So who is Vladimir Putin?

The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. – George Orwell

Ukraine remains the topic of most discussions on global economy, and Russian president Vladimir Putin is an inevitable part of that subject. Although he is almost universally demonized by western leaders and media, more impartial observers increasingly concede that his administration’s conduct seems more rational and more constructive than that of his western counterparts. But even then, most people pad their comments with a kind of disclaimer:

• I don’t like Putin, but…
• Putin s a thug, but…
• Whatever you may think of Putin, …

I find that curious, so at some point I started asking people in such conversations to tell me why, specifically, they didn’t like Putin or thought that he was a thug? As I suspected, most people did not really have more than a vague answer reflecting the familiar mud slung daily by our mainstream media…

Somehow we all know that he used to be a KGB agent, that his regime is adversarial to freedom and democracy, that he’s a homophobe, that he has $9 or $17, or $40, or $70 billion stashed away somewhere outside Russia, etc. A more sinister version has it that he is the new Hitler and that he wants to remake the former Soviet empire. This largely uncritical acceptance, even among intellectual circles, that Putin is essentially a thuggish figure – made me curious about who this man really is. Recently I came across an article about him written by Sharon Tennison – an American who has worked in Russia (and USSR) for 30 years as a developer of programs to open up relations between Russia and the USA. Tennison has had personal experiences with Putin and has over the years known a “numerous American officials and US businessmen who have had years of experience working with him…” “None,” she writes, “would describe him as ‘brual,’ or ‘thuggish,’ or other slanderous adjectives and nouns that are repeatedly used in western media.” Here are a few excerpts from her article ^[1]:

I met Putin years before he ever dreamed of being president of Russia, as did many of us working in St.Petersburg during the 1990s. … For years I had been creating programs to open up relations between the two countries …  A new program possibility emerged in my head. Since I expected it might require a signature from the Marienskii City Hall, an appointment was made. My friend Volodya Shestakov and I showed up at a side door entrance to the Marienskii building. We found ourselves in a small, dull brown office, facing a rather trim nondescript man in a brown suit.  He inquired about my reason for coming in.  After scanning the proposal I provided he began asking intelligent questions.  After each of my answers, he asked the next relevant question. I became aware that this interviewer was different from other Soviet bureaucrats who always seemed to fall into chummy conversations with foreigners with hopes of obtaining bribes in exchange for the Americans’ requests… This bureaucrat was open, inquiring, and impersonal in demeanor.  After more than an hour of careful questions and answers, he quietly explained that he had tried hard to determine if the proposal was legal, then said that unfortunately at the time it was not.  A few good words about the proposal were uttered. That was all.  He simply and kindly showed us to the door.  Out on the sidewalk, I said to my colleague, “Volodya, this is the first time we have ever dealt with a Soviet bureaucrat who didn’t ask us for a trip to the US or something valuable!”  I remember looking at his business card in the sunlight––it read Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin

December 31, 1999: With no warning, at the turn of the year, President Boris Yeltsin made the announcement to the world that from the next day forward he was vacating his office and leaving Russia in the hands of an unknown Vladimir Putin.  On hearing the news, I thought surely not the Putin I remembered––he could never lead Russia. … “This is a disaster for Russia, I’ve spent time with this guy, he is too introverted and too intelligent––he will never be able to relate to Russia’s masses.”  Further, I lamented:  “For Russia to get up off of its knees, two things must happen:  1) The arrogant young oligarchs have to be removed by force from the Kremlin, and 2) A way must be found to remove the regional bosses (governors) from their fiefdoms across Russia’s 89 regions”.  It was clear to me that the man in the brown suit would never have the instincts or guts to tackle Russia’s overriding twin challenges.

February 2000:  Almost immediately Putin began putting Russia’s oligarchs on edge.  In February a question about the oligarchs came up; he clarified with a question and his answer: “What should be the relationship with the so-called oligarchs?  The same as anyone else.  The same as the owner of a small bakery or a shoe repair shop.”  This was the first signal that the tycoons would no longer be able to flaunt government regulations or count on special access in the Kremlin. It also made the West’s capitalists nervous. … 

Four months later Putin called a meeting with the oligarchs and gave them his deal:  They could keep their illegally-gained wealth-producing Soviet enterprises and they would not be nationalized ….  IF taxes were paid on their revenues and if they personally stayed out of politics. This was the first of Putin’s “elegant solutions” to the near impossible challenges facing the new Russia.  But the deal also put Putin in crosshairs with US media and officials who then began to champion the oligarchs, particularly Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The latter became highly political, didn’t pay taxes, and prior to being apprehended and jailed was in the process of selling a major portion of Russia’s largest private oil company, Yukos Oil, to Exxon Mobil. …

March 2000: I arrived in St.Petersburg. A Russian friend (a psychologist) since 1983 came for our usual visit.  My first question was, “Lena what do you think about your new president?”  She laughed and retorted, “…I went to school with him!”  She began to describe Putin as a quiet youngster, poor, fond of martial arts, who stood up for kids being bullied on the playgrounds. She remembered him as a patriotic youth who applied for the KGB prematurely after graduating secondary school (they sent him away and told him to get an education).  He went to law school, later reapplied and was accepted.  I must have grimaced at this, because Lena said,  “Sharon in those days we all admired the KGB and believed that those who worked there were patriots and were keeping the country safe. We thought it was natural … to choose this career.  My next question was,  “What do you think he will do with Yeltsin’s criminals in the Kremlin?”   Putting on her psychologist hat, she pondered and replied,  “If left to his normal behaviors, he will watch them for a while to be sure what is going on, then he will throw up some flares to let them know that he is watching. If they don’t respond, he will address them personally, then if the behaviors don’t change–– some will be in prison in a couple of  years.”  I congratulated her via email when her predictions began to show up in real time. 

Throughout the 2000’s:  St.Petersburg’s many CCI alumni were being interviewed to determine how the PEP business training program was working … Last, each was asked,  “So what do you think of your new president?”  None responded negatively, even though at that time entrepreneurs hated Russia’s bureaucrats.  Most answered similarly,  “Putin registered my business a few years ago”.  Next question, “So, how much did it cost you?”  To a person they replied, “Putin didn’t charge anything”.  One said,  “We went to Putin’s desk because the others providing registrations at the Marienskii were getting ‘rich on their seats.'”  

Year 2001: Jack Gosnell [former US Consul General] explained his relationship with Putin when the latter was deputy mayor of St.Petersburg. The two of them worked closely to create joint ventures and other ways to promote relations between the two countries.  Jack related that Putin was always straight up, courteous and helpful. When Putin’s wife, Ludmila, was in a severe auto accident, Jack took the liberty (before informing Putin) to arrange hospitalization and airline travel for her to get medical care in Finland.  When Jack told Putin, he reported that the latter was overcome by the generous offer,  but ended saying that he couldn’t accept this favor, that Ludmila would have to recover in a Russian hospital. She did––although medical care in Russia was abominably bad in the 1990s.

A senior CSIS officer I was friends with in the 2000s worked closely with Putin on a number of joint ventures during the 1990s. He reported that he had no dealings with Putin that were questionable, that he respected him and believed he was getting an undeserved dour reputation from U.S. media.  …Another former U.S. official who will go unidentified, also reported working closely with Putin, saying there was never any hint of  bribery, pressuring, nothing but respectable behaviors and helpfulness.

I had two encounters in 2013 with State Department officials regarding Putin: At the first one, I felt free to ask the question I had previously yearned to get answered:  “When did Putin become unacceptable to Washington officials and why?  Without hesitating the answer came back:  “‘The knives were drawn’ when it was announced that Putin would be the next president.”  I questioned WHY?  The answer: “I could never find out why––maybe because he was KGB.”  I offered that Bush #I, was head of the CIA.  The reply was,  “That would have made no difference, he was our guy.” 

The second was a former State Department official with whom I recently shared a radio interview on Russia.  Afterward when we were chatting,  I remarked, “You might be interested to know that  I’ve collected experiences of Putin from numerous people, some over a period of years, and they all say they had no negative experiences with Putin and there was no evidence of taking bribes”.  He firmly replied, “No one has ever been able to come up with a bribery charge against Putin.” 

From 2001 up to today, I’ve watched the negative U.S. media mounting against Putin …. even accusations of assassinations, poisonings, and comparing him to Hitler. No one yet has come up with any concrete evidence for these allegations. During this time,  I’ve traveled throughout Russia several times every year, and have watched the country slowly change under Putin’s watch. Taxes were lowered, inflation lessened, and laws slowly put in place. Schools and hospitals began improving. Small businesses were growing, agriculture was showing improvement, and stores were becoming stocked with food.  Alcohol challenges were less obvious, smoking was banned from buildings, and life expectancy began increasing.  Highways were being laid across the country, new rails and modern trains appeared even in far out places, and the banking industry was becoming dependable. Russia was beginning to look like a decent country –– certainly not where Russians hoped it to be long term, but improving incrementally for the first time in their memories.

My 2013/14 Trips to Russia:  In addition to St.Petersburg and Moscow, in September I traveled out to the Ural Mountains, spent time in Ekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk and Perm.  We traveled between cities via autos and rail––the fields and forests look healthy, small towns sport new paint and construction. Today’s Russians look like Americans (we get the same clothing from China). Old concrete Khrushchev block houses are giving way to new multi-story private residential complexes which are lovely. High-rise business centers, fine hotels and great restaurants are now common place––and ordinary Russians frequent these places. Two and three story private homes rim these Russian cities far from Moscow.  We visited new museums, municipal buildings and huge super markets.  Streets are in good repair, highways are new and well marked now, service stations looks like those dotting American highways. In January I went to Novosibirsk out in Siberia where similar new architecture was noted. Streets were kept navigable with constant snowplowing, modern lighting kept the city bright all night, lots of new traffic lights (with seconds counting down to light change) have appeared. It is astounding to me how much progress Russia has made in the past 14 years since an unknown man with no experience walked into Russia’s presidency and took over a country that was flat on its belly.

I must confess, Tennison’s article surprised me a bit: Putin stood up to schoolyard bullies; Putin went to the KGB for similar reasons why many young Americans joined the US Army after September 11 attacks; Putin takes no bribes; Putin was curteous and helpful as a public official; Putin turned down privileged treatment for his wife after her car accident… If this came from Russian sources, I would probably dismiss it as political PR. But Tennison is an American and a relatively anonymous American at that. Her article wasn’t circulated widely or cited by Voice of Russia or RT, so it seems genuine. That begs the question: what if Putin is actually a decent man who simply wants to run Russia for the benefit of the Russian people as best as he can? I sincerely wish that Tennison’s version reflects the true Putin – such a man would be less likely to invade Europe and escalate the present conflict over Ukraine to a new World War. At any rate, making him into a brutal thug in the eyes of the western public wouldn’t be the first bill of goods we’d been sold by the leaders of the free world. As Lord Nordcliffe put it in the run-up to World War I, “To create an atmosphere for war, you have to introduce in the populace the hatred of ‘the other’.” If such hatred must be based on lies, we would do well to reject it.

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