July
29, 1997
This Date's Issues: 1094 •1095
•1096
1098
Johnson's Russia List
#1098
29 July 1997
djohnson@cdi.org
[Note from David Johnson:
1. AP: Yeltsin Reassures Military.
2. RIA Novosti: NEMTSOV SAYS PROBLEMS OF WAGE DEBTS IMPOSSIBLE
TO SOLVE WITHOUT HONEST AUCTIONS AND TENDERS ON STATE
PROPERTY. (DJ: I recently visited the Burson-Marsteller home
page-www.bm.com--where one encounters these words of welcome:
"Perceptions are real. They color what we see...what we believe...
how we behave. They can be managed...to motivate behavior...
to create positive business results." This big American PR
firm has its fingers in many Russian pies and one wonders
whether the young reformers had perception management advice
in this attempt by Nemtsov to link paying wages with the
next round of privatization. Clever? Misleading? What Russians
may need more than anything else is an expose of "The Hidden
Persuaders," foreign and domestic.)
3. Philip Alpatov: Air Force One.
4. US White House press release about the appointment of William
Courtney as NSC Senior Director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasian
Affairs.
5. Washington Post: David Hoffman, Stalin's `Seven Sisters.' `Wedding-Cake'
Style 1950s Towers Define Moscow Skyline.
6. Ogonek: Andrey Tarasov, "National Security As Threat to National
Health or Applied Aspects of the Most Absolute Law."
7. RIA Novosti: FESTIVAL BRINGS PUBLIC BACK TO MOVIES.
8. RIA Novosti: RUSSIAN INTELLECTUALS' CONGRESS FOR INAUGURAL
MEETING, NOVEMBER.
9. Press summaries from Russia Today.
10. Journal of Commerce: John Helmer, Polaroid in Russia ready
or close-up.
11. Paul Goble (RFE/RL): Central Asia: Analysis From Washington--
No Light At The End Of The Pipeline.]
*******
#1
Yeltsin Reassures Military
July 29, 1997
MOSCOW (AP) -- Seeking to reassure Russia's disgruntled military,
President Boris Yeltsin promised today that planned military reform would
improve the soldiers' lot and the army's combat might.
It was Yeltsin's second public statement on the issue in less than a week.
Yeltsin wants to cut Russia's 1.7 million-strong armed forces by 500,000
by 1999. He also wants to end conscription and create an army that would be
better equipped and trained.
Many senior generals, career soldiers and politicians oppose the plans.
A pro-military group in parliament has condemned them as ill-conceived and
dangerous both for the army and the country.
In an appeal to soldiers, issued in his capacity as commander-in-chief,
the president argued that ``without such a reform it would be impossible to
guarantee a reliable defense for Russia in the future.''
``The reform will radically improve the social status and well-being of
a man in uniform,'' Yeltsin said in the statement released by his press
service.
In a radio address Friday, Yeltsin announced that reform of the armed
forces has finally begun despite protests from generals and politicians.
The government long has promised to modernize the military, but changes
have been stalled by internal opposition and the lack of a clear policy.
In May, Yeltsin fired Defense Minister Igor Rodionov over his failure to
carry out radical cuts, replacing him with Gen. Igor Sergeyev.
Last week, the president signed decrees aimed at streamlining the chain
of command and drastically changing the armed forces' structure. He also
ordered personnel cuts within the Defense Ministry and the army's
construction corps.
``We are striving for significant cuts, but not at the expense of combat
units,'' Yeltsin said.
The president said revenue from the sales of excessive or outdated
weaponry and real estate would be used to build as many as 100,000
apartments for homeless families of career servicemen.
The lack of military housing and persistent salary delays are key
concerns for Yeltsin. These woes could become a source of unrest within the
military, long plagued by low morale, corruption and a marked decline in
combat ability.
*******
#2
NEMTSOV SAYS PROBLEMS OF WAGE DEBTS IMPOSSIBLE TO SOLVE
WITHOUT HONEST AUCTIONS AND TENDERS ON STATE PROPERTY
CHEBOKSARY, JULY 29 (RIA NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT ALEXANDER
IVASHCHENKO). It is impossible to solve the problem of clearing
off state debts on wage without honest auctions and tenders on
the sale of state property, Russia`s First Deputy Prime Minister
Boris Nemtsov, on a visit in Cheboksary, voiced this point of
view in a conversation with journalists. He reminded that the
government has pledged to solve this problem before the end of
this year and that Russian President Boris Yeltsin has issued a
corresponding decree.
Nemtsov reported that the money received by the state as a
result of these tenders will be channelled to clear off debts to
budget sphere employees, in particular, to teachers and
doctors.
According to Nemtsov, about 40 percent of the necessary
funds have been already transferred, the rest 3 trillion rubles
will be transferred in the course of August.
********
#3
From: Philip A Alpatov <philip@physics.utexas.edu>
Subject: Re: 1092-Air Force One
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 11:47:13 -0500 (CDT)
> ...... One must conclude that
> American public opinion finds the perception of Russia conveyed in the film
> credible. And, obliviously, the film helps to shape public opinion. I know
> it's just summer entertainment but I think it also provides grounds for
> reflection on the part of those interested in Russia. Such movies do help
> to feed some prominent misperceptions about the real Russia.]
David,
Besides agreeing with your comments on "AF1" regarding the
ignorance of the general public about things russian, I'd like to
point out that the current perception of russia and russians is no less
distorted than it was, say, 10-15 years ago. Consider some of the
examples from "AF1": 1) weak president (since when? Yeltsin is anything but)
2) "Mother Russia", frequently mentioned (where did this gem come from,
Tolstoy?) 3) Militant rebel general ( Lebed? Used and then disposed
off by the allegedly "weak" Yeltsin ) 4) Prisoners singing "International(?)"
( Do they do it in the US jails? No? )
Now the point that you've made above cuts both ways. I think
one can learn a lot about the future US policy toward russia
watching a movie like AF1. Imagine for a moment that (however unlikely
this might be, right?) the movies like AF1 have some influence the
US foreign policy through the misconceptions of the electorate
that they promote. Remember Reagan calling Russia an "Evil Empire"?
And now you've mentioned Bill Clinton watching it twice. Twice? :-)
Sincerely,
Philip Alpatov.
p.s.
As a joke, I've conducted an informal opinion poll this weekend in
downtown Minneapolis. The question was: "Bill Clinton or Harrison
Ford for president?" Guess who got all of the votes?
************
#4
From: The White House <Publications-Admin@pub.pub.whitehouse.gov>
Subject: Sr Director for Russia Ukraine and Eurasian Affairs Named
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_______________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release July 25, 1997
STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY
National Security Advisor Samuel Berger announced today the
appointment of William Harrison Courtney as Special Assistant to
the President and Senior Director for Russia, Ukraine and
Eurasian Affairs, effective August 25. Ambassador Courtney will
succeed Steve Pifer.
William Courtney has been Ambassador to Georgia since 1995. Prior
to that he was Ambassador to Kazakstan, co-chair of the U.S.
delegation on Safety, Security and Dismantlement of Nuclear Weapons,
and head of the U.S. delegation, with rank of Ambassador, to the
implementing commissions established by the Threshold Test Ban and
Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaties. Earlier, he served in the
Nuclear and Space Talks in Geneva and at the American Embassies in
Moscow and Brasilia. He was an international affairs fellow at the
Council of Foreign Relations and since 1972 has been a career Foreign
Service Officer.
A native of West Virginia, Ambassador Courtney is a graduate of West
Virginia University and received a Ph.D. in economics from Brown
University. He and his wife, Paula Feeney, have two young children.
********
#5
Washington Post
29 July 1997
[for personal use only]
Stalin's `Seven Sisters'
`Wedding-Cake' Style 1950s Towers Define Moscow Skyline
By David Hoffman
Washington Post Foreign Service
MOSCOW—To roam in a circle around the base of the skyscraper at No. 1
Kudrinskaya Square is to walk through time.
Veterans of the Soviet aviation establishment still stroll laconically
around the apartment building's renovated, glassed-in terrace, passing
"Club Beverly Hills, a Chuck Norris Enterprise," a posh night spot with a
long white limo usually parked outside. Heroes of the Soviet Union who once
lived here are commemorated on plaques at the entrances, while the new
masters of capitalism park their Mercedes sedans and their bodyguards
outside during lunch at the building's stylish restaurant, Le Gastronome.
No. 1 Kudrinskaya Square, one of seven tiered, neoclassic Stalin-era
towers that define Moscow's skyline, is a testament to Russia's abrupt but
dramatic transformation as it struggles to give birth to a free-market system.
When the massive tower was built in the early 1950s, there were four
elegant food stores, or gastronomes -- for meat, fish, dairy products and
bread -- at each of its corners. Modeled on a turn-of-the century Russian
food shop in Moscow, they were resplendent with red and white inlaid
marble, floor-to-ceiling windows, luminescent chandeliers and mighty
central columns.
The idea then was to create food "palaces" for the people. But by the
time the Soviet Union collapsed at the end of 1991, it would have been hard
to recall the original idea. The four corners had become grimy, dreary,
smelly shops, the magnificent marble hidden under layers of dirt.
Today, one gastronome has sprung back to life as the restaurant, modeled
after the original fish shop. Yakov Zhislin, the architect, told the Moscow
Times newspaper recently that the design looked to the Italian Renaissance,
with wall mosaics based on Florentine models. The stained glass has been
restored and the old enclosed cashier's cubicle turned into a telephone
booth. Under the giant chandeliers, waiters and waitresses now carry
sumptuous meals and desserts such as "Oceans of Chocolate" to Moscow's
political and financial power brokers.
But the next corner of the building is dark and abandoned. A lone sign
promising renovation hangs from a door, its deadline long passed. Inside,
the original food cases stand gathering dust. A third former gastronome is
a skimpy flea market, still unrestored but with the original chandeliers
and marble intact. The last was until recently a branch of Credit Suisse, a
Swiss bank, which closed in a dispute with the landlord.
The luxurious restaurant, often frequented for lunch by bankers and
businessmen, is alien territory to the pensioners who live above it in
cramped, one-room apartments. The building originally housed the cream of
the Soviet aviation industry, including many famous test pilots. Tatyana
Tarasova, 77, who moved into the building in 1955, has not set foot across
the threshold of the new restaurant, nor does she want to.
"It's hard to get used to the changes," she said, interrupting a stroll.
"I've heard in America people go to cafes, and they pay for it. In Russia,
it's customary to visit your neighbors, at home. I make food for 20 people!"
Such contrasts between old and new are a motif for all seven of the
Stalin skyscrapers, sometimes nicknamed the "seven sisters."
They include the imposing Moscow State University tower on the Lenin
Hills; the aging but revived Ukraine Hotel overlooking the Russian
parliament building; and the Foreign Ministry headquarters, near the Old
Arbat, central Moscow's lively pedestrian street. Two of the buildings are
hotels; two house government ministries; two are apartment houses; the
seventh is Russia's most prestigious university. But the blend of old and
new is common to all of them. White satellite dishes turned skyward are
nestled among neoclassical statues and stone emblems of Soviet power.
In its post-Soviet revival, Moscow has become a city of construction
cranes, as new steel-and-glass office buildings pop up with growing
frequency. But none has challenged the distinctive imprint of these seven
buildings on Moscow's contemporary skyline. From miles around, their
spires, their silhouettes and their grandiose dimensions overshadow all.
The towers owe their design to a monumental building that was never
built, the Palace of Soviets. Starting in the early 1930s, planning
competitions were held for the proposed 1,410-foot-high structure, which
was intended to stand on the banks of the Moscow River where Stalin had
destroyed the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in 1931. But despite 25 years
of plans and revisions, the gigantic palace never materialized. On the same
site today, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov is rebuilding the cathedral.
As in many other realms of art and culture, Stalin pressed Soviet
architects into the service of the state, which often meant the service of
his personal tastes. In the early 1930s, independent architects were forced
to close their practices and work for government design bureaus.
Just after the end of World War II, Soviet authorities decided to erect
eight tall skyscrapers here in a design similar to that of the Palace of
the Soviets. Only seven were constructed. According to the book
"Architecture of the Stalin Era," by Alexei Tarkhanov and Sergei
Kavtaradze, the architects settled on a terrace-like or tiered
construction, often referred to as a "wedding-cake" style, to give each
building a sense of "upward surge" toward a central tower.
Originally, most of the buildings did not have spires, but Stalin took a
fancy to one that did, and soon they all had them -- made of metalized
glass and sparkling in the sun. One political reason for adding the spires
was to distinguish the towers from American skyscrapers of the 1930s.
According to Tarkhanov and Kavtaradze, the design of the buildings and the
external decoration recall 17th-century Russian churches, and the ornate
exteriors are drawn from Gothic cathedrals.
Beyond the towers and tiers, the buildings reflect the gradual
transformation of Russia. Take the 1,000-room, 29-story Ukraine Hotel. A
seedy place in the latter Soviet years, it has been renovated, and the
exterior is now being sandblasted clean, revealing a nearly pink stone
under years of grit.
The old Soviet practice of having a dzhurnaya, or floor lady, on every
hotel floor is also disappearing. Now, "we've got one for every other
floor, and even that's too much," said Tatyana Mativsha, the green-smocked
dzhurnaya for the Ukraine Hotel's 27th and 28th. In the old days, all
guests had to ask the floor lady for the key. Now, computer-coded cards are
given out at the front desk.
The Moscow State University building was largely constructed by German
prisoners of war. According to one legend, a desperate prisoner fashioned
wings for himself from two boards and tried to soar off the top of the
structure to freedom. The legend says he did not make it.
For years, the university tower was the tallest building in Moscow. But
it was recently surpassed by one of the the city's shiny new skyscrapers --
this one erected by the Russian natural gas monopoly, Gazprom.
Today, the interior of the university building is badly worn in places,
but lively, with book stalls chock full of how-to guides on economics and
accounting.
Alla Tatakonova, 53, a researcher in the chemistry department, recalled
that when she came to the school as a student in 1960, the students did not
need to work at outside jobs. But in the new Russia, the meager stipends of
$15 a month are hardly enough to get by.
"Now, everyone is compelled to work," she said. "Life is more expensive."
**********
#6
Ogonek No. 30 4-10 Aug (Signed to press 22 Jul 97) pp 38-40
Article by Andrey Tarasov: "National Security As Threat to National
Health or Applied Aspects of the Most Absolute Law"
Applied science, applied arts (simply put, propaganda and
agitation), all which can be called applied in this world was
known to us rather well long ago, but applied health is
something to be discussed. Indeed it was discussed during the
impressive parliamentary hearings under the title "Health of
the Population as a Factor of Russia's National Security."
The Parliamentary Center on Tsvetnoy [Boulevard] attracted a huge
number of participants who answered call of the State Duma Committee
for Health Care. On hand were parliamentarians of many related
committees, people from the Public Health Ministry and the Academy of
Medical Sciences, delegates from nearly 70 regions of the country, of
their administrations, health care institutions, public and
ecological organizations, and political scientists.
The number of
people who want to be hail was almost too big for the big auditorium.
Conspicuously absent were representatives of the upper presidential
and government circles. This is perhaps folks who have no health
problems, or maybe they had more important things to attend to like
persuading officials to give up their Mercedes and Volvo cars for
Volgas. Hearing the reports and out into the sun-drenched Tsvetnoy
Boulevard or crowded Sretenka [Street] it was literally amazing to
see a healthy-looking or smiling face. At the same time you say to
yourself: come on old man, this is the capital, special conditions,
Moscow hospitals rather than Kuzbass, the Urals, the Techa River, or
Chernobyl-polluted areas.
A Country of Widows [subhead]
No matter from which position you approach it, no matter from which
political
wing you view it, this part of the diagnosis meets with complete
unanimity. The population of Russia lives in an aggressive medium
which is devouring its health and longevity as so much the insatiable
Moloch. The protracted economic crisis attended by falling living
standards and chronic stressful condition of husbands, mothers,
breadwinners owing to nonpayment of their livelihood. This stressful
condition is accompanied by a whole crop of mental consequences,
including moral and physical depression, inability to go back to
one's professional level that can help you meet your basic needs....
The poisoned ecological environment, according to WHO -- in Siberia
alone -- is destroying the physiology of naturally strong Russian
people. Cardiovascular, infections, oncologic, venereal diseases,
the growing incidence of tuberculosis and AIDS are invading the
country helped by the hospitals which are low on funds. The
unprecedented mortality rate among men of active age from industrial
accidents, poisoning and injuries is a special scourge. Active
working men of between 25 and 50 years of age die in this country
four times as frequently as they do in Europe, the United States, or
Japan. Contributing to it was also the inept, inglorious and totally
wasteful Chechen adventure by the Russian authorities. Childbirth
fatality rate in Russia is five to ten times higher than in
industrial countries. Nowhere in Europe is there such a glaring
difference between the average lifespan of men and women -- 14 years:
Russia continues to be a "country of widows" it sadly was in the
wake of foreign invasions, although it is now hardly capable of
seriously fighting any more. All things considered, this may be for
the better. Nearly 80 percent of school children are chronically ill.
Physically, owing to worsening diet and the crumbling
health-improvement system. Mentally, owing to tensions within every
family and growing lack of supervision. General heavy drinking among
parents is killing the mental and physical energies of children when
still in the womb, as for caring and bringing them up -- there is
nothing left by deplore it. According to a forecast, chronic
diseases among school-age kids will rise to 95 percent by the year
2000. Whereas one third of the draftees are found unfit for military
service already now when they manage to scrape up 900,000 draftees,
the military can hope to scrape up not more than 450,000 in the year
2000 given this generation of young men. As many people know, it is
better to stay away from hospitals. Last year, hospitals run by the
Ministry of Public Health got half of the funds due to them,
specifically, this covers 28 percent of their utilities, 40 percent
of their food, 52 percent of their medicines, and 3.2 percent of
their medical equipment bills. The death of a woman at childbirth in
a settlement hospital in Maritime Kray because of a power cut,
sweeping hunger strikes among doctors who have forgotten how the
money they earn look like, the ordeal of patients and their relations
trying to procure medicines, dressing, blood or blood substitutes,
being unable to pay for life-saving operations -- all this is
stamping violation of Article 41 of the Constitution which guarantees
to citizens of Russia free treatment.
Healthy Fascism, Or Sick Democracy [subhead]
What is indisputable is indisputable. These and
many other, more detailed, facts heard from every speaker, were not
disputed. But there began interpretations involving the opposing
sides of Russian politics and the trading of accusations. On the one
hand, reformer democrats, are the destroyers of the once mighty
physical and mental health of the nation, who unleashed the bacillus
of uncontrolled market which invaded the public health system and
medicine trade. Furious condemnation of the marketeers for soaring
prices and falling production and the "shock therapy" and the other
"joys" of our living bring together even those who used to be
irreconcilable toward each other. Say, the Communists (who now add
to their party title the prefix "derzhavniki [advocates of a strong
state]" constitute a smooth chorus together with the Orthodox clergy
in their nostalgia for the police state which, as it were, is capable
of solving all the problems at once -- ranging from the economic
chaos to corruption to drug abuse and depravity. On the other hand,
the democratic wing responds. The people's energies are undermined
and the nation is exhausted through decades of economic violence
rather than by four years of changes consisting mainly of freedom of
speech and trade. The Magnitkas and Kuzbasses built by using the
spade and the wheelbarrow, and millions of citizens of all walks of
life put behind the barbed wire fence. Whence do you get that many
people who are not paid into the bargain? Even a child knows that
the "depopulation" was caused long before the tsar's [Yeltsin's] 1992
reforms. The [Communists'] reaction to this is: When we were in
control, children were getting free meals at schools, and all coal
miners to a man spent vacations at seaside health resorts which you
have wasted by privatizing them.... Thus the bickering starts and
goes on interminably. but the key question is what lesson for the
nation's future is to be learned from this bickering. This is where
you can hear sounds that ring suspiciously like something you heard
long ago. Notably, you hear them both from old-regime generals and
some newly drafted administrators. Everybody will recall the recent
best defense minister of all times and nations arguing a pair of
compasses in hand and looking at the map: we need so many strapping
soldier boys per every centimeter of the state border equipped with
tanks, assault rifles and grenades who are, of course prepared to die
in the mountains, desert and tundra with a smile on their face, and
Russian women, no matter what they do, have to keep this conveyer
belt running -- they give birth to babies and we call them up. What
could she have in common [with the above general], but here she is
Tatyana Dmitriyeva, health minister, taking the floor during the
hearings. Her voice rings out like that of a military general
addressing troops on parade ground. Health, she declares, is not
just health, it is an economic factor, a factor of political, a
factor of economic stability. A teenager, she points out, is a
future soldier, a future mother, a future worker. Which is why the
lack of micro elements, protein, iodine -- the demand for which is
just, of iron in expectant mothers, medicines in hospitals takes on
strategic importance. As for health it has the same applied
undertones as strategic raw material, combat equipment, and basic
funds.
Grow up, Boys! Love Girls [subhead]
This conjures up in my
mind a sort of state-run headquarters for procuring health for the
people in required amounts. It goes without saying to be reputed (to
be, is too much to chew considering the shaky teeth) as a great power
feared by its neighbors. "You cannot protect the territory without
population," appeals to the audience L. Rybakov, an educated
demographer, warning that laying claims to the poorly protected
territory are China, Japan, and the Baltic states whereas we will
only have 450,000 boys born in 1994 of draftable age. "The tundra
has become totally deserted, and you have to dig deeper to get at the
natural resources," comes through a voice of what must be a customer
demanding that each Russian family should have three or four babies.
"What about one more to guard each kilometer of the oil pipelines?"
adds the next customer. The field in the heart of the country have
become overrun by weeds and turned into marsh -- let there be six or
seven children to a family. We are not Europe, we have oodles of
empty space, what if foreigners nose this out? As this is not
enough, the educated demographer mourns that the "title nation" is
being eroded by marriages with a flood of Chinese and Koreans,
mixed-race families spring up, and how can you expect tall, blue-eyed
soldiers with light-brown hair. Against this backdrop, the Forth
World Russian People's Sobor, the official final documents of which
were part of the hearing, is angry that young people are being
depraved by "safe sex" propaganda, worse, by sex education at schools
giving insights into sensible birth control. Descending with all its
religious might on contraceptives, the country's principle church, of
course, mourns so thoughtless a loss of potential "warriors" of the
Orthodox faith. This provides yet another reason for bearing even a
greater number of children, and the term "reproductive health of the
woman" contained in a caring document signed by the deputy Ye.
Lakhova, chairman of the commission for the affairs of women, family
and demography. That makes me want to shout: our wives and sisters
aren't heifers that are there to inseminate and put out on the grass!
What is the difference between health of the nation and its
"reproductivity" as such from health "for the sake of"? The
difference, it seems, is that the former if valuable in itself and is
the inalienable human right and the whole point why the state exists.
The latter puts health into service in the same way they use coal,
oil, metal, machines, tanks. Health is needed in order that our
children and grandchildren should once again be fighting along the
Amur with the Chinese who are bringing across the river mountains of
anoraks for sale on our markets, be freezing above the polar circle
mining coal that is not worth the effort, and be copiously
inseminating the enormous and unfriendly space which once was
explored by a handful of our curious light-brown-hair ancestors. So
as they should, as before, be exhausting the physiological resource.
Hearing this you may decide against your better judgment to get
plastered and get run over by a building crane rather than struggle
along the thorny and long path toward the same tired goal. Seriously,
why not hold hearings with this mirror image title "National Security
as Threat to National Health"? With the main thought borrowed from
Solzhenitsyn, the only correct idea in our reality which was only
mentioned in passing in the report of N. Gerasimenko, chairman of the
Duma Committee on Health Care. A thought about "protecting the
people." First and foremost, from global-strategic overexertion to
which the people will be dragged once again, from using health for
mercenary, politically speculative and strategically backbreaking
goals. From this to cloning humans is but one step. Whatever cannot
be solved by brawn given our sparse population should be solved by
brain, diplomacy, cooperation, technology. Without forgoing the most
important thing -- comfort and well-being of the individual. But
protecting the individual is much more trouble that protecting the
enormous territory. Where do we get such a genius?
********
#7
FESTIVAL BRINGS PUBLIC BACK TO MOVIES
MOSCOW, JULY 29 (from RIA Novosti's Natalia Kurova) - The
20th Moscow International Film Festival named its winners in a
gala ceremony today.
The Grand Prix goes to "Marvin's Room" (USA, Jeoffrey Sax,
director), and the special jury prize to "Mother and Son"
(Russia, Alexander Sokurov, director).
Isabel Ordaz was named Best Actress ("Chevrolet", Spain)
and Thiel Schweiger, Best Actor ("Knock at Heaven", Germany).
Janos Szasz won silver as Best Director ("The Witman Boys",
Hungary).
Sophia Loren received a set of awards, including the title
of Best Actress of All Times and Nations, for an outstanding
contribution to world cinematography. Sporting a golden gown,
the star asked the gathering to regard this honour not as
summing up what she had done but as advance payment for what she
was still to do. "Don't think it's vanity speaking in me, I
merely want to do something more in the cinema," she said.
Robert De Niro and director Andrei Konchalovsky received
other special prizes.
The festival demonstrated a total of 350 films, and
gathered 485 guests from 44 countries. "It brought the public
back to cinemas, and this was its most important result," said
Alexander Abdulov, festival director.
*******
#8
RUSSIAN INTELLECTUALS' CONGRESS FOR INAUGURAL MEETING,
NOVEMBER
MOSCOW, JULY 29 (from RIA Novosti's Evgenia Yakuta) - A new
public league, the Russian Federation Intellectuals' Congress,
will convene an inaugural meeting, November, the organising
committee determined at its second session on the Mayor's office
today.
Attended by Academician Alexander N. Yakovlev, former
Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev, recent television boss Oleg
Poptsov, celebrated journalist Alla Gerber, and other top-notch
community activists, the session elected Sergei Filatov
organising committee president.
The Congress is to be a permanent organisation branching
off into all 89 Russian Federation constituent territories,
deemed the conferees. To use the tremendous creative potential
of Russian intellectuals for national improvement, to fight
negative trends, and promote the establishment of a democratic
society and a socially oriented free-market economy will be the
Congress mission.
Its regional branches are emerging apace, reassured Mr.
Filatov.
Revolving round dialogues with authorities and the public,
Congress activities are to promote decision-making of national
importance and determinant of Russia's destiny. The new league
will seek to improve the moral climate in the country, and
assist the community in social and cultural reforms and progress
of the public mentality.
The organising committee hopes for practical support of
writers Victor Astafyev and Grigori Baklanov, cellist and
conductor Mstislev Rostropovich, actor Oleg Basilashvili, and
other household figures.
********
#9
Press summaries from Russia Today
http://www.russiatoday.com
July 28, 1997 newspapers
Segodnya
The President's "Heart Is Aching"
Summary
Analyst Pavel Felgengauer wrote about President Boris Yeltsin's Friday
radio address, in which he said his "heart aches for starving soldiers and
officers, not getting their salaries, for their families, roaming without
housing for years, for the declining prestige of the military profession."
The president reported that he signed a decree allocating 87 percent of
the money gained for selling military property for the urgent needs of the
army.
This decree does not hold anything new, the author argued. Surplus
military property, including aircraft carriers, were previously sold and
the money used for some housing construction. Top army officials cashed in
on the sales.
However, the sales could not solve the army's problems because the gains
never exceeded 1 percent of the army budget. There are tens of thousands of
useless and written-off tanks, planes, helicopters, armored vehicles and
nuclear submarines which Russia cannot sell to anyone because no one would
buy them.
When Yeltsin spoke about 97,000 homeless officers, he probably did not
know that every year 20,000 new officers join the armed forces, making the
demand for housing even greater.
The Defense Ministry admits that more than a hundred military schools
and academies is too much for Russia, but no one there cares for a real
reduction. They only think about the redistribution of budget money.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
Lead story
Russia Could Have Merged with Europe Much Sooner
BUT THE AWKWARD ACTS AND STATEMENTS OF RUSSIAN POLITICIANS IMPEDE THE
PROCESS OF MOSCOW RAPPROACHMENT WITH ITS MOST IMPORTANT PARTNER
Summary
Nezavisimaya wrote about Russia's relations with the European Union (EU).
It accused top politicians of lacking diplomatic skills, which hampered
the processes of Russia's admission into the EU and European investments
into the Russian economy.
Despite many important agreements, including the 1994 Agreement on
Partnership and Cooperation between Russia and the EU, it still does not
recognize Russia as a market economy and applies anti-dumping measures to
about 600 Russian goods.
Recently Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin accused the European Union
of anti-Russian politics and threatened to impose quotas on European
textiles as a retaliatory measure.
Previously First Deputy Premier Boris Nemtsov refused to see Sir Leon
Brittain, who was responsible for European Commission dealings with Russia.
Nemtsov gave the same reason for his rudeness -- anti-dumping limitations
imposed by the European Commission against Russia.
Nezavisimaya wrote that confrontational policies of the Russian
authorities towards its main trading partners only hamper the process of
integration, making no sense.
V E C H E R N I Y P E T E R B U R G
>From Moscow to the Periphery, Part II
Summary (for Friday)
The current conflict between the federal government in Moscow and
regional authorities is a perfectly normal phenomenon, said the daily.
Imperial tendencies are part of the Soviet legacy that the Russian
government has to deal with.
Moscow's policy towards the regions has two main facets: in those areas
where Moscow does not anticipate resistance, it attacks decisively to cut
back on regional privileges and power; however, where it anticipates
resistance, it uses a clever policy of accommodation and agreement to
effectively bribe local elites.
The daily said for example this is currently visible in Chechnya. To
increase its power and effectiveness there and elsewhere, the federal
government is working closely with big business to implement its regional
policy. That is why, said the daily, Boris Berezovsky was brought into
negotiations as Russia's deputy security chief to reach a working
relationship with the Chechens.
Also in attempts to break the power of local elites, Moscow is spreading
its brand of capitalism throughout the socialist hinterland. Many regional
political elites enjoy the old system where they control the money flow.
But the federal center is trying to privatize industry and other parts of
the economy in these regions so that control will pass into the hands of
interests more aligned with Moscow.
********
#10
Journal of Commerce
29 July 1997
[for personal use only]
Polaroid in Russia ready for close-up
Camera firm finds it must reinvent itself
BY JOHN HELMER
JOURNAL OF COMMERCE SPECIAL
MOSCOW -- Few people understand Russian consumer demand quite as well as
Rick Winter. He's been in charge of Polaroid sales in Russia since 1993.
Mr. Winter witnessed the 24-month climb of Polaroid's instant-camera
sales from zero to $200 million in 1995 -- as Russia zoomed to the
largest market for Polaroid in the world after the United States.
But today Mr. Winter has a different problem. Polaroid's success in
penetrating the Russian market was so complete, there are fewer and
fewer Russians who don't already have the camera.
After the flash, Polaroid has to wonder, what's its next shot?
Polaroid's experience shows how a U.S. exporter can hit the jackpot in
the tumultuous Russian market.
But it also points out the importance of remaining flexible, building
distribution systems where you can find them and preparing for a new
strategy after the market becomes saturated.
Polaroid's story in Russia starts a little earlier than the collapse of
the Soviet Union in December 1991, when the Russian market opened up to
most U.S. products.
Even before that, Soviet scientists had invented an instant camera of
their own -- but it was much too bulky to be attractive to amateur
photographers.
1993 turnaround
In Cambridge, Mass., Polaroid executives decided to invest in Soviet
camera technology by manufacturing printed circuit boards at a plant in
Obninsk. These were then exported to Polaroid camera assembly factories
around the world. That venture started in 1987, and it's still going
strong.
The real revolution occurred in 1993 for Polaroid.
"That's when our sales exploded," Mr. Winter remembers, sitting in the
same suburban office that was Polaroid's headquarters then. "There were
lines outside the building from early in the morning of people waiting
to buy cameras. We couldn't get enough to sell."
Managing distribution
The company's immediate problem was to turn this unruly demand into a
manageable distribution network.
"It just happened," Mr. Winter explains. "We started by setting limits
to the lots we would sell individual vendors. Some of them became bigger
and bigger distributors. Several have become millionaires from their
Polaroid sales."
Just as Polaroid had anticipated a rapid takeoff of sales, Mr. Winter
was already warning that a downturn was inevitable. By the end of 1996,
sales were already dropping, and this year they are likely to be $100
million.
According to independent media surveys, Polaroid spent $2.1 million on
television and print advertising in 1996. This compares to Kodak, which
spent about $1.9 million.
The sales surge was accomplished with little promotional spending. Now
advertising is necessary to try to stabilize demand.
According to Mr. Winter, Russians rushed to buy Polaroids -- paying $45
or almost double the price U.S. consumers pay -- because of its novelty
and because cities like Moscow had very few reliable photo laboratories
for processing film.
Market research had shown Polaroid that popular though photography was
among Russians, the camera was a man's hobby. It was complicated, heavy,
and required tinkering to operate, not to mention chemicals, paper and
skill to develop and print pictures in bathroom labs.
Polaroid then accomplished a gender change in Russian photography. The
enthusiasts who laid siege to Polaroid's outlets were women, attracted
by the camera's low weight, ease of operation and instant pictures.
By mid-1996, corporation executives understood that Polaroid had
achieved higher brand awareness in Russia than anywhere else on earth.
Only at home in the United States were there more households that owned
a Polaroid. Russians used more Polaroid film than Americans.
The company executives also read Mr. Winter's reports warning: "the
fashion phenomenon is harsher in Russia than in other markets. Repeat
purchasing is (lower)."
Waste not, want not
But due to years of scarcity during the Soviet period and Russians'
sentimental care toward cameras, Polaroids last longer in the average
pair of Russian hands. Single-use disposable cameras -- now booming on
the U.S. market -- don't appeal to Russians. They don't like to throw
them away.
But Polaroid couldn't expect to remain so dominant forever. Kodak has
moved swiftly to supply low-cost film processing. Kodak's success has
also been rapid, a factor that has etched a limit on Polaroid's instant
camera and film market.
The 35-millimeter camera is making its comeback in Russia. Still,
because of growing female demand, heavy Russian cameras like Zenit seem
too heavy and complex compared to the compact automatics imported from
Asia.
Still, with brand-name and ad-recall strengths like Polaroid's, Mr.
Winter is confident the company can open new Russian market niches.
One of these was the subject of some delicate negotiations at the
Cambridge headquarters early this month.
That's when a delegation of officials from Russia's Ministry of Interior
took a hard look at Polaroid's ability to supply identification cards.
The company is already producing Russian driver's licenses. It has
supplied photo-optical recognition machines for employees at the Central
Bank and the Kremlin.
The passport that every Russian must carry as domestic identification is
actually a booklet, like the standard foreign passport.
But supplies from Soviet stocks are close to exhausted. That's
potentially big new business for Polaroid -- but only if the government
can agree with Russia's Parliament on a laminated photo card to replace
the old document.
*********
#11
Central Asia: Analysis From Washington--No Light At The End Of The Pipeline
By Paul Goble
Washington, 29 July 1997 (RFE/RL) - Washington's decision not to oppose
Western involvement in an Iranian pipeline project fundamentally changes
the geopolitical situation in Eurasia even if it is unlikely to lead to a
new outflow of natural gas anytime soon.
Over the weekend, American officials said that the United States had
concluded that it has no legal basis for objecting to Western participation
in the development of a pipeline system to carry Turkmenistan natural gas
across Iran to Turkey.
These officials argued that the principle beneficiaries of this pipeline
would be Turkmenistan and Turkey rather than Iran. And therefore, a White
House spokeswoman said, this decision in no way represents "a change in
policy or any signal regarding that policy."
But despite such denials, that step is likely to be seen across the
region as a major shift away from an American policy of seeking to isolate
Iran, long identified as a sponsor of international terrorism, by imposing
sanctions on any firm doing business there.
And that perception in itself will have a significant, if sometimes
contradictory impact on Iran, Iran's relations with its neighbors, and on
Russian relations with the Caucasus and Central Asia and with the United
States.
For Iran, this American decision represents both an important concession
from its chief opponent on the international scene and an equally strong
stimulus to continue the more moderate path it has pursued since
presidential elections last spring.
The American decision, while explicitly limited to the current case,
will inevitably create expectations that Washington will become even more
forthcoming and will limit still further the American effort to keep the
Europeans in line on the issue of isolating Iran.
And if such expectations lead Iranian leaders to move toward a more
moderate course, this decision could prefigure a fundamental change in
relations between Iran and the rest of the world on a broad range of issues.
Even more significant than its likely impact on the Iranians themselves
is the effect this decision is certain to have on Iran's relationships with
other countries in the region.
Few countries in the Middle East, Central Asia, or the Caucasus have
been willing to follow Tehran's ideological lead, but all the countries in
these regions have wanted to maintain good relations with Iran both because
of its size and its location.
Many of them have felt constrained in pursuing such ties by the
vehemence of American opposition to the Iranian authorities. And
consequently, the latest American decision is likely to encourage some to
step up their efforts in this direction.
But perhaps the most important consequence of this decision is likely to
be the impact it will have on Moscow's ability to maintain its influence on
the former Soviet republics that are now independent countries in the
Caucasus and Central Asia.
Many experts have pointed out that these eight countries would be far
more independent of Moscow today than they are had they been able to export
across Iran. But the radicalism of the Iranian authorities and American
opposition to it limited their ability to do so.
Thus, American efforts to isolate Tehran, unintentionally had the
effect of blocking efforts by these countries to pursue a more independent
line.
That served Moscow's geopolitical purposes and also helped explain why
the Russians have provided, over repeated American objections, military and
even nuclear technology to the Iranian authorities.
Consequently, this shift in American policy, reflecting a U.S. desire to
gain access to the enormous oil and gas reserves of the Caspian Sea basin,
may appear to some in Moscow to be something very different, a direct
challenge to Russian geopolitical interests.
And past and present Russian aid to Tehran may give Moscow the leverage
in Iran to block the flow of Central Asian or Caucasian oil and gas across
that country to the West. But any Russian efforts in this direction are
likely to exacerbate divisions within the Iranian leadership.
Iranian radicals who will see the construction of such a pipeline and
any further rapprochement with the West as a threat to their vision of the
future may agree with the Russians.
Such conclusions might thus presage a number of shifts in the road and
the pipeline before any gas actually comes across Iran to the West.
*********
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