July 24, 1997   

This Date's Issues:   1080  •1081

Johnson's Russia List
#1081
24 July 1997
djohnson@cdi.org

[Note from David Johnson:
1. M. R. Weiss: AMERICAN BLUNDER AND THE AFGHANISTAN DEBACLE: 
A CLOSER LOOK.
2. From Matt Taibbi (editor-in-chief, the eXile) two articles:
THE IZVESTIA SHAKEUP: A REPORTER'S ACCOUNT by Matt Taibbi; and
HATS OFF TO HACK WRITERS/EXile Press Review by Abram Kalashnikov.
3. New York Times: Michael Specter, Journal: Where Stalinist Youth 
Roared, Limousines Purr. (Youth camp in Yalta).
4. RFE/RL: Russia: Patriarch Warns Of Discord Unless Religion 
Bill Enacted.
5. Interfax: Russia Likely To Stop Borrowing From Abroad Within Few Years.
6. Washington Post editorial: Russia and Religious Rights.
7. Los Angeles Times: Richard Paddock, A Hearty Yeltsin Trades Swats 
With Cardiologist.
8. MSNBC: Preston Mendenhall, Russian children on the adoption block.
(DJ: The export trade in Russian children is one of the hallmark
features of the Yeltsin era. As in so many areas, imagine how 
Americans would react if the shoe were on the other foot.)
9. Christian Science Monitor: Neela Banerjee, Yeltsin's Popular 
Protégé Provides Cover for Reform.
10. RFE/RL Newsline: PRESS SKEPTICAL ABOUT INCOME 
DECLARATIONS. ]

**********

#1
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 1997 11:00:43 -0700
From: "M.R.WEISS" <95fa406@VIKING.DVC.EDU>
Subject: AMERICAN BLUNDER AND THE AFGHANISTAN DEBACLE: A CLOSER LOOK
To: Multiple recipients of list CENASIA <CENASIA@VM1.MCGILL.CA>

It has been five and half years since Afghanistan is embroiled in a bloody
civil war. Little is known as to what fuels the war and what instigated
the initial clashes. However, for observers of the Afghan conflict it is
not difficult to perceive of a pattern that has come to make itself felt
in every stages of the Afghan conflict for the past two decade.

Many have argued that the Internal aspect of the Afghan clashes is the
one cause behind the continouse fighting. More like blaming the patient
for the illness, policy makers and the UN have focused on the patient
instead of the disease to find a cure. But after enormous sufferrings to
the Afghan people there is no sight of peace or a lasting cure for that
matter.

I, however, strongly believe that the External aspect of the war has
dominated this bloody conflict and continues to fuel its fire. The
Afghans, unfortunately, were the major losers of the Cold War and are in
the post Cold War. The Afghan land has become the battleground for others
geopolitical wars to be fought, and the Afghan blood as the only
sacrifice to be paid. In this geopolitical wars American's interests and
worries carries a higher degree of involvement than any other involved
parties. One can clearly ask what is the American official policy in
regard to CA. Mr Talbot's idealistic and visionary cries of democracy
and open market hardly is a perception based on reality.

Indeed, the open market that he talks about has been closed by the only
two route that landlock CA has to the outside world, Iran and
Afghanistan. The former is boycotted and the latter is deliberately
forced into a vicious war. It has come time to seriously question the
integrity and validity of the American policy vis-a-vis CA, and whether
is this policy compatible with the central and predominant vlaues
American would like to perpetrate in the wider world.

The principle and driving policy behind American stance towards CA is,
without any question, to isolate and buttress both Iran and Russian
influence in the region. This shortsighted and immature policy is further
strengthend by the CA countries whose dimplomatic impotence have been
beyond any doubt proven with regard to the Afghan war. For CA countries
anything American and American initiated has been translated to be good
and anything from the region or from the North to be bad. This clear
blunder on the part of the CA countires is one other fuel for the burning
Afghan fire.

The main adversary in the Afghan conflict confronting the American backed
Taliban is Ahmad Shah Massoud, a legendary Mujahideen commander whose
burning Afghan nationalism and patriotism have been proven more than
once. American policy makers are keen to compensate for their failure and
frustration in the Persian gulf in the Afghanistan conflict. By
controling the Kabul regime Iran is effectively put in a serious dilemma.
It is links to the Islamic world will be severly cut and hampered. It
will become an island of Shias in a vast sea of hostile American
controlled Sunni Muslims. The Kabul regime can also seriously antagonise
both Chinese Muslims, and Russian influence in CA. By diverting all the
CA trade from Iran towards Afghanistan and Pakistan, America intends to
squeez the Iran patience and stamina. By giving Pakistan a security
leverage over India, Washington hopes to bring New-Delhi into its fold to
counter the growing Chinese power.

However, these Macho policies are similar to riding dead horses. The time
has clearly come to re-evaluate American policy in CA, if there is any,
and question its validity based on fear. There is no doubt that American
fear of Russia and Iran are residues of Cold War one that senior policy
makers have failed to shrugg off due to intense and powerful lobbying by
vested intereste. The community of nations can not prosper unless there
is a commitment to create that community and let the Nation grow. In the
post Cold War the new world order, which has nothing new or orderly about
it, is just a reincarnation of the cold war albeit with stronger
centrality. As the war in Afghanistan continues to favor Ahmad Shah
Massoud and humiliating defeats are rendered to US backed Taliban it is
time to question wether a policy of revenge and fear is paying off in CA.

A policy to reduce both Russia and Iran to status of non players in the
region or to control Kabul to anatgonise these countires is not a wise
policy and hardly one with foresight. Let us create a vibrant CA and a
cooperative one not one of anatgonism and Cold War rivalry.

************

#2
From: "Matt Taibbi" <exile.taibbi@matrix.ru>
Subject: eXile contributions
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 1997 20:36:56 +0400

Dear David,
Enclosed are two stories from the last issue of the eXile. The first is an
account of the Izvestia shakeup, and the second is a sample of our biweekly
Press Review.
Thanks and keep up the good work,
Matt Taibbi
editor-in-chief
the eXile

THE IZVESTIA SHAKEUP: A REPORTER'S ACCOUNT
By Matt Taibbi
The eXile

"No one even bothered to congratulate me. Not a single person."
So said Leonid Krutakov, a reporter who two weeks ago signed his own
professional death warrant with the publication of the astonishing
"Kreditui Ili..." article in Izvestia which led to the sacking of editor
Igor Golombiyevsky. The article, which revealed that Anatoly Chubais had
received a no-interest $3 million dollar loan from Stolichny Bank chief
Alexander Smolensky and strongly hinted that the loan was a bribe in return
for the successful rigging of the AgPromBank auction, was a masterpiece of
investigative journalism and rebellious grandstanding. Krutakov, who has
been forced out of half a dozen publications in recent years, been beaten
up, threatened, interrogated, followed and harassed, got what might be one
last chance to thumb his nose at the authorities, and he did it in style.
The response, or lack of it, from his colleagues in Russian journalism goes
a long way toward demonstrating publicly what Krutakov says he already
knew-that the free press in this country is this month in its final death
throes, and that no one, not even the Western press, seems to care.
Krutakov won't say where he got the story, but in an interview with the
eXile, his description of the incredible trouble he went through to get it
published shows the state that the Russian press is in. Komsomolskaya
Pravda, his old paper, was out as a possible outlet for his piece; its
recent quiet takeover by Chubais-friendly Uneximbank saw to that. Moskovsky
Komsomolets, tamer by the day under Most-Bank's Vladimir Gusinsky, wouldn't
take it. In fact, there were just a handful of publications willing, at
first, to take it: the Viktor Chernomyrdin-controlled rags "Trud" and
"Profil," and the legendary Sovershenno Sekretno, now making a comeback
with an investment by Rupert Murdoch. "Profil," according to Krutakov,
offered a thousand dollars for the story, but Krutakov, not wanting to
demean the material by publishing it in a place where it would be taken
immediately for Chernomyrdin kompromat, settled on Soveshenno Sekrtno. The
article was in place and nearing press time when it was suddenly canceled.
"Artem Borovik [editor of Sovershenno Sekrteno] was in New York just before
press time when he got a call from Smolensky," he said. "And just like
that, it was dead."
Then Krutakov got a break. Big doings were underway at Izvestia, Russia's
leading newspaper. Editor Golombiyevsky had been in trouble after bringing
in LUKOIL as an investor to balance out Uneximbank-pitting Chernomyrdin's
interests against Chubais's. But when he published an article repeating the
French paper Le Monde's assertion that Viktor Chernomyrdin had $5 billion
in personal assets, Golombiyevsky infuriated LUKOIL and the stage was set
for his dismissal. When Krutakov came to him with his material, it was
timely; Golombiyevsky, knowing he was on his way out, was anxious to fire a
parting shot that would show he was no stooge of Chubais. He took
Krutakov's story and published it without even telling his reporters when
it would come out. As Krutakov put it: "Golombiyevsky wanted to go out like
a man."
Golombiyevsky was immediately sent on "vacation," but Krutakov's troubles
were only just beginning. The reporter, who claims that earlier this year
he was been beaten severely in his podyezd after publishing an article
about Boris Berezovsky, was summoned to a series of meetings with everybody
from what he terms "state security services" to the board of directors at
Izvestia to aides of Chubais. As an indication of how far reporters have
fallen in recent years, not once in these meetings was the notion that
Krutakov had come up with his material himself ever entertained.
"The first question everyone had was, 'Why is [Uneximbank chief Vladimir]
Potanin taking a shot at Chubais?' Everyone interpreted the article as
kompromat from Unexim. No one thought it was my own initiative," he said.
"I had to spend hours defending Potanin in front of Chubais's people."
Krutakov has more material to publish-even Golombiyevsky was afraid to
print the entire "Kreditui" article, leaving out links to Chubais's
personal finances-but he doesn't believe he'll be able to run the rest of
the story anywhere. "No one will allow it," he said. "Chubais is taking
over the entire media. There will be no place left soon. There are only a
few of us left."
By "us," Krutakov means the few reporters left who aren't bought out. The
list includes Alexander Minkin (rumored now to be leaving Novaya Gazeta to
edit "Litsa," which is being abandoned by Alexander Korzhakov), Sergei
Sokolov, Pavel Voshanov, and a few others. 
"People say that we're bought out, that people like Minkin and I are
working for somebody," said Krutakov. "All those people would have to do is
see the way we live and they'd know that wasn't true. I'm still technically
homeless-I rent cheap apartments and move around from place to place all
the time. I've been living like that for ten years."
The Krutakov-Golombiyevsky story, if nothing else, demonstrates absolutely
that an oligarchy exists in Russia. There are some who say that it isn't an
oligarchy, that in fact there are just a series of competing political
interests who never under any circumstances act in concert. But the merger
of would-be competitors LUKOIL and Uneximbank to dispose of Golombiyevsky
proves that these oligarchs can find common interests easily enough. And
the one interest they all have in common is in not letting mere individuals
like Krutakov shape public opinion. 
Oh, well. In any case, congratulations, Leonid. You've got balls. Keep it
up. 

--------

HATS OFF TO HACK WRITERS
EXile Press Review
By Abram Kalashnikov

The American comedian Richard Pryor once questioned America's traditional
fear of Russia. "I don't know what the big deal about Russia is," he said.
"I mean, if a Russian walk down the street, and he don't have that hat on,
I don't know who the fuck he is."
Western journalists come up against that problem all the time. In order to
sell their stories to the home audience, they go to great lengths, when
they describe Russians, to put that hat on so that their readers can
recognize them. It is a technique that Soviet journalists writing about
America used to use; in every interview with an American, accessories
ranging from cheeseburgers to burning crosses tended to figure heavily in
the portraits, to help prevent communist readers from mistaking Americans
for human beings like themselves.
Western journalists find the hat especially necessary when they toss in
"man on the street" quotes to flesh out their text. No Russian mentioned in
a Western article who doesn't have a government title can afford to be
without his "hat"-- otherwise, the folks at home won't know why he's being
quoted. Michael Gordon of the New York Times demonstrates in a recent
article in which he interviews Moscow housewife "Tanya Yesin" about housing
subsidies:
"It is absolutely absurd," she sniffed, as she offered a cup of steaming
tea and black currant jam to a visitor [which one? Gordon? Is he afraid to
admit to drinking tea?]. "They have to raise our wages and salaries if they
want us to pay more."
Would Gordon write the same way at home? For instance: "I totally disagree
with the OJ verdict," said Hick McFlabb, as he munched from a plate of
crispy fried chicken and stared proudly out the window at his Ford Pickup
truck. "I think he was probably guilty."
Sometimes even the President needs a "hat," as Reuters proved last week:
"He [Yeltsin] said the water was cold but he warmed up in a Russian 'banya'
steam bath, wielding traditional twig switches to invigorate the blood
circulation."
So that's what those switches are for! Silly me-- all these years I've been
beating myself with them, and it turns out that all you need to do is wield
them to get the blood flowing. Well, at least the President knows how to
use them, and that's reassuring. 
When Western journalists leave the hat off, it's usually because they want
to write something nice about a Russian. In her recent bio on Boris
Nemtsov, Carol J. Williams of the Los Angeles Times made sure there were no
hats within a 10-mile radius of the Deputy Prime Minister, as it was
important for her to convey Nemtsov's traditionally non-Russian qualities
of honesty, youth, and charisma:
"NIZHNI NOVGOROD-- He calls himself a kamikaze, and, indeed, many expect
the brash Boris Yefimovich [Williams leaves the hat off but makes sure to
keep the sidelocks on; subsequent Russians are identified in the article
without patronymics] Nemtsov to quickly crash and burn.
"In the four months since he left the helm of this prosperous Volga river
reform showcase to become first deputy prime minister in Moscow, the
charismatic crusader has taken aim at the corrupt and the greedy who have
made post-Soviet Russia a vast and terrifying gangland.
The 37-year old former physicist has presided over the first promising
signs of economic recovery since Russia jettisoned communism, and, to the
cheers of the struggling masses, has waged war against government fat cats
junketing in imported luxury cars and chartered planes."
I think I must not be getting out enough since I bought that VCR from
Andrew Kramer of the San Francisco Chronicle. Where are these cheering,
struggling masses Williams refers to? My own street is pretty quiet. In
fact, I would be content with this story so far if there were one person
somewhere in Russia who was actually physically cheering Nemtsov-- someone
besides Ms. Williams, that is. I somehow doubt it. She goes on:
"'First of all, kamizazes don't always end up dead,' Nemtsov said, fixing
his interlocutor [maybe it was Williams Gordon saw receiving steaming tea
and jam! -- A.K. ] with the wide-eyed ebony gaze that has made him the
darling of Russian politics, at least among Russian women."
Good thing Williams is at least clear on Nemtsov's good looks. She's a
little murkier on his record against corruption. Interestingly, her belated
effort to stick a fig-leaf of a "hat" on Nemtsov in order to prove her
pro-Russian-ness ends in spectacular failure:
"Nemtsov was among the first to bare his personal finances, disclosing
ownership of a two-room apartment here, a 5 year-old Russian-made Zhiguli
compact, savings of $1,300 and a 1996 income of less than $16,000."
Williams forgot to check the trunk of Nemtsov's "Russian-made" Zhiguli.
According to Kommersant Daily, Nemtsov's declaration actually listed an
income of 853 million rubles, or more than $150,000. 
My award for this issue, for Best Unsubstantiated Assertion, goes to John
Grimond of the Economist. In an article in which hats are jettisoned for
antennae as Russians from the town of Vorkuta become "Vorkutians," Grimond
spends more than 1,000 words describing the horror of life in the arctic
city. Vorkuta boasts "black smoke which belches into the air," "swirling
coal dust," mafia wars, stalled factories, and a population so poor that
they can't even afford to have sex-- "I wouldn't have the 5,000 rubles for
a packet of condoms," one Vorkutian is quoted as saying. IN the
second-to-last paragraph, we are still in a land of "excess vodka and early
death"-- "In Vorkuta," said one local, "we have twelve months of winter.
The rest is summer."
Then, suddenly, in the last graph, Grismond turns it around. 
"Vorkuta...voted to re-elect President Boris Yeltsin last year...It would
not back him today. Is reform therefore doomed to fail? This survey would
argue that, despite all the evidence of misery and despair, it is not. It
may even succeed."
Well John, I take my hat off to that.

************

#3
New York Times
24 July 1997
[for personal use only]
Journal: Where Stalinist Youth Roared, Limousines Purr
By MICHAEL SPECTER

YALTA, Ukraine -- There is a kingdom of children set above the rocky coast
here, a Crimean wonderland surrounded by spruce and bathed in the sweet
breezes of the Black Sea. 
Millions of Young Pioneers, Soviet children draped proudly in red
kerchiefs and bursting with socialist ideals, always considered this place
-- the Artek Youth Camp -- the promised land. 
For those lucky enough to be plucked from their factory town or
collective farm (or to have powerful parents), a month at Artek was the
highest reward that the workers' state could bestow upon a promising
youngster. 
"For the children of the Soviet Union this place was heaven on earth,"
said Sergei Goncharov, director of international programs at Artek, which
is host to 5,000 campers each summer month. "It's still heaven. It's just
heaven for different people now." 
Very different people. When Soviet leaders wanted to show off the ruddy
perfection of their next generation, Artek was always the display case.
Even if you were among the chosen -- the best student in your class,
perhaps, or the beaming child of a Hero of Soviet Labor -- you were
permitted to come here just once in a lifetime. 
But as Bungalow 5 goes, so goes the nation. Fifteen years ago there were
30 million Young Pioneers in the Soviet Union, all between 7 and 16. Far
fewer than 1 percent of them ever made it to Artek. Now if you have enough
cash you can return each year. 
Socialist theme songs no longer thunder across the four miles of
coastline. The open-air auditorium where Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Yuri
Gagarin, the first man in space, spoke now offers film festivals and rock
groups. The yacht slip is manned by a paid staff. T-shirts by Calvin Klein
have appeared among the usual uniforms of blue and white. 
These days if you want to spend a month at Artek you need to come up
with $1,000. That's not much if your father owns a villa in Cap D'Antibes.
But it doesn't exactly jibe with the camp's Soviet motto, "A Kingdom
Without a King," either. 
Opened in 1925 with 80 campers and the notion that there was no better
place for a youngster to stay healthy and learn the value of self-reliance,
Artek grew to become an institution with its own orchards, dairy, farmlands
and 2,500 full-time employees. 
"The Soviets loved to do things big," Goncharov said. "And this place
was a monster. I'll bet it had its own five-year plans." 
The Communist rituals are gone now. No more ideology classes or marches
through the potato fields in gas masks. Instead of hoping to listen as a
powerful party boss from Moscow describes the next wave of history,
children now have the opportunity to take classes in management, marketing
and sales. 
They can learn to sail and occupy themselves with other formerly
bourgeois pursuits like archery and tennis. (Polo has been discussed but so
far found impractical.) The change has been forceful and rapid. 
"I remember one child in my group whose bodyguard rented an apartment in
Yalta for the month the kid was here," said Yelena Kedrova, a 19-year-old
literature student at a university nearby. "Every day he would drive to
camp with a satellite phone so the girl could call her mama in Moscow." 
It was not an isolated incident. Recently a huge black Volga sedan
appeared at the camp gates. Upon arriving at the bunk house of one lucky
youngster, the driver threw open the trunk to reveal a dozen chocolate
cakes: just in case the camp leadership failed to understand the importance
of the boy's 12th birthday. 
Vestiges of the old Artek remain, in part because vestiges of Soviet
life are also not that hard to find. Not all children are rich. Many were
sent to Artek by trade unions, or farm collectives that together scraped up
enough money to buy one or two places. 
In the past, trade unions had always financed trips to most Young
Pioneer camps. While much has changed, in many industries the perquisites
live on even for those who rarely receive their wages on time. 
"I love it here so much," said Andrei Orobochek, a shy 13-year-old boy
from the Russian city of Omsk. His father is a machinist in a large factory
that, if it is like most such enterprises in Russia, hasn't paid its
workers full wages for more than a year. 
"The air is so clear, the water so warm," the boy said in tones of
wonder. "We see movies, play games. It's great." 
Most of his contemporaries seemed to agree. Since the language of life
here is Russian, most campers come from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other
parts of the former Soviet empire where Russian is spoken. Each child comes
for a 33-day visit, and there are 11 such cycles each year. 
Since Artek has its own school system, there is no need for campers to
dispense with learning if they come in the fall or at another time when
classes are in session. 
But summer is the favorite time here. The fruit is fresh and the
tomatoes are abundant. The smell of honeysuckle mixes with the ocean breeze. 
"Communist or capitalist, this place is where I want to be," said Marina
Olerenyenko, a 21-year-old counselor who has worked at Artek for four
years. "I don't care about the ideology, and I don't think the kids do
either. I doubt they ever did. It's a camp, after all, not a battlefield." 

**********

#4
Russia: Patriarch Warns Of Discord Unless Religion Bill Enacted
Moscow, 24 July 1997 (RFE/RL) - The patriarch of the Russian Orthodox
Church, Alexy II, warned today that a final rejection of a religious bill
might lead to social discord. In a statement, Alexy said that unless the
law is eventually approved by President Boris Yeltsin, tensions may arise
between the authorities and the majority of Russians. 
He said the tensions could seriously complicate society's movement
toward peace and concord. 
Yeltsin earlier this week vetoed a bill passed by both houses of
Russia's legislature which would have established Orthodox Christianity,
Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism as traditional religions. Other faiths might
have to wait 15 years to win official status. 
Yeltsin sent proposed changes to the legislature, saying that the
original version would have violated human and constitutional rights and
would have favored certain religious denominations. He said it also would
have contravened Russia's international commitments. 
Yeltsin's veto won both criticism and praise at home yesterday. 
Interfax quoted Viktor Zorkaltsev, Communist Party chairman of the Duma
(lower Parliamentary house) committee on religious associations as saying
"Russia has been trampled on." 
But liberals praised Yeltsin's veto. Ella Pamfilova, an independent
deputy in the Duma, told Interfax the bill must not be allowed to infringe
on human rights. 
The bill was criticized as discriminatory by Russian human rights
activists, the Pope and the U.S. Senate. 
The U.S. yesterday welcomed Yeltsin's decision to veto the law, which
Washington says imposes severe restrictions on minority religions in Russia. 
In a brief statement, the State Department said the U.S. was pleased
with Yeltsin's move and his continuing support for freedom of religion. 
The co-chairman of the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in
Europe, Senator Alfonse D'Amato (R-New York), said Yeltsin took an
especially courageous stand, since the law had passed both houses of
parliament and enjoyed strong popular support. D'Amato said Yeltsin
deserves credit for consistently standing up for religious freedom. 

********

#5
Russia Likely To Stop Borrowing From Abroad Within Few Years
MOSCOW, July 24 (Interfax) - Russia is likely to stop borrowing credits
from foreign countries and international financial organizations in a few
years, Russia's First Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told an
enlarged session of the Cabinet on Thursday. 
"The Placing of Russian Eurobonds on international financial markets will
allow us to stop borrowing abroad on rigorous, including political, terms,"
he said. 
He said, in comment on relations between the federal budget and the
regions, that "individual regions are in an exclusive [privileged] position
in this respect." "The Finance Ministry intends to settle all problems with
these regions constructively," he said. 
He announced that the Finance Ministry will propose principles of
settling and restructuring budget debts. According to his sources, the
federal budget owes 76 trillion rubles to the state-run enterprises and to
the suppliers implementing state orders. The debt of the constituent
territories amounts to 55 trillion rubles. 
In the second half of the year, the Finance Ministry will have to
increase budget spending by 100 trillion rubles to ensure the financing of
the spending items of the sequestrated budget, he said. 
He said that in the second half of the year pensions will be paid on time
if back wages are fully repaid. 

*********

#6
Washington Post
24 July 1997
[for personal use only]
Editorial
Russia and Religious Rights

BY COINCIDENCE Russia takes up a bill curbing religious freedom just as
the United States embraces religious freedom as an explicit standard for
its overall foreign policy. But the makings of a collision are there all
the same.
The Russian bill, as passed by the Duma, seems to have issued from an
appeal by the Russian Orthodox Church for protection against the
competition of missionary groups or faiths new to Russia. The bill would
create two kinds of religious organizations with markedly different
privileges to preach, proselytize or build and run a place of worship.
President Boris Yeltsin vetoed it in ringing civil-libertarian tones,
saying its provisions "curb constitutional human and civil rights and
freedoms, make confessions unequal and are inconsistent with Russia's
international commitments."
It happens, however, that the U.S. Senate had just amended a foreign aid
bill to cut off $200 million to Russia if Mr. Yeltsin signed. This raises
the hoary Cold War issue of using American punitive legislation to affect
Moscow's treatment of its own citizens. Except that then the United States
was putting pressure on a hostile Communist regime that denied its
citizens' liberties, and now it is making a threat against a friendly
democratic government whose nationalistic hackles are bound to go up as a
result. Even some Russian opponents of the bill are reported to fear that
parliament may override the Yeltsin veto, partly to show that Moscow is not
kowtowing to Washington.
A concern for religious freedom is a right and necessary part of
American foreign policy. But both its ends and means have to be handled
carefully. The ends must entail respect for the liberties of people of all
religious persuasions, not just of Christians, who are the particular focus
of the American religious right, the people responsible for the latest
surge of official American interest in this subject. The State Department
makes this essential point in a detailed report on world religious freedom
ordered up by Congress and issued this week.
As to means, there will always be a play between the executive and
Congress. But legislated tactics -- such as the Senate's veto-or-else
threat to Boris Yeltsin -- cannot possibly be sensitive to changing
currents. The State Department report makes a good showing of executive
diligence in pursuit of global religious liberties. It is heady stuff for
the Senate to see President Yeltsin, days after its warning, veto the bill.
But there is political risk, too. The administration has heard Congress on
this issue. Congress should step back from the details. 

**********

#7
Los Angeles Times
24 July 1997
[for personal use only]
A Hearty Yeltsin Trades Swats With Cardiologist 
By RICHARD C. PADDOCK, Times Staff Writer
 
MOSCOW--Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, whose death was thought
imminent last fall, demonstrated that he is the picture of health by taking
his doctor for a traditional Russian steam bath. 
     Renat Akchurin, the surgeon who operated on Yeltsin in November,
joined the president in the banya, where they enjoyed the intense heat and
swatted each other with freshly cut birch branches to stimulate the flow of
blood. 
     "To show him that my heart runs like a clock, I took him to a banya,"
the president recounted Wednesday. "I gave him a real good beating. Then he
did the same to me, and we did this several times. His heartbeat was faster
than mine." 
     Yeltsin, on vacation in the town of Volzhsky Utyos in central Russia,
said the doctor was satisfied with the recovery of the presidential heart
eight months after quintuple bypass surgery. 
     "I feel good," Yeltsin told reporters. 
     The banya is a centuries-old tradition in Russia. It is similar to a
sauna except that water is poured on hot rocks to create steam. 
     After sitting in the heat, bathers take turns lying down on a wooden
table where they are whipped with a venik, a bundle of small birch branches
tied together like a broom. Then they immerse themselves in cold water,
take a cold shower or roll in the snow. Russians consider the ritual
healthful and relaxing. 
     Earlier in his vacation, Yeltsin was joined by Finnish President
Martti Ahtisaari and took him to the banya too. Afterward, Yeltsin
demonstrated for television cameras how he vigorously beat the Finnish
leader. 
     "A Russian switch of green birch twigs on the Finnish
president--that's good!" Yeltsin said, beaming. 
     The experience must have had some beneficial effect: Later the two
agreed to collaborate on ways of opening their common border. 

********

#8
MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.com
July 24, 1997
Russian children on the adoption block 
Over Internet or in person, U.S. parents turn to Russia for kids 
By Preston Mendenhall 
NBC NEWS
Preston Mendenhall is a producer at NBC's Moscow bureau. 

MIASS, Siberia — American Cathy Lirgg, 47 and unmarried,
longed to become a mother. 
But years of attempted artificial insemination and a brief try at
surrogacy failed to bring any result. "I was getting older. Every year that
went by I felt more pressure to make something happen," Lirgg said. "I
wanted to become a mother."
Turning to adoption, Lirgg met another impasse: an estimated 2
million Americans want to adopt babies, but only 50,000 each year adopt a
child in the United States, according to the National Council on Adoption.
As a single parent, Lirgg faced even greater odds. 
A social worker in Fayetteville, Ark., where Lirgg is a university
professor of sports psychology, asked her if she had considered
international adoption. Within two months, Lirgg was watching a video of a
playful, 2-month-old Russian baby, known only as Tagirov.
Four months and a sheath of paperwork later, Lirgg sped through
the Siberian forest in the back of a sputtering Russian Volga sedan to find
Tagirov, newly named Scott Lirgg. She was in good company. Ann Buckendahl
from Wichita, Kan., had come to pick up her 6-month-old daughter, Clare,
and Jim and Ladonna Crowder of Texas were waiting for their 1-year-old son
Lidell. 
All the adoptions were coordinated by Families Are Special
(http://www.fasi.org), an adoption agency based in Jacksonville, Ark.,
which located Scott, Clare and Lidell in Miass, Russia.
Lirgg, Buckendahl and the Crowders are some of the nearly 12,000
Americans who will flock to the former Soviet Union this year to adopt
babies. Russia accounts for almost a third of those adoptions.
Russian adoptions, while generally less pricey than domestic
adoptions, are still expensive. Americans can pay up to $20,000 to adopt a
Russian child.

QUESTION OF HEALTH
But a number of issues cloud the Russian adoption process. The
primary concern is the health of Russian children.
Doctors estimate that about 20 percent of the children Americans
adopt from Russia and the former Eastern Bloc have health or emotional
problems, usually do to the poor conditions in orphanages and lack of human
contact in early developmental stages. These disorders can cost thousands
of dollars to treat at home.
Families Are Special and other adoption agencies, provide
prospective parents with videos of children in orphanages. Lirgg took her
video of Scott to a pediatrician for advice. While a doctor can look at the
baby's reflexes and physical strength on a video, it is impossible to judge
whether the babies are totally healthy. 
Russia also has its share of unscrupulous orphanages and doctors,
which sometimes charge last-minute "fees" to be paid in cash at the
orphanage. Russian doctors often overstate or understate a child's health
problems, and adoptive parents never really know what they are getting.
Many adoption agencies post photographs of orphans on the
Internet, enabling parents to choose their child immediately. But according
to Families Are Special's Connie Foster, the streamlined process on the
Internet has its problems, too.
"Some agencies are putting children on the Internet that are
already placed [with parents]," Foster said. "If there is a photo of an
especially cute child, regardless of its availability, an agency will use
the photo to draw in business."

DIRTY INTERNET COMMERCE?
The Russian Ministry of Education, which oversees all Russian
adoptions, is expected soon to prohibit adoption agencies from posting
photographs. While currently the ministry lacks access to the Internet to
police adoption sites, registered agencies violating the order would risk
losing their right to operate in Russia. 
Lirgg, Buckendahl and the Crowders picked up their babies in Miass, a
city 900 miles east of Moscow that houses a military weapons-production
facility. The first stop was the Soviet-era local administration office,
where all births, marriages and deaths are registered in the city. 
Jet lag had set in. Lirgg, Buckendahl and the Crowders had arrived
in Moscow early on a Sunday morning, having lost nine hours in the time
change between Russia and their homes in the United States. That same day
they flew due east on an aging Chelyabinsk Airlines jet across two more
time zones to the edge of the Siberian plain. The night was passed in a
drab and dirty machinists' union sanitorium.
Local city officials tried to lift their spirits by breaking out
champagne when the parents took possession of their children's birth
certificates.
"The only thing keeping me going is knowing that I will see Scott
today," Lirgg said.
In the head doctor's humid office at the Miass orphanage, Lirgg
waited nervously. All the parents brought gifts and donations for the
run-down orphanage, which lacked baby clothes. "I hit garage sales for
weeks," said Ladonna Crowder, unpacking a half dozen baby shoes.
Lirgg unpacked two bags of baby clothes and toys for Scott.
Three nurses in starched bonnets paraded in the babies and called
out their Russian names. The confused parents, who hadn't seen pictures of
the babies in months, eagerly reached for their children.
Lirgg gushed, holding Scott high above her head. "Hey, hey, Scott!
You're so cute! You're a doll!" Scott grinned at his new mother.
Within minutes, the babies had been transformed from bundles of
worn, Russian cloth into Fisher-Price poster children. They were
entertained by dizzying array of toys dangled simultaneously by cooing
parents. Their Russian linens, and lives, were quietly pushed aside.
Even the orphanage's head doctor, Elena Kukhareva, got into the
mood: "I want these children to be happy and healthy, and for them to bring
their parents happiness forever." she said.
"Everyone please come here and adopt our children as soon as
possible. They have no parents of their own. Let others be parents to
them," Kukhareva pleaded.
Two days later, Lirgg and the new parents were on their way back
to the United States. This group was lucky; they spent only five days in
Russia. Some parents spend weeks in a labyrinth of bureaucracy in far-flung
Russian regions stuck in a Soviet-era mentality.
Cathy Lirgg was met at the small Fayetteville, Ark., airport by
her parents and colleagues from the University of Arkansas.
The plane ride from Moscow had been rough. Scott didn't sleep
well, and after 18 hours of travel, mother and child were exhausted. Lirgg,
who had kept her composure throughout the week's many emotional moments,
began to cry.
"I didn't think we were going to make it," she said, brushing a
tear from her cheek. "I didn't know what the alternative was, but I didn't
think we would make it. But we did."
Lirgg has big plans for Scott. His Winnie the Pooh nursery is
scattered with baseball hats. Mom wants him to play ball.
Scott will be a challenge for Lirgg. She had only a week off
before summer classes started at the University. Lirgg needs the extra
income to offset the costs of having a child.
Fortunately, she has access to good day care, and her parents will
baby-sit until she recovers from the journey. Scott appears to be a healthy
baby. He is alert and strong.
"You want to be able to make a difference in someone's life,
someone who is impressionable, and whom you can help be a good person,"
Lirgg said.
"It's a great responsibility, and I think most humans want to do
that for someone."

*********

#9
Christian Science Monitor
24 July 1997
[for personal use only]
Yeltsin's Popular Protégé Provides Cover for Reform 
By Neela Banerjee, Special to The Christian Science Monitor 

MOSCOW -- When Russian President Boris Yeltsin appointed a charismatic 
young governor named Boris Nemtsov to a top Cabinet post last March, he 
was touted as the man to kick start a stagnant national reform effort.
As head of the Nizhny Novgorod region 350 miles east of Moscow, the 
youthful Mr. Nemtsov had become internationally renowned as a 
trailblazing economic reformer through his mix of progressive politics 
and savvy public relations.
But Mr. Yeltsin and his aides also know a shrewd PR move or two, and 
Nemtsov's appointment has been among the best yet. His tenure as first 
deputy prime minister indeed has been marked with steps to right the 
economy. Yet insiders say the credit goes not to him, but to the other 
first deputy prime minister, Anatoly Chubais. 
Easily the country's most unpopular politician because he engineered its 
painful transition to a market economy, Mr. Chubais now works in the 
shadow of the country's most popular figure to make further, and even 
more difficult, changes.
"Chubais needed someone to take the role of the leader of the Young 
Turks" of reform, says Vyacheslav Nikonov, head of the think tank 
Politika. "Chubais himself doesn't have the capacity."
After hurtling ahead in 1992 with such radical changes as privatization 
of state-held businesses and liberalization of prices, the Russian 
government has established a measure of economic stability. There is a 
sound currency, relatively low inflation, and hard-currency reserves are 
sizable. 
But over the last three years, the Yeltsin team has done little in the 
way of so-called structural reforms, such as revising the tax code, 
commercial regulation, and customs duties. Many blame a lack of 
political will and an abundance of infighting within the administration. 
As a result, economic growth is eluding Russia, and nightmarish problems 
persist. For example, the punitive tax code has made tax evasion so 
widespread that the government, stuck with an empty budget, is months 
late paying employees.
"By February, the people around Yeltsin realized that the country was in 
a malaise, and something had to be done," says one Western diplomat. 
"The idea was to find a way to put Chubais in the government to energize 
it."
Nemtsov's name initially came up to replace Chubais as head of the 
presidential administration, the diplomat says. But because of Nemtsov's 
popularity, Yeltsin picked him instead as the public face of reform. 
Nemtsov claimed that he was a political "kamikaze" for taking on the 
role. But from his chummy televised appearances with Yeltsin, it's clear 
to many that Nemtsov is being groomed as a possible successor to the 
president. 
At the time of his appointment, Nemtsov's youthful good looks and common 
touch made him the most popular politician in Russia - a ranking he 
still enjoys though his ratings have fallen, according to the Fund for 
Public Opinion, an independent polling organization.
But Nemtsov's wasn't the only new appointment. Yeltsin also dismissed 
many older ministers and promoted to their posts young bureaucrats who 
had worked with Chubais. Now, all the ministers in key economic 
positions and many of their deputies are Chubais allies, a condition 
critical to pushing through reforms. Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, 
considered an opponent to further reform, has seen his power diminished 
in the ensuing shakeout.
For the first time since 1993, it appeared that a group of like-minded 
officials was running the country. The new Cabinet paid 18 trillion 
rubles ($3.2 billion) in late pensions in part by clamping down on 
Gazprom, Russia's gigantic monopoly that owed millions of dollars in 
back payments to the pension fund.
And after three years of dawdling, the government introduced to the 
legislature a new, less onerous tax code that the latter passed in a 
preliminary vote. The Cabinet is also drawing up what economists call 
Russia's first realistic budget.
Despite the role he plays before the public, Nemtsov, a former 
physicist, is still learning about economics and sharpening the skills 
he needs to get things done in Moscow politics, says Tatyana Malyeva, an 
economist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and an 
adviser to the government. Two initiatives he dreamed up - replacing the 
government's foreign-made cars with Russian autos and trying to deter 
corruption by requiring state employees to declare their income - have 
fallen flat. 
Instead, many see the changes as Chubais's handiwork. "Chubais is much 
more in the zone of criticism, but I think he's doing more than 
Nemtsov," Ms. Malyeva says. "But people like to focus on Nemtsov, and 
his popularity acts as a cover for what the others are doing."
Yet for Russia to prosper, Chubais and the rest of the government will 
have to move beyond stop-gap measures to serious, often deeply unpopular 
reforms. A recent announcement that the government will gradually phase 
out its housing-subsidy program over several years met with a great 
popular outcry (and dented Nemtsov's poll standings). 
Most Russians receive all sorts of handouts and tax breaks seldom based 
on need. For example, any family with a child under age 3 gets a monthly 
welfare payment. According to economist Malyeva, no one knows how many 
subsidies actually exist, but it's certain people won't give them up 
without a fight. 

*********

#10
RFE/RL Newsline
24 July 1997

PRESS SKEPTICAL ABOUT INCOME DECLARATIONS. Several
newspapers have also reacted skeptically to income and property
declarations published by some government officials. Security
Council Deputy Secretary Boris Berezovskii declared 1996 income of
roughly 2.5 billion rubles ($438,000), immovable property valued at
128 million rubles, and securities worth 95 million rubles,
"Kommersant-Daily," reported on 24 July. But both "Kommersant-
Daily" and "Komsomolskaya pravda" have noted that Berezovskii's
declaration is vastly at odds with a recently published article in the
U.S. magazine "Forbes," which estimated Berezovskii's net worth at
some $3 billion. On 4 July, "Kommersant-Daily" noted that State
Property Committee Chairman Alfred Kokh declared $100,000 in
1996 income from a Swiss publisher. Kokh listed the income as
royalties for a still unpublished book on privatization. The paper
observed that such a large advance fee would be highly unusual,
given that Kokh's book was unlikely to become a bestseller in Russia
or abroad.

*********