July 7, 1997   

This Date's Issues:   1023  •1024  

Johnson's Russia List
#1024
7 July 1997
djohnson@cdi.org

[Note from David Johnson:
1. The Economist: Fathers and daughters.
2. Stanislav Menshikov clarifies who are the authors
of the Economic Report of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
3. Steve Blank: Pipes et al.
4. Economist Intelligence Unit: Craig Mellow, Original 
sins. Russian consumers still look at point of origin
more than brand name.
5. Renfrey Clarke in Moscow: NEW CHARGES LAID AGAINST 
RUSSIAN ANTI-NUCLEAR CAMPAIGNER. Why the state persecutes 
Aleksandr Nikitin.
6. UPI: Ukraine limits joint exercise with U.S.
7. UPI: Clinton: Russia possible for NATO.
8. Reuter: Russia opens investigation into monument bomb.
9. Washington Post: Daniel Williams, Monumental Tiff: 
Lenin vs. Peter the Great.
10. Trud: Viktor Golovachev, VIKTOR CHERNOMYRDIN: "NO MORE 
DILLYDALLYING." Government Launches Second Stage of Land 
Reform.
11. RIA Novosti: FOREIGN INVESTMENTS IN ROUBLES INTO RUSSIAN 
ECONOMY INCREASED MANY-TIMES IN 1997.
12. RIA Novosti: INDIRECT INVESTORS SUBSTANTIALLY ADD TO 
GROWTH OF OVERSEAS INVESTMENTS INTO RUSSIA'S ECONOMY IN 1997.
13. VOA's ELIZABETH ARROTT reports from Moscow on Russia 
and NATO's Madrid meeting.
14. RIA Novosti: RYBKIN: OPPOSITION TO THE WHOLE WORLD - 
SIGNS OF ATAVISM.
15. RIA Novosti: RED VICTORY IN NIZHNI NOVGOROD NOT TO FILL 
PARTY PURSE, PLEDGES COMMUNIST MP.]

********

#1
The Economist 
July 5th-11, 1997
[for personal use only]
Fathers and daughters

Moscow 
As a "category-A state official", the president of Russia is exempt from
ernment - or so the Kremlim explained this week in a slightly tetchy
defence of Boris Yeltsin's decision to bring on to his staff his
37-year-old daughter, Tatiana Dyachenko, as a presidentil adviser. News
of the appointment was delayed until the Duma, the Communist-dominated
lower house of parliament, had broken for its summer recess. Had it
been in session, it might have tried to closed the legal loophole there
and then.

The appointment has formalised a role played by Mrs. Dyachenko for at
least the past year. During the worst of Mr Yeltsin's illness in autumn
and winter, she was one of the few to see him regularly. Her new status
became necessary, she explains, "because certain awkward moments arise
when those who work with the president constantly meet the president's
daughter... They would find it more convenient to talk to a person who
has some sort of state post."

Perharps. But in a less notices development this week, Mr. Yeltsin also
changed the membership of this "consultative council" - four-strong body
created in October to keep the country running when the president was in
hospital. The council previously included the prime minister, Viktor
Chernomyrdin; the presidential chief of staff, at that time Anatoly
Chubais; and the speakers of the two houses of parliament. The new team
also has four members. But the speakers have gonew, and the two
first-deputy prime ministers have stepped up. One of them is Mr.
Chubais. Alongside him is his equal in rank, Boris Nemtsov, plus the
indeefectual new head of the president's administration, Valentin
Yumashev, and the fading Mr. Chernomyrdin.

The coincidence of events suggests that Mr. Chubais, the most powerful
figure in governmnet, may have seized a relatively quiet moment to urge
on Mr. Yeltsin a spot of contingency planning against any further dip in
his health. The consultive council will be under Mr. Chubais's thumb;
and Mrs. Dyachenko, a close Chubais ally, will be on hand officially to
liaise with her father. A prudent scheme - if not quite constitutional.

**********

#2
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 1997 19:12:41 +0200
From: Stanislav Menshikov <menshivok@globalxs.nl>
Subject: Academy Report

Dear David:
I have been receiving personal messages asking who are the authors
of the Economic Report of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) recently
posted on the JRL and elswhere.
Let me post the following explanatory note that preseded the Russian
original but was missed in the English translation:

"This Report was prepared by the Department of Economics of RAS on
the basis of materials provided by a number of Institutes and individual
scholars. Its main conclusions were approved by the session of the
Department on March 1997.
The Report summarises the reports presented by the:
Institute of Economics
Institute of Macroeconomic Forecasting
Central Institute of Mathematical Economics (CEMI)
Institute of Socio-economic Problems of the Population
Institute of Market Problems (IPR)
Institute of Foreign Economic Research
Institute of International Economic and Political Research (IMEPI)
Institute of Socio-economic Problems of the Agro-Industrial Complex
Institute of Economics of the Urals Department of RAS
Istitute of Economics and Industrial Engineering of the Siberian
Department of RAS
Institute of Economic Research of the Far Eastern Department of RAS
Council of Resource Allocation and Economic Co-operation (SOPS)
Academy of the Economy affiliated with the Government of Russia"
Individual names of co-authours are not indicated. However, the
names of the top brass of the Economics Department of RAS are well known.
They are: Dmitri Lvov, Secretary of the Department (and successor to the
late Stanislav Shatalin), Leonid Abalkin (Institute of Economics in Moscow),
Valeri Makarov (CEMI), Oleg Bogomolov and Alexander Nekipelov (IMEPI),
Nikolai Petrakov (IPR), Alexander Granberg (SOPS), Abel Aganbegian (Academy
of the Economy), Tatiana Zaslavskaya (Social issues and VTSIOM) and some
others.
None of the Institutes associated with Gaidar or Chubais are
affiliated with the Academy. Gaidar's Institute of Problems of the
Transition Period was once part of Aganbegian's outfit but became
independent soon after Gaidar joined Yeltsin in 1991.
However, most of Russia's theoretical economists continue to work
within the RAS.

*********

#3
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 1997 12:54:53 -0400
From: blanks@carlisle-emh2.army.mil (Steve Blank)
Subject: pipes et al

As one who reads Russian military and diplomatic sources every day as 
well as JRL, I feel obliged to inject a note of sanity and not ad 
hominem uninformed speculation into the debate that Richard Pipes has 
touched off. I must state that I do not agree with everything he 
said. Although Russia is investing more in R&D and high-tech weapons 
fo the future it is not clear that its generals have learned from Von 
Seeckt and the Reichswehr who were, after all, acting under external 
constraint. The utter failure to date of military reform (which has 
not yet been implemented though there is once again a new plan for 
reform of the force structure--not military reform as such, but 
something nonetless) means that Russia, as Rodoionov observed, has a 
force that is useless for anything more than the smallest 
ocntingencies. Nonetheless the Kremlin has with deliberate purpose 
inserted its troops abroad in the purusit of strategic goals in 
Moldova, ABkhazia, and Tajikistan. That the strategy, as in Chechnya, 
may not be well thought out and that officers and troops have tended 
allegedly to act on their own (a very hard accusation to prove by the 
way) there was a strategy and D. Gusev ought to know better as well as 
impugning Pipes' intelligence.

If indeed there is military reform, which cannot be counted on for 
true reform means depoliticizing the multiple militaries and making 
them agents of the state, not Yeltsin or Chubais or Kulikov or others, 
then it may be possible to use the new forces for neo-imperial 
purposes. There is little doubt that the governmetn in Moscow still 
has neo-imperial fantasies of reintegration around Russia as its main 
goal, even if it cannot materialize them. And it does so despite the 
lack of interest of the Rusisan people. ONe need only look at the 
forms of economic warfare that have taken place and are continuing to 
take place, albeit with diminishing success, vis-a-vis the CIS members 
and even efforts to do so vis-a-vis the Baltic states. It is not only 
the brass hats who have immortal longings for empire, it is also many 
so called liberals and reformers whose views do the pages of journals 
here and abroad. Those of us who care to do our homework should have 
no trouble identifying them.

**********

#4
Date: Mon, 07 Jul 1997 11:46:42 +0100
From: James Arnold <JamesArnold@eiu.com>
Subject: Russian consumers

Mr Johnson,
I hope this piece on Russian consumers might
interest you:

Economist Intelligence Unit, Business Russia July
1997
by Craig Mellow
for personal use only

Original sins
Russian consumers still look at point of origin
more than brand name.

Linger for a few minutes in any Russian shop, and
you will see a customer point to one of the wares
and ask the saleswoman, "Where is this from?"The
question is meant literally. While Westerners grew
up on brand names, Soviet shoppers judged quality
by the factory where a particular good was
produced. Brands, where they did exist, often
meant nothing. The Stolichnaya label, for instance,
was affixed to vodka from Moscow's top-of-the-line
Kristall Factory, but also to rotgut from various
regional distilleries.
Origin-hunting has survived into the post-Soviet
age of global products, and has tripped up many
experienced multinational marketers. Few
Russians will believe that a Ford car assembled in
Turkey is as good as one from the United
Kingdom, or that a Korean-built Sony TV is of the
same quality as a "real" set made in Japan. But the
blackest reputation of all is borne by China. Kodak
(USA) is one many quality manufacturers which has
been unable to buck anti-Chinese prejudice:
shoppers shun its Chinese-made compact
cameras.
With respect to highly-developed countries,
Russians harbour largely the same preconceptions
as consumers the world over. Japan and Germany
are the apogee of quality manufacturing. America
sets the tone for casual clothing and high
technology. France is the home of classic style, Italy
of high-powered contemporary fashion.
Where Russians lag behind the times is in their
view of East Asia. South Korea commands some
respect. "Their technology is fairly advanced," the
prime minister admitted after a recent state visit to
Seoul. But manufacturing powers like Malaysia and
Thailand are still viewed as third-world countries
whose workmanship is suspect.
Russians' view of Eastern Europe, on the other
hand, is sophisticated, if a bit frozen in time.
Russians happily buy products which their
neighbours have traditionally made well: Czech and
Polish footwear, Romanian furniture, Bulgarian
vegetables in jars. But newer market incursions,
particularly food products from Poland and
Hungary, have mostly failed, and there is a decided
prejudice against multinational goods made in East
European plants. Russians want their Western
goods to be really Western. 
Russian rebound
Over the past 18 months, a new and somewhat
unexpected player has entered the national-origins
jostle: Russian-made goods. Native industry has
bounced back from its post-reform slump most
convincingly in the food-products sector. Surveys
show that two out of three Russian consumers
prefer domestic food to imports, considering it
fresher and more tailored to their traditional tastes.
Russian plants are increasingly canny in their
mastery of modern packaging technology. Their
marketing is getting better, too--witness the Domik
v Derevnye (Little House in the Village) milk which
has swept Moscow over the past six months.
Traditional foods thought to have vanished, like the
dairy product ryazhenka and non-alcoholic drink
kvas, have reappeared under snappy brand names
like Smile or Dushenka (Sweetheart). 
There are signs that neo-patriotism will spread to
the health and beauty goods sector as well. Procter
& Gamble (USA), which manufactures detergent
outside Moscow, has gone deeply native in its
ubiquitous advertising. Drab but dedicated Russian
paediatricians check for nappy rash on bottoms
protected by new Pampers Plus. A well-meaning
busy-body named "Aunt Natasha" reveals to
harried moms the virtues of Ace bleach. Meanwhile
traditional brands like Zhemchuga (Pearl)
toothpaste, which maintain a quiet but broad
following, are trying out contemporary sales tricks
like a bubble-gum flavoured kids' variety.
When it comes to durable goods, however, imports
remain unchallenged. Two-thirds of Russians say
they do not want to buy domestic clothing or
appliances. Firms like Philips (Netherlands) and
Polaroid (USA) have found their efforts at local
manufacture rewarded by consumer suspicion.
Russian entrepreneurs have shown more market
savvy. Two "imported" lines of shoes have been
aggressively launched over the past year--the
supposedly Italian Salita, and the allegedly British
TJ Collection. Corporate investigators say that both
are secretly made in Russia.
CRAIG MELLOW

Economist Intelligence Unit, Vienna. Tel: (43 1) 712
41 61 0

***********

#5
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 1997 13:47:56 +0400 (WSU DST)
From: austgreen@glas.apc.org ( )

#NEW CHARGES LAID AGAINST RUSSIAN ANTI-NUCLEAR CAMPAIGNER
#Why the state persecutes Aleksandr Nikitin
#By Renfrey Clarke
#MOSCOW - Just in case anyone thought democracy and the rule of
law were coming to Yeltsin's Russia, the country's security
police in mid-June brought additional charges against nuclear
safety campaigner Aleksandr Nikitin. International commentators
have been solid in condemning the prosecution of the former naval
captain for treason and espionage as absurd and unjust, and the
case is being watched closely as an indicator of the state of
human rights in Russia. Nevertheless the General Prosecutor's
Office has allowed investigations to continue, and the Federal
Security Service (FSB) remains intent on bringing the case to
trial.
#Over the past year, signs have emerged that various Russian
state officials are disgusted by the persecution of Nikitin. But
the latest developments show that within the ruling apparatus,
key decision-makers believe that arbitrary arrest and the denial
of internationally accepted legal rights must be kept as serious,
ever-present threats to government critics.
#After quitting the navy in 1992, Nikitin worked in St Petersburg
as a researcher for the Norwegian environmental organisation
Bellona. A specialist on nuclear submarine technology, he co-
authored a Bellona report entitled <I>The Russian Northern Fleet:
Sources of Radioactive Contamination.<D> Late in 1995 early
drafts of this report began to seriously embarrass the Russian
government, showing that on naval bases in the north of Russia
large quantities of nuclear waste were being kept in inadequate,
decaying storage facilities.
#Bellona's employees and supporters in Russia began to suffer
crude security force harassment. By the time the final version of
the report was released in April 1996, Nikitin was in jail -
arrested on February 6 on preliminary charges of having revealed
secret information.
#It was only in October that formal charges of treason, espionage
and falsifying documents were filed by the FSB. By this time
Nikitin had been adopted by Amnesty International as its first
prisoner of conscience in post-Soviet Russia. The European
Parliament and officials of the European Union also issued strong
statements in his support.
#One of the problems faced by the FSB in framing charges was that
the supposedly secret information in the Bellona report was all
freely available to any researcher with the patience to search it
out. In the course of 1996, Bellona and its supporters showed
this beyond doubt. ``Nikitin and Bellona have demonstrated that
all of the information they published was from open sources,''
the US State Department observed in a January 1997 country report
on human rights.
#Another problem was that under Russian law, the information
arguably <I>could not<D> be secret. The Law on State Secrets
adopted in 1993 states that no information on the conditions of
the environment or on extraordinary incidents and catastrophes
that endanger human life and health may be classified.
#The solution which the FSB found to this dilemma was Kafkaesque.
Nikitin was deemed to have violated two secret Defence Department
decrees, so secret that their contents could not be revealed even
to his defence attorneys. These decrees had been adopted in 1993
and 1994. The fact that Nikitin - who had left the navy in 1992 -
could not have known of their existence was not considered
important. Neither was the fact that under the Russian
constitution, no-one can be charged for violating legal acts
which have not been duly made known to them.
#After more than 10 months in prison, Nikitin was conditionally
released on December 14, reportedly on the personal orders of
General Prosecutor Yury Skuratov. Deputy General Prosecutor
Mikhail Katyshev, who had been entrusted with examining the FSB's
case against Nikitin, told the English-language <I>Moscow
Times<D> on December 15 that in his view the case contained ``no
hint of espionage''.
#``It is time for the prosecutor's office to admit that mistakes
could have been made,'' Katyshev said.
#But Skuratov, who as the government's top legal official had
responsibility for deciding whether the prosecution should go
ahead, did not order it dropped. Early in March the case was sent
back to the FSB, with orders to tighten the allegations. For more
than three months a renewed enquiry was conducted by a group of
defence ministry officials approved by the FSB.
#Meanwhile, the case grew steadily more notorious. In April
Nikitin was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize, the
``Nobel'' of environmental prizes. The accompanying publicity was
an embarrassment for US President Bill Clinton, a long-time
apologist for the Russian regime. In mid-June Clinton was forced
to write to Nikitin voicing concern about ``violations of
procedure'' in the case, and saying the Russian government should
organise a ``fair trial in accordance with international norms.''
#On June 17, Nikitin's lawyers were presented with a new set of
charges. The defence ministry experts had decided that Nikitin
had breached another secret decree. This one dated from 1996 -
after the Bellona report had been released.
#Reporting the response of Nikitin's lawyers to these
developments, the Moscow daily <I>Nezavisimaya Gazeta<D> remarked
on July 1:
#``In the view of the defenders, the situation more and more
recalls the well-known fable about the wolf and the lamb. Nikitin
is guilty only of the fact that someone very much wants to eat
him.''
#In redrafting the charges, the FSB set out to maximise the
potential sentence. The charge of espionage has now been laid
under Russia's new criminal code, which sets a maximum penalty of
20 instead of 15 years' prison. The charge of treason has been
brought under the old code, where again the penalty is higher.
#``Even a non-lawyer knows that an increase in liability does not
have retrospective force,'' <I>Nezavisimaya Gazeta<D> commented
on July 1. ``Students in the law faculty get failed for such
errors, but for the FSB investigators this is normal procedure.''
#Nikitin was told on June 30 that investigations will continue
for another three months, suggesting that the case may go to
trial in the late autumn. When the court finally convenes, the
prosecution is likely to present charges that are incompetently
framed, that are very probably inadmissible under the Law on
State Secrets, and that plainly violate the constitution. But
that is not to say that the prosecution will lose.
#In June 1996, on a petition from the FSB, the case was
transferred from a civilian to a military court. According to
Bellona, the FSB wants a military trial because the court will be
closed, and the security authorities will have more control over
the conduct of the defence.
#Meanwhile Russian judges, military or civilian, do not have a
distinguished record of denying the security authorities the
verdicts they want.
#There are no mysteries as to why the admirals of the Northern
Fleet, or the generals of the FSB, want Nikitin behind bars. But
after a year and a half during which the persecution of Nikitin
has alienated liberals at home and outraged environmentalists and
human rights supporters abroad, one has to wonder why the Russian
authorities allow the case to continue. Why does Yeltsin not
simply order the charges dropped, recoup the support of a
forgiving intelligentsia, and reap foreign accolades and aid
dollars for having struck a blow against authoritarian
conservatives?
#The reason is that Yeltsin, along with his new team of
aggressive young reformers, has no reason to think he can get by
without the FSB and everything it represents.
#During May the astronomical total of unpaid wages in Russia rose
once again, with no-one expecting a significant fall any time
soon. Meanwhile, accusations continue to fly of the ``reformers''
delivering juicy chunks of freshly privatised oil company stock
to friendly banks at derisory prices via rigged auctions. Called
upon to declare their earnings, government ministers put down
six-figure dollar sums to ``book royalties'' or ``lecturing
fees''.
#A robber capitalism needs a machine of repression. And to be a
credible menace, that machine must be allowed to show potential
dissidents that they are not safe from it behind laws, human
rights commitments, or even the constitution.

*********

#6
Ukraine limits joint exercise with U.S.
KIEV, Ukraine, July 7 (UPI) _ Ukraine says it will limit a joint U.S. 
-Ukrainian naval exercise Sea Breeze to sea maneuvers, canceling the 
land-based part of the program. Officials say (Monday) Marines from the 
U.S. 6th Fleet were due to carry out an exercise in Crimea, but the 
change of plan is being made because of political tension on the 
peninsula. 

********

#7
Clinton: Russia possible for NATO
MADRID, July 7 (UPI) _ President Clinton said (Monday) that while he 
remains firm on inviting only three new NATO members this year, he 
believes ``no democratic nation should be excluded'' from membership in 
the future, including Russia. Clinton, meeting with a group of 
congressional observers of the NATO summit, said the U.S. position has 
always been to hold out the possibility of eventual Russian membership 
in NATO if it meets other membership criteria. 

*********

#8
Russia opens investigation into monument bomb

MOSCOW, July 7 (Reuter) - Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) launched a
criminal investigation on Monday into an incident in which explosives were
placed on a huge monument and was treating it as suspected ``terrorism,'' a
spokesman said. 

An FSB spokesman said Sunday's incident in Moscow, planned as a protest
against calls to move Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin's body, was being
investigated under article 205 of the criminal code which covers terrorism. 

``The signs of a crime are there. We will investigate all the
possibilities,'' the spokseman said. He gave no more details. 

Under article 205, terrorist actions committed by a group carry a jail
sentence of up to 20 years. 

A group calling itself the Revolutionary Military Council claimed
responsibility for planting plastic explosives on the monument to 18th
century Tsar Peter the Great in central Moscow, but did not set them off for
fear of hurting innocent victims. 

The group said it had sought ``revenge against those lowly politicians who
have started a foul press debate over reburial of the leader of the world
proletariat, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.'' 

Lenin's embalmed body lies in a mausoleum on Red Square but President Boris
Yeltsin has called for a national referendum on whether to bury it. 

The opposition Communist Party has denounced Yeltsin's proposal as
``sacrilegious'' and said removing Lenin's corpse could provoke unrest. 

Peter the Great's monument, which cost an estimated 100 billion roubles
($17.5 million), is also a subject of dispute. A group of intellectuals
demanded the monument's demolition, but a special commission has recommended
that it be left in place.

********

#9
Washington Post
7 July 1997
[for personal use only]
Monumental Tiff: Lenin vs. Peter the Great
By Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service

MOSCOW, July 6

A giant statue of Peter the Great has risen on the banks of the Moscow 
River, and there are plenty of people here who dislike it intensely.

Some say the monument is too big for low-rise Moscow, others say the 
sculpture is simply ugly and badly proportioned -- the figure of Peter 
looks a bit more like Christopher Columbus than the 18th-century Russian 
czar -- and some say it is ridiculous to plant a giant monument in 
Moscow to a man who hated the city and stripped it of importance for two 
centuries by transferring the capital to St. Petersburg.

But no one had tried to blow it up -- until, apparently, early today.

A previously unpublicized group called the Revolutionary Military 
Council said it had placed seven bombs made of plastic explosive inside 
the 15-story metal monument as a protest against proposals affecting 
another historical icon -- the body of Soviet state founder Lenin, which 
the government of President Boris Yeltsin has considered evicting from 
its tomb on Red Square.

In a message sent to the Interfax news agency, the would-be bombers said 
they decided against detonating the bombs, because "two anglers, a young 
couple and tipsy passersby" were dangerously near the Peter the Great 
monument at the 5:52 a.m. detonation time. The bombs were removed by 
police sappers at noon.

The message warned that if plans to remove Lenin's body go forward, 
"defense measures will be taken, including the use of weapons and 
explosives against the organizers and instigators."

Although latter-day adherents of the Soviet patriarch loudly oppose 
removal of his body from Red Square, it remains to be seen whether 
today's scare is actually the work of a far-left group fanatically 
attached to Lenin's memory. But in symbolic terms, at least, it does 
highlight the rather different trajectories of two national icons.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has been grappling to 
install a new, unifying national mythology to replace the discredited 
myth of glorious communism.

Erection of the monument to honor Czar Peter I, who reigned from 1682 to 
1725, is one attempt to give human form to a substitute myth.

Lenin's eviction, on the other hand, would be aimed at burying the 
notion that the founder of Soviet communism deserves a place at the 
hallowed center of Russian history.

Peter made his mark as an avid monarchical reformer who tried to bring 
18th-century Russia into the developing modern world. These days in 
post-Soviet Russia, reform and openness to Western ideas are catchwords. 
Hence, Peter the Great's candidacy for renewed stardom. On the down 
side, Peter was anti-democratic. His means of reform were dictatorial 
and brutal; St. Petersburg, for instance, was built on command atop a 
drained marsh and at the cost of thousands of lives.

The monument to Peter the Great was commissioned by the Moscow city 
government of Mayor Yuri Luzhkov to commemorate the founding of Russia's 
naval fleet 300 years ago this October. It shows Peter at the helm of a 
ship set atop a stack of waves from which other ships protrude.

The mayor, in the image of a minor league Peter, ordered the monument 
built over the objections of citizens' groups. The Moscow riverside 
project cost $20 million.

Zurab Tsereteli, who created the monument, called today's incident "a 
display of new fascism." Police are investigating a possible link 
between today's unexploded bombs and the blowing up in April of a 
monument to Czar Nicholas II, the work of a different artist. Nicholas 
and his family were executed while in custody of Lenin's Bolsheviks.

As for Lenin's embalmed remains, Yeltsin's government has toyed for four 
years with the idea of removing the mummy from Red Square and burying 
it. Yeltsin has never taken that step for fear of inflaming Lenin's 
admirers, but last month he raised the matter again by suggesting that a 
referendum be held to see what voters think.

The delay and constant back-and-forth have made the issue a macabre 
open-ended melodrama.

Newspapers periodically publish opinion polls about whether Lenin's body 
should be taken out of its crystal coffin. Yeltsin has said that its 
presence on Red Square is un-Christian. That comment brought a retort 
from relatives of Lenin noting that the body, although exposed for 
viewing, is actually below ground.

Embalmers who periodically touch up Lenin's body to keep it looking 
fresh say that it should remain in place as a scientific study of 
mummification. A hard-line Communist member of parliament threatened to 
stand outside the mausoleum and shoot anyone who tried to remove the 
body.

********

#10
>From RIA Novosti
Trud
July 5, 1997 
VIKTOR CHERNOMYRDIN: "NO MORE DILLYDALLYING"
Government Launches Second Stage of Land Reform
By Viktor GOLOVACHEV, political news analyst

On 3 July, the Cabinet discussed the land reform, a matter
crucial for the reform drive which has a bearing on the
interests of every citizen and is the focal point of bitter
struggle and acute debates. A speaker at the session proclaimed
that "never since 1918" has the Cabinet paid such close
attention to the concept of the land reform.
"Yes, the matter is the most important of them all,"
Premier Viktor Chernomyrdin admitted. "It is basic. And all
these years, we have been dillydallying, sorry for the phrase.
Nothing is being done. The reform in this sphere is
backsliding. There is no land market. This means everything is
standing still. Neither foreign nor Russian investors would pay
the money unless they know who the land belongs to. Indeed, who
would part with his money in such conditions? Take the example
of China - look at the scale, the economic advances, especially
in the free zones! Largely thanks to the fact that the matter
of land has been settled. And we are still scared of our own
shadow. It hurts me! We will be marking time unless we move
ahead. No, the time has come to take resolute measures..."
A normal real estate market is known to embrace three
spheres: housing, buildings, and land. In Russia, every sphere
has been developing on its own. This cannot but throw a
monkey-wrench into the economic machinery. 
Therefore, a most important task of the day is to form a
single national market of real estate. This is a task for the
authorities. The government has decided to launch the second
stage of the land reform. 
It has drafted four Presidential decrees. One focuses on
the civilian turnover of land in cities, towns and other
settlements. 
The document, if and when signed by the President, would
promote the initiative of the St. Petersburg city
administration and the local governments in Barnaul, Nizhny
Novgorod, Novgorod and Tver for the sale and lease of plots of
land in these cities for new construction. 
The sale would be done publicly, at auctions, thus
excluding the possibility of bribing officials under the table
or by way of money orders to overseas banks. This practice is
likely to be recommended for broad use throughout the country.
The three other drafts embrace the agricultural land
reform, the right to land in federal property, and the more
efficient state control over the use and protection of land. 
The Cabinet is planning to adopt a resolution to approve
the basics of the state land cadaster. 
The mere enumeration of the documents indicates that the
second stage of the land reform is going to become a most
important event in the life of the nation. The reform will have
a bearing on the interests of every citizen, with the probable
exception of hobos. 
The work to be done is momentous: to make a complete
inventory of land plots, houses, structures, apartments, and
dachas... As of today, only 15% of the land plots have been
measured and put down on the inventory. 
One can easily assess the amount of work yet to be done.
It would take decades the bureaus of technical inventory as
they are today. The Cabinet suggested lifting the ban on the
operation of private companies in this sphere and thus overcome
many a difficulty. The experience of private land surveyors -
300 companies in all - proves that the chosen road opens up
broad vistas. 
But making an inventory is only the first step. All real
estate is then to be evaluated and rights for them registered,
the data to be collected in a single state data base. 
The delineation of the rights of the federal, state and
municipal ownership of land and of the administrative borders
is a matter apart. It will certainly see passions flying high.
The matter of land is always controversial and every square
yard counts - whether the case at issue is a farmer, dacha
owner or governor.
The expected revolutionary measures in the sphere of
agricultural land use includes giving the green light to the
purchase of land by farmers, formalising the rights of
long-time land users, developing mortgage financing, promoting
the concentration of land in the hands of efficient users, 
etc. 
There are quite a few collective farms that undergo
reorganisation without giving individual members the right to
secede with their share of land and implements. The list of
such collective farms will be reviewed and shortened.

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#11
FOREIGN INVESTMENTS IN ROUBLES INTO RUSSIAN ECONOMY 
INCREASED MANY-TIMES IN 1997
MOSCOW, JULY 7, RIA NOVOSTI - The rouble portion of the
overseas investments into the Russian economy reached almost 1.9
trillion roubles over the first quarter of 1997, which is by 7.7
times more than in the first quarter of 1996, the State
Committee for Statistics informed RIA Novosti. The direct
investments totalled 1.3 trillion of the total, which is by 5.6
times more compared to the previous year.
However, one needs to mention here that the investments
into the national industry were far from impressive -- only
about 200 billion roubles -- of which the greater part was used
to take care of construction materials, food industry and
machine-building. This money was mainly invested into the sphere
of finances, credit, insurance, pension allowances -- 724
billion roubles, general commercial activities to take care of
the market relations -- 475 billion roubles, trade and public
catering -- 257 billion roubles. The Central economic region
accounted for 91 percent of the total volume of the overseas
investments in roubles.
In the first quarter of 1997, the enterprises set up with
participation of CIS member nations have channelled 13 billion
roubles as investments into the Russian economy. Ukraine comes
first with 8.3 billion roubles, followed by Kazakhstan -- 1.9
billion roubles, and Belorussia -- 1.6 billion roubles. 

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#12
INDIRECT INVESTORS SUBSTANTIALLY ADD TO GROWTH OF OVERSEAS INVESTMENTS 
INTO RUSSIA'S ECONOMY IN 1997
MOSCOW, JULY 7, RIA NOVOSTI - About $2.2 billion have been
invested into Russia's economy from overseas in the first
quarter of 1997. This is by 2.5 times more than registered over
the same term of 1996, the State Committee for Statistics
reports. However, one needs to mention in this respect that this
growth of investments can hardly be attributed to direct
investors. According to statistics, this term has witnessed a
3-time increase of the so-called other investments -- trade
credits, bank investments -- which actually accounted for 70
percent of the total investments. Direct investments made up 28
percent and they increased by 70 percent only. The third type of
investments - portfolio investments - has grown by more than 6
times, but it accounted for a mere 2 percent of the total.
In the first quarter of the year, $310 million of the
foreign capital were channelled into the national industry,
including, first of all, fuel industry, wood working, paper and
pulp industry, food industry as well as machine-building.
Capital investments into finances, credits, insurance, pension
allowances, general commercial activities to streamline market
relations have also increased substantially.
As usual, Moscow acquired the lion's share of these
investments -- $1.9 billion. The second rated Western Siberia
got $74.6 million. 
Ten industrially developed nations supplied 95 percent of
all overseas investments. One needs to mention in this respect
that the Netherlands accounted for 42 percent of the total --
$937 million. The next positions were taken by the United States
with $487.6 million, Switzerland -- $382.1 million, the United
Kingdom -- $237.5 million, followed by far smaller investments
from Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Sweden and Canada. 

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#13
Voice of America
DATE=7/7/97
TITLE=RUSSIA / NATO
BYLINE=ELIZABETH ARROTT
DATELINE=MOSCOW

INTRO: AS LEADERS FROM EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA GATHER IN MADRID
FOR THE NATO SUMMIT, ONE MAN IS CONSPICUOUSLY ABSENT -- RUSSIAN 
PRESIDENT BORIS YELTSIN. V-O-A'S ELIZABETH ARROTT IN MOSCOW 
REPORTS THAT DESPITE A LANDMARK AGREEMENT WITH THE WESTERN 
ALLIANCE, RUSSIA'S ROLE IN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS REMAINS FAR FROM 
CLEAR. 

TEXT: IF THE MADRID SUMMIT CAN BE SUMMED UP WITH ONE THOUGHT, IT
MAY BE THIS -- THE COLD WAR IS OVER AND MOSCOW LOST.

WITH LEADERS' FROM MOSCOW'S SOVIET-ERA CLIENT STATES LINING UP IN
MADRID, CLAMORING FOR NATO TO TAKE THEM IN, IT SHOULD COME AS NO
SURPRISE THAT RUSSIA IS AT BEST EMBARRASSED, AT WORST THREATENED 
BY THE IDEA OF COLD WAR ENEMY NATO MOVING TOWARDS ITS BORDERS.

PRESIDENT YELTSIN HAS TRIED TO PUT THE BEST FACE ON THE 
SITUATION. DESPITE HIS POOR BARGAINING POSITION, THE RUSSIAN 
LEADER WAS ABLE TO EXTRACT FOR MOSCOW A CONSULTATIVE ROLE IN THE 
ALLIANCE.
/// YELTSIN ACT -- IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER ///
RUSSIA STILL TREATS NEGATIVELY THE PLANS OF NATO EXPANSION, MR. 
YELTSIN SAID AT THE SIGNING OF A RUSSIA-NATO AGREEMENT EARLIER 
THIS YEAR. BUT HE ADDED, RUSSIA APPRECIATES NATO'S CONSIDERATION
OF MOSCOW'S LEGITIMATE INTERESTS.

BUT THIS CONSIDERATION HAS NOT SATISFIED MR. YELTSIN'S CRITICS, 
SOME OF WHOM CALLED THE AGREEMENT NOTHING SHORT OF TREACHERY.
/// ZYUGANOV ACT -- IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER ///
COMMUNIST PARTY CHIEF GENNADI ZYUGANOV BRANDED NATO EXPANSION THE
MOST DANGEROUS MOVE AGAINST RUSSIA SINCE THE SECOND WORLD WAR. 
MR. YELTSIN, HE SAID, CAPITULATED.

SOME POLITICAL OBSERVERS FEAR NATO EXPANSION COULD CAUSE A 
BACKLASH IN RUSSIA -- AGAINST PLANS FOR DEMILITARIZING, EVEN 
AGAINST DEMOCRATIZATION.

BUT POLITICAL ANALYST ANDREI POINTKOWSKI, OF THE MOSCOW CENTER 
FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES, SAYS THE MOMENT OF CRISIS HAS PASSED.
/// POINTKOWSKI ACT ///
SUCH A DANGER WAS PRESENT DURING THE CRISIS BUT TO MY 
VIEW THE CRISIS WAS SOLVED VERY REASONABLY AFTER THE 
SIGNING OF THE FOUNDING ACT AND NOW THE WEST UNDERSTANDS
IT IS NOT IN ITS OWN INTEREST TO PROVOKE RUSSIA ANY 
MORE.
/// END ACT ///
/// OPT /// MR. POINTKOWSKI NOTES THE RESISTANCE BY SOME IN 
NATO TO ADMIT MORE THAN THREE NEW MEMBER STATES COMES NOT 
BECAUSE OTHERS FAIL TO QUALIFY. RATHER, HE SAID IT IS A DESIRE 
TO PUT OFF IRRITATING RUSSIA FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. /// END 
OPT ///

YET THERE IS A LIMIT, MR. POINTKOWSKI SAYS, TO HOW MUCH THE WEST 
CAN PACIFY RUSSIA.
/// 2ND POINTKOWSKI ACT ///
THE NEGATIVE REACTION OF THE RUSSIAN POLITICAL CLASS TO 
NATO EXPANSION WAS DRIVEN NOT SO MUCH BY THREATS TO 
RUSSIAN SECURITY, EITHER REAL OR IMAGINARY, BUT IT 
REMINDED US OF OUR GEOPOLITICAL DILEMMA -- A 
THREE-CENTURY-OLD DISCUSSION INSIDE RUSSIAN POLITICAL 
CULTURE OF WHETHER RUSSIA IS PART OF EUROPE OR NOT.
/// END ACT ///
THAT IS A PROBLEM THAT MAY NEVER BE SOLVED. IN THE NEAR TERM, 
THERE ARE OTHER CONSIDERATIONS -- AND RUSSIA'S GEOGRAPHY IS A 
DOMINANT FACTOR. EVEN IF RUSSIA WANTED TO JOIN, NATO WOULD 
LIKELY BALK AT SENDING TROOPS TO DEFEND IT IN CONFLICT, FOR 
EXAMPLE, WITH NEIGHBORING CHINA. 

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#14
RYBKIN: OPPOSITION TO THE WHOLE WORLD - SIGNS OF ATAVISM
MOSCOW, JULY 7 (RIA NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT)--The
opposition`s attacks against the agreements reached between NATO
and Russia often outgo the limits of the reasonable, Russia`s
Security Council Secretary Ivan Rybkin said at a press
conference for regional newspapers. He pointed out that the
concept of Russia`s national security contains a well-balanced
conclusion stating that the major threats to Russia`s security
are primarily of a non-military nature. "This conclusion implies
re-distribution of the country`s inner resources in order to
solve social, economic and other issues."
Hence, there is another logic, Rybkin said, "to oppose the
whole world are sings of atavism, recurrences of what we have
already experienced. The richest, and in many aspects a unique
country, was put on the knees in the recent past. Now we are
disentangling everything what has been accumulated over decades.
We have accumulated mountains of arms, which is able to destroy
the population of the whole Earth many times, now we are working
and spending great amounts of money in order to destroy these
obsolete weapons with the help of wasteful and ecologically pure
technologies."
This heavy burden "has fallen on us, on our generation,"
Rybkin said. "These are tears invisible for the world. And
people who try to put in not spokes, but logs in our machine act
in line with the principle, "the worse, the better." Why? Just
because they themselves, at least in their majority, are guilty
of the fact that the country has appeared in such a mire. This
proves once more that we are right in our actions."
Rybkin is convinced that NATO and Russia "must be together
but must not oppose each other." Many people, he said, "want to
etch NATO against Russia and Russia against NATO. The Founding
Act signed in Paris puts a barrier, nothing will come of this,
Misters-Comrades! Nothing will turn out! There will be European
and world security without demarcation lines and Russia will be
equal among the equals." If one attentively reads the document,
Rybkin said, "it becomes quite obvious: Russia`s concerns have
been partially taken into consideration, not all of them, but
they were taken into consideration." 

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#15
RED VICTORY IN NIZHNI NOVGOROD NOT TO FILL PARTY PURSE, PLEDGES 
COMMUNIST MP
MOSCOW, JULY 7 (from RIA Novosti correspondent Yulia
Panyushkina) - Communists will not use their expected victory in
the Nizhni Novgorod gubernatorial election to replenish party
revenues, State Duma member Yuri Nikiforenko said to RIA.
The Communist MP is active promoter of Gennadi Khodyrev,
Left oppositionary candidate.
The interviewee commented an analytical contribution in the
muckraking daily Moskovsky Komsomolets of last Saturday, which
predicted that a Red victory was to turn the Nizhni Novgorod
Region, reform pioneer and one of the chief free market
testing-grounds, into the Communist Party's cash donor. "This is
how Lefts see the situation--suffice it to mention debates
raging even now in the Communist parliamentary group on how to
parcel out the money on which they have not yet laid their
hands," says the paper.
Mr. Nikiforenko rebutted this forecast to claim that
"patriots" were, on the contrary, determined to get local
industries going and provide new jobs for the population. 
Indicatively, he knew better than to predict the election
outcome, and was positive on one point only, that next Sunday's
runoff was to have an even smaller turnout than the first round,
in which all candidates failed to score an absolute majority.
Leading after the first round is Ivan Sklyarov, Nizhni
Novgorod mayor and Lefts' most formidable rival. 

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