nterview with Boris Fedorov, by Sergey Maslov:
"Boris Fedorov Awaiting the Second Bullet".
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KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA He has begun talking -- maybe because certain statements increase his chances of living... Our correspondent met in the clinic of a certain West European country with the former president of the NFS, who this summer received a bullet wound and eight stab wounds. It is just that bullets fly quickly, but aircraft in the air seem to be crawling. That is how I could describe my sensations when I was flying to a meeting with Boris Fedorov. After the first brief interview that my KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA colleagues had with him in a time- responsive manner (see the 10 July issue), it seemed to me that my feet would lead me quickly to my conversational partner. But even in Western Europe itself, where it is only spitting distance to even the farthest point (although that is generally not done), it took me four days to get to Fedorov. Although all that time I realized that he was somewhere nearby. But what did he know about me? Only my first name, Sergey. And also that I am a journalist. So it is not only a newspaper reporter who can equate the pen to the bayonet. For example, in instructional manuals in self- defense for American teachers it is stated that a ballpoint pen pierces the tissues of the human body in the same way that any stabbing weapon does... But when we met, I did not see any fear on his face. In addition, I immediately presented my recognition sign: a photograph with my wife and daughter from the family album, which probably elicited more trust that my press identification card. To tell the truth, I had thought that I would see a broken cripple. But here in front of me was a tall, strong person wearing a white jogging suit. True, he was walking on red crutches. But, if he wants to, he can already move along without them. But now to the topic at hand. First, so much has already been said and twisted around about the item published in NOVAYA GAZETA that I wanted finally to listen to the person upon whom the blame is placed most frequently, but who has proven to be excluded from the game. Secondly, my perception of those people who are mentioned in the conversation frequently differs from the evaluations given by Boris Fedorov, and often do so sharply. However, these statements are among the proof, and very important proof. Therefore I did not give myself the task of arguing with my conversational partner. I do not completely understand the statement made for the press by Minister Kulikov to the effect that one must take a cautious attitude toward Fedorov's statements inasmuch as he is a "private individual." In our country the overwhelming majority of people are private individuals, Mr. Minister. Thirdly, I am not a lawyer, but a journalist. Fourthly. I assume that Fedorov could tell me not everything that would be of interest to a journalist or the reader. But even that which he did say is, in my opinion, of the greatest interest. Interview begins(Maslov) People say that, in general, you do not particularly bestow much attention on journalists. (Fedorov) It is not so much that I do not trust journalists in principle. It is simply that my experience has not been very happy. For example, people have written that at one time I used to work at the "Chayka" swimming pool and provided girls for high officials. After the statement was made, my wife did not talk to me for a week. But just try and prove that I had never been at the "Chayka" swimming pool, and had not swum there even once. I had rather good relations with Sasha Minkin. But why have people currently made me out to be a beast? A person who "handed over" a group of people. Where did Minkin get my private conversation from? Who is he? A major? A colonel? (Maslov) I would like to know your personal opinion: what is the article in NOVAYA GAZETA about? To put it in plain terms, what is its purpose? (Fedorov) In my opinion, a few people were in panic and defended themselves by the first method they thought of. Realizing that the processes were not going in the way that had been planned, they grabbed onto anything-- just to protect themselves. They used me. (Maslov) Currently the passions concerning the article seem to be quieting down somewhat. Are you happy about that? (Fedorov)Either the group that wanted to sink Korzhakov and Barsukov felt that the job has been done... Or someone said, "Stop! Let's figure this out." But while they were figuring it out, they said, "Let's keep quiet for the time being." Or a third possibility is that the assignment of personnel has started to take its course. After the appointment of Chubays as the administration head, the assignment depends upon that person. (Maslov) The name of Chubays is linked with the decision to abolish the privileges when importing goods into the country, which, as I understand it, dealt a heavy blow to your interests in the NFS. (Fedorov) That was a sharp step that was harsh for us. We are beginning to come to an understanding with Chubays. We used to come to understandings with him about everything. Incidentally, I do not know who is berating him, but all the time that I worked with Anatoliy Borisovich -- of course, that work was only periodic -- you could always come to an understanding with him, if you were right. (Maslov) What do you mean by "right"? (Fedorov) That is, if you substantiate to him with documentary scrupulousness what you are doing. The authorities did not exert much influence on him. And I never deny -- no matter how much people try to get us to fight with one another -- that I coordinated practically every step of mine and discussed it, if not with Tarpishchev, then with Korzhakov or Barsukov. (Maslov) Let's talk a bit about your relations with Korzhakov and Barsukov. (Fedorov) In my opinion, Korzhakov is a decent person. Why is he acting this way, rather than another way? He feels that if a person is an enemy, then he must be destroyed. If a person is a friend, he must be supported. This probably is incorrect. There must be a capability of making compromises. But that is the kind of person he is. And probably that is the kind of person that the president needed at the first stage. Probably the person who is needed now in that place is a more intellectual one. But I cannot say. That is not my job. But this is my clear-cut position: I shall not testify against Korzhakov or Barsukov, but the attempt is being made to use me as a witness in the accusation against them. For a long time they treated me, if not in the way that fathers would, then in any case they protected me. I never had any doubts about their decency. My relations with Mikhail Ivanovich were rather close. He served as my mentor in many matters, and gave me advice. Therefore I do not have the right to bring them down. I can talk about my conflicts with Tarpishchev. I say that suddenly he is not right. Because he did not understand anything. But suddenly he is right... But I definitely cannot say that Messrs. Korzhakov and Barsukov are corrupt. I do not know anything about that. I never gave them any money. (Maslov) So it turns out that, apparently, you had good relations with everyone -- and yet here you are on a hospital bed with nine wounds. (Fedorov) This is a very difficult conversation. Because the situation with a whole chain of provocational acts against me can be understood only in is development. (Maslov) I've got plenty of time. (Fedorov) Well, it's necessary to remember my biography. My work at the plant, my work in the cultural center at MOSKOVSKIYE NOVOSTI, the eight trips that my wife and I made to China (we were among the pioneers of the shuttle traffic). And, finally, our long and fruitful joint work with Shamil Tarpishchev. (Maslov) You have said that he was not very capable of figuring out financial or banking problems... (Fedorov) Everyone used to go to see Shamil, and he could not refuse anyone. It was idiocy! One person thought up a kind of sport: a button in a fan's chair, and a gyroscope in a soccer ball... He says, "Can you imagine how interesting that would be? Any fan can participate in the process." The ball would go flying to Fedya Cherkov, then you would press the button, and the ball would go to... Say, Khottabych. So Shamil writes a resolution: please help this person. But getting closer to the election... People should be paid their wages. We should have carried out more measures. We should have sent a thousand balls and other things to the village... Everyone begins to shout, "What's going on?" The NFS used to do the financing always, but now it doesn't. Where's the money?.. I begin to explain. To Shamil, to the fifth person, to the tenth... It is against that background that the conflict grows. A conflict between me and Tarpishchev. Because of the fact that he does not have any time, because of the fact that it is complicated for him to understand all the fine points. After all, he never worked with figures. He says, "How can this be? The newspapers write that we have money." I say,"Shamil, it's necessary to go to Minfin (Ministry of Finance). The money is there. It's listed as a line in the budget." That is, it is the law about the budget. And the people at Minfin also have their position: the president has said to pay the wages! Which athletes? Shamil began exerting pressure on me. And that was senseless. (Maslov) That is, Shamil is guilty of everything? (Fedorov) He's not part of the problem. He is afraid of a discussion on a serious level. A discussion about tennis -- yes! Why Olkhovskiy lost today, and why Volkov won. He'll talk about it so much that you'll simply go crazy. Shamil tries to find advisors. But they themselves do not understand anything, and act in the role of consultants. What could Andryukha Makarov explain to him? Then there is a series of -- I don't know how to say it -- fatal mistakes that lead to today's result. Here I am with holes in me, and a cut throat. (Maslov) Could you discuss this in greater detail? (Fedorov) We came to an understanding that an Olympic corporation would be created. Vodka, cigarettes -- we did not need them. The corporation was supposed to earn money for sports by using the Olympic symbols and many other things. There are funds that were earned by the NFS, but also tremendous debts. Therefore we created a commercial holding company, which I took under my leadership. The money was supposed to be transferred to that Olympic corporation. The understanding had apparently been achieved, and we began working. I do not know what was the catalyst for the conflict -- perhaps the election. Some began to hurry up, and some began not to restrain their pledges. All of a sudden, I sense that they don't trust me. The conflict situation becomes public knowledge. But that situation is an in-ter-nal one. It could have been smoothed over, but... I did some more talking with one person. The conversation was rather harsh. I was given some ultimatums. I begin to be afraid. It was as though I had been kicked off the team. I had nowhere to go. I begin looking for a partner. Where is the alternative? The capitalists who are conducting the election campaign, who were given access. In general, I never got into anything illegal. I calmly did my job, and had plenty to do. I begin to explain to people what I am explaining to you. By that moment Shamil is causing several conflicts. But people continue to consider that we are linked together. For that reason a few people, attempting to carry out a provocational act against me, think that they are striking at Shamil. Not knowing that there is a conflict between us, not believing in that conflict. (Maslov) What can you say about the drugs in the Mercedes? (Fedorov) The provocational acts took their further course. But the first one was the provocational act with drugs. That is completely ridiculous -- the OMON (Special Purpose Militia Detachments). A major conducts an inspection of the car. My wife is with me. I am smoking a cigarette. He says, "Give me a light." I give him a light and he says, "Listen, fellow, this is a contract job. Don't holler: Korzhakov, Barsukov!.. Just get some lawyers tomorrow and act very cautiously." Then he approaches my car. He lifts up the carpet, under which there isn't anything. He covers his own hand with that carpet. He takes it out. And says, "I'll have to get some witnesses. Wait here." After that he goes into an epileptic seizure." (Maslov) In what sense? (Fedorov) Literally. He fell down, and foam started coming from his mouth. I could have demanded evaluation by experts. Drugs are things that can be eaten out of your hand. He is immediately taken away from the scene of the events. He disappears for two or three days: he's sick. (Maslov) Was he faking it? (Fedorov) Well, I don't know. I was told that he had two wounds in the head. I don't know... (Maslov) You spoke about the purpose of the provocational acts. Was the last link the gunshot? (Fedorov) Someone persuades Korzhakov, Barsukov, and Tarpishchev to make mistakes which until today make it possible to continue the provocational acts against me. And my instantaneous removal? Did someone need that? Whatever happened, I was a completely controllable person. If Fedorov was removed, if Streletskiy was appointed, then the entire situation was contrived by Korzhakov and Barsukov. But it would have been sufficient for them to speak to me and I would have gone abroad for five months and not shown up. But they knew more than anyone else did. Who convinced them, though -- that's the question! Because there are direct losses here. Putting a person from another system onto such a complicated job as the NFS is dooming everything. The result: no one needs the NFS anymore. But what about "Natskredit," and "Inturbank," and many others? There was an entire program for improving their financial condition and for returning the assets. And the lottery process in the country? I spent five years restoring the lottery after it had been allowed to go downhill. I did the same thing with "Inturist" -- we spent three years restoring it, and now everything has been destroyed again. Who will do all of this instead of me -- Streletskiy? Who is he? A colonel in MUR (Moscow Criminal Investigation)? What does he know how to do -- has he ever been in finance or banking affairs? I can say with complete responsibility that the haste with which my removal was carried out represents half a billion dollars of losses. (Maslov) This is the first time that I have ever had a conversation with a person who has had an attempt made on his life. Exactly how did that happen? (Fedorov) The shot was a complete surprise for me. To tell you the truth, we might be able. deep within ourselves, to figure this out sometime. But right now, I'll just sit here and remain silent, and the wave will wash away. Nothing came of it. But they completely ruined the life of a girl who had absolutely nothing to do with this. I never leased an apartment for her. I never bought any expensive cars. It's simply that I have a male friend in St. Petersburg who asked me to help her to enroll at the university. I actually helped her. I sent her money. I gave her money to live on and to pay her apartment rent with. Moreover, I can tell you who did lease the apartment: a guy named Kozlov, who used to work with me. He leased it for $500 a month. I also asked her out. I said, "Natasha, let's go out to dinner." A Chinese restaurant, the Panda, was right next door. I had to take the pressure off of me, because it seemed to me that I was being followed. And I also had to meet up with a certain person. (Maslov) How does the girl feel today? (Fedorov) She left town without taking her exams. The bullet missed me and hit her in the leg. I think she went back to her mother in St. Petersburg. So, of course, they told that 17-year-old girl that she was a kept woman, etc. I never had anything to do with her. God forbid that anything like that should happen. The man whose friend I have been for a long time would simply punch my face in. (Maslov) Nevertheless, how did this happen? (Fedorov) We met the person. We are walking back, when suddenly there is some kind of fight like in an operetta. Actually it is as though people are beating one another up, but no one is hitting anyone. A Model-6 (Zgiguli) stops. And then... If you brought them in for me to identify them now, or if you didn't bring them in, I still could not identify them. It's just that at that moment I had a funny feeling. I tell Natasha, "Walk on ahead." I turned around. I see that he is aiming the gun at me. He fired the gun. From a distance of about two meters. His pistol jammed, but my leg was paralyzed. So, holding onto my leg, I started to go for him. I grabbed his pistol. He threw it aside. He pushed me away. Then he jumped on me with a knife. I did not lose consciousness and kept trying to protect myself. He stabs me in the eye and I start to get away. But he has punctured my two lungs, and has punctured my pleura. He missed my heart, but he really tore up everything under my armpit. A second guy opens the car door from the inside and hurries him up, saying, "Let's get going, let's get going..." Militia men come running up with their machineguns -- some buildings that are being protected are situated nearby. The killers escape. The resuscitation crew arrives. (Maslov) How much did it cost to insure the airplane that brought you here from Russia? (Fedorov) Twenty thousand dollars. But I didn't pay it. The firm that I had dealings with paid. But if it hadn't been for the doctors at the Skinfosovskiy (Institute)... I lost five and a half liters of blood. They put me under idiotic conditions. Why am I here? I needed a complicated operation, in which it is necessary to cut me up from the spine to the peritoneum. I simply could not have survived the operation then. But my legs would have atrophied. I now have 6-7 hours a day of physical therapy here. It is difficult and complicated. (Maslov) I guess that the situation is not so scary abroad? (Fedorov) The item published in NOVAYA GAZETA is a direct threat to my life. You have to understand that this setup will lead only to a second bullet. But one bullet was already enough for me. At night I lie down to go to sleep and I think, "If only it doesn't hurt." And if only I wake up again. I have learned from the published items that my chances of living are estimated to be not very high. And if Minkin evaluates my chances poorly... Well, if, knock on wood, I survive, I give you my word that I'll sock him in the face. That's how we do it village-style. That's how we do it. (Maslov) Was there a cassette? (Fedorov) Well, let's put it this way: I actually used to visit Berezovskiy. Everyone would be there, the entire re-election staff. We had already carried out various conversations in other places. Suddenly they are announced to the entire country -- in the newspaper. That I had made a cassette with explanations, with depositions concerning definite individuals. But that had never happened. No cassette discrediting other individuals had ever been made by me, and, even moreso, none had ever been translated. What was stated on the cassette was my conflict with Tarpishchev. I have already explained how it arose. What did I say that was special? Well, out of the Entrepreneur's mouth there have been evaluations: the complete finish line, crooks, etc. Who is making that evaluation? Certainly not me. (Maslov) For what purpose was the conversation made? (Fedorov) A very simple one -- in order to use all of this at some time. The relations had become very strained between the Entrepreneur and those people. He needed compromising material. A recording or something else, in order to exert influence on those relations at a definite moment. (Maslov) What about your memorandum in NOVAYA GAZETA, that anticipated the publication of the magnetic recording? (Fedorov) There was no such memorandum. Never. If there is one, let them show it to me. (Maslov) Whether there is or is not a recording -- whatever the case -- could it have been made previously? And could someone have put it in motion prior to the election or at least prior to the second round, in order to influence its results? (Fedorov) Why not just drop the subject? This could not have happened between the two rounds. Because everyone needed Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin. When I was being resuscitated, I needed Yeltsin. So did Tarpishchev at his summer cottage. And Berezovskiy in his luxurious office. All of this is dividing the territories after the election. (Maslov) The published item also contained the phrase "Sasha and Mishey demand..." (Fedorov) Those are not my words. And essentially speaking... that was Shamil's request: he needed free funds for the pre-election campaign. That was a kind of idea: it would be a good thing to have that money in cash. Which is what happened, incidentally, when they were paying off the performing artists. But for us all of that was not so simple. Every quarter the NFS had to give a report to Minfin. And I could never guarantee $10 million in cash. Shamil was burning up in the pre-election campaign. He was trying to drag out everything that he could... (Maslov) Under those conditions, can Shamil Tarpishchev look for contacts with you? (Fedorov) He is looking for them. Everyone catches the other person's opinion. I make a telephone call and say, "Petya, did you have a conversation with Shamil? What does he say?" And then Petya gets in touch with Shamil. Shama asks, "What does Borya say?" We were disunited by the initial mistake. Shamil never did manage to make sense out of figures. And I never managed to sit down and explain things to him. That was the mistake that led to all the consequences. (Maslov) Can you tell me about today's meeting with him? (Fedorov) It went absolutely calmly. This will already be another conversation -- not one between a subordinate and a chief. But I am convinced that there will be as a result a normal conversation. I simply know Shamil and myself. (Maslov) Aren't you afraid? (Fedorov) No. I do not believe that Shamil could organize anything against me. Moreover, he does not have the people to do this. I always say that he is a person who should be described as weak, rather than mean. So I sent him a fax, which he then showed during a television broadcast. I wrote that I consider him to be a completely good person. Because I kept attempting to extricate myself from that conflict Not only for my own benefit, but also for Shamil's. (Maslov) What kind of future do you see for yourself? (Fedorov) Why did I leave the Kremlin a half-year ago? As a serious person said in a certain serious movie, you cannot spin your personal wool with state wool. You cannot combine state status with the interests of the job at hand. It is always necessary to find within yourself the forces to cultivate within oneself the official and the businessman. For me, sports are no longer interesting -- I was interested in the system of financing. That is my place. (Maslov) You talk so easily about your return to the world where you were almost killed. (Fedorov) Well, believe me when I say that I am not mad at the killer. That is already past. When I came to, I thought that now I would become like Rambo. I would buy 25 machineguns and would go looking for them with dogs. But now I have only one desire -- to have all of this end as quickly as possible. To recuperate and to begin working. Why waste time trying to get revenge? Of course, I would like to have my situation cleared up. Someone organized all this. Who needed it? Let's try to answer that question. I would like for people to say, "Boris Fedorov is guilty of this, but he is not guilty of that." I do not ask to have the killers caught -- that is a difficult question. Although I was called on the telephone and told that they had been caught. I think that, once again, that was a game, and a continuation of the provocation. They'll tell that one, "You committed crimes, but! You're still going to prison. We'll give you ten (years). We'll let you out in five. All you have to do is testify that you shot Fedorov because Korzhakov told you about this. Or because Berezovskiy told you about this." That is possible. (Maslov) But didn't you even think about a spare airfield? (Fedorov) What spare airfield? After three days I am beginning to become stupid here. I like my country. Despite everything. I can begin with a cooperative. (Maslov) I'd like to ask a question that I probably should have asked first. How is your health? (Fedorov) It is already better. What do I still have? A stab wound in my throat. The problem with my throat was resolved yesterday. Practically completely. There were problems with my leg -- it was almost completely atrophied. But I can already walk again. I do not have any doubts that I shall survive. Therefore, if someone does not want me to survive, he will have to finish me off. I only hope that it won't be painful. 
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