Zavtra, February 21, 2002, p. 1
Lobbies of Russian government bodies are actively discussing Putin’s “new course” consisting in full rejection of own policy, suspension of contacts with Europe and countries of the so-called “third world”, and full submission to American interests. Thus, they state another round of talks on strategic offensive weapons may be marked with a number of unprecedented concessions for the part of the Kremlin. That this is probable can be seen from the press conference on February 18 of Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov and commander-in-chief of the Navy Vladimir Kuroyedov, at which the catastrophe of the Kursk atomic submarine was interpreted in a light advantageous for the American party. Not touching upon ridiculous points like that the mariners could have mistaken a buoy of a foreign submarine for a “giant jelly-fish”, one should mention the naval commanding staff of that time should be under examination now instead of occupying ranking posts in the Federation Council and other state structures, given the uttered version of the catastrophe is true. There has not yet been a convincing explanation to the blitz-visit of the CIA chief to the Kremlin. Putin’s criticism in respect to defense minister Sergei Ivanov on the matter of payment for electricity to RAO UES of Russia can also testify the president has yielded positions to the pro-American lobby (the bloc of Chubais and part of the “family” grouping). The same goes for demoting Ilya Klebanov as deputy prime minister…
