Stepashin Joins Putin Bandwagon

In an exclusive interview with Insight, former Russian prime minister Sergei Stepashin talks about his past role in the government, the Chechen war and his future plans.

He is considered by most observers of Russia's byzantine political scene to be among the top-five politicians in the country, despite being ignominiously fired last fall as prime minister by Russia's then-president Boris Yeltsin after only a brief stint in office. Sergei Stepashin also clearly has not counted himself out as a political heavyweight -- and neither has the man who replaced him in Yeltsin's affections -- Russia's acting president Vladimir Putin, who has courted Stepashin assiduously and secured his political backing.

And for those in the West who fear that former KGB spymaster Putin will preside over a lurch toward authoritarianism in Russia, Stepashin has this message: "Putin is a democrat and a reformer and supports democracy." Though he adds that Putin, whom he believes will win on the first ballot in this month's presidential elections, "also is someone who respects power and is a rather tough person." That is less reassuring given Putin's frequent talk about restoring Russia's military greatness.

In an exclusive interview with Insight on the western outskirts of Moscow at his spacious government dacha -- the same one he occupied while he was prime minister -- Stepashin talked about his firing by Yeltsin, the Chechen war and Putin, for whom he says he will campaign in the upcoming elections. What does he want in return for his support? Nothing, he says, except to continue with his work as a Duma deputy.

Few pundits here believe Stepashin when he says there are no personal political calculations behind his decision to back Putin. He is seen as a likely contender in this summer's election for the powerful St. Petersburg governorship and, with Putin's assistance, he could be victorious. "If I decide [to run], you will know about it," he says with a chuckle. Sitting in the billiard room of his dacha, he adds: "Now I am still just thinking about it and the future will tell."

Yevgeny Volk, a political analyst with the Heritage Foundation, argues that the key to Stepashin's character is that he really is a soldier, a general who will put aside his disagreements and fall in line behind the commander in chief.

Other commentators are less charitable and see Stepashin's cleaving to the acting president as one more sign of the roaring Putin bandwagon effect that everyone wants to get on to ensure their own future. One Moscow Times columnist has argued that Putin represents a Russian Thermidor -- an attempt to freeze the status quo by whatever means necessary. From that viewpoint Stepashin is wise in his choice of Putin for the election.

Certainly it is hard not to smell a whiff of opportunism in Stepashin's embrace of Putin. He is, after all, a formal ally of the Yabloko Party, whose leader, Grigory Yavlinsky, is running against Putin in the elections. On that score, he says: "I wish Yavlinsky success and I am sure he will do better than most people think. But I think it is better for his program to be implemented under Putin."

In many ways, Putin and Stepashin are two peas from the same pod. Both were career KGB officers -- Stepashin first met Putin in St. Petersburg a decade ago when the latter had left the KGB and was working for the then-governor of the city, Anatoly Sobchak. Both were mid-level Soviet apparatchiks who adapted quickly to the new Russia but remain a little colorless, a touch anonymous with a quick ability to blend in. And they both are more at home with closed systems of political and business deal-making.

Like Putin now, Stepashin, when appointed prime minister, faced strong attacks from political critics unhappy with his intelligence background. In a speech before the Duma he mocked his accusers saying, "Look, they say, here comes a general, a strong hand; Russia is on the brink of dictatorship. I've even been compared to Pinochet. No, I am not General Pinochet. My name is Stepashin."

One reason for the suspicion of Stepashin was that he was remembered as one of the main hawks in the Kremlin urging a full-scale invasion of Chechnya in 1994. And, as head of Russia's internal-security agency, the FSB -- a post later held by Putin -- and then interior secretary, he doggedly pursued the fight against Chechen rebels. He remains convinced that only military means can solve the Chechen problem, and in the interview he warned that the West is making a mistake seeing the rebels in Chechnya as freedom fighters. He insists they are terrorists and are part of a new wave of Islamic militancy linked to Afghanistan.

Certainly in his period as prime minister Stepashin was far from a Pinochet -- if anything his government proved ineffective and even weak and there was no great economic miracle. But then Stepashin was not the master of what went on in the Kremlin. A powerful group controlled by the shady tycoon and Yeltsin pal, Boris Berezovsky, held most sway. And in the Insight interview, Stepashin for the first time points the finger at Berezovsky for his dismissal.