Adam Michnik's book "The Anti-Soviet Russophile" written by held in Moscow

Yesterday, on September 19, in Moscow, the House of Journalists hosted a presentation of the book written by Adam Michnik, one of the leaders of the Polish opposition in the socialist era, the editor-in-chief of the Polish newspaper "Wyborcza", who in 2007 led the group monitoring the Georgian TV channels, which was established in Georgia on the recommendation of the European institutions.

The presentation, which lasted about two hours, was attended by representatives of cultural communities, human rights activists, and Russian and Polish journalists.

The book "The Anti-Soviet Russophile" contains a collection of authorial essays. "The past twenty years have been unreal successful in the Polish history; however, it was one long ordeal," said Adam Michnik, the author of the book, and continued: "I was not an objective observer, but a participant of all events. Protection of democratic values has been the most important thing for me. The book narrates about different conflicts, issues and dramas of the Polish transformation."

In his interview to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent Adam Michnik reported on his thoughts about the current Russian authorities, the Russian-Georgian relations and the situation in the Chechen Republic and its president Ramzan Kadyrov.

"No democracy exists in Russia"

"There is no democracy in Russia, since the democracy is, first of all, freedom of choice. Poland has a bad democracy, sinful democracy: there are corruption, chaos, intrigues, and manipulations; however, there is a choice - until the very day, we do not know who will be the next President. Today's Russia has no choice - all is known in advance," believes Adam Michnik.

According to his story, at this stage, Russia has the most powerful in the history of the country authoritarian-liberal regime: "There is no democracy in today's Russia - I can see only liberalism. Vladimir Putin is not a democrat. Putin represents a liberal authoritarianism."

The nearest future of Russia will depend on the path it chooses, "toward democracy or toward Lukashenko," believes Adam Michnik.

"Kadyrov is misfortune of the Chechen people and Russia"

"I think that Kadyrov is a misfortune of the Chechen people, misery of Chechnya and Russia," says the Polish journalist and continues: "He showed the entire world that terrorists have won: at present, Chechnya is absolutely independent from Russia and meets complete absence of freedom within the republic. This fundamentalist regime is terribly scaring."

According to Adam Michnik, the time will come when Russia will ask: "What we have done, why we supported Kadyrov, instead of dealing with normal Chechens?"

"I believe that the Kadyrov's regime could not be maintained without the support of Putin," said the editor-in-chief of the Polish newspaper "Wyborcza" and continues: "In my opinion, this is an absolute responsibility of Putin and his historical mistake: he believes that through violence he will bring peace. And this is not peace, but peace of the graveyard or even worse."

According to Adam Michnik, not only the West, but also the nearest neighbours of Chechnya - the South Caucasus states - have the similar view with respect to the leader of the North Caucasian republic.

"Saakashvili is Georgian Putin"

Adam Michnik has repeatedly been to Georgia and believes that, despite all problems in the country, the life became much better. "The fact that the Georgian authorities are represented by Georgians, even bad Georgians, is better than the situation in Russia, when the Soviets are in power," says the Polish journalist and continues: "This is also admitted by the supporters of Saakashvili (Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, - note of the "Caucasian Knot") and his opponents."

"If you ask a Moscow Georgian, what he thinks of Saakashvili, he says that Russia, Moscow, makes a historic mistake, since after the dismissal of Saakashvili the situation will be worse for Russia," says Adam Michnik and continues: "A Georgian from opposition will tell you that Saakashvili is a Georgian Putin. However, if a Georgian is on the government side, he will say that the fifth column in Moscow works against us and that we have to struggle with it."

According to the journalist, now the relations between Georgia and Russia will largely depend on Russia. "If Russia continues the policy that there is no President of Georgia and there is only a fool Misha, this way will fail to lead to anything good," believes Adam Michnik.