July 14, 1998  
This Date's Issues: 2263  •2264  2265

 
ohnson's Russia List
#2265
14 July 1998
davidjohnson@erols.com

[Note from David Johnson:
1. AP: John Iams, Russia Bailout Awais Parliament OK.
2. Jim Vail: Photographs of Chechnya.
3. John Varoli: Anekdoti.
4. Stephen Blank: IMF.
5. The Moscow Tribune: John Helmer, BAILOUT FOR WASHINGTON.
6. Itar-Tass: Moscow's Luzhkov Sees Popular Discontent Increasing.
7. The Times (UK) editorial: A TSAR TOO FAR.
8. Moscow Times: Ben Aris, Tobacco Companies Target Young Russians.
9. AP: Dafna Linzer, Ex-Soviet Women Become Prostitutes.
10. RIA Novosti: ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGICAL MEANS OF PHYSICALLY
PROTECTING NUCLEAR MATERIALS AND RADIOACTIVE SUBSTANCES ARE 
OBSOLESCENT AND THEIR SERVICE LIFE IS USED UP AT 70% OF 
NUCLEAR-RISK FACILITIES.
11. The Globe and Mail (Canada): Geoffrey York, Russian courts.
12. Izvestia: Alexander Bovin, NATO'S ENLARGEMENT TO THE EAST A FOLLY.]

*******

#1
Russia Bailout Awaits Parliament OK 
By John Iams
July 14, 1998

MOSCOW (AP) -- Trying to avoid confrontation, President Boris Yeltsin
invited parliament leaders to the Kremlin on Tuesday for tea and cookies to
urge them -- nicely -- to pass the government's austerity plan. 
At stake could be the fate of a much-needed bailout package by
international lenders. The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and
the Japanese government agreed Monday to give Russia $17.1 billion in new
loans to boost its economy. 
When combined with already-negotiated loans, the bailout agreement
totals $22.6 billion. 
But if the State Duma, parliament's lower house, turns down Yeltsin's
economic plan, the IMF and other lenders might withhold the loans, which
Russia needs urgently. 
``We are one team, we are one state, we are the leaders of this state,''
Yeltsin told the lawmakers. ``We shall not be able to implement (the
program) if you do not confirm it.'' 
The Duma will hold a special session Wednesday to debate the package,
and passage is far from certain. Yeltsin has had a long history of clashes
with communists and other hard-liners who dominate the legislative body. 
One lawmaker said it was the first time Yeltsin was not confrontational. 
``For the first time, the president was in a very peaceful mood,'' said
Nikolai Kharitonov, leader of the Agrarian Party. ``I have met him many
times, but today was the first time tea was served.'' 
Yeltsin said it was important for parliament to act now. 
``Of course, I can decide some matters myself,'' Yeltsin told the
legislators, indicating that he might implement part of the plan by decree.
``But ... the destiny of the program depends on you.'' 
News of the loan agreement gave an immediate boost to Russia's hard-hit
stock market, which has lost more than half its value this year. 
Stocks shot up 16.8 percent Tuesday, on the heels of a 9 percent surge
on Monday. It was the market's best showing since the crisis began in May. 
``The optimism is all around the place, and people believe that if
Russia gets serious about fixing its problems, it could be really a great
story again,'' said Dmitry Kryukov, a trader at the MFK Renaissance
investment bank in Moscow. 
Russia's Central Bank said its hard-currency reserves had fallen to
$13.5 billion Tuesday, from $15.1 billion earlier this month. Bank Chairman
Sergei Dubinin said he expects reserves to rise as money begins to arrive
from the loan package. 

The IMF board is to meet in Washington on Monday to review the loan
agreement, and it could send $5 billion or more to Russia as soon as next
week. The IMF wants Russia to address chronic problems such as its budget
deficit and its inability to collect taxes, however. 
Yeltsin's administration has sent more than 20 proposals to parliament,
but communist lawmakers and other opponents have resisted spending cuts and
tax increases. They say the government should be spending more money, not
less, to help struggling Russian citizens and companies. 
The State Duma turned down several proposals earlier this month, and
communist leaders have not given any indication that their position has
changed. 
Millions of Russians have been pushed into poverty by the country's
shrinking economy during the 1990s, and the infusion of cash is designed to
ward off another big downturn. 

*******

#2
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 
From: Jim Vail (Jim_Vail@yr.com)
Subj.: Photographs of Chechnya

I was wondering if anyone knows where I could find photographs of 
Chechnya of burning buildings in Grozny during the war. A German 
journalist is about to publish a book and needed some photos. Any help 
would be appreciated. Thanks,

*******

#3
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 
From: john varoli <john@sptimes.ru>
Subject: Re: Anekdoti

Perhaps your readers are stressed out with Russia's financial crisis and
all the talk about an "social explosion" in the country. It might not be
standard for JRL, but here is some comic relief that you might want to
share with fellow, exhausted Russia-watchers. And these anekdoti are
even pertinent to the current situation. If you like these I can find
some others.

1918: The phone rings at the headquarters of the VChK. 
"My neighbor is hoarding food," says the voice over the phone.
"OK, we'll be right over," answers the chekist.

1938: The phone rings at the headquarters of the NKVD.
"My neighbor is hoarding food," says the voice over the phone.
"Big deal," answers the NKVD officer.
"But he also is rich," responds the caller.
"OK, we'll be right over."

1973: The phone rings at the headquarters of the KGB.
"My neighbor is rich," says the voice over the phone.
"Big deal," answers the KGB officer.
"But he is stealing from the state," responds the caller.
"OK, we'll be right over." 

1998: The phone rings at the headquarters of the FSB.
"My neighbor is rich," says the voice over the phone.
"Big deal," answers the FSB officer.
"But he is stealing from the state," responds the caller.
"So, big deal !!" 
"Well, he is not paying taxes," persists the caller.
"We'll be right over !"


A man walks into the Electoral Commission office in Moscow and announces
that he plans to run for president in 2000.

The official behind the desk looks at him strangely, and says, "What,
are you an idiot?"

"Oh, is that now a prerequisite for running?"

*******

#4
From: "Blank, Stephen J. Dr." <BlankS@awc.carlisle.army.mil>
Subject: imf
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 

As a congenital skeptic about banks and the Yeltsin government, I'm not
surprised that it was decided here (and let's not think the IMF does not

listen to the US Government) that Yeltsin and his band could not be
allowed to fail. And I am also not surprised tha the current spin is
that the big bad Duyma is the party that must be pressured. However,
and without defending the Duma, it is clear to me, as it is to many of
my colleagues that the problem is Yeltsin and his state, not the Duma.
Only in Russia is the government absolved from responsibility for its
predatory policies. But remember in early 1997 Larry Summers flayed the
governmetn for "a lost year" in economic policy in 1996 and demanded many
of the same reforms we still demand. They did not come then or since.
In early 1998 another Treasury official speaking at the same conference
repeated these demands almost verbatim. And again the same thing
happened. Now finally when the wolf is at the door and it is apparent
that all along teh talk of the Russian boom was a fraud, the money comes
back to Russia once again and this time supposedly on condition that
this time we mean business. Who can take this charade seriously. Even
if the Duma passes the legislation, and it probably will not to lose its
perks, will the government institute a rational economic policy, and
even more can it do so. It is already clear that its plan to tax oil
companies is another charade and unenforceable to boot. Meanwhile wages
and arrears mount up, soldiers are brutalized and fed dog food, etc.
I'd be interested to see if anyone wants to waer that in 1999 we will
see another repetioin of the same charade we've seen now complete with
warnings of a coup, etc. ARe there any takers?

********

#5
Date: Tue, 14 
From: helmer@glas.apc.org (John Helmer) 
Subj: BAILOUT FOR WASHINGTON

>From The Moscow Tribune, July 14, 1998
BAILOUT FOR WASHINGTON
John Helmer

Martin Gilman is short, bald, and ingratiating. He looks up to 
Anatoly Chubais. The resident representative of the International Monetary 
Fund (I.M.F.) doesn't look like he could be a revolutionary if he tried. 
This week's I.M.F. Russian rescue package shows he didn't try.

The revolutionary option for the I.M.F., the Clinton Administration, 
Germany, and the other G-7 governments was to conclude that President Boris
Yeltsin and his allies are sitting on an unsustainable pyramid of debt. To
prevent a crash and their fall, it's obvious the Kremlin would promise 
anything for more money, and it did. Whatever is said about the conditions 
of the new loan agreement, noone in the marketplace or in Washington 
believes the Russian government is any better equipped to implement them now, 
with the money, than they were last week, without it; or than they have been 
in the dozen emergencies they have scraped through before. 

The revolutionary option would have been to say that the distribution
of property Chubais claims the credit for arranging, has produced a dozen
Russian oilogarchs who cannot make money productively; 
cannot manage the resources and corporations the government has given them; 
and cannot pay their debts. They are rich; their property has been mismanaged;
their assets are mortgaged beyond their capacity to pay. The revolutionary 

thing to do right now would be to acknowledge failure, and encourage a new 
redistribution of property. That would happen if the market which Yeltsin, 
Chubais and the I.M.F. claim to be trying to create in Russia, actually 
did the reforming. 

If that happened right now, it's clear you would need at least 12 roubles 
to buy a dollar, double today's rate. Since that price is more than Russia's 
leading bankers can afford, the market would force them to liquidate, and 
allow a property takeover by those who have husbanded their resources all 
these years, and qualify on that score as more efficient at capital 
management. This process of capital transfer isn't likely to hurt the 
majority of the Russian people worse than they already are, because they 
live on subsistence, barter, credit, and dollars under their pillows. The 
oilogarchs who lose property in Russia wouldn't be bereft either, not if 
they've been prudent saving and investing abroad.

The market crash, as Prime Minister Sergei Kirienko has tried to depict it,
would be better described as a transfer of property from the phony to the real
forces of demand in the Russian economy.

But this isn't the market reform the I.M.F. bailout is meant to 
achieve. What has happened isn't even a vote of confidence in the Yeltsin
presidency. Rather, Washington and the G-7 powers have told their I.M.F. 
emissary to give the Kremlin and the oilogarchs another three to six months 
to figure out what to do; and to do whatever that is slowly. The price seems 
a big one, until you count that it's less than the value of the capital 
Russia has been exporting abroad (illegally) every two months for the past 
seven years. 

It's also a price that Russia will have to be repay. Maybe, after the 
oilogarchs have gone to the French Riviera, that will be easier to manage.

For now, the real bailout has been arranged for Washington. That's where
they really need to buy time. The Kremlin's pledge to tax the thief and 
the pauper equally isn't serious. What is serious is that three to six
months of Washington time to figure out what's to be done in Russia
costs $22.6 billion.

********

#6
Moscow's Luzhkov Sees Popular Discontent Increasing 

Moscow, 10 Jul (Itar-Tass) -- "The peak of social discontent has not
passed as yet," Moscow Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov said.
Luzhkov spoke to journalists at an interval in the session of the
Federation Council which debates the Government stabilization program.
He said on Friday that summer was earlier, as a rule, calm, while now
"spring flows into autumn without easing political tension."
Luzhkov does not think that "the peak which can be threatening for the
country, has come."
He believes that "full mistrust of people of authorities and their
ability to fulfill obligations before people and enterprises" is one of
reasons for such a situation.
Luzhkov called attention to the existing "mistrust that authorities
can improve the situation in the near future."
Turning to the situation with protests by miners, munitions factory
workers, and scientists, Luzhkov said that one should not look for any
forces behind their actions.

However, he noted that extremists and opposition forces which seek to
exploit sentiments of protesting people, try to join hands with
protesters."
The Mayor called their protest "a forced measure, becoming more active
and assuming political sounding."
Asked about his appraisal of speeches by Prime Minister Sergey
Kiriyenko and other Cabinet members at the Federation Council on Friday,
Luzhkov noted that "stabilization measures are necessary, and they will be
largely useful."
However, according to Luzhkov's opinion, 10 to 12 top priority tasks
should be singled out in the package of measures, including those on taxes
in the real economy, tariffs, and customs policy.
He called Kiriyenko's speech as competent and substantive. However, he
reproached the Premier that he did not separate "important and secondary
problems."

*******

#7
The Times (UK)
July 14, 1998
[for personal use only]
Editorial
A TSAR TOO FAR 
New Labour's power title comes from Russia with spin 

On Friday the bones of the last Tsar will be reburied in St Petersburg. 
But his title goes marching on, used as a catchword to describe an 
overseer appointed by the Government to deal with the homeless, drugs 
and other intractable matters. Yesterday Mr Paddy Heazell wrote to The 
Times from Saxmundham proposing such colourful alternatives for naming 
an official supremo as hospodar and satrap. Suffolk is a fossil field of 
dialect, where the plural of mouse is "meesen". So any linguistic 
suggestions coming from there must be taken seriously. 

However, tempting though the Archon of Anti-smoking and the Bashaw of 
Beef (But never on the Bone) are as titles, such pomp of nomenclature of 
power is not the British way. The men who ruled half the world under the 
British Empire were content with the modest titles of agent and 
commissioner. Before they arrived, the territories may have had 
impressive names like wapentake, meaning the clash of weapons made by an 
assembly to signify assent. But their rulers were plain reeves and 
lieutenants. A tsar is a peculiarly élitist title for a British 
official, especially one appointed by a Government that claims to be 
populist. The people's tsar is not an oxymoron, but a contradiction. 

The old Slavic word for Caesar was officially assumed by Ivan the 
Terrible to describe his rule as King of Poland. And by that Ivan did 
not mean that the most important person in the world was a member of a 
Polish focus group. The Russian Tsar was considered to be appointed by 
God as head of Church and State, his authority unlimited by laws of any 
kind. His title was originally transliterated from the Cyrillic into 
languages of the Roman alphabet as "czar". But the first edition of the 
Oxford English Dictionary recommended "tsar" as having "been adopted by 
the Times newspaper as the suitable English spelling". 

Newspapers must indeed be partly responsible for the popularisation and 
emasculation of the august title. "Tsar" fits into a headline in larger 
type than "demiurge" or "sagamore". And American newspapers first 
adopted "tsar" as a metaphor to describe an all-powerful figure. It 

became the nickname of House Speaker Thomas Reed (1839-1902), reflecting 
his aggregation of power to himself. From him "tsar" came to be used to 
describe a bureaucrat or powerful industrialist, especially in 
Hollywood. During the two World Wars it was used in Washington for the 
heads of key agencies prosecuting or policing the war effort. 

And hence Bill Clinton has adopted "tsar" to describe the leader of an 
official task force with a problematic mission statement. The British 
Government, eager to copy the President's skill at re-election, has 
adopted his tactics and language. So the tsar for sink estates may find 
that his boyars and cossacks have been reduced by the defence review. 
The tsar for cronyism denial is still working like an anachronistic 
Stakhanovite. And the Tsar of all the Russias has dwindled to a puff of 
spin-doctor's smoke, full of terrible history, signifying very little. 

*******

#8
Moscow Times
July 14, 1998 
Tobacco Companies Target Young Russians 
By Ben Aris
Special to The Moscow Times

While people in many Western countries are quitting the evil habit, 
Russians are smoking more than ever. As a result, international tobacco 
companies are looking to the future by setting up shop in the former 
Soviet Union, China and other developing markets and are targeting young 
people. 

Although the legal minimum age for cigarette sales is 18, and tough 
regulations for advertising to the young exist for television and 
billboards, rules and enforcement on some types of promotions, such as 
special events or sponsorships, are weak. 

All the big international companies are working in Russia, and all the 
major players have at least one major brand aimed at youth through 
so-called below-the-line promotions. Marlboro has its Marlboro music 
parties. Rothman's Pall Mall packs were handed out by cigarette 
hostesses at the recent White Nights Festival despite lack of age 
control at the gate. Freebies are available at many of the large music 
and sports events popular with teenagers both over and under 18 years of 
age. 

The cigarette companies claim they market only to adults or anyone who 
is 18 years or older. But often the marketing that is designed to reach 
the 18-year-old reaches the 16-year-old as well. In theory, the 
sponsored events in night clubs and some other places are only open to 
adults, but the big events are just as popular with those under 18 , and 
there are few checks on age when tickets are sold. 

Cigarette companies also have problems controlling the sales and 
marketing in Russia. For tax purposes, the companies generally have a 
representative office in Russia, using local middlemen to handle 
distribution and the point-of-sale part of the business. 

"Our ability to control the sales is limited," said Andrew White, vice 
president of corporate affairs at Philip Morris. "The representative 
offices deal with advertising and promotion." 

Below-the-line advertising is handled by others as well. There are a 
growing number of advertising agencies that specialize in below-the-line 
promotions, and in Russia, a significant part of the advertising money 

is used to target youth. 

To be fair, some companies try to mitigate the effect of some promotions 
on underage individuals. For example, Philip Morris said it trains 
hostesses before the event, and in line with their international code of 
practice, instructs them not to give out samples to anyone who appears 
to be under 18. White said they also send a member of Philip Morris 
staff to supervise. 

Vladimir Oxsanov, head of corporate communications at BAT, said, "We 
give strict orders to the promoter, or agency, not to hand out 
cigarettes to people under the age of 18, but at the end of the day it 
is not us that are doing these promotions, but the agent." 

To some extent, the cigarette companies are stuck between a rock and a 
hard place. The youth market is one of the very best, and outside of 
school there is a lot of overlap between what those who are over 18 
years do in their spare time and what those who are under 18 do. 

The sheer size of the market is a draw for cigarette companies. Russians 
smoke a lot, and the number of smokers in Russia is increasing while 
other countries are seeing declines. 

According to the World Tobacco File, cigarettes sales in the United 
States and Canada fell by 4.5 percent and in Western Europe by 1.7 
percent between 1990 and 1995. In Russia, cigarette sales grew by 5.7 
percent, making it the fourth largest market in the world in terms of 
volume after China, Japan and the United States. 

Today, about one in three Russians smoke. The total consumption is about 
220 to 250 billion cigarettes a year worth $6 billion annually in 
revenues to the manufacturers. 

Smokers, like tea drinkers, are fiercely loyal to their brands. The 
biggest and richest part of the market is selling to middle-aged male 
Russians. But the competition is stiff. International brands try to link 
their products to sex and sophistication, but struggle to compete on 
price. Catching people young is an easy way to boost and ensure the 
longevity of sales. 

The older Russians still largely smoke the strong black tobacco without 
a filter that makes up 50 percent of the market. The Soviet style 
papirosas, which are little more than a cardboard tube and a short slug 
of black tobacco, have another 30 percent of the market. However, it is 
the modern filter-tip cigarettes that are making the biggest inroads. 

"The filter-tip market is growing fast," Oxsanov said. "Between 1995 and 
1997, the volume of the filter-tip sales grew from 32 billion cigarettes 
to 64 billion." 

Filter-tips are being aimed at the younger market. If Russia follows the 
rest of the world, then the sales of cigarettes without filters will 
fall as people become more health conscious. Winston has recently 
introduced a light version of its cigarette. 

With their huge resources and long experience, the foreigners are 
becoming increasingly important players in the market and to a growing 
extent are dictating how the market will develop. Philip Morris has the 
deepest penetration with 38 percent of total foreign cigarette 
distribution, followed by R.J. Reynold's 21 percent. The next in order 

of importance are Bulgartabak (15 percent), Rothman (8 percent) and BAT 
(7 percent). 

What is more worrying than penetration is brand awareness by young 
people. For example, although both Philip Morris' and R.J. Reynold's two 
flagship brands -- Marlboro and Camel -- are not the best-selling brands 
in Russia, they are the best known to the youngest age group. According 
to the Russian Market Research Center, the name of Marlboro was familiar 
to one in three Russians in 1996, but the brand was best known by those 
who were 16 to 24 years of age. Of that age group, one in two knew the 
trademark. 

Regulations covering the sales of cigarette are still being developed. 
While there have been laws on the books since the breakup of the Soviet 
Union that are fairly comprehensive, more are needed, according to some 
observers. Currently, advertising on television is prohibited entirely. 
Additionally, billboards may not show the act of smoking or use models 
under the age of 35 and they may not be constructed within 300 meters of 
schools or hospitals. 

Given the cigarette industry's experience in the rest of the world, and 
the United States in particular where they have become "the whipping 
boy," the cigarette companies in Russia are going to great pains to 
follow existing rules and not step on anyone's toes, White said. 

**********
#9
Ex-Soviet Women Become Prostitutes 

By Dafna Linzer
Associated Press Writer
Monday, July 13, 1998; 4:09 a.m. EDT

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) -- In St. Petersburg, the young woman had nothing.
She wanted out; she wanted adventure and she wanted money. The
advertisement she answered in a Russian newspaper said simply: ``Women
needed, good money.'' 

She knew before she left Russia that the job meant prostitution. She says
she was promised easy work, good pay, travel. 

But when the 20-year-old with gray-blue eyes and pale round face landed in
February with forged documents arranged by the prostitution ring, she was
immediately taken to an apartment and locked inside. 

Customers began arriving immediately, quickly building to about 20 a day,
but she says she never saw any money. An elderly man regularly dropped off
food and condoms. 

``I couldn't leave the house,'' she said in an interview at Neve Tirza
Prison. ``I was told that if I left, the police would come after me.'' 

She did not want her name used, fearing retribution from her pimps even
though she has been in jail awaiting deportation since being picked up in a
March police raid on her brothel. 

Stories about sex slavery began surfacing shortly after the mass
immigration of Soviet Jews to Israel began in 1989 and eventually brought
nearly 800,000 newcomers to Israel. 

Israel was an easy target for Russian-based crime gangs, which used the
influx of immigrants as a cover for sneaking in an estimated 10,000
prostitutes over the past decade. 

The sex trade quickly grew into a $450 million-a-year business in Israel.
``It's a neighborhood grocery store that turned into a huge chain,'' said
Esther Elam of the Israel Women's Network, a non-profit group. 


A former police commissioner, Assaf Hefetz, said massage parlors and
backroom brothels have served as seedbeds for Russian-based gangs trying to
take root in Israel. 

Such gangs already pour $4 billion into Israel each year, much of it in
money-laundering schemes, and could try to buy control of politicians,
judges and bankers if Israel is not vigilant, Hefetz said. 

Earlier this year, a Russian immigrant businessman admitted he tried to
bribe top Israeli politicians and was sentenced to six years in jail. 

``There is the start of a Russian mafia here, and the infrastructure exists
on which it can grow,'' Hefetz said. 
Tens of thousands of eastern European and Russian women are believed to
have been recruited by prostitution rings for work in Europe, the Middle
East and North Africa. 

In April 1997, the European Union adopted new guidelines aimed at
eradicating the illegal trade in women. Under the regulations, foreign
prostitutes would not be deported automatically, to give them time to
report offenses against them and testify against their pimps. 

But Israel is not part of the EU and has not adopted the guidelines 

In Israel, few pimps are caught and even fewer serve time. In 1996, 150 men
were arrested on charges of pimping, soliciting and operating brothels, but
only 21 cases went to trial and there were no convictions. Most cases ended
with a plea bargain and fines or community service. 

Although in jail, arrested prostitutes live in fear of gang bosses they
have never seen. When asked by a reporter about her employers, the St.
Petersburg woman stared at the wall of her cell and shook her head,
refusing to answer. 

``We're too afraid,'' said her cellmate, a slightly worn-looking
23-year-old from Chisinau, Moldova. ``They could get us afterwards -- maybe
not here, but back home.'' 

She said she was a broke, unemployed medical masseuse when she answered a
newspaper ad last winter. Three men and a woman prepared her for her
February trip to Israel. 

``They told me to dress modestly and not to wear make-up. They told me to
tell officials at the airport that I was visiting a sick aunt. They gave me
a fake address and phone number to memorize, in case anyone asked me,'' she
said. 

She worked for two weeks out of an apartment before being taken to a
brothel with three other women. She had her own room and shared a communal
bathroom. Work began at noon and ended around 3 a.m. 

Two guards took money at the door from clients, and she never saw her bosses. 

In Moldova, she was told her employers would keep the first $6,000 of her
earnings to cover the cost of bringing her to Israel. 

``But once I arrived in Israel, the terms changed,'' she said. ``I was told
that I had to work off the first $25,000. After that I could work on my
own, but I still had to pay them $1,000 each month.'' 

She was picked up by police just a month after arriving and ordered
deported. But like most of the other 84 prostitutes awaiting deportation at
Neve Tirza, she doesn't have the money for a ticket home. 

Unlike many countries, Israel does not pay airfare for deportees. However,
with the number of illegal workers ordered deported rising, the government

recently announced it would try to work out payment deals with those
awaiting deportation or share costs with their home countries. 

``I called my sister to tell her I was in Israel, but I couldn't tell her I
was in jail,'' the St. Petersburg woman said. ``My family is poor; they
can't buy me anything.'' 

*********

#10
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGICAL MEANS OF PHYSICALLY
PROTECTING NUCLEAR MATERIALS AND RADIOACTIVE SUBSTANCES 
ARE OBSOLESCENT AND THEIR SERVICE LIFE IS USED UP AT 70%
OF NUCLEAR-RISK FACILITIES
MOSCOW, JULY 13, 1998 /FROM RIA NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT OLEG
LEBEDEV/ -- Engineering and technological means of physically
protecting nuclear materials and radioactive substances are
obsolescent and their service life is used up on 70% of the
nuclear-risk facilities, RIA Novosti was told in the State
Nuclear Supervision Board of the Russian Federation. As pointed
out at the department, inspection carried out warranted a
conclusion that the physical protection of the materials and
substances in question is "in an unsatisfactory state at a
number of enterprises" of the Ministry of Transport and the
Ministry of Economics and the State-owned Rosenergoatom
Concern.
The State Nuclear Supervision Board thinks that the
development of a full-scale system of state inventory and
control of nuclear materials proceeds but slowly. Owing to lack
of financing, a state concept for the physical protection of
nuclear materials and units and a Federal programme for the
development and provision of means of physical protection of
Russia's nuclear-risk facilities have not been worked out.
There are also problems with the Radon system of special
centres whose duty is to transport and bury low- and
medium-intensity radioactive waste and ionising radiation
sources. According to data of the State Nuclear Supervision
Board, equipment of the centres are obsolescent or obsolete, and
their storages are packed to capacity. At the same time, there
is "practically no building of new plants of this kind." 

********

#11
Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 20:34:38 +0300
From: Geoffrey York <york@glas.apc.org>
Organization: The Globe and Mail
Subject: Russian courts

By Geoffrey York
The Globe and Mail (Canada)
July 13, 1998

MOSCOW -- For a cash-strapped Russian judge, even a visit to the post
office can be an embarrassing reminder of the unpaid debts of his court.
For weeks at a time, the postal workers refuse to mail his subpoenas.
~They tell us, `You already owe us millions of rubles, we won’t take
them,’” said Judge Pyotr Stupin, a Moscow district judge.
So his clerks must scramble for innovative ways to call witnesses. They
mail subpoenas from other districts, where the debts of the local courts
are smaller. Or they send a policeman to knock on the witnesses’s doors
and haul them to the courtroom.
The cash shortage is jeopardizing one of the few undisputed successes
of the post-Soviet reforms. Over the past five years, Russia’s judicial
system has quietly established itself as a bastion of independence. Yet
this achievement is now endangered by a crisis of budget cuts and
systematic underfunding.

The Russian courts are among the few watchdogs that can limit the
abuses of powerful officials in a country where the Soviet mentality
still lingers on. Russian judges are often fearless in protecting human
rights and issuing decisions against arbitrary laws or decrees.
~There’s an amazing amount of change from the Soviet period,” said
Peter Solomon, a University of Toronto political scientist and expert on
the Russian legal system.
A series of reforms since 1992 have bolstered the independence of
Russia’s 15,000 judges. Their salaries have been raised to above-average
levels. They are immune from prosecution or dismissal by anyone except a
special commission of judges. And after a three-year probationary term,
judges are given a lifetime appointment, which further shields them from
political interference.
The courts have increasingly flexed their muscles by ruling against
governments that flout the constitution. In several cases, judges have
ruled that Russia cannot jail young men who refuse to serve in the army,
since the constitution says alternative service must be available. In
another recent case, the Supreme Court refused to allow a Russian region
to remove candidates from the election ballot.
The number of Russians suing their governments for administrative
wrongs such as unpaid pensions has now reached 80,000 a year, and about
70 per cent of these challenges lead to court decisions in favour of the
citizen.
Judge Stupin, a criminal court judge in the Lefortovo district of
Moscow, once ruled against a decree by President Boris Yeltsin that
allowed suspects to be jailed for 30 days without charges. ~In Soviet
times we never would have dared to do this,” he said in an interview.
~There’s been progress.”
But deep budget cuts since 1996 are threatening to wreck this progress.
By the beginning of this year, 90 per cent of the judicial budget was
consumed by the salaries of judges, leaving almost nothing for basic
operating costs. And then, as part of drastic government-wide cuts,
Moscow slashed the funds of Russia’s courts by a further 26 per cent
this spring.
Combined with the rising caseloads of judges, this has produced a
steady worsening in backlogs and trial delays. Suspects can wait years
for their trials. About 1,000 judge’s posts are vacant. Vyacheslav
Lebedev, chairman of the Russian Supreme Court, has described the
financial situation as ~catastrophic.”
Because of unpaid debts, many courts have lost their telephones and
even their electricity and water. Without money to mail subpoenas, the
courts are forced to hold trials without key witnesses.
Some regional courts are so impoverished that they ask plaintiffs to
supply their own envelopes for summoning witnesses. This has led to some
misunderstandings. At least one plaintiff filled his envelope with cash,
on the assumption that the court was seeking a bribe. ~How can we speak
about respect to the court after this?” asked an indignant Vladimir
Radchenko, deputy chairman of the Supreme Court.
In an extraordinary step, the Supreme Court has launched a legal
challenge against the latest budget cuts. The appeal has been filed in

the Constitutional Court, the highest court in Russisa. The Supreme
Court argues that the budget cuts are a violation of the Russian
constitution, which specifies that the courts should have enough
financing to guarantee their independence.
The constitution also says the courts should be financed only by the
federal government. But because of the cuts, district courts often beg
for financial help from their local governments, which could leave them
vulnerable to pressure from local politicians.
Mr. Solomon, who supervised a survey of 250 judges in Russia, found
that about half of the judges are getting financial aid from local
governments. ~They feel they’re always running around asking for
favours, money for this or that,” he said.
The poverty of the judicial system is visible even in Moscow, the
richest city in the country. In one dilapidated court building, the
gloomy hallways are littered with broken furniture and piles of broken
light fixtures. There are gaping holes in doors and windows. Lightbulbs
are missing, the linoleum is peeling, and the walls and ceilings are
stained and water-damaged.
~There is huge, systematic underfunding,” Mr. Solomon said. ~It’s the
biggest issue for any judge. They desperately need more staff. The
salaries of their staff are disastrous.”
Another serious problem is the lack of up-to-date legal information
for judges, especially outside Moscow. ~Students have more information
in the McGill law library than the average Russian judge does,” said
Peter Sahlas, a Canadian law student working in a project providing
legal advice to help revise the Russian civil code.
The financial crisis has stalled desperately needed reforms in key
areas of the justice system. Court rulings, for example, are enforced by
unarmed and underpaid clerks, mostly women without vehicles, who can be
easily ignored or intimidated by powerful businessmen. As a result, half
of all decisions in commercial cases are never enforced. The Russian
parliament has approved a stronger bailiff system, but it hasn’t been
implemented because of a lack of money.
The cash shortage has also blocked an expansion of the jury system.
Jury trials are now available in 10 of Russia’s 89 regions, where they
have boosted the rights of defendants in a system that still tends to be
weighted in favour of police and prosecutors. Juries have produced a 15
per cent acquittal rate, compared to about 1 per cent in trials without
juries. But the vast majority of Russians still have no access to jury
trials.

MOSCOW -- If anyone doubted the guilt of a Russian defendant, the
doubts are quickly erased when the suspect arrives in the courtroom and
is shoved into a big metal cage.
Locked behind the bars of a courtroom cage, every suspect looks as
guilty as a hardened criminal. The metal cages, a legacy of the old
Soviet justice system, are still routinely used in today’s Russia to
secure suspects in criminal trials.
~It’s a physical example of the old bias against the accused, even when
the new constitution talks of a presumption of innocence,” said Peter
Solomon, a University of Toronto expert on the Russian judicial system.

~It’s horrible. It’s a way of saying, `You’re subhuman.’”
Judges, too, are sometimes troubled by the cages. ~I agree that it’s
inhumane,” said Judge Pyotr Stupin, a Moscow district judge. ~Probably
it’s because of our poverty. Each suspect should be guarded by two or
three guards, but sometimes I have six suspects in the courtroom. We
have a lack of money and a lack of guards.”
The courtroom cages are only the most visible sign of Russia’s delayed
transition from Soviet justice to a new era of freedom and fairness.
While the Russian courts are much more independent than ever before, the
Soviet system has not entirely disappeared.
During trials, for example, the judge is often flanked by ~people’s
representatives” -- two untrained civilians, usually elderly pensioners,
who are supposed to assist the judge. Originally a creation of Communist
propaganda about people’s justice, these odd hangovers from Soviet times
are still a fixture in many courts. They are notorious for falling
asleep in the courtroom, often disrupting the trial by snoring loudly
during testimony.
~They’re not professional,” complained Judge Stupin. ~They can’t
evaluate evidence. If he is a retired engineer, how can he help me?”
Despite widespread criticism, there is no sign that the ~people’s
representatives” will be abolished soon. And because of their pitifully
low salaries, pensioners and students are almost the only people willing
to do the job.
While the Soviet legacy remains alive, new hazards such as crime and
corruption are a growing menace to Russia’s justice system. Threats of
violence against judges are common. Two years ago, a woman judge was
stabbed to death in her own office by an angry street vendor, a day
after she had convicted him of illegal trading.
After several such murders, Russia passed a law allowing judges to
carry handguns. But like most judges, Judge Stupin doesn’t bother to
carry a weapon -- even though he was once stalked for two days by the
father of someone he had convicted.
~If someone decides to kill me, no weapon would save me,” Judge Stupin
said. ~It’s very easy to kill a judge. We have a policeman on the first
floor, but our building has four floors. Somebody could bring a
Kalashnikov into court and nobody would check him.”
Bribery, however, is less common in the judicial system than many
Russians assume. Over the past seven years, Judge Stupin says he has
been approached five times with offers of bribes, which he says he
always rejects.
Indeed, the Russian courts are generally less corrupt and more
independent than most other institutions in Russia today. In some ways,
they even have advantages over the Western justice system. They operate
with an remarkable degree of informality, for example, that often allows
for rapid and efficient decisions.
Russian judges have no robes, wigs or gavels. The only sign of their
position is their tall-backed chairs, elevated slightly above the rest
of the courtroom.
Instead of a Western-style adversarial system of interrogation by
defence and prosecution, Russian trials are usually led by the judge,
who leads the questioning of most witnesses. Others, even the accused,

are allowed to ask questions later.
In a recent civil case in Moscow, the entire trial was conducted in a
tiny courtroom by a judge and a single clerk. The plaintiff, a
businessman, was suing a Russian airline for losing a suitcase. The
trial was so quick and informal that the two sides often spoke at the
same time, interrupting each other and the judge.
The trial was over in less than an hour, and both sides were satisfied
with the verdict, which awarded damages to the plaintiff. ~It’s a big
victory,” said the businessman, Alexander Novikov. ~They’re a big
company and I’m just an ordinary citizen.”
The flip side of this informality, however, is the arbitrariness of the
judges. At one moment, they can allow television cameramen and anyone
else into their courtroom. At another moment, in a fit of pique, they
can order the courtroom door to be locked, leaving spectators hammering
to get in.

*********

#12
>From RIA Novosti
Izvestia
July 14, 1998
NATO'S ENLARGEMENT TO THE EAST A FOLLY
By Alexander BOVIN

Moscow's easily predictable protestations
notwithstanding, NATO is stubbornly moving Eastwards, in the
direction of the former Soviet Baltic republics which prefer
to be called the Baltija states these days. Naval exercises
code-named Baltic Challenge '98 have begun near Lithuania's
shores. 
Deputy state secretary Strobe Talbott has provided
clarifications: he warned Russia against viewing Baltija as a
sphere of its interests and called Moscow's desire to pre-empt
Latvia's, Lithuania's and Estonia's membership in NATO a
mistake. 
The alliance is also opening its embrace to Ukraine. NATO
secretary general Javier Solana visited Kiev in early July.
His visit was timed to the first anniversary of the charter on
NATO's special partnership with Ukraine. 
Conspicuously, Solana was allowed to visit Yuzhmash, one
of the former Soviet Union's leading producers of missiles and
space systems. 
The recent statements stand out against the background of
yet another anniversary, that of the Paris Founding Act on
Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security Between the Russian
Federation and NATO. Both sides--NATO was jubilant and Russia,
much more reserved--spoke of qualitatively novel relations, of
constructive interaction on the basis of mutual trust, and of
progressing cooperation. 
Importantly, this cooperation is on the rise. And when
Russia's foreign minister says: "We will not depart from the
Founding Act because it would have been a retreat", one would
like to hope that the point of no return is past. 
If we want the hope to become confidence, we have to
appreciate, for starters, that the Founding Act does not
preclude NATO's enlargement to the East. Secondly, we must
appreciate that there is nothing Russia can do about it. And,
thirdly, Moscow must stake on deriving a maximum of benefit
from the novel geopolitical reality. 
To appreciate the three points, controversial as they
are, one needs to find answers to three questions:
1. Why is NATO enlarging to the East?
2. Why is Russia protesting against this enlargement?
3. Why are the Central and East European countries and

the Baltija states pining for NATO membership?
It is highly unlikely that the Americans are insisting on
NATO's enlargement in order to strengthen the security of the
United States. It is also unlikely that they are after
endangering Russia's security.
It is much more probable that the interests of a mammoth
bureaucratic machine, i.e. NATO, are at play. The desire to
expand its functions and influence has been built into the
alliance. Plus the feeling of being the only remaining
super-power which can impudently grab whatever it can. 
The Russian leadership is hardly seriously concerned over
a potential threat from the West. It is unlikely that American
missiles will ever be stationed in Poland or Hungary, and in
Estonia or Lithuania, in the longer term. But the authorities
cannot ignore the sentiments of the general public who view
NATO's enlargement to the East as a threat to Russia.
Lastly, it is unlikely that the aspirants for NATO
membership proceed from the premise of a potential aggression
on the part of Russia. More probably, they are viewing it as a
pass of sorts to the 'real' Europe.
I believe that from the broad historic viewpoint NATO's
enlargement to the East is Washington's largest folly of the
post-cold war period. 
Even if and when the East European countries and the
Baltija states become NATO members, they will remain within
Russia's sphere of interests. Since the US chooses to ignore
this, they will be sources of unending contradictions and
troubles. 
NATO's course to enlargement has forced Russian
politicians to make a painful choice. Many of them understand
that Russia is too weak to try and preclude NATO's
enlargement. Russia has started a patently losing campaign.
Even Primakov's virtuosity cannot work miracles. 
Let me repeat: the Founding Act cannot preclude NATO's
expansion to the East. And yet, it does allow Russia to save
face, which is image, emotions and prestige. 
The crux of the matter is elsewhere. The Paris act can,
in the long run, enable Russia to equalise its relations with
NATO and the US--if Russia musters enough force to do it. 
What behavioural pattern will Russia choose when another
batch of countries start knocking on NATO's door? Will it
stomp its feet or think up something more ingenious?
A lot depends on the answers to these questions.
Pro-active behaviour is therefore very advisable if Russia
wants to improvise within a reasonable format and rules of the
game.

*********