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Johnson's Russia List
 

 

August 15, 1997  
This Date's Issues: 1127  1128  1129

Johnson's Russia List
#1129
15 August 1997
djohnson@cdi.org

[Note from David Johnson:
1. Dallas Morning News: Study: Internet dependency should be viewed 
seriously.

2. RFE/RL: Russia: President Scolds Outgoing Privatization Chief.
3. Interfax: Yeltsin Calls To End Preferential Treatment Of Leading Banks.
4. RIA Novosti: FORMER VICE PREMIER ALFRED KOKH INTENDS 
TO TAKE UP INVESTING.

5. Interfax: Chubais: Kokh Resignation Not Linked to Recent Events.
6. Interfax: Yeltsin Comments On Appointment Of Interfax Director To Staff. 
(DJ: But note that Yeltsin said Komissar "will not depart from Interfax.")

7. RFE/RL NEWSLINE: NEMTSOV'S POPULARITY DECLINING...and NEMTSOV ON 
PRIVATIZATION SALES...SUGGESTS CHANGES IN STORE FOR ORT. 

8. Eric Johnson (Internews): who owns whom?
9. NTV: Defense Minister Rules Out Professional Army By 2000.
10. RIA Novosti: THE CPRF FACTION WILL INSIST ON HOLDING 
BROAD PARLIAMENTARY HEARINGS ON NATIONAL SECURITY PROBLEMS.

11. Obshchaya Gazeta: RUSSIA'S NATIONAL INTERESTS. Foreign 
Minister Yevgeny Primakov discusses the issue with Obshchaya Gazeta's 
Yegor Yakovlev.

12. Rossiyskaya Gazeta: Irena Nevinnaya, "Family Doctor in the Plans."
13. Pravda 5: Vladimir Kryuchkov: We Sense the Tragedy of the Soviet 
Union Collapse Every Day.

14. Nevskoe Vremya (St. Petersburg): A Government Official Retired 
in a Dignified Manner. (Kokh).

15. Itar-Tass: Biographical Details of Kokh's Successor Maxim Boyko.
16. Asia Times: Pavel Ivanov, Moscow at crucial diplomatic 
crossroads.

17. Sydney Morning Herald: Robyn Dixon, MIR MISSION. "Alive!" 
Pity about the inquiry.

18. Boston Globe: Jay Carr, MOVIE REVIEW. Communist workers unite...
in song and dance. ("East Side Story").]


*******

#1
Excerpt
The Dallas Morning News
15 August 1997
Study: Internet dependency should be viewed seriously 
Some caution against labeling obsessive use of computer 'addiction' 
By Thomas G. Watts / The Dallas Morning News 

...Psychologist Kimberly S. Young says those obsessions can develop into an
Internet addiction for some people that needs to viewed by mental health
officials as seriously as compulsive alcohol and drug abuse. 
Dr. Young, of the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, Pa., will
present the findings of her three-year study of Internet addiction to the
American Psychological Association meeting in Chicago on Friday. 
She identified and interviewed 396 Internet users throughout the world
who she said qualified as "dependent" on the computer service. Among their
attributes: 
* Forty-two percent were homemakers or unemployed college students with
no permanent paying jobs. 
* They used the Internet for an average of 38 hours a week, compared with
eight hours a week for other avid computer users who were not viewed as
addicts.... 
She found her research subjects by putting out a query to Internet users
who fit certain criteria, rather than through scientific sampling. 
Those criteria included preoccupation with the Internet; an increasing
need to use it; an inability to control use; restlessness or irritability
when trying to cut back use; use of the Net as escapism; lying to family
members to conceal the extent of Internet use; jeopardizing relationships,
jobs and other opportunities for the Net; spending an excessive amount of
money for on-line fees, and withdrawal... 

*******

#2
Russia: President Scolds Outgoing Privatization Chief 
Moscow, 15 August 1997 (RFE/RL) - Russian President Boris Yeltsin scolded
his outgoing privatization chief today for favoring well-connected banks in
recent sales of state enterprises. 
Alfred Kokh resigned earlier this week as deputy prime minister and head
of the state property committee to pursue a career in private business.
Yeltsin accepted the resignation and thanked him for his work in office. 
At the same time, Yeltsin has charged Kokh with mishandling recent
sales of state assets. He noted the Norilsk Nickel sale and Svyazinvest as
two recent examples. Oneximbank, one of Russia's largest commercial banks,
won both the Svyazinvest and Norilsk sales, triggering much criticism. 
Yeltsin, in remarks broadcast on national television today, told a
Kremlin meeting that it would appear some banks are closer to Kokh's heart.
Yeltsin replaced Kokh with Maxim Boiko, a young reformer. The president
also said he'd like to see a wider range of participants in future
privatization offers. 

********

#3
Yeltsin Calls To End Preferential Treatment Of Leading Banks
MOSCOW, Aug 15 (Interfax) - No bank should enjoy preferential treatment by
the government, Russian President Boris Yeltsin told journalists Friday
before his meeting with Security Council Secretary *Ivan Rybkin*. 
The entire scandal over auctions for sale of stakes in Svyazinvest and
Norilsk Nickel became possible probably because former State Property
Committee Chairman Alfred Kokh liked some banks more than others, he said.
"This is no way to do things. Everything must be above board and legally
sound," Yeltsin said. 
Maxim Boiko, who replaces Kokh at the State Property Committee, was
transferred to that post from the presidential administration precisely
because he treats all banks equally, Yeltsin said. 
"Boiko is capable of pursuing this line. He does not have a weakness for
any bank," he said. 
"Any banks, not only the largest ones, must be allowed to take part in
auctions. We will pursue this line. Let medium banks develop and take part
in auctions. They can join their efforts, otherwise they are left in the
cold. Our policy does not allow this," Yeltsin said. 

********

#4
FORMER VICE PREMIER ALFRED KOKH INTENDS TO TAKE UP
INVESTING
MOSCOW, August 15. (RIA Novosti correspondent Alexander
Ivashchenko). Former Vice Premier and Chairman of the State
Property Management Committee Alfred Kokh intends upon return
from vacation to take up investing, he told the press today,
Kokh said that he will stay in France till the end of
vacation and on September 1 will take up a new job. He did not
specify the direction of the activity of the company he intends
to set up. However, according to him, this will be an investment
company independent of any financial-industrial structures.
The former vice premier refused to comment on today's
statement by the President about his role in the auction for the
sale of shares in Svyazinvest. 

*******

#5
Chubais: Kokh Resignation Not Linked to Recent Events 
Privatization income not yet exhausted 
Interfax
August 14, 1997
MOSCOW -- The resignation of Alfred Kokh from the posts of deputy prime
minister and chairman of the State Property Committee "is unrelated to the
latest developments in privatization," First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly
Chubais told the press Thursday. 
"Someone would want to interpret these events to their own benefit,
linking them to the latest developments in privatization. But these are
inventions," he said. 
He said Kokh's willingness to resign was known long ago. 
"Ever since the formation of the Cabinet last March, Kokh tried to avoid
the appointment in every way," Chubais said. 
However, it was then "that we reached a gentlemen's agreement that he
would have the moral right to leave when the budget privatization figures
for this year were fulfilled." 
He said that although 1997 has not ended, the returns from privatization
are twice as much as planned. Chubais said this was achieved "thanks to the
work done by Kokh." 
He stressed that the appointment of Maxim Boiko to the post of head of
the State Property Committee "does not signify a rollback in privatization." 
"If anyone thinks so, he is greatly mistaken," Chubais said. 
Chubais also told reporters that the privatization program is far from
over and there is still money to be made. 
The possibility of selling state property "will end at some time," he
said. However, he said that "today we are getting 10 times as much from
privatization as two years ago." 
This, Chubais said, means that "a major rise is under way in the value
of Russian private and state property." 
In this context, he said that the budget being drawn up by the
government for 1998 contains "serious figures for income from privatization." 
Chubais also said that in the second half of the year, commercial
auctions will be held for a number of oil companies. He did not name
specific companies, saying that the issue had not yet been finalized. 

*******

#6
Yeltsin Comments On Appointment Of Interfax Director To Staff
MOSCOW, Aug 15 (Interfax) - President Boris Yeltsin commented for the
press on the appointment of Interfax director Mikhail Komissar to the post
of deputy chief of presidential staff before his Friday meeting with
Security Council secretary Ivan Rybkin. 
He expressed sympathy for the press corps "with losing one of their
members" and said: "I know that both journalists and Komissar himself were
anxious about the possible transfer to the administration, but the head of
Interfax could not refuse the president of the Russian Federation. The work
here (in the administration) is also very responsible." 
He told Interfax correspondent Vyacheslav Terekhov that Komissar "will
not depart from Interfax." 
"We will even make him responsible for handling the agency. Sometimes he
will drop in to see you and consult. However, I must say that at the moment
he is needed here," Yeltsin said. 

*******

#7
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 1, No. 96, Part I, 15 August 1997

NEMTSOV'S POPULARITY DECLINING. In other nationwide polls
conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation, the percentage of
respondents who said they trust First Deputy Prime Minister
Nemtsov dropped from 45 percent in April to 33 percent in July,
Interfax reported on 14 August. The proportion who distrusted
Nemtsov rose from 19 percent to 30 percent during the same period.
The polls indicate that Nemtsov would still win hypothetical
presidential races against Communist Party leader Gennadii
Zyuganov, former Security Council Secretary Aleksandr Lebed, and
Moscow Mayor Yurii Luzhkov. However, in all three cases he would
win by narrower margins than polls had been the case in April.

NEMTSOV ON PRIVATIZATION SALES... First Deputy Prime Minister
Boris Nemtsov has acknowledged that controversy surrounded the
recent Norilsk Nickel sale, but he says the auction was conducted
"more democratically and openly" than a May auction of a stake in
the Sibneft oil company, RFE/RL's Moscow bureau reported on 14
August. A company with ties to Security Council Deputy Secretary
Boris Berezovskii won the Sibneft auction. In an interview with
RFE/RL in Sochi, where he has been vacationing, Nemtsov said the
Norilsk sale caused a scandal because of the way regulations
governing "loans-for-shares" deals had been drafted. Those rules
were established before Nemtsov joined the government. (A new
privatization law that went into effect on 2 August prohibits loans-
for-shares deals.) Asked whether Berezovskii should remain in the
Security Council, Nemtsov said people "who have direct business
dealings" should not take up state posts.

...SUGGESTS CHANGES IN STORE FOR ORT. In the same interview with
RFE/RL, Nemtsov said the state should establish control over both the
finances and the "ideological foundations" of Russian Public
Television (ORT). Although the state owns a 51 percent stake in ORT,
Berezovskii has wielded substantial influence at the network since
ORT began broadcasting on Channel 1 in April 1995. In July, ORT
broadcast sharp criticism of the Svyazinvest auction, and Nemtsov
slammed the losers of that auction for staging "hysterics on
television." Speaking to RFE/RL, Nemtsov again charged that some
businessmen had tried to pressure government officials before the
Svyazinvest sale and had used their influence to provoke the "biggest
scandal of the summer" after losing the auction. Russian media
recently speculated that the state plans to change ORT's management
structure (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 28-31 July and 6 August 1997).

********

#8
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 17:19:36 +0400
From: "Eric S Johnson" <johnson@internews.ras.ru>
Subject: who owns whom?
X-Comment: FSU Media list

friends,

it is a sort of an open secret that the big russian FIGs
(financial-industrial groups) which increasingly control large sectors of
the russian economy have stepped up their attempts to acquire major
positions in russia's media in 1997. some say these moves are in preparation
for the elections (!) which will be held in 2000 and 2001. but their
interest is no less in simply being able to channel, even manipulate the
public discourse and opinion with respect to issues facing russia today, in
order to better consolidate their economic control.

similar trends are going on in ukraine (to a large extent) and kazakstan (to
a lesser extent), the only other NIS countries with a (relatively) large and
diverse media scene.

it's no secret (at least to those who study russia) who owns shares in whom
in some of the media. for instance, among the big FIGs, we know

MOST (Gusinskii) --> NTV, Segodnia
LogoVAZ (Berezovskii) --> ORT, Nezavisimaia gazeta
Oneksimbank (Potanin) --> Izvestiia
Moscow City (Luzhkov) --> Tsentr-TV
Gazprom (Viakhirev) --> ?
LUKOil (Alekperov) --> ?
Menatep --> ?

a few years ago when i looked into it, it seemed Berezovskii had a large
stake in the FAKT publishing group (which puts out Kommersant-Daily). does
anyone know who, today, stands behind Kommersant (which i consider to be,
along with Segodnia, the only real *news*papers in russia these days).

and does anyone know who Gazprom and LUKOil control? i know they're
interested because they've been sniffing around the regional media ...

whose money (since turner pulled out) is in sagalaev's TV-6? is there any
russian money in STS? whose money is in NVS?

i continue to be surprised about the lack of interest on the part of western
media moguls in the russian media. ad dollars spent per capita in russia are
very low but in the next few years are likely to skyrocket. we keep hearing
rumors of investments but very little has actually come out (except
metromedia's interest in radio, which is relatively small on the russian
scale of things).

anybody hazard any guesses about which of the above groups count Chubais or
Nemtsov as their allies, since without some sort of alliances they wouldn't
last long?

best, eric
Eric Johnson
Internews (Moscow)
http://www.internews.ras.ru

*********

#9
Defense Minister Rules Out Professional Army By 2000 

NTV
August 13, 1997
[translation for personal use only]
Video report by correspondents Ilya Zemin and Ilya Izuddinov in
Kamchatka; from the "Segodnya" news program

Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev is continuing to inspect
military units in East Siberia and the Russian Far East. Our
correspondents are following his trip, wherever the minister stops.
[Begin recording] [Correspondent] [Video shows officer reporting to
Sergeyev; submarines at anchor] Igor Sergeyev is completing his first
inspection trip to the Far East as Defense Minister. He has a packed
schedule. The Minister does not stay anywhere for longer than a day. The
stop on Kamchatka turned out to be the busiest. Sergeyev made a tour of
inspection of the strategic nuclear submarine Narval [Narwhal], where he
issued the sudden order for the vessel to put to sea. It emerged later
that the Minister was satisfied with the actions of the crew.
Igor Sergeyev explained to the military the essence and the stages of
the reforms. According to him, it will not prove possible to create a
fully professional army within the country by the year
When Russia becomes a little richer, the Minister declared, we will
see.
The money allowance last issued to the military on Kamchatka was for
June, and in the garrisons transported to the peninsula, whole blocks of
apartments are empty. Owing to the lack of amenities, sailors are trying
to move closer to the center.
At a specially arranged meeting between the Minister and naval
officers, Sergeyev assured them that people will receive the money no later
than 20 August, while reorganization will leave the combat units of the
Pacific Fleet virtually unaffected. We shall change only the operational
control bodies, the Minister said. On Kamchatka, for instance, there are
five of them. Such a cumbersome structure, as Sergeyev sees it, is simply
not needed today. [Video shows Sergeyev moving around a submarine; crew
operating submarine, wearing gas masks in one sequence; various naval
officers and men; submarines lying at anchor] [end recording]

*********

#10
THE CPRF FACTION WILL INSIST ON HOLDING BROAD
PARLIAMENTARY HEARINGS ON NATIONAL SECURITY PROBLEMS
MOSCOW, AUGUST 15 - RIA NOVOSTI CORREPSONDENT ALEXANDRA
UTKINA. With the beginning of the work of the State Duma's
autumn session the CPRF faction will insist on holding "broad
parliamentary hearings on the problem of national security,"
said Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the CPRF and its State Duma
faction, at a press conference in Moscow today. He believes
that all "institutions must take part" in discussing the
problem. 
In this connection Zyuganov said that he intends to submit
to the parliamentary hearings a document drawn up by the faction
and "top-level experts" entitled "Military Reform: Assessment of
Threats to Russia's National Security." He said that the
document will present "a real picture of the situation in Russia
and show the way out of the crisis in the armed forces." He
does not agree with the allocation of 3-3.5% of the gross
domestic product for the needs of the armed forces, as proposed
in the draft budget-98, but proposes "a minimum of 5-7%" He
believes that "otherwise it will be impossible to attain any of
the goals set by the government."
What Zyuganov described as "the military component" cannot
be strengthened without changing the country's socio-economic
course, and its tax, spiritual and moral policy. He did not
conceal that during the autumn offensive the opposition counts
upon support from the military. The CPRF leader spoke
positively of the initiative of General Lev Rokhlin who is
setting up an "all-Russia movement of support for the army,
servicemen, defence industry and military science," and said
that he supports the movement. 
Incidentally, general Rokhlin also attended the
press-conference. Before it began, his address to the citizens
of Russia, in which he calls upon all patriots to "moderate
their political ambitions and stop settling accounts with each
other" was distributed among pressmen. 

********

#11
>From RIA Novosti
Obshchaya Gazeta
August 14, 1997
RUSSIA'S NATIONAL INTERESTS
Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov discusses the issue
with Obshchaya Gazeta's Yegor Yakovlev

Yakovlev: Allegations that Russia's national interests
are being betrayed and sold has become one of the mostly used
argument of the Russian opposition today. The State Duma is
undoubtedly to return to it when it meets after recession in
September. What are Russia's national interests after all?

Primakov: First of all, there are strategic and there are
tactical interests. Strategic interests include, first and
foremost, stability, especially stability at the global level
and in regions adjacent to Russia. They also include
territorial integrity, the continued presence of the great
power in the international arena, which also means the
preservation of its intellectual potential so that it should
not become only a raw materials supplier. I would count among
Russia's strategic interests the integration processes in what
used to be the Soviet Union, because our economic development
will require space: we will need markets in the future.
Neither Europe nor any other region has such a niche as the
former Soviet republics have in this respect.
Tactical interests are best seen on concrete examples.
Take, for instance, former Yugoslavia. Strategically, we have
a stake in stability in the Balkans. But stability can also be
achieved by the strangling of one of the parties that are
drawn into the conflict there, for instance, the Serbs. We
think that such a solution to the conflict is not in our
national interests. Quite the contrary, the situation should
be resolved without damage to any of the conflicting parties.
Yakovlev: Once there was the Soviet Union. Now there is
Russia as its legitimate successor. To what degree has the
national interests concept changed?
Primakov: It has changed in principle. The cornerstone of
the Soviet concept of national interests was the idea of a
world revolution, i. e., the victory of the system, which
existed in the USSR, on the global scale. So, our adversaries
and allies were determined accordingly, and this not always,
by far, accorded with our national interests. In other words,
ideological dogmas were placed higher than the national
interests of our country. We are still paying for this.
Suffice it to analyse the structure of debts to see who and
how much owes Russia.
Yakovlev: So, the differences are of a principled nature.
Is there any coherent concept of Russia's national interests?
Primakov: You may remember that Yury Ryzhov, full member
of the Academy of Sciences, stressed at the time of the first
congresses of people's deputies that the security concept
should not be reduced to military issues alone. Ecological
security, for instance, is no less important than military
security. That attitude drastically changed the very
understanding of the issue of potential threats and the
security of Russia. Credit for this undoubtedly goes to
Ryzhov. But despite my academic likes, I am against the
elaboration of such a concept, because similar conceptualism
draws us into theorization without solving the issue on a
practical plane. The set of the tasks which we are to handle
at present is precisely a concept.
Thus, we have a foreign policy concept, and it is being
implemented. We seek to have partnership relations with all
countries. We have given up the idea of a strategic alliance
with our former adversaries in the Cold War--the idea of which
was promoted by the previous foreign minister. We regard equal
partnership--work on all azimuths, as we call it, the striving
to have positions and maintain good relations with many
countries with a view to a multipolar world--as our main task.
Isn't it a concept?
Yakovlev: I know that you are an advocate of a union with
Byelorussia. But to what degree is a union with a country
headed by Alexander Lukashenko, whose actions and
pronouncements little agree, to put it mildly, with the ideals
of liberal democracy, in our national interests?
Primakov: My position is as follows: regardless of who
is the head of Byelorussia or Russia, or any other state for
that matter, support for the processes of integration,
especially with Byelorussia, is of vital importance for us. It
is the locomotive which can set in motion the stalled process
of integration. It is important for us to preserve this
striving for unity.
I have already said that it is in Russia's strategic
interests--political, economic and, if you wish, moral and
psychological--to create a single economic space and preserve
these markets for Russia.
Yakovlev: If I understood you correctly, Lukashenko's
undemocratic methods worry you like all of us. But the union
is more important for you, isn't it?
Primakov: Yes, of course, You see, when we talk of
Russia's strategic national interests, we should better avoid
emotions. Politics, international politics included, should be
flexible. As a matter of fact, it was such in Tsarist Russia
and produced pretty good results. Russia had one kind of
relationships with Finland, another with Poland, still another
with the Caucasus, and an altogether different relationship
with the Bukhara Emirate.
I have read the following in Savinkov's "Notes by a
Terrorist": We held a meeting in the territory of Finland. How
come that revolutionaries held their meeting in Finland which
was part of the Russian Empire at that time? It turns out that
Finland did not give away revolutionaries, despite the fact
that it was part of the Empire. This is what the flexibility
of Russia's domestic and foreign policies is, all about
policies that are determined by its national interests, both
strategic and tactical.

*******

#12
Commentary on Health Concept 

Rossiyskaya Gazeta
August 8, 1997
Article by Irena Nevinnaya: "Family Doctor in the Plans"

Unless you have a fat wallet in your pocket, it is practically
impossible to get good, qualified health care anymore. As a consequence,
falling seriously ill has become equivalent for many people to possible
loss of the last means of their existence: Drugs and the services
of doctors are expensive, and the mechanism for paying off expenses
from the health insurance fund is barely working.
Something needs to be done to save the situation, and right
away. The Government understands this. The big question is how to
save it. Of course, back wages could be paid to doctors. But financial
infusions will not be enough to rectify the situation. Because our
health care system has become obsolete, and it is extremely ineffective
in the new market conditions.
Here is an elementary example illustrating this: Resources
earmarked for development of science and therapeutic institutions
were spent for many decades mainly in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
As a result, today"s specialized medical centers are concentrated
primarily in the two capitals. If a patient needs a major operation,
or even just an examination, he will try to get an appointment at
the capital, as in the past. Even though it would be cheaper both
for himself and for the state if he could obtain qualified care
in the nearest city.
What changes in the system for rendering health care are being
proposed? It would be sufficient to recall what happens to us when
we go to our section doctor: Almost invariably he immediately refers
us to a narrow specialist. Each specialized doctor deals with "his
own" portion of the patient"s body, as a result of which
doctors treat not the person, which is the way it should be, but
individual symptoms of different ailments. The new concept gives
a special role to development of the institution of general (family)
practice physicians. The doctor sees and treats the entire family&mdash;not
just adults, but also children. Specialists advise him and help
him when necessary.
The concept presupposes major restructuring of inpatient care
as well. The length of hospital stays is to be reduced by subjecting
the patient to thorough examination and diagnosis in the polyclinic,
and to convalescence and rehabilitation at home, under the doctor"s
supervision, and forms of care of greater flexibility are to be
introduced&mdash;day hospitals for example. The goal is to achieve
more effective and economical expenditure of resources without lowering
the quality of patient care.
Our new public health system, which has yet to be created,
is to generally emphasize preventive work. And this is the right
thing to do: It is far less expensive to keep an illness from arising
(including by requiring the patient to take care of his own health)
than to treat it.
Financing is the most difficult issue. It is clear, after
all, that the state will not have any uncommitted resources that
could be invested into medicine, at least in the next few years.
This means we need to spend the meager resources that we do have
better. This is perhaps why the concept proposes "gradual abandonment
of the principle of providing support to health care institutions
independently of the volume of services they render." On one hand,
the concept"s developers propose expanding the possibilities
of private medical practice and the spectrum of paid services. On
the other hand, the rates of these services must be tightly controlled.
The concept proposes two ways of financing health care organizations:
either through medical insurance organizations that perform the
functions of insurers, or directly through subsidiaries of territorial
mandatory health insurance funds.
There is one other innovation: Combining the health insurance
and social insurance funds is proposed. The suitability of such
a move is quite simply explained: Every person who falls ill gets
help from both of these funds&mdash;in the form of treatment
and payment of hospital bills. This means, the concept"s
developers feel, that it would make sense to bring these two areas
together. The faster and better a patient is cured, the less has
to be paid into workmen"s compensation. This is of course
the way things are in theory. But as for accomplishing these things
in practice, that"s something that isn"t clear
yet.

*********

#13
>From Russia Today press summaries
http://www.russiatoday.com
Pravda 5
August 15, 1997
Vladimir Kryuchkov, the KGB Chairman in 1988-1991: We Sense the Tragedy of
the Soviet Union Collapse Every Day 
Summary: 
The daily interviewed the former head of KGB, who participated in the
GKChP anti-Gorbachev coup in 1991. He then spent 17 months in prison and
was amnestied. 
Kryuchkov, who is the member of the Council of Communist Parties, which
declares restoration of the Soviet Union as its objective, was bitter about
many changes that have occurred in the past six years, especially about the
loss of state security. He said that publication of secret KGB materials
caused disclosure of some foreign agents, who worked for the Soviet Union
for ideological reasons. 
Kryuchkov said that the GKChP should have been more decisive in
isolating Gorbachev. The President of the USSR was not popular with people
at all. 
The Former KGB chairman said that neither Belarus, nor Russia would
survive without unification. He praised Belarusian President Aleksander
Lukashenko, saying that in 1991 Lukashenko was the only deputy of the
Belarussian Supreme Council, who voted against Belarussian independence. 

*********

#14
Russia Today press summary
Nevskoe Vremya (St. Petersburg) 
August 15, 1997
A Government Official Retired in a Dignified Manner 
Summary, Lead Story
Winston Churchill once said that Kremlin political intrigues are
comparable to a bulldog fight under a rug. An outsider only hears the
growling, and when he sees the bones fly out from beneath it is obvious who
one. The retirement of Alfred Kokh, the deputy prime minister and head of
the State Property Committee, is just what Churchill had in mind. 
Earlier this week, he decided just not to return from vacation. Now he
will be replaced by the economist and deputy director of the Presidential
Administration, Maxim Boiko. 
Upon leaving his position, Kokh said that he had planned all along to
retire and that he wants to be involved in some private business. But it is
widely believed that the retirement of Kokh was precipitated by the desire
for revenge by Vladimir Gusinsky and Boris Berezovsky who accused Kokh of
favoring Uneximbank in the recent Svyazinvest deal. These two leading
financiers wanted Svyazinvest for themselves, and when they did not get it
someone had to pay the price. President Yeltsin probably thought it best to
sacrifice Kokh to keep these two leading Russian financial figures quiet. 
But, unlike many others, Kokh is going away quietly. He will not try to
up the ante and sling mud at his detractors. He will not write his memoirs
which could be titled, "Financial Trash." Perhaps this is the beginning of
a new trend. Or perhaps not, concluded the daily. 

********

#15
Biographical Details of Kokh's Successor Maxim Boyko 

MOSCOW, Aug 13 (Itar-Tass) -- Maxim V. Boyko was born on August 30,
1959.
In 1982, he graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physical
Engineering where he majored in applied mathematics.
In 1985, he completed a post-graduate course at the Moscow Institute
of Physics and Mathematics.
Boiko has the degree of Candidate of Science (Mathematics).
In 1985-1991, he worked a research fellow at the Institute of the
World Economy and International Relations where he explored such areas as
market and Soviet-type economies.
In 1992-1994, Boyko was chief economic adviser for the chairman of the
State Property Committee and was one of those who developed and implemented
a programme of voucher privatisation.
In 1993-1996, he was general director of the Russian Centre of
Privatisation and concurrently, in 1995, deputy head and executive
secretary of the government's commission for economic reform where he dealt
with issues of financial stabilisation.
In August 1996, he was appointed deputy head of the presidential
Administration.
Boyko is married and has a one-year-old son.

********

#16
Asia Times
16 August 1997
[for personal use only]
Moscow at crucial diplomatic crossroads
By Pavel Ivanov
Pavel Ivanov is a Russian-affairs expert based in New York. 

Following the recently concluded NATO summit in Madrid, which made
official the organization's expansion to Hungary, Poland and the Czech
Republic, some Western and Russian experts bantered optimisically that
expansion would not worsen already divisive relations between Russia and
the West. To support their view, the optimists cited overwhelming
international support for the decisions reached during the summit and
growing recognition of the positive ramifications of the enlargement project. 
It would be naive, however, to take any of this at face value. While
there are indeed officials in Russia who have been swayed by Western
rhetoric on the matter and choose to think pragmatically about expansion,
there are many more who believe that Russia stands to be strategically
weakened by expansion. In Moscow's elite think tanks and political salons
the optimism of the minority is mostly dismissed as wishful thinking. 
The professional and thoughtful diplomacy of Russian Foreign Minister
Yevgeniy Primakov - the only member of the current cabinet who seems to
understand what he is doing - gave Russia the best deal it could have hoped
for under its weakened post-Cold War circumstances. It is Primakov's
expertise and finesse that defused the tensions that had been building
between Russia and the Western powers prior to the Madrid summit. Yet,
however much Primakov helped save Russian face and obtained some
concessions from Washington, none of the underlying problems have been
solved. Indeed, there are not a few realistic strategists in Moscow who
think that major policy clashes will not be avoided in the future. Some
even believe that the Paris compromise - reached before the Madrid summit -
will mark not the end but the beginning of a drawn-out struggle for
influence between Russia and the West. 
The Founding Act signed in Paris by Russia and NATO member nations
formally minimizes the strategic dangers of the alliance's eastward
expansion to Russia. However, there are no legal mechanisms or formulas to
prevent individual interpretations of the act's contents. This has already
become apparent in the differing interpretations that followed the summit:
In the immediate aftermath of Madrid, US officials were ambiguous about the
act's contents, denying that NATO members had made definitive legal or
political pledges to protect new members. In turn, the new member nations
did not declare themselves bound by any NATO military constraints. With the
possible exception of the US military industry, which ostensibly hopes to
profit from new large markets, the value of NATO expansion remains nebulous. 
For Moscow, one major issue is that neither the Paris Founding Act nor
the documents of the Madrid summit promise that NATO will limit membership
to "first-wave" countries. Mentioning a first wave assumes that there will
be the second one, of course, and this is not calculated to reassure
Muscovite policy makers. In particular, the US seems intent on admitted
quite a few new members, notably the Baltic states. 
Also, Russian experts now believe that the mechanism of political
consultations and cooperation, i.e. the Joint Standing Russia-NATO Council,
will not become a mechanism of genuine partnership. 
As a result, Russian diplomacy today faces a new and enormous task: To
redefine a general policy and set strategic objectives for the post-Madrid
era in Europe and the rest of the world. 
At present Russian and Western political observers in Moscow have
identified four more or less feasible scenarios spelling out how Russian
foreign policy could deal with the new situation in Europe. 
The first scenario, the most popular in Moscow, envisions psychological
war against the second wave of NATO expansion. This has already begun,
judging by recent statements. In July, Kremlin officials warned that a
"second wave" could lead Russia to withdraw unilaterally from the Paris Act. 
The second is to "counterbalance" NATO by forging a new alliance with
Asian and Mideast powers - China, India, Iran and, probably, Iraq. Inside
the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs this option is called "turning
Russia toward Asia". The MFA is indeed strongly lobbying the Kremlin for a
change of priorities in Russian foreign policy, to move the central balance
of the policy to the Asia Pacific region. According to MFA analysts, there
should be a "dual approach": Priority should be given to military
cooperation leading to the creation of an alliance of sorts with the
countries mentioned, and enhancement of economic cooperation with Japan,
South Korea and the ASEAN countries. Kremlin strategists believe that such
a shift of political priorities could create a serious force countering
NATO - or, at the very least, that it could exercise psychological pressure
on the West, preventing further NATO enlargement. 
Quite a few leaders and politicians are concerned, however, that the
West would react by upping the pace of NATO expansion, leading to a new
Cold Peace. General Lebed, for example, believes that Moscow should not
resist further NATO enlargement and argues that Russia should concentrate
on tackling its domestic problems. However, this group is also in favor of
establishing a close relationship with Russia's eastern and southern
neighbours in Asia. Lastly, the representatives of the "young" Russian
political science schools and think tanks estimate that the best strategy
would be for Russia actually to join NATO - the sooner the better. This
idea is becoming rather popular within the "democratic" band of the Russian
political spectrum. 
However, these Russian "Atlantists" apparently do not take into
consideration a very simple and obvious fact: Russia's admission to NATO as
a full-fledged member is an unlikely and in any event remote prospect. The
US has never indicated readiness to include Russia as a bona fide member of
NATO. Moreover, a Russian demand of this kind could be used as a a powerful
lever on Moscow: the West could demand major concessions, such as the
unconditional transfer of the Kuril Islands to Japan. 
Moreover, a Russian move toward NATO would negate its "China card".
Beijing would hardly welcome the emergence of a powerful military block,
with Russia as its active member, on its borders. A new ice age would
likely emerge between Russia and its newfound "allies". What, then, is
Russia to do? Only a small group of Russian political experts and
politicians think that Moscow should use the Paris agreements to the
fullest extend to order to develop genuine cooperation and - what is most
important - true mutual understanding and trust with NATO, for the sake of
protecting Russia's national interests and building up possibilities for
influencing European and global political processes. This could help
transform NATO into an organization of Euro-Atlantic cooperation. 
The roadmap being unclear, the only certainty is that the West should
not take for granted that all problems have been completely resolved in
Paris and Madrid and that Russia will accept the prospect of being
integrated only partially into Europe. The more farsighted politicians and
strategists in Moscow know that Russia's national interest in the near
future is to integrate the world economic system, as an equal partner of a
common Euro-Atlantic security space. -This option may well be the only
possible way of upholding Russian interests in Europe and the rest of the
world. 

*********

#17
Sydney Morning Herald
16 August 1997
[for personal use only]
MIR MISSION 
"Alive!" Pity about the inquiry 
By ROBYN DIXON, Herald Correspondent in Moscow

The Russian cosmonaut who commanded the Mir station through its most
difficult of orbits, Vasily Tsibliyev, was relieved to be home yesterday
after 186 days in space during which his crew battled fire, faced the
threat of losing pressure after a disastrous collision, and struggled
through a catalogue of technical failures.
"Alive!" Tsibliyev called as he was carried from the Soyuz landing
capsule with fellow cosmonaut Alexander Lazutkin, back on firm ground in
the steppes of Kazakhstan after six months of weightlessness.
But Tsibliyev will now face a commission of inquiry to decide whether it
was his error which caused the near-fatal space collision in June, when a
Progress cargo ship slammed into Mir's Spektr module during manual docking.
The Russian President, Mr Boris Yeltsin, has publicly blamed the
cosmonauts for the space problems, saying the Mir station did not break
itself, and human error was involved.
But after he heard the cosmonauts had landed, Mr Yeltsin sent them a
message of congratulations, praising their "courage, determination and
heroism".
The presidential adviser on aeronautics, Mr Yevgeny Shaposhnikov, said
there would be no witch-hunt. "We have jettisoned the ideology of looking
for a scapegoat," he said of the cosmonauts, who were paid the equivalent
of $A130 a day.
There was applause in the crowded mission control centre outside Moscow
as the Soyuz capsule landed, touching down 170 kilometres south-east of
Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan.

********

#18
Boston Globe
15 August 1997
[for personal use only]
MOVIE REVIEW
Communist workers unite . . . in song and dance 
By Jay Carr, Globe Staff 

When you're a Red, you're a Red all the way. From your first cigarette
to your last dying day. That, in effect, is the message in ''East Side
Story,'' Dana Ranga's howl of a documentary about communist musicals. Most
of us in the West have long spoken derisively about Soviet tractor musicals
glorifying workers and quotas, but few of us have actually seen them.
''East Side Story'' finally gives us the chance to fill this gap, and you'd
be making a big mistake to let it pass you by. Intensely fervent (you'd be
intensely fervent if you knew Stalin was looking over your shoulder) and
often technically accomplished, the musicals are for the most part so
grotesquely humorless that they're giddily entertaining. 
Given the impossible task of attacking Hollywood decadence while trying
to rejigger its pizazz, the Iron Curtain musicals repeatedly suggest an
uneasy romance between ''Gigi'' and ''Mein Kampf.'' They're awful, yet
oddly disarming, starting with Grigori Alexandrov's surprisingly zany ''The
Jolly Fellows'' in 1934. Just when it looked as if the Sergei Eisenstein
protege was going to land in trouble for that most unforgivable of crimes
against the state - frivolity - Stalin stepped in, said he liked it fine,
and Alexandrov was thereafter left alone and got a medal besides. He
responded by helping Stalin relax after hard purge-filled workdays by
making ''Volga Volga'' (1938), in which Alexandrov's wife, Lyuba Orlova,
trilled her way to Soviet superstardom, singing ''Our happiness is
blossoming like wheat!''
Another husband-wife team, Ian Pyriev and Marina Ladynina, collaborated
on their own string of musicals, including the immortal ''Tractor Drivers''
(1939) and other films celebrating such earthly paradises as the factory
and the kolkhoz (collective farm). Primitive as many of them are, their
exuberance is genuine enough. The same cannot be said for the mostly
nervous and tired postwar musicals, especially those from such former
Soviet satellites as Romania, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany. A number
set in a Czech spa rises to this upbeat finale: ''No woman working on a
construction site is thinking about her skin.'' In short, most are lumbered
with lyrics that only a commissar could love - probably because he or she
wrote them. One East German musical, ''Midnight Revue'' (1962), contains a
number bewailing the difficulty of writing a socialist musical. 
Given the constant presence of vigilant censors determined to control
every frame and not let any fun creep in, it's a wonder these propaganda
extravaganzas are as lively as they are. The best latter-day examples labor
mightily to ape American teenager musicals, East Germany in particular
bravely trying to seem at home with beach blanket bingo and disco in ''Hot
Summer'' (1968) and ''No Cheating, Darling'' (1973). Ranga includes footage
of the Doris Day of East Germany, Karin Schroeder, star of the rebellious
(by East German standards) ''My Wife Wants to Sing'' (1958) and ''The
Lovable White Mouse'' (1964). Whether reaping, digging, feeding swine,
blissing out at meeting quotas, or listening to large pieces of factory
machinery hum, these dancing workers have to be seen to be disbelieved.
''East Side Story'' is a fun-house mirror version of pop culture raised to
campy delirium, an ideal cure for workplace alienation. 

*********

 

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