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CDI Library > Johnson's Russia List

Johnson's Russia List
 

 

March 10, 1998  
This Date's Issues: 2102• 2103 

Johnson's Russia List
#2103
10 March 1998
davidjohnson@erols.com

[Note from David Johnson:
1. Reuters: Yeltsin Says Medical Tests Show He Is Fit.
2. Nickolas Switucha: Re Irina Kobrinskaya's article (JRL #2095) on
Ukraine.

3. Beau Brummel: Re Lena Sun/Russian Brides.
4. Washington Post: Yuli M. Vorontsov, One Thing All Russians Agree On.
5. Moscow Times: Jean MacKenzie, CONFESSIONS OF A RUSSOPHILE: Mickey 
Mouse Gulag Club.

6. Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Alexei Pushkov, RUSSO-AMERICAN RELATIONS ON 
THE EDGE. Will they split over Iran?

7. Nezavisimaya Gazeta: YEVGENI KOZHOKIN: "EVERYBODY NEEDS A STRONG 
RUSSIA." Is the Opinion by Director of Strategic Studies Institute.

8. Robert Lyle (RFE/RL): Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission Tackles Range 
Of Issues.

9. RIA Novosti: RUSSIA AND UNITED STATES PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMME FOR 21ST
CENTURY TO BE INCLUDED IN AGENDA OF 10TH SESSION OF GORE-CHERNOMYRDIN
COMMISSION.

10. Rossiiskaya Gazeta: Igor Galkin, WE NEED EACH OTHER MORE THAN 
THE WORLD MARKET NEEDS US. (CIS)

11. Interfax: Trans-Siberian Could Compete with Sea Transport by 2001.
12. RFE/RL NEWSLINE: MOVEMENT CALLS FOR COMMISSIONS ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS;
ACTIVISTS DEMAND STEPS TO COMBAT VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN; CHERNOMYRDIN DENIES 
PLANNING FOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION; HOW WOULD PREMIER FARE IN PRESIDENTIAL
RACE?; 
CHUBAIS SLAMS 'NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA'...WHILE NEWSPAPER'S EDITOR RETURNS FIRE. 

13. Jamestown Foundation Monitor: FOREIGN INVESTORS LOOK TO COURTS TO
PROTECT 
THEIR RIGHTS; and COMMUNIST CLONE?]


*******

#1
Yeltsin Says Medical Tests Show He Is Fit 
Reuters
10 March 1998

MOSCOW -- President Boris Yeltsin was quoted by Russian news agencies as
saying on Tuesday the latest medical checks he had undergone five days ago
showed he was in good shape. 
Yeltsin, 67, had major heart surgery in 1996. RIA news agency quoted him
as quipping he was ready to challenge reporters in the swimming pool, on
the tennis court or on the athletics track. 
Yeltsin did not say where the medical checks, including blood tests, had
taken place but he added doctors had used the best equipment. "The results
showed no deviations," he said, according to RIA. 
"The subject of the president's health should be closed. This subject
does not exist. I would have said myself honestly if something has been not
done during the operation," he said. 
Yeltsin's health is a major concern for domestic and foreign markets and
investors who see him as a guarantor of reforms. 
Most of the time he looks much better than before the 1996 operation but
he often seems tired, and sometimes moves awkwardly and talks distractedly,
especially during trips abroad. 

*******

#2
From: "Nickolas M. Switucha" <mykola@travel-net.com>
Subject: Re: Irina Kobrinskaya's article (JRL #2095)
Date: Mon, 9 Mar 1998 23:18:45 -0500

I wish to comment briefly on a misleading information found in an
otherwise interesting commentary by Irina Kobrinskaya ("Ukraine Turns to
Russia", Moscow News, March 5, 1998, - JRL #2095 of 6 March 1998 ).

After referring to the headline of the daily Segodnya "Moscow Is Ready to
Pay for Ukraine's Independence"
concerning the protocol signed between President Kuchma and Prime Minister
Viktor Chernomyrdin to
cooperate on finishing construction of two nuclear reactors in the towns of
Khmelnitsky and Rovno (Rivne) the author makes a totally erroneous
statement: "These stations would supply 40 percent of Ukraine's energy
needs and sharply reduce its dependence on Russia."

The fact is that the proposed completion of the two reactors has nothing to
do with the alleged reduction of dependence on Russia. As well, the 40
percent figure is the estimated total generating output of ALL nuclear
reactors in Ukraine and not of the two reactors to be completed. At
present, the installed nuclear capacity in Ukraine consists of its 14
operating reactors in five nuclear plants and totals 12,900 MWe, or about
24.5 percent of the country's total installed generating capacity. A
further 62 percent of capacity is in fossil generation, 8 percent in hydro
and the remainder in industrial cogeneration. Due to Ukraine's commitment
to close the Chornobyl nuclear station the government considers it
essential to replace some of its nuclear generating capacity by completing
one of the more modern PWR reactors at Khmelnitsky ( that is the second
950 MWe reactor which is already 85 percent complete) and the fourth PWR
reactor at Rovno (Rivne). The addition of this new capacity would be
balanced, in part, by the closure of the Chornobyl reactors. 

While Ukraine will continue to rely on imported uranium enrichment
services, the country possesses both considerable reserves of uranium and
the required engineering skills to process it through the complete nuclear
fuel cycle. In order to eventually reduce its dependence on Russia for
nuclear fuel assemblies, Ukraine would need to establish its own uranium
hexafluoride conversion facilities, processing of zirconium alloys and the
finished assembly of the uranium fuel rods. It has been estimated that, by
building its own facilities, Ukraine's present hard currency expenditures
for fuel rods assemblies for all 14 nuclear reactors would be reduced by up
to 75 percent. Only when this is achieved Ukraine's dependence on Russia
would be significantly reduced.

*******

#3
Date: Mon, 09 Mar 1998 23:54:44 -0500
From: Beau Brummel <Beau@InfoAve.Net>
Subject: Lena Sun/Russian Brides (Washington Post)

Naturally, as a man married to an American woman and co-administrator of RWL, 
an internet resource somewhat like Johnson's List, but focused on
international
romance instead of politics and economics, I have some objections to the
excerpt
from Lena's story.

First, let me qualify my remarks by saying I spoke to Lena about 90 minutes
during
a telephone interview, and found her to be a very level headed, direct, and
no nonsense
reporter. Her questions were fair and tough. But in her story, she focuses
on the
extremes and not the bulk of what is actually happening in regards to this
"industry"
and the men and women who are involved in it.

Specifically, there is no mention of men, like myself, happily married to
Russian women,
building new multi-cultural families, completely oblivious to and
disinterested in the
latest horror story from the archives of the feminist war chest. My friend
Ken is portrayed
somewhat positively - but not really respectably: he is a bright, active,
and energetic man
who went through quite an adventure getting his lady friend to his little
island, and it is
very unfair to portray him as a being stuck on an island in the South
Pacific, with no other
option other than Russian Women. Ken can do what he wants. He chose this
path. Lots
of guys do. From the South Pacific to Seattle to Sydney to Johannesburg to
Geneva.

And. I read a lot, and it is only once or twice a year that I hear about
some immigrant woman
being stored away as a sex slave or otherwise abused in the US. Even more
rarely do I hear about
women arriving on a fiancee visa being abused in this manner. And, I know a
lot of men married/
engaged/involved with immigrant women, and it is 5-10 out of 800+ that have
problems like those
my friend Bob talks about in this article. A very small minority.

In other words, there is a HUGE majority of participants in international
romance left out
of this article altogether - the normal people. Most of us are normal
people - or, as normal as
internet people can be :-)

But, American women seem to keep writing about the minority of experiences,
and portray
it as "the gist" of what is happening. It is unfair reporting. I look
forward to the day a reporter
decides to write a story about international romance, as it is, instead of
deciding to write a
story - and afterward picking Russian women, and the men who find them
fascinating,
wholesome, and lovely, as their focus for selling copy, which is about
sales, after all, and
not information.

*******

#4
Washington Post
10 March 1998
[for personal use only]
One Thing All Russians Agree On
By Yuli M. Vorontsov
The writer is Russia's ambassador to the United States. 

We of Russia as well as the American public are being told that the
Russians simply do not understand what is for their own good. Acceptance
of new members into the NATO alliance will only enhance Russia's
security, it is said.

By this logic, of course, acceptance of all countries of the world into the
Alliance should lead to absolute security for Russia. But immediately -- and
here the logic falters -- comes a statement that Moscow has already
"swallowed" enlargement and that no negative effects are being felt in
U.S.-Russian relations.

I would like to present the authentic view of this problem from Russia:

First, Russia's attitude toward NATO enlargement has been and remains
unequivocally negative. The signing of the Russia-NATO Founding Act
does not alter that attitude in any manner.

Naturally, we do not expect a NATO attack now. But NATO is a military
alliance, and its military machine is getting closer to the boundaries of
Russia -- mind you, a military machine, not university centers. Strictly
speaking, a Polish tank, even if it is a Soviet-made T-72, automatically
becomes a NATO tank after that country joins the Alliance. Whether we
want to or not, we shall be obliged to react to these developments if the
process goes on. The more so that one explanation given for enlargement
is that "there are still doubts regarding the future of Russia."

And what about our legitimate questions: Will this process do good to the
Russian market economy? Will it not complicate the social situation in
Russia?

Few people take into account the psychological factor -- the historic
memory of Russians. It was from the West that real threats continuously
came to Russia, bringing to our people immeasurable losses and
destruction. This memory cannot be deleted or subdued by any
parliamentary hearings.

Plans of enlargement have already led to new dividing lines, first between
"first wave" candidates and the others. It is doubtful that such a result
helps
strengthen European security and mutual understanding.

Enlargement is a serious attempt to achieve political dominance of the
Alliance in Europe -- to create a NATO-centrism, so to speak, backed up
by a military force unparalleled in the world. Will it be used to benefit all
member countries and non-members? Nor should we forget that there
exists a nonmilitary, political, universal grouping -- the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe -- within which European problems
can and should be resolved.

A negative attitude toward enlargement is possibly the issue on which there
exists an almost 100 percent consensus in Russian public opinion. Some
people view these plans as confirming the old bogey of the "aggressiveness
of NATO." Others see it as a continuation of the old game designed to
"contain" Russia. Still others see a Western betrayal of those Russian
forces that won the struggle against communism and are now building a
democratic, market-oriented society.

With some of these arguments one can agree, with others one cannot. But
this consensus must be taken into account by the Russian leadership in
building Russia's policy. It would be desirable if it were taken into account
by the politicians of other countries as well. Naturally, we have brought to
a minimum the degree of harm of some of the negative elements through
creating a mechanism of Russia-NATO interaction. But the influence of
these elements is still being felt.

One example is the delay in Russia's ratification of the Start II treaty,
which
is to a major extent due to NATO enlargement plans. If enlargement goes
forward, there are no guarantees that everything positive we have
developed in the relationship between Russia and leading Western
countries will not be put in severe jeopardy.

*******

#5
For more articles from The Moscow Times, check out their website at
www.moscowtimes.ru

Moscow Times
March 10, 1998 
CONFESSIONS OF A RUSSOPHILE: Mickey Mouse Gulag Club 
By Jean MacKenzie
STAFF WRITER

One of these days I'll fall on my pen and leave lofty ruminations on 
Russia to someone with a thicker skin, a longer fuse and a higher 
absurdity threshold. 
It was bad enough to be called, at a recent job interview, "a difficult, 
grumbling, negative Russia basher," although, since I was offered a 
position anyway, that might have been a point in my favor. But a recent 
article in the Russian press has made me realize how irritating it is 
when a foreigner starts expounding on one's native land. 
The piece in question was by a writer I admire, Tatyana Tolstaya. Yes, 
she is one of the Tolstoys, although I've lost track of the exact 
genealogy. Grandniece of one, great-granddaughter of another -- I'm no 
longer sure, but she is certainly a scion of an almost obscenely 
talented family. 
Tolstaya herself is no slouch, having produced a very well-regarded 
volume of short stories before she moved to the United States. At least, 
she supposedly moved to the United States, although I suspect the land 
that Tolstaya has made her main base of operation for much of the past 
10 years exists more in her own imagination than anywhere else. 
Tolstaya's America is a fearsome place inhabited by a dark and primitive 
people who seldom think and never read, a cultural desert where clipping 
discount coupons from the newspaper has attained the status of a 
religion, and where an evil conspiracy by government and industry has 
turned the populace into robots, numbly genuflecting at the ubiquitous 
image of the national god --a wide-eyed rodent by the name of Mickey 
Mouse. 
That's right -- Tolstaya has taken on the great MM, comparing his cult 
of personality to the Soviet adoration of Lenin, and broadly hinting 
that only the inconvenient lack of a gulag system kept U.S. Olympic 
skater Nancy Kerrigan free after she unwisely termed Disney World 
"cheesy" while wearing a body mike. 
Tolstaya is a brilliant satirist, and I would like to dismiss it all as 
good fun, or self-mockery, or the ramblings of a journalist on deadline 
(a phenomenon with which I am all too familiar). But there is a 
bitterness to her writings about the United States that sets my teeth on 
edge. 
I am no super-patriot, mind you. I've participated in my share of 
world-weary cocktail chatter, bemoaning life in America as oh-so-empty 
and citing Beavis and Butthead as the apex of the national 
consciousness. And I've never been a real Mickey Mouse fan, tending more 
toward the Kerrigan assessment: Disney World is pretty cheesy. 
But cheesy is a far cry from vicious, and I would hate to see Mickey 
placed alongside Papa Joe Stalin or Uncle Lenin in the pantheon of 
international butchers. I would also hazard a guess that the millions of 
Soviet victims of famine and repression would have preferred a stint in 
a theme park, no matter how shabby, to years at hard labor. 
It is an entertaining intellectual exercise to compare and equate the 
United States and Russia on levels from human rights to political 
intrigue, and I'm sure that Tolstaya has done her time with the Western 
chattering classes. But what I hear most in her harsh assessment of my 
native land is the age-old guilt of the Russian emigre, trying 
desperately to excuse herself from living a life of comparative comfort 
while her native land undergoes upheaval and torment. She has turned her 
freely chosen American existence into exile among the barbarians, rather 
than cushy retreat from Russia's difficulties. 
This is a feeling to which Americans, by and large, are not prone. Those 
who desert the world of shopping malls and cable television are more apt 
to congratulate themselves on a sense of adventure or, in the case of us 
Russoholics, spiritual superiority. After all, the United States is 
doing just fine without us, which leaves us free to love another land as 
well. I got hooked on this country 20 years ago, and, all my 
Russia-bashing to the contrary, have not been able to shake the feeling 
since. 
At a recent Moscow literary soiree, Tolstaya said she could no longer 
exist outside her native-language milieu and would be moving back to 
Russia. I only hope this means that her acid pen will once again be 
turned mainly on the country of her birth. 
And, without trying to compare my much more modest talents to hers, 
perhaps I should take a page from her book. 
Now, has anybody seen my Lenin watch? 

*******

#6
>From RIA Novosti
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
March 6, 1998
RUSSO-AMERICAN RELATIONS ON THE EDGE
Will they split over Iran?
By Alexei PUSHKOV

The recent Moscow visit of Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal
Kharrazi reminded us of another knot of tensions in
Russo-American relations, related to Iran. Strange as it may
seem at first sight, the "quiet" differences over Iran can
develop into greater tensions in Moscow-Washington relations
than even Iraq can engender. In fact, Russia and the USA have
no points of contact over Iran. They differ in virtually
everything here.
The USA and some of its allies, above all Israel, regard
Iran as the main source of support for Moslem terrorism and the
"outcast" which is trying to acquire nuclear weapons.
Consequently, Washington has been pursuing a policy of
containing Iran - a policy of international isolation and
sanctions - and demands that Moscow stop cooperating with Iran
in the military-technical and nuclear engineering spheres.
The latest warning to this effect was issued by the US
State Department shortly before Kharrazi's visit to Moscow. And
this week Israeli minister Natan Scharansky came here to try to
convince Chernomyrdin and Primakov that Iran is a harmful state
and hence Russia should review its attitude to it. 
But Russia's interests in the Caspian basin, Central Asia
and the Transcaucasus call for maintaining calm, stable and
even partner relations with Iran. That country never
threatened, and does not threaten Russia. It is important for
us, because it is prepared to accept our attitude to the
complicated problem of the exploitation of the Caspian oil
resources. 
We need Iran because a fierce battle is already raging
over the future oil and gas routes from that region, and we can
come to an agreement with Teheran over mutually advantageous
solutions to this problem. Iran suits us as a partner in major
oil and gas projects. We have an interest in it because it has
a large market which needs our machines. According to the
Russian Ministry for Foreign Economic Relations, Russo-Iranian
trade may top 10 billion dollars in the next few years.
Meanwhile, the Americans hint that our partner relations
with Teheran may have most negative repercussions for Russo-
American contacts. At the same time, Moscow suspects the USA of
using different pretexts to oust Russia from the Iranian market
and break up our relations with Iran altogether. 
These suspicions have a certain ground under them. Iran
was in the sphere of US interests for a very long time. The USA
provided weapons to Shah Reza Pahlavi until the late 1970s,
trained his army and had access to Iran's oil riches. But the
USA was itself to blame for "losing" Iran in 1979 and turning
it into an irreconcilable enemy. We have had similar experience
with some countries which had been in the zone of Russia's
influence.
Logically enough, the USA was vexed when it lost that
thick piece of the oil pie and a major market for its military
hardware. Experts say that the USA is not worried by the
military-technical cooperation between Russia and China, but
similar relations between Russia and Iran hit the USA very
painfully. 
At the same time, the USA is genuinely worried by Iran's
nuclear plans, which Teheran really has. Washington is also
worried by the prospective Iranian military capabilities, from
the viewpoint of its strategic interests in the Gulf. Should a
promise of economic benefit and reasons of competition close
Russia's eyes to these problems? 
On the other hand, we must admit that the US strategy of
containment is far from the best way of resolving the Iranian
problem. This policy does not engender optimism even in the US
NATO allies, most of which advocate "a critical dialogue" with
Teheran. Even Washington's closest ally, London, parted ways
with it over this issue. Iran is so attractive from the
viewpoint of trade and resources that European countries are
prepared to clash with Washington. 
The USA has a kind of paranoia over Iran, thinks a Moscow
bureau chief of a major US newspaper. It is difficult to
understand why Clinton well-nigh equates the sale of nuclear
reactors to Iran with the sale of nuclear weapons. We cannot
encourage Russia to become a free-market country, and at the
same time try to undermine these major contracts, the
journalist said. 
In fact, the Clinton administration calls on Russia to
renounce a number of major - and beneficial - spheres of
cooperation with Iran. The reply policy chosen by Yevgeny
Primakov consists of three key elements. 
First, Moscow invites Teheran to make a pause in the
sphere of military-technical relations. The Russian authorities
had once promised Clinton and Gore not to sign new contracts on
the delivery of weapons outside those which had been signed and
were being fulfilled at that time. Despite Iran's expressed
interest in Russian weapon systems, no new deals were discussed
during Kharrazi's visit to Moscow, say sources in the Russian
Foreign Ministry.
Second, the construction of the nuclear power station in
Bushehr will be continued, contrary to US complaints. The deal,
including the delivery of nuclear reactors, has been estimated
at 1 billion dollars, and Russia does not plan to cancel it. At
the same time, Russia stressed that the project is being
carried out in strict compliance with the IAEA demands, as
Moscow does not want Iran to have nuclear weapons. 
And third, Moscow assures Washington that it has been
doing, and will continue to do everything in its power to stop
the leakage to Iran of nuclear and military technologies and
know-how through unofficial channels. 
Will this be enough to appease the USA? I doubt it. It
appears that the Iranian "nerve knot" will remain a powerful
irritant in Russo-American relations until the USA changes its
attitude to Iran. So far, the USA mistrusts the calls for
resuming contacts through citizen diplomacy, made by Iran's new
president Khatami - much to everybody's regret. The Americans
should remember Richard Nixon's "ping-pong diplomacy" with
regard to China in the early 1970s, when US-Chinese
rapprochement began through sport ties. Maybe the USA should
think about playing table tennis with Iran?

*******

#7
>From RIA Novosti
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
March 6, 1998
YEVGENI KOZHOKIN: "EVERYBODY NEEDS A STRONG RUSSIA"
Is the Opinion by Director of Strategic Studies Institute
By Pyotr PLIYEV

Question: Russian-Belarussian relations have been in the
focus of public opinion lately. One gets the impression there
are forces in Russia which oppose a normal interrelationship
with Russia's Western neighbour. Your opinion?
Answer: I think there are professional people who have
decided that the union of Russia and Belarus is not needed and
is dangerous, moreover. Hence the campaign which has really
worsened Russia's relations with Belarus. This is tragic in my
opinion, because these days Russia seems to have few true
allies. Yet Belarus is one, no doubt. 
There are processes in the region which the uninitiated
can hardly discern. Thus, Poland is clearly endeavouring to
become the regional leader and suggests its own model of
development which is both Polish and Western, in its opinion.
Warsaw is proposing the idea that Poland may become the leader
for both Belarus and Ukraine. 
Experts indicate that Poland is waiting for the moment
when its percapita GDP reaches 50% of that in Russia. There are
estimates to the effect that this can be expected in the
foreseeable future. 
Since Poland may soon become a member of NATO, its stance
is a challenge to Russia in the region. Yet we are building
relations with Minsk with no allowance for the fact, which is
bad, because certain steps may aggravate the situation -
primarily for Russia. 
One example: not long ago, President Lukashenko of Belarus
visited a Catholic church in Paris, although he had been
exclusively to Orthodox churches. It is true that a part of the
republic's population are Catholics. 
This is a political warning that is bets not
underestimated. All polls in Belarus indicate that its
Catholics stand for closer interaction with the West - their
anti-Russia sentiments are stronger than elsewhere. 
Question: They say that an old friend is worth two new
ones. But the impression is that somebody is trying to distance
the post-Soviet republics. Your view?
Answer: The main problem today is borders, the Customs and
visas. I do not see an integrating centre capable of uniting us
both economically and politically. Today, the twelve CIS
countries are living in between the past and the future. 
An interesting aspect: the role of the military-political
factor has been weakened in the post-Soviet republics. As a
result, no CIS state endeavouring to protect its territorial
integrity by military means has succeeded. Russia has lost its
war in Chechnya, Georgia in Abkhazia, Azerbaijan in Nagorny
Karabakh, and Moldova in Transdniestria. 
That Russia is one of the losers is a heavy blow at the
Commonwealth. There is no more fear, nor there is hope that
Russia can eventually settle any political problem, by military
means included. 
Question: The leaders of the newly independent states say
they have chosen the road of democracy. Is this so, in your
view?
Answer: I can only say that there has been more freedom in
the Soviet Union than there is in Turkmenia, Tajikistan or
Chechnya. In these states, might is right. 
But this is not all. Former USSR leader Joseph Stalin had
built the Soviet empire in a way that it could disintegrate
only among blood and tragedies. He had driven the wedges of
autonomies into the union republics, so to speak. 
Stalin had left a mighty arsenal of means of keeping the
huge Eurasian space under Kremlin's control. There was nothing
Communist about his deeds. Britain had been doing likewise, and
Kashmir is proof. The war coupled to the separatist trends in
the CIS is a blind alley.
Question: Some politicians claim that the situation in
Chechnya is the beginning of the Russian Federation's end. Your
vision?
Answer: Many a country have territories striving to
separate: Kashmir in India, the Basque country in Spain,
Corsica in France. But these states manage to find the means of
keeping separatists in check and under their jurisdiction.
Giving up one's territories is seen as a sign of weakness in
international relations. 
Incidentally, the war in Chechnya did not start in 1994,
as many seem to believe, it had started three years earlier.
The separatist trends in Chechnya had been borne of Russia's
weakness. 
In real fact, meanwhile, many countries and people need
Russia. A strong Russia.

*******

#8
Russia: Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission Tackles Range Of Issues
By Robert Lyle

Washington, 10 March 1998 (RFE/RL) -- From the sticky issues like Russian
missile technology going to Iran to non-controversial issues such as
expanding medical care for children, the Gore-Chernomyrdin commission will
tackle them all at its 10th meeting today and tomorrow in Washington.
Officially, it's the U.S.-Russian Commission on Economic and
Technological Cooperation, chaired by U.S. Vice President Al Gore and
Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.
Springing from the 1993 Vancouver summit of President's Boris Yeltsin
and Bill Clinton, the binational commission quickly grew from dealing with
narrow scientific and technical issues to becoming a major conduit for
handling matters as broad as the relationship itself. 
White House spokesman Michael McCurry says the commission has "proved
its utility in the past and will again as we deal with a host of very
complicated issues that are sometimes at dispute in our bilateral
relationship."
In addition to the two days of commission meetings, Chernomyrdin is
expected to meet with Clinton at the White House Wednesday.
One of the touchier issues to be dealt with is American concern that
Russia is selling missile technology to Iran. Chernomyrdin told reporters
upon leaving Moscow Monday that no nuclear or missile technology had or
would be transferred to Iran.
The New York Times quoted senior American officials as saying that
during the meetings, the U.S. would offer Russia the opportunity to expand
its lucrative business launching foreign satellites if it made sure no
technology went to Iran. But foreign affairs spokesman for Gore, Jonathan
Spaulder, says this is nothing new. "Expansion of the U.S.-Russian
commercial space cooperation requires only that existing commercial plans
be allowed to unfold free of concerns related to ballistic missile
proliferation."
A 1996 agreement signed by Gore and Chernomyrdin puts some limits on
Russian launches of foreign commercial satellites, but since then U.S.
firms -- including Lockheed-Martin and Boeing -- have become involved in a
joint venture with Russia and Ukraine in a sea launch venture that may
require a review of the complicated formula used in the 1996 pact.
That is a subject Gore, Chernomyrdin and some other commission members
will be discussing later in the week when they travel to California to
visit computer technology and aerospace industries.
But first in Washington, the commission will deal with a variety of
other difficult issues, including Russian concerns that U.S. markets are
not yet fully open to Russian goods.
In that same vain, the U.S. is concerned about local taxation in Russia
which is being applied to some American assistance funds going to local
entrepreneurs. The problem, says a senior U.S. official, is shown by the
Russian citizen who opened up a meat processing plant partly with capital
raised from an American grant. That person may be forced into bankruptcy
because local authorities are trying to collect taxes several times higher
than the grant itself.
On a much broader scale, U.S. officials say there will be discussions
about pipeline routes for Caspian sea oil. The U.S. favors "multiple
pipelines," including one through Russia, but does not want any going
through Iran.
A senior official told reporters last week there is a lot of
"misunderstanding" on this issue because of U.S. support for a
trans-Caspian line running from Baku to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
"There are clearly sufficient oil resources in the Eastern Caspian to
justify both the (Russian) route as well as other routes that could come
out from the region," the official said.
The commission is composed of 21 senior Russian and American officials,
including the Russian ministers of Agriculture and Food, Foreign Economic
Relations, Health and Medicine and Science and Technology and the American
cabinet secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, and Health and Human
Services. The heads of both the Russian and American space agencies, the
environmental agencies, and top defense officials from both countries.
On Thursday, Chernomyrdin and Gore and some of the others travel to
California for two days of meetings and visits. The prime minister leaves
for Moscow Friday evening. 

*******

#9
RUSSIA AND UNITED STATES PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMME FOR 21ST
CENTURY TO BE INCLUDED IN AGENDA OF 10TH SESSION OF
GORE-CHERNOMYRDIN COMMISSION
MOSCOW, MARCH 10, 1998 /RIA NOVOSTI/-- 
"I am going to Washington with new ideas on Russian and
American relations," the Russian prime minister said in his
interview for Novosti commenting on the forthcoming 10th session
of the Russian-US intergovernmental commission for trade,
economic and technological cooperation scheduled for March
10-12, 1998 in Washington and San-Jose, California. 
The session is to focus on larger US investments in the
Russian economy. According to the Ministry of External Economic
Relations and Trade, the overall volume of the US investments in
the Russian economy exceeds USD5,000 million, with the US
overall share of investment accounting for 27 percent, and
direct investments fro 41.3 percent. According to the estimates
of the Ministry of External Economic Relations and Trade, the
US-based companies are now outpacing British, German, and
Japanese companies. At the same time, according to the US
estimates, the volume of investments in the Russian economy does
not correspond to the capacity of the Russian market and could
be enhanced ten-fold. Approximately 60 percent of the US
investments is channelled to Russia's most lucrative
power-and-fuel sector. In particular, two major Sakhalin-based
projects involve Marathon, Exxon, MacDermott on a
production-sharing basis. Chevron, Mobil, Amoco, and Orix are
now participating in the drafting of new agreements on the
development of oil deposits. American investors also display
interest toward Russia's car-manufacturing industry. Joint
projects are under way in such industries as aero-space,
mechanical engineering, chemical, medical equipment and
medications industries, as well as agri-business,
telecommunications, conversion of the defence sector, etc.
Taking part in the financing of the cooperation projects
are Eximbank of the US, Private Foreign Investments
Corporations, and Trade and Development Agency which finances
the feasibility studies of the projects. 

******

#10
>From RIA Novosti
Rossiiskaya Gazeta
March 10, 1998
WE NEED EACH OTHER MORE THAN THE WORLD MARKET NEEDS US
By Igor GALKIN

The March 19 summit of the CIS heads of state is expected
to pass off in a more favourable political climate than the
Chisinau one. The presidents went to the Moldovan capital to
review the ineffective operation of the CIS. To Moscow, they
will bring practical proposals on the development of
integration, in particular a score of multilateral draft
agreements. 
The ground was tilled at the March 6 session of the CIS
heads of government. CIS Executive Secretary Ivan Korotchenya
believes that "the session passed off in a much more
constructive atmosphere and yielded good results."
Russian Premier Viktor Chernomyrdin substantiated the need
for a breakthrough in CIS cooperation at the press conference
on the session results. Indeed, it is difficult to find
objective explanations for the dramatic fall in mutual trade.
At the same time, shortly after Russia and Belarus passed
coordinated decisions, they were used to advance mutual trade
by 40%. And this is only one sign of the fruitfulness of close
cooperation. While Europe accepted a common passport and is
getting ready to accept one monetary unit, "everything is
upside down here," with barriers set at the borders, said
Viktor Chernomyrdin. 
The creation of a common agrarian market and of free trade
zones based on international experience are designed to
facilitate mutual trade in the CIS. However, "not all CIS
states are ready for the creation of such zones," Chernomyrdin
said. The reason is great differences in national legislations.
While other countries are standardising, simplifying and
bringing together their legislations, the CIS states are
complicating them, which Chernomyrdin said engenders certain
alarm.
"We are convinced today that we need each other," the
Russian Premier said. He stressed that nobody waits for the CIS
states at other markets. Moreover, much is being done there to
prevent the newly-independent states from getting established
there. "Our output is needed above all at our markets," Viktor
Chernomyrdin said. And he thinks we should create a
corresponding legislative and legal basis in each CIS state. 

********

#11
Trans-Siberian Could Compete with Sea Transport by 2001 
Interfax
9 March 1998

MOSCOW -- The Trans-Siberian railroad, which stretches more than 13,000
kilometers from Russia's western borders to the Far East, could boost
freight shipments to 120,000 containers a year by 2001. 
The Trans-Siberian could offer "worthy competition to sea shipments,"
Ivan Besedin, Russia's deputy railways minister, said at an international
conference in Moscow on the development of container shipments between
Europe, Asia and the Far East. 
He said the Railways Ministry is ready to organize a demonstration as
early as April of a container train going from Nakhodka in Russia's Far
East to Brest, a border crossing between Belarus and Poland. He said this
would be the first freight train in the world to travel about nine days,
covering more than 10,000 kilometers. 
Marine transport is the main competition for the Trans-Siberian and
other alternative rail routes through China and other Asian countries,
Besedin said. 
About three million containers are shipped by sea from Japan, Korea and
China to the West each year. Volumes on railroads amount to just 5 percent
of this figure. The Trans-Siberian now carries about 22,000 containers a
year. 
It costs $1,550 to $1,750, and takes about 35 days, to ship one 20-foot
container from Japan to Central Europe. 
Gennady Fadeyev, general secretary of the coordinating council for the
Trans-Siberian, said that the ministry in 1997 worked out a special
schedule for container trains from Nakhodka to Brest under which transit
time would be 12-14 days. 
The problem of clearing shipments through Russian customs was also
resolved, and competitive tariffs were set, he said. 
Fadeyev said that this year the ministry, "at a loss to itself," decided
to slash tariffs by 50 percent on freight passing through Russia's Far East
ports and through the Astrakhan port to Iran in order to win over the flow
of freight out of Scandinavia from trucking companies. 
Nonetheless, Fadeyev said there are still a number of obstacles to
boosting freight flows along the Trans-Siberian. One of these is
transferring container trains from tracks of one width to those of another,
as only Finland has the same track gauge as Russia, he said. 
In order to attract more traffic it is also necessary to coordinate
transit tariffs in the CIS and modernize border crossings.

*******

#12
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 2, No. 46, Part I, 9 March 1998

MOVEMENT CALLS FOR COMMISSIONS ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS. Alevtina Fedulova, former
Duma deputy and leader of the Union of Russian Women, told ITAR-TASS on 6
March that her organization is seeking to set up a network of commissions
on women's rights in the Russian regions. She said the commissions will
provide women with legal advice on how to counter infringements of their
rights. Fedulova also said she hopes every Russian region will establish a
women's rights commissioner. The Union of Russian Women is preparing a
report on violations of women's rights, and Fedulova predicted that the
report will place special attention on discrimination against women in the
workplace. Fedulova, one of the leaders of the Women of Russia movement,
lost her seat in the Duma when Women of Russia failed to gain 5 percent of
the vote in the 1995 parliamentary elections. LB

ACTIVISTS DEMAND STEPS TO COMBAT VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN. Human rights
activists from several organizations have called on Russian authorities to
fight violence against women and especially family violence, which is
estimated to claim the lives of thousands of women in Russia each year,
RFE/RL's Moscow bureau reported on 5 March. They cited a recent Human
Rights Watch report, which assailed the treatment of women victims by the
Russian law enforcement and criminal justice systems (see "RFE/RL
Newsline," 16 January 1998). The activists called for adopting a law on
domestic violence, which would increase penalties for violent crimes within
the family. They also advocated educating police investigators,
prosecutors, and judges about violence against women and evicting batterers
from state-owned housing developments. A new series of public-service
advertisements promotes the message that "violence against women is not a
private family matter but a problem for all of society." LB
CHERNOMYRDIN DENIES PLANNING FOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. Prime Minister
Viktor Chernomyrdin says he is not yet thinking about the next presidential
election, scheduled for 2000. In his debut appearance on his weekly call-in
show on Russian Television, Chernomyrdin said that "the government wants
people to feel changes for the better. That's what we should think about,
not elections," ITAR-TASS reported on 7 March. Many Russian media reports
have interpreted the premier's weekly television appearances as a sign that
Chernomyrdin is trying to boost his prospects for succeeding Yeltsin. LB

HOW WOULD PREMIER FARE IN PRESIDENTIAL RACE? In recent weeks, the private
network NTV has portrayed Chernomyrdin as a strong presidential contender
who is gaining power and stature. However, opinion polls reported nearly
every week on NTV, most recently on 8 March, consistently make no mention
of the level of support for Chernomyrdin. The polls, conducted by the
Public Opinion Foundation, show Communist Party leader Zyuganov leading
First Deputy Prime Minister Nemtsov, Moscow Mayor Yurii Luzhkov, former
Security Council Secretary Aleksandr Lebed, and Yabloko leader Grigorii
Yavlinskii. In hypothetical second-round matches, Luzhkov defeats Zyuganov,
Lebed, and Nemtsov. In an article for a February edition of the weekly
"Argumenty i fakty," sociologist Nuzgar Betaneli published results from the
latest poll by his Institute of the Sociology of Parliamentarism. That
survey placed Chernomyrdin eighth among possible presidential candidates,
with 3.7 percent support. LB

CHUBAIS SLAMS 'NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA'... In an interview published in
"Nezavisimaya gazeta" on 7 March, First Deputy Prime Minister Anatolii
Chubais argued that "Nezavisimaya gazeta" "is not a newspaper in the
ordinary sense of the word" because it reflects the interests of only one
person: its financial backer, Boris Berezovskii. He said his friends read
"Nezavisimaya gazeta" with "loathing" and "disgust," and quoted one
acquaintance as suggesting the newspaper is for hire. Chubais, long
considered one of Russia's least popular politicians, also claimed that
Berezovskii is far more hated in Russia than is Chubais. Until last summer,
"Nezavisimaya gazeta" provided largely--though not exclusively--favorable
coverage of Chubais. But since he and Berezovskii fell out over
privatization sales, the newspaper has repeatedly criticized the first
deputy premier in extremely harsh terms (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 15 and 26
September and 18 December 1997). LB

...WHILE NEWSPAPER'S EDITOR RETURNS FIRE. In a commentary published on 7
March, "Nezavisimaya gazeta" editor-in-chief Vitalii Tretyakov leveled
numerous accusations against Chubais. Tretyakov alleged that when Chubais
headed the State Property Committee several years ago, he secured the
support of one unnamed newspaper by giving it a large building in the
center of Moscow. Tretyakov also suggested that shortly before the 1996
presidential election, Chubais personally asked him to publish false
stories about Communist paramilitary units in "Nezavisimaya gazeta." In
addition, Tretyakov claimed that in fall 1996, he witnessed Chubais (then
Yeltsin's chief of staff) warning the editor of "Komsomolskaya pravda" that
"you will do what the newspaper's owner says. And if you don't, bones will
be broken!" The October 1996 dismissal of Security Council Secretary
Aleksandr Lebed was accompanied by a wave of negative coverage of him in
many Russian media outlets. LB

********

#13
Jamestown Foundation Monitor
10 March 1998

FOREIGN INVESTORS LOOK TO COURTS TO PROTECT THEIR RIGHTS. As Prime Minister
Viktor Chernomyrdin travels to Washington to make the case for Russia as a
reliable business partner, small signs indicate that foreign investors are
making progress in securing their rights in the Russian market.

Last week, it was reported that the American fast-food operator Subway began
proceedings in a St. Petersburg court to win enforcement of a $1.2 million
award handed down in 1996 by the Stockholm international arbitration court.
Subway's former St. Petersburg partner Bordug illegally seized control of a
Subway sandwich shop in 1994. That Subway -- with the active encouragement
of the St. Petersburg city administration -- took the case to court instead
of walking away is seen as a sign that the rule of law may be making inroads
in Russia's chaotic marketplace. (Moscow Times, March 7)

During a three-day visit to Frankfurt last week, First Deputy Prime Minister
Boris Nemtsov said he is taking personal charge of efforts to force local
authorities in Krasnodar, a notoriously conservative province, to implement
a court judgment granting Knauf, a German construction materials firm,
control over the Kubansky Gips factory in the town of Psebai. The decision
was taken by the Commission for the Protection of Investors' Rights, created
last August under Chernomyrdin's chairmanship. Knauf began investing in the
Krasnodar firm in 1993, buying 50 percent of the shares, but was locked out
by the Russian director Alim Sergienko when they tried to fire him for
corruption in 1996. Knauf won repeated court decisions against Sergienko,
but these were not enforced. Meanwhile Sergienko used local Cossacks to
eject German managers from the plant. Krasnodar governor Nikolai
Kondratenko, who has blocked Knauf's efforts to repossess the plant, was
last week named as the head of economic policy in Gennady Zyuganov's "shadow
cabinet." (Kommersant-daily, March 7)

These isolated examples hardly prove that Russia is turning the corner
towards legality. One swallow does not make a summer. Also, the fact that
such reports have surfaced in the press on the eve of Chernomyrdin's U.S.
visit is "not coincidental," as the Soviet press used to say.

Legal nihilism aside, the chronic insolvency of Russian firms is an equally
serious barrier to foreign businesses. Fifty German steelmakers organized an
industrial fair in Moscow last week. Russian steel mills are all twenty to
twenty-five years old and desperately need re-equipping. Yet last year,
Russian businesses only took up one-third of the DM 1.5 billion credit line
the German government opened for Russian businesses to buy machinery, mainly
because Russian customers were unable to secure financial guarantees from
the government, as required by the German's Hermes state insurance scheme.
(Segodnya, March 6)

COMMUNIST CLONE? At a press conference in the State Duma last week the
vice-president of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lev Ernst,
said that Russian scientists are moving ahead with plans to clone a human
being. The project, with unnamed sources of funding, will begin with cloning
a pig, and move on to humans. Liberal Democratic Party leader Aleksei
Mitrofanov said that U.S. and European efforts to ban human cloning were
part of a conspiracy to seize control of the world's gene pool, and
suggested that leading opposition politicians would be ideal subjects for
cloning. (Kommersant-daily, March 7)

*******

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