Vladimir Putin - First Person

Unity is Putin’s party, created in December 1999.

Kukly is a satirical puppet show.

GUM is a Moscow department store.

The FSO is the Federal Guard Service (the personal protection corps of the president and other high officials), while the FSB is the Federal Security Service (the KGB’s successor, working on domestic and foreign intelligence).

Andrei Babitsky is a Russian journalist who works for the U.S.-funded Radio Liberty and has written highly graphic accounts of the horrors of the war in Chechnya from behind rebel lines. Frustrated by his “unpatriotic” journalism and his coverage of Russian atrocities, the Russian government arrested him in February 2000 and then handed him over to the Chechen rebels, allegedly in exchange for several Russian POWs. Babitsky himself then reported that in fact be had been handed over to pro-Moscow Chechens working for the Russian army. This conversation took place before Babitsky’s release in March 2000 under pledge not to leave Moscow pending investigation.

Vincent Cochetel is an official from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees who was kidnapped and released in 1998 before this interview. Putin may be confusing him with Brice Fleutiaux, a French freelance photojournalist who was kidnapped in October 1999 while working in Chechnya and was still being held hostage by Chechen rebels as of March 2000.

On March 5, 1999, unidentified persons abducted General Gennady Shpigun at gunpoint at the airport outside Chechnya’s capital. General Shpigun, a native of the Caucasus, was the representative in Chechnya of the Russian Interior Ministry and was still being held hostage as of March 2000.

Asian Maskhadov is the President of Chechnya, elected in democratic elections in 1996.

Lord Russell-Johnston was elected president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in January 1999.

In a videotape of Babitsky delivered to Radio Liberty after be was said to be turned over to Chechen rebels, be looked pale and tired, spoke slowly, and said he wanted to go home.

In March 1999, then Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov was on his way to the United States to discuss the Balkans crisis with President Clinton. When he learned that the Americans had made the decision to bomb Serbia, he turned the plane around and returned to Russia.

Shaimiev is the president of Tatarstan.

Boris Berezovsky is a prominent and influential Russian businessman. He is part-owner of ORT, a pro-government television station, and has taken an active role in the Chechen conflicts. He was former deputy secretary of the National Security Council in the Yeltsin administration.

Yuri Luzhkov has been the mayor of Moscow since the Yeltsin era. Luzhkov was accused of embezzlement during his rebuilding of the Ring Road around Moscow.

The upper chamber of Parliment, where the mayor of Moscow has a seat.

Borodin was accused of providing kickbacks to Yeltsin and his family through the Swiss construction firm, Mabetex.

The “Family” refers to Yeltsin, his family, and his entourage.

A newspaper published photos purportedly showing Skuratov with prostitutes, which unleashed a scandal leading to his suspension as prosecutor general.