January 2, 1998  
This Date's Issues: 2000  •

Johnson's Russia List
#2000
2 January 1998
davidjohnson@erols.com

[Note from David Johnson:
This message is being sent from my parents home in Petersham,
Massachusetts. Let me add to the personal message of December 31
the reassurance that the Russia List has NOT played a negative 
role in my personal life or in that of my family. Quite the opposite. 
So please don't worry that you have been enjoying a guilty pleasure. 
1. Reuters: Yeltsin says Russia still undergoing growing pains.
2. Alan Fogelquist: Eurasia Research Center Web Site.
3. Izvestia: ARE WE LIVING BETTER NOW?
4. ARGUMENTY I FAKTY NEW YEAR POLL.
5. Christian Science Monitor: Peter Ford, A Russian Debunks The 
Bard.
6. RIA-NOVOSTI REVIEWS THE MAIN EVENTS OF 1997.
7. The Age (Melbourne, Australia): James Meek, Sir Humphrey shows 
that mandarin is understood in Russia. (British TV in Russia).
8. Paul Goble (RFE/RL): Analysis from Washington: One Country, Two 
Foreign Policies.
9. Boston Globe: David Filipov, Anxiety is the bottom line. Weary 
Russians face ruble redenomination.
10. Reuters: Russia will ring in New Year with old problems.
11. Interfax-Argumenty i Fakty: RUSSIAN POLITICIANS SUMMARISE 1997, 
MAKE FORECASTS FOR 1998.]

**********

#1
Yeltsin says Russia still undergoing growing pains

MOSCOW, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Russia is still overcoming ``growing pains'' in
adopting to the market economy but the government will achieve its main goals
by the end of 1998, Russian President Boris Yeltsin said on Wednesday. 
Russia ``is learning, almost on its feet, overcoming growing pains and the
fear of change,'' Yeltsin said in televised New Year's greetings broadcast
initially in the Russian Far East, whose main cities rang in 1998 eight hours
ahead of Moscow. 
``Our state has a thousand-year history. But the new, democratic Russia in
1998 will be only seven years old,'' the president said. ``For a person this
is a time of schooling and study. It's the same for a country. It is now
acquiring new experience to regain its deserved place in the world. 
``But let us remember: from all difficulties and troubles, Russia has
always
emerged even stronger, believing as before in itself and its mission.'' 
Yeltsin acknowledged that the Russian government, which a year ago had said
1997 would bring renewed growth to a country still suffering from economic
depression, fell short of its goals. 
``I want also to note that we have not managed to carry out everything we
planned,'' he said. ``But I am sure it will turn out all right next year.'' 
Government officials now say that Russia should experience economic
growth in
1998 for the first time since the Soviet Union collapsed just days before the
end of 1991. 
Yeltsin's New Year's greetings are broadcast just minutes before
midnight in
each of the country's 11 time zones. 

********

#2
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 07:30:46 -0800
From: Eurasia Research Center <eurasia2@sprynet.com>
Subject: Eurasia Research Center Web Site

I want to send New Years Greetings to readers of Johnson's List. I also
want to thank David Johnson for providing us with an essential resource for
detailed information on recent developments in Russia. The articles
containing different viewpoints and interpretations of Russian trends and
events are especially useful.

This note is to let readers of Johnson's list know about the Eurasia
Research Center web sites, which have been designed to give visitors quick
links to incoming news and information on Russia and neighboring countries.
The links are frequently updated so that scholars, researchers, or
journalists interested in these countries can easily find some of the most
information rich web resources on the regions or topics of their interest.
There are also links to news on special topics such as Eurasian
geopolitics, economic reform, privatization, crime and corruption, and the
environment. The site is organized by country and region so that it is easy
to find information on Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, or Azerbaijan.

The URL for the Eurasia Research Center Web Site is:

http://eurasianews.com/erc/homepage.htm

The ERC also has a special web site dedicated to today's Iran.

http://eurasianews.com/iran/iranhome.htm

I hope that you will find the site useful for locating information that
will help you in your research and analysis of problems in Russia and
related areas.

Best Wishes to You All

Alan Fogelquist, PH. D.
Eurasia Research Center

*********

#3
>From RIA Novosti
Izvestia
December 27, 1997
ARE WE LIVING BETTER NOW?

The "Public Opinion" service headed by G. Pashkov, carried
out a telephone public opinion poll of 1,020 respondents on
December 19, 20 and 21.
The question asked was whether the outgoing year was good
or bad for you and your family.

Year 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997
---------------------------------------------------
Good 34.1 25.1 35.5 36.4 39.7 34.4 46.7

Bad 39.8 53.6 43.2 43.4 34.3 41.5 28.5

I can't
say for 
sure 26.1 21.3 21.3 20.2 26.0 24.1 24.8
---------------------------------------------------

********

#4
>From RIA Novosti
ARGUMENTY I FAKTY NEW YEAR POLL
Argumenty i Fakty, No. 52
December 1997

The year 1997 is coming to a close. We have bought all the
presents and are now anticipating the moment when, with a glass
of invariable champagne in our hands, we shall wait for the
Kremlin chimes to strike midnight. This will happen soon
enough, but now is the time for summing up the results of the
outgoing year.
On the order from the AiF, the All-Russian Public Opinion
Study Centre (VTsIOM) asked people to give their opinion of the
outgoing year and tell about their hopes for the future.

The events which gladdened you
(no more than three)

Payment of arrears of pensions 29% 

Stabilisation of the rouble,
a fall in inflation growth rates,
calm international situation,
a great diversity of interesting
newspapers and magazines, films
and TV programmes 15% (each item)

The emergence of a hope that
Russia will get out of the
crisis 14%

Growing trust to Russia
in the international arena 9%

Growth of people's social
activity 7%

Signs of revival of the
national industry 5%
-----------------------------------------------------

The number of those who are inspired by the "accelerated
pace of democratic reforms" in this country has remained
unchanged for several years running now (1%).
The number of people who find at least some joy in this
life has increased by 13 percent.

THE EVENT OF THE YEAR
(not more than three)

The final withdrawal of troops from Chechnya 44%

The air crash of the "Ruslan" 
aircraft in Irkutsk 43%

The mine blast in the Kemerovo Region 35%

The announcement of the re-denomination
of the rouble in 1998 24%

The death of Svyatoslav Richter, Bulat
Okudzhava, Yury Nikulin 23%

Payment of arrears of pensions 21%

The scandal around A. Chubais'
authorship fee 19%
---------------------------------------------------

In 1993, the overwhelming majority of people in Russia
saw the liberalisation of prices as the event Number One of the
outgoing year; in 1994, the entry of troops into Chechnya and
the "Black Tuesday" (a financial crisis caused by a sudden
sharp rise in the dollar rate of exchange); in 1995 - the
capture of Grozny, the murder of Vladislav Listiev and a number
of air crashes in December, in 1996 - the crisis with the
payment of wages and allowances. 

THE NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR
Below, is the breakdown of the polled people's
preferences:
1. AiF (Argumenty i Fakty) 15%
2. Komsomolskaya Pravda 9%
3. SPEED-INFO 8%
4. Moskovsky Komsomolets 5%
5. Trud 3%

WHAT WILL THE YEAR 1998 BE LIKE?
Very good 1%
Good 14%
Normal 40%
Bad 20%
Very bad 4%
I can't say 
for sure 21%

Which means that the pessimists are in a minority in this
country.

********

#5
Christian Science Monitor
December 31, 1997 
[for personal use only]
A Russian Debunks The Bard 
By Peter Ford

MOSCOW -- It is difficult to imagine a landscape farther removed from 
the bucolic, half-timbered English towns of Warwickshire than the grimy, 
shoddily built district of Moscow where Ilya Gililov lives.
But here, in the cramped apartment he shares with his wife, cat, and a 
great many books, Mr. Gililov has thrown himself into the world of 
William Shakespeare.
After more than 20 years of teaching himself to read English, poring 
over Shakespearean texts, sending out envoys to examine original 
manuscripts in foreign libraries, and combing through scholarly work, he 
believes he has solved the ancient riddle of who really wrote the plays 
and poems signed "Shakspere."
That question has puzzled literary figures - including Mark Twain and 
Walt Whitman - for more than 100 years, and theories have abounded 
naming Francis Bacon, Philip Marlowe, even Queen Elizabeth I, as the 
personality behind the pen. 
In his new book, "The Game of Shakespeare," Gililov, who is secretary of 
the Academy of Sciences' Shakespeare committee, sets out in intricate 
detective-novel detail why he believes the fifth Earl of Rutland and his 
wife actually wrote Shakespeare's work.
The book, now in its second edition, has landed on the nonfiction 
bestseller lists in Russia, and Gililov hopes it will soon be translated 
and published in English. 
"My book and my articles challenge British and American scholars to a 
debate," he says defiantly. "Now the question has been posed, it has to 
be answered."
As far as mainstream academics are concerned, there is no question. 
Theories that someone other than William Shakespeare of Stratford on 
Avon wrote "Hamlet," the sonnets, and everything else in the 
Shakespearean canon "are less respectable than ever," says Richard 
Wilson, a Shakespeare scholar at the University of Lancaster in England.
Speculation abounds nonetheless. Just this year, American literary 
critic Joseph Sobran wrote "Alias Shakespeare: Solving the Greatest 
Literary Mystery of All Time" (Free Press), which makes a forceful case 
for Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. 

Analysis and watermarks

Gililov, who lives on a modest pension and wrote his book on an ancient 
typewriter, bases his theory on careful textual analysis, detective work 
on ancient manuscripts, and some striking pieces of circumstantial 
evidence.
He discovered, by examining watermarks, that the only three extant 
copies of a book containing one of Shakespeare's poems were published at 
the same time, despite being dated differently on their frontispieces. 
Revealing that mysterious discrepancy earned him a fellowship at the 
Folger Library in Washington, the mecca for Shakespeare scholars, and 
propelled him into the world of mirrors that he believes concealed 
Shakespeare's real identity.
On his journey, he has uncovered some strange coincidences: For example, 
the Earl of Rutland attended Padua University, and among his classmates 
were two students named ... Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern. The Rutland 
family's archives at Beauvoir Castle reveal that the fifth Earl's 
steward paid Shakespeare 44 shillings in 1612, the year of Rutland's 
death, after which the man from Stratford disappeared. 
And while we do not know who paid for Shakespeare's memorial in a church 
in Stratford, it was built by the same two brothers who made Rutland's 
tomb, to a very similar design.
Gililov believes that Rutland and his wife hid behind the actor-manager 
William Shakespeare, arranging a historic hoax by paying him to pretend 
to be the author of their poetry. "This is the most grandiose piece of 
all of Shakespeare's theater," he says. "This is a play for the ages 
that we are still acting in today."
Gililov stands in a long and distinguished tradition of Russian 
fascination with Shakespeare that persists to this day. Three different 
productions of "Hamlet" are being staged in Moscow this season, and a 
literary review is currently running a competition to find new 
translations of Shakespeare's sonnets.
Competitors do not lack for examples to follow: Most of the great 
Russian poets - most recently Boris Pasternak - turned their hands to 
translating Shakespeare, and even Empress Catherine the Great produced a 
Russian version of "The Merry Wives of Windsor."

The Bard's Soviet parables

Popularized here by the Romantics in the early 19th century, 
Shakespeare's plays lived on through the Soviet era as parables. "During 
Stalin's time it was impossible to stage plays about the tragedies 
unfolding in front of peoples' eyes, so they went back to the classics 
and gave them hidden meanings," Gililov recalls.
Gililov also fits right into a Russian tradition of conspiracy 
theorizing in a country sadly accustomed to not being told the truth 
about anything by its leaders. In Russia, reality lies behind the 
official account, and this atmosphere feeds the search for somebody else 
behind Shakespeare's name.
Indeed, the Rutland theory has a Russian pedigree. One of the first to 
propose it was an émigré professor named Porokhovshchikov, and one of 
its early adherents was Anatoly Lunacharsky, the first Soviet commissar 
for culture. When the great Russian poet Anna Akhmatova visited England, 
she refused to visit Shakespeare's memorial in Stratford, on the grounds 
that he had had nothing to do with "Shakespeare."
Lunacharsky's political downfall, however, brought his ideas about 
almost everything - including Shakespeare - into disrepute, and the 
question became taboo. Soviet ideologists were delighted to promote the 
image of an untutored genius emerging from the people to become one of 
history's most brilliant figures.
Now, in the new atmosphere of freedom in post-Soviet Russia, Gililov is 
spoiling for a fight. "Some of the things in my book are fully accepted, 
and some are only partly proved. I am opening the discussion," he says.
Although he certainly won't find much acceptance among Western 
Shakespeare scholars, some academics grant that William Shakespeare was 
probably not solely responsible for the plays bearing his name. 
"Most people now work on the assumption that all late 16th-century plays 
were collaborations - more like what we would call a theater workshop 
today," says Jonathan Sawday, an expert in Renaissance literature and 
culture at the University of Southampton in England. "You should think 
of Shakespeare as the character who put the whole process into motion."
But attributing all of Shakespeare's writings to someone else is reading 
too much into ambiguous evidence, says Professor Wilson, quoting Antony 
in "Antony and Cleopatra": "Sometimes we see a cloud that's dragonish."
*******

#6
RIA-NOVOSTI REVIEWS THE MAIN EVENTS OF 1997
31 December 1997

POLITICS

-- The Big Four met late in 1997 that was proclaimed the
year of reconciliation and accord by President Boris Yeltsin of
the Russian Federation. A round-table discussion was also held
several days ago. A new machinery of constructive interaction
between executive-power and legislative-power branches, as well
as leading socio-political associations for the sake of
elaborating agreed-upon approaches toward the solution of
pressing national problems was activated.
-- A team of young reformists headed by First Deputy Prime
Ministers Anatoli Chubais and Boris Nemtsov joined the Russian
Government.
-- Boris Yeltsin and Aslan Maskhadov signed a treaty on
peace and principles of relations between the Russian Federation
and the Chechnya-Ichkeria Republic in Moscow.
-- It was decided to issue new civilian passports to the
Russian Federation's citizens in place of former Soviet
passports.

THE ECONOMY AND FINANCES

-- The Russian Government decided to re-denominate the
rouble, which will "lose" three zeros after January 1, 1998,
thus replacing those "paper" millions and symbolizing the
stabilization of the Russian financial system and an economic
recovery.
-- Voucher privatization was replaced with bids envisaging
the sale of leading Russian corporate stocks, e.g. those of
Norilsk Nickel, Svyaz-Invest and the Tyumen Oil Company. Such
bids have channelled substantial monies into the federal budget,
thereby making it possible to tackle acute socio-economic
problems. Contradictions between leading financial-industrial
groups were aggravated at the same time, with President Boris
Yeltsin stepping in and demanding that the so-called "banking
war" be stopped.
-- The Russian stock market was hit really hard by the
global crisis at Asian and other foreign stock exchanges. Russia
had to pay dearly for its integration into the global financial
system. However, the consequences of that crisis turned out to
be less serious than the pessimists predicted. The Russian
Cabinet has managed to stop the rouble from plunging, restoring
the confidence of international financial institutions and
obtaining IMF and World-Bank credits in full volume by late
1997.

CULTURE, SCIENCE AND PUBLIC LIFE

-- Moscow marked its 850-th anniversary, which became an
outstanding international event, highlighting the Russian
capital's tremendous potential as one of the world's biggest
megapolises.
-- The Culture state-run and non-profit TV channel was
opened, thus making it possible to once again revive and expand
those rich traditions of Russian culture and the arts within its
framework.
-- Russia's problem-ridden Mir orbital station continued
its spectacular space odyssey that was more thrilling to watch
than any science-fiction movie. The unlimited potential of
international space exploration was displayed during the Mir
mission.

DISASTERS, NATURAL CALAMITIES

-- This country was shocked by terrible disasters, such as
an explosion at Zyryanovskaya mine near Novokuznetsk (Kemerovo
region), air crashes in Irkutsk, near Sochi and Naryan-Mar and
calamities in southern Russia. All of them claimed dozens of
lives, inflicting tremendous material damage.

RUSSIA-CIS 

-- Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Alexander Lukashenko signed
a treaty dealing with the Russian-Belarussian union.
-- President Boris Yeltsin of Russia and his Ukrainian
counterpart Leonid Kuchma signed a treaty on friendship,
cooperation and partnership, completely settling the problem of
the Black Sea Fleet's division.
-- Russia played an important constructive role in settling
various conflicts on post-Soviet territory, including those in
Tajikistan, the Dniester area and Trans-Caucasia.

RUSSIA AND THE WORLD

-- The founding act on mutual relations, cooperation and
security between Russia and NATO was signed in Paris. 
-- President Boris Yeltsin attended the G-7 summit in
Denver, Colorado. That summit heralded Russia's admission as a
full-fledged member into that elite club of the world's leading
nations.
-- Russia was also admitted as a full-time member into the
Paris Club of creditor nations and into the Asia-Pacific
Cooperation Council, signing a package of debt-rescheduling
agreements (as regards former Soviet debts being owed to the
biggest foreign commercial debts) with the London Club.
-- Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Japan's Prime
Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto met for their "no-neckties" summit
near Krasnoyarsk, reaching an historic agreement to the effect
that a bilateral peace treaty should be concluded by the year
2000.
-- Russia made an important contribution to settling the
crisis around Iraq. Moscow's energetic diplomatic moves made it
possible to prevent yet another sharp aggravation of the
regional situation.
-- An international consortium for producing and exporting
Caspian oil was created with Russia's participation.

******** 

#7
The Age (Melbourne, Australia)
31 December 1997
[for personal use only]

Sir Humphrey shows that mandarin is understood in Russia
By JAMES MEEK,
Moscow, Tuesday 

A tale of skulduggery, hypocrisy and broken promises at the highest 
level, set to unfold on Russian television on New Year's Day, would 
hardly raise an eyebrow among a public used to lurid exposes of Kremlin 
scandals, except for one detail: the minister and civil servant involved 
are British. 
Russian bureaucrats are expected to send their Mercedes drivers home, 
switch off their mobile phones and sit glued to the box on Thursday 
night as the first episode of Da, Gospodin Ministr - better known as the 
BBC's Yes, Minister - offers a course in mandarin-speak and realpolitik 
UK-style. 
The backhanders are seats on government agencies, not brown envelopes; 
the secret deals are stitched up in gentlemen's clubs, not saunas; and 
the pedigrees are Oxbridge rather than Soviet Communist Party. But 
Russian television chiefs find something oddly familiar about it all. 
"The BBC were doubtful whether it would suit our audience in Russia. But 
I'm absolutely convinced it's going to work," said Mr Alexander Akopov, 
head of programming at Russian TV, which will beam the sitcom to most of 
Russia's 147 million viewers. 
"We do have something in common, after all, and I don't think the 
bureaucratic machine's been shown in action better anywhere." Russian TV 
hired a team of translators, comedy writers and half a dozen actors to 
dub the sparring between the civil servant Sir Humphrey Appleby (Nigel 
Hawthorne) and the minister Jim Hacker (Paul Eddington). 
"I've no doubt that the main audience for the program will be among the 
civil servants themselves," Mr Akopov said. "They'll recognise 
themselves, they'll recognise their classic apparatchik tactics, and 
they'll laugh louder than anyone." 
Despite the popularity of Benny Hill and Mr Bean, dialogue-rich British 
situation comedies, from Fawlty Towers to Absolutely Fabulous, have not 
been hits in Russia, because of cultural incomprehension and poor 
dubbing. 
But Russian TV believes it has the right ingredients this time. It has 
even persuaded the British ambassador to Moscow, Sir Andrew Wood, to 
record an introduction. 
The chief script editor, Mr Konstantin Naumochkin, said aspects of 
British government that would have made no sense to Soviet viewers had 
now become part of Russian life. 
"Five years ago the words `tax inspector' wouldn't have meant anything 
to a Russian. Now they do." - Guardian

*********

#8
Analysis from Washington: One Country, Two Foreign Policies
By Paul Goble

Washington, 29 December 1997 (RFE/RL) -- Conflicting statements by 
Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his foreign minister, Yevgeniy 
Primakov, concerning the state of relations between Moscow and the West 
raise some questions about Russian foreign policy intentions in 1998. 
In his New Year's messages to foreign leaders, Yeltsin said that 
Russia's inclusion in the G-7 group of major economic powers -- which 
now becomes effectively the G-8 -- and progress on disarmament were 
evidence of "effective Russian-American cooperation." 
But in his year-end assessment, Primakov adopted a very different tone. 
Speaking to a press conference last Tuesday, the Russian foreign 
minister suggested that Moscow's effort to form a strategic partnership 
with the West had failed. 
He even suggested that the idea of such cooperation has "lost its luster 
with time" and that "such ties had started turning into those between 
patron and client," a relationship Russia could never find acceptable. 
And Primakov said that Russia not only remained opposed to any eastward 
expansion of NATO but was actively considering the extension of Russian 
security guarantees to those countries in Central and Eastern Europe not 
offered membership in the Western alliance. 
Despite coexisting in the same government, the two men have often been 
at odds in the past on a wide variety of foreign policy issues. But 
seldom has the distance between the two been so great on an issue of 
fundamental importance. And that raises three interrelated questions: 
First, does this difference between Yeltsin and Primakov presage a break 
between the two? Second, is this split simply a tactic designed to 
compensate for Russia's current weakness? And third, what does this 
difference portend for Russian foreign policy, especially if Yeltsin is 
incapacitated for significant periods of time during the next year? 
In virtually any other country, a public division this deep between the 
president and his top foreign policy aide would presage the rapid 
departure of the latter from office. No president with executive 
responsibility for foreign affairs could be expected to tolerate what 
must appear to other leaders as open insubordination. 
One explanation for Primakov's continued survival is that he reflects a 
part of the Russian political spectrum that Yeltsin cannot or will not 
challenge even if he personally disagrees with it. Yeltsin appointed 
Primakov to placate the nationalists in the Russian parliament and the 
Russian population; he may not be able to fire him even if he wants to. 
If that interpretation is correct, Primakov may be able to continue in 
office for some time. A second interpretation is that he is in trouble 
and that he is speaking out now precisely to drum up support for himself 
among his traditional allies. If that is the case, Russia may have a new 
foreign minister sooner rather than later. 
But yet a third interpretation, increasingly heard both in Moscow and 
the West is that this public disagreement is simply a clever tactic, 
with Yeltsin playing the part of the sympathetic good cop while Primakov 
plays the bad cop. 
According to that scenario, the two men have agreed to their assigned 
roles with each gaining as a result. Yeltsin can approach the West as a 
friend with the not so implicit warning -- the voice of Primakov -- that 
another and less sympathetic Russia is possible if the West does not 
give him what he wants. 
If that is the case, the two men have more in common than a superficial 
reading of their speeches might suggest. And no one should expect a 
fundamental change in the direction of Russian foreign policy anytime 
soon. 
But even if the two men are playing these roles -- and that is far from 
certain -- they do have very different ideas at least on the basis of 
their public remarks. And that in turn raises the issue of just where 
Primakov might take Russian foreign policy if Yeltsin is incapacitated 
for an extended period as has often been the case in the last year. 
If Yeltsin were to pass from the scene, a new Russian government might 
decided to replace Primakov or alternatively to back him fully. But if 
Yeltsin is simply not in full control of the situation, Primakov may be 
in a position to act ever more independently. 
That could have the effect of making Primakov statement this week a 
self-fulfilling prophecy -- and also of undermining any chance for 
Yeltsin's more hopeful one. 

********

#9
Boston Globe
31 December 1997
Anxiety is the bottom line 
Weary Russians face ruble redenomination
By David Filipov 

MOSCOW - Olga Nikolayeva just got her telephone bill and she is ready to 
panic. 
The unemployed aerospace worker does not make a lot of long-distance 
calls - her bill is for 10,500 rubles, which is about $1.80 according to 
today's exchange rate. What she is frightened about is tomorrow, when 
the government issues new rubles with three zeros chopped off. This 
means that one US dollar equals about six new rubles instead of 6,000 
old ones. 
''Does that mean my bill is worth $1,800? How am I going to pay that? Am 
I going to be ruined, again?'' Nikolayeva asked. To find out, she went 
to her local bank, where Russians pay their phone bills. No luck there - 
the bank is closed until Jan. 5. 
Nikolayeva need not worry, at least about the telephone bill. The 
government has promised that new and old currencies, which look the same 
except for the zeros, will circulate together for one year. All she has 
to do is pay her phone bill using 10,500 in old banknotes. 
But her confusion about the change in the ruble epitomizes the mood here 
as reform-weary Russians brace for what they fear will be another 
painful episode in their six-year post-Soviet odyssey. 
Confidence in the local currency, never high in the best of times, has 
plunged again. Uncertainty about what will happen next is a constant in 
a country whose prime minister, Viktor S. Chernomyrdin, likes to say, 
''We wanted things to turn out well, but they turned out as they always 
do.''
Long lines at banks and currency exchanges indicate that people are 
withdrawing their money in dollars and stashing them under mattresses. 
Since the 1991 Soviet breakup, Russians have protected their assets by 
keeping them in dollars. One newspaper recommended that people make big 
purchases before the new year because money next year will be in short 
supply. 
Other analysts have warned of a new round of inflation. They predict the 
money supply will double when the new bills arrive. This, in turn, will 
force down the value of the ruble and push Russia's fragile financial 
system to collapse. 
Still others, including a number of people interviewed for this story, 
are convinced that the redenomination was merely a ploy by the 
government to raise prices. 
''Mark my words, adventurists and slimeballs will make money on this,'' 
Nikolayeva said. ''This is the story of our country. It's easy to trick 
us because everyone is walking around confused.''
No one anticipated this gloom when President Boris N. Yeltsin announced 
the currency redenomination last August. At the time, Russia appeared to 
have reached the bottom of its economic fall. Inflation that once topped 
2,600 percent was down to 12 percent and the ruble, which had plummeted 
for years, was holding firm. 
The plan to lop off zeros appeared to be a vote of confidence in the new 
stability of the currency. It also loomed as a potential political coup 
for Yeltsin, who could claim to have restored prices to pre-reform 
levels. 
But the global financial upheaval that erupted after the plan was 
adopted has shaved 30 percent from the value of Russia's stock market. 
Foreign investors, reminded once again of Russia's volatility, have 
pulled out, putting added pressure on the ruble. 
To avoid a collapse similar to South Korea's, the Russian Central Bank 
has raised interest rates on its treasury bills to attract back foreign 
investors. The plan has stemmed the ruble's slide, but it could put even 
more pressure on the financially strapped government. 
In the eyes of ordinary people, says Julia Shvets of the 
Russian-European Center for Economic Policy, redenomination has ''added 
to the general confusion and uncertaininy about what is going on in the 
economy. Right now, to throw a currency reform into this mess looks like 
very bad timing.'' 
Russian Central Bank officials have tried to calm the public by noting 
that similar redenominations have occurred in Poland and Ukraine without 
any tangible negative effect on those economies. And the officials 
remind people that the introduction of new US $100 bills in Russia last 
year went smoothly, despite widespread fears of disaster. 
But many Russians are not buying the argument that what works for the 
dollar and the zloty can work for the ruble. This skepticism stems 
largely from the country's stormy recent history of confiscatory 
currency reforms. In 1991, people were given only a few hours to 
exchange their old money for new notes. That rush caused panic and 
erased the savings of those who kept their money in cash. 
Russians also remember the early years of market reforms, after the 
Yeltsin government lifted Communist-era price controls in 1992. In the 
resulting hyperinflation, lifetime savings in bank accounts shrunk 
overnight. Nikolayeva's family had 9,000 rubles in an account, which in 
1,990 rubles was enough to buy a car. Today, 9,000 rubles buys a 
toothbrush. 
''Russians are tired of sudden upheavals and most of all want stability, 
and therefore react badly to any changes in their daily life,'' said 
Boris Zhukov, a commentator on social issues for the news magazine 
Itogi. ''Any actions by the state toward the national currency makes 
average people think, in the best-case scenario, of lines and hassles, 
and in the worst, of huge new losses in their personal wealth.''
To fight skepticism, the government has blanketed the airwaves with 
advertisements in which celebrities describe the change as a harmless 
step that will simplify daily life. ''It's the same money, just without 
all those zeros that we're all tired of anyway,'' says actor Anatoly 
Kuznetsov in one ad. 
The campaign has had some effect. Weekly surveys from the Public Opinion 
Foundation, a respected Moscow-based pollster, have shown a slight drop 
in Russians worried about the upcoming changes. 
Still, about one in four Russians thinks that the reform will trigger 
new financial disasters. And many of those who claim not be be worried 
may still privately harbor concerns. Another question in the weekly 
surveys asks participants about the attitudes of people they know who 
support redenomination. The most common answer is, ''I haven't met 
any.''
''Those polls miss the point,'' says Valeria Avdeyeva, who sells baked 
goods from a table in a Moscow outdoor market. ''If people aren't 
worried about the redenomination it's because nobody has any money. How 
can you be worried about what will happen to something you don't have?''
Asked whether she intends to accept old rubles after Jan. 1, Avdeyeva 
said, ''I'll see after the new year. Who can say what will happen?'' 

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#10
Russia will ring in New Year with old problems
By Peter Henderson 

MOSCOW, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Russia scraped up enough money to settle accounts
with millions of workers at the end of 1997 but a bright new year will offer
grand new opportunities to pile up new debts, economists said on Wednesday. 
``The fiscal hole is still there,'' said Dan Lubash, emerging markets,
Europe,
director at Merrill Lynch. 
Despite clear indications the economy is finally growing after years of
decline and stagnation, Russia's dysfunctional tax collection system, bringing
in about half the targeted receipts for the year, has not been fixed,
economists say. 
Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and his reform-minded lieutenant Boris
Nemtsov boasted the government had sent public sector workers 14.5 trillion
roubles ($2.4 billion) by year-end, meeting President Boris Yeltsin's promise
to pay wage arrears. 
``The most important result of 1997, concerning all Russians, is that we
are
finishing the year without any wage arrears,'' Chernomyrdin was quoted by
Interfax news agency as saying. 
Many economists took a longer term view. 
"My suspicion is this is a one-time payment,'' Lubash said. ``This is going
to be an ongoing problem.'' 
Russia is now much better off than what it has been over the last eight
years
of stagnation. 
It feels confident enough about inflation to redenominate the rouble from
January 1, lopping off three zeroes to establish a rough rate of six to the
dollar. 
``The Russian economy is fundamentally healthy,'' said Tuomas Komulainen,
chief economist at Moscow brokerage CentreInvest Securities. ``There are no
fears of currency crisis, inflation is low, current and trade accounts have
huge surpluses.'' 
Russian domestic debt prices which plummeted in November have
strengthened. 
To some Russia's world-leading equities market, which lost more than 40
percent of its value in October and November but still finished the year up
almost double on 1996, looks cheap. 
``Russia looks attractive compared to other emerging markets,'' said
Kingsmill
Bond, who heads Deutsche Morgan Grenfell's Russian research. 
The 1998 draft budget working its way through parliament is much more
realistic than the 1997 plan, Bond said, though he added revenue targets for
the new year were still optimistic. 
But the broadly positive outlook is not enough to protect Russian
markets from
the turmoil shaking the rest of the globe. 
``Russia is not sufficiently independent to ignore what is happening in the
rest of world,'' Bond said, pointing to turmoil in Japan, which had heavy
emerging market investment. 
Russia has performed best when United States markets have been steady, he
added. 
``Investors should keep their focus on the way developments in Japan affect
the U.S.'' 
Lubash said Russia faced at least two years of fiscal troubles as it
straightened out tax collection problems and hopefully implemented a new tax
code in parliament. 
Yeltsin said on Tuesday he had expected a better year and called for
``considerable improvement'' in 1998. 
Lubash said foreign investors who this year poured money into cheap Russian
company shares would take harder looks before handing out the cash that will
spur further growth. 
Like Yeltsin, investors will look for results, he said. 
``People are going to look for performance.'' 
($ - 5,980 roubles) 

*********

#11
>From RIA Novosti
Interfax-Argumenty i Fakty, No. 1
January 1998
RUSSIAN POLITICIANS SUMMARISE 1997, MAKE FORECASTS FOR 1998

Ivan RYBKIN, Security Council secretary:
The coming year should mark a turning point in many
respects. Hopefully, this country will see the end of the
economic slump and the beginning of growth in the economy,
which means that those who work, who create real values will
find life easier. More people will realistically live a worthy
life and hopefully see the fruit of the reform in their
everyday life. 
But there will be no further progress of our reforms
without a decisive transformation of land relations in this
country.
I am very much concerned over the fates of the military,
officers and privates alike. A decisive military reform has
finally been launched on the basis of the national security
concept and the military development programme endorsed by the
President. The common task for all is to make sure that not a
single retired officer should find himself outside the flow of
life, to prevent a repetition of the 1959 mistakes. 
I would like to see a very important political objective
become a reality in 1998. I mean concord between the various
political forces and in the ruling elite, I want to see all
co-thinkers rally behind the President, I want to see the
socialists and the liberals to come to agreement. 
In the years, which now seem so distant, when I was
teaching in Volgograd, my colleagues and me, who were so very
different and had both Centrist and Rightist convictions, we
were united primarily by the national interests of this
country. The correctly understood interests, the love of the
country - free of nationalism, chauvinism and gung-ho spirit
which can only spoil everything - can help consolidate 
society. 
Today, Russia is doomed to attaining concord. I want this
to happen as soon as possible, preferably in the new year.
I sincerely wish all the best to every home. Let us
remember that we are repairing our common home and that all the
reforms are expected to work for the good of every tenant.

Vladimir RYZHKOV, deputy State Duma speaker from the Our
Home Is Russia faction:
In a nutshell, the main result of the year is economic and
political stability. In the economy, the GDP has grown, for the
first time in the past few years, if only by a half percent.
The volume of industrial production has grown, too - 1.5
percent up.
In politics, there have been no bad cataclysms: the Duma
has not been dissolved, the government has not resigned, there
have been no mass protests, etc. Importantly, the fall saw the
trend of rapprochement between the executive and the
legislative authorities. 
I am confident that the trend will continue in the new
year. We will see a growth, if only slight, of the economy. I
am confident that we will be able to collect more taxes thanks
to a number of projected measures. One step is to establish
closer control over the sale of alcoholic beverages, to combat
moon-shining, and to collect alcohol excise payments in full.
Another move is to control the natural monopolies, to improve
the approaches of the tax police and shift their attention onto
individuals, markets and the so-called grey economy which
operates huge funds and pays no taxes.
The year 1998 will be stable from the viewpoint of the
political situation. I do not foresee any political tremors in
Russia. There will be no serious reasons for confrontation and
tougher struggle. Some elections are past, others are still far
away. It will be a quiet year. 
But it will be decisive for the executive authorities. 
The rule of the game is: the victor in the elections has
six months to form a team and get it going, then he has two
years to make radical changes and live up to his election
pledges. In the middle of the third year, he cannot change
anything because he is bracing up for new elections. The first
of the two quiet years is past. There have been no tremors, but
no breakthroughs either. This means 1998 is the last chance for
the executive authority. For the President and the government,
it should be a year to show initiative. Initiative and drive.
If there is no breakthrough in 1998, they will have no time to
deal with economic matters in 1999.

Alexander SHOKHIN, leader of the Our Home Is Russia
faction in the State Duma:
To borrow maths terms, this year is ending positively. The
slump in the economy is nearing an end. There is economic
growth, even if small. 
Switching from the economy onto politics, let me note the
main thing: the executive and the legislative authorities have
displayed restraint and wisdom - the Duma did not pass the vote
of no-confidence in the government and was not dissolved. 
I hope the positive democratic trends will continue in
1998, too. The Duma will adopt the 1998 budget at the beginning
of the year, the nation will be confidently working to overcome
the crisis. 
I think that the infamous end of the Weimar Republic,
meaning a weak democracy and the coming dictatorship, is
impossible in our case. Our collective intelligence will
prevent the rise of monstrous dictators. 
The latest elections on all legislative levels prove that
democracy in the country is growing and becoming stronger. I am
optimistic about the future, although our problems would not be
automatically resolved, of course, and it would take time and
perseverance to attain accord and understanding in society. 

Grigory YAVLINSKY, leader of the Yabloko faction in the
State Duma:
This year has been wasted. There have been declarations:
combating corruption, starting a housing reform, and
competitive army procurement, which is good per se. But nothing
has been done. The year has not been marked by a breakthrough. 
Hopefully, in the coming year the President will get sick
and tired of the impotent and corrupt government which the
people do not trust, which is incapable of collecting taxes,
providing jobs, and dependably paying wages and pensions. He
will sack the government and will find people who understand
the problems and can resolve them. 
The good thing to happen is, first, spring. Secondly,
there will be summer which may be warm. Thirdly, one can
confidently predict a harvest in the fall, including cabbage,
so that the people would have sauerkraut as the President
advises. 
And there will be the Women's Day on 8 March, the Victory
Day on 9 May and, finally, the New Year's Day again.

Nikolai RYZHKOV, chairman of the Narodovlastie (Power to
the People) group of State Duma members:
From the point of view of the economy and economic
activities, the year 1997 has not been one of the best, I
regret to say. Moreover, it has been even worse, as evidenced
by the analysis of the situation and my personal contacts and
meetings with the electorate. 
Judging by everything, the chosen course is faulty and
leads into a dead end. 
I think that the activities of the parliamentarians in the
past year have been more productive compared to the previous
years. The factions have identified their positions, all MPs
have been working so much better. Importantly, we now know
who's who. 
Our supreme authorities have been smeared with dirt, in
particular in connection with the book scandal. Understandably,
the things that have recently come to light are rooted in the
past of two or three years ago. Regrettably, we are
increasingly becoming an appendix of the international
financial structures. The activities of the Popular Patriotic
Union of Russia, whose executive committee I chair, have become
more fruitful in the past year, its structures have grown and
are better coordinating their interaction. 
I am quite satisfied with my personal life, my
grandchildren are students. One grandson, who is 15, is a
military school cadet, of which I am proud. 
I would want the President and the premier to finally
realize, in 1998, that the situation is the country is grave
enough and to make steps, in particular, to get a new
government. Its name does not matter: a government of popular
trust, a coalition government, a government of professionals...
Importantly, all major political forces should be represented
on it, the forces that would chart serious measures to lead
Russia out of the crisis. 
We need new forces and new people whom the nation may
trust. There is no other way. I think it is important for the
President and his team to tell the people all the truth about
the mistakes that have been made in the past years, to repent
and identify ways to lead the country out of the crisis. 

Lev ROKHLIN, chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee:
This year is one of the six grey years, it has brought
nothing but ruin, nor could it bring anything else. There is no
hope of changes to come. 
First of all, this is because the President is the leader,
the helmsman who steers the country's course. He is
systematically forming teams. Any team is formed to fit an
idea, political will, and have a programme for more than one
day, but rather for several years at least. A short-term
programme, a long-term programme, etc. 
Since none of the teams can exist for more than six months
or a year, can any programme be implemented? Since each time
after these people leave the President's team they come to be
exposed as criminals, mafiosi, con men and thieves for whom
their personal gain is supreme, can one hope that the
President's team can achieve any success for the nation?
Therefore, this past year is yet another year of Russia's
disintegration and movement into the precipice.
Transcript by Alexander BELONOVSKY
and Lyudmila SHCHERBINA.

**********