Dr. Alexandr Nemets and Dr. Thomas Torda
Friday, July 19, 2002

Some Explanations

The author of the story "Gospodin Geksogen" is Alexandr Prokhanov, editor in chief of the Moscow-based Zavtra weekly newspaper, known as the leader of the Russian "hard-stone opposition" media.

Prokhanov himself fiercely hates the Yeltsin-Putin regime and uses every opportunity available to expose its "shameful secrets" in Zavtra.

We have no intention of hiding the fact that Prokhanov's attitude toward America is, mildly speaking, negative. However, this is not an item of primary importance here.

The story of "Mr. Hexogen" – a detailed description of the recent events in Moscow disguised as fiction – exposes the secret forces behind Putin's rise to power and, particularly, throws light on the real perpetrattors of the apartment explosions in Moscow in the beginning of September 1999.

Zavtra has a very well-developed information service (thousands of the paper's readers eagerly inform its editor in chief of crimes committed by the Russian "political-economic elite"), so Prokhanov himself is an extremely informed person. That's why the monstrous facts given in "Mr. Hexogen" reflect actual events in Moscow in 1999 – with probably a 95 percent probability.

Prokhanov wrote this story during the first six months of 2001 and published it in several issues of Zavtra in September-October 2001. The story became extremely popular and several hundred thousand copies were additionally published in November 2001-April 2002 by the Ad Marginem publishing house – tremendous publishing sales for present-day Russia.

At the end of May 2002, "Mr. Hexogen" won first prize at the "National Best Seller" competition in Moscow, which again demonstrated the great popularity of the story.

Major Story Line and Characters of 'Mr. Hexogen'

"Mr. Hexogen" describes the major events in Moscow, and consequently in Russia, from spring 1999 to the beginning of 2000.

The major players (real names in parentheses) are as follows:

• Dummy – the old, ill president of Russia (Boris Yeltsin)

• His corrupt daughter, the real ruler of Russia (Tatyana Yeltsina-Yumasheva)

• Plump-cheeked Prime Minister, continually blabbing about his officers' honor (Sergei Stepashin, prime minister in May-August 1999)

• The bald, persistent Mayor, dreaming about becoming president (Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov)

• Tricky, who recently repaired the Kremlin (Pavel Borodin)

• The "secretly debauched" Prosecutor, the tool of Mayor in his struggle with Dummy (Yury Skuratov, general prosecutor in the first half of 1999)

• Two Jewish oligarchs, competing owners of media empires:

  1. Zaretsky (Boris Berezovsky)

  2. Astros, chairman of Russia's Jewish Congress (Vladimir Gusinsky)

• Gramophone (former Mayor of St. Petersburg Sobchak)

KGB/FSB personnel make up a separate list:

• The retired Gen. Beloseltsev (prototype unknown)

• Gen. Grechishnikov (probably current FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev)

• Buravkov, chief of Zaretsky's special service and FSB observer in his empire (prototype unknown)

• Kopeiko, chief of Astros' special service and FSB observer in his empire (probably Filipp Bobkov, former high-ranking KGB officer)

• Chosen One, "small man reminiscent of a chess figure" (Vladimir Putin)

Major events of the story are as follows.

In the beginning of 1999, Russian is in total disorder after an August 1998 default. The KGB/FSB plans to take over Russia and establish an "iron hand" regime. The plan is called "Suahili."

According to the plan, Chosen One will become president of Russia and later the obedient marionette of the "KGB order." The KGB, under the supervision of Gen. Grechishnikov, successfully carries out the plan. Each stage of the plan corresponds to one part of the story.

In the beginning of the story, Chosen One is the deputy of Tricky (indeed, Putin worked as a deputy of Pavel Borodin, a chief manager in the Kremlin administration, in 1998).

1. Prosecutor

(first part of the book and first part of the KGB's "Suahili" plan)

Prosecutor is gathering compromise materials against Dummy, the president, in accordance with instructions of Mayor, who wants to become president himself.

Retired KGB Gen. Beloseltsev entices Prosecutor to a special apartment, where he gets in bed with two prostitutes. The entire episode is videotaped and two days later is shown on a major Moscow TV channel belonging to Zaretsky. Prosecutor loses his post, changes take place in the FSB and Interior Ministry, and Chosen One becomes FSB director.

(Indeed, at the end of May 1999, General Prosecutor Skuratov was "caught" in bed with two prostitutes and the entire episode was shown on a Berezovsky-owned TV channel. Skuratov lost his post and Putin became FSB chief.)

2. Prime Minister

(second part of the book and of the plan)

The FSB, with Zaretsky's assistance, provokes the war in Chechnya and Dagestan, thus compromising plump-cheeked Prime Minister. He loses his position and Chosen One becomes prime minister.

(Indeed, in the beginning of August 1999, after the Chechen invasion of Dagestan, Prime Minister Stepashin was dismissed and Putin took his position. Berezovsky played a definite role in the invasion's preparations.)

3. Kamu

(third part …)

KGB agents poison a glass of Kamu cognac Gramophone is drinking, and he dies.

In the beginning of the 1990s, Chosen One was Gramophone's deputy (indeed, Putin was the deputy of St. Petersburg Mayor Sobchak in 1992-93).

Gramophone's death is necessary to the plan, to save Chosen One from exposure of damaging facts about him. (Indeed, Sobchak died in August 1999 – the official cause of death was heart attack.)

4. Operation "Hexogen"

(fourth part …)

Using a hexogen explosive, the "KGB order" orchestrates the blasts of the Moscow apartment houses. Chechen guerrillas are framed for this crime. The new prime minister, Chosen One, becomes the top leader in the "war of revenge" in Dagestan and Chechnya – and the people's hero. This paves his way to the presidential post.

(The FSB and Putin used the apartment blasts to start a "patriotic campaign" that increased Putin's prestige so that in the beginning of 2000 Putin became the acting president of Russia.)

The FSB gains supreme power and initiates the redistribution of property in its own interests. In particular, Zaretsky and Astros lose their empires (as actually happened to Berezovsky and Gusinsky). Under the new "iron hand" regime the suffering of the Russian people becomes even worse.

And so the story ends.

Some additional facts and conclusions

In addition to the printed version, "Mr. Hexogen" also is available, in Russian, on the Zavtra Web site. Many hundreds of thousands of people in this country read the story in the printed or Web site version. (It would be extremely beneficial to translate "Mr. Hexogen" into English and publish it in America.)

And millions of Russian citizens – those not rendered senseless by deep poverty, vodka and drugs – trust the facts given in "Mr. Hexogen" and consider the FSB and Putin the main "heroes" behind the Moscow apartment blasts; they are eagerly calling Putin "Mr. Hexogen."

Despite all this information, Putin is still extremely popular in Russia and up to 75 percent of Russians support him (though according to some sources, based on "closed polls," the level of support is actually much less). The same was true for the Germany of 1936-38 and its top leader, who was also popular in Western Europe the same way Putin is popular now in the West. Draw your own conclusions.

Direct struggle against the Chosen One ("Mr. Hexogen") and the FSB itself in FSB-controlled Russia is almost impossible now. In June 2002 the Russian Duma adopted "The law against extremism" just for this purpose. Any person or organization hostile to the existing regime could easily become the victim of this law.

The FSB also tries to isolate Russia from the truth coming in from abroad. In particular, many videotapes of the film "Assassination of Russia" – describing FSB's role in the Moscow and Volgodonsk apartment blasts as well as the failed attempt of such a blast in Ryazan city in September 1999 – were confiscated by Russian customs in March-May 2002.

The film was produced by Boris Berezovsky, self-exiled businessman and one-time Kremlin insider, and unveiled in London in the beginning of March 2002. In addition, the FSB and Russian Interior Ministry are hunting for copies of the film that sneaked into the country.

In mid-May 2002, the Russian General Prosecutor's office announced that it had found no clues connecting the FSB with the apartment explosions. This claim was made in a special letter from Deputy General Prosecutor Vasily Kolmogorov (the Kremlin candidate in the Sakha-Yakutia Republic's presidential election in December 2001) to Duma member Sergei Yushenkov, Berezovsky's main representative in Russia.

Yes, Russian General Prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov, his deputy Vasily Kolmogorov and their associates do not want to suffer the fate of former General Prosecutor Yury Skuratov!

This theme will be continued in our next article.

Dr. Alexandr V. Nemets is co-author of "Chinese-Russian Military Relations, Fate of Taiwan and New Geopolitics."

Dr. Thomas J. Torda is a Chinese defense technology and language consultant with a Northern Virginia firm.

You may contact Dr. Torda at ThomasJTorda@cs.com.

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