September 12, 1998   

This Date's Issues: 2366• 2367 •2368•

Johnson's Russia List
#2367
12 September 1998
davidjohnson@erols.com

[Note from David Johnson:
1. Victor Kalashnikov: The Basic Instinct.
2. Moskovskiy Komsomolets: Aleksandr Khinshteyn, "The Kremlin: 
History of an Illness." ('Sensational' Expose on Yeltsin's Health).
3. Robert King: Russian Caviar Mafia.
4. RFE/RL: Floriana Fossato, Regions Scramble To Fight Economic Crisis.
5. Russia Today satire. (Yeltsin-Chernomyrdin-Primakov).
6. Toronto Sun: Matthew Fisher, Moscow burns while Bill fiddles.]

\*****

#1
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998 
From: machinegun@glas.apc.org (Victor Kalashnikov)
Subject: The Basic Instinct

A classical phrase said: 'History had challenged Russia by 
Peter the Great problem. And Russia replied by Pushkin to 
it'. With speed of history accelerated, the 'Yeltzin problem' 
has now been resolved by 'Primakov'. I.e. nomenklatua (a 
Stalin-conceived Party corporation) has - after all those 
perturbations - managed to produce a 'consensus' out from 
its own ranks. 
Self-preservation instinct worked. The 'moment of truth' 
offered - yes, the truth about nomenklatura. Primakov's 
style & ways are secondary to key features of him like: 
'being part of it' and 'being ready to protect common 
interests'. 
Primakov's name has appeared, in passing - in Moscow and 
elsewhere - during March crisis already. The most 
meticulous observers may follow that line further on. Have 
long breath for it.
Poor Cherno's humiliating defeat implies: 'don't you play 
with other village's boys. You shouldn't have taken all those 
reforms and oligarchs too close to your heart.' 
Viktor Stepanovich obviously has spent too much time at 
gas fields and in bubble-billionaires' company. He should 
have cultivated old, real links and loyalties instead. And he 
took 'anti-Communism' too directly (Washington & Rome 
temptations, eh?). His parting speech on TV ('a coup in 
preparing...', 'a Communist conspiracy...') made clear how 
far he has went. Far from reality. 
Hitler-Generals failed to remove Hitler by themselves. 
Different forces had to step in to do that. (Just a 
metaphor).
It was the Comsomol, young Communists (Chubais, Gaidar, 
Fyodorov, Kiriyenko) who were dismissed today. The old 
guard has apparently not provided enough training to them 
at proper time. Nomenklatura ought to admit generation 
succession failure.
Yavlinsky (not Chubais etc. company) has, apparently made 
a longer-term bid. Yet, he himself commands nothing but a 
youngsters club in Moscow. There'll be a side-by-side 
niche within post-Liberalism to be found for him. Primakov-
Yavlinsky (not a Yeltzin-Chubais) continuity line will 
apparently play from now on.
Poor Berezovsky and all those technocrats. And all those 
proponents of political-technology theories - the essential 
citation-constituency for foreign media, too. Primakov 
phenomenon has remained beyond the scope of their 
methodology.
A 'left turn'? Does someone recall how foreign officers 
attempted, in vain, to introduce 'right' and 'left' notions into 
Peter the Great army? They were struck by the fact that 
Russians successfully went without all those Western 
glamorous. Marquis de Custine said 1836: Europe had dealt 
with nothing different than a self-conceived image of Russia 
only.
The Jewish activist, Russian ultra-nationalist, KGB-asset 
Zhirinovsky is out. No place for him after Cherno and his 
hydrocarbnonic pals downgraded that way. 
Is it good or bad for Russians? Neither - nor. 'Those in 
Moscow have settled it among themselves'. That's all. 
Good for the West? To judge on this one ought to know 
how much things relevant for the West (military, ecology, 
criminality) are still controlled from Moscow. As to Evgeny 
Maximovich, he has been supplied with all those reports 
and papers, and rumours all too long...

*******

#2
'Sensational' Expose on Yeltsin's Health 

Moskovskiy Komsomolets
August 3, 1998
[translation for personal use only]
Article by Aleksandr Khinshteyn, Moskovskiy Komsomolets columnist: 
"The Kremlin: History of an Illness"

Moskovskiy Komsomolets has managed to find out what lies
behind the dismissal of the doctors to whom the President owes his
life.
For a week and a half the country knows nothing. Newspapers
report that Yeltsin has had a stroke. That he is in no condition to
maintain control of the situation.
The press secretary's team refutes the information and
presents a lively President as proof.
What is going on? Is Boris Nikolayevich healthy? Who is
running the state?
We present here the results of a sensational investigation
conducted by our columnist Aleksandr Khinshteyn.
The health of the President constitutes one of the most
dreadful secrets of the Russian authority. It is a sacredly held
secret, more closely held than all military classified information
lumped together.
From this secrecy proceed the rumors, the gossip, the tittle-
tattle...
In the meantime, the true state of affairs here is such that
even the most dreadful piece of gossip looks like trifling rubbish
in comparison. Suffice it to say that President Yeltsin has
suffered...five heart attacks...and more than 10 incidents of
cardiac seizure.
We vacillated for some time concerning whether or not to
publish Yeltsin's history of illness. After all, one must consider
medical ethics, the secret of the confessional.
But we decided that we should. In the final analysis, Boris
Nikolayevich does not belong to himself alone. The life of the
entire country depends on his state of health.
Things are simpler in the United States. Candidates for
president undergo very strict medical checkups. The results are
published in the newspapers.
True, were something of this nature to take place in Russia,
Boris Nikolayevich would never have become the father of the
nation...

The Secret of Facility B-4

Prior to mid-1995, there was nothingparticularly wrong with
Yeltsin. His age was showing itself, of course, and there were all
kinds of problems with his back.
In 1987 the disgraced Communist found himself under extremely
great stress. At a city committee plenum he could barely move his
tongue. His movements were so awkward that those in attendance
could only wonder.
In September 1994 we had the famous and extraordinary event at
Shannon Airport, when he was unable to disembark from the airplane
to meet Ireland's prime minister. He underwent two back
operations--in 1990 and 1993. In December 1994 there was an
operation on his septum.
In late 1993, in China, he was paralyzed with a stroke. He
underwent surgery on his arm and leg.
But all this was nothing compared with what was to
come...
The first alarm rang out in the summer of 1995. On 10 July
Yeltsin invited two of his closest comrades to dinner--Korzhakov and
Barsukov, to announce a happy decision to Mikhal Ivanych, the
decision to appoint him director of the FSB [Federal Security
Service].
Dinner was accompanied by a good deal of drinking. According
to the most modest estimates, the President downed a one-liter
bottle of 80-proof Cointreau.
The result was not long in coming. That very night, at about
0300 in the morning, the doctor on duty went to the President's
bedroom at the residence in Barvikha (Facility B-4) to see if
everything was all right. However, the President was not to be
found in the bedroom.
A brief search led staff personnel to the bathroom. Breaking
down the door (it was locked from inside), alarmed servants
discovered the President as he lay unconscious on the tile
floor.
Someone administered artificial respiration to the President.
They took his blood pressure--90 over 60. The aging body was not
able to cope with such a volume of sugar and alcohol.
On 11 July Yeltsin was sent to the Center for Cardiac Illness
with the diagnosis of "infarct." The people were not officially
informed of what had happened. The press was told that the
President's ischemic heart disease had worsened.
(We note that following this incident, the emergency call
button appeared once again in the President's bedroom. It had
originally been set up there at the initiative of Raisa Gorbacheva,
but was then dismantled. "What is this?"--grumbled a dissatisfied
Yeltsin upon occupying the general secretary's residence. "What am
I--an invalid or something?!")
The science of medicine requires that an individual who has
suffered a heart attack recuperate not less than five weeks (if not
several months). But Yeltsin stayed in the Cardiac Center no more
than a week and a half. Early in August he went back to
work.
All the arguments of doctors to the effect that the President
was destroying himself, that the treatment was not finished--had no
effect.
"I have to get to work! I have no intention of lying in
bed"--Boris Nikolayevich firmly stated.
All this could not help but have a subsequent effect.
"Irreparable damage to his health," is how specialists evaluated the
President's early release...
Incredible as it may seem, Yeltsin did not believe his
doctors. Like all people who have been healthy (up until recently),
he was convinced that he could not have any illness. Especially of
the nature of infarct! He would very soon have to become convinced
of the correctness of the diagnosis.
Yeltsin spent October of 1995 in Sochi. Despite his doctors'
recommendations--of rest and only rest--the President was living a
life of enjoyment. He played tennis, drank, and grew weaker.
Naturally, towards the end of the month his state of health had
deteriorated. He began to experience periodic cardiac pain.
As soon as Boris Nikolayevich returned to Moscow, there were
medical consultations. On 26 October he lay in the Cardiac Center
with a second heart attack.
The situation repeated itself. The press was deceived once
more. References were again made to ischemic heart disease. There
was a devil-may-care attitude towards the recuperation period.
(Government officials called on the President in the sanatorium to
which he was transferred from the Cardiac Center--Chernomyrdin,
Grachev, and other officials made regular visits. Each time,
Yeltsin was lifted from his bed and taken to the dining
room.)
The same attitude was shown with respect to the period of
rehabilitation. In December the President refused to continue
treatment and left the sanatorium.
One year later, Naina Iosifovna and Tatyana Borisovna would
say: How were we to know that Boris Nikolayevich was in bad shape
and required an operation? No one told us...
It is a lie. Kremlin doctors warned of the danger on many
occasions. In late December, early January, Yeltsin was asked to
undergo coronary tests--they had to find out whether or not there
was any narrowing of the coronary arteries.
The President and his family flatly refused. Here 1996 was
just about upon them, an election year. They were afraid that as
soon as the "guarantor of democracy" was assigned a hospital bed at
the Cardiac Center, word of this would instantaneously leak out to
the press.
The thirst for power was stronger than common sense.
"After the election, you can do what you want," Yeltsin said.
"You can even put me under the knife. But leave me alone for right
now..."

On the Brink of Madness

The election race began in January. Despite
the unambiguous
opinion of the doctors--that "participation in the election will be
the end of you"--the President decided to go all out.
An intense schedule, constant meetings, trips, speeches--all
this naturally had its effect on Yeltsin's state of health. His
blood pressure now and again ran sky high. The cardiac pains became
more frequent.
Yeltsin suffered his third and fourth heart attacks at the
height of the campaign. One of them took place at the Zavidovo
sports lodge. Boris Nikolayevich was in really bad shape. They
carried him down from the second floor on a stretcher...
It seems that the President himself was now beginning to
understand that he had gotten himself into a fix. But it was too
late to retreat.
A team of doctors accompanied Yeltsin on all of his trips. He
was given pills and administered injections prior to and following
each speech. However, he was not getting any better.
Towards mid-May, the doctors and consultants who were treating
Yeltsin sounded the alarm. On 20 May they wrote a letter to
Korzhakov, the individual closest to the President.
"Over the past two weeks, changes negative in nature have
taken place in the state of health of Russian Federation President
B.N. Yeltsin.
"All these changes are directly related to the sharply
increased level of strain on him in both the physical and emotional
aspect.
A significant role here is being played by frequent variations
in climatic conditions and time zone changes during flights over
great distances. The President's sleep time has been reduced to the
limit--some three or four hours a day.
Such a work regime presents a real threat to the life and
health of the President."
Finding out about the "anonymous letter," Yeltsin and his
family became absolutely infuriated. But they managed to slow down
the tempo somewhat.
Then on 26 June, in Kaliningrad, yet another cataclysm started
to unfold. A day later, in Moscow, a cardiogram and laboratory
tests confirmed the finding of heart attack.
You could not conjure up a worse scenario. The second round
of elections was scheduled for 3 July. Should Yeltsin be bedridden
in the hospital, Zyuganov's victory would be assured.
They had to resort to the tried and true methods.
Presidential Press Secretary Medvedev declared publicly that "the
leader's voice had become hoarse due to his many public
appearances." A similar fairy tale was related by Chernomyrdin,
Ilyushin, and Lebed.
The situation was on the brink of madness. The 100-percent
bedridden invalid was turned and moved in the residence, which had
been hurriedly reoutfitted as a hospital ward. The preparations
that were being introduced for him could be used only under hospital
conditions (for example--the fibrinolytic means of dissolving blood
clots).
"What will happen if the Father dies?"--was the question all
Kremlin observers were asking themselves during these days.
Fortunately, however, Yeltsin pulled through.
Barely alive, under the flashes of video cameras and the glare
of spotlights, his trembling hand even dropped an election ballot
into the box.
The televised inauguration terrified the entire country. It
was a living corpse that swore the oath of loyalty to the people, a
new Leonid Ilich.
Dragging things out would prove quite dangerous. Medical
specialists predicted that another heart attack would occur in
November. And then...
"Either Boris Nikolayevich will die, or he will take advantage
of this last chance," the President and his family were told. They
were forced to concur.
On 15 August Yeltsin underwent coronary tests at the Cardiac
Center. Preparations began for an operation.
(True, in the desire to protect themselves, some doctors
proposed that the operation be conducted abroad. But the President
would not hear of it: "Only in the Motherland.")
C ardiac surgeon Renat Akchurin handled his lofty mission
splendidly. The operation and rehabilitation period were carried
out at the highest level. This time Yeltsin fulfilled all the
doctors' recommendations with precision. By New Year's he was
well.
As well as an old man worn out by illness can be...

War Against Hard Drinking

"Had Yeltsin listened to his doctors and
agreed to an
operation not in 1996, but rather in 1995, the effect would have
been entirely different," one well-informed medical expert told
me.
Exorbitant pressures, excessive alcohol, and heart attacks not
fully treated--none of this has disappeared. That is why in January
1997 the President was hit with a bout of pneumonia. His immune
system was weakened.
Although the operation had been carried out in superb fashion,
in 1997 Yeltsin once again began to be tormented with headaches and
pains in the area of the heart. The President was feeling
worse.
His family became hopping mad: "How can this be?! Why did
they perform the operation?" They paid no heed to the conclusions
of doctors that the President was going through post-operative (or
post-orocatomic [as published]) syndrome.
History repeated itself. Now and again Yeltsin went back to
the bottle. True, he was drinking less. Whereas before he would
drink half a liter, sometimes more, now he limited himself to 200-
300 grams. Doctors used the severest terms in forbidding him to
drink. But their words were not heeded.
Korzhakov was no longer around. No one dared take a bottle
away from Yeltsin. On the contrary, his family indulged him in his
weakness.
"After all, this is Tatyana's birthday," relatives said as
they poured Boris Nikolayevich a glass in celebration.
The next morning, doctors checking the President registered
indications of inadequate functioning of the heart.
Today everything is back to where it was. Alcohol remains
Boris Nikolayevich's constant companion...

Murderers in White Gowns

Tell me--how do you look at a doctor who has
pulled you back
from the edge of death? With respect, at the minimum, I would
think. Flowers, cognac, candy. Friendship to the end.
President Yeltsin and his family have taken a different
position. Their attitude towards the Kremlin doctors is structured
on the principle: You are the servants; we are the masters. It is
not without reason that when Tamara Kurushina died, having treated
the President over many years, Boris Nikolayevich did not even
express his condolences to the family of the deceased.
Complete disdain has been shown for the opinion of medical
personnel. For example, Tatyana Dyachenko has aggressively
consulted people on the outside (by telephone), and then has given
instructions on how her father should be treated.
"Boris Nikolayevich is going to have to appear in public
tomorrow," the President's relatives demanded during the preelection
period.
"That is impossible," doctors objected.
"You do not understand the political situation..."
Deterioration of the President's state of health was also
attributed to unprofessionalism on the part of medical
personnel.
"You are purposely giving him medicines that make him look
like a fool in front of people," declared Tatyana and Naina
Iosifovna. Or:
"Treat him, treat him. Boris Nikolayevich is getting worse
all the time."
It is not surprising that Doctor Andrey Fesenko is in good
graces today. Appointed first deputy general director of the
Medical Center through the first family's efforts, Dr. Fesenko is a
pediatrician by specialty. He distinguished himself by providing
good treatment to the President's grandchildren.
You would have to agree--it is one thing to treat a three-
year-old child, and quite another--a 67-year-old man.
We recall the anecdote where a patient asks the doctor
following his operation: "Doctor, how much should I pay you?" "At
least half the amount you were prepared to pay just before you went
under the knife"--replies the doctor.
Leaders have a short memory. Yeltsin forgot very quickly to
whom he was obliged for his health (or for his life). Instead of
coddling and pampering the healers, the Kremlin has created the
"doctor-saboteur affair." The medical specialists seem to be guilty
of causing the President's health to deteriorate.
In 1997 certain luminaries were excluded from the permanent
consultation group--Academician Vorobyev, Professors Martynov and
Gogin. For one reason. These were old has-beens, and the patient
was getting worse all the time...
In December, Dr. Vtorushin, deputy head of the President's
Medical Center and formerly Yeltsin's favorite doctor, was "given
the boot." His independence and toughness had evoked the
displeasure of the first family.
In spring of 1998, the services of consultation group member
Akchurin, the surgeon who had pulled the President from the brink of
death, were rejected. Renat Suleymanovich had not pleased
Dyachenko.
The most recent repressions took place quite recently, this
summer. Excommunicated from the President's medical circle was the
man who had treated Yeltsin back when he was first secretary of the
Sverdlovsk Oblast Committee--Anatoliy Grigoryev. Grigoryev was with
his patient during the most difficult times, the days of the city
committee and Russian Supreme Soviet. Prior to 1992-93, he was
virtually alone in attending to Yeltsin.
In 1992 it was decided to lend the doctor a helping hand.
After the long election process, they decided on Zaykov's (Boris
Nikolayevich's successor at the Moscow City Committee) personal
physician, Aleksandr Antropov.
A few months later, however, Yeltsin began playing little
tricks:
"I cannot see him. He reminds me of Zaykov all the time. We
will have to dismiss him."
"Boris Nikolayevich, this is not done," they tried to reason
with the President. You select a man, you cannot remove him without
cause."
But the President's will was locked in concrete. They had to
find a place for Antropov in the medical section of the Presidential
Security Service. In 1997 he was dismissed, along with other
Security Service staff who had marked Korzhakov's victory in the
Tula elections.
By the mid-1990s, however, Grigoryev had become annoying to
Yeltsin (regardless of all the years they had been together). The
doctor's imperturbability also made Yeltsin mad.
"I am ill and you just sit there calmly and watch," Boris
Nikolayevich stated indignantly. (Aware of this particular trait of
the President, several nurses took advantage of this and
demonstrated a heightened level of participation and
attention.)
Many times the President demanded Grigoryev's dismissal. (For
insurance purposes, Anatoliy Mikhaylovich was set up as head of the
medical section of the Presidential Security Service.) When the
President's displeasure was especially noticeable, the doctor even
hid from his unpredictable patient.
Now it is over. Grigoryev is no longer permitted to see his
stately patient. True, he remains on the official roster of Kremlin
staff.
Simultaneously with the removal of Grigoryev, rumors began
circulating through the Kremlin that the first family was
dissatisfied with two other treating physicians--Andrey Kotov and
Sergey Ionkin. It is rumored that Ionkin was just about driven out
of Shuyskaya Chupa.
But what about the chief Kremlin doctor, Medical Center head
Sergey Mironov? His prospects also look far from bright. It is no
accident that Sergey Pavlovich simultaneously heads the Central
Institute for Trauma and Orthopedics (CITO). Whatever happens,
bridges have not been burned.
We recall how King Lear drove out all his relatives and soon
found himself in the role of outcast as well. True, his own
daughter pitied him. But will the humiliated and insulted doctors
follow the Shakespearean plot if Yeltsin--God forbid--finds himself
bedridden once again?

A Living Corpse

Given his state of health, can the President rule the
state?
Or even worse--can he run for a third term?
I posed these questions to a great many people in the know.
The reply was unambiguous: NO.
Yeltsin's blood pressure is extremely low. He is unable to
work more than two or three hours a day. All the talk about
"working with documents at the dacha" is just more "disinformation."
It is no secret for anyone in the Kremlin that the residence at
Gorki-9 has long ago turned into a branch of the Cardiac Center.
With the appropriate equipment and team of doctors. While now and
again the President, in order to get rid of the pain, takes
narcotics (promedol, baralgin, analgesic preparations).
A flippant attitude towards one's health, combined with
pressures, drinking, age... A circulatory system that is not
functioning properly, atherosclerosis of the blood vessels and
brain.
Doctors suspect that the bypasses that administered to him two
years ago have already begun to settle. (Often a few years
following such an operation, a repeat bypass procedure is
conducted.)
This means that at any moment Russia could find itself without
its first universally elected President.
Medical experts know full well that people who have undergone
coronary bypass operations depart suddenly from this life. Such is
our experience.
And here we are talking about a third term...
It turns out there is nothing strange in the position Yeltsin
has taken today, in his assurances that "there will be no collapse,"
that "the situation is under the President's control."
We should be thankful he is able to say anything at all.
After all, we recall how following the memorable events of June 1996
Boris Nikolayevich would ask: "What's happened to Sasha Korzhakov?
He hasn't come around in some time." "Where is Shamil?"
One final consideration. No one will argue but that the
Constitution is Russia's fundamental law and that everyone is
obliged to fulfill its provisions--from Yeltsin to the homeless
person on the street.
Article 92, Point 2 reads: "The Russian Federation President
shall lay down his powers ahead of time in the event of his (...)
persistent incapacity by virtue of state of health to exercise the
authority vested in him."
Any questions?
[Moskovskiy Komsomolets: A highly popular Moscow paper with
72 regional editions distributed across Russia; known for its biting
tone and political exposes against Moscow Mayor Luzhkov's
foes.]

*******

#3
Date: Thu, 10 Sept 1998 
From: ROBERT KING <Foto_King@compuserve.com>
Subject: RUSSIAN CAVIAR MAFIA

My name is Robert King, I'm a photojournalist baised in Moscow for
the photo agency Sygma. I have submited to you a story on Russia under the
Subject "RUSSIAN CAVIAR MAFIA". I wrote the story while photographing the
poaching of caviar on the Volga River. 

RUSSIAN CAVIAR MAFIA
By Robert King

It's a full moon, hours before dawn as Victor a reformed poacher
who during the Soviet time was jailed for poaching sturgeon is now the team
leader of a Russian State Fishing Team working on the Volga Delta. While 
floating in a small wooden one man boat, Victor tells me about the
problems facing the families of the State Fishermen who work on the Volga. 
"Our State Fishing team of twenty men must only catch Vobla, Lesh, Sezan,
and catfish. Our team must through back every male and female sturgeon we
catch in our nets according to the Russian Fishing Law." Victor goes on to
say "I have three children and a wife to look after and the State has not
paid me or my team our wages of 3 dollars a day in over two and a half
years so Sturgeon is our payment from the State.
On the starry night Victor and I both almost drowned in the fast
moving river water of the Volga while floating in the middle of the river.
Victor was leaning over the side of the boat checking the fishing net
slipping into the water. As the final 100 yard of the net quietly slipped
into the dark water making the sound of cotton sheets softly blowing
softly in a cool Mississippi river breeze. Large fish could be heard 
helplessly fighting for their freedom. As the fish fight their bodies
become tangled in the fishing net while their tails frantically brake the
surface of the water. Victor was heavily concentrating on his job and did
not see or hear the large tanker headed strait at for us. Victor could
not understand my repeated warnings in English until I said the newly
learned Russian phrase used by the fisherman. As I screamed the Russian
word for "fucked in the mouth" Victor looked up and smiling and seconds
later Victor's smiling face turned into a face of horror. His facial
expression is seen only in the faces of men who can look death strait in
the eyes and still calculate their options for survival. Victor jumped to
his feet as he pulled out a box of wooden matches kept dry in his shirt
pocket. Victor frantically started striking small wooded matches and
tossing them over board. 
As the tanker got closer and closer I said a few fox hole prayers I learned
during my 5 years of photographing wars. It goes like this "God I'm not
ready to die and if I live this out I promise I'll go to church, stop
doing drugs, excessive drinking, sleeping around, and using your name in
vain." Then I went on to say "please Lord save us from death and let the
captain on the large approaching tanker see our small sparks and flames
before they are either blown out in the wind or burn out in the water. I
promise I'll go to church when I get back to the port. To my surprise my
prayer was answered and tanker missed us by about ten yards. The waves from
the tanker almost sunk the small little wooden vessel but we never had to
abandon ship in our hip boots . I was never able to keep my promise I made
that night because The village where I was staying had no Church and plenty
of smoke. I think the Olya village is the only Russian village I've
visited that does not have a Church but does have a tattooed female who
sold me plenty of grass to smoke. 
As the full moon dawn ended my darkest hour on the Volga. The
delta sun rise silhouetted Victor's 20 man fishing team working the nets
out in the Volga. The sturgeon that were captured in their nets are 
ripped out of the Volga and tossed through the air. The poached Sturgeon 
flew across the orange and purple sky while twirling nose over tail before
crashing head first into a floating wooden fishing boat. A fouled mouth
Cook silhouetted by the same sky stood next to that wooden boat smashing
the sturgeons over the head with a small wooden truncheon. 
As the cook was dragging the dazed sturgeons into his open air
kitchen on the muddy river bank , out in the distance you could see and
hear a drunk and corrupt fishing official. The official was screaming as
he swung a large flash light in the air and repeatedly kicked a yelping
wild dog. The dog had gotten to close to the officials pregnant Sterlyad
he hid in a burlap sack near the river bank. The fishing official had
poached a "Sterlyad" sturgeon. The Sterlyad is the rarest Sturgeon found
on the Volga and is known as the Czar's fish. After beating the wild dog
to death and before washing his hands the official returned to his hidden
burlap sack and pulled out a Vodka bottle. As the wild dog yelped for the
last time the official poured two large glasses of Vodka. After five
hundred grams of Vodka and our long toasts for a new friendship, the
official started justifying his poaching. "The pregnant Sterlyad?...
Well.... I'm not poaching because the fish is a birthday present for my
wife. She wants to make Sturgeon cake for me." Before heading back out
to work the fishing nets the official gave me a great bear hug and said " I
had quit drinking four years ago but today I drink with my American
friend". 
As the state fishing team's 9 hour fishing rotation was about to
end. The early morning shadows from a tree fell upon on tiered and hungry
fishermen sitting or standing around a wooden picnic table. As most of the
fishing team ate fresh sturgeon boiled in sated water from the Volga. One
or two of the fisherman took a quick nap in the golden cats tail rocking
softly in the a delta breeze. Up above the picnic table in the tree was a
dead raven hanging by its feet moving from side to side in the same delta
breeze. The fishing team said the dead raven was scare off the bad omens
other ravens bring to their fishing hole.
Every day or night as the state fishing teams rotation ends their
nets are neatly resting on top of a small fishing barge as each member of
the team cleans and hide their two too four poached male sturgeon in the
bottom of the boats. Before the twenty to thirty cut heads of the sturgeon
end their frantic fight through the air before resting on the rivers bottom
four the team members wearing green and black clothing drag the ten to
twenty pregnant female sturgeon caught during nine hours of fishing into
shallower water. Hidden by the cover of thick brush one man beats the
pregnant sturgeon over the head with a small wooden club. A razor sharp
knifes used by the other two fishermen slit open the sturgeons belly before
scooping out the sturgeons eggs and filling a large garbage bag. Seconds
later , before the female sturgeon can feel the pain or realize they just
had their bellies cut open they are being dragged back into deeper water.
The sturgeon start flopping around in the water as the fight natures
gravity. As the last female gives up her fight she sinks to the river
bottom resting next to the hundreds if not thousand of decapitated heads
from the male sturgeons.
Before the blood from the sturgeon could be washed off from the
fisherman's blade, a speed boat with two men arrives and departs from the
fishing hole. The two men in the speed boat wore blue track suits
purchased over ten pounds of caviar from Victor for under 250 RBIs. The
two men in the speed boat returns every day at the end of the fishing teams
rotation and buy the fresh eggs. 
Each day elderly W.W.II Veterans and pensioners living in the
Russian fishing village of Ola wait at the fishing dock as the boats return
to the village port. The elders greet the fishermen and their boats loaded
down with fish. With every new sun rise during the fishing season these
elders before fresh fish from the State Fishermen who only want to hurry
home to their wives who wait next to the phone. 
The moment the fishermen returns home from a 9hr fishing shift. 
The men inform their wives on their daily sturgeon count as their wives
work the phone selling the poached meat and eggs. The wives use code words
when selling the illegal caviar and sturgeon meat to their various clients
and dealers. Most of the fisherman's wives have married three to four
times and hate the local police and openly give the universal fuck you sign
to the passing or visiting police. 
Over 90% of the men of Ola have been in prison for poaching, rape,
murder and theft. While the other 10% are still hiding from law. These
ex-cons and fugitives are now Russia's state fisherman and role models for
the young village boys who dream of becoming fishermen one day. Most of
these young boys of Ola fish off the dock, pick dead fish out from fishing
dry on the fishing dock. The kids wear fake tattoos, dream of owning their
first pair of rubber hip boots, and of the day of catching his first
sturgeon and telling their first fisherman lie. The biggest lie the kids
are told is that they will be able to fish and pouch sturgeon just as there
father and grandfathers did in the past 
Fishing regulators on the Volga have expressed a growing concerns
about the fate of the sturgeon that spawn up into the Volga from the
Caspian Sea. The life of the Sturgeon on the Volga is endanger of
disappearing along with the fishing villages tradition and the fishermen
lively hood. The reason is because the young male and female sturgeon are
being poached freely in order to supplement back pay from the Russian
Government. Most local law enforcement in the region now turn a blind eye
to the systematized poaching of Sturgeon and are working directly with
caviar Mafia in distributing it to the black market.. 
The demand illegal, low cost caviar selling at 2.5 pounds at $50
-$100 US Dollars on Moscow's Black Market is also a major factor that is
hurting the Sturgeon's survival and next generation of Russian Fishermen. 
Russian experts on the Sturgeon say that by next year there will be no
adult sturgeon left in the Volga for the next ten to twenty years. The
reason for the depletion of the sturgeon is because the current generation
of young and immature Sturgeon on the Volga have been fished out of
existence.

******

#4
Russia: Regions Scramble To Fight Economic Crisis 
By Floriana Fossato

Moscow, 11 September 1998 (RFE/RL) -- Russia's economic crisis is prompting
a shift in decision-making away from the center and toward provinces. 
This has become apparent in as governors of some of Russia's 89 regions
have announced various emergence plans to cope with the rapidly
deteriorating situation in the absence of direction from the federal
government. 
The plans include setting out commissions to control prices and coordinate
deliveries of foodstuffs to hospitals, nurseries and schools. 
In regions of Kursk, Yaroslav, Smolensk and Kamchatka, local government
officials have set up commissions to control prices and distribution of
such basic goods as sugar, bread, flour, salt, oil, butter, milk, eggs,
buckwheat, tobacco and petrol. Vendors infringing on the rules could see
their goods confiscated and their licenses revoked. In Yakutia, republican
authorities have ordered to freeze prices at the level of September 1. 
The media reporting from the regions say these measures are unlikely to be
effective, however. 
"No one cares," said Sasha, who provides foodstuffs to the local market in
the Far East city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. In a telephone interview
with RFE/RL, Sasha, who did not want to give his last name, said his
biggest fear is that "storage will soon be empty because importers are not
bringing anything in owing to the collapse of the banking system that makes
it impossible to get money and pay for the goods." 
More than 50 percent of goods sold in the Kamchatka peninsula are imported
either from the "mainland," as Russia is commonly called, or from foreign
countries such as Japan, South Korea, China and the US. Similar situation
exists in other regions. 
"If we could organize barter deals with other Russian regions, doing the
same with foreign countries will be easier, but everybody wants cash, and
in dollars, of course," Sasha said. 
The media report that most regions are experiencing shortages of basic
goods, and people continue panic buying of non-perishable items. Buying at
any price and in large quantities of sugar, flour, oil and flour is common. 
Everywhere officials say the reserves of basic foodstuffs are rapidly
decreasing. The daily "Vremya MN" has quoted officials in Rostov-on-Don as
saying that as of Aug.1, reserves were estimated to cover 42 days, but now
will last only for 14 more days. 
Shops in Murmansk have reportedly run out of salt, cereals, cooking oil,
and other basic staples. Local authorities are said to have appealed to
neighboring Finland for emergency assistance. The Finnish government
reportedly will hold an emergency meeting today to discuss the situation in
Russia. 
In the Far East region of Primorye, where more than 60 percent of
foodstuffs, including fruits and vegetables, are imported from Asia --
particularly from China -- local officials are calling for the
establishment of rationing cards to regulate sales. 
Vladimir Vedernikov, mayor of Ussurisk, the second largest town in the
region, urged the imposition of the state of emergency. Meanwhile in the
regional capital of Vladivostok, long queues for bread are reported to have
formed. The main local bread producer, "Vladkhleb," said that the reserves
of flour in the city would last no more than one week, said the daily
"Novye Izvestya." 
Rubles are reported by the media to have disappeared from street exchange
points in several Russian cities, including Moscow. 
In Moscow the monthly minimum wage of 83.49 rubles (4.17 dollars) barely
buys one liter of vegetable oil, two cans of meat, and one loaf of bread.
Prices for imported foodstuffs have risen 100-500 percent at wholesale food
markets in the capital since the beginning of the crisis. Bread and milk
prices, that had remained steady in most retail shops, have also started
increasing. 
The Kremlin said earlier this week that the presidential administration and
the country's Security Council have drawn up emergency measures to
stabilize the economy and ease social tensions. The announcement is
unlikely to affect the situation. 

******

#5
Russia Today satire
http://www.russiatoday.com
September 11, 1998 
The Week That Was
By Mary Campbell

Yeltsin received Chernomyrdin and Primakov at the Kremlin shortly before
the acting premier quit and Primakov's name was put forward in a formal
presidential letter to the Duma. – Reuters, Sept. 11, 1998 

Chernomyrdin: If Chernomyrdin today is a stumbling block and splits society
then I give up my powers. 
Primakov: (to Yeltsin) How long has he been doing that? 
Yeltsin: Doing what? 
Primakov: Referring to himself in the third person. 
Yeltsin: Ever since the Duma rejected him the second time. 
Primakov: It's bad, very bad… 
Yeltsin: Yes, we hope to get him some treatment once we have a new prime
minister in place. 
Primakov: (rising) 
Yes, well then, I'll leave you to it – good luck. I have to go and …um…I
have to go and do some foreign ministry stuff. 
Yeltsin: Not so fast, Yevgeny Maximovitch! I want to have a word with you. 
Primakov: (sitting back down reluctantly) Well, what is it? 
Yeltsin: About the prime minister's post, Yevgeny. Victor and I have been
discussing how best to fill it. 
Chernomyrdin: I propose to the president the candidacy of Primakov 
Primakov: Now he's referring to us both in the third person! It's much
worse than I thought! 
Chernomyrdin: He is a democrat, a professional and is well known on the
international scene. 
Primakov: (blushing)
Well, thanks, Victor, but I wouldn't say I was THAT well known. I'm no
Julio Iglesias… 
Yeltsin: Yevgeny, I don't need a Julio Iglisias. Musical talent is not the
answer – look at Victor, that man plays the accordion like a dream, but did
it help him win over the Duma? I don't think so. What I need is someone who
can solve the financial crisis. 
Primakov: And that's me? 
Yeltsin: Well, no. 
Primakov: Then why me? 
Yeltsin: Because the Duma likes you. 
Primakov: But Boris Nikolayevich, it's not a popularity contest! 
Yeltsin: Actually, Yevgeny, that's exactly what it is. Ask poor Victor (on
second thought don't, we'll just stir all that up again, and he really
needs to begin his healing process.) 

******

#6
Toronto Sun
September 11, 1998 
[for personal use only]
Moscow burns while Bill fiddles
By MATTHEW FISHER (74511.357@CompuServe.com)
Sun's Columnist at Large

MOSCOW -- Boris Yeltsin yesterday may have finally found an acceptable
compromise candidate for prime minister in the form of ex-spy supremo Evgeni
Primakov. 
But it is Bill Clinton's libido, and where it will eventually lead his
presidency, and not President Yeltsin's humiliating climb down which
transfixes the world at the moment. 
This obsession with Clinton's problems perplexes many Russians and infuriates
others. 
They see their difficulties and the political impotence of their president as
having far more profound consequences than anything going on in Washington. 
They wonder how the United States can become paralyzed by a scandal involving
oral sex when the planet's other nuclear superpower faces the imminent
prospect of chaos. 
What happens in Russia still matters to others, of course. The deepening
economic crisis here has already proven that this country has the ability to
roil world financial markets, however briefly. Russia has 150 million people,
as many as 40,000 nukes, borders with 14 countries and ports on the Caspian
and Black Seas and the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. 
But for all this Russia clearly counts for much less than it used to except,
perhaps, with rogues such as Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic. 
Whether the United States blunders or triumphs, more than ever it is the
first country the international community turns to for economic and military
leadership. It was a U.S.-led coalition which liberated Kuwait. It was the
threat of overwhelming force which turned the screws on Haiti's dictatorship.
It was the prospect of American tanks and warplanes which finally pacified
Bosnia. 
Part of the world's fascination with Clinton's meltdown is undoubtedly
because the scandal in the White House involves sex. But anything which
weakens, even momentarily, the U.S. presidency and that country's unique
ability to act decisively when required, is causing immense concern and
speculation overseas just now. 
Clinton's risible declarations of contrition and his pleas for forgiveness
this week as Congress' reluctant noose began to tighten, underscore how
distracted and insular the president has become at a time when so much
elsewhere seems to be going wrong too. 
The American president's trip to Russia and Ireland last week proved the same
point. The visits provided a chance for Clinton to look presidential, but
there were virtually no substantive discussions or even an attempt to pretend
there were. Nor did Clinton get much relief from questions about why he had
lied under oath and before the television cameras about his long sexual
relationship with a young White House intern. 
The world has always been an unfriendly, unpredictable, raucous place, so it
is likely that most of the present difficulties - the volatility of stock
markets in Asia, Europe and the Americas and the various problems presently
confronting Russia, Kosovo, Iraq, Israel and North Korea - would be causing
anxiety, whatever was going on in Washington. 
What is much different and potentially dangerous is that with Clinton
dithering over exactly what to say and what not to say, and fretting over how
even loyal Democrats are deserting him, the U.S. has been unable to provide
much leadership. For toughs such as Saddam, the strange men in Pyongyang and
others, this must seem like a green light to do as they please. 
With many juicy tidbits about President Clinton's sexual preferences about to
be released and impeachment hearings possible soon, where this topic and many
others will be chewed over again and again, the distractions for Clinton
promise to get much worse and may never get any better. 
As morbidly compelling as the Clinton saga is, a lack of practical and
political support from the U.S, will only exacerbate the economic blizzard
that has begun to storm across Evgeni Primakov's Russia. 

******