you then. I noticed Silayev voted to raise his pay twice after he implemented these so called reforms!”
Over ten thousand Russians demanding Prime Minister Ivan Silayev resignation took to the streets of the capital Moscow while troops under the command of UDR Marshal Alexander Lebed stood aside.
As the UDR plunged deeper into crisis, early indications are that UDR president Alksnis’ orders are being ignored as more and more members of the now crumbling federal government have abandoned their post. Russian President Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who has captured the support of many of the protesters, has promised that “the short, horrible era of Russian groveling has come to an end” and indicated that the Russian government will no longer be honoring their obligations to the UDR federal infrastructure, although he has come short of calling for a complete dissolution of the union that holds Russia and the former republic’s of the USSR together.
“We will still honor all of our obligations in regards to the UIS treaty we signed with Armenia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Georgia,” he told supporters, “we will still be a unified country and we will still extend membership into the UIS to other former Soviet republics that have not been permitted to vote on the issue such as Uzbekistan and Latvia. But we will no longer work with the UDR if they are unwilling to defend Russians from not only Germany, America, and Estonian fascist thugs, but from something as simple as inflation and corruption.”
Protesters in Moscow on July 16th, 1992 (AP)
“My Russia- An Autobiography by former Russian Prime Minister Gennady Burbulis”
Published by Interbook, © 1998
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
I stood up when I heard the protesters break into the Duma. I was not going to let them see me defeated and weak. Aleksandr Korzhakov had cursed himself for not bringing his gun; he wanted to end it there. But secretly I was glad he didn’t. I wasn’t going to go out like Boris Pugo. I was going to look Zhirinovsky in the face and let him know I wasn’t afraid of him. I was going to show him that I still remember him as the weak, little man who was afraid to come to the White House last year during the coup. Just because he had hundreds of men with him didn’t change the fact that he was a coward! I almost relished it, because even if they tore me apart right then and their, deep down, Vladimir Zhirinovsky would know that I faced death like a man. All his nationalistic talk couldn’t change one simple fact. That deep down, in his soul, he knew I would always be more of a Russian, and more of a man, than he would ever be.
The door was kicked open and knocked off its hinges. Now there was no question. We were dead. We had left the door unlocked, and the fact that this crazed group of thugs couldn’t be bothered to check the door before kicking it in told us that all reason had abandoned them. I said a silent prayer and prepared to face the man who single-handedly destroyed Russia. I only hoped they would not beat me first, that perhaps he would walk in and they would shoot us quickly and not feel the need to drag us through the streets and hang us from Kymsky Bridge like Mussolini. However, once they saw us, the crowd froze.
“Comrade President,” a young man with a rope in front yelled, “I found them! They are here, hiding like dogs!”
“I am not hiding,” I spat back at the young man, “you can only hope that you face death with as much courage and resolve when you die!”
Zhirinovsky walked into the room and slowly pushed a chair away from the door. He looked around and glared at me.
“Where is Silayev?” he asked angrily, “where is the traitor Silayev?!”
Though I hated Zhirinovsky, I was not going to dignify Silayev’s cowardice with any feeble attempt to defend his acts.
“He fled.” I said, “He ran off and defected to the German embassy.”
“Why didn’t you join him?”
“Because I am not a coward,” I said, “I am willing to stay and die for my country if that is what it takes.”
My words must have given Korzhakov some resolve. He stood up and looked right in Zhirinovsky’s eyes and said: “As will I. I would rather die a Russian patriot, standing here for my country than to run from a man like you.”
I saw a young man in front open his jacket and pull out a small handgun. Where was Lebed? How could he let a few thousand fascists take over the Duma? Where was his martial law when we needed it? Although I knew this was preferable to being dragged and beaten in the streets, I still felt my knees buckle. But I would not give them the satisfaction of knowing I was scared.
“What are you doing?” Zhirinovsky yelled at the young man with the gun, “put that thing away!”
The young man sheepishly put the gun back in his pocket and cowered before Zhirinovsky like a dog that had just been scolded. I was devastated. He was going to make a spectacle of this. He was going to hang us from the Kymsky Bridge.
Zhirinovsky then did something that still shocks me to this day. He grabbed me and hugged me as hard as he could and lifted me into the air and laughed.
“Comrade Burbulis has shown us what a true Russian is!” Zhirinovsky said as he turned and faced the crowd, “he has shown us that a Russian, a true Russian, will look death in the eye without flinching and die for his country! We could all learn something from this great patriot! With a men like this fighting for our country, I know the Turks and Germans don’t stand a chance!”
I looked over at Korzhakov whose jaw was open as the crowd all took turns grabbing his hand and patting him on the back. He looked over at me as if he was not sure if it was some sort of strange dream.
“Comrades!” Zhirinovsky said as he climbed onto the table to face the crowd, “With the help of great, great patriots like Comrade Korzhakov and Comrade Burbulis we have succeeded in taking back out country from the German spy Ivan Silayev! Now is your hour! And I promise you this! By this time tomorrow, those traitors who stole your money will no longer be able to steal from you again! By tomorrow night they will all be spending eternity with the German spies and American imperialist at the bottom of the Moskva River!”
Rioters storm the Russian Duma
UIS Presidential Candidate Vladimir Putin in an interview with the BBC on August 1, 2011.
Discussing his decision to join the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia in July of 1992.
Putin: Like many former KGB agents, I found that my failure to rally behind Viktor Ivanenko during the failed coup had hurt me. I had no job, no income. So when General Dubynin called me and asked me to take over the Russian KGB from Director Ivanenko, who was being promoted, I gladly accepted. General Dubynin recognized that, as radical changes swept through the country, people stopped really paying mind to who supported the communists the previous year. That was yesterday’s news. What was important today was who could be counted on to end the lawlessness that was threatening to destroy the country. He saw how Marshal Lebed was unwilling to send troops to stop Zhirinovsky’s fascist thugs from seizing the Duma. All Marshal Lebed had to do was send one hundred soldiers to the Duma to protect it from Zhirinovsky, but he refused. General Dubynin and I saw what was going on: Lebed wasn’t done with Vladimir Zhirinovsky, not yet. But we were not going to let twenty thousand fascists destroy our country. There were better ways to get rid of Ivan Silayev.
BBC: But then why join joined the Liberal Democratic Party and pledged an oath to support President Zhirinovsky?
Putin: You need to understand, once he had General Dubynin arrested, I had to take steps to protect myself. I couldn’t do anything if I were sitting in a jail cell like General Dubynin. After Vladimir Zhirinovsky seized control of the Russian government from Ivan Silayev, everything changed. The night after the mob seized the Russian Parliament over 100 Muscovites were killed. Mostly members of the opposition Party for a Free and Democratic Russia and independents like Silayev. Many of those who were joining the LDP didn’t really agree with its policies, they did so out of fear or for a desire for power. Five hundred former communists who switched parties formed the Communist Wing of the LDP in August of 1992! How could you have a Communist Wing of the LDP? The party didn’t care if you were a communist or a fascist or even a monkey! As long as you paid fealty to Zhirinovsky, and didn’t question the party’s nationalistic rhetoric and strong armed tactics, that was all that mattered. You could be a communist and rant and rave about Lenin and central planning, but as long as you finished the sentence with “thankfully we have a man like Zhirinovsky who is standing up to the West like Lenin did,” then they didn’t mind. The biggest problem was if you said you wanted freedom and democracy. That could get you arrested.
BBC: Many people openly question your criticism of these policies considering the fact that you, as head of the KGB, ordered many of these actions. Amnesty International called you the “architect of the official State policy of mass disappearances and mass shootings” that you claim now to be appalled by.
Putin: (Long Pause): Until you live in a country ruled by a man like Vladimir Zhirinovsky, you can never truly appreciate how difficult it is to speak up against crimes like these.
CNN interview with Jack Matlock, former ambassador to the USSR
August 18, 2000
CNN: Why did Zhirinovsky recruit men like Aleksandr Korzhakov and Gennady Burbulis, both former liberals, as well as a former KGB agent like Vladimir Putin?
Matlock: It is hard to say; probably the biggest reason was because there was still a chance of civil war between the liberals and hardliners. His success in seizing the Duma had less to do with the number of his supporters than it did with the fact that the military and the police were on strike. And also keep in mind that, thanks to Zhirinovsky’s disastrous plan of flooding Russia with AK-47s, many supporters of Mikhail Arutyunov had guns and lots of them. They all saw this day coming since the failed coup, and had armed to the teeth as a result. So by recruiting liberals into the new government it was enough to fool the liberals and the Arutyunov supporters into believing that this would look a lot like the previous government that it replaced: with an even balance between liberals and hardliners working together to slowly implement change, but not embrace radical change like the unpopular “shock therapy” of the Silayev government. And for the conservatives like Putin, well, Zhirinovsky discovered that former Gorbachev loyalist Anatoly Lukyanov still remained one of his strongest supporters after his infamous “I am not Stalin speech”. Zhirinovsky was very clever that way; he would give those people who had nothing a second chance and they tended to be the most loyal supporters.
CNN: So why was Zhirinovsky so determined to kill off the UDR and get rid of Viktor Alksnis? Didn’t that run contrary to his dream of a greater Russia?
Matlock: Yes, but NATO expansion became so frightening to him that he was willing to gamble with the country to stop it and counter it. He knew that the UDR couldn’t just annex countries into it, but a looser confederation, or at least a looser confederation on paper, could claim that they were simply a Slavic version of NATO and do so. But Alksnis still refused to believe that he was not leader of the country. He was unwilling until the very end to surrender power, and until that mob got to him he remained defiant that the UDR was the true successor state to the USSR, and not the UIS.
German Chancellor Reiterates calls for Zhirinovsky’s resignation; calls UDR President a “nobody”
The Scotsman
July 22, 1992
The German Chancellor Helmut Kohl spoke to reporters in Berlin today, and reiterated his position that Vladimir Zhirinovsky was a “dangerous despot” and also reiterated the official German and British position that sanctions would not be lifted until the Russian president was removed from office.
“Claims by the Russian government that the Zhirinovsky threat has been neutralized clearly have been proven incorrect,” commented Chancellor Kohl at a press conference, “he has shown time and time again that he has no regard not only for international law, but for Russian law as well.”
The Chancellor also indicated that the German government will no longer recognize the UDR confederation, calling it “a political fiction that no longer serves any purpose or exercises any real power inside the borders of the former Soviet Union.”
Kohl told reporters that Germany would also take steps to recognize the independence of all of the former Soviet Republics. He indicated that this would also include Belarus, and Ukraine, two republics that, as of yet, had not taken any steps towards independence. He also referred to UDR President Viktor Alksnis as “a nobody” and indicated that the Germans would no longer recognize that he held any authority in the country.
“After watching Russian troops stand by and watch as Viktor Alksnis was dragged from his home and beaten up by an angry mob, it is clear that he does not control the country,” Kohl told reporters, “the fact that Mr. Alksnis was only able to save his life by pledging fealty to Vladimir Zhirinovsky proves what the German government has been saying all along: that it is Zhirinovsky who really controls the country.”
The Russian embassy in Berlin fired back an angry response to the threats of formal recognition of Belarus and Ukraine, indicating that the UIS now recognized the independence of Bavaria, Saxony, and Adenauerallee Street in downtown Bonn.
CNN interview with James Baker, former Secretary of State under President George H.W. Bush
July 13, 1997
CNN: Why did President Bush follow Chancellor Kohl’s’ lead in formally ending recognition of the UDR in July of 1992? Didn’t that just help Zhirinovsky continue his consolidation of power?
Baker: I don’t think so. By July 20th it was clear that Viktor Alksnis had no power and the UDR was finished. When he was dragged from his home by that mob, it was over for him. His screams that he was a loyal LDP member sounded almost comical, and when he pleaded his undying support for Vladimir Zhirinovsky as the mob kicked him and spat on him, there was no way he would ever emerge as a viable opponent to Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
CNN: But didn’t the threat to preemptively recognize the independence of Belarus and Ukraine also threaten to alienate moderate Russians who might have emerged?
Baker: Yes, but we hoped that it would motivate the Ukrainians and Belarusians to take the initiative and break free from Moscow. We wanted them, and all the republics, to know we would support them.
CNN: But why would they believe you when the Americans had already broken their promise of support in regards to the free-market reforms of the Silayev government?
Baker: In hindsight we didn’t appreciate the fear that Azerbaijan and the Zhirinovsky takeover in Moscow had created all across the former Soviet Union. Nobody would dare stand up to Zhirinovsky after that.
CNN: So that is how Zhirinovsky became a full fledged dictator?
Baker: Yes...but...the interesting thing is in hind sight we missed some very unusual clues. You know, nobody ever harassed General Ivanenko or General Lebed. And it was Lebed troops who were supposed to be protecting Alksnis. They were the ones who let the mob seize him. And even after Zhirinovsky seized power, the generals and the military always seemed…I don’t know…immune.
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Thank you!
I have read some excellent timelines on here and I am humbled that many of you feel mine is on par with those that I have read on here!