To talk about the train and these cannot be when the United States goes down. They gave them money to enforce. Right now i just have an assumption that its pretty logical. I dont think anybody on one more [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] looking at Central America which was very important to. Especially in the context of mexico. Having applied for the last 20 years. They are from one to another to another. [inaudible] if i have the answer i write another book just with those. What happened in Central America because it is very diverse and you cannot compare coaster rica its not. Its the biggest construction of the state. Thats the first chapter of the book. The states. [speaking spanish] i think thats a huge problem that society was built i covered to Police Massacres and one of eight people [inaudible] if the crossfire but for example, 16 years than they have just one bullet inside her mouth and theres another. There is that massacre on the human rights reports. They survived the massacre. She hears how his son begged for his life and she just talked with us. She hears how the police told her son and just talked with journalists because we counter so tha what does that tell you t the state you have a mother who doesnt believe in the state even after they killed her son. What can happen in a society where a mother in the best of the case goes with journalists and publish the story that we have about how to publish the story. The states and of the government and institutions. [applause] [applause] i want to thank everybody else here who helped make this happ happen. Ooscar can sign books. They are on sale here. 50 off so we can have the trafficking books. This is not a reality tv show. It is as real as it gets. We will make America Great aga again. A former moscow correspondent for the Financial Times argues that the Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin presided over the criminalization of russia. Mr. Satter was the first journalist to be kicked out of russia since the fall of the soviet union. This book is the less you know the better you sleep. Um. We welcome those that join him n the heritage. Org website as well as those joining in the future. We remind all of the outside viewers you are welcome to send comments at any time emailing speaker heritage. Org we will appreciate checking your mobile devices to see if they have been silenced or turned off as a courtesy to the presenters. We will post the program on that page following the presentation for everyones future reference es future r as well. Is doctor broman is the Research Fellow at the American Relations part of the Margaret Thatcher center for freedom. He joined heritage as the director of National Security studies teaching diplomatic history and grand strategy and was a lecturer in history and affairs for the masters of arts program. A columnist for newsday and thes post and the right of commentary for other news outlets and is an adjunct professor at the Strategic Studies Program at Johns Hopkins university schoola of advanced international studies. Please join me in welcoming tim. [applause] thanks very much. Its a tremendous pleasure toem welcome my good friend davidid satter at the foundation to speak on his latest book published just two days ago the less you know the better you sleep under yeltsin and putin. The story david tells us the storstory as is a double tragede rise through acts of domestic terrorism and criminality of the regime of Vladimir Putin and the failure to understand what was actually happening in russia. In reading the book i was very b struck by the comment made and i will read it for you now. I critical to the credence given in the west to the russian explanations with an ability to accept the idea that the regime that murdered hundreds of its own citizens and a terrified the nation to hold onto power. The refusal however came at a cost. The crippled policy towards russia rendered it naive and didnt affect the relation to the reality i think it is fair to say that there were few people who tried harder to drive the image of russia back towards reality than david satter. David graduated and went on to become a Rhodes Scholar at oxford from 1976 to 82 he was the moscow correspondent for the Financial Times and since they served as a special correspondent on the sovietde affairs for the wall streetstrt journal as the fellow andity senior fellow at the Foreign PolicyResearch Institution in philadelphia as Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution and ap variety of prestigious academicf institutions. Capping all of this on this one he received in 2013 when he was the first journalist to beeivedh expelled by russia towards the end of the cold war. David has testified for the newspapers and publications in the u. S. And around the world. The decline and fall of the soviet Union Published in 1996, darkness at dawn the rise of the russian criminal state published in 2003 and was a longtime ago and it never happened anyway russia and communist past published in 2011. After davids remarks he will be glad to take questions in their copies of davids book available for sale in the lobby. His schedule after his remarks is fairly tight but he will be available for a few minutes afterwards to sign copies of his book. For now the eight welcome david satter to the Heritage Foundation and invite him to speak on the less you know, the better you will sleep russias road to terror and dictatorship under yeltsin and putin. David. [applause] thank you very much tired and thanks to all of you for coming. The history of postsoviet russia is a history that should concern more than just russians because russia has become and has revealed itself to be in recent years and aggressive states ready to disrupt the existing framework of international relations. Since the second world war, there had been no case of a successful seizure of territory and provisional borders by a country that was considered to be part of the civilized world and was a party in fact innumerable international agreements. The seizure of crimea in effect was a break in the postwar european and global border that should have been an event that inspired real serious contemplation and thinking on the part of the u. S. About the nature of the russian regime. After all, if the russian leaders are so contemptuous of the world order, that order that has been responsible for keeping the peace since the second world war, is there something deeper involved . What kind of regime is this and were we mistaken when we in a whole series of policies toward russia extended goodwill toward backcountry and treated it really as a nation with which its possible for the United States to develop trusting and mutually dependent relations . In fact, the core of the misunderstanding is reflected in a single set of incidents that took place in 1999 what brought putin to power, which guaranteed the security of president yeltsin, that laid the foundation for the future dictatorship and that culminated and in effect brought to the logical the criminalization that it taken place in the 1990s. These were the apartment bombings in russia that took place in the city in the region of dagestan in moscow. The apartment bombings caused 300 lives in a terror as the country and they created the conditions for a new war in chechnya. That war was very convenient and very fortuitous because on the eve of that war the that popularity rating of yeltsin was 2 . Now sociologists understand that any Public Opinion poll, 6 of the responders dont understand the question so it was really debatable whether anyone in russia supported yeltsin and that his chosen successor Vladimir Putin, a littleknown former head of the fsb, the Security Police and the successor organizations of the kgb was similarly supported by 2 of the russian population. Seemed impossible that anyone associated with yeltsin could win in the 2000 elections that were scheduled and it was for that reason it was widely believed in moscow at that time that some type of massive revocation was going to take ways to make it possible for yeltsin and his entourage to declare marshall law and cancel the elections. The explosion of the buildings seem to be suspiciously timed to guarantee exactly that result. There were 30,000 Apartment Buildings in moscow alone. Patrols were organized in every one of those buildings because people were afraid to go to sleep at night for fear of being blown up in their beds. It was said that there was a chechen trail. No one suggested that there was chechen proof and in fact the chechens denied having any connection to those bombings. But the trail was enough to mobilize the country which had been opposed to a second war in chechnya and to make it possible for the Political Leadership to again invade chechnya. The first chechen war was a disaster. It was organized hurriedly and unprepared troops were thrown into battle in the narrow streets that were annihilated in the war dragged on for two years and ended with the victory by the chechen guerrillas. The second war was much better prepared and the tactics that were used were much more violent the indiscriminate showing including of refugee columns followed ultimately by security sweeps in which thousands of people disappeared but from the point of view of a not very well informed russian public it appeared that Vladimir Putin who had been put in charge of the war, even before he was elected resident, was carrying out the war effectively, was avenging the attack on innocent russian people who were murdered in their beds by terrorists with no mercy and no moral values at all. He is a result became a National Hero. His poppy or degrading went up dramatically to the point where a person to refuse to campaign who had no local career previous to being appointed Prime Minister and put in charge of the chechen war whose most important experience was in the Security Services who is completely lacking in charisma, who refuse to debate his opponents or even discuss his issues, any of the issues facing the country. Nonetheless on the strength of his supposed that avenging of the terrorist attack launched against innocent russian civilians suddenly became a National Hero. That National Hero was elected president in 2000. There was only one problem. And that was a fifth bomb was discovered in the basement of an Apartment Building in the city southeast of moscow. After for bombings its fair to say that the entire country was in a state of panic. No one knew when the next bombing was going to take place or where. A bombing had taken place in the provincial city. That was a signal that any city could be the scene of the next terrorist attack. As a result in reassigned as in many russian cities people were on edge and they were looking for the slightest sign that we too might even next victims and residents of the building noticed that three people were behaving suspiciously out in front of the building and were scaring sacks of an unknown substance into the basement. They called the police and the police did want to go down there because in fact itd been used used as a lavatory by the local drunks and derelicts but the residents insisted. The police went down they bolted back up the stairs and they said theres a bomb down there. The entire building was evacuated and not just the building but the entire corridor. Everyone. The night on the street. The building was tested, im sorry the bomb was tested and tested positive for hexagon which is the high explosive that was used in the other for bombings. The local police and the local fsb cordoned off basically the entire city. It was impossible for anyone to enter or to leave. Long lines of cars extended for miles on the outskirts. They couldnt get into the city. Nobody and no one could depart the city. No one could take a train out of the city and nobody could fly out of the city. A telephone call was overheard on the interurban telephone by an attentive telephone operator. Someone was saying that they have got the whole city surrounded, how do we get out of here . A voice said, break up and leave one by one. The operator was convinced that she was listening to the terrorists and she gave the number to the local police and fsb. They called the number come expecting to be connected to the chechen terrorists. They were connected instead to the fsb central headquarters in moscow, the Security Police. A description of the persons who had placed the bomb in the basement was provided and they were caught and they were arrested and promptly produced fsb documents. Now the russian authorities were in a very difficult position. They had announced that the residents had successfully repented a terrorist attack. The terrorists have been caught but who did they turn out to be but fsb agents . The head of the fsb got on National Television literally hours after it had been announced that the terrorists were caught and said actually this was not an attempt at a terrorist act. It was a general intended to test the residents for vigilance and the residents have performed brilliantly. They showed that they were in fact very vigilant. And the fsb congratulated them on their own wariness of the threat facing the nation and afterwards they were even, some of the key people were even given gifts including a television set. But the residents absolutely did not believe that this was any kind of test. They were convinced that the bomb was genuine and they asked why is it that they were forced to stay out on the street for 24 hours if this was just a test . Why were they not informed afterwards that it was a test or warned beforehand that there might be a test and more to the point, if this was a test, why was the bomb immediately seized by the fsb and sequestered and why were the agency put the bomb in the building shielded so that no one could ask them any questions even though this by the way is a direct violation of the law on the law and security in russia according to which you cannot declare state secrets, anything that involves a violation of human rights or security of the population. Those materials are now sequestered for 75 years but nonetheless, the questions have not disappeared. It was a chaotic time in russia. The president ial elections were about to take place and the bombing of chechnya in response to the supposed that terrorist acts was being escalated as was the invasion of the country itself. But doubts remained and they were raised by at that time the still relatively free russian media, but in the fastmoving flow of quite dramatic events, the subject managed to get buried in there were not the forces in Russian Society which is not like american society, replete with ngos, independent press and people with a democratic tradition and a readiness to challenge authorities proved itself not to be capable of raising the issue on a sustained basis. There were motions in the state duma to investigate the strange events that those motions were voted down with the help of the monolithic support of the pro Putin United Party as it was then called, an independent commission was formed to investigate the offense and its members began to be murdered one by one. The first person to die was Sergei Yushenkov. I met him in the state duma and i also took an interest in what happened in a reassigned and i interviewed the residents of the buildings and the police. Even the police did not believe that this was in a kind Training Exercise and that when i told them i cant test them about the Training Exercise, they all began to laugh ironically as if i was saying something totally ridiculous. But i met Sergei Yushenkov weeks before he was shot in front of his own Apartment Building and he told me that he was going to do Everything Possible as i was trying to do at the same time, to bring out the truth about what happened in ryazan and the truth of how this regime came to power. Three months later another member of the social commission which was trying to investigate was poisoned and died a horrific death. Two other people who raised this issue were Alexander Litvinenko and on a poll of costco yet. The leading investigative journalist, she argued that the 1996 president ial elections, im sorry in 2004 president ial elections in which putin ran for reelection were the last chance to raise seriously the issue of what happened in ryazan and who really blew up those buildings. She was shot as she got out of the elevator in her apartment holding. Alexander but then you go who used a lot of the same materials that i did but simply taking advantage of his experiences as a former fsb officer provided commentary about what was normal fsb procedure. He died as a result of being poisoned with a radioactive isotope. As a result of this series of killings i became literally the only person left who was raising this issue publicly, protected by the fact that im an american citizen and also participated in the political process in washington. I cant say that i have had overwhelming success and calling this to the attention of the political world in washington but i do write about it in the wall street journal. I have testified about it in congress and i wrote about it in my second book called darkness at dawn, the rise of the russian criminal state and i certainly have dealt with it in much greater detail in this book which came out a couple of days ago. The atmosphere of course in the u. S. Has changed and its possible now that people are more ready to listen now that they have seen repeated examples of the putin regimes terminology but in any case, the issue was successfully buried. The elimination of persons who are capable of raising the issue , plus the fact that the present administration did not want to hear about it and far from taking in an interest in the obvious evidence that putin came to power resulted in an act of terror carried out against his own people did the exact opposite and aycher the conclusion that the problems in u. S. Russian relations were the fault of george w. Bush. And initiated the reset policy. It began as we know with a mistranslation of the word reset and i think it went downhill from there. In any case, the central historical event in my view was the greatest political provocation since the burning of the rice stock and it established the regime with which we now have to contend both in ukraine and potentially in other parts of the world. It was not an accident that in fact yeltsin had to resort, and or the yeltsin entourage had to resort to an act of terror in order to solidify its hold on power because russia had been driven to such condition of poverty and desperation that it was highly unlikely that anyone connected to yeltsin could have won a Fair Election or even come close to winning such an election. The yeltsin is often treated as a hero in this country and he is viewed favorably by some people in russia although not by the overwhelming majority of the population. The question that no one can answer and that really no one tries to answer is how was it that such a wonderful yeltsin ended up selecting as his hand picked successor such a horrible person as putin . Is this some type of mistake or was it logical . Was it the inevitable result of yeltsins own policy, policies and misrule during the years he was president of russia. Its important to bear in mind that the impoverishment of russia was not a joke. The Industrial Production in russia fell by more than 50 . That didnt happen even under nazi occupation. The number of surplus deaths in russia as a result of extreme impoverishment and complete overturning of the previous way of life without the establishment of any type of positive ideal that can serve as guidance for the population in the absence of what had been a quite well articulated worldview albeit an erroneous one and a false one, lead to despair and 6 million served plus deaths. Demographers make projections. They try, they try to predict what the population will be best on existing trends and surplus deaths are deaths that take place that could not have been predicted on the basis of existing tendencies. In the case of russia in the 1990s that figure was 6 million. You have that kind of death. Only in a country out war but it happened. Heart attacks, accidents the whole social fabric of the country fell apart. Under those circumstances yeltsin of course could not win and he turned to the people who were the masters of provocation, the kgb and the fsb in order to protect him. Either he did and some may argue that he was so delirious and so ill that it was his entourage who carried out the apartment holdings. Either way hes responsible. He was the head of government and head of state and so we ended up with a regime that we have and the first step back to some sort of civilized situation regarding russia and regarding the future is to recognize the true history of the country. This will not be easy and this is what i try to do in the book. And. And i hope that would be a mining to see the extent to which the putin regime is based in fact, on exact the exploitation and corruption and gangsters of the previous period. Dash pretty much exhausted the amount of time to take talking about the books because i very much want to answer your questions. And we can continue the discussion in that manner. Thinks. On behalf of the Heritage Foundation. With the first question to make a convincing case but that is not the only terrorist outrage to happen in russia during this time. The school attacked does that fit into the narrative . And with the hostage taking of 2004. And those it into the narrative and that i developed in the book. What i tried 2. 0 is having come to power with that nonexistent terrorist attack putin was not in a position to compromise on chechnya with that advantageous compromise he had to emerge victorious. And 2,000 touche that up pressure for a compromise solution particularly as russian atrocities during the second chechen year war was widespread this is the security sweep when literally thousands of people were rounded up to take infiltration camps where they did not return and World Opinion was not focused on chechnya at that time the people were aware of what was going on and that did indeed to pressure from independent political figures to organize a the conditions of compromise this is something that putin absolutely did not want. And that terrorist attack in my view could not have taken place without the the nine cooperation of the perpetrators but the entire item was assembled in moscow and intelligence information with the identity of this army four weeks up until the attack took place many of the persons that took over the theater has just been released and explicable from russian and one of those involved was the fsb agent that was implanted with the chechen terrorist and after words the theater was taken over their promises to those hostages 57 hours of the special forces attacked with hundreds of people the official death count is 129 but many people would die from the aftereffects of the gas. That which has never been revealed but by some estimates the number of persons is as many as 300 if we include them who died in those following years of those aftereffects and in any case the situation was similar of the school massacre. And from that Russian Point of view to pacify chechnya, of remnants of the chechen resistance were resistant to carry out it terrorist attack of some type to affirm that they were still a force with the islamist wing of the chechen resistance which of the terrorist wing. And did the aftermath with the hostage taking of talk of day negotiated settlement and the reputation of the chechen resistance was completely destroyed they were well aware of those terrorists to have taken part were members of the islamist wing of the chechen resistance yet they sought to blame not those that were responsible but the separatist under the elected president for being responsible even though they denounced so there was a similar scenario in the hostage taking. And those of russian agents led the attack on the school. They have every incentive again talk to find the negotiated way out of the conflict for those discussions once and for all. Those that come from the surviving terrorist with the a session of Parliament Building to annihilate those terrorist. That did not matter but the terrorists learned of the plans and changed the goal of the attack. To carry out the attack that is why all roadblocks have been removed. All impediments to a successful attack eliminated because there was no interference as the trade openly in the forest some russians thought they would attack somewhere else. But this scenario played out in the case of the parliament. The russians refused all negotiations including the proposals that echoed the sentiments of the people for some type of autonomy within end to the war in the attack the schools which is full of parents and children and flame throwers believe it or not. They set fire to the roof of the school that fell in on the of hostages and refused for three hours to put out the fire. So some are aware of those Apartment Buildings to trace the history to see those couriers similarities in the pursuit of political power with the entrenchment with the regime of criminals in power. Please announce your name with the microphone. This translated into russian. Is translated into ukrainian so there are preparations to be translated into russian but no russian publisher inside will do that. It is undertaken outside of russia in fact, i am expecting june 1st to get the final news it will be translated to be put on the internet for sure there are pieces that have appeared in russian that when i of light would like wouldbe and that is what is discussed right now. In with the former soviet union then another nine incumbent bed do we expect to have in the next few months. I think there will be a problem with the increased tension but there is a distinction between the baltic republics and georgia and ukraine. And it was possible to inveighed georgia without consequences. The russian leaders will have to consider the consequences with the baltic republics that is not necessarily to their advantage. In the case of ukraine what is at stake is a self organizing anticriminal revolution to occur under the right circumstances. They are thoroughly monopolize. There are options left for society to reassert itself one is the kind of revolt spontaneous self organizing and driven by the courage and enthusiasm of millions of people to take place in ukraine and for that reason there were Important Reasons why the russian authorities seized cry me a the most important of which it was an asset of distracting the attention of the russian people from the real lessons of the ukrainian experience. With the resort to chauvinism to blind people to their real interest and the importance provided. Distracting attention to solidify their role and to protect from the ravages of privatization but my friend said we need a small victorious war to raise the rating of the president. That is not a reason to start a war but that is what he said. Put the war proved to be neither small or victorious and was launched for political reasons that somebody would be elected president to protect yeltsin from criminal prosecution i was told by a friend that was well informed the security of yeltsin and his family that their security is not guaranteed they are ready to blow up half of moscows so of course, with the war in ukraine once again in the attempt to distract the attention of the population to solidify the power of the regime it is important to bear in mind because the ukrainian weevil was preceded by mass demonstrations the biggest that has ever taken place in the postsoviet era of the parliamentary elections of 2011 and the better petering out but it was not long after even a more massive demonstration that was inspired by similar issues that has a great deal in common with russia including there are many ethnic russians and ukrainians russians of fortune and the difference is not all that. The cultures are very close history is common. I know youre concerned with politics but with that application as well the recently countering the information as it deals with of be a call there are there ways that they translate with the international sphere. But the russian end of propaganda to reach this country and oftentimes is simply an effort to reinforce those various oppositionist positions at the russian leaders think will undermine the authority of the democratic system. They want to show that conditions that our bad in the west does spend a lot of time defending russia anymore so they do achieve success when they expose in their view the social problems in the United States as well and they do that and they get an audience for that because that is for those democratic societies for the criticism of the status quo would ever that happens to be the real