Ricardo Chavira Chicano

I did not include this anecdote in my book in the interest of brevity.

Ten years after my first visit to Moscow in 1986, I returned on another reporting trip. In the interim, the Soviet Union collapsed, and communism was officially discredited. Russia was formally a democratic country.

I was excited to be back and see what Russian democracy looked like. My assignment was to cover the presidential electoral campaign that pitted Boris Yeltsin against his main opponent, Gennady Zyuganov, the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. This was billed as an authentic democratic electoral campaign and vote.

Moscow appeared transformed. Luxury cars plied the streets, and there were lots of thuggish-looking men in leather coats. Empty stores and shops had been replaced by swank places where exorbitantly priced goods were sold.

My English-speaking driver, a veteran of the Afghanistan war, complained nonstop about the many criminal groups who operated with impunity. I had heard the mafias were into all sorts of criminal activities, among them drug and arms smuggling and extortion.

An American official at the United States embassy echoed the driver’s complaints. He said newly arrived American companies, like all businesses in Russia, were required to buy krysha, or “roof” protection money. The official found humor in American companies’ misadventures.   

One firm seeking to break into the oil business bought krysha, only to have thugs demand that they buy a roof from them. The executives told the original krysha vendors about the new mobsters. They were angry to learn of the interlopers, and the gangsters told the Americans not to worry or pay anything. They would make the problem go away, and it did.

The once-ubiquitous cops were gone. But one officer accosted me in Moscow, yelled in Russian, and held out his hand. I replied in English that I had no idea what he was saying and showed him my passport. He stormed off.

I was surprised to see several prostitutes lounging in the lobby of the Kempinski where I was staying. Prostitution then and today is illegal.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and severe economic distress, thousands of women from outlying areas had come to Moscow to work as prostitutes. That explained why they were all over the capital. I later learned that the Russian mafia controlled the sex industry.

Generally, the Russians I interviewed with a translator said the upcoming election unsettled them. Many were cynical and mistrustful of all political leaders. Others were disturbed by organized crime’s grip on the country, suggesting that it likely would be the real power, not politicians.

Older Russians favored the communist candidate, contending life was easier in the Soviet Union. They condemned the vagaries of what was supposed to be a free market. While they had little under communist rule, food and housing were assured. Now, they said, everything was expensive, and nothing was guaranteed.

Late one afternoon, several young skinheads followed close behind me as I walked. They shouted in a taunting tone. Some laughed uproariously at what was being said.

Few people were out, and I did not see a police officer. It was an ideal spot for the men to pounce. They had trailed for ten minutes, and I was certain they would attack.

When we headed toward an underpass, I became enraged and spun around to face the punks. My fists clenched, I bellowed, Come on, motherfuckers! What do you want?

They seemed taken aback, stopped walking, and melted away. I believe they thought I was Chechen or some other minority they disliked.

In the next few minutes, I concluded I had averted a beatdown. I also briefly thought of the omnipresent security forces of the Soviet Union’s Moscow.

My reporting trip was fruitful. I left thinking that while the bane of communism was gone, Russia was on an uncertain political and economic path. I surely did not see an outright dictatorship taking root.

Yeltsin was elected, but when his approval rating plunged to a mere three percent, he resigned after two years in office. Elected president in 2000, Vladimir Putin put in place the dictatorship I had not foreseen.