What a business you have ruined. Everything was going so well. So, they were killing each other, but they’ve always been killing each other and always will be.
— Boris Berezovsk, allegedly
O my brother we blind clock-hands climb towards midnight
— Georg Trakl
Vladimir Putin organized the Russian apartment bombings of 1999 to come to power. Therefore, all wars or terrorist attacks occurring in Russian henceforth were organized by Putin to stay in power. Therefore, bombings happening in Europe are also organized by Putin for his dark designs.
Such is the narrative often deployed by the western press.
But it wasn’t actually invented by the western press. The man to thank for this story is Boris Berezovsky, a man who at certain points in the 1990s could be called the richest man in Russia, or at least the most powerful businessman.
There’s also an alternative narrative to ‘Putin did it’ — that the Chechen wars were partly orchestrated by Berezovsky in order to keep the hated, western-backed president Yeltsin in power.
In any case, it was the now-exiled Berezovsky who financed the 2002 book ‘the FSB is blowing up Russia’, by former FSB (Federal Security Services) agent Aleksandr Litvinenko. Litvinenko would die in London within a few years of plutonium poisoning. Berezovsky, too, would die in the City, hanged in his bathroom in 2013.
Though most agree that Berezovsky killed himself, Litvinenko’s obvious assassination lent an aura of truth to his narrative about the 1999 bombings. Just as ‘Blowing Up Russia’ was banned in Russia upon publication, so too was its author killed for telling the truth.
In truth, Litvinenko’s own death has its own share of mysteries, which don’t necessarily lead back to Moscow. And in the months leading to his suicide, Berezovsky was writing letters to the Kremlin pleading to be let back into Russia.
But if Litvinenko was ultimately a spy, not a journalist, there was one career journalist that clearly was assassinated by his target material. This is Paul Khlbenikov, shot in Moscow in 2004.
Khlebnikov, an American of Russian descent, was chief editor of the Russian section of Forbes. He’d spent more than a decade as an economic journalist in Russia, not the safest line of work. And he’d chosen a rather sinister subject: Boris Berezovsky.
Berezovsky had already signaled his displeasure with Khlebnikov’s reporting by launching a libel case against him in the 90s. Undeterred, Khlebnikov managed to put out a remarkable book about Berezovsky’s many battles for power, titled the Godfather of the Kremlin.
There are probably few better books if you want to understand the Russian ‘90s. And after all, some well-informed people believe that Ukraine’s 2020s are another version of Russia’s 90s. So getting familiar with the Russia of old is essential for any aspiring Ukraine-watchers. There are also some other interesting parallels we’ll get into today between the Chechen Wars and the Ukraine war. For instance, the most dangerous nationalists were strangely un-targeted by Russian bombs in both Chechnya and Ukraine.
Anyway, Khlebnikov contains testimony from a number of influential Russian gangsters, politicians, and businessmen, though the boundary between them, as he notes, was largely arbitrary. Another issue he faced was the fact that his interview subjects kept on being assassinated after the first discussion, if it even got to that.
Precisely because it is a book about Berezovsky, it is also a book about the great events of the 90s: the first and second Chechen wars, the absurd 1996 elections, Yeltsin’s choice to appoint Vladimir Putin as his successor, Putin’s surprise victory at the 2000 elections.
And it’s no wonder that Berezovsky sued Khlebnikov. The book covers the countless murders that Berezovsky was implicated in, though never prosecuted for. Whenever Berezovsky set his sights on a company, non-compliant elements in the leadership would inevitably drown, disappear, or otherwise perish. No shortage of journalists had their lives cut short by Berezovsky, most famously the 1995 killing of the highly prominent Vladislav Listyev.
And of course, Berezovsky bled Russia dry through all sorts of venal schemes. His favored tactic was to take control of a lucrative company, put his people in some key positions, and make sure that the company was now surrounded by a plethora of intermediary companies registered in London or Switzerland. These intermediaries, obliquely owned by Berezovsky, proceeded to pump all the revenue out of the original company. Many a great Soviet enterprise was exsanguinated in this manner. Berezovsky received absurdly high profits and moved onto the next prey, aided by the fact that Yeltsin’s government was largely in his hands.
But what I want to cover today is Berezovsky’s relationship with Chechnya and the so-called ‘Chechen cause’. After all, in the years following his 2000 exile from Russia, the businessman became a spokesman for and sponsor of Russia’s ‘liberal opposition’. In 2004, Berezovsky boasted of significantly financially aiding the pro-western ‘Orange Revolution in Ukraine.
Chechen independence also remains a potent symbol of anti-Moscow resistance. Certain Chechen armed groups fight on Ukraine’s side. Some of the older fighters in these groups may have even known Berezovsky back in the 90s. The people eventually arrested for Khlebnikov’s murder in Russia (though not sentenced) were Chechen Islamists, apparently contracted by a figure that Khlebnikov had lengthily interviewed for his 2003 book Conversation with a Barbarian: Interviews with a Chechen Field Commander on Banditry and Islam.
And in Russia, too, Berezovsky still means something. Berezovsky’s old business protege-cum-enemy Roman Abramovitch remains one of the richest men in the country. He is also deeply engaged in mediating the Russia-Ukraine negotiations, with Russian patriots often accusing him of betraying Moscow’s interests. He famously flew Ukraine’s Azovite fighters back from Russian captivity in his private jet, and even gave them free iphones.
Sergei Kiriyenko, the young prime minister that fought unsuccessfully against Berezovsky’s whims in the late 90s, is now first deputy chief of staff for Russia’s presidential administration. This chameleonic and highly effective young liberal reformer is now in charge of managing Russia’s political landscape. Patriotic Russian figures have a rather complex relationship with him, to say the least.
So anyway, onto the Chechens. We begin with the great mob war of 1994, which pitted Berezovsky and his allied Chechen gangs against Slavic organized crime, with the latter seemingly more aligned with the remnants of the Russian security state. Then we move onto the bloody expansion of Moscow’s mob war — the two Chechen wars, the kidnapping and global drug trade, and Berezovsky’s bizarre relationship with the most terroristic elements of so-called ‘Ichkeria’. Finally, we dip our feet into what role Berezovsky and Putin had in the 1999 terrorist attacks, which took upwards of 300 lives.
Dramatis personae
Boris Berezovsky, businessman. 1946-2013.
Badri Patarkatsishvili, Berezovsky’s business partner and intermediary with the Russo-Chechen criminal underworld. 1955-2008.
Movladi Udugov, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Leader of the radical wing of the Chechen government, opposed to president Maskhadov, close with Berezovsky. Currently lives in Turkey. 1962-
Salman Raduyev, infamous Chechen warlord, close with Berezovsky. 1966-2002.
Shamil Basaev, Chechnya’s most famous warlord. Close to Berezovsky, mastermind of the 1995 Budyonnovsk hostage-taking operation, claiming the lives of around 130 civilians. 1965-2006.
Ibn-Al Khattab, Saudi-born Islamist warlord who fought in Afghanistan, both Chechen wars and a number of other conflicts across the world. Supposedly close to Osama Bin-Laden. 1969-2002.
Aslan Maskhadov, third president of the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (1998-2000). A moderate, he was opposed to Berezovsky, Udugov, and other advocates of perpetual jihad. 1951-2005.
Boris Yeltsin, first president of post-soviet Russia (1991-1999). 1931-2007.
General Aleksandr Lebed. A popular commander in the airborne forces who unsuccessfully ran in the 1996 elections and signed the Khasavyurt peace accord with Ichkeria that year. Opposed to Berezovsky, critic of both Chechen Wars. In 1991, opposed the coup to preserve the Soviet union. 1950-2002.
Vladimir Putin. Federal Security Services (FSB) lieutenant colonel chosen by Berezovsky (according to the oligarch) as Yeltsin’s successor. Later blamed by Berezovsky for the 1999 apartment bombings. Appointed prime minister in August 1999, acting president in late December 1999. 1952-
