May 10, 1998  
This Date's Issues: 2171 • 2172 • 

Johnson's Russia List
#2172 
10 May 1998
davidjohnson@erols.com

[Note from David Johnson:
1. Laura Belin: Taking on the Duma.
2. Reuters: Timothy Heritage, Yeltsin turns to foreign policy 
after crisis.
3. Reuters: Russia's sacked PM hails controversial tycoon.
4. Reuters: Philippa Fletcher, Ten Caspian states to mull 
tactics on oil/gas development.
5. The Sunday Times (UK): Mark Franchetti, Inside Moscow.
6. Sovetskaya Rossiya: Vasiliy Safronchuk, "What Has President 
Gotten Rid of by Forming New Government? 'Nightmare Kilometers'."
7. RIA Novosti: RUSSIANS SPEAK THEIR ABOUT RUSSIA AND THE CIS.
8. Interfax: Official--Russia To Stop Borrowing From IMF in 2000.
9. Radio Rossii Network: Publication of Chubays Book on Privatization 
Delayed.
10. Itar-Tass: Minister Says Russia's Revival To Start With 
Agriculture.
11. Itar-Tass: Russian General Staff Chief Urges NATO Expansion
Discussion.
12. Moskovskiye Novosti: Yelena Rykovtseva, "One Should Not Possess 
Too Many Media Organizations: The Duma Is Considering: How Can the
Process of Media Monopolization Be Stopped?"
13. AP: Report: Japan Makes Kuril Proposal.
14. Interfax: Nemtsov on '60 Measures' for Overcoming Economic
Crisis.]

********

#1
Date: 10 May 1998 14:44:26 U
From: "Laura Belin" <belinl@rferl.org>
Subject: taking on the Duma

A few thoughts on the Chicago Tribune's editorial, "Now Yeltsin Must Take on
the Duma":

The newspaper is absolutely right that Kirienko and his government must work
with the parliament in order to pass vital legislation, such as a tax code and
land code.

However, the editorial is wrong to suggest that Yeltsin can now simply "force
the Duma into line" by taking advantage of the deputies' apparent fear of
early parliamentary elections. The Chicago Tribune may view the Duma as a
"do-nothing body" whose members are "obsessed with maintaining the failed
policies of the past." But however lopsided toward presidential power the
Russian constitution may be, it does not give Yeltsin the right to dissolve
the Duma if deputies fail to pass tax, legal and land reform. 

The Duma may be dissolved only if it rejects Yeltsin's prime ministerial
nominee three times or votes no confidence in the government (twice within
three months on its own initiative, or once if the government itself requests
the confidence vote). As long as deputies avoid those pitfalls, they may
refuse to pass any government-backed law without fear of dissolution.

Incidentally, it is misleading to portray the Russian political spectrum as a
simple divide between "reformers" in the government and "hard-liners" in the
Duma. The most consistent critics of the new cabinet, Grigorii Yavlinskii and
members of his Yabloko movement, oppose Kirienko's team because they believe
it will continue the policies of Victor Chernomyrdin's government and will not
do enough to enact genuine economic reform.

Yours,
Laura Belin
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Prague

********

#2
FOCUS-Yeltsin turns to foreign policy after crisis
By Timothy Heritage 

MOSCOW, May 10 (Reuters) - Russian President Boris Yeltsin shifts attention to
foreign policy this week after finally putting together a new government after
weeks of uncertainty. 

The 67-year-old Kremlin chief leaves on Friday for a summit of the Group of
Eight leading industrial nations in the English city of Birmingham, where he
plans to hold separate meetings with all the other leaders attending. 

He is also due to make a major policy speech to the Foreign Ministry on
Tuesday and gives his first interview on the Internet the same day,
concentrating on the Birmingham meeting. 

Yeltsin has re-appointed former spymaster Yevgeny Primakov as foreign minister
in the new cabinet, which he said on Friday was complete, and no big changes
are expected in foreign policy. 

``Now that he has finished forming the government, the president intends to
keep the same foreign policy priorities, although based on a new economic
foundation,'' the Russky Telegraf newspaper said on Friday. 

The daily said Yeltsin would urge the Foreign Ministry in his speech on
Tuesday to put more accent on trade and investment in its diplomacy. 

``Yeltsin will apparently demand a 'reinforcement of political breakthroughs'
-- among which the president, not without reason, includes his informal
contacts with Western leaders -- through real economic content,'' it said. 

Yeltsin has said several times that the Foreign Ministry should put more
emphasis on the economic side of diplomacy, but his appeal will be all the
more poignant on Tuesday because of several tough statements by government
officials last week. 

The government officials made clear that every bit of help will be needed to
boost the economy and head off a feared financial crisis. Prime Minister
Sergei Kiriyenko told Russians they must learn to live within in their means. 

Yeltsin said he sacked the government of veteran prime minister Viktor
Chernomyrdin on March 23 to bring in a more dynamic team to reinvigorate
market reforms. 

Kiriyenko, 35, is expected to follow similar policies to Chernomyrdin. But his
government has more independent experts and fewer experienced politicians than
the previous cabinet, underlining Yeltsin's dominant role in shaping policy. 

Yeltsin is also the key figure in foreign affairs and has sought to boost
Russia's role on the world stage at a series of informal talks with the
Japanese, French, German and Canadian leaders in recent months. 

The Group of Eight meeting, to be attended by the leaders of Britain, the
United States, France, Italy, Germany, Canada and Japan, offers Yeltsin the
chance to continue these informal talks and he plans to make good use of it. 

``Each of them (the other leaders) has expressed an interest in meeting me,''
Yeltsin said on Friday. ``I will meet them all individually. Everything is
planned to the hour and the minute.'' 

Top of the list is Yeltsin's planned with U.S. President Bill Clinton. They
enjoy a good personal relationship but U.S.-Russian relations are no longer as
good as immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. 

Russia has been trying hard to develop ties with a host of other countries,
notably Japan and China, while Yeltsin and Clinton have not had a full summit
for more than a year. 

Primakov met U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at the weekend in
London, where both were attending a meeting of Group of Eight foreign
ministers.

********

#3
Russia's sacked PM hails controversial tycoon

MOSCOW, May 10 (Reuters) - Sacked Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin
welcomed on Sunday the appointment of businessman Boris Berezovsky as
secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Interfax news
agency said. 

``People say a lot of things about Berezovsky today, some of them good and
some of them bad, but he is a person who is active and comes up with ideas,''
Chernomyrdin was quoted as saying at a celebrity soccer match. 

Berezovsky, 52, is one of Russia's more controversial figures and is widely
thought to have considerable influence in the Kremlin. He was appointed
secretary of the CIS, a loose grouping of 12 former Soviet republics, on April
29. 

He criticised Chernomyrdin on the eve of the former premier's sacking by
President Boris Yeltsin on March 23 but welcomed Chernomyrdin's announcement
just days later that he would run for the presidency in the next election, due
in 2000. 

Chernomyrdin's comments on Sunday indicated that he and Berezovsky had re-
established good relations and that there was still potential for a political
alliance between them for the presidential election. 

Some senior political sources say it was Berezovsky who persuaded
Chernomyrdin, 60, to announce his presidential plans. 

Berezovsky and other powerful financiers and businessmen are looking for a
candidate who will protect their interests. The experienced, if uncharismatic,
Chernomyrdin might fit the bill. 

Berezovsky was deputy secretary of the president's Security Council until last
November and was a negotiator for Moscow at talks with separatist leaders in
Russia's Chechnya region. 

``As a person who directly observed Berezovsky's work in the Security Council,
I can say that he did a lot over Chechnya,'' Chernomyrdin said. ``And now, a
few days after he was appointed, look at how many CIS countries Berezovsky has
been to.''

********

#4
Ten Caspian states to mull tactics on oil/gas devt
By Philippa Fletcher 

ALMATY, May 10 (Reuters) - Leaders from 10 states near the Caspian Sea meet on
Monday to discuss tactics in a new struggle for influence over their energy-
rich region, long dominated by Moscow. 

The Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO), made up of six former Soviet
republics and Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey, will present a common
front by signing an Almaty Declaration, named after the Kazakh city hosting
the summit. 

But their talks will be overshadowed by a tug-of-war over oil and gas in and
around the Caspian and fears among some of the ex-Soviet republics of a
possible spread of Islamic fundamentalism within their Moslem populations. 

Azerbaijan will not be represented by its head of state. Prime Minister Artur
Rasizade is attending because President Haydar Aliyev is celebrating his 75th
birthday. 

Afghanistan will be represented by ousted president Burhanuddin Rabbani,
driven from Kabul by the purist Islamic Taleban in 1996. 

The leaders of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan fear similar fates and have accused
Pakistan and Iran of backing Islamists. 

Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, together with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
and Turkmenistan, joined the ECO in 1992 to reorientate their newly
independent states away from Russia and towards fellow Moslem states to the
south. 

At the same time they opened the doors to Western investment which has
revealed the vast potential of the resources in their region and sparked a
tussle for control. 

ECO foreign ministers who met on Saturday tried to smooth over the
differences, signing deals to ease trade and fight smuggling and customs fraud
in the loose grouping. 

But the official speeches and comments on the sidelines revealed deep splits
over a carve-up of the sea's oil and gas resources and the pipelines needed to
get them to market. 

Kazakh Foreign Minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev left out a part of his speech
calling for oil swaps and offshore drilling with Iran and afterwards
underlined a difference of opinions. 

``We must be frank in saying that now our positions regarding the status of
the Caspian Sea have substantially parted,'' he said after talks with his
Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharrazi. 

Kazakhstan is due to sign a deal with Russia in July dividing the northern
part of the sea between them. Kharrazi poured cold water on it, saying any
deal had to include it and the other littoral states, Azerbaijan and
Turkmenistan. 

``I'm not sure how much they have agreed as there are still a lot of
questions,'' he told reporters. 

Outside the main meeting hall in the plush hotel near the Tien Shan mountains
which tower over Almaty, Iranian delegates took the Azeris aside and tried to
win them over. 

On the pipeline issue, Iran and Turkey were clearly at odds. 

Kharrazi told the meeting Iran was the cheapest way for the former Soviet
republics to get their oil and gas to market. 

He also seemed confident that Western oil giants who would foot the bill would
overcome threatened sanctions from Washington, which bitterly opposes Islamic
fundamentalist Iran. 

``We are sure that eventually economic rules will dictate and Iranian
territory will be chosen,'' Kharrazi told Reuters. 

But Turkish State Minister Ahat Andican said not only the United States, but
Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan supported an alternative pipeline project across his
country. 

Kazakhstan played safe, saying it agreed with both views. 

``Right now, it is too early to say which route is better, because the process
of feasibility studies for different routes is still going on,'' Tokayev told
reporters. 

In the 19th century, British and Russian agents vied for influence over the
central Asian states separating their expanding empires, in what was known as
the Great Game. 

Turkey, a key player in the contemporary re-run of the Great Game, denied a
battle for influence was under way. 

``You don't have to say 'influence' -- it's regional cooperation,'' Andican
told reporters. 

``They are free states, and they can choose which country to cooperate with
and to build their relations with,'' he added. 

********

#5
The Sunday Times (UK)
10 May 1998
[for personal use only]
Inside Moscow
By Mark Franchetti

Mr Clean loses his cool in heat of a traffic jam 

WHEN President Boris Yeltsin appointed his new interior minister last 
month, most observers agreed that the portly Sergei Stepashin seemed the 
right man for the job. His image was clean, his determination to banish 
corruption from the police force was clear. 
However, although several senior officers have been accused of stealing 
millions of pounds from state funds, one of the first policemen to incur 
Stepashin's wrath was a scrupulous traffic warden who refused to let his 
car drive round a jam at roadworks on Moscow's busy ring road. 

Concealed behind a smoked windscreen, the impatient minister at first 
instructed his chauffeur to inform the warden of his identity and 
importance. The young warden was not intimidated by the flashing of the 
car's blue lights and refused to budge. The minister, he insisted, would 
have to queue with all the rest. 

Infuriated, Stepashin is said to have marched up to the warden, shouting 
and brandishing his government identity card. To no avail: a heated 
confrontation followed but the minister was not allowed through until 
the traffic started moving again. 

In a country where traffic wardens are notoriously corrupt, flagging 
down cars and demanding bribes at random, the young officer would be 
deemed by many to have displayed a rare diligence. But instead of 
promoting him to set a badly needed example, Stepashin ordered his 
immediate dismissal, claiming he must be mentally ill. 

The order has since been withdrawn, but the offending warden has been 
sent away "on leave" and will have to undergo a medical examination 
before being permitted to work again. 

The minister's action has undermined a highly publicised campaign to 
instil a sense of duty in the interior department. His predecessor, 
Anatoly Kulikov, was sacked in March, apparently because Yeltsin was 
angered by evidence of corruption among the ministry's top brass. 
Stepashin has promised to make sweeping changes at the internal security 
directorate charged with exposing corrupt practice. 

He also intends to ensure that the police spend less time on petty 
offences and more on serious crime. From now on, he says, officers will 
no longer have to rig statistics, claiming ludicrous clear-up rates to 
earn bonuses. Instead their salaries, averaging £150 a month, will be 
raised. 

It all sounds very promising, as long as the minister is not flagged 
down by another honest officer. 

Astronauts' underwear

SOME of the demands made on cosmonauts aboard the Mir station, the 
troubled flagship of the impecunious Russian space programme, are 
increasingly far removed from their sophisticated training. 

They have already sung the praises of Israeli milk and BMW cars in 
advertisements to raise money. In the latest initiative, some German 
underwear was dispatched to them in a cargo rocket launched last week. 

The cosmonauts have been instructed to wear the black and white 49% 
cotton pants for an unspecified length of time in a stunt intended to 
persuade German consumers of the garments' durability. 

•TO the consternation of their wives, fishermen in the Russian Far East 
are drinking away their pay. The trawler fleet, based in Vladivostok, is 
paying its fisherman in vodka for lack of cash. There have been no 
complaints from the men, but their wives have written to the media, 
accusing the fleet of turning their husbands into alcoholics. 

•AN elderly woman has become a heroine in Bobrovets, a small village in 
western Russia, after overpowering a bear. Nina Bogdanova, 60, a retired 
post office manager, was charged and thrown to the ground as she cut 
branches to make into fishing rods near the animal's lair. Fighting for 
her life, she somehow managed to straddle the bear and thrust her knife 
into its chest, whereupon it fled. 

Bogdanova, who was unscathed, has suddenly found thatthe children who 
play noisily outside her home now take her more seriously when she tells 
them to shut up. 

Judges on the catwalk

THE scene is set in Tbilisi, Georgia, for the inaugural Best Judge's 
Robe contest. About 50 judges will compete for the title next month by 
parading in their favourite robes before a panel headed by the chairman 
of the supreme court. 

There is no set dress code for judges in Georgian courts, but next year 
the supreme court has ruled that robes should reflect Georgian folklore. 
That could be a problem. Georgia's national men's robe is decorated with 
two rifle-cartridge holders across the chest, which may look a little 
out of place in a courtroom. 

•EAGER to dispel reports of conscripts starving, the Russian army put 
soldiers chosen for yesterday's annual Red Square parade on a special 
diet. They were given extra portions of salted pork, vegetables and 
cheese for several weeks to ensure that they looked well-fed as they 
goose-stepped past Lenin's mausoleum. 

>From tomorrow, however,it will be back to daily rations of porridge and, 
inevitably, cabbage. 

*********

#6
Paper Nostalgic for 'Efficient' Soviet Way 

Sovetskaya Rossiya
7 May 1998
[translation for personal use only]
Article by Vasiliy Safronchuk: "What Has President Gotten Rid
of by Forming New Government? 'Nightmare Kilometers'"

Kicking the opposition, the "democratic" Russian mass media have
written a great deal to the effect that the process of approving Kiriyenko
in the post of head of government -- a process which they blame it for
protracting -- did great harm to the country's economy and to state
finances. Tens of billions of rubles were cited. It was not clear,
however, where such astounding figures had been obtained from. The state
and private enterprises which remained afloat continued to work, workers
and employees went on not receiving wages, pensioners had their pensions
withheld, trade -- domestic and foreign -- was carried on, and so forth. 
That is, the economic mechanism or, rather, what was left of it, continued
to creak in a "reforming" manner. Even officials pretended to continue
working, although they spent most of their office time just mooching about
the corridors, punctually receiving their wages for doing so. This idle
roaming of corridors, however, hardly caused substantial harm to the
Russian economy: Officials, in any case, do not create GDP....
But then, at last, the State Duma had its arm twisted on the third
vote, and a government is continuing unhurriedly to be formed. The process
commenced 24 April and, according to reports from the Kremlin, will end
only 8 May. This will no longer cause anyone in the Kremlin to sway. As
many as "three stages" have been gone through: On 28 April the appointment
of two vice premiers (Nemtsov and Khristenko) and seven ministers was
announced, on 30 April the appointment of one more vice premier (Sysuyev)
and 11 ministers was reported, and on 5 May two more ministers were
appointed. According to new rumors, the remaining two ministerial
vacancies will be filled not even 8 May but 10 May.
It would be fine if this loss of time were associated with the
formation of a capable coalition government and if there were political
bargaining for ministerial portfolios, as usually happens in the West,
notably when no political party gains an absolute majority in parliament. 
In that case the party which has gained the largest number of seats tries
to cobble together a coalition which will be able to govern the country
with the approval of parliament. The permanent apparatus of officials
functions while the government is being formed. But this is not the case
in our country. The president personally appoints the government, flouting
the will of the Federal Assembly. You would think that this would not take
up much time. It would seem possible to do it at one sitting. But no.
The delay is actually accounted for by the fact that our government is
appointed only formally by the president, whereas under cover of his edicts
the cabinet is actually formed by the world's backstage people and by the
Russian oligarchy. B. Yeltsin only gives voice to the cadre decisions
imposed on him. Even Western observers point this out. Moscow Times
commentator David McHugh writes: "Despite his declared intent to end
political intrigues, Yeltsin has made several appointments designed to
satisfy powerful financial interests. ...Sworn enemies Boris Berezovskiy
and Anatoliy Chubays have each received their own post. Chubays has been
appointed leader of the Unified Energy System [YeES] state monopoly. Last
week Berezovskiy, a billionaire with political connections, became
executive secretary of the CIS." Another commentator for the same
newspaper points out: "The new appointments have drawn a line between two
powerful financial- industrial groups formed at the time of the recent
government crisis. One bloc includes Aleksandr Smolenskiy of SBS-Agro,
Mikhail Khodorkovskiy of Menatep-Rosprom, Berezovskiy, and Vladimir
Gusinskiy of Most-Media. In the other bloc we find Uneximbank and
Interros, Lukoil (which, according to all the signs, is drawing closer to
Unexim), and Chubays' YeES" (5 May 1998).
Washington Post commentator Fred Hiatt believes that, by forming the
government from representatives of the oligarchy, Yeltsin is making timely
preparations for the upcoming presidential election. Here, in his opinion,
the president is planning two alternative routes. Health permitting, he
will try to find a loophole in the Constitution to secure his election for
a third term. But if his health does not permit, he will endeavor to
prepare an acceptable successor to himself. "The minimum requirement of
this successor will be the condition that he does not take Yeltsin to
court," Hiatt writes. In Hiatt's opinion, however, no Yeltsin heir will be
elected unless there are changes for the better in the country's economy. 
This is said to be why Yeltsin is making "feverish efforts" in his endeavor
to enlist the oligarchy's support.
The veil over certain aspects of the cabinet's reorganization and over
the forms of its cooperation with the president and his staff was lifted
slightly 5 May. The president himself did this. "The structure will be
different in principle," he declared. "We used to have such a motley
ladder: chairman, deputy chairmen, ministers, departments, and so forth. 
All this will now be underpinned by ministries, there will be no
departments at all, the number of ministries will fall, and the apparatus
as a whole will be halved in size."
Yeltsin went on to report that the government's powers would be
extended. Previously all government decrees were endorsed in the Kremlin
-- which complicated the process of the passage of documents. "There was a
huge wave of these documents," A. Livshits explained. "Naturally, we
helped the president to assess these draft decisions, and the president
would look through mountains of files thoroughly and punctually and spend
all this time doing so." This, so it turns out, is how the president
"worked with documents": He would simply look through files, without having
time even to read documents! "All government decrees pass through the
presidential structures," Yeltsin complains. "That is, it is as though we
did not trust Chernomyrdin, and so everything came down to me. If I
agreed, then everything was adopted. If not, everything was sent back. 
When the route taken by the documents was sketched out, it turned out to be
2 km. A nightmare!" the president exclaimed.
Yes, it really was a nightmare, and all the failures in the country's
leadership over the past seven years have now finally become clear! It
would be naive to think that anything will change following the president's
new edict. In words, it would appear that the powers of the prime minister
and his cabinet will be extended. His responsibility for decisionmaking
will also increase. But this is only in words. In fact, as
Yastrzhembskiy, the president's press secretary explained, all draft
decisions will continue to pass through the Presidential Staff, while the
most important ones will go past him personally. Less important ones will
go through his apparatus. The president, according to him, will be
released only from the stream of trivia. But there will be an increased
load on the Presidential Staff's economic sector and, in particular, on
Livshits, the Staff's assistant head for economic questions, who will now
"look through the files." In other words, the Presidential Staff will, as
previously, duplicate the government's work and drown in a stream of paper.
The present regime and the mass media serving it loosed quite a few
arrows at the country's former leadership system, accused the CPSU Central
Committee of duplicating the USSR Council of Ministers, spoke ironically
about the "gerontology" (aging) of the Politburo, and so forth. But at
that time there was a system in operation which was efficient: The CPSU
Central Committee -- the party's brain -- was a directive organ, while the
Council of Ministers was an executive organ. The Council of Ministers
included the most experienced and authoritative economic leaders. 
Documents did not go hither and thither but, carefully prepared in
ministries and departments, were examined and approved in the Politburo and
the Central Committee Secretariat and were carried out by the government. 
Everything was done collectively and on the highest expert level, and the
Central Committee and the Council of Ministers complemented each other. 
But now one elderly, sick president looks through files of documents and
takes on the adoption of very important decisions affecting the country's
destiny. He is helped by a team of callow yes-men and careerists who are
maintained by the oligarchy and who, as shown by scandalous press
revelations at the time Chubays was first vice premier, regularly receive
detailed letters of instruction from the U.S. Department of State and
international economic organizations. In the final analysis, they parrot
the words precisely of the IMF and the World Bank, whose sole aim is to
turn Russia into a raw materials appendage of the West and the Russian
people into slaves of multinational corporations. This entire system
constantly produces bribetakers and embezzlers of state property. 
Recently, for example, the prosecutor's office took A. Kokh, former
minister of state property and a colleague of Chubays in the "writers
union," to court on a charge of embezzling state property (the article
under which he is charged threatens imprisonment for five to 10 years).
Maybe it was not for nothing that the president, explaining the delay
over forming the government, said that two or three ministerial candidates
have to be checked out, lest the Krasnoyarsk option be repeated. Maybe
Yeltsin also had in mind the Nizhniy Novgorod option! Sadly, the situation
is worse, as the saying goes, than the gubernatorial one -- in time
criminal proceedings will have to be instituted against many of our present
rulers!

********

#7
RUSSIANS SPEAK THEIR ABOUT RUSSIA AND THE CIS
MOSCOW, MAY 10, /RIA-NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT LYUDMILA VANINA/
-- 50 percent of all Russian citizens (31 percent and 21
percent, respectively) view Russia-CIS relations as cool and
tense.
Such are the results of the latest opinion poll that was
conducted by the All-Russian Public Opinion Center (VCIOM) late
in April and early this May.
The poll has involved 1,600 Russian respondents. 23 percent
of all the pollees believe that such relations are quite normal
and tranquil. 7 percent and 6 percent regard such relations as
friendly and tranquil. 4 percent of all respondents believe that
Russia and the CIS maintain a hostile relationship.
At the same time, 24 percent of all Russians are sure that
the present-day CIS helps to preserve good-neighborly relations
between former Soviet republics. Another 23 percent share a
diametrically opposite viewpoint -- that the CIS serves to
aggravate mutual contradictions. 38 percent are inclined to
think that the republics now regard the CIS as something not
very important.
As far as the CIS' future is concerned, 34 percent of the
pollees think that a lengthy and difficult search for accord
awaits the CIS. 19 percent seem to be more optimistic; in their
opinion, integration and more substantial contacts between the
republics lie in store. 12 percent of all respondents predict
more intensive conflicts, what with another 12 percent fearing
the CIS' demise. 23 percent don't know the answer to this
question. 

*******

#8
Official--Russia To Stop Borrowing From IMF in 2000 

MOSCOW, May 7 (Interfax) -- A Russian Finance Ministry official
Thursday said the end is in sight for International Monetary Fund loans to
Russia.
"Starting in 2000 we will conclude our relations with the IMF on terms
of creditor and borrower," Deputy Finance Minister Vladimir Petrov told a
Thursday news conference in Moscow.
Relations between Russia and the IMF are currently untroubled, he
said. The Russian government hopes to receive another tranche of an IMF
loan at the end of May or the beginning of June.
"In 1999 we will also be using the EFF loan," Petrov said.
Budget revenues raised by issuing treasury bills should be reduced by
almost two thirds by 2001, he said, to 12% of total budget funding.
The government plans to restrict the issue of bonds. "New emissions
will be determined by the speed of GDP growth," Petrov said.
He predicted government bond yields would shrink from 16% in 1999 to
12% in 2001.

********

#9
Publication of Chubays Book on Privatization Delayed 

Radio Rossii Network
6 May 1998
[translation for personal use only]

The book about the history of Russian privatization, written by
[former Russian First Deputy Prime Minister] Anatoliy Chubays and a number
of other authors who were high-ranking state officials until quite
recently, has been returned to the authors for revision and will not now be
published until at least the end of this year or the beginning of next. 
Interfax has been informed of this by Aleksey Kostanyan, the
editor-in-chief of the Vagrius publishing house.

*********

#10
Minister Says Russia's Revival To Start With Agriculture 

MOSCOW, May 6 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's new Agriculture Minister Viktor
Semenov said on Wednesday that he believed Russia's revival will start with
agriculture, as one working place in agriculture creates eight working
places in other branches of economy.
However, the newly nominated minister characterized the situation in
the "strategic branch" as "extremely critical, extremely difficult."
Speaking on the Rossiyskoye Televideniye (RTR) channel, Semenov said
that it takes not only peasants but the entire society to take Russia's
agriculture out of crisis.
According to the minister "there is no agriculture in any civilized
country of the world without a state support and state regulation."
He believes the task of his ministry is "to create conditions so that
our peasants could freely float in the market economy, but that no one
would drown."
He also said farming in Russia has been too much politicized. "We have
put too much ideology in that problem," he said.
"Farming is a nice page, which I am sure will remain for years to
come," Semenov said. "But the entire world realizes now that there exists
priority of large production over the small one, if the large production is
competently organized," he emphasized.
Speaking about private ownership on land, Semenov said "the land issue
has been extremely politicized," adding he was in favor of "the land
turnover."
"I come out for a civilized turnover, a movement from a negligent
owner to a good one," he said adding, however, that "the role of the state,
especially on the first stage of the introduction of the land turnover,
should be very definite and clear."

*******

#11
Russian General Staff Chief Urges NATO Expansion Discussion 

Brussels, May 6 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian General Staff chief Anatoliy
Kvashnin said in NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday [6 May] that
any NATO expansion should be discussed with Russia.
Asked by Tass about the discussion on confidence-building measures
ahead of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary joining the alliance,
Kvashnin said each state, solving even its "interior" defence affairs,
"must not forget the interests of its neighbours."
General Staff chiefs, who took part in Wednesday's session of the
Russia-NATO standing committee, discussed the implementation of the
Founding Act signed in 1997, he said.
According to him, the Russian delegation insisted that both sides
should not only inform each other about military activities, but also
analyse them in order to exclude possible damage to either side.
Tangible progress has been achieved owing to dialogue between Russian
and NATO military bodies, he said, adding that those NATO members who had
refused to discuss with Russia the expansion and modernisation of the
alliance's military infrastructure, now agreed to do so, he said.
They repeated their promise on Thursday that no substantial NATO
forces would be deployed on the territory of any new members, he said.
Asked by Tass about the attitude of the Russian military towards the
possibility of Baltic nations joining NATO, he said the issue had not been
discussed so far. He added that he personally opposed such a development.
NATO insists that a mission of its be opened in Moscow and attached to
either the Defence Ministry of the General Staff. The issue is still under
consideration, but it is "being solved positively," he said without going
into details.
The NATO leadership has highly assessed the performance of Russian
permanent mission with NATO, headed by Viktor Zavarzin, he said.

********

#12
Rykovtseva Article on Media Monopolies 

Moskovskiye Novosti
19-26 April 1998
[translation for personal use only]
Article by Yelena Rykovtseva: "One Should Not Possess Too
Many Media Organizations: The Duma Is Considering: How Can the
Process of Media Monopolization Be Stopped?"

The Duma is trying to keep pace with life. The life of the
mass media has changed, while the laws have remained the same.
Presently, mass media is working for a boss--for his business and
political needs. This is unusual. It needs adjustment, in the Duma
deputies' view. First, the process of media monopolization should
be halted: One should not possess too many media organizations.
Appropriate amendments are being introduced to the Law "On Mass
Media." For example, if you obtain a broadcasting license, then in
addition you can own a daily newspaper in "your" broadcasting area.
But only one newspaper. In principle, it is allowed to have two
broadcasting licenses. But only if the broadcasting areas of the
two programs do not overlap. At least, not more than a 30 percent
overlap. In practice this means that one of the Russian media
moguls--the state--will be left with only the Russian State TV and
Radio Company [VGTRK] and Rossiyskaya Gazeta. While the Kultura
channel, Mayak, Rossiyskiye Vesti, and other media organizations
will be confiscated.
The state will suffer more than other owners. Because
compared to the state, other owners are not making public the entire
list of their mass media organizations. The Duma deputies are aware
of this and are trying to apply legislative means to make mass media
owners "transparent" in order for everybody to understand: This
newspaper (television company, radio station)--belongs to banker
Ivanov. Or not to Ivanov. Or not to a banker (the legislators want
to prohibit banks, financial-industrial groups, and natural
monopolists from owning mass media organizations).
The Duma deputies will fail. At least today, when there are
no instruments of investigating the real situation in the mass
media. An analytical memorandum was distributed during
parliamentary hearings on the issue of monopolies that was prepared
by the Committee on Information Policy. The author of the
memorandum has classified Moscow mass media organizations by owner.
He describes Berezovskiy's empire (ORT, a portion of TV-6, Novye
Izvestiya, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, and Ogonek) and Vyakhirev and
Chernomyrdin's domain (Trud, Rabochaya Tribuna, part of NTV).
Other media-emperors, if they choose to do so, can disavow
ownership of their "alleged" properties. For example, Luzhkov's
list contains not only TV-Center, REN-TV, Vechernyaya Moskva, and
other mass media organizations in which the city administration
officially participates, but also the newspapers Metro and Rossiya
that are formally property of the Metropolis publishing house. It
would be correct to say on the common level: Luzhkov stands behind
Metropolis. Although the publishing house is not legally connected
with the Government of Moscow.
Evropa Plyus has been classified as belonging to ONEKSIMbank
President Vladimir Potanin. In fact (refer to Moskovskiye Novosti
No. 14), the radio station has sold a substantial number of its
shares. Not to the bank, but to a structure called Sputnik. This
structure is related to the financial company Renessans that is a
part of the ONEKSIMbank group. Although there is no direct
connection between Evropa and ONEKSIMbank.
Mikhail Khodorkovskiy (MENATEP) is listed in the memorandum as
owner of the magazine Lyudi and Literaturnaya Gazeta. This is
probably true. Although when the newspapers published reports that
the chief editor of Lyudi, Boris Utekhin, had to resign from his
post because of the conditions put forward by the "sponsor"--
MENATEP--the bank's press service immediately disavowed its
relationship with the magazine!
Literaturnaya Gazeta also does not formally belong to MENATEP.
The newspaper is the property of a structure called Russkiy
Izdatelskiy Dom. At least, it still remains its property (the
Russkiy Dom publishing house will soon reregister the newspaper
under new ownership--the Metropolis publishing house).
But the name of media-mogul Sergey Lisovskiy is absent from
the list of "emperors." I do not know why. Maybe because the
Committee on Information Policy and Lisovskiy are buddies (the
recent parliamentary hearing on ethics and morals were conducted not
only at the initiative but also with the physical presence of
Lisovskiy on the presidium!). Maybe because to the general public
he is not a media-mogul, "just" the owner of an advertising agency.
In fact, Lisovskiy controls three "decimeter" channels: Muz TV, STS,
and the 31st channel. It is possible that Lisovskiy will soon share
the 31st channel with Vladimir Gusinskiy. Thus, the TNT company
that is part of Gusinskiy's empire will instantly be affiliated with
the 31st channel. Maybe the awaited (by Gusinskiy) transaction will
not materialize. Lisovskiy might combine all his three channels
into one, thus posing the strongest competition to the "decimeter"
channels of Gusinskiy. Irrespectively of the way the channels are
rearranged, one thing is for sure: The names of the real owners will
not be on the final documents. Everybody knows the true identity of
mass media owners, similar to, I beg your pardon, the instigators of
scandalous murders. But there is no evidence.
Therefore, since it is impossible to identify a mass media
owner and make him "transparent," all the other proposals of the
parliamentarians do not make sense. If the banker Ivanov
substitutes himself for the publishing house Petrov and buys shares
in a media organization on behalf of the publishing house--it will
not be possible to apply to Ivanov "special antimonopoly measures
preventing the concentration of mass media." Since the banker--the
real buyer of the media organization--is on paper no longer a banker
but rather a "publishing house," this means it is impossible to
apply "limitations on ownership of mass media for those who are
already monopolists in other, noninformation spheres." Moreover, it
would be unrealistic to "introduce an obligatory collective
agreement between the editorial board and the media owner that
curtails the owner's rights to influence editorial activities."
With whom should such an agreement be concluded? With a dummy
Sidorov?
I believe it is premature to fight against media
monopolization in our country. In order to dismantle empires, it is
necessary for them to first organize and become visible. If they do
not comply--the real owners should be "identified" by available
means. (As proposed by the dean of the journalism department of
Moscow State University, Yasen Zasurskiy, "money should be spent on
special research in order to collect data on circulation, the
owners, and the real situation."). If such data is collected and
made public, then it will become possible to apply the Law "On
Protection of Consumers' Rights" in regard to the mass media (as
soon as they are a commodity!). If jeans are manufactured in Malaya
Arnautskaya Street and the label says Wrangler--it means they are a
counterfeit, low-quality product that will not be accepted by any
store. If Berezovskiy is behind a newspaper that says: independent,
with a chief editor and an editorial board, this means that the
cheated consumer should have the right to return the product to a
kiosk within 10 days of detecting the counterfeit with the aid of
official data on publications and their owners!

********

#13
Report: Japan Makes Kuril Proposal
May 10, 1998

TOKYO (AP) - Japan has proposed drawing a border demarcation line with Russia
that would run through the middle of one of four islands disputed between the
two countries, a Japanese newspaper reported Sunday.

The proposal would leave the question of possession of that island to
bilateral negotiations after the conclusion of a peace treaty, the Mainichi
newspaper reported.

The Mainichi said Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto voiced the idea to Russian
President Boris Yeltsin during an informal summit last month at a Japanese
resort. According to the plan, the other three islands under dispute would
fall on the Japanese side of the line, the paper said.

The Mainichi did not name its sources, identifying them only as involved in
Japanese-Russian relations. Officials at Japan's Foreign Ministry were
unavailable for comment Sunday.

The argument over the four southernmost Kuril Islands, seized by Russia at the
end of World War II, have prevented the two nations from signing a peace
treaty. The two sides have set a goal of concluding one by 2000.

Russian media have reported that during their meeting, Hashimoto offered
Yeltsin a deal that would allow Russia to maintain temporary control over the
islands, but would recognize them as Japanese territory.

The Kremlin has repeatedly declined to comment on the alleged offer, saying
only it was studying some unspecified proposal made by Japan.

Immediately after the summit, Yeltsin and Hashimoto said they discussed
various issues relating to the promised peace treaty, including one
``serious'' Japanese proposal that neither side would disclose.

Russian hard-liners are vehemently opposed to any concessions regarding the
islands, while Japan has been demanding their complete return. Relations
between the two countries have been improving, though neither side has
publicly offered any concessions on the dispute.

In the front-page article, the Mainichi said Hashimoto's move appears to be
aimed at encouraging Russia to soften its stance on not returning the islands.

********

#14
Nemtsov on '60 Measures' for Overcoming Economic Crisis 

TVER, May 6 (Interfax) -- The Russian government has prepared a
package of 60 measures for overcoming the economic crisis in the country,
Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov told a news conference in Tver
Wednesday.
The measures involve rational use of budget funds and effective
industrial policy, he said.
In particular, the government aims to reduce tariffs on the output of
natural monopolies, scale down the tax burden, make privatization more
effective and invest state money efficiently, Nemtsov said.
Measures for securing additional budget revenues have also been
prepared, he said.
Payments may be introduced for the development of natural resources
and the use of frequencies, he said. Radio frequencies will be sold at
auctions, Nemtsov said.
Steps will be taken to bring an end to the nonpayment crisis, he said.
Enterprises persistenty avoiding payments to the budget will be subjected
to bankruptcy proceedings, Nemtsov said. The share of assets the state
will receive from the sale of bankrupt companies will be used to offset
debts, he said.
Controls over the liquor market should be tightened, Nemtsov said. 
The government should step up controls on the border and the struggle
against bootleg liquor producers, he said.

*******