December 18, 1997   
This Date's Issues: 1440  •1441  1442

Johnson's Russia List
#1442
19 December 1997
davidjohnson@erols.com

[Note from David Johnson:
If anyone is leaving Moscow shortly for the US and could
pick up a video cassette for the Center for Defense Information
please let me know.
1. Moskovskiy Komsomolets: Kirill Viktorov, "Shadow Empire. 
'Anatoliy Chubays and Co.' Individual Private Enterprise Is 
Successfully Operating in the Country."
2. Slate: Part 1 of Alessandra Stanley's Moscow diary.
3. Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Why Would Russia Need Its Own Government?
THERE ARE WISE PEOPLE IN WASHINGTON WHO KNOW WHAT OUR COUNTRY 
SHOULD DO.
4. Reuters: Yeltsin, recovered, keen to tackle economy.
5. Gregory Tseytin passes on comment on Russian brain drain "by a 
friend from St.Petersburg Association of Scientists and Scholars."
6. Trud: Nikita Shevtsov, NATO EXPANDS, RUSSIA RESISTS.
7. Reuters: Russia says main threat weak economy, not abroad.
8. VOA on Gorbachev in New York.
9. NTV: Zyuganov Says Post-Yeltsin Era Arrived.
10. Itar-Tass: Nemtsov: 'Court' Influence on Yeltsin Highly 
Exaggerated.]

*********

#1
Chubays's Business 'Empire' Exposed 

Moskovskiy Komsomolets
December 10, 1997
[translation for personal use only]
Report by Kirill Viktorov: "Shadow Empire. 'Anatoliy Chubays
and Co.' Individual Private Enterprise Is Successfully Operating in
the Country"

As is well known, at the meeting of the "big four" -- Yeltsin,
Chernomyrdin, Seleznev, and Stroyev -- Seleznev, leader of the lower house
of parliament, timidly passed on to the president the State Duma's "wish"
that Anatoliy Chubays be dismissed from all posts in the government. 
However, the president resolutely left Chubays in his majesty's service. 
Why? Because everything that Anatoliy Borisovich [Chubays] and his
entourage have done and are doing is absolutely legal. You simply need to
be a smart cookie and to know the laws. As Boris Nikolayevich [Yeltsin]
himself correctly pointed out, Chubays is clever, and he knows the laws
very well -- he even writes some of them himself.
The president ought to know. Even though Yeltsin was irked by the
literary talents of the "young reformer/schemer," nonetheless the furor
over this circumstance quite rightly was not a decisive argument in favor
of dismissing the "talented organizer of reforms" so far as the president
was concerned.
Yet I dare say that had Boris Nikolayevich known even more than he
already does about Anatoliy Borisovich's organizational talents, chances
are that the president would hardly have "ventured" to strip him even of
the finance minister's post. Moreover, Yeltsin might well have "rewarded"
Chubays with yet another high post. The talent that the first vice premier
has displayed in building (in just five years!) his own financial and media
empire certainly merits that. It's a pity very few people know about it....

The "Body" 

When Chubays's supporters talk about the so-called media war unleashed
against the first vice premier, most of the time the following point is
made: Of course, there is no way Anatoliy Borisovich can match his
opponents! They have mass media and infinite money in their hands.... 
Today it can be said with every justification: These arguments are just
nonsense. Chubays's talent has secured him an empire that in terms of its
monetary or media power is every bit as good as his foe's.
Perhaps not even such an odious entrepreneur as Boris Berezovskiy has
managed to build, on the back of the state and millions of its citizens,
his own "small candle factory," or, in modern jargon, individual private
enterprise. Chubays, however, has done an excellent job in this respect. 
His individual private enterprise comprises an extensive, secret, and not
yet totally clear network of public and commercial structures.
It is probably logical to presume that the Unexim--MFK [International
Finance Corporation]--Renessans-Kapital group, which is under his control
and owes its rise and strengthening personally to Anatoliy Borisovich, is
not after all his "personal fiefdom." The first vice premier has long
needed a personal financial bastion where people are under no obligation to
him and therefore will not sell him out the event of danger.
For this reason, on 8 August 1995 Chubays's "new Aphrodite" appeared
from the foam: an empire comprising the Montes Auri investment company,
the Effective Policy Foundation [Fond effektivnoy politiki], the Foundation
(Center) for Protection of Private Property, the Civil Society Foundation,
and so forth. These structures are, in effect, the "pocket" and "brains"
of the "Chubays" individual private enterprise, and the first vice
premier's entire political influence in the government and the Presidential
Staff and among the regional "generals" is today based on them. The
instruments of this influence are Yegor Gaydar's Russia's Democratic Choice
movement and the mass media outlets owned by the Unexim-MFK group.

The "Pocket" 

Let us begin with Anatoliy Borisovich's pocket and the empire that he
owns. As mentioned earlier, this "pocket" (moreover, a very deep one) is
the Montes Auri financial company. It is headed by Anatoliy Borisovich's
buddies who have gone through fire, water, and government crises with him: 
Arkadiy Yevstafyev and Alfred Kokh.
According to the documents, Montes Auri was established by the
Foundation for the Protection of Private Property. The Foundation is
headed by Yegor Gaydar, former prime minister and yet another buddy of
Chubays. Furthermore, it is known that in March-August 1996, until his
second appointment to the government, Chubays was head of a certain Center
for the Protection of Private Property which also cooperated actively with
Montes Auri. Incidentally, to date neither Chubays, nor Gaydar, nor the
Montes Auri leadership has given any answer to the question: "Are the
Center for the Protection of Private Property and the Foundation for the
Protection of Private Property two different structures or the same one?"
Montes Auri first came to public attention in early 1997 -- in
connection with the scandal over Chubays's income from, it was originally
claimed, lecturing activity. According to the mass media owned by
Chubays's "friends," during his temporary excommunication from power the
present first vice premier received a hefty loan -- more than 14 billion
rubles [R] -- for a term until 2003. Experts estimate that in five years
the R14 billion could become at least R50 trillion. Moreover, this was
arranged as an interest-free loan: In the language of contemporary Russian
entrepreneurs, this can only be described as a bribe. Why?...
At that time, Anatoliy Borisovich was regarded as the leader of the
Center for the Protection of Private Property. Money for Chubays was being
earned by the Center's subsidiary, Montes Auri. It was with its assistance
that he made substantial profits from investment on the GKO [short-term
state bonds] market (approximately $300,000 in just three months!).
These are, so to speak, old "sins" which the president forgave Chubays
long ago. Now, however, experts point to the spectacular rise of this
hitherto little-known investment company. It promptly received a license
from the Federal Securities Commission and quickly built up its assets, and
although the company itself does not enjoy any special prestige on the
market, brokers note that it has substantial funds.
There is one extremely amusing theory regarding the reason for the
swift rise of Montes Auri. Securities market experts believe that this
happened thanks to the constant "leak" of insider information from the
entourage of the first vice premier, who is very well informed about all
upcoming events on the stock market. Thus, for instance, in October the
shares of the Montes Auri KVI (short-term mutual investments) fund grew by
a record 3 percent, which markedly exceeded the indicators of all other
funds. Which, of course, had received no exclusive information from
Chubays and Potanin. And again the fall in Montes Auri's stock prices
during the recent crisis on the securities market was the smallest among
all funds!...
According to reports in the press, Montes Auri is engaged in vigorous
founding activity. In particular, it has created a whole group of related
companies of the same name, one of whose founding fathers is Arkadiy
Yevstafyev, Chubays's aide.
Thus, Montes Auri controls two PIF's [share investment funds]. One of
them is the open Short-Term Mutual Investment PIF. Its manager is
Aleksandr Piskunov. It should be explained here that each PIF hires a
special manager (or management company) who actually decides where to
invest the money collected by the fund and receives a certain commission
based on performance. The Short-Term Mutual Investment PIF set the
commission at the level of 3 percent of the value of assets. This rate was
to enter into effect as of 7 July 1997. But, at a press conference two
weeks before that day, Montes Auri manager Piskunov announced a cut in the
management company's commission from 3 percent to 1 percent. This
announcement so interested a representative of the Pioner Pervyy PIF (where
the management company's commission is 2-4 percent) that throughout the
meeting he tried to find out from Piskunov at whose expense Montes Auri was
going to live in the future.
Moreover, according to the Federal Securities Commission, Montes Auri
remains a Russian leader in the reduction of management expenditure: 
Within four months, until 14 August 1997, management company commission was
reduced nine times: from 4.5 percent to 0.5 percent. Federal Securities
Commission experts maintain that Montes Auri could not have set such
"records" without financial support from Uneximbank.
Why do we think so?
On 13 November representatives of the General Prosecutor's Office
entered the Montes Auri office. They confiscated company papers pertaining
to the so-called "Kokh affair": company financial documents and papers
relating to the involvement of Chubays, Potanin, Boyko, and other former
state officials from the so-called "writers union" in the company's
activities.
Former Vice Premier Alfred Kokh, who is now facing criminal charges of
receiving a bribe from Uneximbank structures and who heads the Montes Auri
company, stubbornly denied in front of ORT [Russian Public Television],
NTV, and RTR [Russian Television and Radio] cameras the very fact that the
company office had been searched and documents seized. Nonetheless, later
representatives of the General Prosecutor's Office themselves confirmed
that there had indeed been a search during which documents were seized
(approximately six "large volumes" in all) clearly indicating the frequent
movement of monetary resources between Uneximbank and Montes Auri....
Nevertheless, the "Chubays" individual private enterprise is alive and
doing very well. The Montes Auri structure proved to be unsinkable. Rich
clients are stubbornly continuing to use its services. They entrust their
money to it, and, in gratitude for this trust, the "Chubays" individual
private enterprise provides them with exceptionally broad opportunities to
lobby for their private interests via the first vice premier.
Incidentally, an ordinary investor wishing to invest his money in this
"economic miracle named for A.B. Chubays" and to make money the way
Anatoliy Borisovich managed to in 1996 cannot get into Montes Auri. The
legal address that Montes Auri gives for itself on the Internet is this: 
16/2 Tverskaya Street. However, in real life rather than cyber life this
is the address of a structure belonging to international financial
speculator George Soros: the Templeton closed joint-stock company. 
(Remember that Potanin and Chubays are deeply indebted to Soros for
Svyazinvest, Norilskiy Nikel, Rosneft, and other chunks of state property.)
At the same time, according to the Collective Investment Center database,
Montes Auri's legal address is 20 Novaya Basmannaya Street, building 2. 
Yet, according to insider sources, the company is located at 12 Tretya
Tverskaya- Yamskaya Street, building 2-a. There is no way an ordinary
mortal will ever find it....

The "Brains"

Having finished with the "pocket," let us now move on to the "brains."
The brain of the "Chubays" individual private enterprise is, without any
doubt, another structure that is part of the first vice premier's "shadow
empire": the Effective Policy Foundation. Working there are such
well-known figures as Gleb Pavlovskiy (the author of such notorious pieces
of disinformation as "Version No. 1" and "Version No. 2"), Maksim Meyer
(the man who organized the recent controversial news conference by
"independent" journalist Mitrofanov, who often visits Uneximbank), and also
Kirill Taneyev, a well-known lobbyist for the Video International company. 
It is to him that the people of Russia owe the domination of liquor and
tobacco advertisements on the RTR state TV channel: He railroaded through
the State Duma permission for RTR to air such ads.
Every week the Effective Policy Foundation prepares professional but
biased analysis materials which then, on Chubays's personal instructions,
are sent to certain members of the government and the Presidential Staff,
State Duma deputies, and politicians -- everyone on whom Chubays would like
to exert political influence and whose minds he would like to manipulate.
In addition, the Effective Policy Foundation engages in less seemly
ventures. For instance, organizing campaigns to discredit certain
political and financial figures (as in 1996 during the presidential
elections) and staging mass actions, demonstrations, and rallies (by the
way, a rally under the banner of Russia's Democratic Choice organized by
the foundation's activists "in defense of democracy and of the innocent
victim Chubays" is scheduled for 12 December
Yet another vivid example of the foundation's "activity" is the
aforementioned news conference by journalist Sergey Mitrofanov, where the
public was presented with an article purportedly written by Andrey Fadin, a
journalist who died tragically, about yet another "coup" in Russia (it is
appropriate here to recall the well-known "versions No. 1 and No. 2"). 
Today it is known for certain that the news conference was commissioned by
Meyer, an employee of the Effective Policy Foundation on whom the
"independent" journalist Mitrofanov depends very heavily.
Many journalists have reason to believe that the real author of the
"Fadin article" is Gleb Pavlovskiy, the author of the "Versions." He is a
former dissident who in the service of Chubays is now successfully using
KGB methods to discredit competitors....
During the furor over the high fees paid to Chubays-Kokh-
Mostovoy-Boyko, Anatoliy Borisovich's entourage and the Effective Policy
Foundation worked hard to cool passions. For instance, one of these men,
through his acquaintances, selected and briefed influential people who
could express their opinion about the fees and speak in support of the
"writers union." The following were chosen for these purposes: Yurskiy,
Batalov, Gluzskiy, Vasilyeva.... [famous actors]
The activity of the Effective Policy Foundation is bankrolled by other
subdivisions of the "Chubays" individual private enterprise: the Montes
Auri company and the Civil Society Foundation, with which we are already
familiar....

The Book "Chubays and His Team" Is Being Authored by Writer Gaydar's
Grandson

It is certainly a shame that Anatoliy Borisovich's organizing
abilities in the sphere of creation and construction fully manifested
themselves only in providing goodies for himself and his team. Of course,
it is a shame that, engrossed in building this huge private
political-financial empire, the first vice premier of the Russian
Federation Government has been unable to "get around" to the starving
miners, doctors, and teachers, the Russian budget, and the Tax Code.
Now it is clear that all the talk, rallies, and other propaganda -- to
the effect that "when Chubays goes the country's economy will collapse and
world capital will not come to Russia" -- are nothing but "products"
manufactured in subdivisions of the "Chubays" individual private
enterprise. Voiceovers for these "products" are provided by figures like
Yegor Gaydar, who has recently increasingly come to resemble a Chubays
propaganda mouthpiece.
As for so-called world capital, even if it has come to Russia, it has
as a rule been "pumped through" subsidiaries of the Chubays individual
private enterprise. At present the size of the individual private
enterprise cannot compare with the scope of another empire close to
Chubays: Uneximbank. However, our experts do not rule out the possibility
that in one or two years Montes Auri will have been pumped full of budget
and foreign funds. And then, through his individual private enterprise,
Anatoliy Borisovich will begin a large-scale funding of the 2000
presidential election. Particularly considering that some experience has
already been gained.
The "Election-2000" scenario has already been written. At the
Effective Policy Foundation. So the question "Who will be the candidate?"
is probably now a rhetorical one....

[Item is accompanied by following boxed passages]
The "Pocket" [subhead]
The Civil Society Foundation
The Foundation for the Protection of Private Property
The Montes Auri Investment Company (leaders Kokh and Yevstafyev)

The "Brains" [subhead]
The Effective Policy Foundation

1-a. A contract with regional mass media organizations for the
placement of articles
1-b. Active measures, news conferences
1-c. Work in the State Duma, the government, and the Presidential
Staff (daily analytical reviews)
1-d. Work with central mass media. Placement of commissioned
articles
Media outlets owned by the Unexim group or close to it in spirit
(Russkiy Telegraf, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Izvestiya, Delovoy Mir, and
Kommersant-Daily newspapers and the Profil magazine).
RTR, and also TV programs on other channels (NTV, TV-Tsentr)

Spheres of Political Influence [subhead]
The Presidential Staff
The government (the Finance Ministry, the State Tax Service, and the
State Property Ministry)
Regional "generals"
The Russia's Democratic Choice political movement (Gaydar, Boyko)

********

#2
Slate
http://www.slate.com [DJ: Further parts there.]
Diary
Alessandra Stanley is a Moscow correspondent for the New York Times.
Day 1: Monday, Dec. 15, 1997
       The flaps are down. 
       I mean the earflaps of Russian men's fur hats, which, on all but 
the coldest days, are kept tied on top as a signal of the Slavic male's 
machismo: Only wimps or Westerners cover their ears in winter. But the 
temperature today is 25 degrees below zero Celsius (13 degrees below 
zero Fahrenheit). You don't actually need a thermometer, because the 
most reliable indicators are the earflaps. If they are down, it is 
deathly cold. 
       When the flaps are down, it is unhealthy for children to play 
outside. That is what Masha, the teacher at our small Russian-language 
preschool, explained this morning. Normally, at noon every day, she 
crams her nine 4- and 5-year-old charges into snowsuits and leads them 
across the street to a nearby schoolyard, all of them clinging to one 
long rope like blind men in a Bruegel painting. Today, they stayed 
indoors and made Christmas decorations out of stale bread, old cereal 
boxes, and homemade confetti. Or maybe it was lunch. 
       When the flaps are down, it is too cold for Russian-made cars, 
Zhigulis and Ladas, to start. Which means that the streets of Moscow, 
normally as jammed and brutish as downtown Lagos, Nigeria, are 
miraculously free and clear: Only Volvo and Mercedes engines can rev 
themselves awake in this kind of weather. When it is really freezing, 
foreigners and rich Russians rule the highways--winter joy rides for the 
Happy Few. The outer lanes are littered with stalled cars, looking a 
little like carrion abandoned in the desert. 
       The City Ambulance Service announced today that last week three 
people died of exposure and another 138 were rushed to the hospital. 
Russians read between the lines and find some solace in the sobering 
news: At least the ambulances are working. 
       The bitter cold didn't prevent Muscovites from voting in city 
council elections on Sunday. Not that they had much choice--Moscow's 
all-powerful mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, who blends a "crony capitalist" 
sensibility with the hauteur of an old-style Soviet party boss, has 
festooned the city with placards and billboards bearing his portrait and 
vaunting the merits of his preferred candidates. Late into Sunday night, 
in the subway, loudspeakers blared reminders to Muscovites to do their 
civic duty and vote. The mayor, a presidential contender who framed the 
election as a referendum on his popularity, was leaving nothing to 
chance. 
       Even Boris Yeltsin, confined to a government sanitarium with what 
his doctors describe as a "cold," dragged himself out of bed to vote on 
Sunday. He looked wan and deeply tired, but in front of the television 
cameras, he cast his ballot gamely: It was as good a chance as any to 
pay fealty to Luzhkov--and prove to the world that, contrary to rumor, 
he is not at death's door. 
       Mostly, the election was a flashback to Soviet elections of the 
Brezhnev era: None of the candidates for city council publicly opposed 
the mayor. The more daring merely hinted that it might be healthy to 
introduce a teeny dose of pluralism to the Moscow city Duma, which until 
now has mainly served as a rubber stamp for the mayor's will. 
       That much, at least, will not change. All the candidates blessed 
by Luzhkov won easily. The only sign of disaffection with Luzhkov's 
iron--and somewhat corrupt--rule was the low turnout of 30 percent. In 
Soviet times, it would have been 90 percent, or else. Luzhkov, whose own 
earflaps were down, blamed the cold. 

*******

#3
>From Russia Today press summaries
http://www.russiatoday.com
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
18 December 1997
Lead story
Why Would Russia Need Its Own Government?
THERE ARE WISE PEOPLE IN WASHINGTON WHO KNOW WHAT OUR COUNTRY SHOULD DO 
Summary
The daily wrote about two letters that Prime Minister Victor 
Chernomyrdin received three days ago. One was from International 
Monetary Fund director Michel Camdessus and the other from James 
Wolfensson, the head of the World Bank. 
Camdessus sent his greetings to Chernomyrdin in connection with the 
premier's fifth anniversary in office. He also said it was likely Russia 
would receive the next $700 million tranche of IMF credit. However, an 
attachment to the letter includes a list of preconditions for Russia to 
receive the money. They included "publication of a presidential decree 
on improving state finances." 
Nezavisimaya wrote that this means the most important presidential 
decrees are initiated by officials from Washington. 
The daily also noted the IMF's demand to "develop a system of limiting 
access to oil pipelines for companies which have debts to the federal 
budget or the pension fund." It is obvious that limiting Russian 
companies' access to pipelines would be beneficial for foreign 
companies, which dream of controlling Russia's oil exports. 
Camdessus also welcomed the special tax commission's (VChK) recent 
decisions to declare some of the greatest budget debtors bankrupt and 
called for immediate publication and realization of these decisions. The 
daily said this explains the sudden crackdown on tax debtors by 
commission head, First Deputy Premier Anatoly Chubais. 
The daily wrote that Washington's plans for healing the Russian economy 
are generally worthy and thoroughly worked out. However, it questioned 
whether Russia needs the work of its two first deputy premiers 
responsible for the economy to fulfill the recommendations. 

*******

#4
Yeltsin, recovered, keen to tackle economy
By Gareth Jones 

MOSCOW, Dec 18 (Reuters) - President Boris Yeltsin, keen to get back to his
desk after recovering from a viral infection, on Thursday signed a new
national security doctrine citing economic weakness as the greatest threat to
Russia. 
The Kremlin leader, reported to be feeling ``great,'' said he would resume
work on Friday but his office said he would not immediately leave the
sanatorium just outside Moscow where he has been recuperating since December
10. 
Yeltsin's illness triggered fears in financial markets about a recurrence of
last year's heart problems, underlining the vulnerability of Russia's
struggling economy. 
``Everything is all right with me,'' Yeltsin told reporters before meeting
Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin at the sanatorium to discuss economic and
social problems. 
``My illness was not related to any heart problems. It was indeed a cold and
there had been danger of complications.'' 
Yeltsin, wearing a sweater and an open-necked shirt, added: ``I am ending my
stay here. Tomorrow I return to work. And from the new year I will return to a
full-scale schedule.'' 
But a Kremlin press spokesman later said Yeltsin would stay at the Barvikha
sanatorium on Friday. His regular radio address would be recorded and
broadcast as planned. 
The spokesman gave no further details. The Kremlin had previously said
Yeltsin
would stay at the sanatorium for 10 to 12 days, indicating he would return to
Moscow this weekend or on Monday. 
Asked how Yeltsin, 66, was feeling, a Kremlin spokesman said: ``Great.'' 
The Kremlin has dismissed media speculation he might have suffered a
repeat of
the heart problems that forced him to undergo a bypass operation in November
last year, saying he had an acute viral respiratory infection brought on by a
cold. 
The national security doctrine approved by Yelstin, who has said he has
worked
on documents during his illness for about four hours a day, had been more than
six years in the making. 
A summary by the Security Council, an advisory body to Yeltsin, said an
external military threat could not be excluded but there was little likelihood
of global armed conflict. 
``The crisis condition of the economy is named as the most important complex
of threats to Russia's security,'' it said. 
The summary was a departure from Cold War Soviet practice of blaming foreign
armies and spies for many of its woes. 
But the head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, a successor to the
KGB,
said Western spies still made Russia their main target. 
``Antagonism between intelligence services never came to an end, and with the
end of the Cold War, despite some expectations, it even grew stronger,''
Interfax news agency quoted Vyacheslav Trubnikov as saying. 
He said Western spy services showed great interest in the internal political
and economic situation in Russia and tried to influence developments. 
Yeltsin made clear on Thursday that his top priority in coming weeks would be
driving the government's draft 1998 budget through a hostile parliament. ``We
must have a confirmed budget in the new year,'' he said in his televised
comments. 
He sees the budget as the key to securing economic growth in Russia after
years of steep declines in output. 
The opposition-dominated State Duma lower house of parliament passed the
budget on its first reading after Yeltsin made an unprecedented appeal to
deputies in person. 
The second reading, originally scheduled for Thursday, has been delayed until
next Wednesday, making it unlikely the budget can come into force by the start
of 1998. 

*******

#5
From: "Gregory S. Tseytin" <tseytin@tseytin.spb.ru>
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 1997 01:40:50 +0300
Subject: Russian brain drain

David,

in connection with your recent items on Russian brain drain I'd like
to post you some stuff prepared by a friend from St.Petersburg
Association of Scientists and Scholars (I am not sure I can reveal his
name, and probably I'll give it later, but I know he wouldn't object
to circulating this stuff).

Gregory Tseytin

---

Two categories of Russian scientists abroad are distinguished.
First, people who officially emigrated from Russia. The number
could vary but the order is tens of thousand persons. Although
the geography of emigration is surprisingly wide most
researchers moved to North America, fewer to Germany and Israel.

The second category is working abroad on temporary contracts.
Many people on such contracts try to get an "anchor" abroad, and
migrate from one contract to another within the same country or
change countries without returning to Russia. Formally such
scientists do not leave Russia and remain on their institute's
staff. Such scientists are several times as many as formal
emigres.

Now the number of those leaving (and striving to leave) seems to
be decreasing, for various reasons, including obstacles for
entrance to foreign countries (the exit legislation in Russia is
very liberal nowadays), and especially because it is hard to
find a good job abroad. Just in case, in the first years after
the gates were open Russians were willing to work, e.g., in USA
on very "cheap" terms because the salary was many times higher
than in Russia anyway; in 1992, after the steep growth of prices
and high inflation there were some months when an average
monthly salary in institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences
was just ten or twenty dollars, and as little as $200/month was
perceived as an enormous amount. Now the situation is somewhat
different, and the wages are somewhat higher (though very modest
by Western standards), and going abroad only makes sense if the
economic incentives are strong enough (leave alone professional
motivation); prices in Russia and in the West are similar now --
this is one of paradoxes of the Russian economy: some prices are
higher here, though wages are much less than one tenth of the
Western level! Some of my Western friends visiting Moscow or
St.Petersburg are surprised, and I also know the same from my
own experience: it is easier to find a reasonably cheap
restaurant in Washington than here. So going abroad to get
$200-300 no longer makes sense, this much can be earned at home!

In addition to that, the emergence of some Western and
international foundations in Russia (like George Soros programs,
INTAS, etc.) as well as of local foundations resulted in some
improvement in the situation in Russia and gave many scientists
an opportunity to get funds for their research here.

The motivations for emigration vary widely. It can be the
impossibility of conducting serious research in Russia; an
opportunity to earn some money in the West on their science,
with a view of returning home afterwards ("shuttle science");
self-realization and escape from the obnoxious bureaucracy and
its style which is virtually unchanged since the communist
times; the criminal situation in Russian cities; and simply the
frustrating absurdity of the life around, when what is being
said is very different from what is being done. Some people leave
in order to rescue their children from the military service
(particularly during the Chechen war), others leave just because
almost all their friends have emigrated, etc.

It is also important to assess the impact on the Russian science
of permanent or temporary emigration. There are both positive
and negative aspects. First, it is the accumulation of
multifarious experience in science and technology as well as in
mundane matters (we used to have very remote and deformed,
or overly optimistic ideas of Western lifestyle), real
integration of Russian scientists in the world science (not only
the big shots, like before). Second, emigration gave many
scientists (but not all) a chance to remain scientists, i.e., to
do research, which was impossible in Russia due to lack of
equipment, literature, and long delayed wages (which were only
token wages anyway), etc.

The negative factor is that the Russian community is losing the
scientific milieu which was characterized by high concentration
of talent. The departure of talented people is particularly
distressing. Cases are known when this resulted in cessation of
seminars, of work in laboratories, and even disappearance of
whole branches of research. Emigration varies in many aspects
from one scientific discipline to another. It is almost absent,
e.g., in zoology, but is much more dynamic in molecular or cell
biology, or in physics and mathematics.

There are also differences based on emigres' age and skills.
Middle-aged and old emigres are typically people with good
professional reputation and well-known abroad. They don't go for
unknown prospects. However, most contract scientists are young
researchers who are more dynamic, aggressive and ready to adapt
to new conditions. Some well-known institutes of RAS with a
reasonably good reputation (like Institute of Cytology in
St.Petersburg) in fact have turned into a starting ground for
emigration of young scientists, where they can receive good
training and make their first steps working in renowned
laboratories. It should be also noted that emigration of young
scientists is to a great extent connected with the impossibility
of making a good career at home due to the gerontocratic
organization of science. The system works so that all decisions
taken are, in the long run, more favorable for older people than
for the young; older scientists control the decision-making and
distribution of funds, also for young scientists, and whoever
enjoys status-based privileges gets new privileges almost
automatically, partly by exploiting, directly or indirectly, the
work of their younger associates.

*******

#6
>From RIA Novosti
Trud
December 18, 1997 
NATO EXPANDS, RUSSIA RESISTS
By Nikita SHEVTSOV in Brussels

Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic have been given the
goahead to join NATO: the sixteen NATO foreign ministers and
their counterparts from the three East European countries have
signed, in Brussels, a protocol on their membership in the
alliance. 
The protocol is now to be ratified by the nineteen
national parliaments. If they do, there will be nineteen
members in NATO in April 1999 when NATO marks its fiftieth
anniversary. 
A NATO Council session communique notes in this connection
that the alliance is open for other countries and will continue
intensive dialogues with new aspirants in January 1998.
US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright echoed the idea
when she spoke of NATO's forthcoming enlargement: she said the
three countries made an important step to taking the place in
Europe that they had lost fifty years ago.
Ms. Albright admitted that in the US the final say on the
three prospective members belongs to the Senate which is
divided on the matter, for many Senators believe America would
have to pay much more than it is contributing to the NATO
budget today. 
NATO Secretary General Javier Solana insists that the
enlargement is the more meaningful change in the alliance. He
also promised that NATO's accessibility to other states would
strengthen security throughout Europe. 
Not all states are ready to subscribe to Mr. Solana's
words. Russia still opposes NATO's enlargement: Moscow views it
as a mistake which leads away from the erection of a single
European edifice. 
Moreover, Moscow insists that Europe may be divided again
and plunge into a new period of military confrontations. 
O.N. Belous, director of the European Cooperation
Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, addressed the media
to say that it would be naive to think that having created
together with NATO the Permanent Council, Russia has put up
with its enlargement. 
Russia's stance is still very negative, although Moscow
does acknowledge NATO's role in today's world and is ready to
maintain constructive relations with the alliance in the
interests of preserving peace in the continent. 
The Russian spokesman holds that the OSCE, rather than
NATO, should be pivotal to the effort to enhance security in
Europe, since all countries of Europe, rather than the members
of a military-political alliance, should participate in the
erection of a common European edifice. 
The OSCE, meanwhile, is the organisation that unites all
European states.

******** 

#7
Russia says main threat weak economy, not abroad
By Adam Tanner 

MOSCOW, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Russia, which for generations has blamed foreign
armies and spies for many of its woes, said on Thursday a faltering economy
was the greatest threat to national security. 
The conclusion came in a new national security doctrine approved by President
Boris Yeltsin, a document Security Council Secretary Ivan Rybkin said was more
than six years in the making. 
A statement by the Security Council, an advisory body to Yeltsin, said the
danger of an external military threat could not be excluded. 
``But the likelihood of global armed conflict is not great,'' it said. 
``At the present time the main security threat to Russia has a non-military
character...The crisis condition of the economy is named as the most important
complex of threats to Russia's security.'' 
The full text of the doctrine was not released. But a four-page summary said
Russia needed a smaller professional army with nuclear weapons its main
deterrent against aggression. 
``There is no talk about some kind of dismantling of the army or a complete
disarmament,'' the document said. ``But to adequately respond to threats of a
military character we need a smaller, compact, mobile professional army.'' 
``Without a doubt nuclear forces will remain the main mechanism of deterrence
to sober up' any potential aggressor,'' it said. 
In a fundamental change from Soviet-era thinking, the new document says
defending the interests of the individual is the country's paramount task. 
In a separate interview on Thursday, the head of Russia's Foreign
Intelligence
Service, a descendent of the Soviet KGB, said Western spies continued to make
Russia their primary target. 
``Antagonism between intelligence services never came to an end, and with the
end of the Cold War, despite some expectations, it even grew stronger,''
Interfax news agency quoted Vyacheslav Trubnikov as saying. 
He said Western spy services ``were showing a great interest in different
sides of the internal political and economic situation in Russia, and are
trying to influence processes occurring in our country.'' 
Earlier this month Russia pressed espionage charges against an American
telephone technician, who protested his innocence. He is free on bail but
confined to the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. 
Russia earlier this year said it reserved the right to use nuclear weapons
first in the event of war, ending a Soviet-era pledge not to be the first to
use nuclear weapons. 
The summary released on Thursday did not give details on what the Russian
government would do to better secure the country's economic stability,
although achieving economic growth has been Moscow's primary task for years. 
Russia has experienced economic depression since the fall of communism in
1991, although government officials say 1998 should finally bring some
economic growth.

*******

#8
Voice of America
DATE=12/18/97
TITLE=GORBACHEV / NEW YORK (L ONLY)
BYLINE=KELLY LAPPAS
DATELINE=NEW YORK

INTRO: FORMER SOVIET PRESIDENT MIKHAIL GORBACHEV WAS IN NEW YORK
TODAY (THURSDAY) AND MET WITH THE CITY'S MAYOR RUDOLPH GIULIANI .
V-O-A'S KELLY LAPPAS REPORTS.

TEXT: MAYOR GIULIANI TOLD REPORTERS MR. GORBACHEV IS AN 
IMPORTANT FIGURE IN HISTORY, OBSERVING THAT THE FORMER SOVIET 
LEADER MADE THE WORLD A "SAFER PLACE."

SIX YEARS AFTER THE BREAK UP OF THE SOVIET UNION, MR. GORBACHEV 
AND MAYOR GIULIANI DISCUSSED PRESENT CONDITIONS IN RUSSIA. MR. 
GORBACHEV -- SPEAKING TOGETHER WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATOR -- SAID
THE TRANSITION TO A FREE-MARKET ECONOMY HAS NOT BEEN EASY.

/// GORBACHEV AND TRANSLATOR ACT ///

OF COURSE, TODAY THERE ARE SOME PROBLEMS. WE ARE NOT 
FULLY SUCCESSFUL. THERE ARE SOME PROBLEMS IN YOUR 
COUNTRY. RUSSIA, OF COURSE, IS GOING THROUGH A 
DIFFICULT TRANSITION, IS LOOKING FOR ITS RIGHTFUL PLACE.
THIS IS SOMETHING, THIS IS A PROCESS THAT SHOULD NOT BE 
FORCED. 

/// END ACT ///

IN ANSWER TO REPORTERS' QUESTIONS, MR. GORBACHEV SAID CUBA WILL 
EVENTUALLY INTEGRATE WITH THE CHANGING WORLD AND ADDED THAT CUBA 
SHOULD BE TREATED WITH RESPECT. MAYOR GIULIANI DISAGREED.

DESPITE THEIR DISAGREEMENTS, MR. GORBACHEV SAID HE VALUES THE 
CHANCE TO MAINTAIN A GOOD RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MOSCOW AND NEW 
YORK. MR. GORBACHEV, SAID HE WAS PLEASED WITH HIS DIALOGUE WITH 
THE MAYOR.

/// GORBACHEV AND TRANSLATOR ACT ///

I THINK IT WAS A VERY GOOD OPPORTUNITY TO CONTINUE THIS 
KIND OF VERY OPEN DIALOGUE AND THE ABILITY TO ENGAGE IN 
THIS DIALOGUE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ACHIEVEMENT THAT OUR
TWO COUNTRIES HAVE AFTER MANY DECADES OF CONFRONTATION 
AND IDEOLOGICAL STRUGGLE.

/// END ACT ///

ASKED ABOUT HIS COMMERCIAL FOR A FAST FOOD PIZZA COMPANY, MIKHAIL
GORBACHEV SAID IT WAS A ONE-TIME DEAL AND HE HAS NO INTENTION OF 
DOING ANOTHER. 

*******

#9
Russian CP Leader Says Post-Yeltsin Era Arrived 

NTV
16 December 1997
[translation for personal use only]
>From the "Segodnya" program; passages in quotation marks are
recorded

Important political reports came in from Siberia today. Communist
Party leader Gennadiy Zyuganov has arrived in Novosibirsk which is
traditionally associated with the communists. He is canvassing among his
supporters and urging the population to vote for them at local elections. 
This report is from Novosibirsk.
[Correspondent] Communist Party leader Gennadiy Zyuganov has arrived
in Novosibirsk to support the Communist Party's candidates at elections to
the local regional council which will take place here on 21 December.
[passage omitted: correspondent recaps on previous local elections in which
the communists were victorious].
[Video shows Zyuganov addressing the meeting]
[Zyuganov] "For example, in the area around Moscow it is only in
Yaroslavl that so far the People's Patriotic leadership has not yet come to
power. Representatives of our movement have come to power in all other
regions." [passage omitted: correspondent recaps on elections to the Moscow
city duma]
[Zyuganov] "Even in Moscow, Gonchar's bloc with the democrats was
pushed by the block which is backed by the executive power led by [Moscow
Mayor Yuriy] Luzhkov."
[Correspondent] The executive power which supports the Union of
Belarus and Russia and the strengthening of ties with Ukraine suits the
Communists. Regarding the Russian executive power, the attitude toward it
is completely the opposite.
[Zyuganov] "Chubays represents American capital. He not only
represents this capital but he also actively carries out their policy. We
have managed to squeeze out almost all of his group. I can assure you that
Chubays will be out of the government before the spring comes."
[Correspondent] Speaking of the President, Gennadiy Andreyevich thinks
that the post-Yeltsin era has already arrived in Russia.
[Zyuganov] "Never mind people telling me that Mr Yeltsin will be
working, and that he will be taking a walk again tomorrow, after three
strokes and a most serious heart operation, I can assure you that he is a
really sick man, who has not worked effectively and will not be able to
work. The post-Yeltsin era has already come. It is very important now to
elect and strengthen positions in all regions." [passage omitted:
correspondent says that Zyuganov will be meeting the electorate and
journalists today]

********

#10
Nemtsov: 'Court' Influence on Yeltsin Highly Exaggerated 

Moscow, December 16 (Itar-Tass)--The alleged influence upon President
Boris Yeltsin by his "court" and family is highly exaggerated, Russian
First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov said, referring to numerous and
persistent mass media reports to the contrary.
"The 'court' does exist, no matter whether the head of state is called
tsar or president," Nemtsov told Itar-Tass. "The court makes decisions and
sometimes mistakes, like any court does."
However, "the president's entourage can hardly influence his decisions
to a large degree," the vice premier said. Final decisions are made by the
president himself, and this is only natural with a politician "personifying
strong power," Nemtsov pointed out.
"This is exactly the type of power we should have in Russia," he
added.
"I once referred to Boris Yeltsin as 'tsar', and that was not by
accident," Nemtsov said. "The powers wielded by the current president are
not inferior to those of a constitutional monarch.
"I call him tsar according to the Russian tradition. But in fact, the
president does resemble a tsar, at least outwardly. It would never occur
to me to call Mikhail Gorbachev (the last Soviet president) a tsar. While
you can apply this title to Yeltsin without a jeer: The scope of his figure
allows for it."
As for the president's family and their influence upon his political
decisions, Nemtsov rejected all the talk as "not very decent" and warned
that "those claiming to have any influence upon Yeltsin's family simply
engage in wishful thinking."
The first deputy prime minister said he had had just a few encounters
with the president's wife, Naina Yeltsin, and described her as a "very nice
and pleasant woman."
"She is the complete opposite of Raisa Gorbachev," Nemtsov said. "She
never interferes in her husband's affairs. And in this sense, Russia is
lucky," he added.
Speaking about the president's daughter, Tatyana Yeltsin, Nemtsov
admitted that she has a more active stand in life. However, she deals only
with the issues assigned to her by the president, he pointed out.
"I believe that one should not exaggerate the family members' ability
to affect the president's decision-making process," Nemtsov concluded.
Yeltsin tends to compare himself to Peter the Great and even to
identify himself as Boris I. His apparent favorite Boris Nemtsov is
sometimes referred to by mass media as Boris II.

********