Pavlovsky on Chubais

This is a bit old I know but interesting nonetheless.

Catching up on some of Russian news and commentary, I saw some commentary on the Chubais assassination attempt by Gleb Pavlovsky that should continue to endear him to many Ukrainians.

I wouldn't speak of it as an attempt on Chubais's life: this is not self-evident to me, because the methods used could reach no other goal but an awkward chance. In my mind, the matter concerns quite a foul staging aimed at achieving provocative political goals. The maker of this wasn't actually aiming at murdering Chubais, but
wanted to produce the atmosphere of event for getting subsequent comments….

This impairs the country's reputation on the global arena; this is among the tasks of this staging in which firearms was used. I wouldn't like to think that Chubais's inner
circle is involved in this. These are irresponsible shadow political circles, which are
willing to upset the situation. The opposition will use this event widely for propagandistic goals, mostly by the extreme anti-Putin, the oligarchic opposition. This suits their style. However, it is inadmissible to point at any of the politicians.

This could be compared to Gongadze's story in Ukraine, where an absolutely senseless murder was contrived with a provocative goal of arising criminal suspicions against the authorities. Johnson’s Russia List #7, Vremya Novostei, March 18, 2005.

In short, what Pavlovsky believes is that the Gangadze murder was perpetrated by anti-government forces who did it as an attempt to discredit the Kuchma government.

It would be interesting to know if he is using this as a reason for why he lost the election for Yanukovych. He is the Russian political technologist—we would call him a “spin doctor”—who shoved the idea of fascist conspiracies undermining the government and Yanukovych down the throats of Ukrainians. When he lost, he beat it home and, if he didn’t say it directly, at least insinuated that the forces of the West, the CIA mostly, undermined him at every turn.