Mark Mackinnon - The New Cold War: Revolutions, Rigged Elections and Pipeline Politics in the Former Soviet Union

The Russians

B ORIS B EREZOVSKY Reviled oligarch who held enormous influence in Boris Yeltsins Kremlin and who originally backed Putins rise to power. When Putin, anxious to curb his power, allowed an investigation into how Berezovsky acquired his wealth, he fled to London. He is seen as the main supporter of Russian Pora, a youth group devoted to staging a pro-Western revolution in Russia.

G AZPROM Giant Russian energy company that supplies gas to most of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. After a series of acquisitions during the Putin era, the companys oil reserves are exceeded only by those of Saudi Arabia and Iran. Under direct Kremlin control, it is often used as a tool to advance Moscows foreign policy aims.

M ARAT G ELMAN A member of Project Putin, the grooming of Boris Yeltsins successor into a candidate for all seasons. Later, he designed the temnyki, a system of government control over the media.

S ERGEI I VANOV Russias defence minister and deputy prime minister, and, like Putin, a former KGB agent. He is often mentioned as a possible successor to Putin should he step aside in 2008.

M IKHAIL K ASYANOV Prime minister under Putin from 2000 to 2004, when he fell out with the Kremlin over Khodorkovskys arrest. Now in opposition, he is seen as a potential pro-Western presidential candidate in 2008.

M IKHAIL K HODORKOVSKY The Russian energy tycoon who ran the giant Yukos oil company and was the countrys richest man until he publicly clashed with Putin and began pouring money into opposition parties. He was arrested on fraud charges in October 2004 and later sentenced to nine years in jail in what many called a show trial.

S ERGEI M ARKOV Pavlovskys outspoken sidekick. Once the Kremlins dominance over Russian political and business life was re-established, he was charged with exporting managed democracy to the other ex-republics of the USSR. The goal was to bring them back into Moscows sphere of influence.

D MITRY M EDVEDEV Another potential Putin successor, he headed the giant Gazprom energy companythe Kremlins most effective foreign policy toolbefore rising to head the Presidential Administration and then being appointed deputy prime minister.

V YACHESLAV N IKONOV Another spin doctor who frequently advised the Kremlin and oversaw the rise of United Russia, Putins chief political vehicle, which some Russians have dubbed the Communist Party, Part Two.

G LEB P AVLOVSKY The most prominent of a team of spin doctors who wield enormous power in Vladimir Putins Kremlin, and the designer of a new system called managed democracy, which gives individuals freedoms they didnt have in the Soviet years while the Kremlin keeps a tight grip on media and big business. Elections are held every four years, but voters are in reality given no real choice.

V LADIMIR P UTIN Formerly anonymous KGB agent who became Russian prime minister in 1999, then won the presidency the next year in a landslide victory, capitalizing on his massive popularity after he sent Russian forces back into the breakaway republic of Chechnya. He considers the fall of the Soviet Union a catastrophe and is intent on rebuilding Moscows influence in the near abroad. Re-elected in 2004, he is constitutionally barred from running for a third term in 2008, though some expect hell try anyway.

The Americans

F REEDOM H OUSE Funded by both the U.S. government and Soros, Freedom House provided support to pro-Western opposition movements in the former USSR. Its long-time head, former CIA chief James Woolsey, was replaced in 2005 by Peter Ackerman, a specialist in non-violent regime change.

T HE I NTERNATIONAL R EPUBLICAN I NSTITUTE (IRI)The international wing of the U.S. Republican Party and an NED grantee, IRI provided funding and training to youth groups intent on overthrowing the established order in former Soviet states. It is headed by Republican Senator John McCain.

M ICHAEL K OZAK U.S. ambassador to Minsk during an abortive attempt to overthrow Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko in 2001, he later became assistant secretary of state for democracy to Condoleezza Rice.

R ICHARD M ILES American ambassador to Belgrade during the last years of Slobodan Miloevi, he was also ambassador to Georgia when Eduard Shevardnadze was toppled.

T HE N ATIONAL D EMOCRATIC I NSTITUTE (NDI)The international wing of the U.S. Democratic Party and an NED grantee, NDI would play a key role in marshalling pro-Western forces ahead of the revolts in Serbia, Georgia and Ukraine. It is headed by former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright, who frequently intervened personally in the crises.

T HE N ATIONAL E NDOWMENT FOR D EMOCRACY (NED)U.S. governmentfunded democracy-promotion agency, sometimes referred to as Project Democracy. It backed pro-Western candidates in elections across the former Soviet Union while also directing funds to get-out-the-vote campaigns, exit polling, independent media and radical youth groups. NED grantees were at the forefront of the revolutions in Serbia, Georgia and Ukraine.

G EORGE S OROS Billionaire philanthropist who, because of a childhood living under Nazism and Communism, has an extreme distaste for autocratic regimes. He has poured billions of his own moneylargely through his Open Society foundationsinto supporting pro-democracy groups in Eastern Europe. The Kremlin sees him as the chief ideologist and financier of the pro-Western revolutions that hit Serbia, Georgia and Ukraine.

P AVOL D EME A Slovak who headed OK98, a successful get-out-the-vote campaign that led to the defeat of Slovakias anti-Western prime minister Vladimr Meiar in 1998. Backed by American NGOs, he travelled to Serbia, Ukraine and Belarus to train opposition movements there. He is now the director of the Bratislava office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a privately funded grant-giving institution that supports pro-Western democracy movements in Eastern Europe.

The Serbs

B92Rebellious anti-Miloevi radio station that mixed rock-and-roll with anti-regime newscasts. Repeatedly shut down by authorities, it repeatedly got back on the air with help from Soros and the U.S. government. Station manager Saa Mirkovic later advised the Georgian opposition.