October 17, 1997 
This Date's Issues: 1290 •1291 1292


Johnson's Russia List
#1292
17 October 1997
davidjohnson@erols.com

[Note from David Johnson:
EARLY WARNING: Next week we will inaugurate JRL Lite, a
weekly highlights version to meet the needs of those
many citizens who have other things to do. Let me know
your preference. Tell your friends and neighbors.
1. Moscow Times: Jonas Bernstein on the latest.
2. Fred Weir in Moscow on the even more latest.
3. RIA Novosti: FOR RUSSIANS' SAKE PRESIDENT BORIS YELTSIN 
AGAIN CALLS ON LEGISLATORS TO COOPERATE WITH EXECUTIVE 
BRANCH. (DJ: Friday's radio address).
4. Reuters: Duma Speaker Sees Calm after Political Row.
5. John Jaworsky: Re "The Loneliness of the Outdated Soviet Dissidents." 
6. AP: American Says Life on Mir Is Good.
7. Julia Guechakov (RFE/RL): Official Says Russia Still Buffer Zone
For Illegal Immigration.
8. Itar-Tass: If Duma Dissolved, New Polls Can be Postponed by 
One Year.
9. NTV: Stalin's Bunker, Moscow Tunnel Network Shown.
10. Vladivostok News editorial: Thinking small helps in troubled 
times.
11. AP: TB hits 2.2 million Russians.
12. Toronto Sun: Matthew Fisher, The Russia Jean won't see.
(Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien).
13. WP: DH, Russian Banker Reaches Pinnacle of Capitalism.
[Excerpt].
14. Washington Times: Bill Gertz, Russia to slash ground forces, 
rely on nukes.
15. World Policy Journal: Fred Coleman, "The Kaliningrad Scenario: 
Expanding NATO to the Baltics". (Summary)]

********

#1
From: "jonas bernstein" <bernsteinj@hotmail.com>
Subject: "Party Lines" column
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 01:37:18 PDT

The Moscow Times
October 17, 1997
"Party Lines" column
By Jonas Bernstein

Rarely has Russian politics been so entertaining as the parliament's 
debate over the 1998 budget and its threatened vote of no confidence in 
the government. Yet while everyone has been treated to good cabaret, 
some of the country's worst problems remain unresolved.
Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin elicited laughter last week when he 
warned opposition deputies, who were preparing their no-confidence 
drive, that "if anyone's hands are itching, let him scratch elsewhere." 
From the same rostrum, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the ultranationalist who 
once made the world tremble, discussed a variety of interesting 
subjects, including prostitution and hermaphrodism.
This week, however, Zhirinovsky was confronted with the possibility that 
a majority of deputies might actually vote no confidence, which could 
mean new elections and an end to his faction's taxpayer-funded toga 
party. So he groped his way onto unfamiliar territory -- the moral high 
ground -- warning that such a vote would lead to "chaos" and a Yeltsin 
"dictatorship." Shifting back to more familiar oratory, Zhirinovsky 
compared the Chernomyrdin government to an ugly old wife, who should not 
be abandoned until someone better comes along.
Zhirinovsky also warned Communist deputies not to put their goodies -- 
official cars, Moscow apartments, etc. -- at risk.
The Kremlin's court jester was just doing his job. As an anonymous top 
official told Kommersant Weekly, the government's relationship with 
Zhirinovsky's party has always boiled down to: "O.K, we'll give you one 
more mansion."
Some Communist legislators needed no reminding about the threat to their 
beloved perks. In an interview with NTV television, independent deputy 
Nikolai Gonchar described their horrified reaction when they thought 
Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky was about to support their 
no-confidence resolution. In the end, Yavlinsky came up with his own 
resolution, effectively scuttling a no-confidence majority.
Independent deputy Konstantin Borovoi charged this week that the State 
Duma has become a "closed joint-stock company" whose members sell their 
influence to large corporations and foreign states, for millions of 
dollars. While he did not name names, and while some of his colleagues 
questioned his motives, Borovoi's observation jibes with others. 
Gonchar, for example, said the problem of criminal penetration had 
become so acute that 40 deputies have signed on to a measure that would 
end deputies' immunity from prosecution.
Yet this kind of Duma suits the Kremlin -- a legislature for sale is a 
manageable one. (Kommersant Weekly reported that the only groups with 
which the government no longer tries to "bargain" are Yabloko and a part 
of the ultraoppositionist "Popular Rule" group.) It may not be 
Jeffersonian democracy, but at least there's no need to call out the 
tanks.
President Boris Yeltsin deserves an honorable mention for his 
performance this week. In contrast to his ominous threats earlier this 
month, the president, "in the name of calm in Russia," meekly appealed 
to the deputies to remove the no-confidence vote from Wednesday's 
agenda. Insisting that he wanted neither confrontation nor early 
elections, Yeltsin asked not to be put in a "complicated situation," 
adding that the government will "learn lessons" from the Duma's 
criticisms.
The government, for good measure, threw the opposition a bone, agreeing 
to Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov's demand for a "roundtable" 
including the president, the prime minister and parliamentary leaders.
It was a clever move. Zyuganov won meaningless talks, and must now 
explain to the true believers within his ranks why he agreed to save the 
"anti-popular" president from a "complicated situation."
As this elaborate spectacle was reaching its climax, the International 
Monetary Fund was calling Russia's economic situation "extremely 
difficult" -- a rather different description from the rosy scenario 
Chernomyrdin has been painting. It was also reported last week that the 
government had met only 52 percent of its tax-collection targets for the 
first three quarters of the year.
Meanwhile, Profil magazine reported that the government, contrary to its 
claims, has not paid off its arrears to the armed forces. Not 
surprisingly, the Defense Ministry, according to Kommersant Daily, has 
once again gone hat-in-hand to several of Russia's major commercial 
banks.
Rather than spending so much time and effort parrying Duma no-confidence 
threats, wouldn't the government find it easier just to fulfill its 
basic functions?

********

#2
From: fweir.ncade@rex.iasnet.ru
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 15:55:44 (MSK)
For the Hindustan Times
From: Fred Weir in Moscow

MOSCOW (HT) -- A week of constitutional battles between
president and parliament, which ended in a climbdown by
opposition lawmakers, proves that Russia has finally attained
political stability and a viable democratic process, President
Boris Yeltsin said Friday.
But a new opinion poll suggested the majority of Russians
are more dissatisfied than ever, and analysts warned that Moscow
politics appear increasingly divorced from the country's
realities.
"Over the years our people became accustomed to the fact
that those in power acted arbitrarily, that the constitution was
a mere ornament," Mr. Yeltsin said in his weekly nationwide radio
talk. "Those times are past. This I emphasize: They are gone
forever."
Mr. Yeltsin added: "Our life has changed gradually but
radically. Although political passions are flying high in our 
country, they are flying high within a strict framework of law,
and they will not overflow this framework."
Russia has endured a stormy passage since the Soviet Union
collapsed 6 years ago. In 1993 a power struggle between Mr.
Yeltsin and the oppositionist parliament ended in gunfire. The
president subsequently wrote up a new constitution, making the
Kremlin supreme, and according mainly symbolic powers to the new
legislature.
Nevertheless, over two elections since 1993 Russian voters
have stubbornly returned opposition majorities to the new
parliament.
Last week months of simmering controversy over an austere
draft 1998 state budget blew up when lawmakers scheduled a no-
confidence vote in the government and Mr. Yeltsin replied with
threats to dissolve parliament.
Many observers likened the situation to the bloody clash in
1993, but this time things turned out very differently.
The confrontation fizzled out when deputies began quarelling
over the wording of the no-confidence resolution, and ultimately
placed three separate -- and mutually exclusive -- motions on the
floor. 
Faced with defeat, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, who
commands parliament's largest party, accepted a last minute offer
of compromise from Mr. Yeltsin and agreed to postpone the no-
confidence vote until next Wednesday.
Mr. Yeltsin argued in his radio address that this signifies
a new democratic dawn in Russia, a constitutional system that
works to contain discontent within the limits of parliamentary
process.
"I know that there are people still dissatisfied with the
authorities," he said. "But everything is staying within the
bounds of a civilized political struggle. There has been no
disaster. Normal everyday life continues."
However, some analysts are warning that parliamentary
politics are a teapot tempest that have little relation to the
deeper currents of social unrest.
"Millions of Russians are unemployed, desperate, even on the
verge of hunger around this country," says Nikolai Zyubov, an
independent analyst. 
"Meanwhile parliament and president are playing an elaborate
game: one pretends to protest, the other pretends to listen," he
says.
"But real social catastrophe could be looming in some
Russian provinces, and that would quickly put an end to such
games."
A survey by the independent Public Opinion Foundation, which
interviewed 1,500 people across Russia in late September, adds
substance to that warning.
Only 6 per cent of respondents in the poll said they
believed the country was on the right path, and just 20 per cent
said they felt "cautious optimism" for the future.
Fifty-four per cent said they thought Russia had chosen "the
wrong path".
But the same survey also illustrated the inherent
conservatism of Russians, and their preference for social
stability above all, which Mr. Yeltsin must clearly hope will
last: 57 per cent of respondents favoured continuing along the
present path -- even though they believe it is wrong -- without
making any radical adjustments. 
Only about a third favoured a complete reversal of the
country's political and economic course. 

******

#3
FOR RUSSIANS' SAKE PRESIDENT BORIS YELTSIN AGAIN CALLS 
ON LEGISLATORS TO COOPERATE WITH EXECUTIVE BRANCH
By RIA Novosti correspondent
MOSCOW, OCTOBER 17, RIA NOVOSTI - A stable system of
political power in the country is evidence of deep-going changes
in Russia's life. 
President Boris Yeltsin, in today's traditional radio
address to the Russians, said that he "has the situation well in
hand", and is backed by "clear constitutional procedures".
And although "political passions run high" in this country,
all this, he said, is proceeding "within the tight bounds of the
law". 
So, stressed the President, "there will be no surprise
developments". 
Even so, concerned "above all for Russia and the welfare of
Russians," the head of state said he considers "useful" dialogue
between the executive and legislative branches of government,
and "constructive cooperation" between the President, the Prime
Minister and speakers of both chambers of the Federal Assembly.
After stressing that he was "for the umpteenth time
extending a hand" and "taking a step to meet Russian lawmakers
half way", Yeltsin urged State Duma deputies "to show common
sense", reminding them that "the country cannot be left without
a government" and afford "new elections" to the lower house of
Russia's parliament, since "that would be too heavy a blow to
our economy".
State Duma first vice-speaker Vladimir Ryzhkov believes
that today's radio address of the President is convincing proof
of Yeltsin's desire to call deputies' attention to the fact that
no-confidence vote in the government would spell "renunciation
of cooperation with the executive branch".
If this does take place, he stressed in an interview with a
RIA Novosti correspondent, the country "would effectively stall
in its development".
But the masterminds of a no-confidence vote are avoiding
direct answers to the head of state's plea to give up political
confrontation and for the sake of the country's prosperity to 
embark upon the path of constructive collaboration with the
executive branch. 
Russian Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov not just limited
himself to a vague comment that a KPRF closed plenary "will
arrive at a correct decision tomorrow", but even tried to put
the blame on Boris Yeltsin by claiming that "everything will
depend" on "the President's reaction" to a message from the
Duma's left opposition. 
He was echoed by his associate in the People's Patriotic
Union of Russia, chairman of the Popular Rule deputy group
Nikolai Ryzhkov, who noted in an interview with RIA Novosti
today that a lower house resolution on a no-confidence vote in
the government will, in his view, "depend on President Boris
Yeltsin". 
He expressed hope that the head of state will "cave in
before the opposition", making a thinly veiled hint that there
"will be no tough confrontation" during the vote in that case.
But Alexander Kotenkov, the Russian President's envoy in
the State Duma, told a RIA Novosti correspondent today that
"most of the demands" advanced by the KPRF, Popular Rule and the
Agrarians, were "unacceptable". 
Meanwhile, Our Home is Russia Duma faction leader Alexander
Shokhin is as good as convinced that the State Duma "would most
likely fail to vote" no-confidence in the government. 
Still, speaking live on Ekho Moskvy radio today, he warned
that "any turns" may take place in the country's political
life.
The truth of his words is confirmed by an open attempt by
Viktor Anpilov, leader of the left-radical movement Working
Russia, to give a scare to deputies of the Russian lower house
of parliament. 
In an interview with a RIA Novosti correspondent he
announced today his intention to launch a "popular campaign" for
recalling those Duma deputies who will not support the
no-confidence vote. 
Yegor Gaidar, leader of Democratic Choice of Russia,
explains the developments by the fact that "the Communists have
started a political quarrel for things to worsen in the country
and their rating to rise accordingly". 
Speaking live on Radio Mayak, he emphasised that "the
government is aware of that, is not interested in political
destabilisation, and is prepared for dialogue with the State
Duma". 

*****

#4
Excerpt
Duma Speaker Sees Calm after Political Row 
Reuters
16 October 1997
MOSCOW -- The Communist speaker of parliament Gennady Seleznyov played down
a row between the Russian government and the lower house, indicating
strongly that compromise was in the offing. 
The State Duma, or lower house, debated a Communist motion of
no-confidence in the reformist government on Wednesday but, after an appeal
from President Boris Yeltsin, postponed voting until next Wednesday. 
But Thursday saw both sides offer compromise and express hope that talks
between Yeltsin, Chernomyrdin and the speakers of the two houses of
parliament, followed by broader "round table" discussions, would defuse the
row. 
Seleznyov, a Communist, told Itar-Tass news agency overnight in the
southern city of Krasnodar: "There is no opposition between Duma and
government and no one wants active confrontation. It's constitutionally
normal that deputies have the right to call the government to account for
its work." 
He said parliament wanted to hear Yeltsin's views on policy during
discussions next week, especially on plans for free trade in land.
Seleznyov noted parliament had "set conditions" for getting its own access
to television and its own newspaper. 
"If the president confirms these things then, probably, maybe there
could be some change in the position of the 145 deputies (who put up the
no-confidence motion)," he concluded. 
The Communists presented a list of demands that made a face-saving deal
more likely than a new attempt to oust the government. 
There was no mention of an earlier suggestion they would demand the head
of reform chief Anatoly Chubais as their price for withdrawing the
confidence vote postponed to next Wednesday.... 

******

#5
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 22:02:33 -0400 (EDT)
From: John (Ivan) Jaworsky <jjaworsk@watarts.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Re: JRL #1285 "The Loneliness of the Outdated Soviet Dissidents" 

The Washington Post article carried in JRL #1285 entitled "The
Loneliness of the Outdated Soviet Dissidents" correctly reflects the
general irrelevance of former dissidents in Russia. However, the
article's title is misleading in implying that the situation of these
_Russian_ dissidents today is characteristic of the experience of former
_Soviet_ dissidents. In fact, as I noted in an earlier post, dissent
activity was more widespread in areas such as the Baltic states and
Ukraine (especially Western Ukraine) than in Russia, and this was
reflected in the disproportionately large number of Baltic and Ukrainian
political prisoners in Soviet penal institutions in the 1960s and 1970s. 
Thus it is not surprising that, in the case of Ukraine, former
dissidents have been much less "irrelevant" than their former colleagues
in Russia. A few quick examples: two of the top three candidates in the
December 1991 presidential election in Ukraine(Chornovil and Lukianenko)
were former dissidents; Chornovil currently heads the political party
called "Rukh", which is still a significant (albeit diminishing) force on
the Ukrainian political stage; and a number of former dissidents have been
active on the local political scene in Ukraine. It is also worth noting
that the most prominent Crimean Tatar dissident, Mustafa Dzhemilev,
imprisoned on several occasions in the 1960s and 1970s, is still the most
respected figure in the Crimean Tatar community and wields a great deal of
political power as head of the Crimean Tatar Medzhlis. 
This is not to say that one should idealize the former dissidents
who have played or tried to play a political role in post-Soviet Ukraine.
Some of them have proven to be poor politicians, or have not realized that
it is time for them to leave the political stage, and their role in
Ukraine's politics is diminishing. However, as a general rule one should
be careful not to conflate the experience of Russian dissidents with those
of the Soviet dissident population as a whole. 

*********

#6
American Says Life on Mir Is Good 
By Marcia Dunn 
AP Aerospace Writer 
October 16, 1997

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- After nearly three weeks aboard Mir, 
American astronaut David Wolf says space station life is better than he 
expected. 
``Life on board the Mir has been really quite good,'' Wolf said today. 
``Anybody who wants to work hard can find a lot to do up here. You don't 
need to be a rocket scientist to stay very busy here.'' 
The 41-year-old doctor and engineer has been living on Russia's aging 
and battered space station since shuttle Atlantis dropped him off along 
with a new computer late last month. Some members of Congress and others 
had argued against leaving him there for four months, saying it was too 
dangerous. 
In his first interview since Atlantis undocked from Mir on Oct. 3, Wolf 
thanked his NASA bosses for their decision and noted that his biggest 
surprise is ``how good the atmosphere is.'' 
``The air is very fresh and clean. The temperature is good,'' he told 
CNN. ``We're able to stay clean, although hygiene is something you have 
to continuously work at up here. The laboratory's come together well. 
It's been very smooth, I think smoother than any of us really 
expected.'' 
He said he has no regrets. 
``This has surpassed my wildest expectations and we expect a lot when we 
go into space,'' he said. 
Wolf is the sixth of seven Americans scheduled to live on Mir. Space 
shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to pick him up and drop off his 
replacement, Andrew Thomas, in January. 
His two Russian crewmates plan to conduct another internal spacewalk in 
the ruptured lab module next week to restore more electricity to the 
space station. It's been running on partial power since it collided with 
a cargo ship in June. 
Wolf said he'll wait out the spacewalk in the Soyuz escape capsule, in 
case something goes wrong. 
He hopes to perform his own spacewalk outside the station next month to 
retrieve U.S. science equipment. 

********

#7
Russia: Official Says Russia Still Buffer Zone For Illegal Immigration
By Julia Guechakov

Prague, Oct. 16, 1997 (RFE/RL) - A Russian government official said today
Russia was still the biggest buffer zone for illegal immigration to Central
and Western Europe.
In an interview with RFE/RL, Tatyana Regent, the head of the Russian
Federal Migration Service, said illegal immigrants in Russia at present were
thought to number some 700,000 people. Regent said most of the illegal
immigrants were coming to Russia via former Soviet republics, mainly in
Central Asia, because of the visa-free travel regime within the Commonwealth
of Independent States (CIS).
Regent is in Prague for an international conference on illegal immigration,
which ended yesterday. She said relations with former Soviet states, as well
as with countries illegal immigrants originally came from, had to be
considered when it came to re-admission of illegal immigrants.
Regent said re-admission of immigrants is one of the biggest problems
Russia
now faces in its illegal immigration strategy. Regent said the main
destinations for illegal immigrants in Russia currently were Ukraine,
Belarus and Lithuania, with people-smugglers charging from 10 (for Belarus)
to 1,000 dollars.
Regent said she hoped an agreement on joint efforts in combatting organized
crime will be reached at a forthcoming meeting of CIS leaders in Chisinau
later this month, which would help in fighting people-smuggling.
She said current efforts of the Federal Migration Service are focused
mainly
on resettling displaced persons, mostly Russian-speakers, from former Soviet
republics. 

******

#8
If Duma Dissolved, New Polls Can be Postponed by One Year 

Moscow, October 15 (Itar-Tass) -- Chairman of the State Duma Committee
for Labour and Social Policy Sergey Kalashnikov said that if the Duma is
disbanded, new elections may be postponed by one year, which will mean a
political death for the present-day opposition.
Speaking at a press conference at the Itar-Tass news agency on
Wednesday, he said that "the present situation with the election law
presupposes that if the Duma is dissolved, elections of a new Duma can be
postponed at least by one year on legal grounds."
If the lower house is disbanded, the present "inconsistencies" in
legislation, according to the committee chairman, enable the president to
hold new elections "by a decree". In this case, "one year (before new
polls) will pass for sure", Kalashnikov added.
"I'm quite confident that if the Duma is dissolved and new elections
are put off by one year, our political skyline will substantially change,"
he said.
Kalashnikov explained that opposition parties will be deprived, in
this case, of "the most important factor" of an election campaign.
As a result, the moderate opposition will be replaced by a lot of
extremist parties. This, in turn, will push moderate forces to consolidate
with "the party of power". "Governors, elected with support from
Communists, will immediately side with the party of power. There is no
doubt about this," Kalashnikov added.
"A year of full freedom with our political life which can be used for
various forms of pressure on present political forces, is an important
element in an election campaign, both to the legislature and to the
presidency.
"Russia is short of one year of full political freedom to carry out
redistribution of property another time, and it is short of one year to
concentrate political forces to prepare for new elections," he said.

********

#9
Stalin's Bunker, Moscow Tunnel Network Shown 

NTV
October 12, 1997
>From the "Itogi" newscast: Video report by Yevgeniy Kirichenko,
identified by caption

[Presenter Kiselev to camera] Some 60 years ago, in an
atmosphere of utmost secrecy, Marshal Budennyy opened a bunker in the
center of Moscow from where Stalin subsequently supervised the defense of
the capital during the first months of the war. Itogi journalists were the
first television journalists to visit one of the most secret installations
of Moscow's subterranean world. Yevgeniy Kirichenko reports.
[Kirichenko standing in dripping tunnel] You only have to descend 10
storeys and you find yourself in a different Moscow, a parallel Moscow. We
will now proceed to the bunker where Stalin sheltered from the first air
raids on Moscow. And in 1953 General Batitskiy hid the arrested Beria
here, lest he be rescued by his comrades from the NKVD [People's
Commissariat for Internal Affairs]. A few years ago it was still possible
to reach this unique underground installation using an elevator. But since
its brakes failed on one occasion and it almost smashed in the elevator
shaft, nobody has been using it. And the same goes for the bunker itself.
This year it is 60 years since a state commission headed by Marshal
Budennyy commissioned this facility. The anniversary passed unnoticed. 
Eyewitnesses are no longer among the living, and the present proprietors of
the bunker are in no mood for celebrations. Under the military reform the
Moscow Air Defense District is to be disbanded, and the old command post
which was used during the war to counter air raids on Moscow will probably
be filled with concrete, if it is not filled with water first, that is. 
The military are unable to counter the flooding since the NKVD kept the
blueprints of the bunker.
[Aleksey Marenkov, deputy chief of staff of Moscow Air Defense
District, identified by caption] We contacted Spetsstroy specialists of
the Soviet KGB. They are no longer in office, but they told us that the
main construction documents, specifically as regards our command post, were
destroyed. A decision to this effect had been made.
[Kirichenko] In order to save this unique facility, the district
command took a desperate step. It organized an underground shooting range
where it invited various bankers in the hope that they might put up the
funds necessary to restore this bunker with a rich historical past. 
However, there were more firearm lovers than would-be benefactors.
[Marenkov] They like to shoot, they came, they looked and marvelled,
admired the builders' skill and the excellence of the underground
structures, but we have so far been unable to persuade them to invest money
in this.
[Kirichenko] Meanwhile it is too early to write off the former
command post. All you have to do is pump in drinking water and fuel, and
you could sit out any bombing raid here. It was from here, on 22 July
1941, that Stalin commanded the countermeasures against the first massed
attack on Moscow by the German Luftwaffe. Incidentally, now just as then,
the bunker is capable of withstanding a direct hit.
And it was no accident that the "leader of all times and peoples"
located his headquarters as supreme commander in chief next to this command
facility in the estate of the merchant Ryabushinskiy. [video shows
building in a park, wall plaque identifying building as wartime
headquarters of the supreme commander in chief] The building now houses
the reception office of the minister of defense. At the time it was linked
to the command post by an underground passage. We found the entrance to
the passage in the bunker, but decided not to use it. We also came across a
storage battery room where acid and alkali containers still remain. Only
the electrodes are missing. Rumor has it that they were taken by the
"diggers" [members of an organization who explore underground tunnels] who
got in through the Metro. However, it remains a mystery how they could
have also taken out several tonnes of copper cable. The command is now
seriously worried that next time the selfsame "diggers" will take away this
telephone equipment which they clearly could not take with them the first
time.
[Sergey Gonchar, head of administration and economic section,
identified by caption] This telephone distribution frame is still
operational, communication workers come and service it and check the
connections to the headquarters building. And this was an exit to the
Chistyye Prudy Metro station.
[Kirichenko] This exit is now flooded and you would probably need an
aqualung to get to the bunker from the Metro station. However, in the past
you could just walk through it straight into the station master's office.
[175355-175418 -- passage omitted -- V. Skryabin, former commander of
the Moscow District Air Defense staff, describing an occasion when this
exit had to be used]
[Kirichenko over video of more tunnels] According to our well
informed source who wants to remain anonymous, there is a whole network of
bunkers resembling this command post in Moscow. At the very least all the
power structures have their own underground installations. They were all
linked to each other and to the government bunker, forming a closed
circuit. Many of them are still in operation. This is not surprising
since the capital's subway was built mainly as a security system capable of
ensuring covert movement of troops, and, if necessary, the evacuation of
the country's leadership. It goes without saying that the remaining
sections of the population were not taken into consideration.
The creation of this parallel subway system was entrusted to a
mysterious organization -- the Spetsstroy, which was initially administered
by the NKVD and later by the KGB. Each Spetsstroy staffer was carefully
screened and had to sign a pledge not to divulge information. When a
facility was completed staffers could remain as employees or leave. New
staff was hired for each new project. And so the true scale of the special
subway network in Moscow can only be guessed at. If you look closely, you
can find at least two additional tunnels along just one section of the
circuit line between Kurskaya and Komsomolskaya stations.
According to another source, the area under Moscow is like a Dutch
cheese, where the Metro accounts for only 40 percent of the stations.
No matter how closely access to the Metro is checked, there is always
a way to get in unnoticed. [Kirichenko lifts a manhole cover from below] 
This hatch leads to the passenger platform of one of the Moscow Metro
stations. We are not authorized to give its name for security reasons. 
Otherwise there would no doubt be some people wanting to retrace our steps.
Yevgeniy Kirichenko, Vladimir Fomin, Yuriy Chestnykh reporting for
NTV. [175610] [video shows flooded tunnels, Stalin's bunker, various
dilapidated facilities, plans, Metro maps, surface building in former
Ryabushinskiy estate, interview with deputy chief of Moscow District Air
Defense]

*********

#10
Vladivostok News
October 16, 1997
Editorial
Thinking small helps in troubled times

In the midst of a crippling economic crisis, we understand why political 
leaders look for big solutions: defense industry retooling, port 
development, cutting tariffs on the Trans-Siberian Railway. 
But sometimes hope comes in smaller packages. The growth of home 
businesses such as makeup sales and dietary supplements is one small 
glimmer in a sometimes gloomy atmosphere. 
Those who sell makeup and other goods to friends and neighbors may be 
joining a trend pioneered in the West by irritating firms like the soap 
sales firm Amway – turning acquaintances into customers. But the 
practice doesn’t have to employ arm-twisting, as Mary Kay shows. A 
salesperson can fill a consumer need if she is honest about what she is 
doing (unlike Amway, which sometimes uses deceit to lure potential 
salespeople to its meetings). 
We hope Vladivostok someday takes off as a Pacific Rim powerhouse. But 
in the meanwhile, any sign of economic activity – even on a small scale 
– is a relief. 

********

#11
TB hits 2.2 million Russians
October 16, 1997

MOSCOW (AP) - About 2.2 million people are ill with tuberculosis in Russia
and the disease issteadily spreading, a health official said Thursday. 
Last year alone, 24,700 people died of tuberculosis and 98,000 people were
recorded as having contracted the disease, the Interfax news agency reported,
citing the first deputy health minister, Gennady Inishchenko. 
Tuberculosis, the world's leading infectious killer, is spread through
coughing and sneezing and can be highly contagious. It affects an estimated
13 million Americans. 
The main source of infection in Russia is its overcrowded, disease-ridden
prisons, where the infection rate has skyrocketed in recent years, said
Inishchenko. 
Overall, the number of TB cases has risen nearly 4 percent in the past
year,
while the number of children suffering from the disease has gone up about 11
percent, he said. Especially high concentrations of tuberculosis are found in
the regions of Kaliningrad, Kamchatka, North Ossetia and Yakutia. 
Russia's health ministry has developed a program for combating TB but still
must secure funding for it from the government, Inishchenko said. 
The World Health Organization said earlier this year that Russia has seen a
70 percent rise in TB cases and a 90 percent jump in death rates since the
1991 Soviet collapse. 
About 10 percent of people infected eventually become sick. Only those with
active TB are themselves infectious. 

********

#12
Toronto Sun
17 October 1997
[for personal use only]
The Russia Jean won't see
By MATTHEW FISHER (74511.357@CompuServe.com) 
Sun's Columnist at Large
 MOSCOW -- Here's a primer for Prime Minister Jean Chretien's staff about
what to see and do and who to talk with when they land here with their boss
tomorrow for an official state visit. 
 During his five days here Chretien is sure to gush about what a
wonderful democracy Russia is becoming. He will praise President Boris
Yeltsin's economic reforms and undoubtedly urge Canadian businessmen to
invest here. 
  Viewed from the swank, grotesquely overpriced Metropole Hotel, where the
Canadian delegation is to stay, what Chretien says will sound truthful.
However, if the visitors from Ottawa can avoid the Potemkin Village of
glitzy shops on nearby Tverskaya Street and venture into the subway station
next to the hotel while Ti-Jean is relaxing with Czar Boris at a dacha
outside the capital, they will get to see the real Russia. 
  The reality check will begin inside the subway station. The
rubberneckers can either admire the dazzling architecture, help out the
single mothers, grandmothers and Afghan war cripples who beg in the
labyrinth of tunnels below, or watch cops shake down passengers. 
  This odious business, which takes place many thousands of times a day
across the city, is ostensibly to verify residency and combat terrorism.
But it's really about throwing dark-skinned non-residents out of the city,
or, more often, to make them pay for the privilege of being even
temporarily here. 
  Not satisfied with the bribes they've been making from old Soviet
residency requirements, which have already been ruled a violation of the
new Russian constitution at least three times, the police have recently
begun accosting blue-eyed, fair-skinned Muscovites. 
  If the prime minister and his aides are interested, I can arrange for
them to get a whiff of contemporary Russia by speaking with a 19-year-old
woman, born and raised in Moscow, who was rushing to work at 8:30 a.m. one
day last week when she was stopped and ordered to produce her papers by
three of the capital's finest. 
  When she couldn't the cops accused her of speaking with a country accent
and told her she was going to jail for three days. After paying each of the
cops 100,000 rubles (about $25) the terrified teenager was allowed to
continue her journey. 
  The PM and his staff wouldn't notice because they are whisked through a
VIP terminal and will be travelling within Russia on a Canadian aircraft
next week, but there are actually more document checks now than during the
much reviled Soviet era. 
  Foreign and Russian passengers were required in Soviet times to produce
their passports when buying an airplane ticket and then again at the
airport. The Yeltsin administration liked the procedure so much it is also
now required for most train journeys, too. 
  That Russia has learned little from its friends in the West about
accepted international norms can be divined from the immigration and
customs formalities for non-VIPs. 
  Arriving foreigners can wait as much as two hours to see usually glum
officials who still sit in charmless Soviet-style booths equipped with
lighted overhead mirrors to check for wigs and the like. 
  All passengers are also still obliged to fill out detailed Soviet-era
currency declarations. The idea, as always, is to prevent a hard currency
drain, but with tens of billions of ill-gotten dollars having left the
country illegally during Yeltsin's reign, the procedure is more of a bad
joke than it is a nuisance. 
  To discuss economic reform I could set up chats for the PMO with some of
the two million teachers who haven't seen a kopeck in months. Or with the
beefy "biznizmen" with brushcuts who set the economic pace in Russia today. 
  Perhaps one of these louts can explain to the Canadian delegation what
happened to a van owned by our Mounties which was stolen from in front of a
Moscow police station the other day. 
  
********

#13
Excerpt [just so you know it's there]
Washington Post
17 October 1997
[destroy even this after reading]
Russian Banker Reaches Pinnacle of Capitalism
Tycoon, Once Persecuted, Now a Power Broker
By David Hoffman

MOSCOW—Alexander Smolensky was a hustler in the old Soviet Union. He was a
typesetter who wanted to make more money but didn't have permission to hold
a second job. He moonlighted anyway, working in a bakery three nights a
week and paying someone to lend him the needed permit.
At a state publishing house, he got in trouble doing a little printing
on the side. He helped typeset a Bible, he recalled, and was arrested by
the KGB secret police. He was accused of "theft of state property" and
"individual commercial activity" for using 15 pounds of printers' ink for
his own purposes.
After a trial, Smolensky was sentenced to two years labor in a state
construction brigade. The sentence was never enforced, he said. But he was
seared by the experience and spent years fighting back against the state
authorities he hated.
Today, Smolensky, 43, draws slowly on a Camel cigarette, sitting in an
elegant conference room in the center of Moscow, surrounded by 19th-century
Russian and German oil paintings and sculpted elephants. He is now the
chairman of SBS-Agro, one of Russia's largest private banks, with 43,000
employees and $5.2 billion in assets.
But he is more than a bank chairman. He is a financial pillar of the New
Russia, a leading business tycoon in a country trying to remake itself into
a free-market democracy. He is still disdainful of the state, yet he has
been drawn inexorably into the battle to rebuild Russia out of the ruins of
communism. When President Boris Yeltsin recently summoned the country's
leading business tycoons to the Kremlin, Smolensky was among them.
How he went from being punished for taking the state's ink to sitting
down in the Kremlin with Yeltsin is in many ways the story of Russia's
great unfinished transition from Communist rule to capitalism and democracy.
.....

********

#14
Washington Times
17 October 1997
[for personal use only]
Russia to slash ground forces, rely on nukes
Byy Bill Gertz

Russia plans to cut its ground forces in half by 2005 and will rely more
on nuclear weapons for future conflicts, according to a classified
intelligence report. 
The report by the Joint Intelligence Committee states that Russia's new
military doctrine will be approved later this year and will call for
structuring forces to fight "local and regional conflicts" or "a major war."
"The use of nuclear weapons is not ruled out in either scenario. Indeed,
the proposed reforms reinforce changes already underway in Russia's nuclear
doctrine by placing increased weight on nuclear weapons (which remain under
effective command and control) to deter aggression," said the report,
labeled "top secret."
The analysis was approved Oct. 1 at a meeting of the Joint Intelligence
Committee, a forum made up of intelligence officials from the United
States, Britain, Canada and Australia. Pentagon sources made a copy of the
analysis available to The Washington Times.
"It will be several years at least before there is a perceptible
increase in Russia's greatly reduced conventional capabilities," the report
said. "Russia will maintain a credible strategic deterrent to compensate
for the weaknesses in its conventional forces." 
A U.S. government specialist on the Russian military said the reform
program appears similar to a Soviet-era plan in the 1960s to utilize
nuclear weapons with smaller conventional forces.
"This reform is not reform, but a turning back of the clock
--structuring conventional forces to fight nuclear war -- a lighter, mobile
army that will be survivable on the nuclear battlefield," the official said.
A Pentagon spokesman declined to respond to the report, and a Russian
Embassy spokesman could not be reached for comment.
Many in the Russian military are opposing the plan, according to the
report.
"There remains a widespread belief within the armed forces that the
proposals do not constitute 'real' reform, but simply weaken Russia's
military strength, and that the primary objective is to save money," the
report said.
Russian civilian leaders view the reform as "expensive in both political
and financial terms" and are backing it "only so long as transition costs
can be contained," the report said.
"As long as the defense budget is capped at the current 3.5 percent of
gross domestic product, funding will be insufficient to maintain the
momentum of reform until 2005 and beyond," the report said, noting that the
reform is more likely to be done around 2010.
According to the intelligence report, military spending has been cut by
50 percent over the past five years.
While conventional forces have deteriorated rapidly in the past five
years because of neglect, Russia is developing a new intercontinental
ballistic missile to replace the SS-25 mobile ICBM and a new class of
submarines equipped with new submarine-launched nuclear missiles.
Separately, a recent article in the Russian Defense Ministry publication
Military Thought discusses the "possibility of transition to the use of
nuclear weapons in peacetime." Written by a major general, the article said
preparations should be made for the rapid use of nuclear arms that can be
carried out secretly without detection by U.S. spy satellites.
Under the plan, the Red Army is expected to reduce its ground forces
from an estimated 1.7 million troops today to 1.2 million by the end of
1998. By 2005, ground forces will number about 500,000 to 600,000 troops --
half of them reservists -- that will be organized in "brigades with a small
number of divisions in key areas," the report said.
The total number of divisions will decline from the current 100 to about
50, according to the report.
"The Navy and Air Force can hope, at best, to remain at about their
current size and capability," the report said, adding: "Even success in
priority research and development areas and the introduction of high
technology weapons will not prevent a widening of the overall technology
gap with NATO."
Overall major structural reforms are "likely to be implemented as planned."
"But the full proposed reorganization will require considerable
resources and sustained support from key political leaders," the report
said. "Both are in doubt."
According to the report, Russian President Boris Yeltsin in July
approved the outlines of a plan by Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev, who was
commander of Russia's nuclear forces, that includes the following:
* Cut ground forces to 1.2 million troops by Jan. 1, 1999.
* Combine the various service branches into two: "strategic deterrence"
nuclear forces and "general purpose" ground, sea and air forces.
* Reduce deployment areas from the current eight regional military
districts to six.
* Set up within each district a "territorial" military command to take over
all conventional forces, including paramilitary units, that would report to
the general staff.
The Sergeyev reform plan is supported by Russian military leaders who
will benefit from it, including the Strategic Rocket Forces and Air Force,
and faces "considerable opposition" from those that will lose, such as the
Air Defense and Military Space Forces and others with "vested interests" in
the status quo.
The plan is viewed by the Russian defense minister and his supporters as
"the only way to arrest the decline in Russia's military capabilities until
the economy can permit re-equipment."
"Sergeyev has mounted a personal campaign to win support for the plan
within the officer corps," the report said.
The assessment describes the eight- to 10-year military reform plan as
"the most concerted attempt to date to reform Russia's bloated and
ineffective armed forces" and predicts that opposition will cause the plan
to be modified.

********

#15
Summary
World Policy Journal
Fall 1997
http://www.worldpolicy.org/
Fred Coleman, "The Kaliningrad Scenario: Expanding NATO to the Baltics"

Russia gave in to NATO's decision to admit Poland, Hungary, and the
Czech Republic. But what will happen if—or when—the alliance tries to
expand to include the Baltic states? "The answer," writes USA TODAY
European correspondent Fred Coleman, "could well determine whether the
twenty-first century starts with war or peace." Expanding the alliance to
the Baltics would put NATO weapons on Russia's own frontier, and the
Kremlin is adamant that it will not permit that, Coleman asserts. A clash
with Russia over the Baltics is no fanciful flight of the imagination—yet
the United States continues to encourage the Baltic States that the
alliance's door is open, and provides funding and training for NATO
compatibility programs. Still, there is no guarantee that the Baltic states
will ever join NATO. "America can and should do better," he argues. "If
Washington continues to waffle, the initiative could well pass to the
hard-liners in Moscow with an interest in suppressing a small, poorly armed
neighbor as a step toward reconstituting a Soviet superpower." 

*******