TIME EUROPE
July 24, 2000, Vol. 156 No. 4
Q & A
Berezovsky speaks
Businessman Boris Berezovsky met Time bureau chief Paul Quinn-Judge and staffer Yuri Zarakhovich in Moscow on Friday:
TIME: What's motivating Putin?
Berezovsky: I don't doubt that he wants to live in a democratic country, see Russia strong, its people prosperous. But he's chosen a completely fallacious path. The result will be the complete opposite. Russia will continue its slow collapse, its people will have an even worse life, and their freedoms will be ab-solutely unprotected.
TIME: Does Putin understand what democracy means?
Berezovsky: He has a very clear concept of it. But he considers that it is also possible to achieve democracy by this means [authoritarianism]. I also used to say that we wanted democracy, but that we were in a period when it was impossible to attain it by democratic means. What is happening now shows that this is a mistake ... as soon as you deviate from democratic principles in the transition to democracy, you destroy democracy too.
TIME: What is to be done?
Berezovsky: One, convince the President that he is wrong. Tell the President and his entourage that what is happening is ruinous for Russia. Do it openly. Two, create a normal, constructive opposition. And the powers that be have already created all the conditions for this. They have pressured the é lites and society in general to such a degree that even people who used to be at daggers drawn have found a common cause. Putin has essentially united the é lite around the idea not of helping him, but of opposing him, unfortunately.
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July 24, 2000
COVER
One Is 100
Famous and beloved for her entire adult life, the Queen Mother notches up a century on August 4 — and the celebrations are already in full swing
EUROPE
Crackdown
Moscow's powerful oligarchs feel the heat as Vladimir Putin's tax police and prosecutors continue to make life uncomfortable for Russia's big business
The Hit List
Russia's ruble rousers
Q & A
Berezovsky speaks
The Tax Break Man
By squeezing through sweeping reforms, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has stolen a march on his critics
BUSINESS
Third Generation Gap
Lower-than-expected bidding for mobile licenses is bad news for governments but good news for consumers
HEALTH
The New Science of Alzheimer's
Racing against time — and one another — researchers close in on the aging brain's most heartbreaking disorder
SOCIETY
The French Disease
In France, a best seller exposes a nationwide problem of emotional abuse in the workplace
THE ARTS
In Praise of Flattery
How the rampant sucking up to the famous has undermined the language of private praise
DEPARTMENTS
Essay
Olympic Monitor
World Watch
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