Russia's long-range vision

Posted: June 19, 2000

1:00 a.m. Eastern

Last summer Vladimir Putin was appointed as prime minister of Russia. Some people said that a
KGB careerist like Putin couldn't last very long in a democratic country. In the long run, he'd
prove to be a dud. At least, that was the instant analysis. Then Putin was designated as acting
president upon Yeltsin's resignation last Dec. 31. In March Putin was officially elected and in
May he was inaugurated. It seems that a KGB careerist could be popular after all.

But why him?

Before we can answer this question, it should be understood that there are hidden structures
guiding Russia. There are strategists within the Kremlin who are working from a "plan." And
these same strategists were the ones who chose Vladimir Putin.

In 1982 a former high ranking Communist official, named Jan Sejna, wrote a book entitled "We
Will Bury You." A large section of the book is about the Kremlin's plan for defeating the West.
Sejna noted that the plan was flexible, and "subject to constant revision to ensure that it takes
into account new factors." Most readers would assume that such a plan would be dead by now.
But this assumption is incorrect, and here is why:

While the Kremlin was busy giving up Eastern Europe and making all sorts of frank admissions
about the "crimes of Stalin" and the "errors of Brezhnev," Soviet officials were mysteriously
silent about their long-range strategic plan

. No admissions were made, and no documents were published.

Mum was the word.

We know from at least three defector sources that a long range Kremlin strategy did exist. We
know that this strategy employed deception on a massive scale, and we know from two of these
defectors (i.e., Jan Sejna and Anatoliy Golitsyn) that the long range plan would involve the
controlled collapse of Soviet Russia's military alliance in Eastern Europe -- the Warsaw Pact.

If this strategy is now defunct, and if the Kremlin no longer seeks victory over the West, then
why haven't we seen this plan exposed at a Moscow press conference? Why haven't our good
democratic friends in Moscow declassified the old strategy? Surely, it would clarify the whole
history of the Cold War.

But Lenin remains unburied and the plan remains in effect.

Sadly, the West remains clueless. From the very start, America's leaders have refused to believe
that a Kremlin plan existed. "One of the basic problems of the West," wrote Sejna, "is its
frequent failure to recognize the existence of any Soviet 'grand design' at all."

Two leading U.S. policy analysts, Henry Kissinger and Edward Luttwak, for example,
discounted the idea of a long-range Soviet deception strategy, and it was against this skepticism
that Sejna wrote, "The Soviet Strategic Plan for the establishment of their 'Socialism' worldwide
does, without doubt, exist. ..."

Another high ranking defector was Ladislav Bittman, former deputy chief of Department D of
the Czech intelligence service. According to Bittman, KGB Gen. Agayants (chief of the KGB's
disinformation department) frequently came to Prague in person to ensure that the plan was
being followed.

The most sensational testimony about the Kremlin's long-range strategy came from KGB
defector Anatoliy Golitsyn, who outlined what he knew of the plan -- and what he deduced about
it -- in a 1984 book entitled "New Lies for Old."

According to Golitsyn the strategic plan originated in the 1950s from a rejection of Stalin's failed
strategic ideas. A direct and obvious military threat from Russia, combined with obvious and
idiotic propaganda was bound to fail. Therefore, the old Stalinist machine had to be replaced
with a new machine. The blockheaded rant of neo-Stalinists had to be set aside in favor of
apparent openness and frank admissions. According to Golitsyn, in its "final phase" the long-
range strategy would introduce false liberalization and democracy into Eastern Europe. This
would involve the "exhibition of spurious independence on the part of the regimes in Romania,
Czechoslovakia, and Poland." He even predicted that the Berlin Wall might be taken down and
Germany reunited.

In this context, Vladimir Putin was a KGB officer stationed in East Germany when the Berlin
Wall came down. His KGB group in East Germany was a key component in organizing the
controlled collapse of the Warsaw Pact -- which defectors Sejna and Golitsyn had mentioned in
the early 1980s. We know about this from a former East German secret police official named
Horst Jemlich, who was interviewed by the London Sunday Times. On Jan. 16 the Times quoted
Jemlich as saying that Putin's KGB group was mounting an operation behind East Germany's
back. "The plan was to prepare one day to let us fall," Jemlich told the Times.

So the fall of East Germany was intentional, according to yet another former East European
secret police official. And Vladimir Putin was directly involved in implementing that plan.

What could be more significant?

Touching on this, there is an interesting excerpt in a recently published book on Putin, entitled
"First Person." Sergei Roldugin, one of Putin's closest associates, used to argue with him about
the wisdom of intentionally letting East Germany fall.
"I remember how confused and upset Volodya felt about the collapse," Says Roldugin in the
book.

Putin would say to Roldugin: "You just can't do that! How can you do that? I know that I can be
wrong, but how can the most highly qualified professionals be mistaken?"

Then Roldugin would reply to him: "You know, Volodya, don't get me started."

You can imagine how some KGB officers must have felt. How can Russia give up the Warsaw
Pact? How can Russia let East Germany go? But today Putin is in a much better position to
appreciate what has been gained. By now he agrees with his friend, Roldugin. The collapse of
the Warsaw Pact led directly to Western disarmament, plus billions in Western investment to
Russia and a massive infusion of technology.

In the last analysis, sacrificing East Germany was well worth it.

According to KGB defector Golitsyn, writing in the early 1980s, the coming East European
liberalization "would be calculated and deceptive in that it would be introduced from above. It
would be carried out by the party through its cells and individual members in government ... and
by the KGB through its agents among the intellectuals and scientists."

In a June 22, 1994, piece from the Wall Street Journal Europe, J. Michael Waller tells us that it
was the KGB and Communist youth organizers that set up the first stock exchange in Russia.
He also noted that 80 percent of all joint ventures between Western and Russian companies
involved KGB officers. As for the democratic reforms in Russia, Waller notes that when the
Communist Party Soviet Union gave up power, the KGB set up a training system for turning
KGB personnel into democratic leaders.

At the ground floor of Russian democracy, Waller tells us, were 2,758 admitted KGB officers
running for public office -- local, regional and federal. This is to say nothing of the secret
creatures of the KGB, or Russian politicians subject to KGB blackmail.

Waller's research, like the statements of Horst Jemlich and the writings of key Soviet bloc
defectors, only goes to confirm that the Kremlin's long-range plan is entirely real -- that the
collapse of Communism has been controlled and deceptive. And that is why, amid the frank
admissions and document disclosures, not one peep has been heard about Russia's long-range
strategy. The strategy is a secret because it is still in effect.

In this context, the significant thing about Putin, which we all have to remember, is that he
speaks fluent German; and winning over Germany is the key to breaking up NATO. As it
happens, Putin visited Germany last week. He met privately with the German Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder at least four times. Not even a translator was present. These one-on-one
sessions were so intimate that they aroused the amazement of the German press.

"What do you want us to say," joked Putin, "that we're in love?"

In this context, Germany is the heart of Europe. To win the heart is to win the whole. That is
what the Russians are trying to achieve. That is the next step in Russia's long-range plan.

"Germany is Russia's leading partner in Europe and the world," said Putin.

And this is no joking proposition. Putin told the Germans that Russia could defend Europe from
the rogue nations (which Russia and China have armed with missiles). Therefore, who needs the
stupid Americans? We Russians have what you need. And we have the world's best anti-missile
technology.

Putin's diplomacy seeks to break up NATO and win over Europe to Russia. This is in strict
accordance with the Kremlin's long-range strategy. If we ignore the existence of this strategy, as
Clinton does, we do so at our own risk.

It is time to wake up.