Ask the Author Live: David Remnick on Russia and Putin

This week in the magazine, David Remnick writes about the resistance to Vladimir Putin. (See also Platon’s Portfolio of Russian activists, with video interviews.) Today Remnick answered readers’ questions in a live chat. A transcript of their discussion follows.

DAVID REMNICK: This is David Remnick. We’ll be talking about Vladimir Putin, Russia, and all else in five minutes…

QUESTION FROM JAMES SCHNEIDER: Do you think Obama would back an anti-Putin opposition movement?

DAVID REMNICK: OK, here we go. I think President Obama can see that this movement of dissatisfaction with Putin is largely about frustration—frustration with manipulated elections, with corruption, with all matter of abuse. And to see, within a matter of days, demonstrations and now a new presidential candidate… that is huge. Obama is sitting back and watching. To get ahead of events would be a mistake; if I can guess, that is what his advisers are telling him.

QUESTION FROM NATHAN VIGIL: Just wanted to say that I am a big fan of your work. I teach a class on the end of the Cold War at the University of Georgia ( and always assign your book “Lenin’s Tomb.” The students love it.

DAVID REMNICK: That is really kind of you. Thanks, Nathan. I hope your students remain awake when the reading is over!

QUESTION FROM JANET JOHNSON: Are the remaining oligarchs likely to look for a new champ?

DAVID REMNICK: Funny you should ask. One of the wealthiest people in Russia, Mikhail Prokhorov, just announced his candidacy for the presidency today. He is fantastically rich and means to be a candidate for a liberal point of view. Keep in mind, though, that the opposition to Putin is not uniformly liberal.

QUESTION FROM ROB LENZ: Is the saying “Once a tchekist, always a tchekist” true or can you make out genuine democratic values in Putin’s leadership as former german chancellor Gerhatd Schroeder saw it?

DAVID REMNICK: Gerhard Schroeder’s view is surely colored by the fact that he has gone into big business in Russia—the oil and gas business. The saying, “once a spy/or KGB man, always a spy,” is something people in the secret services say of themselves. Putin included. Putin’s values include stability, economic development, and much else; democratic values, though, as I think we understand them, are hardly paramount.

QUESTION FROM ALEX AGUIAR: Should we expect a crack down on protest leaders and media or more a “for show” liberalization?

DAVID REMNICK: The regime under Putin is not a Soviet regime: it is not as repressive by a long shot, nor is it totalist. It is a curious blend of things: authoritarian, semi-democratic, brutalist, flexible. It is repressive only to keep people in line via demonstration, as with the Khodorkovsky case. What is interesting about recent days is that even state television showed the demonstrations, a rare departure. The police did not crack heads. And Prokhorov is now running. Putin knows he cannot suddenly slam down on the entire society, including his growing middle class, and expect to retain respectability, not least abroad.

QUESTION FROM JANET JOHNSON: I can see the stadium for Prokhorov’s Nets looming over my backyard. Not sure this is a real candidacy.

DAVID REMNICK: Well, why not, though? To Prokhorov, the Nets are a toy, a relatively small foreign business interest.

QUESTION FROM MD SANDERS: Do you think it possible that Putin would cede power in any foreseeable future?

DAVID REMNICK: He remains the most popular politician in the country, even by the numbers provided by the independent Levada Center. To beat him will require a candidate who accelerates extremely quickly—and fair elections. Both things are hardly a given.

QUESTION FROM CRISTINA LINDBLAD: Do you have a sense of how much the groundswell of dissatisfaction is inspired by the Arab spring and how much of just a homegrown thing?

DAVID REMNICK: It’s homegrown. People talk about Cairo, of course, but they also know that their circumstances are radically different. In Egypt, you have a very very young country, and many many unemployed; plus, you had a brand of military-backed authoritarianism that tortures countless political opponents, though certain opposition groups, like the Brotherhood, were allowed to exist. Up to a point.

Russia is Russia. Employment is very high, as is education, and, until recently, salaries were growing at quite a high clip. The dissatisfaction occurs, the growth of civil society occurs, because you have a growing middle class. Remember: many of the people on the streets were liberals. But many, too, were nationalists. It pays not to be overly romantic about the nature of any broad opposition, no matter how encouraging it is overall.

QUESTION FROM IA MCULLOUGH: Since Russia has gained a lot from the current oppressive regime in Myanmar, do you think the Russian government was against Secretary Clinton’s visit to Myanmar and her meeting with Thein Sein to improve the country’s human rights conditions?

DAVID REMNICK: I don’t think they thought about it much, honestly.

QUESTION FROM JULIA K: What do you think about how the Russian government handled the demonstrations? What could it have done differently in this particular situation?

DAVID REMNICK: It was pretty peaceful on all sides. At smaller demonstrators right after the election, however, the police were harsher and even through one of the leading blogger, activists, Alexei Navalny in jail for a while.

QUESTION FROM MARK RATLEDGE: Is Mikhail Prokhorov in any sort of danger as a candidate running against Putin? He’s very rich and I’m sure has lots of political power and connections, but is he vulnerable to intimidation at the very least, or possibly more? Or the journalists who cover him and possibly be perceived as favoring him?

DAVID REMNICK: I doubt that he is in danger the way you mean it. Again: Putin knows that economic development and a place at the table of world affairs requires a certain… respectability. The murder of journalists and politicians—which has happened, to be sure—does not enhance that. But in Russia, friends, you never know… stranger things have happened.

QUESTION FROM CARA: How does it affect you to work with and meet journalists/activists who subsequently turn up dead? You write in your piece that you were worried… Do you have the human reaction of wanting to talk them out of doing whatever they are doing? Or is the instinct to encourage them?

DAVID REMNICK: It breaks your heart. I knew Anna Politkovskaya, I knew Natalya Estemirova… both murdered. They were as brave as any people I’ve ever met in any realm of life. They gave everything, they made every sacrifice for the truth.

QUESTION FROM JASON TASH: Do you think these protests are pro-democratic or simply anti-Putin?

DAVID REMNICK: The latter, for sure. Also, you can be a nationalist, or even on the left (in the Russian understanding) and be out on the streets demanding fair elections and representation. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, liberalism is a considerable current, even after the disappointments of the 90s.

QUESTION FROM ARGO STUFFELD: Can you really trust the poll numbers in a police state?

DAVID REMNICK: I trust the Levada Center’s numbers.

QUESTION FROM CHARLIE: Are you saying Prokhorov has a real chance at replacing Putin?


DAVID REMNICK: A chance, yes. But hardly an easy one. And there will be other candidates, too. Take note that the Communist Party came in second, even in distorted elections. The opposition to Putin is a very mixed bag.

QUESTION FROM GUEST: What do you think of the theory put forward in the Financial Times that Prokhorov’s candidacy is done with the encouragement of Putin in order to co-opt the opposition?

DAVID REMNICK: That was surely the case when he came forward to lead a liberal opposition party some months ago. It had the full backing of the Kremlin. How his presidential candidacy is different, how independent in kind and in spirit it is, we will have to see.

QUESTION FROM KOLYA T: Do you think that Navalny could gain enough support to pose a formidable threat to Putin in the March elections?

DAVID REMNICK: He is young, attractive, has gained a reputation as a web-savvy anti-corruption leader. But how that translates into politics, I do not know. Nor has he said he will run!

QUESTION FROM NATE: Much has been written on middle class and urban discontent, what is the general feeling among the poor and rural voters? Will this constituency back current protests or remain loyal to the current regime?

DAVID REMNICK: Putin’s base is in the provinces and in smaller cities, for sure.

QUESTION FROM MITCH DANEEL: What was your favorite episode of the Sopranos?

DAVID REMNICK: Season One, Episode Five: “College.”

QUESTION FROM MITCH DANEEL: Have you ever met Putin or Medvedev? If so, what were they like?

DAVID REMNICK: I was at a small dinner and sat next to Putin. One word: forbidding. Another: steely. I think it is fair to say he is the least sentimental soul it has been my pleasure to meet.

QUESTION FROM SIMON PARIZHSKY: The only visible popular alternative for Putin are either communists or ultra-nationalists…and the people at the Saturday demonstration were mostly middle-class liberals…do you think they would prefer bonding with communists or nationalists to resist Putin?

DAVID REMNICK: This is a great question, and here you might draw the Egypt analogy. Do the liberals like bonding with the Brotherhood, to say nothing of the Salafists? Time. Will. Tell. Sorry, but it’s the truth.

QUESTION FROM SRIRAM: Absolutely loved the piece, David. You seem to know everyone who resists Putin :) What I was struck by in your piece and in pieces like this is Putin’s ruthlessness. Would it be fair to say that the man is a virtual dictator, who brooks no criticism and will go to any lengths to achieve what he wants? If so, have the other world leaders treated him the way they would treat other people of a similar ilk? Or is he more equal than others?

DAVID REMNICK: Thanks, Sriram. But I should say, in fact, he does brook criticism. And quite a lot of it. There is a large sector of the media—print, radio, the web—that bangs away at him constantly. A totalist dictator would never allow that. The Chinese CP does not allow that. The North Koreans don’t allow that.

QUESTION FROM SUSAN PATTAVINA IN OMAHA: If Putin is the most popular politician in Russia, why did he feel the need to stuff the ballot boxes?

DAVID REMNICK: Because, as even those stuffed ballot boxes revealed, the numbers are complicated and there is no guarantee of victory.

QUESTION FROM NICHOLAS GUNN: Vladislav Surkov stood out for me in the piece as a fascinating and troubling character. Do you have a sense of where he/his ideology goes from here?

DAVID REMNICK: Funny you should ask. Today he talked about the demo on Saturday reflecting the views of the “annoyed” class!

QUESTION FROM STU: Not a fan of Putin ever since he stole my investment in Yukos, and chucked the CEO into the gulag. Tell me, is M. Khodorkovsky still incarcerated? Any hope for him?

DAVID REMNICK: Khodorkovsky recently went through yet another bogus trial and he is in prison, yes.

QUESTION FROM ZACK: What will be Putin’s return for the neighbors: blood in Chechnya and full occupation of Georgia?

DAVID REMNICK: I don’t think that is his focus at the moment. His focus is domestic power.

QUESTION FROM SRIRAM: Is there anything good that we can say about Putin?

DAVID REMNICK: He is better at judo than Angela Merkel.

QUESTION FROM KLEMENS GROÿMANN: Is there any evidence that Vladimir Putin has hoisted some of his former K.G.B. colleagues into pivotal political positions, in order to have a backing? And if so, do you see a chance that the somehow backward-looking (to old “stable” Soviet times) politics will come to an (abrupt) end when Putin retires from politics, for whatever reasons?

DAVID REMNICK: There is every evidence that Putin has surrounded himself with veterans of foreign and domestic intelligence, yes. These men are called the “silovki.” As for predictions, those are unwise to make.

QUESTION FROM CMINN: What are the real foundations of Putin’s appeal? Just a general longing for order and stability? It sometimes looks like he came out of nothing in the Yeltsin’s entourage. And is Medvedev really just a puppet?

DAVID REMNICK: Medvedev is, and was, a kind of reliable puppet. Putin twitched and Medvedev followed. That is a given now. Their signs of difference were of little consequence, a kind of dumbshow. Putin’s popularity rests on the stability and economic growth of the past decade.

QUESTION FROM JULIA ZORTHIAN: To what extent do you think the Internet and social media will affect the upcoming election? Do you think Prokhorov and the other opponents should use the web to harness the anti-Putin sentiments found online?

DAVID REMNICK: The web has already proved essential as a tool of the opposition: as means of discussion, mobilization, communication.

QUESTION FROM LYNN: Do you know how PM Putin really felt about the nickname “Pooty Poot?”

DAVID REMNICK: I never asked him. I suspect he liked the nickname about as much as he liked the fellow who gave it to him: George W. Bush.

QUESTION FROM GUEST: Would Putin try and be able to hang on to power if he lost an election?

DAVID REMNICK: I doubt it.

QUESTION FROM MARGE KUBIAK: Are you insulting Angela Merkel’s judo skills?

DAVID REMNICK: Is this a throwdown?

QUESTION FROM JUHA KAUPPINEN: I live in Finland, next to Russia, and from here the current direction of things seems a bit worrying. The argument concerning the missile defense, Putin accusing USA of the demonstrations plus Russia’s new more aggressive attitude reflected e.g. in the changes in Russia’s military doctrine (possibility of first use of nuclear weapon). How worried are you? Are we (going) in (to) a new cold war?

DAVID REMNICK: No, I don’t think so. The Cold War was wildly expensive and consumed the entire globe. It’s in no one’s interest. More, I think, for both countries, the real nuclear anxiety is related to Pakistan, Iran, etc and not to the traditional superpower face-off.

QUESTION FROM RAY: David, Hi. Great article. I listened to your interview on Echo Moscow last week. How would A. Venediktov characterize the current situation and why is this radio allowed to remain on the air?


DAVID REMNICK: Thanks! Alexei Venediktov, who runs the radio station Echo of Moscow (Ekho Moskvi) is a liberal intellectual of late middle age, a man with a clear memory of the Soviet Union and its collapse (happy 20th anniversary!). He knows that he can be shut down at any minute—and, in fact, his excellent web site was the victim of a cyber-attack on election day. For the moment, though, he and EM seem safe. But there is a concern that an angry, embarrassed and cornered Putin will turn to the free media and exert pressure. Or worse. We’ll see. So far that has not been the case.

QUESTION FROM RUDY KATOCH: Insightful article David. What is your opinion to what Kremlin strategist Vladislav Y. Surkov is reported to have said in the NYT where he supports the creation of “a mass liberal party or, more precisely, a party for the annoyed urban communities…” Is he being disingenuous? How would this affect Ð¿Ð¿Ð¿Ð¿Ð°Ñ¿ Ð ÐYÑ¿Ñ¿Ð¿Ñ¿ and Putin?

DAVID REMNICK: I think he is trying to laugh off something that he knows is a threat to the United Russia Party and to the Kremlin. Believe me, they are not laughing.

QUESTION FROM JERRY HANGSTON: Do you think that Putin allowing for all of these pictures to surface of him shirtless is similar to the episode of the Sopranos where Tony beats up that young guy over nothing in front of the whole group just to show that he’s still the boss? Maybe?

DAVID REMNICK: Well, it’s a cultural thing. Putin’s self-advertised manliness may seem comic to you, but it has a great appeal to many in his base. They think of him as a muzhik, a real man, someone who will not tolerate disrespect.

QUESTION FROM CHRISTINE: What options are available to the various opposition groups to contest the results of the parliamentary elections and/or try to ensure the presidential contest is not stolen? If they could work together, what might they do?

DAVID REMNICK: Tough to say. The best electoral watchdog is Golos (Voice). But Putin loathes them and accuses them of being instruments of foreign interests. And yet Medvedev has said the government will look into possible abuses. They will look and find nothing, of course… but something has changed.

QUESTION FROM ROD CUTHBERT: Do you think Putin was directly involved in the decision to stuff ballots, or was it down the line, protecting him from involvement?

DAVID REMNICK: Nothing like that happens by accident. The tsar knows.

QUESTION FROM FRED PHILLIPS: Russia has always valued stability over freedom. How can an “enlightened” middle class cope with civil responsibilities?

DAVID REMNICK: Not always. There was a strong democratic impulse and rhetoric in the nineties.

QUESTION FROM NATHAN VIGIL: Have you seen this documentary? The Putin System. A very chilling account of Putin’s rise to and use of power.

DAVID REMNICK: I’ll check it out.

QUESTION FROM EDGAR TWOHY: I’m trying to learn Russian. How long did it take for you to become fluent?

DAVID REMNICK: Fluent is a flexible term, Edgar. Russian is such a tough and complex language that I am happy enough to understand everything and read most things pretty well, but, without constant practice, my speech is not what I wish it was, and I would sooner write in crayon than write a letter in Russian. Chinese or Arabic may be tougher, but Russian ain’t easy.

QUESTION FROM CARA: Do you have a favourite episode or season of The Wire? Somebody should get it aired in Russia. (I am assuming that they would not allow this series to be broadcast.)

DAVID REMNICK: They could easily do The Wire. After all, it does not exactly show America as a City on the Hill! I loved the seasons that took place on the docks and in the Baltimore schools.

QUESTION FROM FRED PHILLIPS: How do the dissidents who are exiled to Perm get transported there? in a boxcar wearing hoods over their heads?

DAVID REMNICK: No hoods. How they get there… trains most often.

QUESTION FROM LUKE DERROR: Have you ever read the book Charm School by Nelson Demille? Does that accurately portray Russia from your view?

DAVID REMNICK: I don’t know the book. I’ll look it up.

QUESTION FROM CORBIN KUNST: Do you think U.S.-Russia relations are better now than under Bush?

DAVID REMNICK: A bit better. By the end of Bush, they had corroded. But I would hardly describe them even now as warm.

QUESTION FROM JANET JOHNSON: I like Richard Sakwa’s approach, Russia as a dual state with an administrative regime in tension with the constitutional state. The creation of (semi-)loyal opposition is a hallmark.

DAVID REMNICK: I wish I knew what constitutional state he was talking about. At this point, the constitution lacks the authority it requires to be worthy of the name. The Duma is a pocket legislature, full of lackeys and bribery; the judiciary does the bidding, when asked, of the Kremlin. Constitutionalism is precisely what is lacking.

QUESTION FROM ROD CUTHBERT: Cutting to the chase, is there any chance that this is going to lead to a new set of elections, and the ouster of Putin and his posse?

DAVID REMNICK: New Duma elections? Putin losing a fair election? Those are both hard to imagine.

QUESTION FROM MICHAEL: How do young Russians want their country to change? Do they envy the American political system?

DAVID REMNICK: They want the reliability and protection of the law.

QUESTION FROM NATHAN VIGIL: A couple years ago, I had lunch in the cafeteria of the University of Georgia with a student from Russia. I asked him what he thought about Putin. With a straight face, he said, “I like Putin because he reminds me of Stalin.” I was shocked, especially since this was a young person saying this. A big part of the admiration for Stalin seems to be that he led Russia during a time that Russia was powerful and was feared in the world. In other worlds, Russians were willing to suffer the loss of many of their freedoms if that meant that their nation was great in the world. Do you think this longing for a powerful Russia led by a strong leader is waning? Are the Russian people looking for an alternate path to Russian greatness?

DAVID REMNICK: Funny that the Stalinist ended up in Georgia. Or maybe not so funny. Yes, there are some Russians who still crave “the strong hand.” There is no question about that, and Stalin still ranks high among some Russians. But I don’t think anyone craves a return to Stalinist purges, famines, and all the rest. The nostalgia is for an imagined past, not a real one.

QUESTION FROM CRIS: What happens to Medvedev now? Does he remain Putin’s puppet? Will he be cast aside? Any chance that this disenchantment with Putin would encourage him to throw his hat in the ring or is he too unpopular/tainted by the Putin-Medvedev tandem?

DAVID REMNICK: The plan is for him to be prime minister. He would never never run against Putin, no.

QUESTION FROM SUSAN PATTAVINA IN OMAHA: What about the novels of Martin Cruz Smith? How do they show conditions in Russia?


DAVID REMNICK: Actually, they are great fun and not full of what Russians call “cranberries”—mistakes that foreigners make about Russia.

QUESTION FROM PETR ANDREEV: Tsar is a noble person, who has a right (by birth) to rule the country. Putin is anything but noble. Why do you call him Tsar, and how could it happen at all that such a mean person has such a huge power?

DAVID REMNICK: I was making a, you know, joke. I know he is not tsar. I really do. How does such a mean person get such power? Practice, practice, practice.

QUESTION FROM REBECCA: Do you know of any American (preferably non-religion affiliated) organizations working to improve the quality of the orphanage system in Russia?

DAVID REMNICK: Human Rights Watch.

QUESTION FROM EKATERINA: Why are you so interested in Russia?

DAVID REMNICK: Well, for one thing, all my great-grandparents and some of my grandparents (unhappily) lived there, in what was called The Pale of Settlement. I’m interested in Russian language, culture, history… and I lived there, for four years, as a reporter for the Washington Post and have visited many times since.

QUESTION FROM CARA: We can’t let you get away without asking about Newt Gingrich! Do you think that President Gingrich and President Putin are going to enter a new space race over mining minerals from the moon? Honestly, do you think those guys are over there in Moscow laughing at this crop of candidates (and those who would vote for them), or are they indifferent? How does this stuff play (if at all)?

DAVID REMNICK: To the degree to which people are paying attention, Russians see the spectacle of Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich, Palin, etc. in the spirit you might expect. In the comic spirit.

Thanks, everybody, for your terrific questions. And thanks for reading The New Yorker. Talk to you soon.

Photograph by Platon.