July 17, 1997   

This Date's Issues:   1056  •1057•  

Johnson's Russia List
#1057
17 July 1997
djohnson@cdi.org

[Note from David Johnson:
1. AP: Yeltsin Streamlines Russian Military.
2. Philadelphia Inquirer: Inga Saffron, In Russia, nuclear 
workers are putting their foot down.
3. St. Petersburg Times: Charles Digges, Massive Stalin-Era 
Graves Uncovered.
4. St. Petersburg Times: Yevgenia Dolginova, Russia's Private 
Schools Fail To Make the Grade.
5. Delovoy Mir: New Tax Code To Lead to Small Business Collapse.
6. Obshchaya Gazeta: Yeltsin Seen Setting Up Parallel Local Power.
7. The Guardian (UK): James Meek, Lada polishes image as Slavic 
Mercedes Once synonymous with a bumpy ride, Russia's favourite car 
has gone de luxe.
8. Itar-tass: Duma Security Expert Condemns Baltic Exercises as 
'Threat.'
9. New York Times letter: Moscow on the Hudson.
10. Selskaya Zhizn: Farming Situation 'Considerably Better' Than 
Last Year.
11. Reuter: Andrei Makhovsky, West does not share support for 
Belarus president.]

*********

#1
Yeltsin Streamlines Russian Military
July 17, 1997
MOSCOW (AP) - President Boris Yeltsin has drastically changed
the structure of Russia's oversized armed forces, streamlining the
chain of command in a bid to create a leaner and more effective
military.
Yeltsin, who is vacationing at a government residence in
northern Russia, announced his decisions Wednesday on Russian
television after a three-hour meeting with Prime Minister Viktor
Chernomyrdin.
He also reiterated a pledge to cut the 1.7 million-strong forces
by 500,000 by the beginning of 1999 and said he would merge the
Strategic Missile Forces and Military Space Forces into a
consolidated Missile Forces.
He also abolished the Ground Troops command, handing its
functions over to territorial military districts.
And he merged the air defense troops with the Air Force. Another
Yeltsin decree put railroad troops under the fold of the civilian
Federal Road Service.
The moves will improve coordination between the different
branches of the military, Yeltsin said.
Yeltsin also set a limit on funds the Defense Ministry can spend
on maintaining its central office in Moscow, putting it at 1
percent of the total budget. The government did not say what the
current level is.
The government long has promised to modernize the beleaguered
military, plagued by a severe funding shortage.
In May, Yeltsin fired former Defense Minister Igor Rodionov over
his failure to carry out radical cuts, replacing him with Gen. Igor
Sergeyev, the former Strategic Missile Forces commander.
Russian armed forces have been in disarray, with many servicemen
going months without pay and proper rations. Soldiers have received
few new weapons and there has been no money for proper training.
Corruption and other crime has been widespread, and several top
generals have been dismissed and arrested on suspicion of
embezzlement and corruption.

*********

#2
Philadelphia Inquirer
July 17, 1997
[for personal use only]
In Russia, nuclear workers are putting their foot down 
By Inga Saffron
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

VNUKOVO, Russia -- In their starched white radiation suits and peaked 
caps, the ghostly figures have been plodding along the highway toward 
Moscow, oblivious to the swelling blisters on their feet, the black 
clouds that spray from passing Soviet-era trucks, even to the general 
apathy toward their cause.
Having left the Smolensk nuclear power plant on July 3, about 50 workers 
have covered 200 miles on foot and are due to walk into the Russian 
capital today to deliver a grim and desperate message to the government: 
Pay our salaries or risk a nuclear accident.
Like millions of other workers across Russia, their paychecks often 
arrive months late and their employer can barely make ends meet. But 
while people at other industries have grown resigned to Russia's 
long-running economic crisis, those who work at nuclear power plants are 
becoming increasingly fearful of its consequences.
A poster carried by the marchers reads: ``A hungry operator is a threat 
to the safety of atomic power plants.''
``The stress is beginning to tell on us,'' Maxim Katayev, a reactor 
engineer at the Smolensk plant, said as the group set up camp for the 
night this week in a Vnukovo pine grove, just outside Moscow's city 
limits. ``I haven't been paid since March. I have no money to take a 
vacation. An operator's work is hard, and a good rest is necessary.''
Nearly all his fellow workers felt a numb chill in June when an engineer 
at a military research center outside Nizhny Novgorod died of radiation 
sickness after mishandling a routine atomic experiment. He was believed 
to be the first Russian victim of a nuclear accident since the 
catastrophic Chernobyl fire in 1986, and many of his colleagues in the 
industry are convinced that money woes were partly to blame.
``There's so little money to do research that our scholars often have to 
break the rules,'' said Nikolai Yashin, a power plant worker from St. 
Petersburg who had joined the marchers. That's why Katayev fears that, 
as he puts it, ``another Chernobyl could happen at any moment.''
When they do receive their salaries, nuclear power plant workers earn 
far more than the typical Russian -- $300 to $600 a month, compared with 
the national average of $110. President Boris N. Yeltsin recently 
promised to pay all wage arrears in the country by January.
But money is so tight at the Smolensk reactor, Katayev observed, that 
the management was unable to replace several broken water meters this 
year. The reactors often have to operate at low power because the 
company is unable to purchase the uranium fuel it needs to keep the 
nuclear reaction going. Nuclear power plants across Russia face similar 
problems, he said.
It was these safety concerns, as much as a desire to get paid on time, 
that made the Smolensk workers decide to set out on the road.
``This protest is not just about us and our problems. It's about 
Russia's problem,'' said trade-union leader Valentina Marchyuk, the 
logistical brains behind the march. All the workers on the trek are on 
vacation or between shifts.
Marchyuk was the one who plotted the route along the Warsaw and Kiev 
Highways, who found campsites where the marchers could pitch tents, who 
commandeered an old truck to carry their provisions, and who arranged 
for an ambulance to follow the group at a discreet distance. Such 
long-distance protest marches may be a common method of dissent in the 
West, but they are a novelty in Russia.
In the last two weeks, Marchyuk said, her feet have become black from 
road tar, and her corduroy sneakers are in shreds. But the marchers have 
managed to enjoy themselves. In the evenings, they sit around campfires, 
play guitars and sing.
``I didn't have any money to go on a holiday, and I always wanted to 
travel,'' Marchyuk joked. When several carloads of foreign journalists 
showed up at their camp in shiny imported cars, the unpaid workers 
rushed over and asked to have their pictures taken behind the wheel.
Along the route to Moscow, the Smolensk employees have been joined by 
workers from the Kalinin and St. Petersburg nuclear plants, who share 
their fears and were impressed by their determination. At times, the 
marchers' numbers have swelled to 150.
Dressed in futuristic-looking radiation suits as they stride through the 
Russian countryside, past tumbledown log houses and fields where hay is 
cut with scythes, the group looks as if it stepped out of a 
postapocalyptic horror film. Once rural residents get over the shock of 
seeing the spectral costumes, Marchyuk said, they generously offer the 
marchers food, clothing, money and moral support.
Since coming within an hour's drive of Moscow, the protesters have 
succeeded in getting on the evening news programs. The reports have 
increased the awareness of their march, and Marchyuk is hoping that 
dozens of other power plant workers will meet them today when they 
converge on the Russian White House, the parliament.
She said they would camp outside the White House gates until Boris 
Nemtsov, the popular new first deputy prime minister, agrees to meet 
with them. ``I think all our problems could be solved if Nemtsov had 
lunch with us,'' she said.
There is no word on whether Nemtsov will accept the invitation, but one 
of his main tasks since joining the government has been to break up the 
country's inefficient but powerful energy monopoly, United Energy 
Systems. That monopoly owns most of the country's nuclear power plants. 
Russian energy rates are among the highest in the world for industrial 
customers, but ridiculously cheap for residential users. There is 
tremendous waste.
If the power stations were better managed and energy conservation 
encouraged, Marchyuk believes, the plants could overcome their financial 
problems, pay their workers on time, and carry out all necessary 
maintenance.
But the marchers were harshly criticized by Nuclear Energy Minister 
Viktor Mikhailov, who said his department would not ``encourage these 
egotists'' by singling them out to have their back wages paid. ``Those 
working at the Smolensk nuclear power plant usually receive their wages 
on time. . . . They could have waited a bit.'' He also blamed United 
Energy Systems for problems at nuclear plants.
``Nuclear energy is not any area to play games in, and the government 
has to realize that,'' retorted Mikhail Vivsyany, a spokesman for the 
St. Petersburg power plant union.
``The question is, will the government understand that?'' said Nikolai 
Yashin of St. Petersburg. ``If they don't, we'll have to keep marching 
right across Europe, until we get to the International Atomic Energy 
Commission'' in Vienna. ``Our main demand is for safety, and for this we 
need money.''

*********

#3
St. Petersburg Times
JULY 14-20, 1997
Massive Stalin-Era Graves Uncovered 
By Charles Digges
STAFF WRITER

MEDVEZHYEGORSK, Northwest Russia - Almost 60 years after they disappeared
into the Gulag or simply vanished after midnight raids by the secret
police, the remains of more than 9,000 victims of Stalin's purges have been
found in a Karelian forest.
The haunting discovery in a remote grove of craggy fir trees between the
towns of Medvezhyegorsk and Povenets - 245 miles north of St. Petersburg -
constitutes what historians say is among the largest mass execution and
grave sites ever uncovered in European Russia.
"There are people in this town who have been looking all their lives for
the bones that lie out there in that forest," said Vyacheslav Kashtanov,
deputy mayor of Medvezhyegorsk, population 20,000, in an interview at his
office Wednesday.
"It was a positive, but not joyful discovery - probably half the people
here have a relative out there in those trenches," he said.
"At least we know where they are now."
The shattered skulls and twisted skeletons that fill those trenches,
covering 2 1/2 acres of isolated forest, belonged to 9,111 political
prisoners executed in 1937 by the NKVD - Stalin's secret police, and the
forerunner to the KGB - between October and November.
Skulls exhumed from the mass graves alongside a researcher's battered
shovel. 
The victims were mostly prisoners used as slave labor to dig the White
Sea canal, as well as Karelian intellectuals and anti-revolutionaries from
the White Sea's Solovetskiye Islands prison camps.
The corpses were located after the historical society Memorial, working
with Medvezhyegorsk authorities, discovered written execution orders in the
archives of the Karelian and Leningrad Oblast NKVD.
"Lawyers, school teachers, scholars, professors, ethnic minorities,
religious leaders, university students, even simple workers - anyone who
could make a foundation or say the slightest thing to challenge the order -
those are the ones in these trenches," said Venyamin Yofe of Memorial's St.
Petersburg office in an interview this week.
"They were victims of the Bolshoi Terror [or Great Terror] of the
Stalinist Purges, which were at their height in 1937 and 1938 - this is
what our society lost."
The massive grave and execution site was finally opened on July 1 with
the help of local city, military and law enforcement authorities from
Medvezhyegorsk. 
"Every half meter we found more and more skulls and bones, more and more
bullet casings," said Yofe, who was present at the time. "They were piled
one on top of another, anonymously, deeper and deeper until the trenches
filled."
According to Yury Dmitriyev, of Memorial's Karelian branch, the victims
had been stripped down to their underwear, bound hand and foot, and lined
up along the edge of the trenches. NKVD executioners then worked their way
down the line shooting the condemned, one by one, in the back of the head
with revolvers.
On July 2, a memorial service was held and the remains re-buried. 
Today the sites are marked only by surveyor's stakes, and the occasional
flowers or keepsakes brought by locals to hang on trees or lay on the grass
in memory of their relatives. 
Yofe said a monument would be built on the site in October.
The Karelian discovery is consistent with the reign of terror that was
in full swing from 1937 to 1938. 
The late historian Dmitry Volkogonov, an authority on Stalin's purges,
has estimated that nearly 14 million people across Russia died in precisely
this manner in that two-year stretch.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev threw
open the KGB's archives. Thousands of such graves were subsequently
discovered across the territory of the former Soviet Union.
Even so, Robert Conquest, an expert on the purges at Stanford's Hoover
Institute, thinks there are still many thousands more graves to be
discovered - as illustrated by the Karelian site.
"Given the millions killed, it's odd that we haven't seen more of these
grave sites," he said, in an interview with the London Times.
In August 1937, Memorial's Yofe said that the NKVD ordered prison camp
wardens to submit lists of prisoners they thought were still conducting
anti-state agitation.
Tens of thousands of names were processed by the secret police and a
three-man panel, called the Osobaya Troika or "special three," signed the
death sentences and dispatched them back to thousands of gulags across Russia.
Displaying copies of the death warrants for Karelia, Kashtanov said
Wednesday they had been in basement files at the Medvezhyegorsk Federal
Security Service, or FSB - the successor organization to the KGB.
The warrants ordered the executions of 4,500 slave laborers from the
White Sea canal, 1,116 inmates of the Solovetskiye camps, and nearly 3,500
other Karelian political prisoners.
"Attached is the list of those sentenced by the Osobaya Troika ... In
all 1,116 men in Solovetsky prison are ... to be shot, "reads the death
warrant, dated Oct. 16, 1937. It was marked "Top Secret" and sent from the
Leningrad Oblast NKVD to a "Comrade Matveyev."
This November 1937 document responds to orders issued by a 'troika'
court of the NKVD to execute 1,116 people. The author, a Capt. Matveyev,
reports the successful execution of 1,111 people; the document describes
the other five as either having been sent elsewhere or as having died in
custody before execution. 
On Nov. 10, 1937, Matveyev sent back confirmation to a "Comrade Garin"
that all but five of the executions had been carried out, with explanations
as to the fate of those five. One of the five owed his lucky break to
having died before the execution date.
Memorial and the Medvezhyegorsk city administration have compiled a list
of all of the victims, complete with dates and places of birth. 
On Wednesday, Kashtanov was one of the first to receive that list -
describing the contents of trenches unknown for decades, yet just 17
kilometers from his office. 
"We have the beginnings of their biographies and relatives are coming
forward - they still have fading photos, memories of those they lost," said
Kashtanov, as he drove the barely paved highway leading to the graves. 
Kashtanov said that the names of those who actually pulled the triggers
in October and November in 1937 were erased from - or never added to - the
files in the archives.
"There is no law that would punish them now, so they could come forward
with impunity. But likely, they will never be known," said Kashtanov.
"Besides, how could any law punish them in ways that their consciences -
God willing - haven't already?" 

*********

#4
St. Petersburg Times
JULY 14-20, 1997
Russia's Private Schools Fail To Make the Grade 
By Yevgenia Dolginova
Yevgenia Dolginova, a teacher, is a staff writer for the pedagogical
newspaper Pervoye Sentyabr. 

SIX YEARS ago in Russia, the first private schools appeared or, to be more
precise, were revived in Russia. The teaching community was thrilled at
this development. (In fact, the beginning of the '90s can be characterized
as a period of total enthusiasm.) And there were good reasons for the
excitement.

The new private schools arose not as closed learning institutions for the
post-Soviet elite but as particularly democratic, advanced, experimental
schools. They were set up mostly by young intellectuals who attempted to
combine new teaching methods with the best traditions of Russian pedagogy.

At first, public expectations of what private schools could accomplish were
extremely high. On one hand, they were greeted as proof of the
liberalization of the entire educational system and, on the other, as a big
step toward forming a personal conscience, personal relations toward the
child and the possibility of privacy, a word with no direct Russian
equivalent, in one of the country's most conservative spheres.

Private educational institutions now make up 1 percent of all schools in
Russia today. There are about 700 of them, although the numbers are
constantly changing, since many schools close down while new ones open.
Many of them are in no hurry to get registered and remain underground
institutions. Alas, those schools that have survived these past three years
have not always been the best.

If three years ago saying "my child studies in a private school" meant the
child was receiving an exclusive, original and well-rounded education, then
today it means he goes to a good swimming pool and tennis courts, studies
American English and, perhaps, ancient Greek, and, at the very least, he is
not yelled at or humiliated by the teachers at school. Russian parents are
even willing to pay for private schools just so that their children are not
humiliated.

The prospects for new schools quickly became bleak. The state provided no
support to private schools. Getting a license to open such a school turned
out to be rather easy, but all the rest depended solely on the good will of
local authorities. Many schools that got off to a brilliant start collapsed
only because they recruited the most gifted, rather than wealthiest students. 

Many were unable to withstand the pressure of high rates of tax, utilities,
rents, inflation and well as the problems with getting accreditation, the
ill will of municipal leaders and other factors. And the children, who had
acquired a taste for freedom and were already "spoiled" by the habits of
individual attention, were forced to return to regular schools.

>From the beginning, these intellectual enterprises inevitably became
commercialized. And if the school's director - by profession a scientist,
philosopher or researcher - could not also become a successful
entrepreneur, then the school would most likely be uncompetitive and cease
to exist. Therefore, the second generation of private schools that were
formed two to three years ago turned out to be lacking in the experimental
spirit that characterized the first schools. What became important was not
new ideas but reliable sponsors and the support of municipal officials. The
deciding factor in accepting students was the influence and wealth of their
parents.

Public schools today can be divided into two types: the advanced, which are
in the minority, and the comfortable. In schools of the first kind is a
cult of the child, nonstandard teaching methods, serious scientific work
and a priority of personal freedom for the student and development of his
individual capacities. The second type of school professes to share the
same values, although in reality the child receives a rather mediocre or
even weak education. (It is true, however, that the level of English
teaching is, as a rule, superior.) But the student is provided with an
auspicious childhood: At the school there is normally good food, sporting
and health facilities, games, trips and a choice of exotic subjects - from
origami to sculpture.

Such schools will always find their clients among the Russian bourgeoisie.
My former neighbor, a typically nouveau riche leather and fur magnate,
especially sought out the most expensive school in the area - it was a
question of honor - and he found it. It didn't matter that the owner of the
school owner put incorrect stress on syllables and wore more gold than is
normally found in a jewelry store. She promised the naïve magnate that his
daughter would have no problems later entering Harlem - apparently getting
this confused with Princeton. And the magnate believed her.

There are, of course, schools that manage to maintain a high level of
education and comfort, but these are exceptions.

It cannot be said that the system of private education discredited itself.
It's just that, lacking state support, private schools were not able to
develop, despite the enormous intellectual and creative potential of their
pioneers. This is more normal than it is alarming. The short history of
contemporary private schools in Russia reflects all the paradoxes of the
economic difficulties involved in broad humanitarian initiatives.

*********

#5
New Tax Code To Lead to Small Business Collapse 

Delovoy Mir
June 26, 1997
[for personal use only]
Article by Vladimir Zhuravlev: "Businessmen Accuse
the Government of Hypocrisy"

The draft Tax Code drawn up by the Russian Federation Government
and already adopted by the State Duma in its first reading virtually
destroys the very concept of "small business."
This is the opinion reached by organizers of a briefing conducted
yesterday at the Russian-American Press Center. According to Aleksandr
Ioffe, president of the Russian Association for the Development
of Small Business, our country has already gone through the sad
experience of eliminating NEP [New Economic Policy] and steering
its policy towards the support of large-scale monopolistic structures,
moving our state into deep socioeconomic crisis.
Th*e present government seems to be supporting such a policy
in the belief that only large companies are capable of replenishing
the treasury and only they, therefore, are worthy of privileges
and state subsidies. As far as small business is concerned, upon
entry of the Tax Code into legal force, it will be doomed to
self-destruction
since the code removes the last existing—already minute—support
in the tax sphere and introduces monthly tax payments and advance
payments. All this will lead to the expropriation of about 10 trillion
rubles [R] in working capital from Russian small business. Under
such conditions, the collapse of the majority of small businesses
is inevitable, especially businesses in the production sphere.
The actions of the present authority with respect to small
business are so shortsighted that they place in doubt the entire
course of reforms. Specific evidence to this effect can be seen
in the data obtained from a recent survey conducted by the Institute
for Strategic Analysis and the Development of Entrepreneurial Activity
(ISARP). Some 40 percent of the small business leaders surveyed
evaluated the state of their enterprises as poor or very poor. Only
one out of every 18 businessmen stated that his business was proceeding
well. Most tended to evaluate their businesses as "satisfactory."
But we must note that this was the assessment rendered prior to
the first readings of the Tax Code in the Duma. The views of the
majority of businessmen are quite different at present.
Individuals who spoke at the briefing tried to forecast the
further development of events. First of all, the number of small
enterprises will decrease in most regions. Second, this will have
a negative effect on reforms in the military (discharged servicemen
will be unable to find jobs) and housing and municipal services
(where a competitive environment should be established) spheres.
Finally, the very concept of "small business" may become entirely
incompatible with decency, law-abiding behavior, and patriotism.
Incidentally, in the opinion of ISARP experts, the threat of racketeering
is urgent and topical for 12 of the surveyed businessmen. It is
felt that this threat will increase sharply in connection with the
more severe tax burden and coerced inclination of businessmen to
shift some of their business "into the shadow." Andrey Fedorov,
a veteran of the cooperative movement, spoke about this with great
distress. According to Fedorov, the ill-considered actions of the
government may lead to catastrophic socioeconomic and political
consequences.

**********

#6
Yeltsin Seen Setting Up Parallel Local Power 

Obshchaya Gazeta, No. 27
July 10, 1997
[translation for personal use only]
Report by Anatoliy Kostyukov under the "Heart of the Matter" rubric:
"Appointees to Someone Else's Post"

The Russian governors' presentiments did not deceive them: The
experimental method of neutralization of their Maritime Kray colleague
Nazdratenko may soon become general practice. On Tuesday a member of the
Presidential Council, famous Kremlin analyst Leonid Smirnyagin, told the
press that an "edict on the extension of the powers of presidential
representatives in the regions" is being prepared. According to Smirnyagin
it is proposed to create "collegiums of the top officials of all the
territories' services" in the oblasts and krays of the Russian Federation,
with presidential appointees being placed at the head of these collegiums.
In other words, the administrations led by the publicly elected
governors will be paralleled by administrative bodies headed by officials
appointed by the president, who will also manage "all the territories'
services." That is to say there will in effect be two governors in each
kray and oblast: one elected and one appointed.
Such a fanciful structure of the gubernatorial state system was not
described even by [satirist] Saltykov-Shchedrin's perspicacious pen, so it
demonstrates the indisputable know-how of Russian bureaucratic thought. 
Diarchy has sometimes existed in the history of various states, but only as
a result of an unhappy combination of circumstances, not of considered
actions by the authorities. Classical Machiavellianism -- "divide and rule"
-- does not have as its aim the total administrative disorder promised by
the dual governor project, either. So, in this case, as far as classical
models are concerned, it is more apposite to remember Herostratos [who
burned down the temple at Ephesus in order to make his name immortal].
Moscow Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov's short comment for Obshchaya Gazeta:
"Dualism in power means its collapse. It cannot lead to anything but
chaos."
It is clear that the institution of "collegiate rulers" will provoke
total protest from the regional leaders; even the most docile and
ideologically close [to the president] will rebel. It is extremely
doubtful that the president will be able to provide his appointees with the
necessary power and financial support in the conflict which will
immediately engulf almost all of the country's provinces. To get anyone's
political support is even more unrealistic. The reaction of the Duma, and
more so of the Federatioin Council, will be highly unfriendly, and there is
nothing to hope for from the electorate either; according to all polls of
the population, the local authorities are more popular than the central
ones in spite of everything.
As to the legal flaws of the promised edict, even the Constitutional
Court, which has long since closed its eyes, will hardly be able to ignore
them. First, the president's representative is an institution which up to
now has resided outside the zone of action of the Fundamental Law or any
other law of the Russian Federation and therefore in principle does not
command any prerogatives of power. Second, the Constitution does not allow
the president to arbitrarily institute organs of power of Federation
components. Third, it gives him no right to limit or extend the powers of
elected heads of local administrations. There is a "fourth" and a "fifth,"
but even this is enough to accuse the head of state of undermining the
constitutional order.
The unpleasantnesses that this threatens are so great, in fact, that
one cannot understand why the goat needs this harmonica anyway [expression
used for something useless or inappropriate]. Was the president so hurt by
the concerted protection of Nazdratenko organized by the senators that he
lost his composure and his hand involuntarily reached for his pen?
One would not believe it. Think about it, Nazdratenko! What an
honor. Most probably the Maritime rebel has nothing to do with it. The
taming of regional leaders according to the above scheme is a plan that has
long been ripening in the Kremlin chambers. So as not to look like
prophets with hindsight, let us resort to self-quotation. Back on 18 July
1996 in the commentary "Chubays Closer to the Body" (at the time Anatoliy
Borisovich had only just come to head the Presidential Staff) Obshchaya
Gazeta asserted: "To all appearances, Yeltsin has at last braced himself
(anyway, he has had no other opportunity) to restrict severely the license
of the regional elites, which after the fall series of gubernatorial
elections might grow into open insubordination.... What can be done
objectively? The most obvious and accessible [thing to do] is to build up
a parallel hierarchy of executive power on the basis of the institution of
presidential representatives in the Federation components. ...Up to now
the Kremlin has held them in check but it is also possible not to hold them
back but to encourage them, gradually expanding the oversight functions of
this institution, and then investing it with executive powers as well (for
example, the appointees could be entrusted with the coordination of the
power departments' local organs)."
So the news about the gubernatorial collegiums is no newer than last
year's snow. Everything was pre-programmed, both by the course of events
and by the innate nature of the present authorities.
It has long been evident that Moscow will have to somehow balance the
regional-scale autocrats in order to maintain the "executive hierarchy." 
Some people (generally from outside the Kremlin) have even offered
constructive suggestions: The governors must not be allowed to crush the
local representative organs, the local courts must be helped to acquire
economic and administrative independence, under no circumstances must the
Federation Council be manned from among the regional leadership -- then the
provincial barons would have local and wholly constitutional
"counterbalances."
But in those days Kremlin strategists believed history would end on 19
June [presidential election day], and after that they would think of
something. And now they have thought of the "collegium." Once again
nothing better came to mind.

*********

#7
The Guardian (UK)
16 July 1997
[for personal use only]
Lada polishes image as Slavic Mercedes Once synonymous with a bumpy 
ride, Russia's favourite car has gone de luxe, James Meek in Moscow 
writes 

ONLY THE best deserve the best. The gruelling life of executive 
decision-making demands a rich reward. Like the reassuring power of 
16-valve multiple fuel injection, the comfort of a leather and natural 
wood interior, the convenience of a back-seat fridge and bar. 

Essentials which say only one thing to discerning lovers of quality 
motoring: Lada. 

Undaunted by the collapse of their British market and debts to the 
Russian government of almost pounds 300 million, engineers at the Lada 
factory in Togliatti on the Volga have unveiled the prototype of their 
first luxury car. 

Apart from the 16-valve engine and the back-seat fridge, the new Lada 
model - called the Consul - differs in a few other respects from the 
cars the world has come to know and, not entirely fairly, laugh at. 

It is fitted with an air conditioner, a television set, a video 
recorder, a CD-player and, just so customers understand this really is a 
Lada limo, an electric sliding-glass partition between passenger and 
chauffeur. 

Engineers in the development department of the AvtoVAZ plant declined to 
say how much the Consul would cost, but it is bound to be many times as 
much as the latest Lada model now trickling into Moscow showrooms with a 
sticker price of a little over pounds 6,000. 

The carmakers told the Interfax news agency yesterday that the luxury 
Lada would be aimed at Russian businessmen. 

Yevgeny Aksakalyan, of the Russian motoring paper Klaxon, said he 
doubted whether there was enough domestic demand to justify tooling up 
assembly lines for a Slavic Mercedes. 

"If they could produce a small number of them to order, why not? You'd 
find people willing to buy them," Mr Aksakalyan said. "But it's too 
early to flood Russia with them when on average people are only earning 
$300 ( pounds 188) a month." 

Yet in keeping with efforts by Russia's government to wean unpatriotic 
state officials away from their beloved BMWs and Audis, other Russian
carmakers are trying to restyle their clunky old designs to meet 
reluctant bureaucratic demand. 

The makers of Volga saloons are fitting Rover engines. A special de luxe 
stretch edition of the despised Moskvich - grandly called the Prince 
Yuri Dolgoruky after the founder of the Russian capital - has been 
issued for executives of the Moscow mayor's office. 

Russians are ambivalent about the Lada. Given the money, most would 
prefer an imported car: among the rich, huge four-wheel drive vehicles 
from Chevrolet and Toyota - with smoked glass windows - are in fashion. 

But there is a certain pride in the toughness of the local contender. On 
Russia's abysmal roads, millions of Ladas perform feats every day at 
which the average British four-wheel driver would blanch. 

**********

Duma Security Expert Condemns Baltic Exercises as 'Threat' 

MOSCOW, July 14 (Itar-Tass) - The international exercise Baltic
Challenge'97 that has begun in Estonia poses a threat to Russia's national
security, a high-ranking official said.
Colonel Aleksey Gordeichuk, State Duma Security Committee expert, told
Itar-Tass on Monday that NATO is using this exercise to tap the military
infrastructure left in the Baltic states after the withdrawal of Russian
troops.
Flights over military airfields in the direct proximity to the Russian
border, the surveying of rocket and artillery positions, the measuring of
fairways -- all this is an indication of military preparations which cannot
but disturb Russia, he said.
Gordeichuk expressed concern about the fact that Ukrainian, Lithuanian
and Latvian troops are being used in the exercise as a cover for U.S.
military actions.
"In conditions when the flight time of NATO missiles and air strike
forces is only several minutes, any large-scale exercise near the border of
a sovereign state evokes an adequate reaction, which creates tension in the
region," he said.
The Baltic Challenge'97 manoeuvres involve land, navy and air force
units from Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Ukraine, the United States,
Finland and Sweden.

*********

#8
New York Times
17 July 1997
[for personal use only]
Letter
Moscow on the Hudson

To the Editor: 
"Yeltsin Attacks Soviet-Era Housing Benefits" (front page, July 13) 
contained this enlightening passage on Russia's subsidized apartments: 
"The tenants who rent them pay a fraction of the actual rent. They cling 
to the apartments even after they have moved out of them to get married 
or retire . . . passing them on to their children like rare heirlooms or 
subletting them." One thing is certain, President Boris N. Yeltsin 
obviously cannot use New York City as a beacon to lead Russian into the 
21st century.

ELIZABETH GASSER
Chatham, N.J., July 13, 1997 

*********

#9
Farming Situation 'Considerably Better' Than Last Year 

Selskaya Zhizn
July 12, 1997
[translation for personal use only]
Report by Aleksandr Bykovskiy: "The Most Important Thing Now Is
Harvesting! Does the State Seem To Be Turning To Face the Countryside?"

Khlystun, vice premier of the Russian Government and minister of
agriculture and food, met Thursday with a group of agrarian journalists. 
He reported that the Cabinet of Ministers had summed up the results of
spring sowing and analyzed the situation which has taken shape in the
agro-industrial complex on the eve of harvesting. According to official
data, there has been a certain reduction in the total crop area, chiefly at
the expense of annual grasses (by approximately 2 percent).
Speaking of the state of the crops, Khlystun declared that it is
considerably better than it was last year and the year before last,
although the picture is quite mixed in different regions. It is much
better in the central chernozem oblasts and in the Lower and Middle Volga
Regions. But it arouses serious misgivings in certain parts of West
Siberia. Harvesting has begun in the North Caucasus and in Astrakhan and
Volgograd Oblasts. Its first results are reassuring to agrarians, who this
year have managed to improve the situation somewhat with regard to the use
of fertilizers. Feed procurement is also gathering momentum.
According to Khlystun, the most difficult situation is taking shape on
three counts: fuels and lubricants, spare parts, and the general state of
the combine pool, whose size has fallen by 8 percent this year. Paramount
attention was devoted to just these questions at a conference in the
government with V. Chernomyrdin in the chair. At the same time the vice
premier did not hide the fact that the government realizes that the
majority of regions are going into the harvest literally naked in the
financial sense, because all resources were thrown into conducting the
sowing campaign, which cost 17-18 trillion rubles.
What is the government offering under these conditions? Above all, a
search for nonfinancial possibilities of ensuring the harvest campaign. As
early as next week there will be a big discussion involving oil company
chiefs. They will be instructed to provide producers with fuels and
lubricants, with subsequent settlement in agricultural produce. In
particular, the Lukoil company is already concluding agreements with
Volgograd Oblast based on two tonnes of third-grade wheat per tonne of
fuel.
The Ministry of the Economy was also instructed to make a tough
analysis of the situation at combine plants, particularly at Rostselmash. 
The government believes that it is capable of manufacturing 2,000 combines
during July. To date agreements have already been concluded for half this
number of combines by regions which can find their own ways to pay. The
second half will be funded on leasing terms. A corresponding instruction
has been issued to the Ministry of Finance. Provision has also been made
for a number of other measures which are to help the producer in the
upcoming harvest.
In short, the state of affairs in the agro-industrial complex remains
exceptionally complex, although a number of signs of the state's closer
attention to the cares and needs of the countryside have been noted. It
has been learned, in particular, that a presidential edict on reforming
uncompetitive farms is being prepared. It is a question not of breaking up
farms but of seeking opportunities to revive them. If the state really
drops its role as a detached observer of the countryside's troubles, then
the countryside will, hopefully, not only carry out this year's harvest but
will also take heart generally after so many years of "reform."

********

#10
West does not share support for Belarus president
By Andrei Makhovsky 
MINSK, July 17 (Reuter) - Three years after his election the people of
Belarus still seem to love President Alexander Lukashenko -- even if
opposition groups and the West are far from smitten with his leadership
style. 
The anniversary last week was marked in the official media by a Soviet-style
outpouring of praise for the 42-year-old leader who has built something of a
personality cult. 
A specially-made television film, programmes and pro-presidential newspapers
celebrated with everyone congratulating Lukashenko. 
His name and moustachioed, angular face appear everywhere -- on stamps, on
the official presidential emblem and over and over again on state-controlled
television. 
As neighbouring former Soviet countries struggle to embrace market reform,
Lukashenko has taken a go-slow approach. 
The World Bank says reforms are going backwards and it could take a decade
for the economy to recover. 
The International Monetary Fund and European countries have frozen their
lending programmes and the United States has recommended that investors
should put their money elsewhere. 
Lukashenko ousted the two favourites in the 1994 election to sweep to power
on a widely-publicised anti-corruption campaign which saw off Belarus's first
leader Stanislav Shushkevich, a social democrat who had good relations with
the West. 
Since then he has offered the people controlled prices, a controlled
currency
and closer ties with neighbouring Russia, stressing that he wants sovereignty
for Belarus -- ``a small island of order and stability in an ocean of chaos
and anarchy.'' 
The people said thank you last November when they gave Lukashenko a
resounding victory in a controversial referendum which he used to tighten his
grip on all branches of power. 
``We live worse, but what could Lukashenko do? At least we do not have
war,''
said a Minsk pensioner, reflecting the general attitude among Lukashenko's
supporters. 

COOL RECEPTION IN THE WEST 

Western countries have given Lukashenko a cool reception. The only one to
open its doors for a bilateral visit has been France. 
Foreign Minister Ivan Antonovich points out that Lukashenko attracts
attention to Belarus which could only be a good thing. 
``During this time Belarus has become a self-reliant, independent state
which
attracts interest from the whole world. Politicians of different countries
are intrigued to follow our president, waiting to see what he'll do next,''
Antonovich said. 
But his critics, who comprise a small but vocal minority in Belarus and a
weighty group in the West, including the European Parliament and Washington,
take a different view. 
Belarus lost its observer status at the Council of Europe, and a
Cold-War-style tit-for-tat expulsion row broke out with Washington after
Minsk expelled a U.S. diplomat. 
In 1995 Belarussian forces shot down an air balloon killing two American
pilots taking part in an international race. 
Lukashenko apologised and then praised his military for their ``high
level of
readiness.'' 
His most organised opponents are the Popular Front, whose hatred of his
policy of re-building ties with Moscow reached fever pitch when he signed a
union deal with Russia. 
They accuse him of running a dictatorship, pushing the point home at street
protests. 
``Lukashenko has deceived everyone, but above all the Belarussian people,''
said Yuri Khodyko, the Front's deputy head, who has spent time in prison for
taking part in protests. 

CONTROVERSIAL CONSTITUTION 

Critics of the referendum, including Western legal experts, said the new
constitution it produced did not meet democratic standards of human rights. 
Polling observers noted voting was stretched out over two weeks amid an
extremely one-sided campaign in the media, especially on television and
radio. 
But Lukashenko's supporters say he has installed the height of democracy --
the country's political structure has been decided not at elections but by a
national referendum. 
The new constitution allows Lukashenko to dissolve parliament, appoint the
government and half the constitutional court and issue decrees which have
legal force. Deputies' mandates in the lower house are approved by the
president. 
Lukashenko's foreign policy is officially ``multi-vectored'' but in fact his
main diplomatic successes have been to the east, especially with Russia --
starting with a ``commonwealth'' deal in April 1996 which became a ``union''
deal a year later. 
``Without the activity, the determination of the president, we would never
have such a close union with Russia,'' Lukashenko's chief-of-staff Mikhail
Myasnikovich told Belarussian television. 

CRITICS SAY POVERTY, RESTRICTIONS COULD STOP LUKASHENKO 

Lukashenko's domestic critics, most of whom are grouped around diehard
opponents from the former parliament which was disbanded after the
referendum, say they hope he will be ousted. 
They say poverty and the weight of restrictions against the media and the
market will eventually get the better of him. 
But Lukashenko has always said he would stay in power into the 21st century,
and his dream came true with the new constitution. It re-started the clock on
his term, and elections are now scheduled for 2001 instead of 1999. 
But the economy is in trouble. Privatisation has ground almost to a halt,
raising just five billion Belarussian roubles ($333,000 at the average 1996
rate, $152,000 this week) last year instead of a forecast 500 billion. 
Foreign investment in 1995 and 1996 fell by 49 percent, and the United
Nations says 80 percent of the population lives on or below the breadline. 
Even Russia has chided its smaller Slav brother for deporting one Russian
journalist and cancelling the credentials of another for what Minsk said was
biased reporting. 
Many of Lukashenko's opponents believe he has surrounded himself with weak
people, and that this line-up will eventually discredit itself and collapse. 
``The first cracks have appeared in the regime's foundation,'' said
Stanislav
Bogdankevich, head of the opposition Civic Union party and a prominent former
member of parliament. ``The chances of a legal handover of power are still
there.'' 
($-32,900 Belarussian roubles this week, average 15,000 in 1996) 

********