March 13, 2000    
This Date's Issues: 4164 4165

Johnson's Russia List
#4165
13 March 2000
davidjohnson@erols.com

[Note from David Johnson:
1. AFP: Council Of Europe Accuses Russians And Chechens Of Warcrimes.
2. AFP: Russian Secret Services Involved In "Chechen" Bomb, Officer Alleges.
3. Itar-Tass: Blair Very much Impressed by His Visit to Russia. 
4. THE INDEPENDENT (UK) editorial: IT IS A DISGRACE TO START COSYING UP TO MR PUTIN.
5. Reuters: Russia boosted by capture of Chechen warlord.
6. Reuters: Yeltsin legacy filled with contradictions.
7. The Russia Journal: Otto Latsis, When war ends, what follows?
8. BBC MONITORING: YABLOKO LEADER ON IDEA OF JOINING NATO, MILITARIZATION OF SOCIETY, JOURNALIST'S DEATH.
9. World Socialist Web Site: Interview with Irene Langemann, director of film Russia's Wonder Children.
10. New York Times: Patrick Tyler, Russia's Communists, Still Alive, Await an Opening.
11. Reuters: Poll-Russia Putin Firmly Ahead in Kremlin Election.]

*******

#1
Council Of Europe Accuses Russians And Chechens Of Warcrimes

MOSCOW, Mar 13, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) The Council of Europe on 
Monday accused both Russian and Chechen soldiers of committing warcrimes and 
called on the Kremlin to instantly open talks with rebel republic's elected 
leaders.

"The delegation believes that serious human rights violations and warcrimes 
have taken place in Chechnya on both sides," said Council of Europe envoy 
Lord Judd after a two-day tour of the rebel capital Grozny, several so-called 
"filtration camps" and tent cities for refugees.

"Eyewitnesses gave accounts of arbitrary killings and harassment by Russian 
forces as well as unacceptable acts of violence by Chechen fighters, the 
implementation of Sharia law and its consequences, and hostage-takings," he 
said.

Frank Judd's comments marked the first time a Western official had blamed the 
two sides of committing atrocities in a brutal conflict masterminded by 
acting President Vladimir Putin.

Judd said Putin recently mentioned abuses of human rights in Chechnya. 
However the delegation chief added that the Kremlin so far has done little to 
tackle the abuses.

"The delegation does recognize that statements of intent have been made and 
not least of all by Acting President Putin," Judd said.

"These statements are one thing, delivering is another one. We are 
unconvinced that the action at significant and substantial degree has begun."

The Council of Europe in January came close to voting Russia out of the human 
rights watchdog body.

Instead it agreed to return to the issue next month, in the meantime setting 
conditions that Moscow must study reports of abuses by its troops and make 
significant efforts to reduce losses among Chechen civilians.

"All of the requirements of the assembly (set in January) remain on the 
table," Judd said.

And he once again called on the Kremlin to open talks with Chechen President 
Aslan Maskhadov, who Putin has accused of being a terrorist and threatened to 
arrest and try, if captured.

Maskhadov was elected Chechen president in January 1997, days after the last 
Russian troops pulled out in defeat in the 1994-96 war.

Maskhadov's win was declared as valid by observers from the Organization of 
Security and Cooperation in Europe, and his leadership was later personally 
recognized by ex-president Boris Yeltsin.

"The delegation calls on the Russian government without any further delay to 
begin negotiations on a political solution to the conflict with the elected 
Chechen representatives and other influential Chechens," Judd said.

"It certainly starts with Maskhadov and others, as he is not a strongman. He 
is an elected man and it would not be a bad start."

The Kremlin has made several attempts to introduce pro-Moscow governments in 
Chechnya, while Putin noted in a recent interview that he favored direct 
Kremlin rule over the republic once it is brought to heel.

However Judd noted that such tactics could do neither side any good.

"You can't just pick and choose or nominate the people that you are prepared 
to talk to," Judd said.

"If you are serious about political settlements, sooner or later you have to 
talk to the people who are really significant in the context."

His comments were supported at a separate press conference by Russian human 
rights ombudsman Oleg Mironov, who agreed that Russian troops were breaking 
international laws.

"There are human rights violations by Russian soldiers against civilians, but 
state policy is not aimed at the extermination of Chechens.

"The federal authorities want to clean up the situation." 

********

#2
Russian Secret Services Involved In "Chechen" Bomb, Officer Alleges

LONDON, Mar 13, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) A bomb planted in a Russian 
apartment block a week after explosions killed more than 200 people in Moscow 
was defused after police detained Russian secret service agents who had 
planted the device, a bomb squad officer told the Observer newspaper.

The newspaper said that the claims by Yuri Tkachenko, published Sunday, throw 
doubt on Moscow's insistence that Chechen terrorists were responsible for the 
bombings of two apartment blocks in Moscow in September last year.

On September 22, two days after the discovery of the bomb in an apartment 
block in Ryazan, south of the capital, the secret service, the FSB, announced 
that the bomb had only been a training exercise, the Observer said.

But Tkachenko told the newspaper that the bomb was real.

"It was a live bomb. I was in a combat situation," he was quoted as saying.

Tkachenko said he tested the bomb, which was in the basement of the apartment 
block, and found that it was made of Hexagen - the same explosive used in the 
two Moscow bombs.

The FSB took away the sacks of explosive, but left behind the detonator, 
which was set for 5.30 a.m., when most of the building's 250 tenants would 
have been asleep, the report said.

The newspaper said that when local police detained the "bombers" they showed 
identity cards from the FSB, one of the successors of the KGB.

At the time of the bombs, the Russian press reported claims that the 
government had planted the devices.

Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair returned Sunday from a trip to St 
Petersburg where he had met acting President Vladimir Putin and denounced 
Chechen "terrorism".

When asked about the possibility that the Russian government had planted the 
bombs in an attempt to justify the subsequent bloody crackdown in Chechnya, a 
British government spokesman told AFP Sunday: "We have no evidence of that." 

********

#3
Blair Very much Impressed by His Visit to Russia. .

LONDON, March 13 (Itar-Tass) - British Premier Tony Blair stated here after 
his return from St.Petersburg that Putin's Russia is a strong, law-governed, 
democratic and liberal country. 

The meetings with Acting President Vladimir Putin, with whom he had talks in 
St.Petersburg, produced a strong impression on the British premier, Itar-Tass 
learned on Monday from a high-ranking source within the British premier's 
entourage, who said that Blair was impressed by the high intellectuality of 
the acting president, by his determination to achieve Russia's economic and 
social revival. 

It is also noted here that Tony Blair saw, after his talks with Putin, that 
there are great prospects for British business in Russia. 

*******

#4
THE INDEPENDENT (UK)
13 March 2000
Editorial
IT IS A DISGRACE TO START COSYING UP TO MR PUTIN

TONY BLAIR'S decision to go to Moscow to meet the acting president,
Vladimir Putin, was not bad in itself. It is important that Russia, which
constantly thinks it is misunderstood, believes its voice can be heard.
Dialogue gives at least the hope of more sensible behaviour. It was,
however, essential that the Prime Minister sent out the right messages
during his visit. He signally failed to do that. In that respect, Mr
Blair's trip was a disgrace. 

Russia is still embroiled in a brutal campaign in Chechnya; in a
fortnight's time, Mr Putin looks set to win the presidential elections, not
least because of his conduct of that war. As a representative of the
respected Human Rights Watch pointed out on these pages on Saturday, there
are more than 100 documented examples of summary executions - mostly
elderly civilians - during the takeover of the Chechen capital, Grozny.
This conduct is sickening and needs to be recognised as such. 

Instead, Mr Blair went to the opera and praised the "impressive" Mr Putin
for what he had achieved. He said that he had enjoyed his conversations,
which were "a very good omen for the future". Bafflingly, in the context of
the Chechen conflict, Mr Blair praised the former spy's desire to
"modernise his country". A modernisation too far, surely. There was woolly
talk about how "disproportionate" force should not be used. But Russia will
be reassured by Mr Blair's visit that its policies in Chechnya can
continue. That is not how it should be. Downing Street parrots the Moscow
line about a "terrorist insurrection" in Chechnya. Certainly, the Chechen
rebels are no angels. And yet there has been mounting evidence that some of
the worst outrages, blamed on the Chechens, may in fact have been the work
of the FSB, successor to the KGB. In other words, terrorism is not
necessarily alien to the authorities themselves in this "modernising state". 

For Mr Blair to start cosying up to Mr Putin is, in the circumstances,
grotesque. Like John Major, who was the first Western leader to visit
Peking after the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, Mr Blair may hope that
Britain will be rewarded with lucrative contracts if he becomes the first
European leader to cosy up shamelessly to the Kremlin. If that is the
logic, then it displays a breathtaking cynicism. Alternatively, if Mr Blair
has failed to understand the effect of the reassurances that he is sending
to the Kremlin, that suggests foolishness on a grand scale. Cynical
money-grubbing or naive ignorance - it is hard to know which is worse. 

*******

#5
Russia boosted by capture of Chechen warlord
By Gareth Jones

MOSCOW, March 13 (Reuters) - Russia, shaken by a series of setbacks in rebel 
Chechnya, scored a coup on Monday when it announced the capture of leading 
Chechen warlord Salman Raduyev in a secret operation. 

Acting President Vladimir Putin said Raduyev, a controversial commander best 
known for a bloody hostage-taking raid in 1996, had been transferred to a 
Moscow prison pending trial after being seized by FSB domestic security 
agents on Sunday. 

The news came as Russian warplanes renewed their attacks on Chechnya's Argun 
gorge where a group of rebels escaped encirclement over the weekend, crowning 
a week of heavy losses for Russian forces despite their nominal control of 
the region. 

Russia also faced renewed Western criticism of its five-month campaign 
against the Chechen rebels. The West says the campaign has been excessively 
brutal and indiscriminate and has caused too much death and suffering among 
civilians. 

On Monday Lord Judd, the British head of a delegation of the Parliamentary 
Assembly of the Council of Europe, just back from a weekend trip to Chechnya, 
called for an urgent investigation of alleged human rights abuses by Russian 
forces in the region. 

``We believe serious human rights violations and war crimes have taken place 
on both sides,'' Judd told reporters. He urged talks between Moscow and 
Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov. 

But Sergei Yastrzhembsky, Moscow's main Chechnya spokesman, ruled out talks 
with Maskhadov, whom Russia wants to put on trial for declaring Chechen 
independence and instituting Islamic Sharia law in violation of the Russian 
constitution. 

``There can be no talks with Maskhadov except about the criminal case 
instituted against him,'' Interfax news agency quoted Yastrzhembsky as 
saying. 

RUSSIA STILL BATTLING FOR CONTROL IN CHECHNYA 

Interfax said Russian warplanes flew 26 sorties against rebel positions near 
the village of Komsomolskoye and in the surrounding mountains over the past 
24 hours. 

Russia has said up to 1,500 fighters were believed holed up in Komsomolsokye. 
Interfax quoted Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo as denying earlier 
reports that the commander of those fighters, Ruslan Gelayev, had escaped 
from the village. 

``Gelayev is now in the Komsomolskoye district where the fighting is going 
on,'' Interfax quoted Rushailo as saying. 

He said other leading warlords, Shamil Basaeyev and Khattab, an Arab, were 
hiding in Chechnya's southern mountains, on the ``third of Chechen 
territory'' still in rebel hands. 

On Sunday, the Russian military said a group of rebels led by Khattab and 
Basayev had slipped an army blockade near the villages of Ulus-Kert and 
Selmentausen in the Argun gorge. 

Russia has said 156 servicemen were killed over the past week, including an 
entire company of 84 elite paratroops wiped out near Selmentausen. Their 
funeral took place in their native city of Pskov in northwest Russia on 
Monday. 

The continuing clashes have undermined Russian claims that the rebels have 
been beaten as a cohesive fighting force and that they have been reduced to 
small scattered groups which can pose no real threat to the federal military. 

The rebels have vowed to wage a partisan war against the Russians. They boast 
that they still control as much as 30 percent of Chechnya by day and almost 
all of it by night. 

RADUYEV CAPTURE A MORALE BOOSTER FOR RUSSIANS 

But Raduyev's capture will help raise Russian morale. Raduyev, known for his 
belligerent anti-Russian rhetoric, his bravado and trademark military 
fatigues and sunglasses, is the first top Chechen commander to fall into 
Moscow's hands. 

``Now he is in prison, which is the right place for him. We would like to 
think that this is just the beginning,'' Putin told a gathering of senior 
ministers in televised remarks. 

FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev said no shots were fired during the Sunday 
morning operation to take Raduyev, even though about 100 men usually guard 
the warlord. ``Raduyev was shocked by what happened,'' Interfax quoted 
Patrushev as saying. 

At the end of the previous 1994-96 Chechen war Raduyev led a bloody raid into 
the neighbouring region of Dagestan, taking thousands of hostages. He then 
retreated into Chechnya after a week-long standoff with Russian troops. 

Putin said Raduyev would also be investigated for possible involvement in two 
bombings at southern Russian railway stations and in a bid to kill Georgian 
President Eduard Shevardnadze. 

Raduyev has previously claimed responsibility for both the bombings and the 
1998 assassination attempt on Shevardnadze. 

*******

#6
ANALYSIS-Yeltsin legacy filled with contradictions
By Brian Killen

MOSCOW, March 13 (Reuters) - Russia's presidential election ought to be the 
crowning glory of Boris Yeltsin's career as a triumph of democracy, but it is 
instead highlighting the contradictory legacy left by the country's first 
president. 

The March 26 vote will bring the first transfer of supreme power through the 
ballot box in the world's biggest country. 

It is inspiring optimism in some about new opportunities for the economy, but 
fills others with misgivings about the future. 

Economic analysts see the near-certain victory of Vladimir Putin, Yeltsin's 
preferred successor, as heralding a new era of stability, which is what 
foreign investors want most after years of turmoil following the collapse of 
the Soviet Union in 1991. 

But some liberal observers fear Yeltsin's parting gift to Russia -- a 
tough-talking ex-KGB spy with no real challengers -- may threaten hard-won 
democratic freedoms, although Putin says such fears are groundless and 
pledges to pursue market reforms. 

The jury is still out on the Yeltsin era, but history may well judge him on 
the performance of his hand-picked successor. 

Yeltsin, who resigned on New Year's Eve, may either be seen as the father of 
democracy and reform, or as a leader who destroyed what he created, 
impoverished his people with flawed market reforms and launched two costly 
wars in Chechnya. 

Most analysts credit Yeltsin with freeing Russia from the shackles of the 
Soviet system, holding elections and opening up his country. But they also 
point to severe shortcomings. 

"The undeniable merit of Yeltsin is that during his rule he did not undertake 
an attack on freedom of the press," said Andrei Piontokovsky of the Centre 
for Strategic Studies. 

"He destroyed the Communist system under the slogan of creating a liberal 
democratic system, but look at what has happened," he added. 

YELTSIN'S ROLE REVOLUTIONARY BUT LEGACY TAINTED 

Yeltsin's legacy has been clouded by crime, corruption and financial 
mismanagement that culminated in the debt default and devaluation of August 
1998. But analysts still hail his early dismantling of the Soviet command 
economy. 

"Yeltsin will go down in history as a very significant figure who did enough 
to ensure Russia couldn't turn back both politically and economically to the 
Soviet era," said David Riley, Fitch IBCA director for emerging Europe. 

"Enough was done to make turning the clock back to a command economy simply 
not a viable option. Yeltsin has taken Russia beyond the point of no return 
in that respect." 

Eric Kraus, NIKoil Capital Markets chief strategist, described Yeltsin's role 
as revolutionary. "He laid the groundwork which is going to be taken forward 
by his successors to bring Russia not only out of the Communist regime but 
out of what I would almost call the curse of Russian history." 

Russian financial markets apparently share this optimism. Shares are around 
their highest levels since before the August 1998 crisis, the rouble is 
stable, inflation slowing, industrial output growing and tax collection 
rising. 

The economy is still very weak, but it may be in the best shape it has been 
since the fall of Communism. However, this is no thanks to Yeltsin. It is 
largely due to recent booming world markets for Russia's main energy and 
metals exports. 

RUSSIA DRIFTED IN LATE YELTSIN YEARS 

Yeltsin's policies in his final years did little to revive the economy and 
were marked by a sense of drift and sagging public faith in government. But 
he is unlikely to be judged on economic failures alone. 

"The collapse of the Soviet empire was a remarkably peaceful process. If you 
take a step back, your judgment has to be overwhelmingly positive," Kraus 
said. 

"The collapse of the Soviet Union could have been a lot more messy and 
violent than it turned out to be...Of course, there are significant negative 
legacies of that process," Riley said. 

"The latter period of the Yeltsin era really was very much a wasted 
opportunity. He allowed and effectively encouraged development of very 
powerful vested interests to the detriment of the Russian people and the 
Russian economy," he added. 

Piontkovsky described Yeltsin's legacy as one of "crony capitalism" and a 
rolling back of democratic freedoms. 

"A return to Communism in our country is impossible. One might consider that 
a merit...Yes, it is very good, but it is not what we dreamed about when the 
democratic revolution started." 

*********

#7
The Russia Journal
March 13-19, 2000
When war ends, what follows?
By Otto Latsis

Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo, reacting straight after special forces
police (OMON) troops came under fire from Chechen rebels, said that those
responsible for this tragedy had been identified and would be punished.
This is necessary, but in the present situation it remains insufficient.

The commander’s negligence, especially when it led to lives being lost, has
to be punished. It has to be established why he didn’t prepare to ward off
a possible attack. But it also has to be established why this attack even
took place at all – this wasn’t in the battle zone, after all, with large
numbers of terrorists still fighting, but on territory under federal
control and "cleansed" of terrorists.

At the same time, news came through that the Pskov paratroop division had
also suffered unusually heavy losses fighting in Chechnya. This is
worrying. The liberation of Grozny was a decisive operation from a
strategic point of view, but since then, fighting is still going strong and
losses haven’t decreased. The terrorists, having lost the open battle, are
now fighting a partisan war, so far with some success.

A recent survey by the Agency for Regional Political Research (ARPI)
included the question "What do you think the war in Chechnya will lead to?"
Only 31 percent of those surveyed thought the war would lead to federal law
being re-established in Chechnya. Thirty-eight percent thought a years-long
partisan war was on the way. 

The potential is certainly there. Since World War II, dozens of countries
throughout Latin America, Asia, Africa and even Europe have gone through
lengthy partisan wars. As for the Chechens, for hundreds of years now, they
have displayed their warlike nature on plenty of occasions. 

In a war like this, with the might of the state and its army on one side
and only the desperate will of rebels hiding in the forests on the other
side, everything depends on the local population’s support – if the
partisans don’t have it, there won’t be a war. Today, people in Chechnya
are tired of war, but could they quickly tire of peace?

This will depend on political and economic circumstances. Politicians must
attempt to balance the different interests, ensuring the Constitution is
not broken but at the same time giving law-abiding Chechens the chance to
build their own lives in accordance with the customs of their still very
tradition-based society. 

This is no easy task, but it is possible. It is not enough, however.
Chechnya is a traditionally poor region plagued by high unemployment that
has been devastated by war twice in the last five years. In 1993, before
the first war began, only 30 percent of the Chechen population was
employed, compared with 50 percent for Russia overall. State statistics
give no recent employment figures for Chechnya. 

But it’s not hard to guess that employment in towns is probably zero given
that all the enterprises are in ruins.

When Russians hear the words "rebuilding Chechnya," they grimace in pain.
In 1994-1996, Russia bombed Chechen towns and sent builders in to rebuild
them virtually straight away, fought the Chechen local authorities and
allocated budget money for civilian needs and economic recovery. 

Whether the money went to Gen. Djokhar Dudayev and his men, or went to his
opponents didn’t change much. One of Dudayev’s main opponents and present
commander of the federal-loyal Chechen police, Bislan Gantamirov, went
straight from war to prison after being sentenced for embezzlement of
budget money while he was mayor of Grozny.

Chechnya represents about one-thousandth of Russia’s total territory.
Before the first war began, Chechnya’s population was barely more than 0.5
percent of the total Russian population. Even if infrastructure is totally
destroyed, as seems the case in Grozny, it is not beyond Russia’s means to
rebuild this one small region.

The problem is not one of quantity but of quality. Not even the most
generous amounts would suffice if the money is just going to be stolen once
again.

We could hope, of course, that the authorities, who have showed far more
decisiveness now than in the first war, will show that same determination
when it comes to ensuring money for rebuilding the region is not embezzled.
But it would also be worth thinking about exactly what role the state – and
its officials with their hands itching to thieve – should play in the
rebuilding process.

Russia’s new civil code gives the state and its citizens equal rights. It
contains a provision by which citizens can receive compensation from the
state for damage for which it or its officials are responsible through
their unlawful or negligent actions. 

Jurists confirm what has never occurred to most people; that a property
owner, for example, whose house has been destroyed by a bomb, can take the
state to court and seek compensation. So far, no court has accepted such a
suit

The courts are afraid of setting a precedent, if one suit is settled in the
plaintiff’s favor, thousands more will follow, and where will the state
find so much money? But maybe it would in fact be cheaper for the state.
The owner of a ruined house, after all, unlike the state official, is more
likely to use the money to rebuild his house.

*******

#8
BBC MONITORING
YABLOKO LEADER ON IDEA OF JOINING NATO, MILITARIZATION OF SOCIETY,
JOURNALIST'S DEATH
Source: Centre TV, Moscow, in Russian 1700 gmt 11 Mar 00 

[Presenter] Presidential candidate [Yabloko leader] Grigoriy Yavlinskiy is
the guest of "The Week" today... Let's start with the following. There is a
liberal democratic idea behind certain presidential candidates. Some of
them believe in social democratic or liberal conservative values. Your
movement and you personally always avoid ideological formulas. Do you have
your own ideology? 

[Yavlinskiy] Good question. Our ideology is not to tell lies and not to
steal. 

[Q] This is not on the list. 

[A] No, it is. This is real social democracy. If they are real liberals,
that is the people for whom freedom is above everything else, it is also
there. It so happens in present day Russia that the main borderline between
politicians is the boundary between those who steal and those who don't,
between those who tell truth and those who tell lies. There are no other
boundaries... 

[Q] A sensational idea emerged this week. There is a possibility of coming
to terms with NATO. Russia may join NATO. What's your attitude to this idea? 

[A] This is sad when absolutely unprepared ideas are being promoted at such
a high level. We will have to pay by remaining silent in the event of NATO
expanding to the Baltics and to Ukraine. The reaction of the leading world
politicians that followed was simple. They said: nobody is inviting you.
Why are you putting yourselves forward? 

[Q] You have said in your address to campaign officials that we were the
witnessing the militarization of society. What did you mean by that? 

[A] I meant politics being made at the expense of military hysteria and
such issues as the presidential election [campaign] being played up on the
wave of pretended military successes. When in parallel to it military
training is being introduced [in secondary schools], military sub-faculties
are being abolished at universities, and there are plans to introduce
initial military training even at [pre-school] children's institutions,
these are the signs of the country's militarization. 

[Q] Did you know [well-known Russian journalist killed in an air crash on
9th March] Artem Borovik? 

[A] Indeed, although not very well. However, I met him quite recently. 

[Q] When? 

[A] Last week. He invited me to take part in his "Top Secret" [TV]
programme. I told him how I was saving our soldiers in Chechnya when [the
first Chechen President Dzhokhar] Dudayev was still in power there, and was
trying to prevent war... 

[Q] Did Artem tell you anything about the programme? 

[A] No. We discussed in depth the scenario of the programme, but he told me
more about his plan to publish several articles about the Moscow explosions
[in September 1999]. 

[Q] Did he have any doubts about the official version? 

[A] He told me that there was no official version at all up to now and that
they [the 'Top Secret' magazine] were carrying out an independent
investigation. 

[Q] What do you think about the air crash in which Artem was killed? Do you
think that we will ever have an official version of the accident? Do you
have your own version? 

[A] I do not know. At the crime level and the level of secret services'
work we witness today, I cannot even guess what will come out of it. I
think that only the competent authorities are able to speak today about
anything related to Artem's death... 

*******

#9
World Socialist Web Site
www.wsws.org
Berlin Film Festival
Interview with Irene Langemann, director of Russia's Wonder Children
13 March 2000

Irene Langemann was born in 1959 in Issikul (Siberia). She worked as an 
actress, scriptwriter and director in Moscow between 1980 and 1990, and from 
1983 she moderated and directed for Russian television. Three years later she 
headed the "theatre Nasch" and in 1990 travelled to Germany where she 
prepared contributions for the radio program "Turntable Europa" for the 
Deutsche Welle in Cologne.

WSWS: Why did you make your film?

Irene Langemann: Probably the fundamental reason for making this film was the 
desire to show another Russia. The portrayal of Russia shown in the media 
over the last years has, in my opinion, been a portrayal of wickedness. Of 
course there is the Mafia, of course there is criminal activity, of course 
there is the war of Chechnya—all terrible things.

But there is also another Russia, a Russia with the highest level of culture. 
It is no accident that the Moscow conservatory was founded in the nineteenth 
century in order to popularise and bring music to the masses. It is a 
well-known fact that every member of the Russian bourgeoisie had his or her 
own piano. Whether in the nineteenth or the twentieth century, it is a 
long-standing tradition for children to be thoroughly educated in the various 
realms of music, and also in poetry and the fine arts. No other country has 
been able to produce such excellent musicians in the twentieth century, 
whether it be pianists, violinists or cello players. I have often asked 
myself the question: how it is possible in a country where the most difficult 
conditions in everyday life constitute normality that the highest levels of 
culture are still possible?

The original idea was simply to make a film about the secrets of the Russian 
piano school. By the time I went to Moscow three years ago to research the 
project I already knew that the subject of the film should be the Central 
Music School at the Moscow Conservatory. I was able to examine on the spot 
the living and teaching conditions, the entire ambience in which the children 
and their teachers work and despite everything attempt to achieve the highest 
level of art. I was so shocked at the conditions that from the very beginning 
I made the decision to make a very concrete film, about specific children, 
but which then naturally works on a second symbolic level to relate the great 
national musical tradition.

Did you have any difficulties making the film? The film is not exactly a good 
advertisement for current Russian politics.

I did not have any problems with the authorities because I speak perfect 
Russian. Filming at the school was relatively easy. Where I did have problems 
was with everything to do with customs. Every time we tried to get film stock 
and then send it out was a production. In this respect I must say that 
nothing has changed. In fact, in my opinion, the attitude of the authorities 
has simply worsened. One feels complete hopelessness and in a real fix 
because you are treated like rubbish. The authorities are not in the 
slightest bit interested if the project is to with art or whether it is a 
project which could be of some use.

It is clear that on the one hand the film shows an unfavourable side of 
Russia but on the other hand it shows this unbelievable talent—Russian 
children who, in my opinion, should be the pride of Russia. As I say, the 
discrepancy between the authorities and the people as a whole is very great.

How does the collaboration between the state schools and private concert 
agencies take place? Lena, who we see in the film, has been giving concerts 
all over the world since the age of nine.

There is a state-run organisation called “New Names,” which promotes the 
children, so to speak, and makes them known in the West. It is my impression 
that these agencies have a great deal of money, perhaps they have sponsors, I 
do not know. They also have direct contact with Russian television. Many 
concerts take place in cooperation with Russian television. For example in 
the film, the archive material which shows Lena playing for the Pope was made 
for a Russian program in collaboration with this organisation. I know that 
the little girl Ira, shown in the film, has also been taken up by this 
organisation. She will give some concerts in the West in the next period.

Most of the children receive individual engagements and give a concert now 
and again. The fact that Lena has her own manager who organises her 
performances is really exceptional. She is poorly paid. We see in the film 
how she lives together with her mother in a tiny flat—that shocked me.
There 
are two beds, a cupboard and that's it. The girl has been giving concerts all 
over the world since the age of nine. She told me that she gets about $200 
for a concert tour. That is just enough to pay the rent on the flat. Apart 
from that there is barely any money left. It is a real form of exploitation 
of such young talent at a point in their lives when they are small and sweet.

Do the children still continue to come from all over the former Soviet Union?

Formerly the teachers use to travel all over to uncover new talent. They 
travelled to the provinces and organised dates when the children played. The 
best were then simply invited to Moscow. Since the collapse of the Soviet 
Union that is no longer possible because the money is no longer available. 
Most parents now simply bring along their children to the school. This was 
shown in the film in the scene of the entrance exams where many children turn 
up. Whoever is able to pass this exam and has a chance of becoming a pupil at 
the school is on his or her way to becoming part of a music elite, because it 
really is the best school going.

Formerly everything was free. Now it is only free for Russian citizens. Those 
who come from Ukraine, or from Kazakhstan, now have to pay tuition. And of 
course foreigners also have to pay. There are now more foreign children at 
the school, above all from Korea.

You last lived in Moscow in 1990. Could you say something about the changes 
which have take place over the last 10 years?

I lived in Moscow for 14 years, from 1976 to 1990; I moved to Germany in July 
1990. I returned to Moscow for the first time in 1993 and was surprised at 
the changes which had taken place. There was this huge chaos, a great lack of 
orientation. On one side, there was great happiness that democracy had 
arrived and big changes were on the way, that the despised former system had 
finally been done away with. On the other hand, there was this dreadful 
poverty, in particular for elderly people who basically witnessed the 
destruction of all their ideals. This general feeling of insecurity meant 
that for a whole period there was a very strange atmosphere.

I was in Moscow shortly before the putsch in 1993 and I noticed a threatening 
climate. Two weeks later the putsch took place. Somehow it was in the air 
that something was brewing. During this time people stopped going to the 
theatre because of the increase in criminal activities and the fact that, for 
example, it was dangerous for a woman to walk the streets of Moscow alone. 
People had no money, they could not afford the theatre tickets. In Russia it 
is part of everyday life that one goes regularly to the theatre. Ordinary 
people go to the theatre. 1993-94 were difficult years but then quite 
suddenly, I would say around 1996-97, there was a change. Once again the 
theatres were full. And now you cannot get tickets.

You have talked about one aspect—the attendance at theatres. Another
question 
is the content of the pieces being performed and the quality of the theatre. 
In other East European countries one observes attempts to commercialise 
theatre.

Theatre in Soviet times was strongly characterised by the fact that it was 
possible to say things on the stage which one could not say on the streets or 
amongst friends. One example is the Taganka theatre. Liubimov put on his 
classical pieces there. He developed a content in which is was possible to 
draw direct parallels with everyday life in the Soviet Union. And that was 
powerful. It was a source of excitement for the audience to realise: Aha! 
This is about such and such a prominent politician or deals with an event 
which had taken place a short time ago.

In the beginning of the 1990s it was suddenly possible to say anything one 
wanted, and the result was a vacuum. I think this was also a reason for the 
stagnation at the beginning of the 90s. Not just the poverty, not just the 
general situation, but simply the fact that there was a lack of new content. 
Now many classical pieces are being played. A great deal of Chekhov and 
Shakespeare is being played. German authors are featured, classic and modern 
works, a great deal of DĂĽrrenmatt and Max Frisch, as well as many French 
authors. Plays are being written based on various novels. There is a great 
deal of material on offer.

Every theatre is a repertory theatre and every day there is a different 
performance. Normally theatres have about 20 pieces in their repertoire which 
are regularly changed. I know that at the end of the 1980s in Moscow alone 
there were roughly 200 small theatres. Most of them are now gone. From the 
initial total there are at most 12 or 15 left, and they were only able to 
survive because of state support. Theatre has declined rapidly because the 
artists were not able to live on the money they earned. In the small theatres 
which are left the artists work under dreadful conditions. Actors earn such a 
paltry wage, it is scarcely believable, I believe something in the region of 
20 deutsche marks per month. All of them are forced to take up other jobs in 
order to be able to live. So in this respect the situation is not at all rosy 
for the artists.

Are there parallel developments in music?

The situation in music is somewhat different. There is a tendency in the 
music branch for many musicians to go abroad. There are countless people from 
Russia, Poland, Hungary, etc., in every orchestra in Germany—they play in 
Latin America, all over North America. They are, of course, all excellent 
musicians who then sign contracts in the West for less money than the 
corresponding Western musicians. Very many have left. Things are somewhat 
different for musicians in comparison to actors. Actors live in, depend on 
their native language and therefore do not have not the same possibilities to 
work abroad.

I had been living in Germany for 10 years and I was shocked at the cuts which 
are being carried out here. In 1992-93 saving measures were carried out at 
all levels. It was a big shock me to witness the closure of music schools and 
libraries in the area of Cologne were I live. I found it incomprehensible 
that in a rich country like Germany culture should suffer first.

I can only compare it with my own past. I was born and grew up in a small 
town in Siberia where there was virtually nothing, where the most simple 
things such as a telephone and running water were considered complete 
luxuries. But at the same time the town had its own school of music, there 
was an art school and also, for example, a book shop where one could buy 
German language books from the GDR.

That was possible then even under such difficult conditions. And I think that 
is still the case in Russia: If you go to Moscow and ride in a subway 
everybody is reading. I have not come across a comparable interest in 
literature, for example, in any other Western country. I believe this is part 
of the Russian soul—this urge for knowledge, education and art.

******

#10
New York Times
March 13, 2000
[for personal use only]
Russia's Communists, Still Alive, Await an Opening
By PATRICK E. TYLER

MOSCOW, March 8 -- The movie theater was plastered with posters for coming 
films from Hollywood, but inside there was no attraction for Yuliya Lysova 
and Dasha Yegorova, both 18. A decade after the Soviet collapse, they were 
being forced, on a school day, to attend a "Young People for Zyuganov" rally 
featuring the Communist Party's candidate for president, Gennadi A. Zyuganov. 

"Our teacher told us to come here instead of classes," said Ms. Lysova, 
glancing at her watch, then at the door of the auditorium, trying to 
determine whether the coast was clear for a fast exit. "It was obligatory." 

Ms. Yegorova said: "We heard from our grandmothers and grandfathers what life 
was like under the Communists, and we do not want to repeat it. We are 
against Communism and against Zyuganov." 

The March 26 election to pick a new president from a field dominated by 
Acting President Vladimir V. Putin finds Russia's Communists again in a 
swelter about the pasting they are about to receive and what to do about 
their future. 

The Communists' prospects for attracting new members are not necessarily 
hopeless. They are campaigning across Russia, and in opinion polls, Mr. 
Zyuganov leads all other candidates opposing Mr. Putin. 

But while many young people at the rally listened attentively -- even cheered 
-- during several hours of Communist proselytizing, the negative reactions of 
those like Ms. Lysova and Ms. Yegorova revealed the strong generational bias 
against the party of Lenin, though he would scarcely recognize the party 
today. 

The organization is an object of ridicule in much of Russia, and what remains 
of the Communists' strength -- though still considerable -- has been sundered 
by defections and infighting among hard-liners, nationalists and those trying 
to craft a more centrist model based on the social democratic parties of 
Europe. 

Last Dec. 19, 12 days before Boris N. Yeltsin stunned Russia by announcing 
his resignation, the Communists won 24 percent of the vote in elections for 
the Duma, the lower house of Parliament, finishing just ahead of the 
centrists backing Mr. Putin, then the prime minister. Although the grand 
alliance on the left, comprising Communists, agrarians and Stalinists, lost 
the majority it had enjoyed since 1995, the Communists are enough of a force 
that Mr. Putin needed their help to prevent his closest rivals from becoming 
parliamentary speaker. And that deal handed the Communists enough 
chairmanships of influential parliamentary committees to ensure that they 
remain something of a force, even if they cannot regain power. 

"Yeltsin delivered a big blow to the Communists because he resigned and 
turned over power to a young guy who is relatively normal," said Aleksandr 
Gelman, a playwright, social commentator and friend of Mikhail S. Gorbachev, 
the former Soviet president. "Before Yeltsin resigned, it was possible -- at 
least psychologically -- that the Communists might come to power." Powerful 
businessmen gave the Communists money, just in case they regained power, he 
said. Now, he predicted, Communist influence will slowly wane. 

The Communists see the future less bleakly. They remain the largest and best 
organized party in a country where socialist dogma seems imprinted like 
genetic code on a large portion of the intelligentsia and the impoverished 
working class. 

Even Mr. Putin has noted that the Communists are still the only party in 
Russia capable of creating a whole system of ideas supported by millions of 
people. 

More than 22 percent of the roughly 70 million voters in parliamentary 
elections supported Communist candidates in 1995, and more than 24 percent 
did so in 1999. 

"People said that 1995 was our last hurrah, that our electorate was dying out 
because it consisted of only pensioners and that it was practically 
impossible for the party to gain strength," said Leonid Dobrokhotov, a former 
Soviet diplomat and a leading political adviser to Mr. Zyuganov. "But despite 
the fact that dozens of millions have died since then," he said, more people 
voted for the party in 1999. 

Nonetheless, Mr. Dobrokhotov added, "It is clear for all of us that the 
Communist Party candidate has no chance to win this election." 

The reason, Mr. Gelman said, is that Russia's aspiring middle class is moving 
irrevocably into the capitalist orbit. "Slowly they are getting stronger," he 
said, "but to understand the middle class in Russia, you must not only count 
the people who have money, but also the people who hope to have money, 
because they will vote and act as if they had it -- because of their hope. In 
other words, hope equals capitalism." 

The modern vote certainly seems to be behind Mr. Putin, 47. He has lofty 
ratings in public opinion polls -- mostly thanks to the popular war against 
rebels in Chechnya -- and has eaten into the Communist base. 

Mr. Putin, schooled in the Soviet K.G.B., has skillfully addressed issues 
dear to the Communists' loyal constituency of angry pensioners, industrial 
workers, farmers and miners, whose standard of living has plummeted just as 
surely as that of a few oligarchs and nouveaux riches has soared. He has 
raised pension payments, hailed the notion of a strong state and waged war. 

"Zyuganov doesn't have troops, he doesn't have tanks, and he doesn't have a 
victorious campaign in Chechnya," said Aleksandr A. Prokhanov, who supports 
and advises Mr. Zyuganov as editor of the newspaper Zavtra, known for its 
occasional flights toward neo-Nazi extremism. 

Mr. Zyuganov declined to be interviewed for this article. Like many of his 
advisers, Mr. Prokhanov realizes that Mr. Putin is stealing the ground from 
under the Communists, but has been unable to develop any strategy to thwart 
defections. 

"Putin has a very strong group of advisers who have employed all of the 
modern political technologies of the information age to create this image of 
a leader and to place into this image a specific person named Putin," he 
said. 

Partly as a result, Mr. Zyuganov has apparently tried to move toward the 
center. "If you read the Communist program, you won't find a single word 
about Communism there," Mr. Prokhanov said. "In essence, Mr. Zyuganov is 
becoming a velvet social democrat." 

On the south side of Moscow, Aleksei I. Podberiozkin -- until last fall, a 
close Zyuganov ally -- disagrees. He is trying to start a rival Communist 
Party and is running for president in hopes of siphoning votes from Mr. 
Zyuganov, who he says has been too slow to change with the times. 

In Soviet times, Mr. Podberiozkin instructed ambassadors and K.G.B. officers 
on political correctness in foreign policy at the Foreign Ministry's academy. 
When the Communist system collapsed, he devoted himself to a new 
nationalistic ideology, the Spiritual Heritage Movement. 

"I tried to drive home to the Communist leadership some of my ideas, and for 
a period of time, Zyuganov was accepting them," he said, taking credit for 
Mr. Zyuganov's rhetorical devotion to the need to restore "spiritual values" 
in post-Soviet society. 

Mr. Podberiozkin helped build the left-wing alliance that opposed the 
sweeping economic reforms made under Mr. Yeltsin. Now, he says that there is 
no prospect for growth by staying with the Communists, and that Mr. Zyuganov 
is in the thrall of orthodox and doctrinaire advisers. Mr. Podberiozkin is 
now beginning to admire Mr. Putin, and is saying goodbye to the left. 

In an elegant suite of offices overlooking the Kremlin, Boris S. Kashin, a 
48-year-old mathematics wizard, spends most of his day fine-tuning a computer 
program he has sold to American investors that acts like a supercharged day 
trader, buying and selling thousands of shares of stock under a secret 
formula devised to profit from each fluctuation in the Nasdaq market. 
Paradoxically, Mr. Kashin, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and 
the youngest doctor of mathematics in his generation, is also an adviser to 
Mr. Zyuganov on science and education. 

"The prestige of scholars and scientists has been so diminished and the 
living standards have dropped so low that the only way to survive is to go to 
the West, which is so humiliating," he said of his day job in the markets. 
But this strategy has another goal for Mr. Kashin: to keep the flame alive 
until the time comes for a Communist-led renaissance. 

"In organizing the future, no system will work unless it recovers the 
greatest part of what was gained in socialist times," Mr. Kashin said, citing 
the example of rent. The concept of paying rent -- or getting evicted for 
nonpayment -- was too repugnant for Russians, he said. 

"The state has to provide certain minimums or we will face revolution again 
or the destruction of great portion of the population," he said. 

For him, Mr. Zyuganov is the only man who can save the country. 

Up to now, he added, "he has not made any serious mistakes." 

*******

#11
Poll-Russia Putin Firmly Ahead in Kremlin Election

MOSCOW, March 13 (Reuters) - Opinion polls monitored on Monday showed Acting 
President Vladimir Putin of Russia had maintained his runaway lead in the 
race for the March 26 presidential election. 

Following are data released by two leading Russian pollsters, ROMIR and 
VTsIOM. The surveys are released weekly. 

Percentages denote respondents who say they will vote. Figures in brackets 
show the change on the previous poll. Error margins are between two and four 
percent. 

ROMIR VTsIOM
March 4-5 March 3-6
Acting President Vladimir Putin 60.3 (-0.1) 59 (0)
Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov 26.0 (+2.9) 22 (+1)
Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky 3.9 (-3.9) 4 (-1)
LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky n/a n/a Aman
Tuleyev, Governor of Kemerevo 1.9 (0.0) 2 (0) Ella
Pamfilova, For Civic Dignity bloc 1.6 (+0.5) 1 (0)
Konstantin Titov, Governor of Samara 1.1 (-0.4) 1 (0)
Stanislav Govorukhin, parliamentarian. 0.7 (+0.2) 1 (0) Yuri
Skuratov, Prosecutor General 0.4 (+0.4) 1(under 1)
Alexei Podberyozkin 0.1 (+0.1) under 1
Yevgeny Savostyanov 0.0 ( 0.0) under 1
Umar Dzhabrailov 0.0 ( 0.0) under 1
Others 0.6 (+0.8) 0 (-3)
'None of the above' on ballot paper 3.4 (+1.5) 3 (+1)
Cannot answer (VTsIOM only) -- 6 (+3)
The agencies dropped Zhirinovsky from their polls after the
Central Election Commission barred him from running because of minor 
irregularities. The Supreme Court reinstated him as a candidate last Monday, 
March 6. 

Polls conducted by VTsIOM canvass 1,600 people across Russia and those by 
ROMIR canvass 1,500. Both pollsters publish their surveys on websites. 
VTsIOM's can be found at www.wcsiom.ru while ROMIR's is www.romir.ru 

******

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