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CDI Library > Johnson's Russia List

Johnson's Russia List
 

 

January 28, 2000    
This Date's Issues: 4073 4074 4075

 

Johnson's Russia List
#4075
28 January 2000
davidjohnson@erols.com

[Note from David Johnson:
1. AFP: Putin's Support Down By Six Percent, Says New Poll.
2. Reuters: Russia slams Clinton over Chechnya.
3. The Times (UK): Rebels 'kill 700 Russian troops.' Alice Lagnado, in hiding in southern Chechnya, learns of the latest bloody battle for Grozny.
4. AFP: Aushev Accuses Russia Of Cutting Refugees Off From Aid.
5. Newsweek International: Sergei Karaganov, The Trouble With the U.S: It's Just Too Darn Big. Russians dislike the administration but not Americans.
6. Trud: No Apathy. (poll)
7. Interfax: RUSSIAN CHIEF BANKER WORRIED ABOUT CAPITAL FLIGHT.
8. Moscow Times: Robert Coalson, MEDIA WATCH: Russia Wages War of Words.
9. Andrew Miller: Alexander Nikitin.
10. The Guardian (UK): Ian Traynor and Peter Capella, Swiss investigators order arrest of top Yeltsin aide.
11. Obshchaya Gazeta: Yelena Skvortsova, A Common Arrangement.(Kremlin, Mabetex Affair Examined)
12. St. Petersburg Times: Simon Saradzhyan, Journalist in Hiding >From Psychiatric Test.]

******

#1
Putin's Support Down By Six Percent, Says New Poll

MOSCOW, Jan 28, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Support for Russia's acting 
President Vladimir Putin in the run-up to elections in March has dropped by 
six percent over the past week according to a new survey by the VTSIOM 
polling institute.

The drop in support -- the first suffered by Putin since he was appointed 
prime minister last August -- follows mounting public concern over the 
Russian death-toll in the conflict in Chechnya.

Appointed interim president by outgoing president Boris Yeltsin, who resigned 
on December 31, Putin had until recently enjoyed widespread acclaim for the 
way the war was being conducted.

But the new poll, showing Putin to have fallen back to 49 percent support 
from 55 percent a week ago, suggests that setbacks in Chechnya, combined with 
controversy over an alleged pact between pro-Kremlin and communist deputies, 
have cut away at Putin's popularity.

Around 60 percent of Russians, however, still support the Chechen offensive 
even if it leads to heavy Russian losses of life, the new poll showed.

The other candidates for the presidential elections on March 26 had varying 
fortunes.

Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov's rating dropped from 13 percent to 
12 percent, while former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov -- who is still 
uncertain whether to join the race -- rose from 4.4 percent to 5.6 percent.

Liberal leader Grigory Yavlinsky's support, meanwhile, rose from 2.6 to 3.3 
percent.

The poll was carried out between January 21 and 24 and covered a sample of 
1,600 people. The margin of error was 2.5 percent. 

******

#2
Russia slams Clinton over Chechnya
By Elizabeth Piper

MOSCOW, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Russia on Friday criticised U.S. President Bill 
Clinton's characterisation of its war in Chechnya as "cruel and 
self-defeating," saying the comment was a fresh sign of the West's lack of 
understanding. 

The government's new Chechnya spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky was quoted by 
Itar-Tass news agency as saying: "The real causes of what is happening in the 
Chechen Republic are still not fully understood in the West. 

"(The West) tries to look at events in Chechnya through the prism of its own 
fixed idea of how the struggle against terrorism should be waged," 
Yastrzhembsky, the man charged with improving the image of the offensive, 
said. 

In Moscow, Russian security services started taking urgent measures to 
counter possible new rebel attacks from Chechnya, where a pro-Russian Chechen 
leader said he would hold talks with rebel commanders in Grozny. 

General Gennady Troshev, a senior Russian commander, said only a handful of 
civilians were left in Chechnya's war-torn capital, dealing head on with a 
subject which has particularly concerned the West. Most had been taken to 
Russian-controlled areas, he said. 

RUSSIA STEPS UP SECURITY 

Amid fear of fresh terrorist attacks in Russia, Alexander Zdanovich, 
spokesman for the FSB domestic security agency, told NTV television Moscow 
would increase security. 

His comments followed a statement by a leading Moslem guerrilla commander 
threatening to launch lightning strikes similar to those which cut heavily 
into Russia's advance early in the New Year. 

"There is a big war going on with much military equipment, artillery and 
planes, but our position is good in Grozny and in the mountains," Arab-born 
Khattab, one of the main commanders battling Russian troops, told Reuters 
Television. 

"The (fighters) are ready not only to hit any city in Chechnya, but any city 
in Russia as well." 

Russia launched its offensive in Chechnya after devastating bomb blasts 
rocked Moscow and other cities. Russia blamed the attacks on Chechen rebels, 
who swiftly denied the charges. 

In Grozny, Bislan Gantamirov, leader of a pro-Russian Chechen militia, said 
some rebel commanders in eastern parts of the city had told him they were 
ready to lay down arms. 

"The commanders are ready to end resistance in the eastern sector of Grozny," 
Interfax news agency quoted Gantamirov as saying. He did not disclose the 
names of commanders who were prepared for such talks. 

"I am ready to talk to any reasonable forces except for outspoken terrorists, 
bandits who blew up peaceful apartment blocks, seized hostages, were involved 
in the slave trade and executions of hostages," Gantamirov, a convicted 
embezzler released early from prison in October, said. 

Russia's advance into Grozny has stalled in recent days as troops face 
increasingly stiff resistance from the rebels. 

ANNAN EXPRESSES CONCERN 

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in Moscow for talks with Acting President 
Vladimir Putin, expressed his concern over the four-month military drive. 

"Mr Kofi Annan said that the efforts of the Russian authorities to fight 
terrorism in the North Caucasus are understandable and enjoy support, but the 
question also arises of the humanitarian situation," Sergei Prikhodko, deputy 
head of the presidential administration, told reporters. 

NATO Secretary General Lord George Robertson, in Ukraine, also called for an 
end to the fighting. "NATO has made its position very clear -- we believe 
that a political track is absolutely essential," Robertson told reporters. 

Russia has so far ruled out talks, saying there is no one leader in control 
of the rebel region. 

*******

#3
The Times (UK)
28 January 2000
[for personal use only]
Rebels 'kill 700 Russian troops' 
Alice Lagnado, in hiding in southern Chechnya, learns of the latest 
bloody battle for Grozny 

RUSSIAN troops were driven back after a struggle for control of the Minutka 
Square area of Grozny that began early on Wednesday and ended yesterday 

morning, Chechen rebel sources say. 
The rebels report that Russian forces lost up to 700 troops in one of the 
heaviest battles yet for control of the city. 

A Chechen field commander based in southern Chechnya who is in constant touch 
with the rebels fighting in Grozny told The Times that the battle near 
Minutka Square, although it did not reach the square, began in the early 
hours of Wednesday when Russian troops launched an offensive from the 
direction of Khankala, a village east of Grozny. 

Chechen rebels are able to communicate easily among themselves with simple, 
readily available walkie-talkies. 

The Russians in the latest assault on Grozny were defence ministry troops and 
other special army regiments, the commander said. They came from two 
directions on either side of the railway tracks leading from Khankala to 
Grozny. Between 500 and 700 Russian soldiers had been killed in the fighting, 
he said. 

Approximately 30 tanks and armoured personnel carriers (APCs) were destroyed, 
their burnt shells lining the eastern approach to Minutka Square. 

Another 12 tanks and APCs were left intact, abandoned by fleeing Russian 
troops, the Chechen commander said. Chechen forces had repulsed the Russians 
largely through the use of rocket-propelled grenades. 

According to the American-backed Radio Liberty, up to 50 Chechen rebels were 
also killed. Chechen commanders, who expect each of their men to kill at 
least 20 Russians, consider even singlefigure losses to be very serious. 

The losses on both sides, even taking into account possible exaggeration, are 
tremendous and mark the beginning of a new phase in the war. According to the 
Chechen field commander, rebel forces had retaken the Staraya Sunzha region 
by the time fighting ended yesterday morning. 

Russian forces controlled only the 6th micro-region in northern Grozny, he 
said. In the northwest, Russian troops still controlled the village of 
Katayama, in the Staropromyslovsky suburbs, but had not reached far beyond. 

In the southeast, Russian troops had reached the tuberculosis hospital in the 
Oktyabrskoye region in the suburbs of Grozny. 

Moscow sent 300 extra troops into Grozny on Thursday, according to news 
agency reports, and now has more than 120,000 troops in the tiny republic. 

Meanwhile, in the Russiancontrolled territory of Chechnya outside Grozny, 
Moscow's forces are living up to their reputation for rudeness, intimidation 
and violence. Bella, 46, escaped from Grozny a fortnight ago and now lives in 
a dark, crowded hostel with 1,700 other refugees in the village of 
Sernovodsk, west of Grozny. 

In Grozny, she said, she saw Russian troops eating dogs and cats because they 
had trouble maintaining their food supplies. She said that there was a 
filtration camp where Chechen men were tortured at the 6th Polyclinic in the 
Staropromyskovsky region in Grozny's northwestern outskirts. 

Bella said that Russian planes were bombing Grozny regularly, but she had not 
seen any troops in the street. 

In her street, there were only two homes that had not been abandoned. Both 
housed elderly Russians. Their only source of water was puddles of melted 
snow. 

Bella reported that soldiers visited the village of Zakan Yurt, near 
Sernovodsk, on December 13 and killed a doctor and his wife for no apparent 
reason. 

Rashid Dadayev, 50, the head doctor at a psychiatric hospital there, and his 
wife Tamara, 42, were driving to the hospital when masked troops shot at them 
from an APC. Both were killed instantly. 

******

#4
Aushev Accuses Russia Of Cutting Refugees Off From Aid

MOSCOW, Jan 28, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Ingush President Ruslan Aushev 
on Friday accused Russia of cutting off assistance from Chechen refugees in 
his republic in a bid to forcibly repatriate them into the "liberated" areas 
of Chechnya.

"Yesterday I visited the refugee camps, and there I received information that 
(Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai) Koshman has issued an order to concentrate 
all aid to portions of Chechnya now under Russian control," Aushev said in an 
interview with AFP.

"I will not allow anyone to force them back into Chechnya -- the people are 
afraid of going back," Aushev said.

The office of Koshman, the Russian government pointman on Chechnya, was not 
immediately available for comment.

However the Russian emergencies ministry, while refusing to comment on 
Aushev's claim, said that 15 trucks with humanitarian supplies destined for 
Ingushetia had just arrived in the near-by city of Vladikavkaz.

Aushev, whose republic is housing more than 200,000 refugees who have fled 
the fighting in Chechnya, frequently accuses Russian authorities of failing 
to help out with the humanitarian cost of the war.

Some refugees interviewed in Ingush camps last month had complained that the 
Russians had received orders to stop issuing food to anyone who refused to 
return to Chechnya. Those orders were later repealed.

Russia is trying to forge a "model" Chechen republic out of the devastated 
areas currently under its military control. However few are willing to return 
because of the fighting. 

*******

#5
Newsweek International
January 31, 2000
The Trouble With the U.S: It's Just Too Darn Big 
Russians dislike the administration but not Americans. 
By Sergei Karaganov
Karaganov is chairman of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy.

There are three main reasons for Russian anti-Americanism. One is jealousy of 
a failing power. One is more serious: the bitter aftertaste of unfulfilled 
hopes and promises of the earlier era, when Americans took an almost intimate 
interest in the way Russia reformed and developed after the fall of 
communism. "American" recipes for reforms failed. The third is the U.S. 
government's support of elements of the Russian ruling elite, despite some 
abhorrent deeds and misdeeds: the bombing of Parliament, the first war in 
Chechnya, rampant corruption.

In the days of Gorbachev's perestroika, and at the start of Yeltsin's 
reforms, most Russians liked the United States. But at times, America's firm 
support for even the most ill-considered initiatives of Russian reformers 
seemed so reckless that some Russians actually began to fear that the true 
purpose of U.S. policy was to ruin the economy and even to destroy Russia 
itself. The two noticeable eruptions of the Russian public's sharp rejection 
of U.S. policies—the expansion of NATO and the bombing of
Yugoslavia—have so 
far not led to a real hardening of an anti-American public mood. But the 
Balkan crisis made a certain part of Russian society fear the possibility 
that a similar scenario might be repeated in Russia. Whether that perception 
will gain ground will depend on how Russian-U.S. and Russian-Western 
relations develop, on whether NATO will expand further and on internal 
transformations within Russia.

After NATO's use of force against Yugoslavia, anti-American sentiments grew 
stronger in the legislative and executive branches, as well as in the 
academic community and in the media. This in turn eroded the Russian 
political elite's support for a policy of strategic cooperation with the 
United States. And it swelled the ranks of those inside Russia who support a 
reliance on strength in international relations and the intensification of 
national weapons-modernization programs. Against the background of events in 
Chechnya -- and the West's reaction to them, which is seen as unfair --an 
overwhelming majority of the Russian political community sees such a course 
of action as the sole effective guarantee against the "Yugoslavia scenario's" 
ever being applied to Russia.

The critical attitude of Russian political elites toward specific political 
moves by the United States and the West does not signify a rejection of 
democratic values. In the final analysis most Russians do not particularly 
like the American government, but rather like America. Because of this, 
Russian-American relations could proceed on a relatively healthy basis unless 
Russia develops into a post-Weimar republic. The United States could hardly 
do much to better its image. It is simply too big to be liked. Even Russia, 
big and relatively powerful in its part of the world, feels that. The only 
advice we can give: do not try to give everyone else advice. Even if it is 
wise, it will become grist for yet more anti-American slogans.

*******

#6
Russia Today press summaries
Trud
January 28, 2000 

No Apathy
Summary
The analysis of VCIOM (All-Russian Center for Public Opinion Studies) poll 
data shows some interesting tendencies. The question "Which politician you 
would vote for if the presidential elections were held this Sunday?" has been 
asked regularly since August 1999; the last poll took place on January 21-24. 
The question "Are questions connected with the upcoming presidential 
elections discussed among your household members, neighbors and colleagues; 
if so, do you participate in these discussions?" was asked on January 21-24.

As for the second question, 60% of respondents say that they take part in 
discussions of political (election) questions; 18% say that these questions 
are discussed, but they don't participate; 21% say that the questions are not 
discussed.

People who will definitely vote responded as follows (only the percentage of 
votes that would be given to Vladimir Putin is shown): in August 2%, in 
December 50%, on January 6-10 56%, on January 14-17 62%, and on 
January 21-24 58%. The same tendencies are characteristic for all 
respondents including those that are not planning to vote. But in this case 
the percentage is a little lower for the first time since August 1999 it 
has gone from 55 to 49%.

49% of citizens who are ready to support a political leader show a very 
serious level of trust. But what can explain the decline of Putin's rating? 
The reasons are most probably the complications in Chechnya, the growth of 
casualties, and, to some degree, the Duma conflict. The question of whether 
Putin is an independent political figure is very important for Russians.

The fact that 60% of respondents are very interested in the presidential 
elections and actively discuss this topic at home, at work, with friends and 
neighbors shows that there is no political apathy. And this is very good.

*******

#7
RUSSIAN CHIEF BANKER WORRIED ABOUT CAPITAL FLIGHT
Interfax 

Moscow, 27th January: Central Bank of Russia Chairman Viktor Gerashchenko 
considers the drain of capital abroad to be the worst problem facing the 
Russian economy. He argued this in a speech he gave to a conference of heads 
of chief departments and Central Bank subsidiaries, which was published in 
the `Vestnik Banka Rossii', or the `Bank of Russia Record'. 

According to Gerashchenko, the volume of capital moved out of Russia in 1999 
was estimated at 1bn dollars a month. Capital flight "remains a very acute 
problem", even though, as a result of making currency control measures more 
effective, capital leakage through foreign trade channels has significantly 
decreased since 1998, he said. 

The chairman also reported that the share of nonresidents in the corporate 
charter capital of operational Russian credit organizations [increased] by 
5.1 per cent over [the first] nine months of last year, from 6.4 per cent by 
the start of 1999 to 11.5 per cent by 1st October. 

*******

#8
Moscow Times
January 28, 2000 
MEDIA WATCH: Russia Wages War of Words 
By Robert Coalson 

Acting President Vladimir Putin needs two things in order to triumph in 
March's presidential elections: a successful military campaign in Chechnya 
and widespread applause and acclaim for his resolute leadership during this 
crisis. His generals, it would seem, can give him the former, while the media 
and the multitude of state organs that hold the media's leash in Russia are 
charged with drumming up the latter. 

Observers of the media here have been shocked at the intense level of 
attention that the "information war" has garnered from Putin during his brief 
tenure at the helm. The level of activity on this front clearly demonstrates 
that winning this war is as essential to the Russian government as destroying 
the resistance in Chechnya itself. What is more, the scorched-earth tactics 
that Putin has adopted will almost certainly leave Russian civil society 
looking little better than Grozny does. 

So far, Putin's most successful gambit in the information war has been to 
label any material critical of the Chechen policy or even skeptical of 
official accounts of events as the intervention of hostile foreign security 
forces bent on undermining Russia's national interests. Xenophobia, sadly, 
always plays well in the Russian regions and even those who are not taken in 
by such nonsense find themselves bogged down refuting such charges instead of 
constructively debating the real issues. 

Incidentally, the "foreign secret service" gambit has the convenient 
additional benefit of distracting attention from the fact that Putin himself 
is the only candidate for the Russian presidency who has acknowledged 
receiving a decoration from a foreign security service (the East German 
secret police). In any normal democracy, it seems to me, the fact that a 
candidate earned such a decoration and refuses to explain how would 
automatically disqualify him. 

Claims that anything the Russian government doesn't like is bad for Russia 
not only have the effect of casting doubt over foreign media reports that 
filter into Russia. They also undermine any attempts by Russian journalists 
to take an independent line and, most dangerously of all, generally erode the 
public's already tattered confidence in the media. Regional politicians of 
all political stripes are eagerly waiting to follow Putin's lead and assault 
the patriotism of any local media outlet or civic organization that they 
happen to dislike. 

Kremlin spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky told Kommersant last week, "When the 
nation mobilizes its forces to achieve some task, that imposes obligations on 
everyone, including the media." That Kremlin politicians continue to insist 
that journalists are "obliged" to support the state and agitate for whatever 
the regime desires is frightening enough. However, the echoes of this 
attitude in the even more politically primitive regions will be truly 
terrifying. 

While Yastrzhembsky, Putin and other officials were impugning the patriotism 
of anyone who questions them, the usually reticent FSB was holding a press 
conference this week to warn the nation of - surprise, surprise - the 
increased activity of foreign spies and their local sympathizers in Russia. 
Civic activists of all types - especially environmentalists - are 
increasingly under suspicion. The FSB's dogged pursuit of environmentalist 
Alexander Nikitin is just the most visible example. Needless to say, those 
few journalists out there who have managed to wean themselves from official 
sources of information and who have begun covering the work of such civic 
groups are also under suspicion. 

The pro-Putin Unity party won big in December with the slogan, "Unity Is Our 
Strength." The unsubtle implication is that "pluralism is weakness." How can 
such an attitude spell anything less than disaster for the media, for civic 
society and for open participation in civic life in Russia? The Glasnost 
Defense Fund has issued repeated statements over the last three months 
warning of the consequences of Putin's "information war" and the onset of 
"creeping totalitarianism." The Russian state is waging war against its own 
citizens not just in Chechnya but throughout the country. 

"Russia has no friends but its army and navy," said Tsar Alexander III more 
than a century ago. It would be more accurate to say that Russian politicians 
have no friends but the military and the state's extensive security 
apparatus. In the absence of a reliable independent media, Russian citizens 
have no friends at all. 

Robert Coalson is a program director for the National Press Institute. The 
views expressed here are not necessarily those of NPI. 

*******

#9
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 
From: "andrew miller" <andrewmiller@mail.ru> 
Subject: Alexander Nikitin

Topic: Alexander Nikitin
Title: Now You See It

If you visit Moscow and decide to have a peek at Grampa Lenin a-slumbering
Pharoh-like in his marble pyramid in the middle of Red Square, you will
stand in line and even if you read Russian you will not notice the sign.

The line forms about fifty yards from the sign, which stands near the
entrance to the Square, and the sign is never closer than about twenty feet
from the line, so you'd have to step out of line to read it.

Bt you won't do that, because it's just a nondescript paragraph of text in
small black print on a white background, no red or exclamation points or
flashing lights. And it's only in Russian, which after all if you're a
foreign tourist you probably haven't mastered yet.

The line will move slowly. This is because each person entering the Square
when the mausoleum is open must be searched (physically) and scrutinized by
a phalanx of heavily-armed soldiers who have otherwise sealed off entry to
the giant promenade. Blowing up Lenin is frowned upon, you see, even now -
and more troubling, the powers that be still think somebody would want to
bother.

But searching you won't be enough. The sign says that no backpacks or any
other baggage are allowed in the great man's sactum sanctorum even if
they've been searched. Oh, and by the way the sign says, no cameras either.

What if you've got these things? Well then, you've got to give up your
place in line and walk for 15 minutes around the Kremlin until you reach
the Red Square Coat Check Room, where you must wait in another line and
then pay 15 rubles per item (at minimum wage, that's 16 hour's work for a
Russian) to store your belongings whilst you view Mr. Ulyanov with due
respect. Then 15 minutes back. Then back to the back of the line. And so on.

Where you then sit and watch the dejected faces of those who couldn't, or
simply didn't, read the sign and who are then searched fruitfully,
apprehended bearing contraband photographic devices (spies!?) and therefore
turned away. Families are separated! Hapless husbands are left holding
the bag(s) for patriotic spouses! Hopeless demented children wail
plaintively. You know the drill.

Then, you'll see Lenin.

After which, you'll be forced to exit Red Square at its opposite end, and
you'll then have to trek 15 minutes throught he wilds of the GUM mall (if
you're a normal Russian you can't even afford to buy gum in GUM) in order
to be yet again where you started. Then off to claim your belongings, and
so on.

If you're visiting Russia in winter, you'll realize during this time that
Russia is (1) quite pretty when covered with snow (2) quite cold and (3)
quite big. In any case, you'll find yourself asking yourself a question
(nobody else will listen): Do they want me to see Lenin, or not? If so,
why so? If not, why not?

Which brings me to Alexander Nikitin.

He is a former Russian Navy officer who blew a blown whistle on the Navy's
annoying habit of dumping highly dangerous radioactive wastes in the open
ocean, repeatedly and on purpose as a matter of official policy. Everyone
already knew about this, but some people paid more attention after Nikitin
confirmed it.

Namely, Vladimir Putin's KGB, which arrested Nikitin and began persecuting
- that is, prosecuting - him for espionage and treason. The law making
what Nikitin did illegal wasn't "passed" until after he did it (that's what
the U.S. Constitution calls an illegal "ex poste facto" law) and Nikitin
wasn't allowed (for that matter, nobody but the KGB was allowed, including
the trial judge) to read the law, because it was classified secret. That's
what the U.S. Constitution calls "bananna republic."

Human rights activists, predictably, went slightly berzerk as Nikitin was
then unsuccessfully (viewed from the KGB vantage point) tried and re-tried
for the same offense (the "do-over" afforded the KGB by Russian courts is
what the U.S. Constitution calls illegal "double jeopardy").

Finally, on January 5 of this year, Nikitin was acquitted on all counts,
and he is now trying to sue Vladimir Putin's KGB for malicious prosecution.
Human rights activists hailed these developments as wonderful, perhaps
even precedent setting (although in Russia there's no such thing as actual
precedent).

But was it?

Do they really want you to see Lenin?

Riddle. Mystery. Enigma.

I say the score is: Vladimir Putin's KGB, 2; rest of us, goose egg.

I say that Putin never ever intended, or desired, jailing Nikitin - only
nailing him, to a nice big public cross, and lettting him bleed there a
while, screaming his head off if possible (and if some nice helpful foreign
press and human rights activists want to oblige by holding up a megaphone
to his lips, so much the better, icing on the totalitarian cake) until the
broad public and the narrow heroes got the message concerning the lengths
the Vladimir Putin's KGB is prepared to go to in order to make the world
safe for truth, justice and the Russian way. Then take him down, nice and
gentle like, and stitch up his wounds. The incidental benefit would be,
perhaps, that Nikitin himself wouldn't get up to much more mischief, at
least not as long as things were proceeding - which, incidentally, he didn't.

You see, our Mr. Putin is no dummy. There's only so much space even in
neo-Soviet prisons and Putin knows he can't go around jailing every Tom
Dick and Alexander who steals a pack of radioactive chewing gum. What's
more, he's learned a thing or three from that whole nasty
Obi-Wan-Kenobi-kill-me-and-I-become-ten-times-more-powerful-Solzhenitsin-Sak
harov fiasco of the past. Indeed, he holds the buffoons responsible in
more contempt that their victims did, because of how they embarrassed his
country and brought it to its knees. Fool me twice, shame on me! In other
words, Putin got game.

Now it may well be, of course, that the human rights activists well know
that Nikitin was a dead loss for the "cause" and certainly not a victory,
but are spinning it a win in order to give some glimmer of hope to their
disillusioned and frightened troops. But in my humble opinion this is a
cardinal error, because what the Russian needs now is truth, sweet truth,
and plenty of it, heaping helpings. Nothing less will do.

As for Lenin? Well, they're still lining up, aren't they?

Epilogue. On his way from the signing of the U.S. Constitution,
Pennsylvania delegate Benjamin Franklin was stopped by an elderly lady who
grabbed his sleeve and whispered: "What kind of government have you given
us, Mr. Franklin?" He answered: "A republic, my dear woman - if you can
keep it." His trademark twinkle in his eye.

On his way to a meeting a week ago, a wide-eyed young reporter aksed acting
President Putin if he would bring dictatorship to Russia once elected
president for real. He replied that it was premature to discuss his
electoral success and walked away. His trademark twinkle in his eye. I
don't know that anybody's yet asked him about Nikitin. But I'd pay to see it.

Andrew Miller
St. Petersburg

*******

#10
The Guardian (UK)
28 January 2000
[for personal use only]
Swiss investigators order arrest of top Yeltsin aide 
Ian Traynor in Moscow and Peter Capella in Geneva

The alleged corruption scandal at the heart of the Kremlin lapped closer to 
the former president Boris Yeltsin and his successor, Vladimir Putin, 
yesterday when Swiss authorities announced they had issued an international 
arrest warrant for Pavel Borodin, the official who managed the Kremlin's vast 
property empire until earlier this month. 

Mr Borodin is a close colleague of Mr Yeltsin and his influential daughter 
Tatyana, as well as being Mr Putin's former boss. 

He is suspected of laundering Russian budget funds and oil privatisation 
proceeds through Swiss banks. The funds financed prestige projects to 
refurbish the Kremlin, contracts that were awarded to a Swiss-based Kosovan 
Albanian businessman, Beghjet Pacolli. 

For the past year Mr Pacolli, head of the Mabetex firm, based in Lugano, 
Switzerland, has been repeatedly linked to allegations that he underwrote 
credit cards for the Yeltsin family as part of bribes given to secure the 
lavish contracts, said to be worth £305m. 

Admitting that bribery was usual business practice in Russia, Mr Pacolli 
confirmed last week that he had guaranteed five credit cards for Mr Yeltsin's 
wife, Naina, and two daughters, Tatyana Dyachenko and Yelena Okulova, for a 
period of two months. His bank, the Banca del Gotardo in Lugano, has also 
disclosed that it guaranteed credit cards for the Yeltsin family, also for a 
two-month period. 

Mr Borodin is a key figure in the alleged scandal. In the first personnel 
changes he made as acting president after Mr Yeltsin's resignation on New 
Year's Eve, Mr Putin removed Mrs Dyachenko from her post as image adviser to 
the president and Mr Borodin from his position as Kremlin property manager. 

In 1996-97 Mr Putin had worked as Mr Borodin's deputy in the Kremlin, 
managing the Kremlin's vast property assets abroad. 

Swiss magistrates said yesterday that the arrest warrant for Mr Borodin was 
issued in secret last month. As a former KGB spy and Russian intelligence 
chief, Mr Putin may well have known of the Borodin warrant before he removed 
him from the Kremlin on January 10. 

Immediately after becoming acting president, Mr Putin signed an amnesty for 
Mr Yeltsin and his family, guaranteeing his predecessor and mentor immunity 
from prosecution. 

On Wednesday Mr Borodin was appointed to the senior post of state secretary 
of the new union of Russia and Belarus. 

Last night Mr Borodin denied all knowledge of the warrants. "I can't 
understand what's being talked about when they speak about a warrant for my 
arrest," he told the Interfax news agency. 

"Not once in my life have I seen an employee from the Swiss prosecutor's 
office, and I haven't received any documents whatsoever from this agency." 

He claimed that the reports of an international arrest warrant were part of a 
conspiracy. "The roots of this provocation are to be found in Russia," he 
said - although the news of the warrant was leaked to a Swiss weekly magazine 
by the investigating magistrate in Geneva, Daniel Devaud. 

The "provocation", Mr Borodin added, was aimed at undermining the 
Russia-Belarus union sealed on Wednesday. Last year the Kremlin repeatedly 
said the Mabetex scandal was aimed at discrediting Mr Yeltsin. 

Swiss prosecutors have been investigating the case for the past year after 
being asked for help by Russia's prosecutor general, Yuri Skuratov. Millions 
of dollars in assets have been frozen in Switzerland as a result, including 
bank accounts in Mr Borodin's name, though he denies having any Swiss bank 
accounts. 

Mr Skuratov fell foul of the Yeltsin coterie and was dismissed by the Russian 
president last year. But he has since gained parliamentary support for 
reinstatement and seen the Moscow courts rule in his favour. 

He was shown on state television last year cavorting in bed with prostitutes, 
a video widely assumed to have been filmed and distributed by the KGB's 
successor, the FSB, which was then headed by Mr Putin. 

Mr Putin expects to be elected president in March and Mr Skuratov, 
proclaiming an "anti-corruption crusade", is running against him. 

"Putin is trying to cover the former president of Russia and the closest 
members of his entourage," Mr Skuratov ssaid, declaring the Yeltsin immunity 
deal illegal. 

"A warrant for the arrest of Borodin suggests that the Swiss investigators 
have found signs of criminal action in Borodin's doings, involving punishment 
for money laundering through the Swiss banking system," he said. 

Mabetex carried out a series of lucrative building projects in Russia 
throughout the 1990s, starting in Yakutsk at the beginning of the decade, 
when Mr Borodin was the town's mayor. 

Mr Borodin, 53, who last month failed in his attempt to become mayor of 
Moscow, was trained as an agricultural engineer. 

He made his early career in the Siberian towns of Tuva and Yakutsk, serving 
as mayor of Yakutsk in 1991-93. It was here that Mr Pacolli obtained the 
first of many lucrative building contracts in Russia. It was also in Yakutsk 
that in 1990 Mr Borodin first got to know Mr Yeltsin. 

Mr Borodin joined Mr Yeltsin's staff in the Kremlin at the beginning of 1993 
and by the end of the year had risen to become the Kremlin's property 
manager, overseeing billions of pounds worth of property at home and abroad. 

*******

#11
Kremlin, Mabetex Affair Examined 

Obshchaya Gazeta
January 20, 2000
[translation from RIA Novosti for personal use only]
Article by Yelena Skvortsova: "A Common Arrangement" 

One of the main characters in 
the Kremlin renovation scandal has stayed in the shadows for a long time. 

The famous names that have been cited in the notorious 
"Mabetex affair" have obscured an important 
question: What was the exact source of the money for the 
Kremlin renovation project? There is no separate expenditure 
item in the budget in connection with this, after all.
Obshchaya Gazeta began its own investigation last spring.
That is when Carla Del Ponte's people in Switzerland were seizing the 
records of Mabetex and other companies. What were the names 
of these "other companies"? 

When we called the Swiss Attorney General's Office, we 
were told that the information the investigators had gathered was still 
confidential. We then asked our colleagues at Le Temps for 
help. They learned that records had also been seized in the 
offices of AO MES, the International Economic Cooperation Joint-Stock 
Company. According to those journalists, that firm had 
special oil export permits for the Kremlin renovation, and Mabetex built 
a set of luxurious offices for the firm....The money for the 
construction, however, was supposedly never paid. 

Oddly enough, no one in Moscow knows anything about AO 
MES. Only Petr Yanchev, one of the people involved in the 
Balkar Trading debacle and an "accomplice" of acting Prosecutor 
General Ilyushenko, remembered that this company was among the top 10 in 
the oil market in the middle of the 1990s. 

[Boxed item: The AO MES was founded in 
1990 by Feniks, a limited liability partnership (60 percent), the 
administrative offices of the Moscow Patriarchy (20 percent), and the 
Slobodskoy Livestock Breeding Plant, a closed joint-stock company in the 
Moscow suburbs (20 percent). Company President Vitaliy 
Kirillov, a candidate of technical sciences, was on the faculty of the 
Moscow Agricultural Institute until 1988.] 

There is no question that the list of founders sounds 
peculiar, but there is nothing criminal about this: There are 
no laws prohibiting the Patriarchy's alliance with a livestock breeding 
sovkhoz and a cooperative. We decided to check all of the 
separate links of the joint-stock company in the hope of finding a 
connection between the mysterious firm and the occupants of the 
Kremlin. We began at the sovkhoz, asking the people there 
what kind of benefits they were deriving from their participation in the 
AO MES. After numerous conversations, they gave us a number 
to call for further information. It turned out to be the 
telephone number...of the receptionist in the offices of Mr. Chistyakov, 
the chairman of the AO MES board. These talks were also 
fruitless. Dmitriy Yuryevich was always busy and had no time 
to discuss the company.... 

Why would the executive of a solid and respectable 
firm go to so much trouble to avoiding answering some simple questions? 

It is a solid firm. We looked into reports 
for previous years and learned that the AO MES has been a special 
exporter of strategic resources (crude oil, petroleum products, and 
nonferrous and ferrous metals) since 1993. The volume of its 
oil operations increased from 200,000 tonnes to 10 million tonnes a year 
in 1992-1994. Kirillov acknowledges that the AO MES exported 
8.5 percent of all Russian oil and petroleum products in 1995, and the 
company's annual turnover was equivalent to a billion dollars. 

We did not learn the answer to this question, 
however: Who helped the former VUZ [higher academic 
institution] instructor get into the oil market, which has always been 
closed to "outsiders"? 

Here are the high points of the AO MES history in 
1992-1997: 

--The AO MES delivered the first half-million tonnes 
of oil to Cuba as part of the intergovernmental &quot;Oil for Sugar&quot; 
agreement. 

--The AO MES was instructed to handle the debts of 
developing countries (China, Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan, Vietnam...). 

--Represented by the Hungaro-MES firm, the AO MES 
attempted to acquire the controlling interest in Hungarian agroindustrial 
enterprises. Kirillov even had a meeting with the republic 
president. 

--In 1994 the AO MES was one of the founders of the 
Russian Union of Oil Exporters (RF Minister of Foreign Economic Relations 
Oleg Davydov, who was later suspected of corruption by the Procuracy 
General, was the guiding light behind the creation of the union and its 
first president). 

--In 1995 the AO MES, which had been one of the minor 
cofounders of the faltering Russian Bank for Reconstruction and 
Development (RBRR), became its owner. A year later the RBRR 
became the authorized bank of the State Customs Committee. 

--In 1995 Chernomyrdin signed a directive granting the 
MES 2 million tonnes of oil "for the Kremlin renovation 
project," and in 1996 the quota was raised to 4.5 million tonnes 
(more than $700 million). 

In March 1999 Pavel Borodin said that part of the 
proceeds from the sale of oil had been lost. "Mr. 
Kirillov owes the Administration of Presidential Affairs $40 
million. The money is in Switzerland," he told foreign 
journalists, and added that he had turned the matter over to the courts. 

Borodin never said a single word in Russia about the 
mysterious firm, however. Does this mean that Kirillov has 
some strong backers? Two names are usually mentioned in this 
context: Oleg Davydov, the former Minister of Foreign 
Economic Relations, and Viktor Chernomyrdin. Western 
journalists refer to the AO MES President as a close friend of 
both. Actually, Kirillov never tried to conceal his 
friendship with Davydov, but his ties to Chernomyrdin are not as 
clear. The lavish privileges and multimillion-dollar quotas 
are not the only indirect evidence of their friendship. 
Vice-President Valeriy Ageyev of the AO MES let this information slip in 
one interview: Viktor Stepanovich once tried to help Vitaliy 
Vladimirovich buy 48.9 percent of the stock in the second largest bank in 
Italy, Banco di Roma. The matter was discussed at a special 
meeting of the Italian Parliament because Italian law prohibits the 
acquisition of more than 15 percent of the stock by 
foreigners. The transaction never took place, even though 
Kirillov requested an appointment with the Italian Prime Minister. 

What is the connection between all of this and the 
Mabetex affair? We addressed this question to the Procuracy 
General last summer--to Georgiy Chuglazov, who was then in charge of the 
investigation of the Swiss firm. Georgiy Timofeyevich looked 
shocked and assured us that there was no mention of the AO MES or of its 
President Vitaliy Kirillov in the case files. 

Meanwhile, we received a response from Switzerland, 
where the Le Temps journalists were looking into the connection between 
the AO MES and Mabetex at our request. In 1995 the Moscow 
company had opened the offices of the "Russian Cultural Fund" 
in the most expensive neighborhood in Geneva. Law enforcement 
agencies in Geneva had been keeping an eye on this organization since 
March 1998 and had even frozen the fund's bank accounts--200 million 
French francs. Investigators in Geneva apparently had reason 
to believe that the money had been laundered with the help of Swiss 
middlemen. 

The report that investigators in Russia had their eye 
on the AO MES was confirmed when Yuriy Skuratov made this statement to 
reporters from France's Le Monde: 

"The government did not have enough money for the 
Kremlin renovation project. It decided to grant oil quotas to 
the AO MES for sales abroad and then use the proceeds to pay the firms 
doing the renovations. This arrangement, which is common in 
Russia, creates opportunities for profiteering. Bahgjet 
Pacolli insists that the Russian side still owes him money. 
If so, then where did the 'oil money' go? We know that two 
firms were doing the renovations--Mabetex (headed by Pacolli) and Mercata 
Trading and Engineering (founded by former Mabetex staffer and adviser to 
Chernomyrdin Viktor Stolpov). Andrey Siletskiy, Pavel 
Borodin's son-in-law, is another Mercata executive. The funds 
were transferred from Russia through the AO MES, headed by Vitaliy 
Kirillov, a close friend of Chernomyrdin." Skuratov 
believes that the Mabetex scandal revealed several illegal channels for 
the export of oil, which enabled some Russian leaders to amass large 
fortunes abroad. The frozen Swiss accounts of the 
"Russian Cultural Fund," according to Western journalists, are 
another link of the Mabetex chain. This scandal probably will 
affect several Russian politicians in the future. 

******

#12
St. Petersburg Times
January 28, 2000
Journalist in Hiding From Psychiatric Test
By Simon Saradzhyan
STAFF WRITER

MOSCOW - When gun-toting police showed up at investigative reporter Alexander 
Khinshtein's apartment last week with an order to take him to a psychiatric 
clinic for testing, he got out of it by producing a doctor's note saying he 
was too sick to go.

Since then, Khinshtein has gone into hiding, and the bizarre case - which 
hearkens back to Soviet days when dissidents were silenced by being sent to 
the loony bin - has alarmed his fellow journalists and even drawn the 
attention of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE.

His lawyer and colleagues at Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper say the case was 
fabricated to intimidate Khinshtein, who has exposed alleged misdeeds by 
Kremlin power broker Boris Berezovsky and accused Interior Minister Vladimir 
Rushailo of protecting Berezovsky.

More than 100 of his colleagues and supporters plan to picket the Interior 
Ministry's headquarters on Ulitsa Zhitnaya on Friday in protest, said MK's 
political news editor, Yekaterina Deyeva.

The Interior Ministry said it is pursuing the case against Khinshtein. "He 
will undergo the psychiatric test" sooner or later, said Vladimir Martynov, 
spokesman for the Interior Ministry's investigative committee.

Khinshtein, 25, hid a record of psychiatric disorders to "illegally" obtain a 
driver's license in 1997 and has already been charged with the "use of an 
illegally obtained document," Martynov said.

If tried in court and convicted, Khinshtein could be sentenced to six months 
in jail or up to two years of correctional labor. A comprehensive test at the 
psychiatric clinic will help to determine whether Khinshtein was mentally 
sound enough to have been given a driver's license and whether he is fit 
enough to be tried in court, Martynov said.

As Khinshtein has gone into hiding, he could not be reached for comment.

His mother, Inna Regerer, accused investigators of trying to punish her son 
for his unfavorable coverage of their boss and his attempts to expose 
corruption.

"This is a fabricated case ... which resembles Stalinist-era repression," 
Regerer said in a telephone interview this week.

In addition to his reports in MK, Khinshtein hosts an investigative program, 
"Secret Materials," on TV Tsentr. The popular daily and television channel 
are allied with Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, a bitter Berezovsky foe.

In his MK and TV Tsentr exposés Khinshtein has blasted the Interior Ministry 
for failing to crack down on Berezovsky, who he claims has maintained close 
ties with Chechen separatists. Khinshtein ran excerpts from Berezovsky's 
alleged telephone negotiations with Chechnya's propaganda guru Movladi Udugov 
and other Chechen separatists suggesting that Berezovsky was to have 
transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars to these men who are wanted by 
Russia's security service for terrorism.

Khinshtein also alleged that Berezovsky had a private security company tap 
conversations of former president Boris Yeltsin's retinue. These tapes were 
confiscated in a police raid, but Rushailo hushed up the whole case, 
Khinshtein wrote in one of his MK stories last year.

Martynov said the Interior Ministry is not trying to intimidate Khinshtein 
into ending his exposés, but "it doesn't mean we should not determine whether 
he got his driver's license illegally."

The license was found on Khinshtein when he was stopped by traffic police 
after running a red light in May. Khinshtein produced several documents, 
including the identification card of Moscow police Major Alexander Matveyev 
with Khinshtein's photo. He was briefly detained.

It later turned out that Khinshtein received the ID from the Moscow branch of 
the State Customs Committee, supposedly so he could work as an agent for them.

The case was not dropped, however, and was transferred from the Moscow police 
to the Interior Ministry's investigative committee. Khinshtein has accused 
Rushailo of ordering the fabrication of a case against him.

Last week, investigator Vladimir Gordienko personally tried to take 
Khinshtein to a clinic in Vladimir and showed up at his apartment Jan. 17 
flanked by Kalashnikov-toting police officers. Khinshtein, according to his 
mother, produced a doctor's note that said he had a sore throat and could not 
be taken anywhere.

Khinshtein's lawyer Andrei Muratov said Khinshtein will agree only to an 
interrogation at the Interior Ministry, with his lawyer present.

The OSCE's representative on press freedom, Freimut Duve, sent a letter 
Monday to Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov to protest attempts to prosecute 
Khinshtein.

According to an OSCE statement, Duve said he "found it extremely difficult to 
believe ... Mr. Khinshtein needed a psychiatric examination because of ... a 
driver's license offense ... especially in light of the many threats that Mr. 
Khinshtein had received regarding his anti-corruption stories."

"Khinshtein should be allowed to work without hindrance," the letter said.

Russia's respected PEN center also issued a statement saying Khinshtein "has 
the right to express his opinion freely" and noted that attempts to take him 
to a clinic could be a "comeback of punishing psychiatry."

Oleg Panfilov of the Glasnost Defense Foundation, Russia's chief watchdog of 
media freedom, said Khinshtein's case "has nothing to do with journalism."

Khinshtein, he said, has fallen victim to the "eternal" battle between the 
Interior Ministry and Federal Security Service, or FSB.

Panfilov said the tapes of Berezovsky's phone conversations were most likely 
supplied by the FSB, and the Interior Ministry is simply trying to punish the 
reporter since Berezovsky is closely allied with Rushailo.

*******

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