Quote from Timothy Fitzpatrick on July 4, 2024, 13:52

The West spent dozens of and received hundreds of billions of dollars on the collapse of the USSR and the launch of reforms in its republics. Therefore, political issues in the current CIS countries and in Russia in particular are issues of the world's largest money bags. They led Gorbachev and Yeltsin to power, they are preparing a replacement for the latter.

Analysts and intelligence agencies of Western states, fulfilling orders of these bags, as a rule, never put eggs in the same basket. In other words: never bet on just one candidate. Consequently, several Western proteges will claim the presidency in Russia. It's like poking your finger into the sky right now. But we have a reason to say something about this.

At the end of May, a man who called himself a Russian emigrant from the United States came to our editorial office and started such a conversation: "In the 92nd, when your newspaper was still called "Day", you published an article - "The Return of Maxim". It was about the fact that Evgeny Maksimovich Primakov, working for the KGB from his youth, began to work for the Mossad at the same time in mature summers. Did he refute this claim then? No. Why didn't he speak? Because I probably didn't want to draw attention to the publication. Why we didn't want to, we won't find out. But I assure you that now in some centers in America the project "Primakov" has been developed, which provides for its promotion on the wave of nostalgia of Russian citizens for the Soviet past.

Primakov's promotion, as we all know, began soon. But is it produced by our dempress and a number of Russian political movements by order of the West or on the basis of our own interests? We have no facts to prove the custom nature of Primakov's advertising. But there are facts of his biography.
We publish them today so that our reader can dare to have his own judgment: is Evgeny Primakov suitable to be a figure in someone else's game?

Nikolai ANISIN "PEREKATI-POLE"

- I grew up in Tbilisi, I love this city, this country very much. It's very hard for me that I can't afford to get on a plane, fly there for a day and come back. And, alas, I can't do it as long as I'm a minister. When I leave this post, I will definitely do such sorties.

Zhenya Primakov was brought to Tbilisi in November 1929. That is, a few days after birth. At that time, Tbilisi was still called Tiflis.

What made the mother of the newborn - Anna Yakovlevna - hastily leave Kiev and move with the baby from Tiflis? Who was Zhenya's father and why didn't he end up next to his son? Whose last name did the boy get - maternal or paternal?

Primakov's pedigree is the secret behind the seven seals. From the published autobiography of Yevgeny Maksimovich, you can only learn that his father died when he was three months old, and that he was raised by a single mother who worked as a doctor in the polyclinic of the spinning and knitted factory.
Primakov's friends in their published stories about him father do not mention him at all. They say a lot of kind words about her mother, but they don't make it clear what kind of tribe she was. Therefore, everything known to the reading public about Primakov's origin comes down to the fact that he is the son of a female doctor.

In the international ideological thirteens in the international population city of Tiflis, nationality meant little. But the curious boy Zhenya Primakov, who already knew Pushkin's poems when entering the first grade, could not help but ask his mother - who his father, grandfathers and grandmothers were by blood... And I couldn't help but try it. But for childhood friends - Georgian Mamardashvili, Armenians Shiroyan and Onikov - he remained just Zhenya - a boy without nationality.

In 1948, Primakov entered the Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow. He spoke with a Georgian accent, struck new acquaintances with his Georgian temperament, but swept away all the hints of Georgian roots. And he was quite tolerable to the nickname "Chinese" stuck to him for his slanted eyes. And for those of his student friends with whom he feated in the cafe "Riga" and the restaurant "Aragvi", and for those with whom he cut in volleyball and put "cabbage" Primakov was also just Zhenya - a young man without nationality. The mystery of his pedigree became known only to selected friends and was made public only recently.

Zhenya Primakov's real father was not a man who died in 1929, but a literary critic Irakli Andronikov, who was living until the eighties. He did not recognize his son, but did not abandon him to his fate, helped Zhenya's mother to settle in Tiflis, where immediately after moving from Kiev she was given two rooms in the former house of the royal general. This did not end with Irakli Luarsabovich's participation in his son's fate.

In 1946, strong Zhenya Primakov breaks up with the naval school for health reasons, two years later, from the first attempt, he entered the most prestigious university in Moscow - the Institute of Oriental Studies, where there was the highest scholarship in the country, and then with a diploma "country studies in Arab countries" he is taken to the graduate school of the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University. He does not defend his thesis, but gets a place in the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting, quickly grows in office there and after 9 years becomes the editor-in-chief of the General Directorate of Radio Broadcasting for foreign countries.

Vladimir Putin and Yevgeny Primakov.

Such a smooth and rapid career of the son of a provincial factory doctor would hardly have been possible if someone with connections had not supported him in the movement up the career ladder. Irakli Andronikov, who became a laureate of the State and Lenin Prizes under Brezhnev, had connections in the corridors of the Moscow authorities under Stalin and Khrushchev. And therefore, the success in the career of a young man from Tbilisi is quite understandable.

But as one of Primakov's friends testifies, Zhenya never had filial feelings for Irakli Luarsabovich. That is, he did not forgive him his fatherlessness as a child and hid his blood relationship with him.

In 1962, Evgeny Primakov received the position of columnist for the Pravda newspaper, an organ of the CPSU Central Committee. After that, there were rumors in the journalistic world that his mother's maiden name was Kirshinblat. But at the same time, he wrote the most evil anti-Israeli articles.
Primakov probably never felt like either Georgian or Jewish. He turned out to be a real Soviet man, that is, an all-man, for whom the Motherland is where it is warmer.

EUG�INE

On April 30, 1970, Evgeny Primakov left Pravda and became Deputy Director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, the institution of the most influential in the Union in the field of social sciences. This was unexpected for most employees of the institute, because the newly appeared in the previous science was engaged in passing. The miracle was explained simply. The candidacy of the "young and promising" was loved by Alexander Yakovlev, Georgy Arbatov and the director of IMEMO Inozemtsev. This troika, which controlled key social and scientific centers of the USSR and had access to the bodies of Soviet leaders, was looking for an energetic and competent executor of their far-reaching plans and plans. Inozemtsev himself often left IMEMO to write reports for the elderly Secretary General. At such moments, Primakov fully took over the management of the institute. He also remained in charge when he went on vacation or went on numerous business trips. The new deputy, first nicknamed Eugene at the institute for his youth and pro-Westernism, gradually became the second "I" of the chief.

Therefore, it is difficult to say who more formed the inner appearance of the institution of that time - Foreigners or Primakov. Most likely, they acted smoothly. Under their leadership, IMO increasingly departed from its main task - to help the Soviet leadership find optimal solutions to foreign policy problems. And he turned into a hidden opposition to the CPSU. At that time, this was expressed in the widespread spread of dissident, pro-American views in the institutional environment. Instead of working on topical issues faced by the country, the institute responded with unconstructive criticism of the Soviet order, offering nothing in return.

When Primakov headed the Institute of the East of the Academy of Sciences, Soviet troops entered Afghanistan. Significant funds of the institute were used to study Islamism and Islamic extremism. However, the army did not receive useful information from the Primakov Institute. It did not receive, probably because neither the leadership of the Oriental Institute nor the leadership of the Institute of the United States and Canada needed the victory of the Soviet Army in Afghanistan. The more our soldiers died there, the easier it was to deploy a destructive game in the USSR.

In 1982, KGB officers detained two students: Andrei Fadin and Pavel Kudyukin. A heap of anti-Soviet literature was found during the detainees. During the investigation, the detained students said that IMEMO was simply stuffed with such sweeps of overseas origin, the content of which is agreed by almost everyone, and many, including the management of the institution, even take an active part in the dissemination and promotion of pro-American views. The case went quickly, the Chekists gradually came to the conclusion that an anti-Soviet conspiracy was being prepared in the bowels of IMEMO and similar elite educational institutions. In the midst of the investigation, the director of Inozemtsev died of a heart attack, and the whole blow had to be taken by the new director, who became Primakov, promoted there by the same Yakovlev and Arbatov. It would seem that the cautious "Eugène" should have refused to head such a dangerous institution, but the spiritual mentors of the future collapse of the Soviet Union managed to convince him of complete safety and, as it turned out, did not deceive him. Very soon Andropov becomes the general secretary, who removes V.V. from control over the IMEMO case in the KGB. Fedorchuk, who took up the poor academicians too zealously, transferring a moderately vigilant security officer to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Institute survived and then only rose, taking advantage of the deep love of Gorbachev and his associates.

During his work in academic institutions, Primakov gained unprecedented weight in the so-called intellectual-democratic elite, which was preparing to overthrow the Soviet power, accumulated a lot of serious information about all the processes taking place in the world at that time, and by the height of perestroika, smart, knowledgeable, reliably covered by numerous connections, Primakov was ready to further move up the ladder of power.

MAN FROM BEHIND THE CURTAINS

Exactly ten years ago, in the summer of 1989, Primakov got involved with Gorbachev. At first, the alliance seemed strong. He was sealed with the blood of Chinese students from Tiananmen Square, involved in the betrayal of their rebel idol - Gorby.

Two years later, Gorbachev was "thrown" by Primakov. There was no blood here. Simply nominated by Gorbachev to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Primakov was far-sightedly silent when Yeltsin was fucked there.

And then in China, in the 89th, Primakov and Gorbi came as cool revisionists. The Democrats there were ruring to turn the country over after Gorbachev, making a big Taiwan. Students in spring excitement in large numbers hung out in the main square of Beijing. Primakov stayed in a hotel, in a room overlooking the square. I watched the night bonfires from behind the curtains, heard screams and songs. With a sharp eye, he watched the announced ones quite indifferently, without giving out his presence near them. However, he failed to protect himself from the attention of the "revolutionaries." We learned. They were in front of the window, demanded the exit of "like-minded people" to express solidarity.

The students considered Gorby their ideological leader. They saw him suddenly "unplanned" stop the motorcade while traveling around Europe, getting out of the car and approaching pedestrians. This show brought Gorbie a lot of capital at that time. Simple-minded young Chinese rebels, two hundred of whom will be suppressed by tanks in a week, were waiting for the same exit. According to their information, Gorbachev lived in the same hotel as Primakov. And day, and night, and the second day, the second night they yelled, chanted, demanded a meeting. Serious troubles were brewing, and the Chinese authorities did not want to resettle the delegation, as if specifically for their own purposes to incite the passions and validity of the planned massacre. Looking from behind the curtains, Primakov soon realized this. I talked about it at leisure with Gorbi. And he, still being politically fashionable and ardent, intended to go to the square, to the people, so to speak. He arrode in the following order: "Under my influence, the "process" will accelerate. Like-minded democrats will come to power in China. Let's be friends.

Gorbachev didn't do much necessary. Among other things, he did not go out to Chinese students, did not get involved with them, did not guarantee their integrity with his handshake - at least the suppression could not be so cruel. Or in fact, the "process" would achieve a change in the state structure of China. They didn't let Gorbachev accomplish this feat.

And it was Primakov who "dissuaded" him.

And in the very days when Evgeny Maximovich sat in the chair of the Speaker of the Council of the Union for his faithful service at the court, tanks entered Tiananmen Square as meat grinders. Two hundred people turned into corpses. Another villain was committed on earth, in which, as usual, the wise Evgeny Maximovich Primakov was not involved. Nor was he seen in the suspension of it.

At that time, he already had the image of a "gloomy speaker." What he did not like the most in this position was that his place in the hall was behind the speaker and he always loomed in the background. Watching the shows, I saw myself on the screen falling asleep with boredom. It was awkward in front of acquaintances. I wanted to pull the curtains in front of me all the time, sit in the hide and look at the world from there. However, the invisible ones, he always pulled the curtains in front of him. Especially when the speakers sconded Yeltsin. Was the speaker silent or asleep? But somehow there was an opinion that he was loyal to Yeltsin. At the same time, the fiery anti-Elcinists had the opinion that he "sympathizes" with them. The curtares were not simple in front of Evgeny Maksimovich, but with a refractor. Everyone was shown only what he wanted to see.

In addition to sitting in the presidium, Primakov "headed the commission to combat privileges." Such a bone was thrown to the crowd that it would cling to it and not gnaw at the leaders who were walking towards capitalism. Well, how could the Valyazhny Primakov fight the privileges? I rode calmly on a "seagull", flew on a personal plane on vacation. And he waved off the polite reproaches of his comrades in wrestling: "It's all bullshit."

The bored speaker sometimes received serious instructions. I had to get out of the curtains and go to Sumgait after the pogroms. In Baku. But even then he "dissuaded everyone" from any risky steps, no matter what they led to - to the preservation of the Union or to the victory of the nationalists. Blood was pouring, history was moving in its own direction regardless of whether Primakov was involved in it.

Again, the Swan, not Primakov, shot two hundred people in Baku. Although, as they say, Primakov was "worrying" at that time.

He's not a wrestler. The spirit of victory is alien to him. Except for the victory on the personal front. It's a complete triumph.

Tired of clenching my teeth from restrained yawning in the Council of the Union - I found myself in the Gorbachev Presidential Council. There, in the smoking smoker, he joked: "What is a member of the presidential council? This is an unemployed man with the president's salary."

However, he had to go to Iraq at that time, to persuade Saddam to leave Kuwait on our Soviet terms. Then to influence Bush on the basis of "the interests of the Soviet Union." As a result, the Americans toured the Iraqis, as we recently did in Dagestan, the Wahhabi, without asking anyone.

Before the putsch in August 1991, Primakov whispered to Gorbachev about the unreliability of the KGB. "Zhenya, at least don't panic!" the last secretary general flared up... But if anyone was calm in those days, it's Evgeny Maksimovich. It was just beginning then - the new Primakov, whom we know now.

SEMI-INTLIGENT

Yevgeny Primakov received the post of head of foreign intelligence under Gorbachev in November 1991. Yeltsin did not touch him. And it was he who was destined to become the gravedigger of one of the most titanic creations of the Soviet state, the construction of which cost the country no less effort and means than electrification. A lot has been said and written about the decades of game of Soviet and Western intelligence, but still only a few are aware of the real scale of the game, which was conducted by the intelligence services, which manipulated the fates of many countries and peoples, interfering literally in all spheres of human life.

A stranger among professional intelligence officers, the incoming "academician" at first behaved very modestly and even refused the rank of lieutenant general, making Vyacheslav Trubnikov, a well-known among professionals, his first deputy. However, he soon promoted his permanent assistant Mkrtchan to general, which gave rise to a rehear about the "Armenian dominance" in foreign intelligence.

Primakov's quiet but diverse activities as Chief of Foreign Intelligence had several main areas, the main of which was the widespread reduction of Russian residency and the urgent curtailment of operations that had been prepared and lasted for decades. Moreover, those foreign intelligence units that conducted operations in Asia and Africa were particularly affected.

The department subordinate to Primakov and other delusional treins of democratic time, the most monstrous of which was an attempt to "make friends" with eternal opponents - intelligence of geopolitical enemies of the Russian state - were not spared. Of course, all the "steps towards rapprochement" of warring intelligence were arranged with discussions about mutual usefulness and the joint fight against international terrorism (participants of numerous international meetings and symposia diligently pretended not to know which of the "colleagues" finances and support certain terrorist groups).

Modern biographers of a successful Russian politician give him a special credit for the "development in intelligence of the economic line", which allegedly was previously in the cast (remember that Soviet intelligence officers got not only the secret of the atomic bomb for the country, but also many of the most advanced Western technologies, thus saving billions of Soviet rubles). In fact, economic intelligence in Primakovsky meant that Russian intelligence officers scattered across dozens of countries were almost officially transferred "to self-sufficiency" and forced to engage in commerce, instead of performing direct duties, "beating" Moscow's "share for cover". Thus, foreign intelligence has formally retained a considerable part of its old personnel, but has really lost almost all its potential. After all, it's much easier to turn a scout into a merchant than a merchant into a scout.

Under Primakov's long reign, the apparent splendor of foreign intelligence was not disturbed by particularly high-profile scandals. He did not arrange frank cleansing on ideological grounds and, unlike Bakatin, did not give secret information to the Americans in a solemn atmosphere. But it was in the sad time of the Primakov region that foreign intelligence lost its prestigious status, turning from an outpost of statehood into a pathetic "fintiflushka" on the crumbling facade of the Yeltsin regime.

COURT MINISTER

After the Duma elections, which brought impressive success to the "red opposition", the owner of the Kremlin decided to get rid of the politicians most hated by the people. The "sign" resignation of Kozyrev and then Chubais coincided with the appointment of Mr. Primakov as Foreign Minister and was perceived around the world as a symptom of a "shift in foreign policy", which was allegedly conceived by Yeltsin in order to retain power. Such reasons were not taken into account when appointing Primakov, however, if we evaluate the events of those days objectively, it is worth paying attention to other prerequisites for this "stafre reshuffle", which are far from such "global" significance.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs in the "system of power" that has emerged around Yeltsin, in addition to his direct duties, is also engaged in performing purely "court" functions related to the organization and preparation of presidential meetings, trips, visits and other "significant events". It is worth remembering that "high-level meetings" are the same "important" part of Yeltsin's "lifestyle" as fishing, communication with his daughter, and before - tennis and "men's gatherings" in the company of bodyguards.

Communicating with "friend Bill" or "friend Jacques", Yeltsin fully tasted the charm of the absolute power he acquired, really felt like a "king", a man who decides the "fate of the world". And how pleasant the communication with the American president or Japanese prime minister was, largely depended on the "good mood" of B. Yeltsin, for whom visits to the meetings of the "Big Eight" are one of the last "real entertainment" available to him. In this situation, the post of Foreign Minister is of particular importance - because the presidential well-being largely depends on its "success". And if the manager of the presidential administration monitors the marble lining of the bathhouse and pool in some Shuiskoy Chup, providing the "tsar" with a pleasant pastime against the background of "Russian nature", then the Foreign Minister should ensure a respectful reception and "serious attitude" to the President of the Russian Federation by the leaders of the "great powers".

This task was not coped by the grief-Minister Andrei Kozyrev, who turned into a "walking anecdote" during his lifetime and struck with his hyness, amateurism and intellectual wredness. After five years of activity of "dear Andrei" in the Mide field, his master slowly ceased to be taken seriously and provide proper "signs of attention" at the international level. It was not possible for Kozyrev to hull up numerous scandals related to Yeltsin's clearly inadequate behavior - for example, when the President of the Russian Federation "slept" the meeting with the Irish Prime Minister.

It is not surprising that Yeltsin did not take "dear Andrei" seriously and kept with him extremely dismissively, in the highest building on Smolensk Square over Kozyrev at first frankly had fun, and then, when a huge "diplomatic empire" inherited from the USSR began to fall apart, as the "Titanic", which collided in an iceberg, began to quietly hate.

At this time, Yeltsin began to feel somehow awkward in conversations with his friend Bill and friend Helmut; trips to world capitals brought him only disappointments and disappointments. Therefore, in the end, B. Yeltsin decided to remove the "dear Andrei" and replace him with a more experienced and capable nobleman, able to return to the president the lost charm of secular communication with the "powers of this world". The "Academician" appointed to the place of Kozyrev, like no one else, was suitable for this role - and the "new foreign policy" pursued by Primakov was marked by a successful solution of "court tasks". If every time Kozyrev tried to "bend" lower and lower in front of the insolent West and behaved like a serf footman on the estate of a landlord-samodur, Primakov diligently depicted "hardness" and "hardness" in diplomatic contacts with former "friends". Negotiations on NATO expansion, sanctions against Iraq, the status of the Black Sea Fleet were "long", "difficult" and "excrausal", but in the end the results were not much different from the "Kozyrev" ones. At the same time, "decency" was observed, and Yeltsin's "international authority" was gradually restored - "friend Bill", "friend Helmut" and even "new friend Ryu" continued to meet with B.N. "without ties", demonstrating the accommity of the "guarantor of the Constitution of the Russian Federation" to the highest spheres of world politics.

Otherwise, the problem of assessing Primakov's activities in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a problem of scale. Of course, compared to "dear Andrei", Primakov significantly raised the status of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, achieved an increase in salaries and certain social benefits for his employees, gave diplomatic activities a certain meaningful character and kept at least some remnants of the previous personnel base.

However, if we compare Primakov's "diplomacy" not with the activities of Kozyrev, but with the policy of Molotov or Gromyko, who led the diplomatic department in different periods of Soviet history, the impression will be completely different. The "Coryphaeus of Diplomacy" turns into an ordinary "court minister."

TIMID LEOPARD

In July 1998, the "oligarchs" who played in the GKO, who pushed the Nizhny Novgorod "kinder surprise" to the post of prime minister, which is called "smelled fried". A hitherto unknown pool of Australian investment funds "suddenly" acquired almost a quarter of Russian foreign debts. What such a change of creditor means is not worth explaining. Let the real or imaginary "kangaroo" laid out for the package not 50 billion dollars (at face value), but once in five less, but such money does not lie on the road. This was instantly perceived by external speculators and "oligarchs" as an unambiguous signal to curtail the construction of the "pyramid".

On August 11, the stock market collapsed, two days later - the currency market, and on Monday, on August 17, there was a "default named after Kiriyenko". On August 20 (very by the way) there was a fire in the building of RAO UES, headed by A. Chubais, and on August 24, the "kinder-surprise" resigned. By the way, immediately after his resignation, he went not somewhere, but to Australia - to find out "what will happen to all of us now." Consumer market prices tripled, all newspapers and TV were frightened by socio-political chaos in Russia.

It took no less than 3 billion US dollars to stabilize the situation - "northern delivery", payments on foreign debts, salaries of state employees and other "nonsense". No matter how "heavyweight" Chernomyrdin seems, this cargo for him (and for Gazprom) turned out to be unbearable. Do not return to the Motherland the personal savings acquired by hard work (the volume of which, according to the Western press, just fit into the amount you want)?!
But Primakov, a diplomat, a scout and a scientist, poorer than a Gazprom mouse, with lower back pain, suddenly took up a difficult, unbearable business - and picked it up. That is, he simply stopped harming the economy, and it began to recover little by little, which brought Yevgeny Maksimovich mass respect, not to say the more.

Unreasonable fry in short pants and threatened such an intangible thing as Russia's sovereignty. Not, of course, the sovereignty declared by the Yeltsin-Shahraev constitution written in the blood of "black October", but real sovereignty, which is provided not by the radiant smiles of "Bill's friend" and not by the honest word "Tsurich dwarfs", but by Pushkin's "Russian spirit", embodied in strategic nuclear missiles and in the socio-political potential of the state designated as the "legal successor of the USSR".

In fact, the collective legal successor of the USSR was its "leadering elite", to which Evgeny Maksimovich has long and certainly belongs. The interests of this top are terribly far from the interests of the people, but sometimes she has to remember where the acorns were attacked from, and stop diging roots at the state oak. In August 1998, in the midst of the "Asian crisis", it became clear to the "fathers of perestroika and reforms" that a critical moment had come and the country should be slightly treated.

On August 31, with a score of 251:94, the State Duma failed Chernomyrdin's candidacy, on September 1-2 Yeltsin urgently consulted with Clinton, on September 7, "the man of Chernomyrdin" Dubinin left the Central Bank, and on September 11, the "eight months of Primakov" began, which became the peak of his career.

But it must be recognized that during his premiership, Yevgeny Maksimovich strictly observed the main priority: the interests of the "old nomenclature". Everything else was subject to this very priority. Therefore, agreeing in words with START II, Primakov did not use his influence to ratify it (although Clinton insisted). That's why he objected to the bombing of Yugoslavia. But - sluggish, without military-political and even diplomatic consequences for the aggressor. How - "with the West" you can't quarrel either... Primakov didn't even try to limit the circulation of the dollar. He did not take any measures to transfer capital abroad. But with the help of like-minded people in the State Duma, the law on production sharing agreements has been extended.
"Saved" by Primakov Yeltsin thanked Yevgeny Maksimovich in his own way: since the danger has passed, down.

NEGOCIANT

How beautiful, how wisely Primakov was silent in the hot summer of the 99th! He was compared to the silent Christ at the trial of Pilate, to the mysterious Sphinx, to Diocletian on the beds, to Deng Xiao Ping on the mountain. "Finally we got our own de Gaulle," exclaimed politicians and housewives, "a strategist ready to beat anyone waiting for a crushing blow!"

And Primakov really hit, without restraining himself, jumping out from behind the scenes, and suddenly everyone saw: it's just an old man, exciened, older than Yeltsin, with a stick, a statement on paper.

So was Primakov's three-month hitch wisdom? And was she even silent?

In order. First, humiliating, slave obedience after his resignation on May 12, when the president wiped the prime minister's feet. The government - under Primakov's control, the Duma and the Federation Council are raging, the people are on the side of the retireder - and Primakov's inexplicable uncomplaining silence.

Then - a long, almost one and a half months of treatment. Not in Russia, in Switzerland: of course, they don't treat us like that. Radiculitis is a serious thing, it's not up to the struggle, not to loud statements or quiet warnings. The silence of the hospital ward is almost a coffin.

And so, on June 27, it is transmitted to all news agencies: Primakov is practically healthy, postoperative rehabilitation ends. Meet! That's where the race begins. The first half of July - the most active negotiations with Primakov are conducted by more or less serious political movements, and mainly - "Fatherland" and the CPRF. Strip materials appear in the press here and there: Luzhkov is suspected of impurity, Zyuganov is considered as a Primakov successor.

On July 12, Luzhkov, through a press secretary, publicly calls Primakov to him for the first time, and on July 18 in the Kiselev "Results" Luzhkov already gives the former prime minister the first place on the list. Two days later, Zyuganov confirms that he is negotiating with both.

On July 26, Primakov appears on television for the first time after his resignation - on the Luzhkov TV Center - and openly declares that he will cooperate with "Fatherland", "All Russia" and APR. But there are no optimistic forecasts yet: a wave of reports about the crisis of negotiations appears in the press: in particular, Primakov is not satisfied with the Luzhkov team, and Luzhkov suddenly says that there were no negotiations at all.

At the same time, Luzhkov is conducting a feverish search for allies, otherwise Primakov will not get. Yeah, there were such - "All Russia", but now there are problems with the electoral list: who will go with Primakov? The Unification Political Council of the OVR is postponed, the highway to the Primakovskaya dacha is clogged with cars with flashing laps. There is a grand cutting of interests, appetites, ambitions. Finally, on August 4, the OVR bloc was created, and it was officially announced that "an understanding has been reached with Primakov."

The last week before the "spaying of the prophet's mouth" is in his victorious war with an unexpected competitor: the newly made "victim of the regime" Stepashin. After a short struggle, the fire brigades are "cleaned up", and August 17 - such a touching date! - Primakov announces his merciful consent to lead the OVR in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Yes, in the recent history of Russia, there has never been such a loud silence of a politician. And most importantly, it turns out that all the time while the feverish negotiations were going on, there was nothing to talk about Primakov, in fact.

He just sold himself more expensive, having nothing behind his soul, except this very image of a silent sage, sold with giblets. He held negotiations, made sure that he was not threatened by anything, grabbed a piece thicker, chopped off his shoulder about the upcoming constitutional changes. Now he's sitting, waiting for dividends. "How the chip will lie down."

Source: https://dzen.ru/a/XyHJnxeiyHwwi2fu