February 11, 1998   
This Date's Issues: 2056 •2057  • 

Johnson's Russia List
#2057
11 February 1998
davidjohnson@erols.com

[Note from David Johnson:
1. RFE/RL NEWSLINE: NEWSPAPER CLAIMS YELTSIN CAMPAIGN USED FOREIGN 
MONEY.
2. Commersant Daily: HALF OF RUSSIANS KNOW NOTHING ABOUT YELTSIN'S
ANNUAL ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT. The Other Half Do Not Care What It Is All 
About.
3. Interfax: Chubais: Russia Saw First Economic Growth In Ten Years 
In 1997.
4. Interfax: Nemtsov: Excessive Share Of Big Companies In GDP May Result 
In Crisis.
5. Reuters: Ex-Aide to Yeltsin Says PM Declined Successor Role.
6. Interfax: Gov't to Start Data Bank on Public Groups.
7. Russia Today satire: Mary Campbell, Let Me Say This About That.
8. AP: Fire Damages Museum on Red Square.
9. UPI: Zhirinovsky plane arrives in Baghdad.
10. Los Angeles Times: Vanora Bennett, Attack on Georgian Leaves Region 
Leery of Russia.
11. Jamestown Foundation Monitor: SARATOV WANTS TO RENEGOTIATE 
POWER-SHARING AGREEMENT. 
12. NTV: Nemtsov Interviewed on 'Hero of the Day.'
13. New York Times: Michael Specter, The Icebreaker: Russian Men Find 
Solace in Winter Fishing.
14. Moskovskiye Novosti: Child Musicians Outperform Davos Delegation.] 

*******

#1
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 2, No. 28, Part I, 11 February 1998

NEWSPAPER CLAIMS YELTSIN CAMPAIGN USED FOREIGN MONEY. "Moskovskii
komsomolets" alleged on 11 February that U.S. money helped finance
Yeltsin's expensive re-election campaign in 1996. The newspaper charged
that in March 1996, $500 million in $100 bank notes was sent as a
diplomatic shipment to the U.S. embassy in Moscow. Officials from the
embassy told the newspaper that the shipment was planned to ensure that
there were enough new $100 bank notes to meet demand in Russia. (The U.S.
changed the format of the $100 bills in late 1995.) But "Moskovskii
komsomolets" argued that if that were true, the money could have been
stored at the Russian Central Bank rather than at the embassy. It claimed
the $500 million was quickly "acquired by large Russian banks," which
"played an active role in the Yeltsin campaign." Russian law prohibits
candidates from accepting contributions from foreign donors. "Moskovskii
komsomolets" is considered close to Moscow Mayor Yurii Luzhkov. LB

********

#2
>From RIA Novosti
Commersant Daily
February 5, 1998
HALF OF RUSSIANS KNOW NOTHING ABOUT YELTSIN'S
ANNUAL ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT
The Other Half Do Not Care What It Is All About
By Natalya TIMAKOVA

President Boris Yeltsin is to make his annual address to
the Federal Assembly (parliament) on February 17. His attitude
to this happening is more than serious. He dedicated the
beginning of this week to work on its text. In the meantime,
the opinion poll conducted by the Obshchestvennoye Mneniye
Foundation has revealed that 58% of Russians do not know that
the president makes such an address in the Kremlin's Marble
Hall every year.
While the government and the presidential staff vie with
each other as to whose view of the state of affairs in Russia
and prospects for its development the President shares,
ordinary Russians are preoccupied with absolutely different
things. The President's address is titled "From Stabilisation
to Growth," and it lays down a new policy of economic growth.
However, only 9% of Russians said that they would like to hear
the President talk of the "prospects and evaluations of
economic growth" and 34% that the main theme should be
"measures towards overcoming the economic crisis and stopping
production slump".
As many as 36% of the respondents say that they would be
interested in only one theme, namely, "guarantees for the
timely payment of pensions, benefits and wages to public sector
employees" and 24% want the President to tell them how he is
going to improve the quality of life and narrow the gap which
exists between the rich and the poor.
Only 3% of Russians have any interest in the "development
of the domestic market and the influx of investment" to which,
according to the variant published by the Commersant Daily,
much attention will be dedicated in the presidential address,
and as many in the theme of "the world financial crisis and its
aftermaths for Russia", which the government is currently
preoccupied with. On the other hand, 14% of Russians are
concerned about "ensuring peace in Chechnya and settlement of
any conflicts by peaceful means", whereas the address
practically does not deal with this issue (the word "Chechnya"
is not used in the draft of the address).
It is interesting that the number of pessimists is almost
the same as the number of optimists in Russia: 16% of the
respondents want the address to sum up the negative aftermaths
of 1997 and 14%--its positive results; 18% hope that the
president will criticise members of the government and 4% that
he would commend them.
Upwards of 15% of Russians do not know what they would
like to hear from the President. This is not surprising as 48%
of Russians say that it does not matter to them "what and how
the President will say in his annual address."

*******

#3
Chubais: Russia Saw First Economic Growth In Ten Years In 1997

MOSCOW, Feb 11 (Interfax-FIA) - Russia experienced economic growth last year
for the first time over the past ten years, First Deputy Prime Minister
*Anatoly
Chubais* told a meeting of the Moscow Financial Club. 
GDP rose by 0.4%, industrial output increased by 1.8% while the annual
inflation
rate went down to 11%, Chubais said. 
"Extremely energetic and professional actions of the authorities which
will be
understood and supported by the business community" are needed to sustain this
fragile tendency for growth, he said. 
The document entitled "Twelve Main Tasks of the Government" sets the
current
objectives, he said. "The Taxation Code is the backbone of this list," he
said. 
The government's tasks in the financial sphere are of crucial
importance, he said.
The financial improvement in the Russian economy should be started with
collecting debts to the federal budget, he said. However, the draft 1998
federal
budget adopted by the Duma in the third reading fails to fully address these
issues, he said. The current budget "is considerably more responsible than the
absurd budget of 1997. It will contribute to improving the situation with
nonpayments," he said. 
Russian President Boris Yeltsin issued a decree on state finances late
last year to
tackle the wage arrears in the public sector. The decree envisages "complete
inventory of the arrears to split them into the so-called good and bad
debts," he
said. "State securities will be issued for the entire "good" debt for
trillions of rubles,"
he said. The public sector organizations lacking adequate financing sources
are to
be disbanded, in line with the decree. A complete restructuring of the budget
sphere will begin with the Health Care, Education and Defense Ministries,
he said. 
"The consequences of the lingering financial crisis in Southeastern Asia
are also to
be overcome," in addition to internal economic problems, he said. 
The current tasks facing the government are by far simpler than those
resolved
previously, he said. 

*******

#4
Nemtsov: Excessive Share Of Big Companies In GDP May Result In Crisis

MOSCOW, Feb 11 (Interfax) - An excessive share of big companies in the
structure of the Russian GDP may result in a crisis similar to the one that
hit
several Asian countries at the turn of the year, First Deputy Prime
Minister *Boris
Nemtsov* said in an interview for the Russky Telegraph newspaper Wednesday. 
"I find it dangerous when GDP is dominated by the production of big
companies.
The crisis in Southeast Asia, in my opinion, was caused by such an
oligarchy in
the economy. The system formed there was extremely unstable and therefore hit
by a crisis. This is what awaits Russia, if the situation is not changed,"
he said. 
In these conditions Nemtsov thinks it crucial to support small and
medium-sized
businesses. According to him, while in industrialized countries over 80% of
the
employed work at medium-sized and small companies, in Russia 80% work at big
or medium-sized companies with a staff of 500 or more. "In such conditions
it is
neither possible to combat unemployment or create a socially-oriented
market," he
said. 
Asked about the privatization program for this year Nemtsov said Prime
Minister
Viktor Chernomyrdin approved a plan for the sale of stocks in Rosneft and
Svyazinvest. Speaking of the size of the Rosneft stake to be auctioned Nemtsov
said the government "will get more money from selling a 75% plus one share." 
"The decision is for the prime minister to make, of course," he stressed. 

*******

#5
Ex-Aide to Yeltsin Says PM Declined Successor Role 
Reuters
10 February 1998

MOSCOW -- Boris Yeltsin's former bodyguard and
confidant said on Tuesday the Russian president had
asked Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin several times to
be his successor but his loyal ally had refused. 
In an interview with the weekly magazine Profil, Aleksander Korzhakov, 
who was sacked in June 1996, added a new twist to the long-running drama over
whether Yeltsin will seek a third term in 2000 or, if he does not, who he
wants to
be his heir. 
Asked if it was true that Yeltsin had asked Chernomyrdin to
succeed him and the prime minister had refused,
Korzhakov said: "Absolutely right -- even in my time (in the
Kremlin)." 
Asked if powerful business leaders would lend the stolid
premier their valuable support, Korzhakov replied: "If Boris
Nikolayevich chooses Chernomyrdin, they will back only
him." 
Yeltsin, 67, seemed last month to rule out running in the
election due in 2000. He has also said he knows who he
wants to succeed him although he has not even told that
person yet. 
But Kremlin aides say Yeltsin's decision may not be final
and are awaiting a Constitutional Court ruling on whether
he is able to seek another term. 
The 1993 constitution limits a president to two terms but
some experts say Yeltsin is still serving his first term under
those regulations because the Soviet constitution was still
in force when he was first elected in 1991. 
Korzhakov, now a member of parliament, was widely touted
as Russia's second most powerful man after a decade at
Yeltsin's side and probably knew his boss better than any
other official. 
His comments about the president now are tinged with
bitterness after his abrupt dismissal in a scandal over
election campaign funding. 
But his remarks give more credibility to the widely-held view
that Chernomyrdin, a 59-year-old former gas industry chief,
has established himself as the president's first choice after
more than five years as prime minister. 
"There were many situations when Yeltsin could have
removed Chernomyrdin, even sacrificed him, but he did not
do it. Now, more than ever, he will not do it when his health
is not very good," Korzhakov said. 
"He needs to count on reliable people, on old ones -- on
those who have not let him down in the past." 
Chernomyrdin seemed to have gone out of favor when
Yeltsin, bouncing back after heart surgery, promoted young
reformer Boris Nemtsov into the government last March to
help revive reforms. 
But Yeltsin remained loyal to Chernomyrdin and the prime
minister's star is in the ascendant again as Nemtsov's
wanes. 
Chernomyrdin has carefully avoided giving the impression
he is hungry for power. This successful tactic means he
would be likely to reject any open proposal by Yeltsin to be
his heir too long before the election, even if he wants to be
president. 
Yeltsin cannot simply name the next president, but
whoever he names as his preferred successor will have the
huge advantage of the backing of the Kremlin
administration. 
The chosen candidate will also have a good chance of
gaining the backing of influential business leaders whose
support proved vital in Yeltsin's re-election in 1996. 

*******

#6
Gov't to Start Data Bank on Public Groups 
Interfax
10 February 1998

MOSCOW -- The Russian presidential commission on
political extremism has decided to set up a data bank on all
public organizations and parties in the country. 
"It is incorrect to label any organization as extremist without
due legal study. That is why it was decided to set up a data
bank on 60,000 public organizations and 5,000 parties at
the Ministry of Justice," Justice Minister Sergei Stepashin
told the press Tuesday. 
He said it will take two to three months to set up the full
database. If the operations of a public group or party falls
under the classification of extremist, the matter will then be
taken to court. 
Stepashin said similar commissions will be set up in all the
provinces. "I know that most regions are ready for that," he
said. 
He said the first conference on political extremism would be
held on March 31 to analyze the phenomenon in the North
Caucasus, especially Dagestan. 
"We believe the greatest threat comes from Islamic
fundamentalism, namely Wahhabism. It is a special form of
political extremism similar to terrorism," Stepashin said.

*******

#7
>From Russia Today
http://www.russiatoday.com
The Week That Was
Satire by Mary Campbell

Let Me Say This About That 

President Boris Yeltsin and spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky are
preparing for a press conference. 

Yeltsin: Ask me about my successor. Pretend you're a
reporter and ask me about my successor -- go ahead, just
ask me! 

Yastrzhembsky: (sighing) Okay. Mr. President, if you will not
run for a third term in the year 2000, have you chosen a
successor? 

Yeltsin: Yes, I have. 

Yastrzhembsky: And who is it? 

Yeltsin: Now watch this, first I smirk (smirks) then I say, "I
cannot say." 

Yastrzhembsky: (no longer pretending to be a reporter)
"You cannot say?" You think that's going to satisfy them?
"You cannot say?" 

Yeltsin: It will, when taken in connection with my responses
to several other key questions. Now ask me about the
Cabinet shuffle. Ask me whose heads will roll. 

Yastrzhembsky: Mr. President! You've said you plan some
changes in your government, what will they be? 

Yeltsin: Okay, now watch this – I adopt an enigmatic, Mona
Lisa-like smile (smiles enigmatically) and then I say, "I cannot
say." 

Yastrzhembsky: "You cannot say." Great. You've really got
it all thought out, haven't you Mona Lisa? 

Yeltsin: Hold on, it gets better. Now ask me where I'm
going to bury the last czar. 

Yastrzhembsky: I think I can see where this is going, but if
you insist – Mr. President! There has been a great deal of
debate over the final resting place for the bones of the last
czar. The final decision rests with you. Have you made
such a decision and if so, which city have you chosen? 

Yeltsin: (giggling) Now watch carefully – this is the best. I do
my sphinx look (grimaces) and then I say, "I have decided.
But I cannot tell you where." 

Yastrzhembsky: Wonderful. Why do I bother briefing you
on these issues? Why do I bother trying to prepare you for
the questions? You've clearly hit on a fool-proof plan. I
imagine it will work for any issue. Chechnya? 

Yeltsin: (beaming) I have made a decision on the republic's
status – but I won't tell you what it is! 

Yastrzhembsky: NATO expansion? 

Yeltsin: (dancing around Yastrzhembsky) Can't tell you! 

Yastrzhembsky: The use of force in Iraq? 

Yeltsin: (still dancing, hands over his ears) What's that you
say? Speak up please! 

Yastrzhembsky: Your health? 

Yeltsin: (dancing out door, hands still over ears) Can't hear
you! 

Yastrzhembsky: Brilliant. 

********

#8
Fire Damages Museum on Red Square
11 February 1998

MOSCOW (AP) -- Fire broke out today at the recently renovated Historical
Museum
on Red Square, but firefighters quickly contained the blaze and only
limited damage
was reported.
Welding tools apparently started the fire, which burned garbage and
scaffolding
inside the 126-year-old red brick building, said Nikolai Sarychev,
spokesman for
Moscow's firefighting department.
Part of an empty hall still under renovation was damaged, Sarychev
said. The fire
department ordered renovations stopped until safety precautions could be
reviewed.
The museum, tracing history from ancient times through the collapse of
the Soviet
Union and into modern Russia, has exhibits that include archaeological
artifacts from
ancient times and memorabilia from today's leaders.
The museum reopened 13 of its more than 40 exhibition rooms last
September. It
had been closed for 11 years while undergoing renovations that were stalled
by the
Soviet collapse and a lack of money.
Despite the fire, the museum will remain open to the public, said Sarychev.

*******

#9
Zhirinovsky plane arrives in Baghdad

YEREVAN, Armenia, Feb. 11 (UPI) _ A Russian Ilyushin-86 plane chartered by
ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky (``vlah-DEE-meer
zhee-ree-NOV-skee'')has landed in Baghdad after waiting three days in
Yerevan, Armenia for United Nations clearance to enter Iraq. 
The plane, is carrying several tons of medical supplies and 30
passengers, including a number of Russian legislators and reporters. 
Last night the U.N. commission in charge of enforcing sanctions against
Iraq approved the flight plan. 
Iran has authorized the plane to fly through its airspace en route to
Iraq. 
On Tuesday, Russia's Foreign Ministry summoned the United States
ambassador in Moscow in an attempt to soften U.S. opposition to the flight,
which Russia says is humanitarian but the United States considers as a
parliamentary visit. 
Only humanitarian aid may be flown directly into Iraq under U.N.
sanctions. 
The flight originally had more than 200 people on board, including 48
Russian legislators and more than 100 journalists. 
The United Nations requested the number of people accompanying the
medical aid be cut, and after much protesting from Zhirinovsky, Russia
complied. 
At the last minute Zhirinovsky tried to spirit an extra 20 supporters on
board, but was stopped by the Russian Ambassador and a U.N. official. 
Zhirinovsky swore at the Russian envoy, and then slapped his face before
running on board the aircraft. 

********

#10
Los Angeles Times
February 11, 1998 
[for personal use only]
Attack on Georgian Leaves Region Leery of Russia 
Caucasus: Target Eduard Shevardnadze hints rivalry for Caspian oil
pipeline is behind failed assassination. 
By VANORA BENNETT, Times Staff Writer

MOSCOW--The fragile calm of recent years is shattered:
Russia's volatile southern neighbors, which have been
recovering from wars that devastated them after the
Soviet collapse in 1991, are in uproar again over the latest failed
assassination attempt against the region's grand old man,
Georgian President Eduard A. Shevardnadze. 
The reason for Tuesday's disquiet is the fear among political
leaders across the former Soviet south that Russia, the region's
one big power, may have been behind the attack. They believe
that Russia is trying to bring chaos back to its neighbor--to stop
Georgia from taking the share of the region's new oil finds that
Moscow wants for itself. 
The oil, just beginning to flow to the West from the Caspian
Sea, is expected to make the poor south as fabulously rich in
the next century as the Persian Gulf is today. 
"Are There Traces of Oil in the Bloodshed in Tbilisi?"
screamed the headline of the Moscow paper Izvestia, echoing
the dark conspiracy theories bandied about all day by politicians
in Georgia and other southern states. 
Shevardnadze was the first to point the finger at Russia. 
As soon as he escaped the Monday night onslaught in Tbilisi,
the capital, by 10 to 15 men who pounded his motorcade with
guns and antitank grenades for a dozen minutes and killed two
of his guards, the president rushed to Georgian television to
make his suspicions public. 
After years of stabilization in his once-turbulent nation,
Shevardnadze said, the local private armies that might once
have been blamed for such violence no longer exist. 
Post-Soviet Georgia fought and lost a conflict with
Russian-backed separatists in its seaside region of Abkhazia in
1992 and 1993. 
Since then, the 70-year-old Shevardnadze, a former Soviet
foreign minister, has been painstakingly restoring order to his
ethnic homeland. 
* * *
Georgia's two most notorious former warlords were jailed
after a 1995 assassination attempt against Shevardnadze.
Russia is sheltering another Georgian, Igor Giorgadze, a former
security service chief who was also implicated in that attack. 
"There are practically no groups left in Georgia capable of
carrying out this kind of attack," Shevardnadze said. Monday's
violence must therefore have been organized from abroad, he
concluded. 
He recalled Georgia's rivalry with Russia for a lucrative
contract exporting Caspian oil. 
The first oil is being exported down a Russian pipeline, but
major U.S. oil firms in the international consortium extracting
Caspian crude do not want to rely too heavily on Russia, since
this route runs through the unstable separatist region of
Chechnya. They want a second pipeline to be built across
Georgia. 
But Shevardnadze said, "Powerful forces have an interest in
another solution to this question"--a suggestion that Russia was
trying to squeeze Georgia out by fair means or foul. 
He repeated his reproaches Tuesday on Moscow's
commercial NTV channel, saying the attack was not local but
organized by "some third force capable of training professional
assassins." 
Vakhtang Abashidze, Shevardnadze's spokesman,
underscored this suspicion, saying in an interview: "This
assassination attempt coincided with recent regional
developments including discussion of the pipeline question. . . .
It may be a coincidence--and it may not--that last week [two
Russian political scientists close to the Kremlin] . . . wrote in the
newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta that a policy of regional
destabilization could be in Russia's geopolitical interests in the
near future." 
Such charges are not new. Russia has a documented
post-Soviet history of stirring up local discontent by funding one
side or another in ethnic conflicts--notably in
Nagorno-Karabakh, Chechnya and Abkhazia--to keep the new
regimes of the south weak and divided and to ensure its own
continued dominance of the region it ruled until 1991. 
On Tuesday, Russian officials, including President Boris N.
Yeltsin, made statements deploring the attack and vowing to
fight international terrorism. 
But these remarks were not enough to satisfy furious
Georgian lawmakers, who asserted that the mystery gunmen
had escaped to a Russian military base in Georgia and
demanded that all Russian bases be sealed off. 
Movladi Udugov, the Chechen foreign minister and a leader
of his region's 1994-96 war for independence from Russia, also
blamed "the long arm of Moscow." 
* * *
Two other circumstances fueled southerners' suspicion of
Russia: 
* The amount of weaponry used in the full-scale onslaught,
which suggested that the gunmen were supplied from military
bases; Russia keeps 18,000 soldiers at five bases inside
Georgia. 
* The Russian passport found on the one gunman who did
not manage to fade away into the dark streets of Tbilisi after the
attack failed. Killed by a shot in the back, presumably from
someone in his own group, the man turned out to be carrying
documents indicating that he was a Russian citizen and
ethnically Chechen. 
While Russian media made much of the gunman's alleged
Chechen ethnicity--as well as hinting that the assassination
attempt could be a violent local response to Shevardnadze's
latest anti-corruption campaign--Georgian officials were
skeptical of the passport. They believed that it could have been
planted to divert blame to Russia's object of hate in the region,
the Chechens. 
"Of course it looks pretty fishy for a terrorist to carry his
passport during an assassination attempt on a state leader,"
Abashidze said. "Investigators are treating this piece of
evidence with open suspicion." 

********

#11
Jamestown Foundation Monitor
11 February 1998

SARATOV WANTS TO RENEGOTIATE POWER-SHARING AGREEMENT. The go-getting
governor of Saratov Oblast on the Volga says the power-sharing agreement his
region signed with the federal center last year is already "too restrictive"
and needs to be renegotiated. The Monitor's correspondent in Saratov says
Governor Dmitri Ayatskov has issued a public statement in which he says he
wants to get federal government agreement that oblast residents should do
their military service only inside the oblast. (Neighboring Tatarstan and
Bashkortostan already enjoy this privilege.) Ayatskov is also threatening to
declare a moratorium on repaying the oblast's old debts which, he says, are
obstructing the region's economic development. He says that the present
system of taxation gives unfair privileges to Russia's ethnically based
republics while putting an unfair burden on the ethnically neutral krais and
oblasts. 

Ayatskov is far from the only Russian governor to complain of unfair
treatment. The speaker of the Federation Council, Yegor Stroyev, who is also
governor of Orel Oblast, has repeatedly called for the cancellation of the
power-sharing agreements signed by the federal center with some forty of
Russia's eighty constituent provinces and their replacement by a federal
code that would put all republics, krais and oblasts on an equal footing. 

An alarmist article in the latest issue of the newspaper Vek argues that
Russia's regions are increasingly taking the law into their own hands and
that the Russian Federation is, as a result, threatened with disintegration.
The Stavropol Krai administration has demanded the transfer of all armed
forces in the territory to the jurisdiction of the regional Defense Council.
The president of Ingushetia is threatening to defy the federal center and go
ahead with a referendum on transferring the procuracy, Interior Ministry and
judiciary to republic jurisdiction. Meanwhile, the example of Primorsky
Krai's Yevgeny Nazdratenko shows that the Kremlin is powerless to remove a
rogue governor. It follows, Vek argues, that regional leaders will go on
taking more and more power into their own hands until the Russian Federation
falls apart. (Vek, No. 6, February 6)

Ayatskov's call for a renegotiation of his region's status can, however, be
taken to imply the opposite. While it is clear that Ayatskov wants more
autonomy for his region, he seems to be going about getting it in a legal
and open manner. Because of the weakness of the federal center, Nazdratenko
is able to enjoy his powers by default (Primorsky Krai has signed no
power-sharing treaty with the center). Ayatskov, by contrast, wants his
powers de jure. The very fact that he is proposing to renegotiate Saratov's
prerogatives, not grabbing powers as Nazdratenko has, suggests that the rule
of law is being observed in at least some of Russia's regions. In general,
Russian devolution still has a long way to go before it will be possible to
compare the Russian Federation to as decentralized a federation as, say, the
Federal Republic of Germany.

******

#12
Nemtsov Interviewed on 'Hero of the Day' 

NTV 
5 February 1998
[translation for personal use only]
Russian First Deputy Premier Boris Nemtsov interviewed for "Hero
of the Day" program presented by Svetlana Sorokina -- live

[Sorokina] Good evening, this is the "Hero of the Day" program with
Svetlana Sorokina in the studio.
In our very unstable times it is pleasant to know, and talk to, a man
whose fate is determined at least until the year 2000. In any event, this
timescale was determined by President Yeltsin when he spoke about the two
first deputy prime ministers, Nemtsov and Chubays. Moreover, Boris
Yefimovich Nemtsov was today given yet another honorary title when the
president called him "our generator of ideas." And so, we have in our
studio today Boris Yefimovich Nemtsov, first deputy prime minister of the
Russian government. Hello, again.
[Nemtsov] Good evening.
[Sorokina] Boris Yefimovich, who did Boris Nikolayevich [Yeltsin] have
in mind when he said that people are attacking him, about determining your
fate, seemingly, but he rebuffs them. Who is meant by this?
[Nemtsov] It is difficult for me to say but, in general, there are
extremely few people who would dare to attack the president and it is
difficult to list them. Nor is this necessary. There is specific work to
be done and they should get on with it. I think that this subject, which
has raised so much fuss today, is not worth bothering about.
[Sorokina] But why was it precisely today that the president took it
up and spoke about it?
[Nemtsov] Because he was asked about it by the journalist Terekhov.
[Sorokina] So, the main news of the day came out of thin air?
[Nemtsov] It is hard for me to say how news comes into being. I am
not a specialist on this. I only know that Slava Terekhov asked Boris
Nikolayevich about this and he replied.
[Sorokina] So, can one say that you were not expecting this, that he
should speak about your future in precisely these terms?
[Nemtsov] It was absolutely unexpected, although nothing was said that
was a great surprise to me, or to the people who work in the Kremlin and
the White Hose. And I say frankly that I prefer to speak about specific
and worthwhile things, such as those which the president and I discuss.
[Sorokina] I shall stop in a moment. I would just like to clear this
up once and for all. The president added that this would happen, you would
remain, if you yourself saw it through. Will you see it through?
[Nemtsov] You know, there is no need to worry about me. Everything
will be fine. Everything will go well for me. I am absolutely in the mood
to keep on working.
[Sorokina] Let us move on to questions about your work. What are the
unique features of the decree on investment which was signed today?
[Nemtsov] This really was a very important decision. It is a decision
which will make it possible to bring vast amounts of money into the Russian
economy. Everyone just talks about investment and says that industry has
collapsed, that agriculture has collapsed. But there have been very few
specific decisions which would promote technology and create jobs in
Russia. But today Boris Nikolayevich has signed a very important decision.
[Sorokina] Could you describe it very briefly?
[Nemtsov] What it amounts to is that if an investor -- it does not
matter whether he is Russian or foreign -- if an investor invests over $250
million and if every year the proportion of Russian components -- for
example for the assembly of machines -- increases so that after, say, five
years the majority of the parts and equipment is produced in Russia, then
he gets privileges. And the privileges are similar to those in a free
economic zone. But not in Kaliningrad Region, for example, or in Nakhodka,
but on the territory of the works, the works in which the huge amount of
money has been invested. I think that as a result of this simple decision,
major projects will rapidly grow up in Russia and the quality of, in the
first instance of our automobiles since the decree is devoted to the
automobile sector, the quality of our automobiles will approach the
European level much more rapidly than has been the case up to now. 
[passage omitted on officials beginning to use Russian cars]
[Sorokina] The second question that I would like to ask you is in
connection with the fact that today a whole cohort of young specialists was
sent abroad, just as Peter the Great did. This comparison has been made
very frequently today. In Peter's time, very many of those sent to study
abroad returned home. The majority. I do not know what attracted them
back to Russia. Do you expect these to return?
[Nemtsov] Where else would they go? It is more interesting here in
Russia. We have vast prospects. And I think that for the people who
visited the Kremlin today the feeling of patriotism is the dominating one. 
Moreover, many of those who went there today are absolutely independent
people. They do not depend on the state. They can feed themselves. They
are richer than me. They are much richer. And they will become even
richer still. May God grant them health and strength.
But that is not the main thing. The main thing is that they have
their businesses here and they have put down their roots in Russia, in the
new Russia, not in the old Russia but the new one. These are the people
who will determine the policy and economy of Russia in the twenty-first
century, our future. They tried timidly to say that today. The second
thing which has not been mentioned is that the president proposed creating
a so-called golden personnel reserve for Russia.
[Sorokina] What is this?
[Nemtsov] This is a data bank of outstanding young people who have
been through the crucible of selection, work attachments abroad and in
Russia and achieved fantastic business successes.
[Sorokina] What is going to be done with this data bank?
[Nemtsov] In Russia the problem often arises that there is no one to
take someone's place. [passage omitted on golden reserve replacing the
"nomenklatura" of Soviet times]
[Sorokina] Since we have spoken about new and far from poor
businessmen, I cannot miss the chance to ask you about the scandal over the
United Energy System company, about Brevnov and Dyakov. What do you think
about this situation?
[Nemtsov] I think that it is very unseemly and absolutely
impermissible to settle scores in public between the top leaders of a major
power company, just as it would be between the leaders of any other company
or the leaders of governmental organizations. It is very bad. Moreover,
it discredits the country. It comes at a very bad time since the energy
system is experiencing difficulties in its work. It is all not very nice.
Yesterday there was a meeting of a collegium of state representatives
and a clear and comprehensible assessment was given by the state, clear and
coordinated. The future of these people will be determined at a meeting of
shareholders and I think that this will be determined within the next few
months. I do not intend to predict what will happen as this is a decision
which is taken at the level of the government leadership and perhaps even
by the president.
[Sorokina] Is it not difficult for you to have an unprejudiced view of
the situation since Boris Brevnov is from Nizhniy Novgorod and you know him
well? Do you not have your own personal view?
[Nemtsov] Let me say that it is particularly unpleasant for me.
[Sorokina] Precisely because you know him.
[Nemtsov] Yes, naturally. And I do not wish at present to say who is
right and who is wrong. I think that the leadership should be made up of
decent, honest, and responsible people.
[Sorokina] Another subject which you discussed with Boris Yeltsin
today was the results of the work of the commission on burying the remains
of the Tsar. I know that he is going to consult the patriarch. Is this
because of some special position adopted by the Church? Why is there any
need for more consultations?
[Nemtsov] I think that it is a sacred matter to bury the Tsar and the
members of his family and entourage. But we do not want there to be any
additional conflicts or discords in society about this. I can say that the
president considers it absolutely essential to coordinate the decision with
the Russian Orthodox Church. [passage omitted on work of investigating
commission]
[Sorokina] Boris Yefimovich, do you think that the president will
reach a decision by the end of February?
[Nemtsov] I can give a very simple answer to that. Today, the
president gave instructions to Yumashev and myself to prepare the decision
in February.
[Sorokina] At the end of our conversation let us return to what we
started with. Today the president -- I do no know why he took up the
subject, whether he plucked it out of the air or whatever -- but he spoke
about your future and that of Chubays. But you may recall that a few days
ago, some time ago, he said that one or two people would be removed from
the government. Do you think there will be any reshuffle?
[Nemtsov] The president will decide this.
[Sorokina] Do you have any suspicions. Do you feel that something
will happen?
[Nemtsov] I am not a suspicious person. These intrigues and settling
of scores -- who will be removed and who will remain -- only prevent people
from working normally. If they want to remove someone, let them do it,
only it should be done quickly. It is like going to the dentist. It is
better to go in, open your mouth, get it over with and then with a feeling
that one has done one's duty, one can leave easily and freely. The same
happens with appointments and resignations. It is best when there is
certainty. It is best for everyone. People work in the government, too.
[Sorokina] My wish for you is to meet such news, if anything happens,
not with your mouth open.
[Nemtsov] I think that everything will be fine. I think that you have
seen that for yourself again today.
[Sorokina] Thank you, Boris Yefimovich, for coming in to reply to my
questions.

********

#13
New York Times
February 10, 1998
[for personal use only]
The Icebreaker: Russian Men Find Solace in Winter Fishing
By MICHAEL SPECTER

TOMSK, Russia -- What kind of man would stand for hours in the middle of 
a frozen river in the middle of Siberia in the middle of winter, 
battered by winds that could snap an oak and temperatures that would 
scare an Eskimo? 
Who would be crazy enough to stick live worms in his mouth to keep them 
warm, drill a hole in the ice with a corkscrew taller than he is, drop a 
line through the hole and wait patiently until an unsuspecting fish 
happened by? 
Why, a Russian man, of course. 
In fact, a few million of them. If there is a pastime here to compare to 
the American male's seemingly bottomless love of golf, it is undoubtedly 
ice fishing. 
Each winter weekend, fortified by nothing more than a mug of soup and a 
bottle of vodka, the men of Russia traipse off through endless expanses 
of snow to stand on huge stretches of ice in the hope of pulling a few 
small, mostly indigestible carp or perch from the icy depths beneath 
them. 
"What do you mean why?" Igor Makharov, 54, shouted in response to the 
obvious question. An engineer, Makharov was standing in the middle of 
the Tom River here, not 10 minutes' walk from the center of the city. 
Other men -- always alone -- had fanned out across the frozen river, 
each boring holes through the 2-foot floor of ice. 
The temperature stood at 32 degrees below zero, but Makharov was in 
heaven. "I don't know how people live without ice fishing," he said. "If 
you had ever done it even once, you wouldn't have to ask such a 
ridiculous question." 
"Can you just feel how clear the air is?" he asked in all seriousness as 
his listeners frantically stamped their feet in a futile attempt to 
share the pleasure of the moment. "To fish here on a day like today is 
absolute joy. Anybody can fish in the summer. It's not the same. Ice 
fishing is the only real way I have ever found to forget my troubles 
completely. It is the most peaceful thing a man can do." 
It also seems to be the perfect expression of two immutable Russian 
traits: a love of suffering and a mystical soul. Standing alone, 
swallowed by vistas of white on every side, gives any Russian who wants 
it the chance to star, if only in his own mind and only for a little 
while, in a personal version of "Dr. Zhivago" or "War and Peace." 
Such is the popularity -- and importance -- of ice fishing, that on his 
recent vacation in the snowy wilds of northwest Russia, President Boris 
Yeltsin made a big show of spending some time on the river every day. 
Nobody ever says what they catch. It doesn't matter. Russian men will 
stand on a sheet of ice until their toes freeze, carefully bending over 
with a soup ladle to flick unwanted chunks of ice from a lovingly 
crafted fishing hole. They will return to the same spot on the same 
river or lake week after week, certain that their spot has a special 
meaning that could not be found anywhere else on earth. 
The routine never varies. The men lower a lure -- a worm warmed by mouth 
or kept alive pinned in an armpit -- and then they retreat to a stool 
and a bottle for a half-hour to see what happens. Like so much of 
Russian life itself, the experience is really a challenge: the ultimate 
outward bound event. 
It can also be perilous. Ice fishing may sound sedate, but it is often 
deadly. So far in Russia, more than 50 people have died ice fishing this 
winter. Some fell through unexpected cracks in the ice. Two froze to 
death. Several simply drifted on a broken ice floe out to sea. 
Last year so many people near St. Petersburg came unmoored on giant 
hunks of ice that the police started a regular boat patrol along the 
coast. Fishermen complained that it scared their prey. 
"There is a little risk to everything that's wonderful," said Sergei 
Shubov, 44, an electrician. He argues that serenity and isolation are 
well worth a small chance of frostbite or death. 
"Look at Russia's favorite summer hobby," he said. "Do you know how many 
people die gathering poison mushrooms every year? It doesn't mean it 
isn't fun." 
There must be something to the serenity, because nobody could be doing 
this for the fish. A man can stand from morning till night, often 
wrapped in a plastic garbage bag with a hole big enough for a bottle, 
and his catch can amount to three to five scrawny white fish. 
There was a time when no one who fished here could ever fail. Before the 
Soviet Union turned much of this area into an industrial dump, residents 
used to take thousands of tons of fish each year from the rivers and 
lakes of Siberia. Hunting and fishing made the region prosperous. 
No more, though. Tomsk is like most big cities in central Russia and 
Siberia: Industries dot the riverbanks, and sewage and chemical waste 
are dumped into the river without a thought to the consequences. 
"The fish may be polluted," said Shubov, who does this every week of the 
winter -- and in Siberia that's a lot of weeks. "Most people say that if 
you catch them in winter, they are cleaner. But I don't really do it for 
the fish. I don't even eat them. I do it for the chance to be alone with 
my thoughts." 
Asked if he thought it was a rather extreme way of getting to know 
himself better, Shubov laughed. 
"This is how Russians relax," he said. "Who said it's supposed to be 
comfortable?" 

*******

#14
Child Musicians Outperform Davos Delegation 

Moskovskiye Novosti, No. 4
1-8 February 1998
[translation for personal use only]
Report by Aleksandr Vaynshteyn from Davos: "36.6 Degrees on the
Chernomyrdin Scale"

At the opening of the World Economic Forum, the Russia Government
chairman was sitting in the front row of the congress center. From the
stage, President Flavio Cotti of the Swiss Confederation, Chancellor Helmut
Kohl of Germany, and Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai of Thailand discussed the
priorities of the 21st century, the theme that had brought the intellectual
political and business elite of the planet to Davos. Viktor Stepanovich
[Chernomyrdin] felt particularly uncomfortable when Kohl was addressing him
personally. He was unable to react properly: He was not getting the
customary simultaneous translation through his headphones. At the last
minute, the organizers of the forum had decided to replace the Russian
language with Thai.
Even misunderstandings can be symbolic. The fact that the annual
increase in the number of Russian participants in the forum is inversely
proportionate to the interest in Russia has already been said time and time
again. I do not think that the picture looks that pessimistic. The fuss
has indeed died down. The interest has remained. But what is worse is
that there are still no doctors, scientists, ecologists, or educators among
the Russian participants. Year in and year out it is the same people, the
same phrases, the same excuses, the same indicators. But the most
depressing thing of all is the tenor of the unfulfilled expectations. 
Although in his speech Chernomyrdin introduced a new, hitherto unknown
parameter for assessing the situation in Russia. He determined that the
temperature of Russian society is 36.6 degrees, true, without clarifying if
this is in Centigrade or Fahrenheit. Incidentally, considering Russia's
size, is there really time for such trifles?
The moderator in the discussion "Russian Business -- How This Is Done"
was William Safire of The New York Times. He asked the participants what
he probably thought was an original question: If I have $2 million, is
there any point in investing it in Russia? The defendants were Potanin,
Brevnov, Lebedev, and Berezovskiy. As is often the case, Boris Berezovskiy
spelled out his position more clearly than anyone else. "It all depends,"
he said, "on whether or not this is your last $2 million. If you have
another 100, then you can risk it." Then he unexpectedly made an
interesting statement, saying that the figures of Russia's countless
billions in the West are a myth, and that 90-95 percent of the capital of
the main players on the Russian market is in Russia. The entire issue, as
Berezovskiy said, has to do differing assessments of the level of risk for
our and foreign capital and hence the differing behavior of that capital. 
A breakthrough in attracting Western investments will be achieved when the
difference in risk declines, which means that the overall risk will
diminish.
The voice of George Soros chimed in unexpectedly: "I have a response
for Mr. Berezovskiy. The main risk in Russia today is Berezovskiy. He
does not want or permit strategic Western investments."
Berezovskiy countered: "Mr. Soros is personally responsible for what
is happening today on Russia's financial markets."
A brief historical digression. Since we have already gotten personal,
I would like to recall Davos 1995. Crowds of Western entrepreneurs are
following Zyuganov around, hoping to make contact ahead of time with the
man they thought back then was the future president of Russia. Berezovskiy
comes to Soros for advice: What do I do? "You are not a poor man," Soros
says to Berezovskiy. "My advice to you is to leave the country. The
results of the election are obvious. After Zyuganov comes to power, there
will be major shake-ups. I think well of you, and that is why my advice is
sincere."
There was no longer any reason to count on assistance from outside. 
It was after this that Berezovskiy decided to turn to Potanin, Gusinskiy,
Smolenskiy, Vinogradov and Khodarkovskiy [name as published]. It was from
that moment that what eventually came to be known as the "rule by the seven
bankers" first came into being.
Watching Russia's business leaders mingling in Davos, I will venture
to express a thought. Today they are not as estranged as it might seem
because of the constant information wars. Moreover, with the exception of
the Unexim group, all the rest are more united than they were two years ago
before the 1996 election. "The authorities need continuity," Boris
Abramovich [Berezovskiy] never tires of repeating here. Considering all
that has been mentioned, this casts a completely different light on
Chernomyrdin's role in the configuration of forces on Russia's political
Olympus.
And now to the main point.
In the 500-page program for the World Forum, it was hard to spot the
line "Concert by Maestro Vladimir Spivakov and his proteges." Spivakov
brought to Davos with him 13-year-old Polina Kondratkova from Novosibirsk
and seven-year-old Rostislav Sharayevskiy, or Rostik, as the maestro
introduced him. Polina's mom died, and her father, who received a
considerable dose of radiation, works as a night watchman for a salary of
$100 a month. The average income in the Sharayevskiy family is $50. 
Polina plays the piano, and Rostik plays the drums. These two amazing
young musicians did more for Russia's prestige and image at this forum than
the adult Russian delegation.

*******