September 10, 1998   

This Date's Issues: 2360• 2361 •2362•2363

Johnson's Russia List
#2362
10 September 1998
davidjohnson@erols.com

[Note from David Johnson:
1. AP: Yeltsin Nominates Primakov for PM.
2. Fred Weir on Primakov.
3. Reuters: Russia's Yevgeny Primakov, man for all seasons.
4. Reuters: Text of Russian Acting PM Chernomyrdin's speech.
5. Reuters: Acting Russia defence minister hails PM nomination.
6. Reuters: Rules for appointment of Russian prime minister.
7. Boston Globe: David Filipov, In reeling Russia, states acting alone.
8. Chicago Tribune: Elizabeth Williamson, RUSSIA'S REGIONAL LEADERS 
FLEX DICTATOR-LIKE MUSCLE.
9. Philadelphia Inquirer: Trudy Rubin, Who lost Russia? 
10. Reuters: Pain Sets in for Russians as Medicines Go Short.
11. Reuters: Russia's Zhirinovsky blasts ``pro-American'' Primakov.
12. Reuters: Russian Communist chief hails Primakov as PM.
13. Reuters: Russian Duma to vote on Primakov Friday.]

********

#1
Yeltsin Nominates Primakov for PM
September 10, 1998
By BARRY RENFREW

MOSCOW (AP) -- Bowing to bitter opposition from parliament, Boris Yeltsin
nominated his former spy chief today as prime minister to head emergency
efforts to stem the country's economic crisis. 

Yeltsin nominated Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov to be prime minister after
his first choice, Viktor Chernomyrdin, asked not to be nominated for a third
time. Leaders on all side had warned of a political explosion if Yeltsin had
again nominated Chernomyrdin. 

``In view of the repeated rejection of (Chernomyrdin) ... I ask the State Duma
to confirm the appointment of Yevgeny Maximovich Primakov as chairman of the
government,'' Yeltsin said in a brief letter. 

Opposition and pro-government political leaders promptly welcomed Primakov's
nomination, predicting the lower chamber of parliament, the state Duma, would
approve him. Confirmation hearings were set for the weekend. 

``I think he will get the Duma's support. Common sense has prevailed in our
state,'' said Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, who spearheaded the
opposition to Chernomyrdin. Primakov is ``known in the country and in the
world and can carry out policies defending the interests of the nation.'' 

Yeltsin announced the nomination after meeting in the Kremlin with Primakov
and Chernomyrdin. Chernomyrdin said he asked the president not to nominate him
after two crushing defeats in parliament. 

``I cannot harm Russia. Russia has had enough upheavals this century. This is
my choice,'' Chernomyrdin said. 

Yeltsin and the Duma have been locked in a bitter two-week battle over the
premier's post that stalled the formation of a new government after
Chernomyrdin was rejected twice by the Duma. 

If the Duma rejects Primakov -- an unlikely scenario -- the president would be
forced by law to dissolve parliament and call new elections. 

Primakov, 68, a former Soviet foreign policy expert, is seen as a technocrat,
not ideologically linked to any political faction. He has been criticized in
the West for taking a less liberal line on foreign relations, showing support
for Iraq and other regimes at odds with the West. 

He was named foreign minister in January 1996 and has been praised by most of
Russia's political factions for doing a good job. 

But while Primakov was expected to be approved, it was not clear if he would
be able to do much to fix the country's economic crisis. Although seen as a
competent administrator, his field of expertise is foreign relations, not
economic policy. 

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev picked him as one of his closest aides
during the reform period of the 1980s. 

In 1989-90, Primakov worked as a speaker of one of the houses of the Soviet
parliament. In 1990 he became Gorbachev's special adviser for foreign policy
issues and in 1991 became widely known in the West for his efforts to avert a
Gulf War through direct negotiations with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. 

In December 1991, Primakov was named head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence
Service after years of working in Soviet government agencies and political
think-tanks. 

Unlike most of Gorbachev's allies, he managed to remain in the government
after the Soviet collapse and has worked closely with Yeltsin in recent years.

Yeltsin had been urged by political leaders on all sides to agree to a
compromise candidate and not propose Chernomyrdin for the third and final
vote. Russia endured a frenzy of political speculation during the past two
days as Yeltsin considered his options. 

The political stalemate has exacerbated Russia's economic collapse, reflected
in rising prices and a spread of emergency measures, such as price controls,
in some regions of the country. 

Surprisingly, however, the country's tattered currency, the ruble, continued
today to bounce back. Rubles, which were selling at about 20 to the U.S.
dollar on Tuesday, rose in street sales to as strong as 10 to the dollar,
although rates varied widely. 

Foreign currency dealers said the improved rate suggested that people had
exhausted their ruble supply in panic buying and had begun to exchange their
dollar savings. 

Chernomyrdin spent five years as prime minister before Yeltsin fired him last
March, and many Russians blame him for the country's economic problems.
Yeltsin brought him back as acting prime minister last month after firing
Sergei Kiriyenko. 

*******

#2
From: fweir@rex.iasnet.ru
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 
For the Hindustan Times
From: Fred Weir in Moscow

MOSCOW (HT Sept 10) -- Russia's political fever broke
Thursday after President Boris Yeltsin abandoned his
controversial Prime Minister-designate, Viktor Chernomyrdin, and
nominated the popular Foreign Minister, Yevgeny Primakov, to head
the government.
Mr. Chernomyrdin, who was Russia's prime minister from 1992
until last March, has been twice turned down by parliament and
his chances of being confirmed in the third and decisive vote
were looking extremely dim.
According to the official ITAR-Tass, Mr. Chernomyrdin
withdrew his own candidacy and proposed Mr. Primakov in his
place.
"If I am a stumbling block, if I am causing a split in
power, if I am meddling, then I will surrender my duties as
prime minister," the agency quoted Mr. Chernomyrdin as saying.
"I cannot damage Russia, I cannot let the split bring about
great disturbance. That is my choice, and I have told the
President about it."
For days Mr. Yeltsin has been vaccilating over which
candidate to present to the State Duma for the final round of
voting. According to Russia's Constitution, if the parliament
turns down the Kremlin's choice for prime minister three times,
it must be dissolved and new elections called.
The powerful Communist Party, which controls half the Duma
seats, had said it would never accept Mr. Chernomyrdin but would
back an alternative candidate. Mr. Primakov was near the top of
the list of compromise figures the Communists were willing to
favour.
Mr. Yeltsin, who is not known for backing down in a
confrontation, may have decided that Russia's economic crisis is
too dire and social conditions too explosive to risk a full-scale
battle with the Duma at this time.
Mr. Primakov, who has been Russia's Foreign Minister since
January 1996, is popular with almost all of Russia's squabbling
political factions. He has the backing of not only the
Communists, but also the liberal Yabloko party, and is expected
to sail through his Duma confirmation -- which will most probably
take place on Monday.
Mr. Primakov, 68, is a respected academic and former
director of the Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow. He was a
close adviser on foreign affairs to former Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev, and was appointed head of Russia's external
intelligence agency following the collapse of the USSR.

*******

#3
Russia's Yevgeny Primakov, man for all seasons

MOSCOW, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Yevgeny Primakov, nominated as Russian premier by
President Boris Yeltsin on Thursday, is a man for all seasons, unique among
Russian politicians in commanding the respect of the Kremlin, the opposition
and the West. 

A former Soviet Politburo member regarded as a Cold Warrior, the 68-year-old
former spymaster has won a reputation as a stubborn defender of Russia's
national interests since he became foreign minister at the start of 1996. 

He has shunned the limelight throughout his long career and wanted to drop out
of the race to be premier as soon as the Communist Party proposed him this
week. Critics said he had too little experience of the economy to make a good
premier anyhow. 

But Yeltsin turned to him as a compromise candidate on Thursday to face a
decisive vote in the lower house of parliament. Primakov, an avid reader of
detective novels, will need all the clues he can get to pull Russia out of
crisis. 

Viktor Chernomyrdin, the acting premier whom Primakov replaces, said he
recommended Primakov to Yeltsin because he is ``a democrat, a professional and
well-known on the international scene.'' 

Primakov's name first surfaced as a possible candidate over the weekend. 

``We must confirm a prime minister who would not have to be sacked in three
months. He should not belong to any political party,'' prominent liberal
politician Grigory Yavlinsky told the lower house, the State Duma, on Monday
just before the chamber voted to reject Chernomyrdin for a second time. 

``He should have sufficient political authority, be known in the world and
lack any desire to run for president. There is such a person. It is Yevgeny
Maximovich Primakov.'' 

Yavlinsky's remarks showed how universal Primakov's appeal is. The acting
foreign minister was proposed by Communists, his candidacy was quickly backed
verbally by nationalists and liberals, and now has the Kremlin stamp of
approval. 

On the world stage, he has also won the respect of the West. Initially deeply
mistrusted abroad when he was appointed foreign minster by Yeltsin in January
1991, he has established a solid relationship with U.S. Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright. 

In a display of their ability to work together, they recently sang a duet
together at a relaxed diplomatic gathering. 

The short, stocky minister won respect at home and abroad for his fierce
defence of Russian interests in a dispute with the West over NATO enlargement
and for rebuilding Moscow's diplomatic profile on the ruins of its Soviet
predecessor. 

He has also had considerable success in bolstering relations with China, Japan
and a host of countries outside the first circle of great-power politics, many
of which had close ties with the former Soviet Union. 

Closest to his heart may be the Middle East, where he spent several years as a
Pravda correspondent in the late 1960s. 

``Time will come when Russia will have a strong enough economy to reclaim the
international position it deserves,'' he once told students of the elite
Diplomatic Academy. ``Until then we should hold the front quietly and build up
a solid foreign policy.'' 

He has also tried to mediate between Iraq and the United Nations. In November
1997, Baghdad promised to allow U.N. weapons inspectors to resume their work
after talks between Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, Primakov and
Yeltsin. 

A crisis fraught with military confrontation was averted, at least
temporarily. The breakthrough was Primakov's reward for a failed attempt to
head off the 1991 Gulf War by negotiating a compromise with Baghdad. 

Primakov replaced the more avowedly pro-Western Andrei Kozyrev, one month
after the Communist opposition came in first in a parliamentary election in
December 1995. 

Coming into the Foreign Ministry after five years in charge of the Foreign
Intelligence Service (SVR), one of the successors of the Soviet KGB, Primakov
declared himself a conservative. 

He is a defender of a controversial union between Russia and the former Soviet
republic of Belarus, run by hardline President Alexander Lukashenko, which has
angered Russian liberals. 

A member of the prestigious Academy of Sciences, Primakov enjoyed good
relations with Mikhail Gorbachev. Even under previous Soviet leader Leonid
Brezhnev, in the 1970s, he was seen as one of the leadership's top oriental
policy experts. 

A member of the Communist Party from 1959 until Yeltsin abolished it, Primakov
was a full member of the party's central committee and, briefly, a non-voting
member of the Politburo. 

Primakov, a poor public speaker, has kept out of domestic politics since
becoming minister, but he is still listed among the most influential statesmen
having direct access to Yeltsin. 

Primakov was elected to the Soviet parliament in 1988 and chaired the chamber
between June 1989 and September 1990. In 1990, he joined Gorbachev's
presidential council, holding talks with Saddam Hussein later that year in a
bid to prevent war. 

In 1990 he was sent to Baku, capital of then Soviet Azerbaijan, to try to
mediate in nationalist unrest, but was booed outside Communist Party
headquarters when he tried to speak. Moscow then sent in troops and tanks to
stop the disturbances. 

In the 1970s he was deputy head of the influential Institute of World
Economics and International Relations and also headed the Moscow Institute of
Oriental Studies, his alma mater. 

Born in Kiev in Ukraine, he was brought up in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia.
He graduated in 1953 and began work as a correspondent for state television
and radio. 

He is a widower with one daughter and one granddaughter. He confesses to
relaxing with detective novels, watching television and swimming, but says
working in intelligence and diplomacy has made it hard for him to go to the
theatre or to eat out. 

*******

#4
Text of Russian Acting PM Chernomyrdin's speech

MOSCOW, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Following are the main points of a speech made by
Russia's Acting Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin to the government on
Thursday in which he announced that he would withdraw his candidacy to become
prime minister. Instead he proposed Acting Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov. 

Dear Russians, 

The country, the economy are in a restless state. The measures taken over the
past five months have proved to be not only ineffective but harmful, which in
fact has brought the economy to almost complete collapse that is very hard to
stop. 

I want to say one thing to the whole people. It is possible to find a
solution. Working actively and in an orderly way, knowing how to do it, it is
possible to find a way out. 

There will be pension compensations, there will be wages, there will be goods
and there will not be the madness that we have now. 

Today, and you have noticed it, the rouble has started going up and it was
because of special measures that have been taken and that are starting to calm
people down. 

It takes will-power and a united team to do the work. 

Agreeing to become acting premier and then being nominated as permanent head
of the government, I understood better than anyone that I needed no
familiarising with the situation -- I had never moved far away from it. 

Of course, I understand what measures are to be taken, that social issues
should be the top priority -- pensions and wages and the military. The second
stage is lowering the tax burden, fast and decisive measures. 

I want to make it simple and clear -- I know how to do this job, I know. And
I want to tell you again that with a good team everything will be all right --
there will be goods, shelves will be full as they were until very recently. 

When I came here in 1993 everything was similar - but much worse. There was
nothing on the shelves, inflation was running at around 3,000 percent (a
year), there was no rouble --- we needed years (to change the situation). 

Chernomyrdin left (in March 1998) when everything was in place. Yes, there
were problems with paying wages, but we were working on that. 

And look at what happened in such a short period of time. 

The events of the past two weeks...showed that the Duma is not letting
(Chernomyrdin) through, and it is comprehensible -- the opposition feels it
has a realistic opportunity to take power, to change the regime and possibly
the whole political system. 

I am sure of one thing -- this will not happen. 

It would not just be a mistake, it would be a mistake which would be followed
by blood. 

This cannot be allowed in any circumstances. I am sure that the president and
the government will be united, I wish parliament understood it as well -- the
world will tremble if (bloodshed) starts up in Russia. 

That is why I think that if today, at this stage, Chernomyrdin has become a
stumbling block, that Chernomyrdin is bringing discord -- I give up my powers,
I cannot be the person to harm Russia. 

I will not do so because I am a true Russian -- in my roots, in my whole
being, all the long way that I have come from being a metal worker to the
highest government position -- I feel this with all my being, with all my life
experience. 

I am sure things can be done and quickly, but I cannot allow the schism to
lead to great upheaval, Russia has had enough of them this century. 

I ask my colleagues to understand me -- that it's my choice, that it was me
who told the president that, although the documents are ready, he should not
present my candidacy... 

So I proposed the candidacy of Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov -- a politican, a
man, a statesman, a democrat, a man who understands and who has experience in
the world and in Russia. 

The team that will be with Yevgeny Maksimovich must do whatever the people
badly needs. 

I am grateful to all those thousands of people who supported me in their
letters, for the great trust they have demonstrated. Thanks to you all, to the
press, good bye. 

*******

#5
Acting Russia defence minister hails PM nomination

MOSCOW, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Acting Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev said on
Thursday the nomination of Acting Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov to be
Russia's prime minister was the right move, Interfax news agency reported. 

``In the current situation this is the most correct move, the most correct
nomination,'' Sergeyev was quoted as saying. ``This is happening because he
has authority inside the country and beyond its borders.'' 

Sergeyev's comments of support for Primakov come as some politicians including
the opposition Communists have warned of possible unrest in Russia following
the devaluation of the rouble and sacking of the previous government of Sergei
Kiriyenko a month ago. 

``Of course he needs a team, but if a person has a position, including on the
economy, then he is capable of creating a team sharing his outlook,'' Interfax
quoted Sergeyev as saying. 

Sergeyev also dimissed rumours that the army is preparing to put down any
possible unrest as nonsense. 

******

#6
Rules for appointment of Russian prime minister

MOSCOW, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Russian President Boris Yeltsin has proposed
acting Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov as prime minister after his initial
choice, Acting Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, was rejected twice by
parliament. 

Primakov must be approved by parliament's lower house, the State Duma, in a
vote which its chairman said could take place on Saturday or Sunday. 

Following are the rules for appointing a premier as set out in Russia's 1993
constitution: 

The 450-seat Duma has a week from Thursday's formal nomination by Yeltsin to
vote on the president's choice. Primakov needs a simple majority of 226 votes
to secure approval. 

After the Duma's rejection of Chernomyrdin twice, it has only one vote left to
approve Primakov. If Primakov is rejected, Yeltsin will have to dissolve the
Duma and call an early election in four months. 

The president cannot dissolve the Duma one year after parliamentary elections
and six months before presidential elections. The last parliamentary election,
however, was held in 1995 and the next presidential election is only due in
2000. 

The president cannot dissolve the Duma if it has formally started impeachment
proceedings against him. The Duma has taken early steps to start proceedings
against Yeltsin, accusing him of, among other things, ruining the Soviet Union
and starting the war in rebel Chechnya. 

The Duma would need to rally 300 votes to launch impeachment proceedings
formally. Yeltsin would then be unable to dissolve the Duma for at least three
months. 

But Duma opposition leaders have made clear they would not go ahead with
impeachment if Primakov was nominated. 

*******

#7
Boston Globe
10 September 1998
[for personal use only]
In reeling Russia, states acting alone 
By David Filipov

MOSCOW - With Russia reeling from its worst economic crisis in years, and
Moscow deadlocked in a power struggle over a new government, the country's
regional leaders, fearing famine and mass protest, are trying to solve
problems on their own. 
Seeking to stem a desperate rush for goods not seen since the 1991 breakup of
the Soviet Union, Russia's governors have traded the invisible hand of the
market for the iron fist of centralized rule. 
As the ruble rapidly loses its value and as prices skyrocket, regional leaders
have slapped price controls on staple items, issued limits on trade, and
halted payments of taxes to the government in Moscow. 
Some regions have declared an economic state of emergency. Others have talked
of Russia's need to devolve into a loose confederation of independent states.
Some observers are predicting something much worse: a nightmare scenario of 89
impoverished mini-states sprawled across Russia's nine time zones from the
Pacific Ocean to the Baltic, some with nuclear weapons, each with its own
economy, armed forces, and bones to pick with its neighbors. 
While there is no sign yet that any of Russia's regions want to follow the
path taken by Chechnya in 1994 and declare their independence, politicians and
analysts are concerned that weakened federal authorities are losing what power
they have to prevent regional leaders from doing whatever they want. 
So far, President Boris N. Yeltsin and the State Duma, the lower house of
parliament, have been too wrapped up in their standoff over who will lead the
next government to concern themselves with what is going on in Russia's
regions. 
``In the absence of an agreement among the major political players in Moscow,
the country could dissolve,'' said Nikolai Petrov, a specialist on regional
politics for the Moscow Carnegie Center. ``The breakup of Russia is a very
real possibility.''
The influential Moscow newspaper Kommersant Daily went a step further last
week, printing a map of the Russia of the future, divided up into 10 regional
groupings. 
Added Russian lawmaker Grigory Yavlinsky: ``Yeltsin runs the risk of going
down in history as the president who oversaw the dissolution of Russia.''
The governors themselves say they are trying to prevent a breakdown into
anarchy. They say that they are the ones who will have to answer for a new
round of hyperinflation and poverty to angry citizens who have already
suffered through seven years of hardship during Russia's move away from a
centralized economy. 
``By regulating prices, I am on the brink of breaking the law, but I think
these actions are justified,'' said Alexander I. Lebed, the governor of the
huge Krasnoyarsk region in Siberia, and who ran against Yeltsin in 1996. ``I
am determined to avert famine in the region. We must stop crowds of hungry
people from turning out in the streets and pillaging everything.''
The rapid fall in the ruble's value has threatened to halt food imports to
Russia, which make up between 60 and 65 percent of food products sold across
the country, and up to 85 percent in Moscow. Many foreign companies, worried
about a banking system on the verge of collapse, have already canceled
deliveries to Russia, Foreign Trade Minister Andrei Kushneryenko said last
week. And Russian importers, wary of the plunging value of the ruble, are
unwilling to spend their dollars on food items abroad. 
Yesterday, Arkady Volsky, head of Russia's industrialist union, said food
imports were down to 10 percent of their level before Aug. 17, when the
government abandoned its efforts to support the Russian currency. 
Since then, the ruble has dropped from just over 6 to the dollar to as low as
20.90 to the dollar Tuesday. Yesterday, the Russian currency strengthened to
15.77 to the dollar in a day when rubles suddenly became scarce and banks
appeared to be selling off dollars. 
Russian media reported shortages across the country in food, medicine, and
other basic goods. 
By exerting control over their regional economies, governors are expressing
their lack of confidence in market-oriented policies that the Kremlin has
haltingly sought to impose on a national level. But what Yeltsin and his
advisers have been calling ``market reforms'' are viewed by people in outlying
regions much the same way people used to think of the directives of the Soviet
Communist Party Central Committee: a promise of a better future that turned
out to be a big hoax. 
A number of governors have followed Lebed's lead on price controls, even
though the practice is bound to make the situation worse. Much of the food in
stores across Russia is imported, which means its ruble price is related to
the cost in hard currency of bringing it into the country. The most likely
effect of price controls is that stores will go out of business, causing even
more panic. Other regions have restricted ``foreign trade'' with neighboring
Russian regions, a practice intended to stimulate the growth of regional
producers. In fact, the restrictions have made it harder for food producers to
find buyers for their goods. 
A more drastic form of civil disobedience has been taken up by Lebed's
brother, Alexei, the governor of the Siberian region of Khakassia just south
of Krasnoyarsk, who ordered his administration to stop making tax payments to
Moscow. In recent weeks, Lebed's initiative has been copied by the leaders of
the vast Siberia region of Sakha-Yakutia, home to Russia's most lucrative gold
and diamond mines, and Kaliningrad, the base of Russia's Baltic Fleet. 
In reality, there is little Yeltsin can do to rein in regional leaders.
Governors have long run things the way the like, closing down newspapers,
fixing elections, spending federal money intended for wages on personal
projects. There have been protests, but little action from the Kremlin, which
depends on the governors, and the Federation Council, the upper house of
parliament made up of regional leaders, for political support in its battles
with the opposition-dominated Duma. 
Most federal institutions are weak, while regional leaders have fashioned
their governments into latter-day fiefdoms, part of Russia but managed
independently. An apathetic and disenfranchised public had little to say about
this situation even before the latest crisis. The federally funded army,
police, and security forces tend to be no less loyal to the local governor,
who is far more accessible than the far-off federal government. 
The main lever of influence the federal government has over regional
authorities has been the budget. But with no government in place, that
influence has disappeared. 
``The real danger is a return to feudalism and an agricultural economy, or in
other words, a disintegration into regional states,'' wrote Yulia Latynina, a
political analyst for Expert magazine. ``The problem with this particular
outcome is that the West would have to deal with 88 nuclear powers ... with
leaders no more competent than Saddam Hussein or Moammar Khadafy.''

******

#8
Chicago Tribune
10 September 1998
[for personal use only]
RUSSIA'S REGIONAL LEADERS FLEX DICTATOR-LIKE MUSCLE
By Elizabeth Williamson
Special to the Tribune

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- Oleg Sergeyev, a soft-spoken, graying pediatrician,
felt the power of Russian regional democracy as a blow to the head that nearly
killed him.
Last April, Sergeyev, a deputy in St. Petersburg's legislative assembly, wrote
a letter to St. Petersburg Gov. Vladimir Yakovlev requesting enforcement of a
health-care law he had sponsored.
A week later, assailants attacked him in the hallway of his apartment
building, beating him so severely that he spent two months in a hospital with
a fractured skull.
"I'm 100 percent sure my reform (efforts) caused this," he said. "I think I
was disturbing the peaceful life of someone in the executive branch."
Home of coal miners and reindeer herders, stretching across 11 time zones,
Russia's patchwork of 89 regions has always been difficult to oversee--the
most infamous example being Chechnya, whose bid for independence ignited a
bloody war.
Now, with Moscow distracted by its worsening financial crisis and the federal
government too strapped to give the regions their rightful share of the
budget, the regions are asserting themselves even more. Regional governors,
immune from prosecution and legally permitted to rule by decree, command their
home turfs like personal fiefdoms.
And while Russia is without a government in Moscow, the power of the regional
governors is essentially unfettered.
"The Russian tradition is one of the power of the bureaucracy," said Yuri
Vdovin, director of the St. Petersburg human-rights organization Citizens'
Watch. "And since there are no checks and balances in our constitution, the
bureaucrat always becomes a dictator."
While Yakovlev and his administration vehemently deny any link to Sergeyev's
beating, Yakovlev's ongoing battle for personal control over the legislature,
his targeting of news media unfavorable to him, and his willingness to put
power before progress finds many similar examples among his counterparts.
In the mineral-rich Ural Mountain region of Sverdlovsk, Gov. Edvard Rossel
last year threw the local economy up for grabs when he began issuing "trade
checks," an alternative currency.
In the southern republic of Kalmykia, millionaire Gov. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
funnels scanty local resources into his pursuit of international chess
tournaments. Last June, newspaper editor Larisa Yudina was stabbed to death as
she investigated official corruption.
In Tatarstan, Mintimir Shaimiyev altered the region's constitution to allow
him to seek a third term as governor and decreed it illegal for local
newspapers to insult him.
In central Siberian Krasnoyarsk, the new governor and potential presidential
candidate, Alexander Lebed, wrote an open letter to former Prime Minister
Sergei Kiriyenko in July threatening to take over a missile unit in his region
if Moscow did not pay its troops.
Back in St. Petersburg, once seen as one of Russia's most pro-democracy
enclaves, Yakovlev has been feuding with the legislative assembly since it
passed a city charter last January. The charter, a type of local constitution,
eliminates Yakovlev's power to issue decrees, "personal" laws not approved by
the legislature. Russian President Boris Yeltsin also enjoys this privilege.
Since January, Yakovlev has vetoed all but two of the 21 laws to cross his
desk. Deputies faithful to him gathered enough votes to oust the assembly's
speaker, Yuri Kravtsov. Afterward, 10 deputies said city hall tried to coerce
or buy their votes.
"There would be no need for a legislative assembly if (Yakovlev) could make
decrees at will," said Mikhail Pirogov, assembly deputy and the charter's
author. "He's an incompetent authoritarian; a good politician would control
(the political process) without these measures."
The warring between city hall and the legislature grew so severe that the
Kremlin offered to send a mediator and was promptly told to stay away.
"There is neither a confrontation nor occasion for a confrontation between the
branches of government in the city. The governor is not involved in the
affairs of the legislative assembly," said Alexander Potekhin, spokesman for
the governor, in a statement to local media. "One would think that the Russian
Cabinet of ministers must have a mass of other problems to concern it."
Yakovlev repeatedly has refused to answer questions about the conflict.
Responding in writing to faxed interview questions, he said: "An ideal
governor has to have experience in management and a skillful team of
professionals. However, in real life nothing is ideal.
"I think a governor has to have enough power to solve all the problems of his
region. (But) we have to keep away from extremes. . . . Regions are not
independent but parts of one state--Russia."
Once, regional governors were hired and fired by Yeltsin. Now, after a court
challenge by a regional governor, governors are independently elected,
accountable only to their constituents.
As members of Russia's upper house of parliament, the Federation Council,
regional governors enjoy personal immunity from prosecution.
In several cases, the arrangement works, as governors use their decree powers
to encourage foreign investment or provide special tax benefits for regional
industries. But in other cases, those who run afoul of a regional governor
encounter a host of problems with the bureaucracy, over which governors have
wide-ranging control.
In late March, the home of Ruslan Linkov, a legislative assembly aide and
freelance journalist who writes for a weekly St. Petersburg tabloid, was
raided by the tax police, the prosecutor general's office and the city's anti-
organized crime unit shortly after he wrote an article poking fun at Yakovlev
on his birthday.
The apartment of Lyubov Amromina, an aide to an anti-Yakovlev member of the
legislative assembly, was searched the same day. Police say the raids were
part of a 3-year-old investigation into the previous administration. Nothing
was uncovered.
City hall funds at least two of the city's largest-circulation newspapers.
Last May, after Moscow placed control of St.Petersburg-based TV Channel 5 with
the city, Yakovlev divided shares among city hall, the wider region and three
banks with ties to city hall and then chose a new station director.
These developments worry Vdovin.
"Media control is the first feature of a dictatorship," he said. "How this
city treats democracy is equivalent to how it treats its mass media."
Meanwhile, despite his ill luck with reform, Sergeyev presses on, demanding
non-city hall oversight of St. Petersburg's public-health programs. Recently,
the city's English-language newspaper, the St. Petersburg Times, revealed that
a select group of pharmaceutical manufacturers was supplying drugs to a
pensioners' medication program at an average of 30 percent over wholesale
prices. Beyond that, some $900,000 of program budget money has disappeared.
"As a doctor, I am morally obligated to do this," Sergeyev said, referring to
his crusade. "Gov. Yakovlev could (correct) this if he would enforce the law,"
Sergeyev said, smiling nervously.
"He could do it almost singlehandedly."

********

#9
Philadelphia Inquirer
9 September 1998
[for personal use only]
Who lost Russia? 
It was communism, not markets, that led to total collapse. 
Trudy Rubin / Worldview 

As the blame game over "Who lost Russia?" heats up, I've been jogging my
memories of Russia since 1985.
Was there a miracle formula that could have saved the country? Could Americans
have done more to prevent the meltdown?
I doubt it. The odds are even that Russia would have crashed no matter our
policies.
The real culprit was not our well-intentioned but inadequate efforts to teach
free-market economics. It was the near-total absence of workable Russian
institutions -- in the political realm and in the economy. To use the
trenchant phrase of Moscow watcher Martin Malia, Russia has fallen into an
"institutional abyss."
The dying Soviet communist system had become so centralized that when it
crashed, it totally splintered. New institutions never took root. Old, state-
owned industries sank into collapse -- but the stock exchanges and private
banks and enterprises that emerged were little more than shells. Political
institutions such as the duma never worked.
Russia has operated like an old Aeroflot plane -- still flying by some
miracle, with jerry-rigged parts, a rusted frame and pilots swilling vodka in
the cockpit. New private owners have refused to buy new equipment or have
stolen it. Foreign investors have stayed away.
Eventually, a new generation, more attuned to the benefits of the market, will
emerge. By then, Russia may have developed a legitimate banking system that
gives commercial loans to honest entrepreneurs.
But building new institutions takes time, probably decades. Russia is caught
between old structures that no longer work and new ones that don't yet
function.
And the old plane has just crashed.
Meanwhile, the airwaves are abuzz with new theories about who lost Russia. But
most don't hold up, because they fail to focus on Russia's institutional
deficit.
Consider the following:
The Gorby theory (also known as "the third way"): If the West had offered
massive economic aid to Mikhail Gorbachev, he could have set up a new system
midway between capitalism and socialism.
This pipe dream overlooks Gorbachev's total misunderstanding of the Soviet
economic decline. When he still had strong central powers, Gorbachev could
have freed up Soviet agriculture and encouraged small and midsize private
entrepreneurs. He could have built financial institutions to support them.
But Gorbachev thought tinkering could rejuvenate an economy based on obsolete
industries and military production. His model was the "socialism with a human
face" that the Czechoslovaks tried in 1968, before the Soviet invasion. You
can't help a leader who is trying to roll back the clock.
The Marshall Plan model: I admit I bought this one, the 1991 idea that
megabillions in Western aid could do for Russia what it did for Western Europe
after World War II. This model was also known as the "grand bargain": Swap
huge amounts of Western aid in the early 1990s in exchange for tough market
reforms.
The money never was offered. But seven years later, I doubt whether the model
made sense. In Marshall Plan days, we occupied Germany -- a nation we had
defeated in war -- and built new institutions from the ground up. And Germany
had a population familiar with modern industrial ways.
But we couldn't have occupied Russia. "It wouldn't have made any difference if
there had been a Marshall Plan," says Russia expert Marshall Goldman. "There
weren't any institutions to absorb the money." Nor were there any Konrad
Adenauers to see that the money was well used.
The China model: This is the favorite of latter-day Russian communists. But
China's Deng Xiaoping had no doubt that he wanted to build a strong market
sector. He built the infrastructure to promote private business and welcome
foreign investors, including overseas Chinese who invested tens of billions of
dollars.
Russian leaders never created institutions that made local or foreign
investors feel welcome. Russians send their capital out of the country ($66
billion from 1994 to 1997, by one estimate, including massive KGB and
Communist Party thievery from central reserves). And foreigners have invested
less in Russia than in tiny Hungary.
The capitalist model: Yes, the West probably overdid it. The U.S. effort to
push Russia toward privatization helped create a new class of rich, greedy
kleptocrats. But the fault doesn't lie just with the model.
Russia's bitter history of czars and commissars made ordinary people mistrust
government and disdain law. So corruption reigns, and criminal gangs control
up to 40 percent of the economy. In such a climate, institution-building is a
nightmare.
But Russia's old institutions are gone, and the country must move forward. The
West's mistake was in hoping for too much, too soon.
No model will work until Russia can start building new structures on the
rubble of communism. That process has hardly begun.
Trudy Rubin's column appears on Wednesdays and Fridays. Her e-mail address is
trubin@phillynews.com

*******

#10
Pain Sets in for Russians as Medicines Go Short 
September 9, 1998

MOSCOW -- (Reuters) Two phrases rang out over the quiet coughing and shuffling
of feet in Moscow's Chemist Number One on Wednesday -- "There isn't any" and
"It's run out." 

Bewildered people clutching prescriptions moved from queue to queue in the
large faded halls of the pharmacy, based in an old palace in the city center. 

Shortages and queues had, until recently, been consigned to the past, like the
bust of Lenin still on the grand stairway. 

"It was always a great chemist, one of the best. There used to be a wide
choice. Now, you can see for yourself," said Lida Lebedeva, 60 a former
teacher now on a pension. 

Lebedeva was trying to find medicine for her husband, to help regulate blood
flow to his head after a stroke. 

"I waited a whole hour and they told me it was finished. It's pretty bad for
him without it," she said. 

The economic crisis which hit last month has cleared many of Russia's shop
shelves. But while a shortage of food might mean a less varied diet, a lack of
medicine can be much more painful. 

Ivan Buloshev, a pensioner who had just come out of hospital, said he would
just have to keep on searching for the headache pills he had been prescribed. 

"I'll pray to God for help," he said. 

Russia, he said, had been through crises before. "But things were just getting
stabilized. People are getting tired of this." 

The last time shop emptied, in 1991, the chemist on Moscow's main Tverskaya
street had little on the shelves but bottles of leeches. On Wednesday its
window were filled with imported cosmetics. But it was closed "for technical
reasons." 

In the Fortuna chemist on Moscow's upscale Bolshaya Nikitskaya street, rolls
of cotton wool wrapped in brown paper were selling fast in another grim
throwback to Communist times. 

"It's because sanitary towels are too expensive so people are buying this
instead," said an assistant. "Just like in the old days." 

Sanitary towels, never part of the five-year plans drawn up by squeamish
Communist authorities, have quadrupled in price since the ruble began sliding
on Aug. 17. 

Other imported products have disappeared altogether. 

"I was looking for incontinence pads for my mother who's in hospital. They
told me to forget it," said one man, hurrying away from Chemist Number One. 

Its harassed director, Tamara Pogromova, did not know when things would change
for the better. 

"Some things have run out completely, both imported and domestic. We're not
getting new supplies," she said. 

In the Fortuna pharmacy the mood was slightly better. 

"We had a break in supplies, but now they're coming back in, though not
everything," said an assistant. 

It seemed to be one of the very few. Many of the little private kiosks selling
medicines which have sprung up to fill gaps in the market have been cleared of
almost all their stock. 

Pharmacists said people have been panic-buying for fear prices, which have
already rocketed, would continue to rise. 

But not everyone could afford to. 

Victor Luferenko, a military officer, needed treatment for the arthritis in
his wife's knees without which she cannot walk. 

The doctor had given him the name of a chemist where he could find it but
warned him the price had doubled. 

"Stock up? I haven't been paid since June," Luferenko said. 

*******

#11
Russia's Zhirinovsky blasts ``pro-American'' Primakov

MOSCOW, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Extreme nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky on
Thursday blasted Prime Minister-designate Yevgeny Primakov as ``pro-American''
and said no government under him would be able to cope with Russia's financial
crisis. 

``Primakov is a pro-American candidate. Primakov has been nominated by
Clinton,'' Zhirinovsky told reporters in parliament. ``This is a government
which will last two months. It is a government of doomed men. It will not
cope.'' 

*******

#12
Russian Communist chief hails Primakov as PM

MOSCOW, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Russian Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov
said on Thursday he welcomed President Boris Yeltsin's nomination of Acting
Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov as prime minister and said he should win
parliamentary support. 

``I think his candidacy will get solid support in the State Duma,'' Zyuganov
told reporters. The Duma, the lower house of parliament, must endorse
Yeltsin's nomination for Primakov to form a government. The Communists and
their allies are the biggest bloc, with close to a majority in the chamber. 

party twice rejected Yeltsin's nomination of Viktor Chernomyrdin and said it
was ready to do so a third time even though that would trigger the automatic
dissolution of the Duma. 

``Everyone understands that we need a consolidating figure who would be
supported both by the Duma and the Federation Council (upper house). Primakov
is known around the world where he stands up for Russia's interests. This will
be good for Russia,'' the Communist leader said. 

``None of the has-beens responsible for looting the country will get into a
Primakov government. He is a man who is sensible and independent,'' he added. 

Zyuganov said the Duma should not drag out the endorsement of Primakov, even
though it has up to a week to vote. ``There's no point in taking a long time
to discuss Primakov. Everyone knows him,'' he said, adding, however, that
Primakov himself might need time to draw up a programme for government. 

*******

#13
Russian Duma to vote on Primakov Friday

MOSCOW, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Russia's lower house of parliament, the State
Duma, is to vote on approving Acting Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov as
prime minister on Friday, senior parliamentarians said on Thursday. 
Leaders of several factions in the State Duma, the lower house of
parliament, said the debate would open at 5 p.m. (1300 GMT). All blocs
backed Primakov's candidacy, they said, except the extreme nationalists led
by Vladimir Zhirinovsky. 
examining his candidacy tomorrow,'' Duma Deputy Chairman Vladimir Ryzhkov
told reporters. 
``Tomorrow Russia will in all likelihood have a new prime minister and he
will be able to get down to work on Saturday morning to bring the country
out of its financial crisis.'' 
Ryzhkov said Primakov would hold consultations prior to the vote on the
make-up of his government and the appointment of a new chairman of the
central bank following this week's resignation of Sergei Dubinin. He
predicted that parliamentary debate on Primakov's nomination would be short. 
Under the constitution, the Duma has a week to consider Primakov's
nomination after twice rejecting President Boris Yeltsin's first choice for
prime minister, Viktor Chernomyrdin. 

******