[Vladimir Ryzhkov, independent State Duma deputy] One has to focus on the main point of the vertical power structure. The point is that the vertical power structure has been constructed. What's more it has been constructed over the past five years, step by step.

Putin has trampled on freedoms

I would like to point out that Putin started by trampling on independent Russian national television. At the moment on Channel One and the second channel [RTV] we see what is simply Soviet or Brezhnev-style television. On the other channels freedom has been restricted to the utmost. They have taken off [NTV presenter] Savik Shuster and so on.

Next, Putin trampled on parliament in a fairly cunning manner. There is no time to speak about this. But both houses have been rendered completely negligible, unable to oppose the tsar's will.

After this, Vladimir Putin trampled on the federal shape of the state, regional autonomy. Now he is making his final assault on the regions with his proposal to, in effect, appoint governors.

He went on to trample on business as an independent, I want to stress, not political force, but as an independent social force, which could support non-government organizations as well as the opposition, including the political opposition. The Yukos case has became an example for all the others, as a warning.

Now, in effect, he is proposing to destroy the last little islands of freedom. A discussion is now going on about control of the internet, about a new tax regime for non-governmental organizations, whereby non-government organization will have to ask the government for permission to receive money from Russian and foreign sponsors.

I think that next in line will be the newsprint media: at least, we have the case of [anti-Kremlin journalist] Anna Politkovskaya, who was poisoned [supposedly to stop her reporting on Beslan], the case of Raf Shakirov, who was dismissed right after Beslan [editor of Izvestiya supposedly removed for too candid coverage of Beslan and criticizing the Kremlin]. These cases show that a blow will be struck at these last little islands of public freedom. [Passage omitted]

Putin's ideal is the Soviet Union

What is called in Russia the vertical power structure is in other words a definition of an authoritarian regime - the authoritarian regime of Vladimir Putin.

There is no doubt that he is not a democratic, but an authoritarian leader. Since coming to power by a modified democratic route, there is no doubt at all that the regime that Putin is constructing is a regime of the Pinochet type, the kind of regime they had in South Korea in the 1970s or 1960s, the sort of regime they had in Brazil when the military were in power from 1964 to 1984. In effect, this is a semi-military, corrupt Junta which has seized power in the country, and is very cleverly exploiting the myth of the vertical power structure, the strong hand and powerful authority. [Passage omitted]

Putin openly says that his ideal is the Soviet Union. They are putting up monuments to Andropov. Putin ordered that [on the war memorial ] in Aleksandrovskiy gardens [in Moscow] the name of Volgograd should be replaced with that of Stalingrad. So, just as earlier under Brezhnev, we are seeing in effect the legitimization of Stalin, the legitimization of Andropov. [Passage omitted]

So we are seeing the rehabilitation of Stalin, the rehabilitation of political repression, the rehabilitation of the KGB, the Cheka and the NKVD, the rehabilitation of the imperial state. [Passage omitted]

Putin is restoring an imperial state for the third time in Russian history. The first model of the imperial state was tsarist Russia, then it was restored in the Soviet form. Putin is restoring the imperial state in the Chekist state. [Passage omitted]

Vertical power structure is ineffective

The problem is that there is a difference between Putin's regime and the tsarist one. The tsars believed in God, they attended church and were brilliantly educated people. [Passage omitted] They were religious people, with high moral qualities, at least in the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. We don't have that today, especially in the president's entourage. To put it mildly, I don't see people there with high moral qualities. [Passage omitted]

Now these people have found their way to power by chance, and what do we see? A colossal redistribution of property. I have data to show that it has started in the regions, where successful businessmen are blackmailed and preyed on by that same bureaucratic, security vertical power structure. This is a mass process. People have started selling their businesses in Russia. Capital has started to move out of the country. After Beslan people with money have started talking about emigration, about sending their families abroad. The stock market is standing still or has been falling for more than a year now after the Yukos case. Corruption is amazing, and according to all indicators, is continuing to grow.

So, you understand, the vertical power structure has been completed, and it has demonstrated its total ineffectiveness. [Passage omitted]

It is a corrupt, ineffective empire. [Passage omitted]