January 10, 2000    
This Date's Issues: 4023 4024

Johnson's Russia List
#4024
10 January 2000
davidjohnson@erols.com

[Note from David Johnson:
1. Reuters: Russia's Putin shakes up government.
2. Reuters: Russia's ambitious Kasyanov moves up.
3. The Times (UK): Alice Lagnado, Russians 'hiding massive losses' in Chechnya.
4. Itar-Tass: Leaders of Six Winning Deputies Factions to Meet.
5. New York Times: Michael Wines, Putin Once Decorated as a Spy, but Few Agree on His Deeds.
6. Anne Applebaum: Moscow School of Political Studies' "Russia on Russia"
7. John Danzer: The Desolation of Grozny.
8. Andrei Liakhov: RE: 4020-Weiler/IMF.
9. Boston Globe: David Filipov, In the trenches, out of date. Russia's failure to modernize army hinders Chechen fight.
10. Baltimore Sun: Kathy Lally, Death offers no relief for woes of Russians. Grief: Lives end early,but explanations may arrive late, leaving mourners and the dead rushed, stalled and lost.
11. Pushkinskaya Observatory International Art Exchange Program.
12. Itar-Tass: Putin Explains RUSSIA'S Stand on Chechnya on EU.
13. Reuters: Afghan veteran to win Moscow regional poll. (Boris Gromov)] 

******

#1
Russia's Putin shakes up government
By Martin Nesirky

MOSCOW, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Acting President Vladimir Putin promoted Finance 
Minister Mikhail Kasyanov to the key post of first deputy prime minister on 
Monday, streamlining Russia's economic team and giving a clear hint who could 
be next premier. 

The Kremlin said Putin demoted two first deputy premiers with economic 
portfolios and ditched Pavel Borodin, a senior Kremlin official under Boris 
Yeltsin, who quit on New Year's Eve and appointed Putin acting president 
until a March 26 election. 

Putin remains head of the government, and political analysts had said his 
choice of first deputy prime minister could provide a pointer to whom he 
might pick to be premier if he wins the presidential poll. Putin is strong 
favourite to win. 

"Of course this is not the final line-up," said Dmitry Pinsker, political 
correspondent at the weekly magazine Itogi. "But it appears to be a clear 
signal to the markets in which direction the government is moving." 

There was no immediate reaction on Russia's stock and foreign exchange 
markets. 

Kasyanov, an English-speaking technocrat with strong ties in the West, has 
been a leading figure in Russia's negotiations with foreign creditors. 

Putin demoted Nikolai Aksyonenko as first deputy premier but kept him in his 
job as railways minister. Viktor Khristenko was downgraded from a first 
deputy to one of seven deputy prime ministers. Both men had economic 
portfolios hitherto. 

Russian news agencies quoted government sources as saying the cabinet would 
have just one first deputy premier rather than two. With Kasyanov in that job 
and Aksyonenko and Khristenko reduced in rank, Putin has clearly sought to 
streamline management of the country's shaky finances. 

PUTIN SEEN DISTANCING HIMSELF FROM "FAMILY" 

"It is obviously quite positive, in particular Kasyanov, who has always been 
in favour of regulating Russia's domestic and external financing, and that is 
one of the biggest risks facing Russia over the next six to 12 months," said 
Peter Boone, director of research at Brunswich Warburg brokers in Moscow. 

A Kremlin spokesman said Borodin had been removed from his post "in 
connection with his transfer to other work." But there was little doubt he 
had been ousted. 

"I think Putin, through sacking Borodin and demoting Aksyonenko, is simply 
trying to demonstrate that he is independent from 'The Family' (of Kremlin 
insiders)," said Alexei Zabotkine, an economist at United Financial Group 
investment house in Moscow. 

"There is a big question who will be the prime minister after the 
presidential election, and probably this promotion makes the scenario where 
Kasyanov becomes premier more probable," he said. 

Putin, an ex-KGB agent and former head of Russia's FSB domestic security 
agency, has become the country's most popular politician by far since Yeltsin 
made him prime minister in August. Much of his support derives from the 
military campaign he launched in Chechnya soon after. 

Despite apparent setbacks on the battlefield in recent days, he is still the 
favourite to win the election. 

The Kremlin said Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu, head of the pro-Putin 
Unity party which scored well in December's parliamentary election, was also 
made a deputy prime minister. 

That election was bad news for Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov, one of the leaders 
of a rival political bloc which fared less well. But Boris Gromov, a Luzhkov 
ally and a popular Soviet-era general, made amends in part by winning an 
election for governor of the huge Moscow region around the capital. 

Preliminary results showed Gromov narrowly won a Sunday runoff against 
Gennady Seleznyov, the Communist speaker of the outgoing State Duma, the 
lower house of parliament. 

*******

#2
NEWSMAKER-Russia's ambitious Kasyanov moves up
By Julie Tolkacheva

MOSCOW, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Russian Finance Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, an 
English-speaking technocrat made first deputy prime minister on Monday, has 
rocketed to prominence from back-room obscurity in less than a year. He may 
yet rise further. 

Kasyanov's strongest point -- foreign debt -- kept him in the shadows for 
several years, but propelled him into the limelight last year when debt 
obligations became a crushing burden for Russia's fragile budget. 

On Monday, Acting President Vladimir Putin appointed Kasyanov as the lone 
first deputy premier -- his government coordinator -- and kept him in his 
post as finance minister. 

Putin still heads the government but political analysts have said his choice 
of first deputy could indicate whom he would make prime minister, assuming he 
wins the March 26 presidential election. Putin is clear favourite to win the 
vote. 

Putin said the aim of Kasyanov's elevation was to make him the ``legal 
coordinator of the government instead of its shadow leader,'' Interfax news 
agency reported. 

Itar-Tass news agency quoted Putin's spokesman Mikhail Kozhukhov as saying it 
was nonetheless premature to talk about Kasyanov becoming prime minister. But 
he said Putin trusted him. 

``Vladimir Putin has been spending most of his time outside the White House 
(government headquarters) recently as he carries out the duties of the 
president,'' he said. 

``That is why he has a wish to leave in charge of affairs someone whom he 
fully trusts and of whose effectiveness he would be sure by a 100 percent.'' 

For Kasyanov, 42, frequent government shake-ups last year were an advantage, 
and this year looks little different. 

He was promoted to first deputy finance minister from deputy finance minister 
in February last year and then became finance minister in May. 

KASYANOV CUT HIS TEETH ON DEBT TALKS 

Kasyanov is undoubtedly ambitious. 

He even dressed his bulky figure in a military uniform when he travelled with 
Putin to visit the Pacific Fleet in Russia's Far East. 

Kasyanov's latest big success was renegotiating debts to the Paris Club of 
country lenders last year when he managed to reschedule the debt falling due 
before 2001. 

But negotiations with the London Club of commercial creditors, which he hoped 
to complete before Christmas, hit a snag over the terms of rescheduling. 

Russian media were full of rumours at the time of Kasyanov's imminent sacking 
over that setback, but made no suggestions about who could deal with the 
problem better. 

During his many years of debt negotiations, the reform-minded, bass-voiced 
Kasyanov has developed strong ties with the West. A London Club source has 
said negotiations could only continue if Kasyanov stayed in office. 

``Kasyanov has been building up his career for a very long time,'' Alexander 
Livshits, Russia's envoy to the Group of Eight, and Kasyanov's boss of 
several years ago, has said. 

``I am of a very high opinion of his professional qualities. He dealt with 
foreign debt throughout the 1990s. He was simply not known.'' 

Few people remember now how Kasyanov led initial negotiations with the Clubs 
on restructuring the debt Russia inherited from the Soviet Union. 

Several years ago the government believed so much in the bright economic 
future of the country that it volunteered to take over the foreign debts of 
all Soviet republics. 

It decided not to ask for debt relief even on liabilities to the London Club 
-- the world's biggest debt to the institution, whose restructuring involved 
checking more than 30,000 contracts. 

The talks were completed by the signing of deals which restored Russia's 
respectability in the eyes of the international financial community in 1994 
and 1996 respectively. 

They allowed Russia to issue its first Eurobond in 1997 -- a deal also 
masterminded by Kasyanov. 

But Kasyanov's glory somewhat faded after he completed negotiations on 
restructuring Russia's domestic debt, represented by GKO treasury bills and 
OFZ bonds, shuttling back and forth from Moscow to London. 

Investors called the deal, struck after the government announced a freeze of 
the domestic debt market amid the August 1998 economic crisis, confiscatory. 
CS First Boston, one of the chief players on the market, rejected 
restructuring. 

Some Russian businessmen say the deal turned Russia into a black sheep in the 
financial world, which they say will as a result reject it for years to come. 

Born on December 8, 1957, Kasyanov graduated from Moscow's automobile and 
road institute and later worked at Gosplan, the Soviet Union's all-powerful 
economic planning agency. He is married. 

******

#3
The Times (UK)
10 January 2000
[for personal use only]
Russians 'hiding massive losses' in Chechnya 
FROM ALICE LAGNADO IN MOSCOW 

DEFENCE officials are covering up huge losses in Chechnya, according to 
Russian troops who say that hundreds of soldiers are dying in botched 
attempts to seize Grozny. 

The reports coincide with a wave of media criticism of the war and the 
suspension of hostilities in Grozny on Friday. Russian forces admitted 
yesterday that 300 Chechen rebels had surrounded the town of Argun, east of 
Grozny. 

A high death toll and a media backlash could provoke public outrage against 
the war and upset the chances of Vladimir Putin, the acting President, 
winning office in the March elections. 

In an extraordinary departure, soldiers in Chechnya and neighbouring 
Ingushetia told the Russian media of huge casualties. In some units more than 
half the men had been killed in recent weeks, they said. They accused 
military chiefs of concealing the true figure. Soldiers at a checkpoint on 
the Ingush-Chechen border said that they saw lorries coming from Chechnya 
every day, packed full of dead and wounded. "They would announce that two or 
three people have been killed, but the actual number is two or three times 
higher," Sergei, a soldier, said. 

Soldiers in one unit said that of 115 men guarding a stretch of road in 
Grozny since September, only 58 were left. Most were killed and others 
wounded. Troops in Grozny said they had been attacked with rockets, guns and 
poison gas. 

The Soldiers' Mothers' Committee, a soldiers' advocacy group, has said that 
Russia has lost about 1,000 men, not the 300 it claims. 

The ceasefire may have been called to enable Russian forces to regroup for an 
onslaught on Grozny. General Gennadi Troshev, said by Mr Putin to still be 
commander of the western front in Chechnya, despite the Defence Ministry 
replacing him with his deputy on Friday, has said that after regrouping, the 
Russians "will inflict a final blow against the militants who sit in Grozny". 

Rebels exploited the lull in fighting to storm Shali, 12 miles southeast of 
Grozny. It was unclear last night whether the rebels had withdrawn. 

The Russian military reported yesterday that troops flew 80 missions in 
southern Chechnya during the past 24 hours. 

Mr Putin is to allow an international aid group into Chechnya to help 
civilians weathering the Russian assault, Finland's Prime Minister said 
yesterday. Paavo Lipponen, addressing a summit of northern European leaders 
in Germany, said that Mr Putin had written to him to say he would take the 
action, which would fulfil a demand of the West. 

The disclosure of big Russian losses coincides with fierce criticism of the 
war in the media, which had wholeheartedly supported the fighting. 
Kommersant, a business daily owned by Boris Berezovsky, a Kremlin ally, said 
that Mr Putin could die an early political death if the war continued to go 
badly. It added: "The experience of the past Chechen campaign shows that 
people quickly become tired of war, while its initiators turn from heroes 
into political zeroes." 

*******

#4
Leaders of Six Winning Deputies Factions to Meet.

MOSCOW, January 10 (Itar-Tass) - A meeting of the heads of six deputies 
associations that won the 2000 parliamentary election will be held in the 
State Duma on January 11, Itar-Tass learned on Monday from Viktor 
Cheryomukhin, the chief of the press service of the Duma of the second 
convocation. The meeting will be presided over by speaker of the Duma of the 
second convocation Gennady Seleznyov. 

The structure of the Duma of the third convocation and forming of its 
committies and commissions will be discussed at the meeting, Cheremukhin 
said. Quite possibly, the heads of six deputies asociations will reach 
arrangements on the distribution of the leading posts in the chamber of the 
new convocation, above all, the posts of speaker, deputy speakers, heads of 
committies and commissions, Cheryomukhin said. A conference of the temporary 
working group of deputies to prepare a first plenary meeting of the Duma, 
scheduled for January 18, will be held on the same day. It will be the first 
organisational conference of the group. Each winning association will 
delegate four members to it. 

A meeting of the Central council of Yabloko association at which Grigory 
Yavlinsky will be nominated presidential candidate will be held on January 15 
and 16, Tass learned from the press service of Yabloko faction. The meeting 
will be held in a holiday hotel near Moscow and will, most probably, be held 
in camera. 

The first organisational meeting of Agrarian deputies elected from the bloc 
For Victory will be held at the Duma on Monday. Nikolai Kharitonov, the 
leader of the Agrarian group of deputies in the Duma of the second 
convocation, will preside over the meeting, Tass was told by Pavel Yemelin, 
press secretary of the Agrarian group in the Duma of the second convocation. 

Yemelin said the meeting is held in the runup to the plenum of the board of 
the Russian Agrarian Party, scheduled to be held in Moscow on January 11. The 
plenum is expected to discuss the activity of Agrarians in the Duma of the 
third convocation, as well as organisational matters connected with the split 
of the Russian Agrarian Party prior to the parliamentary election. 

******

#5
New York Times
January 10, 2000
[for personal use only]
Putin Once Decorated as a Spy, but Few Agree on His Deeds
By MICHAEL WINES

MOSCOW, Jan. 9 -- A spate of reports in the German press suggested this 
weekend that President Vladimir V. Putin was decorated for his work as a 
K.G.B. agent in East Germany during the 1980's, and was even expelled from 
West Germany at one point after being identified as a Soviet spy. 

But beyond vague statements from German intelligence spokesmen, there was 
little to confirm the accounts. American intelligence officials, speaking 
privately, have said that to their knowledge, Mr. Putin's 15-year career as a 
K.G.B. agent was not exceptional. 

Mr. Putin, who became Russia's acting president when President Boris N. 
Yeltsin resigned on Dec. 31, entered the K.G.B.'s foreign intelligence arm 
after graduating from Leningrad State University in 1975. 

He is said to have left the service in 1990 after spending most of his career 
in Dresden, then an East German city frequented by Western businesspeople. 

Precisely what he did there was of little interest until Mr. Putin's sudden 
ascension to prime minister last August, and then to the Russian presidency 
last month. Since then, reports in the Western press have covered the 
spectrum of possibilities, from theories that he was a drudge who filed 
reports about East German political leanings to speculation that he ran a 
vast economic espionage campaign against the West in the Soviet Union's dying 
days. 

The most spectacular of this weekend's German reports, in the newspaper 
Sächsische Zeitung, the main daily of the Saxony region where Mr. Putin was 
active as a K.G.B. agent, quoted German intelligence sources as saying that 
Mr. Putin was expelled from West Germany near the end of the 1970's on 
suspicion of espionage in Bonn. 

The report states that Mr. Putin's cover for his work was a job as a 
correspondent for Tass, then the official Soviet news agency. It quoted Oleg 
Kalugin, a former K.G.B. official who has made a name as a critic of the 
agency, as saying that Mr. Putin's work in East Germany was not particularly 
successful. 

Other reports this weekend claimed that Mr. Putin was a frequent visitor to 
West Germany in the 1980's, sometimes moving through Checkpoint Charlie, the 
cold-war gateway between East and West Berlin, and sometimes using the name 
Lieutenant Colonel Adamov or Mr. Adamov. 

The newspaper Berliner Zeitung reported that allied intelligence agents 
photographed Mr. Putin in the mid-1980's outside the posh West Berlin 
department store KaDeWe, perhaps -- they suspected -- waiting for a 
rendezvous with a Soviet agent. 

Several journals reported that Mr. Putin received an award from East Germany 
late in his career for his work there, but differed over the nature of the 
recognition. 

Erich Mielke, the former East German security minister, once one of the most 
feared men in East Germany, told the magazine Focus that Mr. Putin was 
honored "in recognition of considerable services to the ministry." But the 
weekly Der Spiegel called the award a routine commendation. And a spokesman 
for the Gauck Commission, a German office poring over records of the old East 
German spy apparatus, Stasi, said the award was "not entirely routine," but 
not all that important, either. 

Missing in all this was what Mr. Putin did to earn the honor. 

A spokeswoman for Germany's Federal Intelligence Service said Mr. Putin had 
held an "important post" for the K.G.B. in Dresden from 1984 to 1990, but 
added: "It's difficult to say exactly what he did." 

One of the few firsthand reports on Mr. Putin's work, in today's issue of the 
newspaper Welt am Sonntag, suggests that Mr. Putin was a mid-level K.G.B. 
agent performing fairly routine duties. 

The newspaper quoted a former Stasi officer who worked with Mr. Putin, 
Günther Kohler, as saying that Mr. Putin and his family lived in a 
two-and-one-half-room apartment in Dresden, a 10-minute walk from his office, 
and that he frequently made secret visits to West Germany. 

Mr. Kohler said Mr. Putin, who called himself Adamov, spoke excellent German 
-- so well, in fact, that he could imitate German dialects. Unlike many 
Russian agents posted there, he appeared to like Germans and especially 
admired German discipline. 

Mr. Putin never drank alcohol, enjoyed fitness training, especially judo, 
frequently socialized with his neighbors, most of them Stasi employees, and 
was said to be a strong supporter of economic and social reforms then 
proposed by the Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev. 

Some reports have suggested that Mr. Putin not only tried to recruit Western 
businessmen and East Germans traveling to the West, but also kept a book on 
East Germans who supported economic reform. 

East Germany's leaders were ferocious critics of Mr. Gorbachev's policy of 
openness and restructuring of Soviet society, and the Kremlin was said to 
have kept a register of pro-reform Germans who could take over the government 
in the event of a putsch. 

******

#6
Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2000 04:19:56 -0500
From: Anne Applebaum <AApplebaum@compuserve.com>
Subject: Moscow School of Political Studies' "Russia on Russia"

For those who, like yourself, would like to hear more Russian voicest, can
I make a suggestion? On 20 January, the Moscow School of Political Studies
is publishing the first issue of a new quarterly journal which will be
dedicated to printing the views and arguments of Russians, particularly
Russians from the regions, in English. It will be called "Russia on
Russia." The Moscow School is an organisation set up (by Russians, with
some Western money) several years ago to run seminars for regional Russian
politicians and journalists, and much of the material, at least to start
out with, will consist of papers presented at the Moscow school's seminars,
and reprints of discussions that followed. The first issue is on 'Lessons
of the Cold War', and contains, among other things, a short version of a
we-won-the-cold-war talk given by Richard Perle at the school, and the
Russian response. The second issue will discuss the results of a survey
carried out by the school on the 'post-soviet mentality'. Further issues
are planned on corruption, and on political insitutions in Russia. I
imagine it will evolve with time.

If you're interested in knowing more about the project, or in getting a
copy of the publication, the person to contact in Moscow is Lena
Nemirovskaya, the school's founder and president, or one of her assistants.
Their office numbers are: 
(7095) 290 4158 or (7502) 564 8716. Their email address is: msps@co.ru

The publication is also being supported and jointly edited by the Social
Market Foundation in London. Robert Skidelsky, director of the foundation,
can be emailed at: rskidelsky@smf.co.uk

******

#7
From: Telos4@aol.com (John Danzer)
Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2000
Subject: The Desolation of Grozny

I wouldn't be surprised if Russia is preparing to desolate Grozny.
Any group that would bomb its own people to create a pretense for
war would have few scruples about delivering the killing blow.
Putin can endure Western hatred but he must get elected or he
disappears into obscurity. The reassignment of Generals Shamonov & Troshev 
who
have been involved in the battle up until now may be a scheme to
keep these valuable military men free of blame for the war crimes that
are about to be committed against the 30,000 basement dwellers in
Grozny. Perhaps the use of aerosol bombs will be explained away as
a misunderstanding due to the personnel shift.

Even if Putin delivers the deadly Karate chop and takes
responsibility he will no doubt invoke Hiroshima as the model. 

"We were at a point where we had no choice but to kill innocent people
to bring this to an end. We gave them ample opportunity to escape.
That's more of an opportunity than the people of Hiroshima had."

The whole world will have to watch helplessly in horror. More than
likely the Baltic countries will demand entrance to Nato and the
West will grant them membership as a way of sending a message to
Putin. History is far from over.

*******

#8
From: "Andrei Liakhov" <liakhova@nortonrose.com>
Subject: RE: 4020-Weiler/IMF
Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2000

Reply to Weiler

All IMF funds which Russia received from the IMF were loans for various
purposes. When Russia ran into difficulties with repayment of these, it
applied for re-structuring, which inter alia involved borrowing more money
from the Fund to repay the previous loans. However due to various reasons
well covered in JRL in the last 2 years or so the re-structuring lending has
been suspended. However Russia continues to service its debt to both private
and public lenders and paid out about $10 billion from internal resources in
1999, making 1999 the first year after '91 when the external Russian debt
actually decreased. The IMF is the largest single public lender to Russia
and the bulk of debt service payments were made to the Fund (c.$4.5 billion)
with the rest (c.$5.5 billion) having been paid to various other lenders
(such as private lenders syndicates, Eurobonds holders, London and Paris
Club lenders and others). The Fund does not participate in syndication as
it is contrary to its statutory objectives and it always lends its own funds
- thus the repayment is always made to the Fund itself. 

*******

#9
Boston Globe
10 January 2000
[for personal use only]
In the trenches, out of date 
Russia's failure to modernize army hinders Chechen fight
By David Filipov

MOSCOW - Fresh from the front lines in Chechnya, a Russian colonel was 
grumbling recently about the way his paratrooper detachment was being used in 
the fighting against Chechen separatists.

His men are among the best-trained troops in Russia, highly mobile units 
trained to move fast and capture the high ground, get behind enemy lines, and 
cut off escape routes so the infantry can move in and do its job.

The trouble is, there is no Russian infantry, at least none that the generals 
can count on. So when the main battle gets underway, the paratroopers are 
ordered back into the fighting, only this time in the unfamiliar role of 
cannon fodder.

''The regular army cannot fight, so they use us,'' said the colonel, who 
spoke on condition of anonymity. ''Paratroopers should not be fighting in the 
trenches.''

Such complaints are being raised frequently by officers in the better-trained 
units that have been scraped together from barracks and police stations 
across Russia to fight in Chechnya. They get to the heart of the unsightly 
truth behind a campaign that Russian military and civilian leaders have 
presented not only as a military success, but also as a symbol of the 
resurgence of Russia's armed forces, even its national pride.

In reality, the huge, draft-based Russian military desperately needs to 
reform into a modern, flexible, well-trained fighting force - a fact that was 
widely recognized after the army was battered and forced to withdraw during 
its 1994-1996 campaign in Chechnya.

But if the generals learned the lesson, nothing was ever done about it. With 
the battle for Chechnya's capital, Grozny, raging, plans to modernize and 
slim down the army to make it more effective have been put off indefinitely.

''The prospect of a military reform is at this point too uncertain,'' said 
Pavel Baev, a specialist on the Russian military at the Institute of Peace 
Studies in Oslo.

Baev said Acting President Vladimir V. Putin, who has built his popularity on 
the war effort, ''speaks more about buildup and modernization than about 
downsizing and restructuring, avoiding the term `reform' like a bad omen.''

Baev and other military analysts say the experience of Russia's two wars in 
Chechnya demonstrates the need to upgrade mobile and combat-capable 
components of the army. But there is nothing reflecting this learning process 
in Russia's new Military Doctrine, a document that barely mentions local 
conflicts like Chechnya and reaffirms the commitment to a large, draft-based 
army.

Some officers have argued that Russia's success in Chechnya shows that the 
military does not need to remake itself.

''We have shown that Russia has an army, that it can do the job,'' Colonel 
Sergei Skiba, commander of a reconnaissance unit, said at the front near 
Grozny last month. ''We don't need to change anything.''

It is easy to see why an officer like Skiba might feel that way. 

''For a professional military to be a meaningful concept, the Kremlin needs 
to raise salaries significantly, increase morale and public prestige, and 
rebuild the military in a meaningful manner,'' said Dale Herrspring, a former 
US diplomat in Moscow an expert on the Russian military. ''Reform is a very 
expensive proposition. It is always cheaper to continue doing things the old 
way.''

Until now, updating Russia's army has consisted mainly of cutbacks in the 
number of military personnel, from about 420,000 to about 350,000 ground 
troops, according to a report last fall issued by the International Institute 
for Strategic Studies, an independent London think tank. Many of those 
demobilized have been the junior officers and sergeants who are vital for 
training and discipline in an army.

Because of a lack of funding, a 1996 plan to make the armed forces a 
volunteer professional army was scrapped. The army lacks resources for 
training, maintenance, and new equipment, the report said, adding that except 
for the nuclear forces, the state of readiness of Russian forces remains low.

As a result, most of Russia's 1.2 million-strong military is composed of 
relatively useless draftees.

''Russia has a peacetime draft army, and a peacetime draft army is not an 
army, it is an educational institution,'' said Pavel Felgenhauer, an 
independent defense analyst in Moscow. ''No country in the world can fight a 
war with a draft army. It's like sending a high school team to the college 
national championship. The Americans tried to do it in Vietnam and look where 
it got them.''

Much has been made of the fact that the Russian force in Chechnya numbers 
100,000 men, three times the size of the army that was defeated in Moscow's 
1994-1996 war against the rebels.

But 90 percent of them are draftees, and only a few thousand are considered 
to be part of dependable combat units. These have been cobbled together from 
''marines, paratroops, internal security troops, and anything else that moves 
and can carry a rifle,'' as Herrspring put it.

Some units in Chechnya - riot police, police antiterrorist squads, and SWAT 
teams from across Russia - are individually well-trained and well-motivated, 
but they have never trained together as a military force. They have been 
issued weapons that are outdated and unfamiliar to them.

The Russian command has played up the role of ''kontraktniki,'' veteran 
soldiers who have signed contracts to serve in Chechnya. The idea is that 
these soldiers would fight better than green draftees. But in the combat 
zone, the kontraktniki are valued only slightly higher than raw recruits. A 
recent visit to the front found one unit of contract soldiers begging for 
food and hankering to get home as soon as possible.

''They're just some bums from some slums who have no other way to earn a 
living than joining the army,'' Felgenhauer said. ''You have to have 
professional sergeants and officers to make good soldiers out of bad people. 
The Russian Army doesn't have them.''

Recently, the military rotated most of its experienced officers and sergeants 
out of Chechnya, making matters worse, Felgenhauer said.

The results have been evident, even if state-controlled television has kept 
silent about them. Commentators repeatedly have mentioned the changes in 
tactics that have resulted in fewer Russian casualties in the second Chechen 
war. But as the rebels' resistance stiffens in their remaining strongholds - 
Grozny and the mountainous south - Russian losses have mounted rapidly.

The tactic that worked to push the separatists out of Chechnya's northern 
plains, by pounding their positions with artillery and warplanes and keeping 
the troops in the rear, won't work in the city or the mountains. Lacking 
well-trained infantry, the Russians have been forced to commit their best 
special-forces troops.

''This is not what we were trained to do,'' an officer of a riot police unit 
from the Siberian city of Yakutsk growled last week, as his troops headed off 
to fight rebels in a Grozny suburb.

''Of course they think they are being used the wrong way,'' Felgenhauer said. 
''The whole armed forces is being used the wrong way.''

At the heart of the problem is a deep rift between the Ministry of Defense, 
which gives priority to improving Russia's nuclear weapons, and the General 
Staff, which is running the war. Defense Minister Igor Sergeev, a former 
commander of Russia's strategic rocket forces, is pushing for funds to deploy 
the new, highly accurate Topol intercontintenal rocket. Anatoly Kvashnin, 
chief of the General Staff, wants the military budget to be spent on 
outfitting the troops in Chechnya.

Theodore Karasik, who specializes on the Russian military for the Rand 
Corporation in Santa Monica, Calif., sees the Chechnya war as ''one big 
military experiment for Russia.'' Karasik believes that the fighting will 
lead to ''a more coherent plan to modernize, and Kvashnin will lead the way.''

But while analysts agree that Russia's generals are hoping to parlay their 
perceived success in Chechnya into larger budgets, some doubt the army will 
get enough to pay for real reforms.

Last fall, Putin had an extra $100 million transferred to the defense budget. 
A Defense Ministry official said at the time that the additional funds would 
be used to provide troops in the north Caucasus with ''a wide range of 
reconnaissance and surveillance equipment, night-vision equipment, new types 
of guns and grenades.''

Baev said: ''The General Staff obviously tries to turn the war into an 
instrument of getting more resources. Real reforms - like restructuring, 
downsizing, and modernizing the ground forces; creating mobile forces; 
organizing a civilian Defense Ministry dealing with a real military budget - 
are completely forgotten.''

Baev and others believe Putin could push for radical changes. To do that, he 
would need money Russia does not have. And the reforms can begin only after 
the fighting in Chechnya subsides. 

''It is hardly possible to reform the army in the middle of war,'' Baev noted.

******

#10
Baltimore Sun
10 January 2000
[for personal use only]
Death offers no relief for woes of Russians
Grief: Lives end early,but explanations may arrive late, leaving mourners and 
the dead rushed, stalled and lost.
By Kathy Lally
Sun Foreign Staff

MOSCOW--They buried Yuri Shlyakhtin on Thursday. His friends and relatives 
had to go to the morgue to collect him in the morning. He spent much of the 
rest of the day waiting his turn, as he had so often done in life.

Shlyakhtin was 51 years old, a husband, father, son, neighbor, friend -- and 
a statistic.

Death in Russia has become a catalog of horrifying numbers. Men are dying at 
an alarming rate, with the average life expectancy about 60. The high death 
rate is attributed to heart disease, cancer, poor nutrition, alcohol abuse 
and accidents.

Shlyakhtin died accidentally. His death was treated with brutal indifference 
by the authorities, with extraordinary resilience and resourcefulness by his 
friends and family. Ordinary people here often must accomplish the 
extraordinary just to meet life's daily demands.

Yuri Shlyakhtin and Natasha Shlyakhtina had been married 26 years. He was on 
duty New Year's Eve with the GAI, the traffic police, where he worked as an 
electrician. He came home at midnight to toast his wife, then returned to 
work.

That was the last time Shlyakhtina saw him until Thursday morning, at the 
morgue. His face looked so different, like a plastic mask of the man she 
loved.

Early New Year's Day, according to his family, Yuri had gone to a sauna that 
the FSB, the successor to the KGB, operated for its employees. He had gone 
with friends from the FSB and GAI. In the hot, wet room he slipped and fell, 
fracturing his skull, then died from a cerebral hemorrhage.

Having a death in their sauna apparently so rattled the FSB that no one 
informed Shlyakhtina of his death until Jan. 2, the next day. Even when they 
called her, the authorities offered few details. They simply told her that 
her husband was dead.

Neighbors in their apartment building on Petrovsko-Razumovksy Street quickly 
mobilized around the stricken Shlyakhtina. One neighbor drove her to the 
prosecutor's office. The prosecutor told them that her husband had fallen and 
that an autopsy would be performed.

Other friends began trying to find out if Shlyakhtina would receive any 
insurance money. They were told it would depend on whether Shlyakhtin had any 
alcohol in his blood. "Could you find anyone in Russia without alcohol in his 
blood on Jan. 1?" one neighbor retorted.

Shlyakhtin didn't own a suit. Friends bought him one for his burial. The GAI 
paid for the funeral and sent two cases of vodka for the dinner after the 
burial, a huge relief to Shlyakhtina, who was left with little money. Her 
husband earned about $80 a month. So does Shlyakhtina, who works in the 
office of a military factory. Their son, 24-year-old Alexei Shlyakhtin, is 
disabled.

There are no funeral homes in Russia; families take every detail on 
themselves. Thanks to her friends, Shlyakhtina was ready Thursday.

They gathered outside the apartment at 9 a.m. A bus awaited the mourners. 
They rode to Hospital No. 67, on Salim Adil Street -- named after an Iraqi 
Communist martyred in the 1960s.

At the hospital, forlorn groups of mourners ranged about the grounds, 
searching for the morgue. Shlyakhtina's group sought the forensic morgue. 
Others looked for the regular morgue. Almost everyone carried carnations.

Outside the forensic morgue, bloody surgical gloves lay in the snow. 
Apparently, the gloves had been used in autopsies. Apparently, they had 
fallen out of the garbage bin when it was emptied. Yuri's mourners walked on 
the gloves, noticing nothing.

Shlyakhtina, Shlyakhtin's parents, both 84, and other relatives and friends 
stood in the snow outside the morgue for about 30 minutes, waiting their 
turn. It was a small, yellow-brick building, with a broken window, that 
looked as if it had once housed the hospital's boilers. One group after 
another entered the morgue, carrying an empty coffin, emerging with a body.

The coffins were crudely hammered pieces of wood that looked as if they had 
come from cargo pallets. The top and sides were covered with red and black 
crepe. The coffin tops leaned against the building, like tombstones.

After about 30 minutes, it was Shlyakhtina's turn to enter the small room. 
One wall was draped in red; icons stood on a shelf. In the back corner, a 
clerk took Shlyakhtin's passport and stamped it for the last time.

Tears slid down Shlyakhtina's cheeks when she saw her husband. His mother 
kissed him. "Don't go, my sweet one," she cried. "Don't go." Each mourner 
placed carnations on Shlyakhtin as he lay in his coffin. After about 10 
minutes, the air of shock still intense, an official appeared.

"Time is limited," he announced. "You'll have to go now."

Shlyakhtin's brother, Stanislas, and five friends carried Shlyakhtin in the 
coffin out to a waiting bus.

That bus and their other one left the grounds, preceded by a GAI car. They 
drove to a small, salmon-colored church nearby, built in the 16th century by 
Czar Boris Godunov. The GAI had sent a staff doctor, who met the mourners 
outside the church, offering medical aid. He opened his case, took out a vial 
and shook six small yellow pills into the widow's hand. She swallowed the 
sedatives.

Then she followed Shlyakhtin inside, where everyone stood, waiting for almost 
two hours until a service celebrating Russia's Christmas Eve, Jan. 6, was 
over.

But Shlyakhtina was grateful. When Shlyakhtin's service began, the priest 
prayed in a way that went straight to the heart. The choir, assembled for the 
Christmas Eve service, sang beautifully. The church flickered with the lights 
of hundreds of candles, lit for those who needed prayer.

Shlyakhtin's friends appreciated that the priest took the time to explain 
Russian Orthodox beliefs that were lost to many during the Soviet years. 
"It's very important to pray for him from the ninth day of death to the 
40th," he told them.

Until the ninth day, the dead person's soul is said to stay at home. Then the 
soul begins its last journey, during which its sins are considered and its 
fate -- heaven or hell -- is decided.

The priest led the procession to the street, astounding the mourners with his 
thoughtfulness. They said afterward they had never seen a priest leave the 
church with a funeral party before. They drove to a cemetery on the edge of 
Moscow, across the street from a dump where the homeless sift through each 
truckload of refuse.

Once more Shlyakhtin had to wait his turn. Finally, his coffin was lowered 
into the ground. Each mourner threw a handful of dirt into the grave. "Wait 
for me," his oldest friend said softly.

GAI colleagues had to return to work, so they had brought a portable buffet 
on a bus, offering sandwiches, blini and shots of vodka in memory of 
Shlyakhtin.

Everyone else went back to Shlyakhtina's home, including high school 
classmates the couple had seen regularly for 33 years. The school principal 
who lives across the hall was already there, setting out the food. Friends 
took turns sitting at the table, telling fond stories of Shlyakhtin, eating 
Shlyakhtina's homemade pickles, the mushrooms she and Shlyakhtin had gathered 
in the fall, the rice with raisins that's traditional at a funeral, and 
salads and sausage and so much more.

They tried to console her. But she and Shlyakhtin had gone to school together 
since first grade and she couldn't imagine being so alone.

"I can't remember life without him," she said.

She's worried about surviving financially, but most of all she's worried 
about surviving without her husband.

"He was a good man," she said. "He was a very good man."

******

#11
Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2000 
From: Thomas Campbell <avvakum@prairie.lakes.com>
Subject: Pushkinskaya Observatory International Art Exchange Program 

Pushkinskaya Observatory International Art Exchange Program
Gallery 103, Pushkinskaya ulitsa 10, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Dear Russian Art Lovers and Artists of All Nations,

We are pleased to inform you of a new program of international artistic
exchange that we have recently inaugurated here at the Pushkinskaya 10
Cultural Center in Saint Petersburg, Russia. We invite all those interested
in our Pushkinskaya Observatory International Art Exchange Program to
contact us personally for more detailed information. Below you will find a
brief general description of our program.

On the World Wide Web we can be found at
http://www.cfc.spb.ru/103/artexchange.htm. For another perspective on our
work, you may also contact our program's first participant, Daniel Dalseth,
at daniel.dalseth.97@alum.dartmouth.org, or Thomas Campbell, a longtime
American member of our parent organization, the Free Culture Foundation, at
avvakum@prairie.lakes.com.

Sincerely,
Igor Khadikov
Coordinator, Pushkinskaya Observatory International Art Exchange Program

In late May 1998, after the municipal government's restoration of the
building at Pushkinskaya 10, the Free Culture Foundation resumed its work.
Housed in a 4,200-square-meter space in the heart of Russia's Northern
Capital, the Foundation's Pushkinskaya 10 Cultural Center is now the
official home to more than two hundred artists, musicians, writers, and art
scholars. These men and women work, exhibit, perform, and lecture in the
Center's private studios, public galleries, and other multi-purpose spaces.

The Pushkinskaya 10 Cultural Center is the ideal place for a
multi-disciplinary, intercultural exchange between visiting foreign artists
and the thriving Petersburg contemporary art scene. We at the Pushkinskaya
Observatory are excited about this new opportunity to open a window onto
the diverse and dynamic Petersburg art world to artists of all types and to
cultivate the benefits for both sides which follow from such an exchange.

Along with a secure and fully equipped studio space in the Pushkinskaya 10
Cultural Center, the Observatory offers its foreign guests:
* Free participation in the Center's numerous, year-round seminars,
conferences, and master classes.
* A 120-square-meter exhibition hall, along with the use of the Center's
other performance and communal spaces.
* Technical and telecommunications support (computers, faxes, a cyber club).
* A chance to become part of Russia's only genuine artistic commune, to
befriend and work with a variety of local artists, to imbibe the rich
cultural life embodied in Petersburg's world-famous museums, theaters, and
concert halls.

Some of the Pushkinskaya Observatory's current programs include:
* "Marginalism and Academic Concepts in Contemporary Art," a theoretical
philosophy seminar that discusses issues pertinent to the dialogue between
art scholars and artists. Curators from Petersburg's State Russian Museum
and faculty members of Saint Petersburg State University's philosophy and
art history departments are among the seminar's participants.
* The Amplitude Literary Studio, which features readings by up-and-coming
figures in the Petersburg literary world, roundtable discussions of
emerging themes in contemporary literature, and presentations by invited
Moscow authors.
* Master classes with Yevgeny Yufit, the well-known avant-garde film maker
and photographer, whose works ("Silver Head" and "The Wooden Room") have
been screened at New York's MOMA.
* Bi-weekly openings at the Pushkinskaya 10 Cultural Center's Gallery 103.

For more information, you can contact us at:
Tel: 7 (812) 164 53 53
Fax: 7 (812) 164 52 07
E-mail: gallery103@pushkinskaja-10.spb.ru

******

#12
Putin Explains RUSSIA'S Stand on Chechnya on EU.

HELSINKI, January 10 (Itar-Tass) - The European Union (EU) has received a 
message of acting President and Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin, 
which explains Moscow's stand on the Chechnya problem, Finnish Prime Minister 
Paavo Lipponen told journalists on Sunday in Kiel, Germany, where he attended 
a meeting of German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder with heads of government of 
the North European countries -- Denmark, Finland and Sweden. 

Moscow is ready to hold talks with Chechen leaders, but only with those who 
recognize Russia's territorial integrity, the Finnish prime minister said, 
commenting on the message. 

Putin made it clear in his message that a final solution to the crisis might 
be found in a political sphere, and that "the Russian government is ready to 
hold talks with those who recognize Russia's integrity," Paavo Lipponen said. 
According to his information, the Russian leader confirmed that "Russia is 
ready to accept humanitarian assistance from international organisations, for 
instance, the United Nations Organisation, the Red Cross Society and the 
European Union." 

Putin forwarded the message to EU, because in December 1999, when Finland 
presided at a EU summit as its chairperson, the Chechnya campaign was 
described as "absolutely unacceptable," and attempts were made to force 
Russia to start talks with elected Chechen officials. 

"Russia is willing to develop strategic partnership with the European Union 
and would like EU to understand the problems it is facing," Lipponen said. 

In his turn, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said that the message 
contained "impressive details, which give grounds for hope that a political 
solution to the Chechnya problem will be found." He stressed that EU insisted 
on a "political settlement" of the Chechnya problem. Otherwise Russia "will 
find itself in isolation through its own fault," he said. 

*******

#13
Afghan veteran to win Moscow regional poll
By Alexander Yershov

MOSCOW, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Boris Gromov, an ally of Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov 
and a popular Soviet-era general, won an election for governor of the huge 
Moscow region in Sunday polls, preliminary results showed on Monday. 

Gromov narrowly won a runoff against Gennady Seleznyov, the Communist speaker 
of the outgoing State Duma lower house of parliament, after both failed to 
win an absolute majority in a December 19 first round. 

Moscow regional election commission head Valentina Smirnova said preliminary 
results showed Gromov with 48.09 percent of the vote against Seleznyov's 
46.39 percent. 

Seleznyov said he had demanded a recount for the votes from at least 105 
polling stations where he alleged there had been irregularities in counting. 

``We've basically got our own parallel election commission working for us (to 
monitor counting),'' he told a news conference. He said counting 
irregularities were the result of ``pressure from the quarters of the Moscow 
mayor.'' 

Gromov dismissed the accusations as sour grapes. ``What can I say? Seleznyov 
and his people didn't expect me to win. It's annoying for them... (these 
irregularities) could not have happened,'' he told NTV independent 
television. 

During a mudslinging campaign, Gromov complained bitterly about what he said 
were attempts by the Kremlin to help get Seleznyov elected. 

The Moscow region is larger than Switzerland and surrounds the Russian 
capital, but does not include the city. Regional governors wield large powers 
and automatically receive a seat in Russia's Federation Council upper house 
of parliament. 

If Gromov is confirmed the winner in the final results expected on Tuesday, 
it will be a boost to Luzhkov, who was himself re-elected as the city's mayor 
in December. 

Seleznyov's defeat would be another setback for Russia's Communist Party, 
which in spite of a strong showing in December's parliamentary election is 
finding it hard to appeal beyond its core voters, who are mostly pensioners. 

Gromov commanded Soviet forces during the last stage of Moscow's ill-fated 
invasion of Afghanistan. In 1989 he oversaw the withdrawal of troops and was 
the last Soviet officer to leave Afghan soil. 

*****

Web page for CDI Russia Weekly:
http://www.cdi.org/russia