April 7, 1998  
This Date's Issues: 2137• 2138 • 

Johnson's Russia List
#2138
7 April 1998
davidjohnson@erols.com

[Note from David Johnson:
1. Fred Weir on round-table talks in Moscow.
2. RFE/RL: Kremlin Says Lawmakers Did Not Openly Oppose Kiriyenko.
3. John Helmer (RFE/RL): Russia: IMF Wants Public-Sector Job Cuts.
4. Reuters: U.S. NATO envoy says enlargement may aid Russia.
5. Nezavisimaya Gazeta: ECONOMIC GROWTH BEGAN EVEN BEFORE 1997 - 
CHERNOMYRDIN. Ex-premier about the achievements of his government.
6. RIA Novosti: ST. PETE EX-MAYOR RECOVERING, CLAIMS INNOCENCE, 
TO RUN FOR DUMA. (Sobchak).
7. Jamestown Foundation Monitor: ACTING PRIME MINISTER PUSHES FOR MILITARY 
REFORM.
8. The Independent (UK): Phil Reeves, Lethal legacy. Incredibly, 12 years
after the worstnuclear disaster in history, Chernobyl remains a deadly threat, with
cracks and holes in the sarcophagus around the reactor prompting real fears of another catastrophe.
9. Reuters: Viacom to launch MTV music network in Russia.
10. Reuters: Russian spring crop sowing held up by cold, snow.
11. RIA Novosti: MOONSHINE MAKES UP HALF OF RUSSIAN LIQUOR, WARNS EXPERT.]

*********

#1
From: fweir.ncade@rex.iasnet.ru
Date: Tue, 07 Apr 1998 15:23:47 (MSK)
For the Hindustan Times
From: Fred Weir in Moscow

MOSCOW (HT April 7) -- President Boris Yeltsin urged Russian
opposition leaders Tuesday to drop their demands for broad-based
government and quickly endorse his candidate for prime minister.
The Kremlin meeting between Mr. Yeltsin and leaders of the
Communist-led State Duma had been billed as round-table talks
that could lead to conciliation in Russia's worst political
crisis in over a year.
But there seemed little room for compromise as the 20
parliamentarians and trade union leaders gathered. A Communist
deputy immediately asked Mr. Yeltsin if he was prepared to form a
coalition government, based on the relative strength of parties
in the Duma.
"I have no intention of doing that at all, and I ask you not
to say it ever again, that I agree to a coalition government. No,
no," the president responded.
Mr. Yeltsin sacked his entire cabinet two weeks ago,
including veteran prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, and
proposed an obscure 35-year old political novice, Sergei
Kiriyenko, as acting PM.
The move stunned and baffled observers. The consensus among
analysts is that Mr. Yeltsin acted impulsively, to show he is
still in control despite his obviously failing health, and had no 
clear strategy for what to do next.
Under Russia's Constitution Mr. Yeltsin enjoys vast powers,
but he must submit a prime ministerial candidate to the Duma for
ratification. However, if the Duma rejects his choice three times
the president can dissolve it and set new elections.
Last week Mr. Yeltsin offered to hold the round-table talks
on the shape of the new government, in exchange for opposition
leaders' support when Mr. Kiriyenko's appointment comes before
the Duma this Friday.
But as the meeting opened, Mr. Yeltsin seemed to be blaming
parliamentarians for creating a power vacuum at the top -- and
urging them to compromise by obeying their president.


"Today is a very responsible moment, since we have been left
without a government for two weeks," Mr Yeltsin told them. "That
means lost money and lost opportunities. If we continue dragging
this out, we will lose even more. That is why I'm asking you to
support the president."
Mr. Yeltsin said he would not hear any alternatives to Mr.
Kiriyenko, but might consider candidates for other ministerial
positions if they were businesslike professionals.
"You have the right to make proposals or criticize Sergei
Kiriyenko if you want," Mr. Yeltsin told the parliamentarians.
"But that doesn't mean that I abandon my constitutional
right to appoint ministers and government members. I don't give
up any rights."
Opposition leaders appeared unimpressed by Mr. Yeltsin's
performance, and indicated there could be a serious fight when
Mr. Kiriyenko's candidacy comes before the Duma later this week.
"This was a senseless conversation. Political power is
concentrated in Yeltsin's hands and he will never share it," said
Boris Mysnyk, a deputy with the liberal Yabloko party.
"The real problems are not being addressed at all." 

********

#2
Russia: Kremlin Says Lawmakers Did Not Openly Oppose Kiriyenko

Moscow, 7 April 1998 (RFE/RL) -- The Kremlin says that at roundtable talks
in Moscow today none of the lawmakers present openly opposed Sergei
Kiriyenko as Russia's new prime minister. Yegor Stroyev, speaker of the
upper house of parliament, said he would back the 35-year-old acting prime
minister. But in remarks to ORT Television, Sergei Yastrzhemsky conceded
that while Kiriyenko clearly won the support of regional governors, Duma
deputies were not so unanimous about his candidacy.

Yeltsin called the talks to defuse a looming standoff with the Duma over
Kiriyenko's nomination. Duma deputies that oppose Kiriyenko say he is too
inexperienced.

Kiriyenko told ITAR-TASS he was satisfied with today's meeting of
parliamentary, government and union officials. He said there had been
discussion on potential members in a new cabinet. Yeltsin sacked the
previous government on March 23, and charged Kiriyenko with forming a new
government.

Kiriyenko said the talks proved "that mutual understanding can be reached
on fundamental positions," among which he listed "financial discipline, a
realistic budget, strong state control."
Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said that despite today's "useful"
talks, Kiriyenko will not be confirmed in a first-round parliamentary vote.
But he added that his party might reconsider if Kiriyenko is proposed again.

Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the liberal Yabloko faction, said Yabloko has
not changed its position and will still vote against Kiriyenko.

The Duma is due to consider Kiriyenko's nomination on Friday. For
confirmation, he must win a simple majority in the 450-seat house. 

*********

#3
Russia: IMF Wants Public-Sector Job Cuts
By John Helmer

Moscow, 7 April 1998 (RFE/RL) -- Russia's government and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) are proceeding with a plan to cut state-funded
education and health-sector jobs for up to 300,000 people this year,
ignoring a pledge by President Boris Yeltsin not to do this. Nicknamed the
Kudrin-Fisher plan, after the Russian and IMF officials who negotiated it,
this is part of the economic policy that Russia and the IMF have agreed to
sign. More than $3 billion in disbursements from the IMF's current loan to
Russia depend on this agreement.



Alexei Kudrin, a first deputy finance minister and protege of former First
Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais, disclosed the job cuts at an awkward
moment, just before Yeltsin dismissed the Russian government and fired
Chubais. Yeltsin then declared he knew nothing about the job cuts. Speaking
of Kudrin, Yeltsin claimed "this is either a provocation or he simply
invented that." After the president insisted teachers would not be fired,
Kudrin backed off, claiming no final decision has been made.

When Finance Minister Mikhail Zadornov was asked to clarify the plan Monday
-- three days ahead of a nationwide protest against the government's
refusal to pay back wages -- Zadornov said the job cuts would go ahead.
According to Zadornov, the initiative was the Finance Ministry's. "It was a
proposal of the Finance Ministry, authorized later by the IMF. It is part
of the program to cut budget expenses. It is part of the agreement with the
IMF. The government has not abandoned it," said Zadornov.

Kudrin has said the job cuts would save more than $6 billion in the 1998
budget.

IMF Moscow spokesman Martin Gilman has said the IMF expects that, when a
replacement prime minister is approved by the State Duma, and a new
government formed, it will abide by the terms the IMF worked out with its
predecessor. Zadornov replaced Chubais as finance minister last November.
He is to be reappointed to the new government, Yeltsin has indicated.
Gilman and his deputy, Tom Richardson, had no answer when RFE/RL asked
about Yeltsin's rejection of the jobs elimination measure.

Gilman did comment, however, on another transaction the government claims
was used to pay overdue wages and pensions last year. That was a secret
loan, first reported by RFE/RL, which American financier George Soros
admits to making to the government in June 1997. That, Gilman now says, was
for $600 million.

When asked why the IMF did not object to undisclosed borrowing last year,
allegedly to pay wage arrears -- but, now, insists on a jobs-elimination
program, Gilman again had no answer.
An American economic expert, teaching in Russia tells RFE/RL the rationale
for non-payment of wages "is that it pushes people into taking second and
third jobs gradually, without dumping large numbers on the unemployment
rolls all at once." But she added, "There is a difference between a policy
of non-payment, and a policy of job cuts." The expert asserts that
non-payment keeps institutions operating -- while, job elimination shuts
them down. It is very difficult, she says, to restart them "if people are
fired."

The organizer of the April 9 nationwide wage protest, the Russian
Federation of Independent Trade Unions, isn't making the job cuts a target
of attack. According to Andrei Isayev, the federation secretary, "we know
this project was considered and approved by the IMF. But we got an oral
undertaking from (Deputy Prime Minister Oleg) Sysuev that the government
hasn't signed anything. That's why the unions won't make an issue of this
now."

Sysuev was responsible for employment and social welfare in the outgoing
government. Isayev said Sysuev did not provide details of the numbers and
location of the jobs to be eliminated.



John Helmer is a Moscow-based journalist who regularly contributes to RFE/RL. 

*******

#4
U.S. NATO envoy says enlargement may aid Russia
By Michael Roddy 

BUDAPEST, April 6 (Reuters) - U.S. Ambassador to NATO Alexander Vershbow said
in Hungary on Monday that expansion of the alliance could help improve
Russia's security situation. 

``Leaders of Russia like President (Boris) Yeltsin recognise it is in their
interest to establish a cooperative relationship with the alliance even though
they may disagree over NATO enlargement,'' Vershbow told a news conference in
Budapest. 

``That's certainly our point of view, that we can both enlarge NATO and build
a cooperative relation with Russia,'' he said. 

``At the end of the day Russian security will be enhanced by having a stable
ring of states in Central Europe that are bound by common values and
commitment to democracy and personal resolution of disputes.'' 
Vershbow spoke on the first day of a three-day visit to Hungary, which along
with the Czech Republic and Poland is set to join NATO in 1999 in the
alliance's first push into the former East bloc. 

Vershbow, who will meet Hungarian defence officials and tour a base, said the
view in Washington and at NATO headquarters in Brussels was that Hungary had
made great strides in preparing for membership. 

``I think the overall impression we have in Brussels is that Hungary has
gotten off to a really fast start on restructuring its (armed) forces,''
Vershbow said. 

``It has successfully reduced the overall size of the troops in uniform, it
has slimmed down the officer corps...it's beginning to work to develop a
professional core of non-commissioned officers. 

``And it is taking the necessary steps to move towards interoperability in
terms of communications and in English-language training,'' he said. 

Vershbow said he understood the concern in Hungary that the U.S. Senate had
decided to delay a vote on ratification of Hungary's NATO membership until
after the Easter holiday, but he said he was optimistic the treaty would be
approved. 

``I am optimistic that when the Senate returns after the 20th of April that
the vote will take place fairly soon after that. 

``One never makes firm predictions but...I'm increasingly confident that the
vote will be positive,'' he said. 

Vershbow said he was aware of an article in the German news magazine Der
Spiegel saying that intelligence services in some of the NATO candidate
countries continue to spy on the West. 

``The allegations in Der Spiegel have been around for some time and they've
already been closely examined by our administration and in consultation with
the U.S. Congress,'' he said. 

``We are quite confident that Hungary has already carried out and is
continuing to carry out reforms of its intelligence services as far as NATO is
concerned.'' 

**********

#5
>From RIA Novosti
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
April 7, 1998
ECONOMIC GROWTH BEGAN EVEN BEFORE 1997 - CHERNOMYRDIN
Ex-premier about the achievements of his government

Last Saturday former premier Viktor Chernomyrdin met with
this newspaper's chief editor Vitaly Tretyakov. They 


spoke about a wide range of political issues, and 
Mr. Tretyakov also raised quite a few economic questions.
Viktor Chernomyrdin provided written answers to them 
later. 

Question: Which Russian industries are the closest to
economic recovery? And where is the situation the worst?

Answer: Industries can be differentiated in this way only
when there is a reliable demand on the domestic and foreign
market, meaning the competitiveness of commodities geared to
solvent demand for them, and the existence of sufficient
technical, technological and resource potential. If we use
these criteria, we can distinguish the following groups:
- the export-oriented industries with a large price
margin, that is oil and gas industries, the production of
high-grade coal, and non-ferrous metallurgy. It should be said
that the stability of non-ferrous metallurgy depends on
tolling, and its progress will depend on the ability to use
local raw materials;
- the industries which work for the domestic market, which
are the natural monopolies, and ferrous metallurgy using
progressive technologies (the production of electro-ferroalloys
and hardware) for instrument-making, the car-making industry,
the light and food industries, and the medical industry.
At the same time, we still have ineffective industries
which do not meet the demands of the market economy, whose
output is gathering dust on the shelves. Most enterprises of
the coal industry, the hoisting and transport industry, and
railway machine-building have had problems with selling their
output for several years now. The defence enterprises and those
which are undergoing conversion face major problems, too.
However, the description of industries as ineffective is a
delicate question; we cannot apply standard procedures in this
sphere. The only possible attitude is the individual approach
to each industry. 

Question: Is the trend for economic growth realistic? Your
government spoke about economic growth very often, but many
economists question its assessment. 

Answer: If there can be doubts in this sphere, they
concern the fact that the positive increment of the GDP was
registered not early last year, as far as I know, but long
before that. The actual size of economic growth was much larger
than is registered by official statistics. 
The doubts of many economists are based on the possibility
of choosing a very simple way of showing one's activity, when
constructive proposals on accelerating economic reforms and
making them more effective are replaced by doubts and
criticism.
The truth is that the GDP dropped by 4.9% in 1996
(although it grew by 0.8% in December) and grew by 0.4% in
1997. If we take the basic indices of economic activity, which
are the reference point for gauging the level of economic
development, the production of ferrous rolled stock grew by
8.3% in 1997, of electro-ferroalloys, by 29.7%, of synthetic
resins and plastic masses, by 11.4%, and of tyres, by 11.6%.
The output of passenger cars grew by 15.2%, of vehicles, by
12.6% (including of cars, by 13.5%), and medical commodities,


by 15.1%. I can cite other examples testifying to economic
growth in the key industries. Their rate of growth was much
higher than the rate of growth of the GDP, and the rate of
growth in adjacent industries should correspond to these 
rates. 
By early March this year, when the GDP grew by 0.9%, the
growth of output amounted to 13.2% in non-ferrous metallurgy,
13.2% in the medical industry, 4.6% in the light industry, and
2.2% in the food industry. The output of machine-building and
metal-working industries grew by 1.9%, including the output of
lorries by 15.7%, and of buses, by 44.1%. The production of
cars went up by 7.1% in Tatarstan, by 3.5% in Ulyanovsk Region,
and by 2.0% in Nizhni Novgorod Region. 
Although the range of industries which registered stable
high growth rates increased, it cannot be said that growth has
become a nationwide fact. The idea was to create a reliable
base for economic growth, and we saw the elements of this
growth, although on a small scale, last year. 
Now about the essence of the question. A new
socio-economic regime is developing in the country, noted for
the domination of non-government forms of ownership, economic
liberalisation, competition, orientation to demand, and solvent
demand. There is a stable demand on the world markets for the
output of more and more industries, and some home-oriented
industries are successfully competing on the domestic market. 
The dynamics of the reforms carried out in the past few
years proves that the improvement of the economic situation in
the country directly depends on our progress in the development
of market relations. 
The irreversibility, consistency and intensification of
market-oriented changes, combined with improvements in the
system of government regulation of the economy, create the
conditions for making economic growth a stable trend.

Question: What do you think about the idea that our
cooperation with the West is turning Russia into a
raw-materials appendage of the Western countries?

Answer: Foreign economic cooperation is based on available
resource, technological and economic possibilities of states
and traditions. Russia mostly exported raw materials, and we
can only dream about the time when it will export less gas,
oil, ores and timber, and would instead export high
technologies and finished commodities. To accomplish this, we
need a different economy and time. We have neither now, and no
matter how good the idea of preserving the national wealth can
sound, the realities are different. The question is not to sell
raw materials to the West or not, but how to use revenues from
this trade. Eat them up, as we did in the past? Or use them for
the technical and technological modernisation of production,
for introducing progressive methods of organising production,
and ensuring the progress of social development in general? 
The trade structure of our imports has changed. The share
of machinery, equipment and transport vehicles reached 35% in
1997, as against 32% in 1996. This points to a growth of demand
for investment commodities, which form the foundation of the


future economic growth. On the other hand, the export of
investment commodities (machine-building output) grew by 3.8%
in 1997, or by more than 300 million dollars, for the first
time in the past few years, and their share in the structure of
export grew from 9% to 10%.
These structural changes in the system of export and
import testify to the positive nature of Russia's foreign trade
and destroy the idea that our country is being turned into a
raw-materials appendage of the West.

*********

#6
ST. PETE EX-MAYOR RECOVERING, CLAIMS INNOCENCE, TO RUN FOR DUMA

PARIS, APRIL 6 (from RIA Novosti's Vitali Dymarsky) -
Anatoli Sobchak, previous St. Petersburg mayor, is recovering in
Paris from two bad heart attacks. He is determined to compete
for the State Duma on next year's parliamentary election or
earlier, if his native constituency seat is vacated. He makes it
a point not to run for any other constituency, he said to the
Russian press.
The prominent democratic reform activist does not rule out
participation in the next federal presidential election, due
2000, but is not yet sure in what function. He pointed out
Victor Chernomyrdin, Alexander Lebed and, with reservations,
Andrei Nikolayev as the most hopeful candidates for now. Mr.
Sobchak described Nikolayev, recent Federal Frontier Service
chief, as Russia's best-educated general.
The former mayor emphasises his firm resolution to retain
Russian citizenship and come home as soon as his health permits.
Despite heart problems, he is going on with historical research
and writing, and has just finished a book about the last days of
the Russian monarchy and other stormy events of 1917.
Culprits of his ignoble frame-up are to be punished,
insists Anatoli Sobchak. This is one of the main prerequisites
of his return to Russia. Looking back at the grim days which had
caused him an infarction, he hotly referred to his showy
detention as vital witness by a balaclava'ed commando squad
brandishing automatics. He regards the outrage as retrograde
revenge on democrats. "I cannot trust a Prosecutor-General who
used to be on the Communist Party Central Committee and was
assistant to Barannikov, one of the ringleaders of the abortive
coup in October 1993." Though he does not expect proceedings on
his case to go on, Mr. Sobchak is full of the fighting spirit,
and ready to come to Russia and face the court if his trial is
cooked up despite all.
Underworld penetration into the corridors of power is the
worst danger of all Russia is facing, said Sobchak. The
sensation-thirsty mass media have persuaded the public that all
politics and all regimes are dirty through and through, and it
takes a dirty character to meddle in them. This was why a
downright criminal won a mayoral election a week ago in Nizhni
Novgorod, a crucial industrial centre and economic reform seat.
"The public preferred a thief who was promising to give out from
his booty." 
The federal Interior Ministry is more notorious than any
other office. "It has developed into a giant monster. Its
600,000-strong troops numerically exceed the Landed Forces and


have a huge arsenal of armoured vehicles, helicopters and the
latest weaponry." Neither the police nor security have undergone
any reform, and are substituting broadly advertised frame-ups
for genuine crime and graft efforts. His own case came as a
blind for Moscow's blatant bribery to libel St. Petersburg as a
seat of corruption. "What I came through was not a criminal
investigation but overt political persecution," said Sobchak.
He referred to the recent Russian cabinet dismissal to say
that "Yeltsin had once again outwitted his opponents with a move
which put an abrupt stop to communists' and other
oppositionaries' endless demands for a government stepdown. This
dismissal made Chernomyrdin presidential aspirant to raise him
to a place he deserves." 

*********

#7
Jamestown Foundation Monitor
7 April 1998

ACTING PRIME MINISTER PUSHES FOR MILITARY REFORM. Acting Russian Prime
Minister Sergei Kirienko delved into military affairs this week during a
meeting with another of Russia's acting ministers--Defense Chief Igor
Sergeev. Following two hours of talks on the army's financial situation
Kirienko praised Sergeev and the army for the progress made thus far in
implementing the government's military reform plan. 

The meeting reportedly had two slightly more substantive results. The first
involved a recommendation to the Russian president that one
commission--dealing with military development and formerly headed by then
Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin--be maintained. Another
commission--dealing with the financial side of military reform and
previously headed by former First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly
Chubais--will be abolished. The two commissions were created in June 1997 as
Russia launched its military reform effort. They were then subordinated to
the Russian Defense Council. That council has since been abolished and its
functions rolled into a greatly strengthened Russian Security Council. It
was unclear from yesterday's announcement whether the surviving commission
will also be subordinated to the Security Council. But, according to
Kirienko, it will be headed by the prime minister, with the defense minister
as deputy. 

A second result of the meeting was a decision to draft a two-part plan on
sources for financing military reform. According to Kirienko, one part
foresees additional revenues for the armed forces through the sale of excess
military property. The second calls for continued internal savings through
additional cost-cutting measures. Although Kirienko applauded the army for
the steps already taken in this direction, the military leadership is
unlikely to greet the news with much enthusiasm. Russia's generals have long
bemoaned dwindling defense budgets. Many in the military--including those
now in political opposition to the Kremlin--have complained that defense
reform cannot be effectively carried out without greater government
expenditures. 

Kirienko admitted that, due to financial difficulties, Russian servicemen
have not been paid for a month. He said that the government remains deeply
in debt for defense orders as well. (Russian agencies, Russian TV, April 3;


Nezavisimaya gazeta, April 4) 

**********

#8
The Independent (UK)
5 April 1998
[for personal use only]
Lethal legacy
Incredibly, 12 years after the worst nuclear disaster in history, 
Chernobyl remains a deadly threat, with cracks and holes in the 
sarcophagus around the reactor prompting real fears of another 
catastrophe. By Phil Reeves 

On the side of the apartment block wall, shrouded by weeds and doused, 
invisibly, with radiation, there is a four-word message in very 
deliberate red letters: "Forgive me, my Motherland." Across the 
landscape, through the afternoon haze, the crime in question rears up 
into the sky, grey as a battleship but with a slightly Dickensian tilt, 
like a building from a cartoon by Boz. 

Forgive me, the graffiti writer can almost be heard to plead, for my 
part in creating this monster, a nuclear power station that erupted like 
a volcano, sending a cloud of radioactivity across the northern 
hemisphere, and which is still threatening humanity, even now. Forgive 
me for gambling with the planet. We are in Pripyat, a town created for 
the workers at Chernobyl nuclear power station, for the young talent of 
the Soviet Union. On 27 April 1986 - a full day after the top blew off 
Reactor Unit 4 - children were still playing in these streets. 
The bakery, sports hall, post office, cafes, hotel, all carried on as 
normal. The buses, more than 1,000 of them, didn't arrive until the 
afternoon. That's when everyone knew there was a crisis, even though the 
high-ups in Kiev and the Kremlin hushed it up for days afterwards. The 
heads of the local Communist Party were first to board the coaches. Even 
then, the residents thought they would be back home in three or four 
days. Twelve years on, they have yet to return. Pripyat, built with such 
high hopes, is engulfed by a hush that will last for decades, if not 
centuries. "My brother lived here so I came here often," says Andrei 
Gensitsky, our guide. "This was a great place, full of clever young 
people." The average age was 24. This is not a great place any more. The 
surrounding countryside, part of a contaminated 30km exclusion zone 
around Chernobyl, is dotted with young pines sprouting through the 
remnants of the winter snow, their form echoing the hundreds of 
electricity pylons stretching into the distance. 

Huge notices stand on the edge of the forests around: "Dangerous to 
health". The same warning applies to 1 million tons of metal scattered 
across the zone - from tractors to helicopters used in the clean-up 
operation - and to numerous cattle sheds and deserted cottages. It even 
applies to the mushrooms that will grow this autumn in the peaty soil. 
Last year's crop was even more contaminated than the year before. 

But the eye is drawn to the contours of the ruined reactor itself. We 
drive towards it, park in its shadow, and get out of the car. "It is OK 
to stand here," says Andrei, "the radiation is much worse over the 
fence." He pointed to a wall, 40 yards away. 

We take his word on trust, as he has no measuring device and nor have 
we. All we have are some ill-fitting fatigues, leather boots and 


daft-looking Russian fur hats, issued in exchange for our clothes by the 
nearby "decontamination centre". Andrei doesn't believe in wearing a 
dosimeter, which checks radiation dosage, because "they don't work". He 
doesn't really seem to believe that working in the zone is a bad idea, 
as reports about the fall-out from Chernobyl were "exaggerated". Like a 
lot of people who drift round the zone, he seems to live in a trance of 
self-deception. 

His wife works here, too, no worries. Well, not many. In an abrupt burst 
of gloom, he admits that they fear to have children. Birth defects in 
the most seriously contaminated areas of neighbouring Belarus shot up by 
161 per cent in the decade after the disaster. There were sharp rises, 
too, in diabetes, malignant tumours and nervous disorders. 

We gaze up at the hulk itself. Andrei, a generally sullen figure, seems 
animated by it, just as he had been earlier, briefly, when he showed me 
the rusting and contaminated boats in the nearby harbour. Some remote 
corner of the mind is thrilled by the knowledge that we are looking at 
the source of the worst nuclear disaster the planet has ever seen, and 
that it is not yet dormant. 

Not by any means. Within the 74-metre-high concrete and steel 
sarcophagus that encloses the ruins of the reactor, a few hundred yards 
from us, there is a cocktail of fresh nuclear fuel, vast piles of 
poisonous wreckage, and 34 tons of highly radioactive dust. 

It was built by remote control in the mayhem after the disaster. Some of 
the workers were only able to work the machines for minutes at a time, 
before exceeding their maximum radiation doses. When they finished, they 
posed for a photograph in front of their handiwork carrying a banner: 
"The government's task is fulfilled". 

But it wasn't. The shelter is full of holes, cracks, welding gaps. Taken 
together, a full 100 square metres of the interior is exposed to the 
atmosphere. Rain water gets in, and there is the risk that it will 
mingle with the contents, creating a chain reaction leading to a 
"neutron flash", and squirt a fresh dose of radiation into the outside 
world. 

Water may also be getting out. Scientists, who monitor the shelter, have 
detected signs of thritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, in bore 
holes for testing subsoil water. They fear that - if nothing is done - 
it could one day get into nearby Ukraine's water supply, causing another 
catastrophe within the 50 million-strong population. 

But officials here have more immediate worries. They fear the 
sarcophagus and especially its roof, where most of the lethal dust is 
concentrated, could soon collapse, releasing its payload into the 
environment. They quote estimates which say that the chances of some 
sort of collapse is about one in 10 every year. "The shelter is 
potentially dangerous," says Mykola Dmytruk, deputy director of 
information at Chernobyl. "Even a teenager can see that." 

Opinions differ on the degree of risk. Sitting in his office a few miles 
away, Sergei Bogatov, a Russian scientist in charge of radiation 
monitoring, says the dust is more like "pebbles", and is too heavy to be 


borne far afield by the wind. Released, it would severely, probably 
lethally, contaminate the immediate area of Chernobyl. "There would have 
to be a high powered nuclear explosion for it to be dispersed over a 
wide area," he says. 

In a 1996 report, Greenpeace took a more pessimistic view, warning that 
a roof collapse or an explosion within the core could cause wider 
contamination beyond the zone. It pointed out that there are earthquakes 
in the Chernobyl region. Arguments will always arise over the degree of 
threat, but no one disputes the basics: the need to strengthen the 
sarcophagus before an accident happens. 

This month is the 12th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident, an 
explosion that released 200 times more radioactivity than the Hiroshima 
and Nagasaki atom bombs. The shelter has long been recognised as a 
liability, yet only now is progress being made towards repairing it. Why 
has it taken so long? What happened to the momentum for change that 
followed the disaster itself, the political rhetoric about international 
co-operation and never letting such a tragedy recur? 

The answer is that the aftermath of tragedy has been dominated by 
haggling, bureaucracy, geopolitics, commercial interests and fading 
trust. Both Ukraine and the West have been eager to extract concessions 
from one another. Early optimism has faded into cynicism, curried by a 
belief that the international community will only spend money if it can 
get something back. Discussion has been confused by hype and 
self-interest. Ukrainian officials complain that the social problems - 
with public health, water, housing - are forgotten by the outside world. 
They say the West only cares about avoiding another big bang, and 
selling its technology. 

Progress has been painfully slow. In 1992 the plant's engineer revealed 
that the sacrophagus's concrete was being eaten away by radioactivity 
and would probably last only six years. In June 1993, the Nuclear Energy 
Agency confirmed it had holes and leaks. Two years later, Leonid Kuchma, 
President of Ukraine, said it could even produce another nuclear 
explosion. Sure, some of these people may well have been talking up the 
risks in search of funds - but all agree there is a risk. 

Yet only now has a start been made. The European Bank for Reconstruction 
and Development (EBRD) is close to signing a contract with a consortium 
which will manage the rebuilding of the shelter. So far the bank has 
received commitments of $387m (£233m) for making the shelter safe, from 
21 countries, dominated by the G7. This is only half the estimated cost 
of the project. It is, take note, only for rebuilding the shelter; 
proposals for an entirely new sarcophagus have been set aside as too 
expensive. 

One reason for this international miserliness is a suspicion that 
dollars will end up in Swiss bank accounts or paying for private 
mansions on the Black Sea coast. This is not without justification, 
given the scale of corruption throughout the former Soviet Union. 
According to one Ukrainian official, Vladimir Usatenko, millions of 
dollars of aid to Chernobyl have been salted away into private bank 


accounts over the last decade. He claims snouts will be in the trough 
again once work on the shelter gathers momentum. 

Western officials dispute these claims, pointing out that international 
funds - and especially those from the EBRD - are tightly controlled. But 
they say money has been stolen on a sizeable scale from the Ukrainian 
government, which imposes a Chernobyl income tax to pay for flats, cars 
and other benefits for the victims. It seems conmen have little 
compunction about snaffling funds earmarked for the countless people 
still suffering. 

Given the scale of the Chernobyl disaster, the world ought at least to 
be able to rest easy in the knowledge that the power station itself, the 
font from which the nightmare flowed, is now consigned to history's 
dustbin. Wrong. It has four reactors, all currently shut down. But the 
Ukrainian government plans next month to restart Reactor 3 - which 
shares a wall with the shattered shell of Reactor 4. 

Engineers working on the sarcophagus may find themselves moving around 
heavy equipment, and highly radioactive wreckage, next to an operating 
nuclear reactor. Worries extend further. Not long ago the plant's sloppy 
attitude to safety and assorted equipment flaws prompted the World 
Association of Nuclear Operators to condemn it as "dangerously unsafe". 

How long Chernobyl will go on pumping out electricity to the 
fuel-starved Ukraine is still uncertain. The Ukrainian government signed 
an agreement with G7 in December 1995 finally to shut the place down 
before 2000, but whether this will actually happen is open to question. 
Last Friday President Kuchma said Ukraine would not close Chernobyl if 
the G7 reneges on what he considers the West's part of the deal - an 
agreement to provide loans for the completion of two nuclear reactors 
elsewhere in the country, at Khmelnitsky and Rivne. 

The G7 is showing signs of reluctance to do so, arguing that various 
conditions must be met. The new reactors - which are Russian-designed 
VVER-1000 types, different from Chernobyl's - must meet international 
safety standards and be the most economical way to generate energy. 

Crucially - as it turns out - the G7 had to be satisfied that Ukraine 
could service its debt. This clause is currently proving the sticking 
point. Alarmed by signs that economic reforms were being rolled back in 
Ukraine's power industry, the World Bank has frozen a loan to its energy 
sector. The effect was to undermine still further Ukraine's credentials 
as a reliable borrower. 

Thus, the EBRD has yet to agree to help fund the new reactors. Ukraine 
has been discussing funding with Russia, which appears willing to pitch 
in if it means business for their nuclear industry. But a deal with 
Moscow has not yet materialised. Without finance for his new nuclear 
plants, President Kuchma might just live up to his threat to keep 
Chernobyl going for a few more years, flogging more power out of it into 
the 21st century. 

How dangerous is this? Although a tranche of safety measures has been 
introduced since the disaster, the West is still adamant that Chernobyl 
should be closed down for ever. The chances of another massive explosion 


are far less today. But as one US expert pointed out, "I don't think we 
accept that it couldn't happen again." 

Put that to the former Soviet scientists who work in the exclusion zone, 
peering into the heart of the sacrophagus, and you get a volley of 
despairing head-shaking. They insist that Chernobyl's much-criticised 
RBMK design is safe, and that the disaster - which happened during a 
late-night test - was caused by operator error. "I don't understand why 
the station should close at all," said Dr Eduard Pazukhin, "After all, 
nowhere else has a safety zone around it, stuffed with scientists." 

A veteran of the nuclear industry, he waxes lyrical about the RBMK, 
viewing it as a triumph of Soviet science (even though it was rejected 
by the British as early as 1947). He appears motivated by patriotism and 
pride, rather than money. Dr Pazukhin takes home the grand sum of $320 a 
month - and that often arrives weeks late. "This reactor is perfectly 
safe. There is no danger. I am a supporter of nuclear technology. It has 
been my life. For me, Chernobyl is like a baby." 
A baby? Staring up at the leaking shelter that encloses the wreckage of 
one of these things, not knowing what is stewing away within, or what 
effect those potions may be having, it is hard to see any endearing 
characteristics. It looks like a ghastly monument to how stupid humans 
can be. A reminder of how lessons are never learnt. 

*********

#9
FOCUS-Viacom to launch MTV music network in Russia
By Sue Zeidler 

LOS ANGELES, April 6 (Reuters) - MTV Networks said Monday it signed a
licensing deal in Russia, sensing the country's youth is now ready and eager
to tune into a 24-hour music television network. 

Through a licensing agreement with Biz Enterprises of Moscow, MTV will launch
the new Moscow-based music network in the fourth quarter of 1998, it said. 

"Russia has gone through tremendous change over the last six years and the
youth culture that has come out of that change is now very strong. We feel
that they're definitely ready for their own MTV," Bill Roedy, president of MTV
Networks International, said in an interview. 

The new network will reach more than 10 million households primarily in
cities, Roedy said. He was phoning from Cannes, France, where the deal was
announced at a television conference. 

He said MTV has been building a relationship in Russia over the last nine
years. 

"We've had a presence there, but its been through our MTV Europe operation,
and programming was distributed in either blocks of programming or select
cable systems," he said. 

"The difference here is the programming will be fully tailored MTV for young
Russians," he said. 

"It will be a mixture of music, music-based programming and non-music
programming like animated shows, which is what MTV U.S. has," he said. 

The programming will feature international acts like Madonna, U2 and the Spice
Girls, along with a heavy mix of Russian content. 

"It's very Russian, with Russian music, Russian vee-jays and Russian
programming," Roedy said. 

Boris Zosimov, president of Biz Enterprsies and MTV's partner, said PolyGram
NV was the first international label to have a joint venture in Russia, but


that other major labels are starting to expand operations there, including EMI
Plc and BMG. 

"From their point of view, MTV will work," he said. 

Zosimov said until recently the music industry in Russia had been very closed
and controlled by Russian companies using manipulative measures like payola
schemes. These scandals rocked the U.S. music industry in the early 1960s as
disc jockeys admiited to taking bribes from record companies to plug songs and
give them radio air time. 

He said MTV was adding legitimacy to the market. 

"The real musicians had no chance," he said. "MTV is the first real chance for
anyone with music to make an impact. 

"A few (Russian) companies had controlled everything," he said. And with MTV,
Russian musicians will even have a chance to grab the international spotlight.
MTV plans to beam Russian acts around the world, as well. 

"Our dream is to have a major international star coming from Russia that would
be appealing to other markets around the world," Roedy said. 

Russian music has evolved from the heavy metal and heavy rock which dominated
the scene in the early 1990s to a more diverse selection ranging from pop to
rap. 

Roedy said the deal was a benchmark in MTV's global strategy, which is to
localize MTV to specific country markets. He said MTV is also eyeing a similar
format in South Africa eventually. 

"Eventually, we'd like to have a South African version of MTV to go through
the rest of Africa. We have some distribution right now in the north of
Africa," he said. 

MTV Europe and VH1 UK are currently distributed in South Africa, he said. 

MTV is now in one-fourth of the world's television households and is the
world's largest television network. International channels are MTV: Music
Television, M2, MTV Asia, MTV Australia, MTV Brazil, MTV Europe, MTV Japan,
MTV Latin America and MTV New Zealand. 

Like other U.S. businesses, MTV has encountered some difficulties with
Russia's evolving infrastructure. 

Because cable is not that widespread, the network will be distributed via VHF
and UHF terrestrial frequencies. 

"Obviously, there's roller coasters, pitfalls and challenges in the (music)
market, and in many casees, more so here than in other markets," Roedy said.
"But nothing that was unsurmountable or was enough to discourage us." 

********

#10
Russian spring crop sowing held up by cold, snow

MOSCOW, April 6 (Reuters) - Russia's spring sowing campaign has been delayed
by cold weather at the end of March and beginning of April in the northern
Caucasus and lower Volga regions, Interfax news agency reported on Monday. 

Interfax quoted the head of the plant cultivation department at Russia's
Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Ivan Gridasov, as saying snow currently
falling in these regions was further holding up the campaign. 

He said that as of April 4, the area sown to spring wheat was 119,000 hectares
(ha), compared to 322,000 ha at the same time last year. 

Data from the ministry showed that the area where most sowing had been done
was Krasnodar, with 79,000 ha sown. In the past week spring sowing started in
Dagestan, North Ossetia and Kalmykia. In all, nine regions were now sowing


spring wheat. 

Gridasov added that bad weather meant the agricultural sector had only managed
to plant winter crops and prepare fields for spring crops covering an area of
702,000 ha this year, compared to 1,392,000 ha at the same period last year. 

Work on resowing winter crops which had been killed had practically stopped,
with just 100 ha resown last week, down from 900 ha the previous week. 

He said the position of the agricultural sector had been further complicated
by inadequate financing, which was hampering technical preparations and
building up stockpiles of fuel. 

At present, he said, no more than 70 percent of agricultural machinery was in
working order, and supplies of fuel and chemical fertilisers were also lower
than at the beginning of last year's campaign. 
Spring crops are expcted to be sown over 62 million ha this year. The whole
area to be sown, including winter crops and other crops, is 96.5 million ha. 

Russia plans to produce 70 million tonnes of grain in 1998 (88.5 million
tonnes in 1997), as well as 18 million tonnes of sugar beet (13.8 million last
year), and 3.5 million tonnes of oilseeds (2.8 million last year), Interfax
said. 

**********

#11
MOONSHINE MAKES UP HALF OF RUSSIAN LIQUOR, WARNS EXPERT
//APRIL 6 /RIA NOVOSTI/--
Illegal distilleries provide almost a half of alcoholic
beverages consumed in Russia, warns Nina Lobanova, second in
charge of indirect taxation at the State Taxation Service.
Out of an annual average national consumption of 2,140
million litres, above-the-board distilleries provide a mere 840
million, and legal imports account for another 300 to 400
million. Moonshiners steadily step up their activities with
every passing year, the expert said in an exclusive Novosti
interview.
This alarming situation requires an urgent abolition of all
tax privileges for beverage distillers and traders. The current
soft taxation and exciseless imports of raw ethanol and
denaturated alcohol encourages illegal distillers. An absence of
necessary laboratories rules out beverage tests, and Russia
cannot for now afford a direly necessary network of independent
inspectors.
Ms. Lobanova advises to toughen standards for alcohol
beverage distillery and trade licensing. 

********