October 16, 1998   
This Date's Issues: 2433 • 2434 • 

Johnson's Russia List
#2434
16 October 1998
davidjohnson@erols.com

[Note from David Johnson:
1. Reuters: Most Russians say prefer home despite crisis.
2. AFP: Russians Buying More Domestic-Made Goods.
3. Stanford University Conference: RUSSIA AT THE END OF THE TWENTIETH 
CENTURY: Culture and its Horizons in Politics & Society.
4. Moscow Times: Chloe Arnold, Luzhkov Says Yeltsin Might Resign.
5. Cato Institute summary of Steve Hanke's "The Case for a Russian 
Currency Board System."
6. Moscow Times: Leonid Bershidsky, MEDIA WATCH: No Heroes in News
Business.
7. Turin's La Stampa: Interview with Russian Communist Party leader 
Gennadiy Zyuganov by Giulietto Chiesa, "Why Russia Deserves New President."
8. NTV: Potanin Interviewed on Primakov Meeting With Bankers.
9. AP: Sarah Mae Brown, Russia Arctic City Offers Hard Life. (Norilsk). 
10. Interfax: Baburin: Air Strikes 'Would Hurt' Start II Ratification.]

*******

#1
Most Russians say prefer home despite crisis

MOSCOW, Oct 16 (Reuters) - About two-thirds of Russians do not want to seek a
better life abroad despite their country's acute economic crisis, the Sevodnya
newspaper on Friday quoted a survey as showing. 
The survey, conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation, showed 65 percent of
those questioned preferred to stay in Russia despite the hardships and only
seven percent wanted to leave for good. 
Another 10 percent wanted to go abroad for some time to make money and then
return home and 17 percent said they would not mind going abroad as tourists
or students. 
The crisis, which has virtually paralysed Russia's banking system and
triggered sharp price rises, has dealt a heavy blow to millions of Russians,
many of whom struggle to survive on meagre and irregularly paid wages and
pensions. 
Izvestia newspaper quoted the head of parliament's labour and social policy
committee, Vitaly Linnik, as saying some 40 percent of the population now
lived below the poverty line, compared to less than 20 percent in 1997. 

******

#2
Russians Buying More Domestic-Made Goods 

MOSCOW, Oct. 16, 1998 -- (Agence France Presse) Russians are buying far more
Russian-made goods since the ruble crisis curtailed their purchasing power,
leading to a boom in certain sectors of the food industry, according to a
survey reported Friday by Itar-Tass news agency. 
The Russian agricultural and food holding Russky Produkt has had to double its
output of pasta and breakfast cereals, the survey showed. The same phenomenon
was evident in other food sectors. 
Another industry to have benefited from the crisis is tobacco. According to
the "independent experts" who carried out the survey, 41.6 percent of Russian
smokers who before the crisis used to buy foreign cigarettes, have gone back
to the national brand Peter I. The same was true for alcohol; 34 percent of
drinkers who in pre-crisis days preferred foreign brands, now buy the Russian
vodkas Stolichnaya and Privyet produced by the renowned Kristall factory, the
report said. 
The survey did not make clear whether the preference for Russian produce was
due to its cheaper price or because foreign products had become hard to find. 
In September, Russia was importing six times less food than previously,
according to statistics from the national customs committee. 
Itar-Tass said that in 1997 the ratio of imports in Russian consumption was 30
percent to 40 percent for meat, 80 percent for poultry, 70 percent for fish,
30 percent for dairy produce, 10 percent for vegetables and 40 percent for
tobacco. 

******

#3
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998
From: Anne Eakin <aeakin@leland.Stanford.EDU>

ANNOUNCEMENT
Stanford University
International Conference
RUSSIA AT THE END OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY:
Culture and its Horizons in Politics & Society
Stanford, November 5-7, 1998
www.stanford.edu/group/Russia20/

An international conference on Russia - "Russia at the End of the 20th
Century" -discussing contemporary culture, society, politics and economics,
and featuring contemporary music and film, will be held at Stanford
University Nov. 5 to 7. All events are open and free to the public.
Detailed information is available on the conference website:
www.stanford.edu/group/Russia20/

Russia's current crisis recalls another crisis earlier in our century, one
that radically transformed the country and, along with it, the course of
world events. The aim of the Stanford conference is to illuminate the
complexity of Russia today, to grasp the magnitude of this moment in its
history. The events of the last decade have taught us all that Russian
culture cannot be understood in isolation from politics and society, nor
Russian politics and society make sense without reference to how the
Russians perceive and assimilate the sharp shifts in power relations,
social structure, and economy. All of the conference participants, be they
top government advisors, cultural historians, magazine editors, or social
scientists, are keenly aware of this complexity and will address a broad
range of subjects -- from contemporary literature, visual arts, music, and
film to new conceptions of Russian history, radical changes in its
political, social, and economic institutions, its foreign policy and its
standing abroad. An event celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of
Stanford's School of Humanities & Sciences, the conference reflects the
School's commitment to multidisciplinary teaching and research. Among the
highlights:

Strobe Talbott, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, will deliver the keynote
speech of the conference: "Russia in the Global Order."
Malcolm Beasley, the new Dean of Stanford's School of Humanities and
Sciences, will give the conference welcoming address: "Multidisciplinary
Education in Space-Time: The View of a Physicist Dean."

Other speakers and participants include distinguished academic experts from
a variety of disciplines from America, Russia, Italy, and Germany, top U.S.
and Russian government advisors and officials, editors and publishers of
major Russian periodicals.

The conference maintains an extensive Internet site:
www.stanford.edu/group/Russia20/. The site features the conference program,
list of the participants with brief biographies, abstracts of the papers
to be presented, and a gallery of audio-visual items.

The conference is organized by the Stanford Department of Slavic Languages
& Literatures. The principal sponsor is Stanford's School of Humanities &
Sceinces. Other sponsors include: Stanford Humanities Center, Division of
Literatures, Cultures, and Languages, Center for Russian and East European
Studies, Institute for International Studies, Dean of Research, and Dean of
Undergraduate Studies.

The conference organizing committee: Gregory Freidin of Stanford University
(Chair), Evgeny Dobrenko (Karl Lowenstein Fellow in political science at
Amherst College), and Andrey Zorin (the Russian State Humanites University
and Stanford Overseas Center in Moscow).

For further information write to the Conference Coordinator c/o Slavic
Dept., Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2006, call: 650-725-0707, pr
visit our website at: www.stanford.edu/group/Russia20/

The conference is free and open to the public, with all the facilities
wheel-chair accessible.

The list of the conference participants and the conference program are
attached below.

Conference Panels & Participants

Keynote Speaker:
The Honorable Strobe Talbott
U. S. Deputy Secretary of State
Friday, November 6, 4:30 PM, Tresidder Oak Lounge

I. Russia and Artistic Imagination: Contemporary Art and Music
Chair: Monika Greenleaf (Stanford)
Margarita Tupitsyn (New York)
Richard Taruskin (Berkeley)

Music Recital
Thomas Schultz (Stanford), piano
Susan Freier (Stanford), violin

II. The New Russia Defines Her Past
Chair: Amir Weiner (Stanford)
Peter Holquist (Cornell)
Evgeny Dobrenko (Amherst)
Natalya Ivanova (Moscow)
Oksana Bulgakowa (Vienna and Stanford)
Comments: Gregory Freidin (Stanford)

III. From Russia's Post-Soviet Space to Russia's Place
Chair: Coit D. Blacker (Stanford)
Emil Pain (Moscow)
Manuel Castells (Berkeley)
Sergey Kortunov (Moscow)
Comments: David Holloway (Stanford)

Film Screening and Discussion
(In That Country, 1997)

Nancy Condee (Pittsburgh)
Vladimir Padunov (Pittsburgh)

IV. The Emergence of Society and Its Cultures
Chair: Gail Lapidus (Stanford)
Boris Dubin (Moscow)
Katerina Clark (Yale)
Andrey Zorin (Moscow)
Alexei Levinson (Moscow)
Masha Lipman (Moscow)
Comments: Victor Zaslavsky (Rome)

V. New and Improved: Post-Soviet Institutions, Meaning and Practice
Chair: Nancy Tuma (Stanford)
Vadim Volkov (St. Petersburg)
Vladimir Mau (Moscow)
Lev Gudkov (Moscow)
Irina Prokhorova (Moscow)
Comments: Michael McFaul (Stanford)

Summing Up
Hayden V. White (Stanford, U.C., Santa Cruz)

CONFERENCE SPONSORS:
Stanford University
School of Humanities & Sciences
Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures
Stanford Humanities Center
Institute for International Studies
Center for Russian & East European Studies
Dean of Research
Dean of Undergraduate Studies

CONFERENCE ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:
Gregory Freidin (Stanford University)
Evgeny Dobrenko (Amherst College)
Andrei Zorin (Russian State Humanites University, Moscow)

******

#4
Moscow Times
October 16, 1998 
Luzhkov Says Yeltsin Might Resign 
By Chloe Arnold
Staff Writer

Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, who recently made public his designs on the
presidency, dealt a blow to the ailing Russian head of state Thursday, saying
he did not exclude the possibility that Yeltsin would resign. 
The populist mayor has always maintained cordial relations with President
Boris Yeltsin. His decision to add his voice to opposition calls for Yeltsin
to step down turns up the pressure on the president and signals the start of a
fierce campaign for the succession. 
In an interview with the BBC on Thursday, Luzhkov said he did not rule out "a
situation that will lead to the early resignation of the president." 
While warning that Yeltsin could not be forced out of office and that the
constitution should be respected, he also made it clear he thought it was time
Yeltsin stepped down of his own volition. 
"Like everyone else, I can see, of course, that his state of health is far
from being in order," Luzhkov said. "The president himself must say 'I am no
longer capable, and because of my poor health I am no longer able to give the
country as much time as a president should.'" 
Yeltsin, 67, continued to defy doctors' advice Thursday, turning up for work
at the Kremlin for the second day running. Looking haggard but maintaining a
broad smile, he received recently appointed Constitutional Court judge Anatoly
Sliva, and discussed economic developments with his Kremlin staff. 
Presidential spokesman Dmitri Yakushkin said Thursday that Yeltsin's condition
was "satisfactory" but that he was still suffering from the effects of his
cold, Interfax reported. 
Earlier in the week, the president had been diagnosed with bronchitis, and was
not expected to return to work until Monday. That followed an embarrassing
visit to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan when he slurred his words and appeared to
doze off when meeting Uzbek President Islam Karimov. 
Yeltsin's latest illness prompted renewed speculation that the president was
suffering from something far more serious than bronchitis. He has suffered
repeated heart attacks and underwent a quintuple bypass operation in 1996. 
Opposition leaders have been clamoring for months for Yeltsin to step down on
health grounds. On Wednesday, the Federation Council, parliament's upper
chamber, fell just 11 votes short of passing a motion calling for the
president's swift resignation. 
But Luzhkov f tipped by many to be the leading challenger to succeed the
president f has kept his counsel on the issue. His decision finally to voice
doubts about Yeltsin's health now is highly significant, analysts said
Thursday. 
"Luzhkov now sees that Yeltsin is no longer a serious opponent [for the 2000
elections]," said Yury Korgunyuk, director of the INDEM research center. "He
has always been cautious where the president is concerned, but now he is not
afraid of falling out with him." 
Under the Russian constitution, if the president leaves office early, new
elections must be called within three months. 
Korgunyuk added that Luzhkov began his crusade for the presidency back in
1992, when he was elected mayor of Moscow, but that today's comments indicated
he was stepping up the offensive. 
A recent poll by the Public Opinion Fund showed that 41 percent of Russians
would be prepared to vote for Luzhkov in the presidential elections, Interfax
reported. 
In an interview with weekly newspaper Obshchaya Gazeta, Luzhkov announced he
would be creating a new political party, provisionally called the Russian
Party of Political Centrism. The first conference was planned for November,
Luzhkov said. 
Other potential presidential contenders continued jockeying for position
Thursday. 
Former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin reaffirmed his plans to run for
president. Chernomyrdin, who was dropped as acting prime minister last month
after the Communist-dominated lower house of parliament refused to confirm him
a third and final time, said he was concentrating on preparations for the
election, Interfax reported. 
Upholding his traditional support for Yeltsin, Chernomyrdin said he was
categorically opposed to bringing forward elections for president. "What early
elections can one be talking of in the economic situation the country is in?"
Interfax reported him as saying. 
He added that he was skeptical about Luzhkov's plans to run in the elections.
"Successful work in Moscow does not guarantee successful work in Russia," he
said. 
Gennady Seleznyov, the Communist speaker of the State Duma, reiterated his
belief that Yeltsin should quit. Alternatively, the president could serve out
his term if he hands over some of his enormous powers to parliament and the
government, the speaker told Ekho Moskvy radio station. 
Seleznyov repeated he was ready to run for the presidency instead of Communist
Party leader Gennady Zyuganov.Also Thursday, Russia's Constitutional Court
heard oral arguments from parliamentary deputies and legal experts on the
question of whether the constitution permits Yeltsin to run for a third term
in 2000. 
The Kremlin says the question is irrelevant because the president does not
intend to run again. But Yeltsin can be unpredictable, and no one can be
absolutely sure he won't change his mind. 
Duma deputies Alexei Zakharov and Yelena Mizulina, who submitted the request
for the court to clarify the issue, made their own cases in court. 
Zakharov said clearing up the issue was important because "it is not enough to
be the first democratically elected president in the thousand-year history of
the Russian state. It is necessary to have effective legal means of handing
over power." 
The argument is over a legal loophole in Russia's basic law. The 1993
constitution limits a president to two terms. But Yeltsin was elected in 1991
when Russia was still one of the 15 Soviet republics, prompting some of his
aides to suggest that his first term does not count. 
Mikhail Mityukov, Yeltsin's representative in the court, said that the court
should find that Yeltsin's first term began with his 1996 election, but
repeated that Yeltsin would not run. The judges did not say when they would
make a decision. 

******

#5
Cato Institute press release
Re Foreign Policy Briefing no. 49 
October 14, 1998 
http://www.cato.org

Hanke: Russia needs a currency board, but "the devil is in the details" 
Board must be ultraorthodox and protected from political control 

"The devaluation of the Russian ruble this year was predictable, especially
considering Russia's poor monetary history," a new study from the Cato
Institute observes. The solution is "a competitive, parallel currency
system" and the creation of a currency board system (CBS). But "to work in
Russia, a CBS must be ultraorthodox," so that it can "command the respect
and confidence of the justifiably skeptical Russian people." 

In "The Case for a Russian Currency Board System," economist and Cato
Institute adjunct scholar Steve H. Hanke notes that "state-manipulated
money has been a Russian hallmark since the time of Peter the Great and
shows that the country's money problems are endemic and do not depend on
who controls the central bank." After a 1991 currency "reform" imposed by
the Gorbachev government, "the Russian people began to dollarize the
economy, and they have continued to do so with a vengeance." Today, despite
the fact that the Yeltsin government officially de-dollarized Russia in
1997, Russians hold about $40 billion in dollars, which "dwarfs the supply
of rubles in circulation." 

Hanke says that "instead of worrying about dollar mattress money and
threatening to confiscate it, the Yeltsin government should be jumping for
joy" and "grant the dollar legal currency status immediately, so that the
dollar can circulate and be used on an equal basis with the ruble." Then,
"to put the ruble on a sound competitive footing, the Russian government
should enact a currency board system law immediately and announce that it
will be implemented as soon as possible." 

The "ultraorthodox" CBS that Hanke recommends would have its legal seat in
Switzerland and be governed by a board of five directors, two appointed by
the government of Russia and three (non-Russian citizens) appointed by the
Bank for International Settlements in Basel. It would tie the ruble to a
reserve currency (initially, the U.S. dollar) at a one-to-one fixed
exchange rate and maintain foreign reserves equal to at least 100 percent
of the notes and coins in circulation. It would not be allowed to serve as
a "lender of last resort," regulate commercial banks, create inflation or
create credit. 

"The devil is always in the details, particularly in Russia," Hanke says.
"Anything less than an ultraorthodox CBS will not command the confidence of
the Russian people and will therefore doom a Russian CBS." Steve H. Hanke
is a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore, and coauthor of Russian Currency and Finance: A Currency Board
Approach to Reform (Routledge, 1993). 

******

#6
Moscow Times
October 16, 1998 
MEDIA WATCH: No Heroes in News Business 
By Leonid Bershidsky
Staff Writer

The Doonesbury cartoon strip has a character named Roland Hedley, a television
reporter who walks around in a weird military-style helmet and treats any news
event as if it were a war or at least a trek through a predator-infested
jungle. 
There is a 1987 cartoon (which some editors in the United States chose not to
run) where Hedley, in fatigues, machete in hand, travels through Ronald
Reagan's brain in search of lost presidential memories of the Iran-Contra
affair. "What a bleak, ravaged landscape greets us," Hedley's narrative runs.
"Cranial coils lay heaped in lifeless disarray þ" 
I am often reminded of Hedley when I watch Russia's foremost news station,
NTV. 
I mentally put that weird helmet on the reporter outside the State Duma at 10
p.m., doing what British television people call a "lateral" with the studio in
Ostankino. 
Anchor Tatyana Mitkova breathlessly asks the reporter, "So, what is the news
at the Duma today?" The journalist, standing there in the gathering dusk with
a heroic expression on his face, replies, "Well, all the deputies seem to have
left for the night, and there appears to be no news from President Yeltsin on
who the next candidate for prime minister might be. The lights are out in the
Duma and the guards have gone to sleep, but we will be spending the night here
waiting for the courier who might bring a letter from the president." 
Or something to that effect. 
Recently, some NTV journalists took part in a series of game shows shot at
Fort Boyard, a 19th century fortress on a French island, in which a team of
participants in a quest for a small fortune in fake gold coins has to go
through some physically and emotionally taxing exercises involving bungee
cords, tangled fishing nets, giant spiders, fat wrestlers and dwarfs. 
The shows were co-hosted by Leonid Parfyonov f NTV's producer general f and
the journalists celebrated each victory as if they had just broken a story on
Kremlin corruption involving President Yeltsin and all his aides. 
There was even a separate program on the making of the shows, in which the
producers alleged that the French keepers of Fort Boyard might have
intentionally made things more difficult for the NTV team than for the show's
usual French players. 
Many television people I know take their profession and their popularity with
a bit of gentle irony. They understand that they are just reporting the news,
and people recognize them on the street simply because, unlike newspaper
writers, they are actually visible to their audience. But NTV seems to have
its own unique culture of self-congratulation. 
The posturing is obvious on the weekly news program "Itogi," which has lengthy
sequences of anchor Yevgeny Kiselyov looking serious and dignified. How can it
be otherwise? According to NTV's director general Oleg Dobrodeyev, Kiselyov's
program is "a factor of political stability." 
In interviews with their less famous colleagues in the print media, NTV people
rarely fail to stress how select they are. Mitkova, for example, never misses
a chance to exultantly repeat the line that "television is a drug that gets
you hooked and never lets go." 
Dobrodeyev told Kommersant Daily in a recent interview, "You cannot get out of
the information business. Information is a lifestyle, it's like taking your
shower in the morning or having a glass of whisky in the evening." 
Or maybe just like doing your job. 
Like other media companies, NTV has been hit by the financial crisis. It can
afford to buy fewer expensive foreign movies, so it has to expand its coverage
of sports and produce cheaper shows. Staff have seen their salaries cut by
some 20 percent, just like everywhere else in the Moscow media world, and some
people have been laid off. 
It might be time for a little modesty. The news that NTV has to report is the
same bad news that the modest newspapermen in their dingy offices have to
churn out these days. There are no heroes in a situation like this. And there
is no particular reason to be proud. 
In fact, Hedley is looking far from triumphant in the latest Doonesbury
strips. He sweats under his helmet and carries around a 10,000-page copy of
the Starr report. In this day and age, glamour is not what the information
business is about. 

******

#7
Zyuganov: Yeltsin 'Senile,' Should Resign 

Turin's La Stampa in Italian
October 14, 1998
[translation for personal use only]
Interview with Russian Communist Party leader Gennadiy
Zyuganov by Giulietto Chiesa in Moscow; date not given: "Why
Russia Deserves New President" -- first paragraph is La Stampa
introduction

Moscow -- His is an extraordinary fate -- to be a candidate to the
presidency that always leads all opinion polls, but who will probably never
become president. However, Gennadiy Zyuganov is now in the limelight not so
much because he might take Yeltsin's place in the sumptuous offices of the
Kremlin, but because Russia's future will nevertheless, for better or
worse, depend to large extent on him, the leader of Russia's Communists.
[Chiesa] Gennadiy Andreyevich, many people in the West think that the
Communists are again in power in Russia and regard you are as the victor. 
But fear prevails. You are expected to eliminate the reforms. Are they
right or wrong?
[Zyuganov] I did not think that the Western public were so static. 
They have not moved on from these stereotypes for ten years. And they do
not see the real danger, which is Russia's "Albanization." This, with the
difference that it would be immeasurably worse. They have tried to build
in our country, with the active help of US advisers, a corrupt and criminal
Mafia-style capitalism, of which Europeans would be ashamed in their own
countries. This system collapsed within four weeks. Prime Minister
Chernomyrdin turned Russia into a casino in which everyone ultimately lost.
In practice all 147 million Russians lost, in five directions, within a
few years. First, they lost their country, then their jobs, then their
savings, and then their wages. Now even the middle class is in dire
straits. But this is not the middle class as you regard it: I am talking
about all those who thought that they had a secure future -- qualified
workers, servicemen, journalists, teachers, and factory managers. Now they
are all impoverished, both those of the Soviet era and those of the
post-Soviet era...
[Chiesa] Have even the oligarchs and the bankers gone bankrupt?
[Zyuganov] They, too. They were inflated balloons, and they burst,
partly because they too were gambling at the casino, with state bonds and
interest rates of 200 to 300 percent. All this took place with the
blessing of Yeltsin and his government. Have people in the West not yet
realized this? It is a shame. They should realize the Yeltsin era is
over. His political funeral was held 7 October. And the nonsense put out
by the media must not be believed: Over 20 million Russians went into the
streets. Now the problem is how to extricate ourselves from this crisis
without conflicts and wars. It means changing the Constitution.
[Chiesa] But how is the West to be reassured?
[Zyuganov] I do not think that they are actually so afraid of us, of
me. It seems to me that many people realize that we are a great party, a
great people's-patriotic coalition, which represents a huge part of the
country. We are in favor of a multi-party system; we are a force committed
to order. It is this government that loves states of emergency.
[Chiesa] Please tell me why you are insisting on Yeltsin's
impeachment. If you consider him a political corpse, I do not see the
reason for it. Or are you afraid that he might still obstruct you?
[Zyuganov] Yeltsin is great obstacle on the path to real reform. In
Russia today there is not only the Primakov government; there is also a
government of the Kremlin, which is obstructive -- people who exploit this
man, who is now exhausted. Around him there is a family Politburo of that
imposes its own options. It is already the second time this year that they
have thrown the country into disaster. These are people who think only
about how to survive and to retain power, who ignore the fact that fewer
than 2 percent of Russians still believe in Yeltsin. In any case, we do
not want only an impeachment. We are proposing that he step down of his
own volition. He does not want to. We are calling for the Constitution to
be changed in order to limit the powers enjoyed by a single man, who,
moreover, is no longer able to exercise them. They therefore constitute a
stifling muzzle on the country. A law must be approved to establish a
Constitutional Assembly, so that we can discuss changes within a
parliamentary forum, and not on the barricades. Last, we need a law to
prevent the President from dismissing the Prime Minister as he pleases. 
One that will impose parliamentary monitoring and decisions adopted in
agreement with both houses.
[Chiesa] Is there time for all this?
[Zyuganov] The plans are ready and can be discussed and approved
within a few days. Yeltsin's departure from the scene is a matter of a few
weeks, at most a few months. He is in the grip of senile confusion. He
does not understand what is going on. He is no longer able to read
documents. How shameful! For a country such as ours to be led by a wooden
puppet. But his departure from politics must be organized in such away
that his heirs do not come to blows at his bedside. This is why I have
asked the Federation Council to approve immediately a resolution of
"guarantees for the government." Otherwise one morning soon Primakov will
be awakened to read a decree issued by Yeltsin announcing his dismissal.
[Chiesa] Do you really think that this could happen?
[Zyuganov] I believe that we must protect the government from an
individual who is unable even to lead himself, but who holds all the reins
of power, and from an entourage of insects concerned solely with sharing
out the cake. We are trying laboriously to establish a government. 
Previously there was no government. Chernomyrdin would open and close two
pipelines -- oil and gas. The Kremlin and the "family" concerned themselves
with weapons and jewellery, while Chubayis dealt with Western financial aid
-- of course, not forgetting his own private interests.
[Chiesa] If I understand you correctly, there is a possibility of the
country's remaining without a president for certain time.
[Zyuganov] According to the Constitution, the Prime Minister can
perform those functions for three months. Primakov is an expert man, an
excellent diplomat, a reasonable journalist, and an excellent intelligence
agent. It is a rare thing to be able to combine all these professions. I
hope that you agree.
[Chiesa] I do agree. Meanwhile there is no Constitutional Assembly. 
How are the changes to be made without violating the rules?
[Zyuganov] At present the procedure is impracticable. A majority of
two-thirds of the Duma is needed, then two-thirds of the Senate, then, if
the President does not sign it, everything grinds to a halt. The
Constitutional Assembly is a necessary step -- comprising representatives
of both houses, the government, the President, the trade unions, and the
religions. In that forum the President will be just one among many.
[Chiesa] what is your opinion of Primakov's first actions? What are
your own priorities?
[Zyuganov] You can say that Zyuganov defends state ownership,
collective ownership, and private ownership. We will welcome foreign
investments in the real economy. For investors, including foreign ones, we
will envisage major tax benefits and adequate guarantees by means of state
legislation, and not solely by decree.
[Chiesa] And how do you regard the continuation of privatization?
[Zyuganov] What Chubayis carried out was not privatization but
looting. In my opinion, privatization should not have been used to
accumulate capital and introduce new technologies. Unfortunately this was
not the case.
[Chiesa] What are your plans, Mr. Zyuganov?
[Zyuganov] Russia is left-wing, by nature. Who is there on the Right?
Yeltsin, Chernomyrdin, Chubays, Gaydar, Zhirinovskiy, and Barkashov. Even
Lebed might at some stage find himself on that side. It is not important
for him: It is enough for him to be in the leadership. All the rest are
pygmies who make a lot of noise but who are nobodies. We are the country's
real party; we are an imposing reality.
[Chiesa] Some regard you as the leader of the moderate Communists,
even as a social democrat, and believe that you are ill regarded by
orthodox Communists. Is this so? And what are your chances of succeeding?
[Zyuganov] I feel safe when in battle I am covered both on the right
flank and on the left flank. Seriously, though, I do believe that there is
a way to a prevent the prevalence of opposing forms of radicalism.

******

#8
Potanin Interviewed on Primakov Meeting With Bankers 

NTV
October 13, 1998
[translation for personal use only]

Hello, Hero of the Day is on the air and I am Svetlana Sorokina. 
Russian Prime Minister Yevgeniy Primakov's meeting today with the heads of
the biggest Russian banks and finance groups is among the most important
events of the day. Judging by everything, our banking system is to be
reformed soon.
Vladimir Potanin, head of the Interros holding, better known as head
of the Oneksim Bank, is in our studio today. He took part in the meeting
with the Prime Minister, held in the Government House. Hello, Vladimir
Olegovich.
[Potanin] Good evening.
[Sorokina] What specific results are there following the meeting with
the Prime Minister?
[Potanin] The meeting was rather positive, you know. Central bank
Chairman Viktor Gerashchenko, who spoke at the meeting, let it be clearly
understood that the Central Bank has quite a realistic understanding of the
problems the banking system is facing and that a system of settlements must
now be restored in the banking system, so that banks can start to discharge
their main function, that of providing a service to enterprises and the
population.
From this point of view, a program has been drafted by the Central
Bank. It has been submitted to the Government.
[Sorokina] What sort of program is it? Is it to support banks?
[Potanin] It is a broad program to change the whole banking system. 
It provides for rendering assistance to some banks. The banks which have
not lost their entire capital, or which can restore it, will be given
assistance. The banks which have lost their ability to operate for good
will be subject to winding-up procedures so that additional problems are
not created. The Chairman of the Central Bank singled out the problem of
the so-called socially significant banks, that is to say banks which it
will be cheaper to help rather than allowing them to go under, which would
create much bigger problems.
[Sorokina] One cannot name them just yet, these banks, can one?
[Potanin] Which banks?
[Sorokina] Well, for instance those which it will be senseless to
help.
[Potanin] Well, the Central Bank itself does not have a final idea in
this respect.
[Sorokina] But they said they would name them in the next few days.
[Potanin] Well, all the same I think that it is a sensitive issue and
a prerogative of the Central Bank to name the banks they will help and
those which will be refused assistance.
[Sorokina] Tell us about the banks which form part of your holding,
the MFK and Menatep. What category do they fall in, can you tell us that?
[Potanin] Well, I think that all banks which now exist in Russia will
have to experience, at the very least, a period of what is commonly
referred to as the restructuring of their obligations, that is to say, a
period of talks with their creditors to improve their debt servicing
conditions.
[Sorokina] Do you think your banks will stand fast?
[Potanin] I think so.
[Sorokina] Tell me, what will you do--no, I will not now go into that.
Tell me, to begin with, about something else. Today Gerashchenko said
that the employees of the Central Bank and their decisions on 17th August
are largely to blame for the situation in which the Russian banks have now
found themselves. Do you, or perhaps a colleague of yours, intend to go to
court over this?
[Potanin] As far as I know, the Association of Russian Banks has
already gone to court over this issue. Incidentally, the Finance Ministry
asked the associaton to withdraw the suit at today's meeting with Yevgeniy
Maksimovich Primakov. Well, I do not know what is better, but I can tell
you my personal opinion regarding the issue of moratorium.
I think that the moratorium has failed to fulfil the function of
protecting our banking system from possible claims by foreign creditors. 
This is because the banks--or shall we say the creditors who treat us
harshly, either as a whole, I mean our country, or our banking system--will
certainly not regard this moratorium as a legal document protecting our
banks. They are the ones that go to court. The creditors who treat us with
sympathy and who are ready to hold a constructive dialogue are merely
irritated by the moratorium.
[Sorokina] Do you have in mind the 90-day moratorium on foreign debt
repayment?
[Potanin] Yes, I have in mind the 90-day moratorium, announced on 17th
August. Since it has failed to offer protection and has merely been an
irritant, I think it might as well be repealed. [passage omitted: end of
moratorium will not make appreciable difference to banks, healthy banking
system hardly possible without a healthy economy, enterprises ought to pay
taxes, budget ought to be able to provide finance]
[Sorokina] Primakov today called for greater transparency in the work
of banks and finance groups. Is it a realistic appeal? Can you do that?
[Potanin] I think so. It is a timely and realistic appeal. The whole
work of our group and many other groups, especially those which did a great
deal of work with foreign capital, has been directed at achieving a greater
openness and transparency. One has to understand that this question is
linked with the fact that our system of auditing does not make it possible
to be absolutely transparent in the western sense of the word. We have
other standards and that is why we must gradually embrace western auditing
standards, so as not to carry out dual auditing.
[Sorokina] Is this aspect a part of banking reforms?
[Potanin] It concerns auditing reforms at enterprises, because the
banking system was created from scratch, as it were, in conditions of
market relations or emerging market relations in the country, and that is
why the banking system suffered less from the legacy of the past, as it
were. [passage omitted: mergers useful in times of crisis; crisis will
sort out the men from the boys]
[Sorokina] Are you not afraid that foreign banks might be actively
involved in Russia?
[Potanin] Not, I am not afraid. Moreover, I think that competition
with foreigners in all areas is useful. This is because there is no growth
at all without competition. It is another matter that the Government and
the Central Bank ought to adopt sensible measures to protect the Russian
banking system. I would not like to have only one banking system in our
country, a foreign banking system. I would like, apart from the foreign
banks, to have strong and serious Russian banks. The Government realizes
that it is necessary to protect the banking system at home and this was
reflected at today's meeting. I therefore think that a certain balance
will be struck between, on the one hand, an ever greater presence of
foreign banks and, on the other hand, a serious place being retained by the
banking system at home. [passage omitted: praises vigor of new Central
Bank head Gerashchenko, refuses to say who he would vote for]

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#9
Rights Abuses in Russia, Duma Deputy Tells Polish Conference 

WARSAW, Oct. 16, 1998 -- (Agence France Presse) Human rights abuses are common
in Russia's prisons, armed forces and psychiatric hospitals, Russian deputy
Sergei Kovalyev told an international rights conference in Poland on Thursday.
"Human rights are violated within three closed systems: the prisons, the army
and psychiatric hospitals," Kovalyev told the Warsaw conference organized by
the Polish parliament. 
Kovalyev recognized that opposition politicians were no longer locked away in
psychiatric hospitals as happened under Communism, but said "conditions in
them are dreadful, and economic problems cannot account for everything." 
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement Thursday criticizing the
presence of delegations at the conference from the Russian republics of
Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia. 
It said the decision to invite the three republics was against international
conventions, and suggested it was motivated by "provocative attempts" to raise
questions over the status of some Russian territories. 
Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia are republics located in the Caucasus.
Chechnya considers itself independent following its conflict with Moscow,
which views the region as part of Russia. 
Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov was among 600 representatives present from
some 40 countries. 
Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Pawel Dobrowolski rejected Moscow's protest
saying nongovernmental organizations had a separate voice from governments.

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#10
Russia Arctic City Offers Hard Life
October 16, 1998
By SARAH MAE BROWN

NORILSK, Russia (AP) -- Freezing winds send snow squalls and factory smoke
drifting across the endless tundra of this bleak mining outpost. But the
largest nickel mine in the world does offer something rare in Russia these
days: a reliable paycheck. 
Norilsk Nickel, a sprawling collection of nickel mines and hulking smelters,
is the sole reason 230,000 Russians have come here, making the city the
world's largest north of the Arctic Circle. It is also why they are willing to
put up with endless winters, limited contact with the outside world and the
absence of many human comforts. 
``Just look around you. All of Russian industry has ground to a halt and we
are still here, and we are paying our wages on time,'' boasted Alexander
Bururhin, head engineer at Norilsk Nickel. ``As difficult as life is here, our
workers know that they have it much better than their relatives on the
mainland.'' 
In geographical terms, Norilsk is actually part of the Russian land mass. But
in psychological terms it's as isolated as any island. 
The city, established in 1933 by dictator Josef Stalin as a prison camp, is
more than 120 miles north of the Arctic Circle. A plane flight from Moscow is
a five-hour journey to the northeast, and there are no roads to or from
Norilsk. 
``My children have never seen a live cow or a field of potatoes,'' said
factory worker Sasha Bodanin, a 20-year veteran of Norilsk. ``They have no
idea what it feels like to strip off your clothes and go for a swim on a
summer day, to feel the hot sun on your back.'' 
The ground is covered with snow for all but the brief summer months. Even
then, there is no farming because the soil is packed with nickel and other
heavy metals. 
The mines and smelters, which operate 24 hours a day, ring the high-rise
apartments that form the center of the city. There are food and clothing
stores, a few restaurants and bars, and a movie theater, but the diversions
are few. 
The Norilsk operation has 86,000 workers. When the workday finishes, miners
are covered in grime, their throats and eyes often burning. They board rickety
buses in the freezing darkness and head home to run-down Soviet-era
apartments, only to rise in the morning darkness the next day to do it all
over again. 
``I understand now that I will never leave here, although I dream of it,''
Galina Yeremeeva, 25, said as she prepared to board an elevator that would
take her down nearly a mile into a mine. 
Attracted by the high wages, Yeremeeva's parents came here in 1980, when she
was just 7 years old. Like most, they hoped to make good money, save some of
it and eventually leave. 
But the collapse of the Soviet Union and the ensuing economic turmoil meant
that they haven't been saving anything. In fact, they're just barely getting
by. 
``Prices are so high here. Everything must be shipped in from the mainland,''
said Yeremeeva, wearing her miner's helmet. ``I spend most of my earnings just
feeding my family.'' 
Health problems are rampant. The environmental group Greenpeace says toxic
smoke from the factor's furnaces and acid rain, have effectively killed the
forest for up to 60 miles to the southeast of town. 
Yet the plant continues to churn out about 200,000 tons of nickel a year,
roughly 20 percent of the world supply. 
The company, controlled by business tycoon Vladimir Potanin, reported losses
of $257 million in the first half of this year and has been hard hit by
falling nickel prices, which recently fell to an 11-year low. 
The operation is also burdened by the huge cost of supporting the town --
about $200 million a year for the schools, hospitals and housing. 
``This is the Soviet legacy we inherited. It is not profitable for us, but
it's clear that if we didn't support the town, then Norilsk would cease to
exist,'' said Bururhin, the head engineer. 
For the workers, moving to a new city, finding another job and a place to live
seem like monumental obstacles. It's a daunting prospect to venture elsewhere
in Russia, where millions of workers get paid months late, if at all. 
``We are caught in a cycle of subsistence,'' said miner Irina Baldovsko. ``We
would all leave if we had any other options, but we are trapped by
circumstances.'' 

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#11
Baburin: Air Strikes 'Would Hurt' Start II Ratification 

BELGRADE, Oct 14 (Interfax) -- NATO's air strikes against the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia would hurt the prospects for ratification of the
START-2 strategic arms reduction treaty by Russia, Russian State Duma
Chairman Sergey Baburin told reporters Wednesday on his arrival inBelgrade.
Baburin leads a Russian parliamentary delegation currently visiting
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The delegation includes eight
parliamentary deputies representing seven parliamentary factions andgroups.
"If such air strikes are launched, the Duma will raise the issue of
refusing to ratify START-2 and refusing to continue cooperating with NATO,"
Baburin said. The Duma might demonstratively put the ratification issue on
the agenda and then ceremoniously reject it, he said.
The main purpose of the Duma delegation's visit to Yugoslavia is "to
prevent the political conflict from developing into a military one,"
Baburin said. The visit may help the Yugoslav leadership find a reasonable
compromise in relations between Belgrade and Kosovo Albanians, he said. 
The Duma delegation would also like to find out who proposed the idea of
sending as many as 2,000 observers to Kosovo, Baburin said. It is not
clear whether the idea was suggested by Belgrade or NATO, he said.

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