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CDI Library > Johnson's Russia List

Johnson's Russia List
 

 

April 23, 2000    
This Date's Issues: 4263  4264

Johnson's Russia List
#4264
23 April 2000
davidjohnson@erols.com

[Note from David Johnson:
1. The Sunday Times (UK): Mark Franchetti, Putin halts foreign adoption of Russia's unwanted babies.
2. BBC: Russia 'losing internet race'
3. Interfax: VENUE FOR RUSSIAN PRESIDENT'S INAUGURATION STILL BEING CONSIDERED.
4. Marko Beljac: Russia's Nuclear Doctrine and the US.
5. Journal of Commerce: John Helmer, RUSSIAN ALUMINUM BOSSES HOLD HANDS, DELAY EMPIRE.
6. Itar-Tass: Tax Minister Wants Small Business to Employ 5-6 M Russians. 
7. Itar-Tass: Intermin Institutes 324 Criminal Cases on Corruption. 
8. Chicago Tribune: Colin McMahon, DRUG CENTER TAKING BACK RUSSIA STREETS.
9. The Russia Journal: Lyuba Pronina, Lenin still dead, still not buried.
10. The Russia Journal: Otto Latsis, A strange task for a leader.
(Re Putin and energy disputes)
11. Moscow Times letters: Who's Ruder, Genghis Khan or the U.S. Embassy? 
12. AP: Chechnya Rebels Step Up Attacks.]

*******

#1
The Sunday Times (UK)
23 April 2000
[for personal use only]
Putin halts foreign adoption of Russia's unwanted babies 
By Mark Franchetti, Moscow 

BARELY nine months old, Kolya is unaware of the struggle that faces him as 
he lies motionless in cot No 9 in a rundown state orphanage on the outskirts 
of Moscow. Abandoned at birth, he is up for adoption, but Russian couples are 
reluctant to choose him because he was born 2Å months premature. 

Doctors are confident that Kolya will catch up, but his early birth and slow 
development hang over him like a curse. Only one pair of potential parents 
has bothered to come and see him; most reject him after a cursory glance at 
his medical card. 

Like 102 other children in the orphanage, Kolya survives on 50p a day. The 
institution at Malakhovka cannot afford to buy nappies or clothes. Unless it 
receives help from donors, it will be unable to pay for inoculations against 
hepatitis. 

"He is a lovely, sweet child and I am sure that he will grow properly," said 
Olga Struchkova, the senior doctor. "He is a bit behind now, but he is 
healthy and will be fine." 

A few beds away, Yulia, also nine months old, was born with syphilis, caught 
from her mother who gave her up for adoption. Although she has since been 
cured, mention of the disease on her medical records has badly damaged her 
prospects. 

Few of the hundreds of foreigners waiting to adopt Russian children would be 
dissuaded by such problems, but any chance that they will be allowed to give 
Kolya or Yulia a home diminished last week when President Vladimir Putin 
signed a series of decrees aimed at tightening controls on international 
adoption. 

The decrees outlaw the use of middlemen used by international adoption 
agencies to guide foreign couples through Russia's maze of red tape and 
bureaucracy. From this week, international agencies operating in Russia will 
also be required to receive accreditation from the government to continue 
their work. 

The crackdown is supposedly aimed at unscrupulous middlemen who take 
advantage of the country's byzantine bureaucracy to demand big bribes. 
Critics of Putin, however, suggest he is simply showcasing his patriotic 
credentials. 

The decrees threaten a complete halt to international adoptions. Since no 
guidelines or deadlines have been set for agencies to become accredited, 
their presence in Russia has effectively become illegal until further notice. 

"Sad as it is, I have had to suspend all work with Russia," said Larisa 
Mason, head of the International Assistance Group, an American agency that 
has organised about 570 adoptions in the country during the past eight years. 

"Foreign adoption in Russia is a political issue. It's also an emotion that 
hits Russians in the heart, especially because of their nationalist pride. 
But the reality is that the children adopted by foreigners are kids the 
Russians don't want anyway. 

"The slightest disability - a mother who was addicted to drugs or alcohol 
when she gave birth - that's enough for a Russian couple not to adopt an 
orphan, whereas in the West families are far more flexible. Of course there 
should be regulation, but it could take months before we even know how to get 
accreditation. Meanwhile, children are left to languish in orphanages." 

Every year thousands of Russian children are abandoned by families unwilling 
or unable to cope with the financial pressures of bringing up a child. The 
figure has risen sharply every year since the end of the former Soviet Union, 
as a result of the collapse of the communist welfare state. 

There are now about 500,000 children in state institutions. Not all, however, 
are up for adoption, since many parents are unwilling to give up their legal 
rights to their children despite abandoning them to the state. 

Semion, a 10-month-old baby crying in a cot next to Yulia, was found by a 
street cleaner in a rubbish bin. Others are simply left at the hospitals 
where they are born. 

According to the latest figures, a third of children who grow up in state 
institutions turn to crime once released. One fifth become street kids, 
swelling the ranks of 2m homeless Russian children. With orphanage staff paid 
a basic monthly salary of just £5, finding anyone to look after the children 
is also becoming difficult. 

Yet there is no shortage of communist and nationalist politicians vehemently 
opposed to international adoption. 

"Children born in Russia must be adopted by Russians or taken care of by the 
state," said Yuri Nikiforenko, a communist deputy in the Duma, the lower 
house of parliament. "Every year thousands of our children are taken out of 
the country. This is a humiliation for Russia which must stop." 

Those like Struchkova who work with the orphans have little time for such 
rhetoric. 

"I don't see how making the adoption process harder is going to help our 
children," she said. "It's hard enough as it is. Foreign couples can only 
adopt a Russian child so long as no Russian family wants it. They have to 
travel here at least three times and wait up to a year. The procedure 
involves going to court and endless paperwork. 

"Last year 20 of our toddlers began a new life abroad. That is their 
salvation. If they hadn't left Russia, they would have spent their childhood 
in an orphanage. I can't see how that would be better for them." 

********

#2
BBC
23 April, 2000
Russia 'losing internet race'

Russia could be left behind in the use of the internet, a Russian business 
leader has warned.

The president of the oil company Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovskiy, said only a 
fifth of the Russian population would have access to the internet by 2050 if 
nothing was done to speed up the introduction of new technology. 

Quoted by the Russian news agency, RIA, Mr Khodorkovskiy said that even with 
the most optimistic estimates, only 3% of Russians are regular users of the 
Internet. 

He added that the number was 10 times higher in developed countries. 

'Absolute must' 

Addressing a conference of teachers focusing on the introduction of 
information technology in schools, he insisted that internet literacy had to 
be "an absolute must" in years to come. 

The oil company Yukos, supported by the Russian Government, is behind an 
internet education drive. 

In March it launched an ambitious project called Pokoleniye.ru, designed to 
train teachers in working with internet resources and spread their experience 
among their pupils. 

It is currently active in five Russian cities, but the organisers intend to 
extend it to 50 regions over the coming five years. 

The aim is to educate 10 million young people in the use of the internet. 

But Mr Khodorkovskiy said more money was needed for the project to succeed. 

"The efforts of Yukos alone will not be enough, so many other companies are 
needed to take part in the process," he said. 

********

#3
VENUE FOR RUSSIAN PRESIDENT'S INAUGURATION STILL BEING CONSIDERED
Interfax 

Moscow, 23rd April: Heraldry experts are currently considering a third 
scenario for President-elect Vladimir Putin's upcoming inauguration, an 
expert who wished to remain anonymous has told Interfax. 

He said that, in accordance with earlier plans, Putin was to be sworn in in 
Cathedral Square, the central square inside the Kremlin, or, in the event of 
bad weather, in the State Kremlin Palace. 

The new scenario includes elements of both plans, he said. 

The ceremony is to unfold at the recently renovated and partially 
reconstructed Grand Kremlin Palace - the ceremonial premises of the 
historical residence of the head of the Russian state. 

The participants and guests are expected to gather in three halls - the 
famous St George hall, and two new halls reconstructed in the place where the 
former Soviet Union's Supreme Soviet (parliament) once convened. 

The ceremony itself will be held in the St George hall and will be televised 
to neighbouring rooms. 

It will retain its traditional elements. The president-elect will swear on 
the Russian constitution in front of the chairman of the Constitutional 
Court. 

Russia's former president, Boris Yeltsin, will had over to his successor the 
chain of the Order For Service to the Fatherland, first degree, which by 
itself is not an award but is the symbol of state authority in Russia. 

Subsequently, the new Russian president will deliver an inauguration speech. 
The ceremony will be crowned by a parade of the Kremlin Guards regiment in 
Cathedral Square. This regiment, otherwise known as the presidential 
regiment, has more than 2,000 soldiers and officers. 

Some of them will wear the shakos and the parade uniform, worn by the Russian 
military in the 19th century. 

If this scenario is accepted, Putin will watch the parade from the high Red 
Porch of the Grand Kremlin Palace, which has also been reconstructed 
recently. 

*******

#4
Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2000
From: Marko Beljac <markob@ozemail.com.au>
Subject: Russia's Nuclear Doctrine and the US.

There have appeared many misconceptions about formal adoption of a "first
strike" nuclear employment policy by the Putin government. Little is
mentioned of
the analogous NATO and US first strike policy and when comparison is made
between
Moscow's nuclear strategy and Washington's serious errors are made. The most
common, made in many news articles on the subject quoted on the JRL list,
assert
that Russia's nuclear doctrine has been brought in line with that of the US.

This is wrong. Note that the actual doctrine as quoted on this list states
quite
clearly that Russia reserves the right to employ nuclear weapons in the
face of
any threat to the territorial integrity of Russia. Russia's nuclear arsenal
does
not extend deterrence in the same manner as that of the US, save perhaps for
Belarus.

The nuclear doctrine of the United States extends beyond merely the
continental
defence of the United States, indeed even of defence of the NATO alliance.
Since
the end of the cold war US nuclear planning has come to focus on the supposed
threat of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the third
world.
This category includes both chemical and biological weapons. Such planning
received impetus from Clinton's proclamation of PD 60. Thus US nuclear
weapons,
in addition to hedging against a turn for the worst in Russia and China (the
thrust of the nuclear posture review that pre-dated PD 60), now provide an
extended deterrent for US conventional forces forward deployed in US military
operations in the third world, such as say operation desert storm against
Iraq.
This has received codification in both revised SIOP planning that stresses
"adaptive" planning, that is to meet third world contingencies and in
publication
of JCS guidelines for the employment of nuclear weapons by US regional
commanders, such as the CinC of say central command etc. In other words
nuclear
weapons, and the first use doctrine, increasingly are directed toward
contingencies not involving the continental United States. This, in
addition, is
contrary to the declared so called "negative security assurances" policy
adopted
by Washington as a result of the 1995 NPT review conference a continuation of
cold war practice whereby the declared US nuclear policy flatly contradicts
what
the generals at SAC/STRATCOM are planning and told to plan for (planning at
STRATCOM is based on the guidelines provided for in PD 60).

There exists therefore profound differences between Russia's revised nuclear
doctrine and that of the United States. Russia's nuclear doctrine deals
only with
the defence of Russia. Indeed on the whole issue of strategic arms control
it is
unfortunate that there exists a fetish for numbers. Cutting the number of
nukes
is important for international peace and security, but instituting a regime
that
de-activates the hair trigger alert status of the nuclear arsenals of
Russia and
the United States, as tirelessly advocated by Bruce Blair, would do much for
enhancing international peace and security.

********

#5
From: "John Helmer" <helmer@glas.apc.org>
Subject: RUSSIAN ALUMINUM BOSSES HOLD HANDS, DELAY EMPIRE
Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2000 

Coming this week in The Journal of Commerce

RUSSIAN ALUMINUM BOSSES HOLD HANDS, DELAY EMPIRE 
By John Helmer
Journal of Commerce

MOSCOW. Can the Russians build a new global empire out of aluminum? Is the 
new president of Russia intent on sponsoring a new industrial oligarchy to
protect and finance his power base?
These are the questions which tycoons controlling three-quarters of 
Russia's primary aluminum production have been trying to answer for weeks 
now, as they try to merge their smelters, refineries, rolling-plants, and 
other assets, worth an estimated $8.5 billion.
If they trust each other enough to succeed, and if President-elect Vladimir 
Putin decides to trust them, the resulting company -- to be called Russky 
Aluminy ("Russian Aluminum") -- will be second only to Alcoa of the United 
States for size and power in the aluminum world. 
However, despite tacit approval so far from the Kremlin, the Russian 
scheme is running into almost as many difficulties as those which recently 
called off the merger between worldwide aluminum producers, Pechiney of 
France, Alusuisse of Switerland, and Alcan of Canada. A U.S. 
government investigation is also threatening the proposed union of Alcoa 
with Reynolds.
The first official announcement last week of Russky Aluminy failed to 
produce the evidence officials have been promising that they have settled 
their differences, and can work together. According to one senior manager in 
the new group, "this is not a marriage, and we aren't in bed together. At 
this point, we are just holding hands."
For Oleg Deripaska, who is reported in the Russian press to be the chief 
executive of the new Russky Aluminy group, the alliance is a decidedly more 
favorable outcome than he and his associates at Sibirsky Aluminy had been
anticipating at the end of March. At that time, sources at Sibirsky Aluminy, 
as well as elsewhere in the Russian industry, said they were expecting an 
attack on their holdings by Roman Abramovich, the oil financier who 
masterminded the acquisition of majority shareholdings in Bratsk Aluminum 
Works and Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Works. The price paid for his Krasnoyarsk 
shares has not been disclosed; but Moscow sources believe it to have been 
more than $650 million.
Bratsk, the largest smelter in the world, produced 871,000 metric tons in 
1999. Krasnoyarsk produced 837,000 tons. The two smelters now under 
Deripaska's control accounted for 386,000 tons from Sayansk, and 274,000 tons 
from Novokuznetsk. Total Russian output was 3.15 million tons.
Since Abramovich bought out London-based Trans World's interests in 
Kranoyarsk and Bratsk, he and Deripaska have agreed on the terms of a 
non-aggression pact that has 
put an end to attempts by each man to deprive his rival's smelters of vital 
alumina flows. The fight over alumina has caused a serious squeeze on 
Novkuznetsk and Krasnoyarsk in recent weeks.
Sources close to Sibirsky Aluminy say that management of Krasnoyarsk 
is now being controlled by Deripaska. Workers at Krasnoyarsk have already 
protested his appointment of Victor Geinze as the new general director, after
Alexei Barantsev was ordered to take a vacation. Geinze had served as his 
deputy before the takeover.
The high cost of energy supplies to the smelters is also under 
consideration by Abramovich and Deripaska. Deripaska has so far succeeded in 
securing the lowest electricity tariff in Russia by allying himself with 
Anatoly Chubais, the influential Russian politician who currently heads 
United Energetic Systems (UES), the national power utility. A recent 
estimate by a European Commission consultant put the average price of power 
to the Sayansk smelter in 1999 at $2.89 per thousand kilowatt/hours. This is 
roughly half the tariff charged to Krasnoyarsk, and a third of the tariff 
for smelters in western Russia.
Last week, under pressure himself, Chubais claimed the planned merger
between the regional power plant and Deripaska's smelter -- announced almost 
a year ago -- was incomplete, and may be reversed.
With energy supply comprising roughly 40% of Russia's aluminum production 
cost, Deripaska and Chubais have been able to trigger bankruptcy proceedings 
against Krasnoyarsk and Novokuznetsk for failing to pay overdue electricity 
bills. At Novokuznetsk, this enabled Deripaska to capture management control 
through a court-appointment trustee.
By buying out the interests of the Trans World Group of London, headed by 
David Reuben, and his Russian partner, Lev Chernoy, Abramovich has 
effectively put an end to all of Trans World's trading operations in 
Russian aluminum. This was confirmed recently by Dmitri Bossov, Trans 
World's Moscow director.
Industry sources say they do not know how Deripaska and Abramovich 
will agree on managing the new group's export operations, now that Trans World
has gone, and in a situation where cashflow from export sales will belong to 
four different smelters. Complicating this problem is the fact that the 
smelter companies themselves do not export directly, or engage in their own 
marketing. These functions are vested legally in companies registered 
offshore, where tax can be minimized, and where senior executives can decide 
how to distribute the cash.
Roughly 30% of Bratsk metal exports will continue to be traded by Yury 
Schlaifstein, a director of the smelter and London-based trader. He and
general director of the plant, Boris Gromov, have so far retained their
30% shareholding.
"It is too early to tell," said a western industry source, "how the 
different interests will manage to work together. How long have proposed 
mergers like this lasted in Russia before, or for that matter elsewhere in 
the aluminum world?" 

*******

#6
Tax Minister Wants Small Business to Employ 5-6 M Russians. .

SOCHI, April 22 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Tax Minister Alexander Pochinok said 
the rejection of double taxation will "give a free hand to small businesses 
which employ only 870,000 citizens of Russia". 

Pochinok said the number of people involved in small businesses in Russia 
should increase to five to six million. 

He spoke at the 7th session of the tax service heads of the countries 
participating in the Customs Union. The session took place in the Black Sea 
resort city of Sochi on Saturday. 

The participants discussed the development of small businesses with a focus 
on the need to reduce the tax burden and abolish double taxation in this 
sector of the economy. 

Pochinok also said that federal budget revenue from services rendered mainly 
by small businesses "should be three times as large as that from major 
industrial enterprises". 

He believes that services should be the main source of budget revenues in 
Russia, both at the federal and local levels. 

*******

#7
Intermin Institutes 324 Criminal Cases on Corruption. .

MOSCOW, April 23 (Itar-Tass) - The main organised crime administration 
(GUBOP) of the Interior Ministry exposed 1,022 crimes, connected with 
corruption over three months of 2000. A total of 324 criminal cases were 
instituted, with 102 being handed over to courts of law, Itar-Tass learnt at 
the press centre of GUBOP on Sunday. 

The GUBOP explained the difference between the number of exposed crimes and 
the number of instituted criminal cases by the fact that the so-called 
multi-lateral cases become more frequent. 

For instance one official could both receive bribes (out of 1,022 crimes, 
only 91 are established facts of giving and receiving bribes) and fill out 
false documents as well as give illegal permissions on some or other 
activities. 

The scale of crimes covers all Russian regions, the press service stressed, 
but a place of prominence is occupied by the Far East, Kaliningrad and 
central regions of the country. 

In this connection, Itar-Tass learnt at the central regional organised crime 
administration (TsRUBOB) that administration officers established 34 facts of 
corruption over incomplete four months of 2000, on which criminal cases were 
started. 

More than half of cases are in Moscow, mostly against Moscow officials. Over 
the same period in 1999, only 17 similar criminal cases were instituted in 
the central region. 

A lot of abuses were laid bare in the housing sphere in Moscow. TsRUBOB chief 
Yuri Danilov instanced one of financial and construction corporations. 

"We have ample grounds to suspect that managing director of the corporation, 
using corrupt contacts, embezzled more than six million U.S. dollars from 27 
construction projects. As a result of these machinations, several hundred 
people were left shelterless. 

Danilov also singled out another criminal case in the Ryazan Region where a 
major crime family was engaged in selling minors. According to Danilov, his 
administration established 97 cases of its criminal activities. 

The administration leveled charges against crime family boss Vitaly Usov and 
official of the regional public education division Nina Gurova. Another 
active member of the group, orphanage principal Olga Svetova, went into 
hiding, "and we put her on the federal wanted list". 

*******

#8
Chicago Tribune
23 April 2000
[for personal use only]
DRUG CENTER TAKING BACK RUSSIA STREETS 
CITY WITHOUT DRUGS TREATS ADDICTS WITH A CONTROVERSIAL PROGRAM OF DISCIPLINE 
WHILE TARGETING DEALERS WITH A MIX OF GRASS-ROOTS MONITORING AND VIGILANTISM. 
By Colin McMahon 
Tribune Foreign Correspondent 

YEKATERINBURG, Russia -- The Fund for a City Without Drugs makes no secret of 
its methods, but the scene at the group's drug-rehabilitation center still 
comes as a shock.

Young men lie on the springs of metal cots, their jean jackets serving as 
both sheets and mattresses. Their wrists are handcuffed to the beds. Their 
eyes are sunken, their faces pallid, their voices flat.< They are prisoners, 
of both heroin and of the men who swear to help them.

An explosion in drug use is battering Russia. It fuels not only crime and 
poverty, but the spread of AIDS as well. The police-state controls of the 
Soviet-era have collapsed. Corruption and laxity among border guards, police 
and prosecutors make narcotics enforcement erratic at best.

People are fed up. And in the hard-hit Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg, 
they are pushing aside police and doctors in search of a solution.

A trio of local businessmen with controversial links to suspected organized 
crime groups have formed City Without Drugs to attack the narcotics trade on 
both ends. They treat users with a homemade program that shuns medicine in 
favor of discipline. They target dealers with a mix of grass-roots monitoring 
and hands-on vigilantism.

With a typical lack of modesty, the fund's founders say their approach should 
serve as a model not only for Russia but for the West too. Police and 
government officials have visited Yekaterinburg from other Russian regions to 
take notes on the program. Last week, City Without Drugs welcomed an observer 
from Ukraine.

Should the fund's influence grow beyond Yekaterinburg, its tactics and its 
ties to alleged mob figures could present President-elect Vladimir Putin with 
a dilemma. Putin may share the group's zeal for order. But he wants that 
order imposed by the state, and he has talked often about breaking up 
organized crime.

"My personal opinion is that dealers should be shot," said Andrei Kabanov, a 
former heroin addict and co-founder of City Without Drugs. "But being a loyal 
citizen, without a law adopted by our government, we can't do this."

With their hands so tied, Kabanov and his supporters have found other ways to 
disrupt the drug trade. They have set up a pager service to field tips from 
concerned residents--70,000 calls since it began last year. They might visit 
a suspected drug dealer at his home or confront him on the street.

"We don't have the right to arrest people," said Igor Varov, the fund's 
president. "But everybody has his own right as a citizen. If someone sells 
heroin to my son, he won't stay alive. This is my right as a father."

Some Yekaterinburg dealers have wound up brutally beaten. Some have seen 
their homes set on fire.

In one celebrated show last fall, a force of about 500 beefy men descended on 
the drug-ravaged neighborhood of Gypsy Village. Some of the men emerged from 
the Mercedes-Benzes and other luxury cars to pay house calls on suspected 
dealers. Others stood around for hours, watching people come and go, sending 
out their message.

Drug sales in the area declined.

"Well, look, there goes a narco," said Varov, wheeling his Mercedes through 
the back alleys of a neighborhood he said is rife with drug sales. "There. 
Another one. And another."

Most of the people coming and going from the apartment buildings fit Varov's 
bill, including, possibly, the cobbler whose tiny workshop opens out onto a 
sidewalk. It could be good cover for drug sales.

"What are you doing here?" Varov asked, powering down a car window to talk to 
a disheveled fellow who looked about 45 but was probably much younger. The 
man replied meekly, something about going to the store.

"Better that you get out of here before I kill you," said Varov.

He raised the window and drove off.

Last month, Sverdlovsk Gov. Eduard Rossel appointed Varov chief of a regional 
commission that includes high-ranking officials from several law-enforcement 
agencies. The idea, Varov said, is to collect information on drug trafficking 
and better target and coordinate enforcement.

Yekaterinburg police are not represented on the panel. Varov and his 
colleagues accuse them of protecting the traffickers and even dealing drugs 
themselves.

The methods of City Without Drugs are not the only concern.

When created last year, the fund received significant support from the 
Uralmash Public and Political Union, widely regarded as the political arm of 
one of Russia's most powerful organized crime gangs.

City Without Drugs, some critics alleged, was helping Uralmash consolidate 
its own grip on the lucrative heroin market by putting competing dealers out 
of business. Others contended that City Without Drugs was merely a political 
front, a public-relations campaign to burnish the thuggish image of a 
Uralmash candidate for parliament.

If so, the effort failed. Uralmash's Alexander Khabarov lost the race for 
parliament to his main and bitter rival, the chief of the local police.

"People didn't vote for Khabarov because they are afraid of him," said a 
Yekaterinburg political observer. "It's that simple."

Now, contrary to many predictions, City Without Drugs is continuing its 
campaign. Varov said Uralmash's role has fallen off. And he brushed off 
allegations about Uralmash's criminal history.

"I believe as Rossel believes," Varov said, referring to the Sverdlovsk 
governor. "If you think someone is a criminal, then prosecute him. If you 
cannot prosecute him, that means he is not a criminal."

Varov and his partners hope to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for a 
research and treatment facility in Yekaterinburg. Their current rehab center, 
now home to 64 young men, is near capacity. The waiting list, already at more 
than 300 names, is growing.

Alexander, a 23-year-old factory worker, wants to be on that list. He started 
taking drugs as a conscript during the first war in Chechnya in 1996. By the 
time he was released from the army, he was a heroin addict. The last two 
years have been a struggle to hold down a job and support a family and a 
habit that eats up his measly salary.

Heroin is abundant in Yekaterinburg and, at less than $4 a fix, relatively 
cheap.

The industrial city, famous as the place where the Bolsheviks murdered the 
last Russian czar, is a transit point for drug traffickers working between 
Central Asia and Europe. Addicts interviewed at clinics in the city said 
heroin is readily available even in small towns.

Echoing Kabanov and his colleagues, the addicts and even some social workers 
dismissed the influence of the kind of risk factors associated with American 
drug usage--broken homes, for example, or poverty. They said drug use usually 
starts and takes hold because young people are curious and because heroin has 
a cool image among many Russian teenagers.

Alexander views City Without Drugs with mixed feelings. He is worried by the 
center's reputation for toughness. But his mother is desperate, and Alexander 
says he wants to care for his wife and 2-year-old child.

"I don't know what to do," said Alexander's mother, fighting back tears 
during a visit at a state-run detox clinic where Alexander is undergoing his 
fourth round of treatment. "This is not working."

So, too, says Kabanov, a former heroin addict who models the fund's rehab 
program after his own cold turkey experience. He says the medical approach to 
addiction is doomed to fail and that doctors are criticizing him merely to 
protect their turf.

"The whole world considers drug addiction a disease," said Kabanov, who was 
treated eight times at a Moscow clinic before finally beating his addiction 
on his own. "A disease assumes compassion, pity. Drug addicts do not deserve 
compassion because it is not a disease.

Many of the young men at the fund's rehab center in a wooded area on the 
outskirts of Yekaterinburg were put there by their parents. Most had tried 
treatment before, some several times, but eventually all ended up back on the 
needle.

The most recent arrivals to the center are handcuffed to their beds. They are 
fed only bread and water during their two or three weeks of withdrawal. They 
are allowed to get up three times a day to go to the bathroom.

Those who have completed the detox program offer encouragement to the new 
arrivals.

"We tell them there is no other way out," said Andrei Vershinin, 25, who was 
among the initial group of six who came to the clinic when it opened last 
December.

The young men also keep each other in line. They look up to Varov, calling 
him by a Russian term of endearment much like "Daddy." They accept the 
discipline he imposes.

"They are a family, after all," Kabanov said. "If someone does something 
wrong, he is punished in a fatherly way. You can't do it without punishment, 
because a drug addict is a scoundrel. He has to develop a reflex

"Pain once. Pain twice. Then he understands. Nothing horrible."

Varov said he expects most of the addicts to stay in the center for about a 
year. If they want to stay longer, they can.

Those like Vershinin, who says he has lost all craving for heroin, are 
allowed to walk the woods or visit a nearby lake. But they are barred from, 
say, going into central Yekaterinburg on their own.

"What do they need there?" asked Varov. "They have all they need here. All 
that is there is heroin."

Some young men have fled. But Varov and his people tracked them down and 
brought them back. Others have left and returned on their own accord. "There 
is one still missing," Varov said. "But we will find him. And we will haul 
him back."

The center is only 7 months old, so Kabanov may be too quick with his boasts 
of unprecedented results. Doctors and psychiatrists who treat addicts in 
Yekaterinburg warn that relapses are common. Kabanov's charges have yet to 
live on their own

Varov and Kabanov vow to follow their boys for as long as it takes to keep 
them clean. And few have any doubts that any missteps would mean hell to pay.

*******

#9
The Russia Journal
April 24-30, 2000
Lenin still dead, still not buried
By LYUBA PRONINA

Pensioner Veronika Popova dropped in and placed 150 rubles on the table.
"For Lenin," she said.

"That's what supports Lenin now," said Alexei Abramov, head of the V. I.
Lenin Mausoleum Foundation, as he filled out a form for Popova to sign. 

The foundation, set up in 1993, is the primary source of funds keeping
Lenin’s body intact. State funding was stopped in 1991, leaving only 12
scientists in charge of preserving his body – all Lenin admirers. 

"We get money coming from all across Russia and former Soviet republics,"
Abramov said. Many who come each year to the Red Square mausoleum to
commemorate Lenin’s birthday, April 22, contribute to the foundation.

The honor guards are no longer pacing in front of the mausoleum like they
did for many decades. But the team of scientists go to the mausoleum every
Monday and Friday to examine the body. Their livelihood, the laboratory
dedicated to preserving Lenin’s body, was absorbed by the Research Center
for Biological and Medical Technology. 

"In the past 30 years that I have worked with it, the body hasn't changed
and is in very good condition," said Yury Denisov-Nikolsky, deputy director
of the Research Institute on Biological and Medical Technology. The
laboratory formerly used in preserving Lenin’s body now tests medicines and
conducts private research projects. The earnings from the research center
also help maintain Lenin’s body.

"Lenin's body is not our major focus of work anymore," said Denisov-Nikolsky.

In Soviet times, the laboratory overseeing what was informally named
"Object No. 1" enjoyed lavish funding. Embalming agents and chemicals were
imported from abroad and equipment was delivered on demand. However, since
the deluxe Soviet Lenin preservation lab became part of the research
center, things haven’t been the same.

The average wage of the scientists is now 700 rubles ($25) a month. But
after working at the lab for 20-30 years on average, the scientists carry on.

Once a year, Lenin’s body is submerged in a tank of solution to maintain
the correct moisture level. If Lenin continues to receive the same
treatment, he could last for a few more decades, said Denisov-Nikolsky.
However, though the scientists are eager to support the Soviet icon, all is
in the hands of Russian authorities.

First "attacks" against the mausoleum began a decade ago, said Abramov, who
earlier worked as a journalist and wrote a book on the Lenin Mausoleum.
Rumors started in 1989 that Lenin’s will stated that he wanted to be buried
at Volkov cemetery in St. Petersburg next to his mother. Abramov explains
that archive searches revealed no such document.

The idea to shut down the mausoleum and bury the body came up repeatedly
during Boris Yeltsin’s presidency. Yeltsin also managed to draw the
church’s support on grounds that the body should be buried according to
Christian traditions instead of being publicly displayed.

Ilya Zbarsky, 86, who was Lenin's embalmer from 1934 to 1952, is confident
that Lenin will be buried soon. He is the only surviving embalmer from the
original team and the only one who advocates the burial himself – despite
devoting 18 years of his life to preserving Lenin’s body.

"It is not in the tradition of modern, civilized nations to preserve their
leaders’ remains and display them in such a way. I think Lenin will be
buried soon," says Zbarsky, who added that he is no fan of the Soviet
dictator – who he said wreaked terror on the state.

"This [burial] is not a priority matter for the country now. Let people
decide. If people stop visiting the mausoleum, it will close down by
itself. But since there are visitors, let it remain," Denisov-Nikolsky said.

He added that as many as 2,000 people visit the mausoleum on open days. As
many as 150 million have visited since the opening in 1924. The mausoleum’s
scheduled opening hours are 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily except Monday and Friday.

*******

#10
The Russia Journal
April 24-30, 2000
A strange task for a leader
By Otto Latsis

President-elect Vladimir Putin has made peace between Gazprom head Rem
Vyakhirev and electricity monopoly UES chief Anatoly Chubais. That’s bad
news. It’s not bad that they’ve stopped quarreling – though they’re
probably just pretending to have stopped. It’s bad that it was the head of
state who sorted out their mess. 

Of course, relations between the Russian energy giants can’t leave the
state indifferent. Nor can the consequences that the quarrel could have had
– shutting down power to thousands of businesses and millions of people.
But it is not the state’s job to make peace. The state should create
conditions that would enable the squabbling parties to reach an agreement
themselves.

The quarrel between the two energy oligarchs wasn’t normal for a market
economy. The buyer – ’ UES – wants more gas from Vyakhirev’s company, but
Vyakhirev refuses to sell more. In a normal market economy, this doesn’t
happen, and if it’s happening in Russia, it means Russia hasn’t yet quite
developed its market. 

The conflict backs this up. First, as Vyakhirev explains, he sells gas to
domestic consumers at a price that doesn’t cover his expenses and makes up
for his losses only through exports. This is probably true; otherwise, he
wouldn’t refuse to sell more gas on the domestic market. 

Second, the consumers, and above all UES, don’t pay for gas supplies on
time, but Vyakhirev can’t stop supplying them because the state keeps him
under heavy pressure. If Gazprom stops supplying gas to the energy
companies, they in turn would cut off power supplies to their
debtor-consumers, thus setting off unrest among the population – something
the state fears.

The result is a dead-end situation. Instead of being treated, the patient
is simply stuffed with painkillers. The state should let Vyakhirev sell gas
at market prices and let energy companies take measures to deal with their
debtors. If this means that poorer people suffer, then the state should
provide them with targeted assistance. This would be a normal role for the
state, a role free of the socialist parasitic past.

If quick and sustainable growth continues, other potential obstacles could
put a cap on growth: transportion, fuel supplies and the capacity of the
machine-building and metallurgical industries. Ultimately, everything comes
down to just two words – investment famine. Serious growth requires serious
investment.

Growth in investment is the most important piece of news this year, though
not yet fully appreciated by economic analysts. In January and February,
investment in main capital stood at 106.3 percent compared with the same
period last year. This is very modest growth by world standards, but in the
Russian context, it is welcomed news, especially given that investment for
the first two months of 1999 did not rise but fell to 86.3 percent of the
1998 level for the same period. Investment has picked up then by 20
percentage points, from 86.3 to 106.3, and has gone from negative to
positive. 

This is not the only good economic news to come out of recent days. For
January and February, Russian exports increased one-and-a-half-fold over
the same period last year, while imports rose only slightly. The result was
a record positive trade balance of $9.5 billion for two months. 

The good industrial growth of last year has so far been maintained and,
despite forecasts to the contrary, has even picked up in pace. Industrial
output for January and February reached 113 percent compared with the same
period last year. 

And finally, consumers are not paying for the increase in output with a
decrease in income, as was the situation between 1997-1999. Real incomes
have risen to 104.3 percent compared to last year. This is only slight
growth and it doesn’t compensate for the drop in incomes over past years,
but it is growth nonetheless.

Economic analysts say these successes are not the state’s doing – the state
didn’t do anything particular except not get in the way and not spoil the
positive effect of favorable objective circumstances. 

This is probably not quite so. Not all circumstances today work in Russia’s
favor. For a start, Russia hasn’t received any external financing now for
more than half a year. The losses this has caused the budget are comparable
to what has been gained through high oil prices. But even without loans,
Russia is paying its foreign debt – more than $2 billion in the first
quarter, in excess of $3 billion in the second – and has even increased
currency reserves by $3 billion over the last three months. Even more
sensational, given the events of the last decade, is the fact that in
March, Russia’s inflation rate increased by less than that of the United
States. 

This can’t be just pure coincidence. It could be that, finally, the years
of effort by the reformers are paying off and the country’s macroeconomic
climate is improving. Market mechanisms are slowly beginning to work. 

In answer to the debate on the role of the state – its main role is to end
the pause in reform and see the transformations through to their end. Then
the president would not have to personally make peace between the oligarchs.

******

#11
Moscow Times
22 April 2000
Letters
Who's Ruder, Genghis Khan or the U.S. Embassy?

The following letter was written in response to "Was Tatar Yoke Really That
Bad?" April 19.

Editor,

I am a third-generation American of Russian ancestry and have been living
and working in Russia since 1995. Before graduating from Columbia
University in 1981, I spent a semester at Leningrad State University,
consulting with the late academician Dmitry Likhachyov on my senior-year
thesis project, "Russian National Self-Consciousness as Reflected in
Literature Before and After the Mongol Occupation." Notwithstanding the
recent historical reassessments addressed in the article, the answer to the
question posed in the article’s title remains an unequivocal "yes — it was
really all that bad."

The few linguistic, political and economic-commercial tricks that the
Russian (Rus’) peoples learned from their Mongol overlords are
insignificant in comparison with the damage the Mongol yoke inflicted on
the collective Russian psyche. Although there remains room for debate as to
the intrinsic merits of the Mongol Empire as a geopolitical entity unto
itself, its ultimate legacy was to turn Russians away from Europe forever.
Many Russians want to be European; President-elect Vladimir Putin recently
commented that the idea of Russia’s not being an integral part of Europe
strikes him as "strange." I endorse his statement as an expression of
intent (as yet unrealized) to accede to a still largely foreign collective
heritage and — more importantly — a world view.

Russians, however, are not Europeans, but Eurasians. To a lesser extent,
this applies also to Ukrainians and Belarussians. Eurasians are neither
Europeans nor Asians, and ultimately strangers to both East and West. This
is a historical circumstance inflicted upon them by their Mongol occupiers
during a crucial period in the development of a Russian national
self-consciousness.

The issue of inter-ethnic relations between modern Russians (rossiyane) and
Tatars is a different matter that should be addressed within the political
and social dynamic of a multiethnic federal republic. I imagine that
today’s Tatars — at least the intelligentsia — are also evaluating the
significance of the Mongol yoke to the modern reality of Tatarstan in a
post-Soviet Russian Federation.

Vladimir Berezansky Jr. 
Moscow


Embarrassment to U.S.

The following letter was written in response to "Italy, U.S. Big Losers in
Visa Rating," April 11.

Editor,

I have followed with interest — and as an American with some embarrassment
— the recent article and follow-up letters to the editor detailing the U.S.
Embassy’s rather appalling reputation for lack of service, fairness or
common courtesy in administering visa applications. That the embassy is
considered the worst of the lot by non-Americans is disturbing enough; that
Americans would have an equally low opinion of the embassy is more than
disturbing.

Example: My passport is nearly out of space for entry and exit stamps — a
minor problem, I thought. After four days of telephone calls that got me
only busy signals and no answers, I finally got through to the American
Citizens Service Office. I was told it would be no problem to have
additional pages sewn into my passport, and was told the days and hours
when I should come. 

When I arrived at the embassy on one of those days, however, I was told
that I could not enter the embassy and would have to go to the end of the
line of non-American visa applicants. I showed my passport and explained
that I was not there for a visa, that I was a U.S. citizen seeking American
Citizens Services, an office separate from the visa application and
interview offices. The Russian guard, in English, told me to go to the end
of the line. 

Perhaps it was impolitic of me to point out that he was speaking in English
when he told me he didn’t speak English; still, I thought I deserved more
of a response than a cynical smile and to again be told to go to the end of
the line. 

What I found intolerable was the treatment of another American, holding a
just-adopted baby; after trying to explain that he had been given an
appointment time to be at the embassy, he was ordered in equally rude terms
to go to the end of the line. I left and spent the rest of my day dialing
the embassy to again listen to busy signals and unanswered phones. 

I have been in Moscow since 1995 and have been in the embassy more times
than I care to remember: to swim in the pool, rent the videos, eat at the
cafeteria. I have been there to give a reading of one of my novels for some
of the former ambassador’s staff. I have had friends who were neither
embassy staff nor even U.S. citizens admitted without question for aerobics
lessons. If I or others like me have been admitted freely for entertainment
and without having to wait in line behind hundreds of visa-seekers, why are
we not admitted when we need to conduct legitimate embassy business?

Over the past five years, I have been part of or overheard discussions
about "contingency plans" in the event of an emergency. Not once have I
ever heard anyone say that contacting the embassy is high on his list, if
on his list at all. Isn’t it disturbing that the very citizens the embassy
is here to serve consider it nearly the last place to turn to in an
emergency? If a citizen isn’t admitted to his own embassy on a normal day,
if he cannot get someone to answer the phone, what might he expect in a
crisis?

In the article, an embassy spokesman, Joe Kruzich, declined comment on the
U.S. Embassy’s bottom-of-the-heap rating. Though some of us would disagree,
perhaps the U.S. Embassy has no obligation to explain to foreign nationals
seeking visas why it chooses to treat them so rudely and arbitrarily. But I
think that U.S. citizens in Moscow deserve an explanation of why their
embassy refuses U.S. citizens access to their own embassy to conduct the
very business the embassy is charged with conducting, and chooses to do so
by proxy through Russian guards. 

It’s no wonder that, when it comes to public confidence and respect, the
U.S. Embassy finds itself at the end of the line.

William D. Pease 
Moscow

*******

#12
Chechnya Rebels Step Up Attacks
April 23, 2000
By RUSLAN MUSAYEV

NAZRAN, Russia (AP) - Russian troops have finished a two-month operation to
clear Chechnya's war-ravaged capital of mines, but rebels elsewhere were
stepping up attacks on Russian-held areas, the military said Sunday. 

Altogether, sappers and special agents discovered more than 120,000 mines
underground or in the rubble of Grozny's bombed-out buildings, the city's
military commandant, Maj. Gen. Vasily Prizemlin, told the ITAR-Tass news
agency. 

After rebels abandoned Grozny in February, the Russians barred civilians
from parts of the city for fear of mines. 

It remained unclear what Russia plans to do with Grozny. Some officials
have suggested moving the capital to Chechnya's second-largest city,
Gudermes, instead of spending the huge amounts of money needed to rebuild
Grozny. 

Five months of Russian air and artillery strikes left the city a charred
shell. Many streets are impassable heaps of torn-up asphalt, and the sewage
and electricity systems have been devastated. Many of its remaining
residents are surviving on gruel from Russian aid officials. 

Meanwhile, a top Interior Ministry officer said an increase in attacks by
militants this weekend could be a preparation for a major rebel operation.
There has been a lull in large-scale fighting for more than a week, while
both sides apparently regroup their forces. 

On Sunday, militants twice attacked a checkpoint in the Zavodsky region of
Grozny, and fired at a Russian warehouse guard in Botlikh in eastern
Chechnya, ITAR-Tass said. 

Rebel gunmen opened fire Saturday on a police post at the railway station
in Chernokozovo northeast of Grozny, and at a police precinct in the
southeastern town of Vedeno, said officer Sergei Arenin, according to
ITAR-Tass. 

At least five Russians were wounded in the attacks, the military said.
Rebel casualties were unclear. 

The military command estimated Sunday that 2,500 to 4,000 rebels remain in
eastern regions of Chechnya bordering the republic of Dagestan, from where
they could easily stage a cross-border attack, ITAR-Tass said. 

Chechnya-based militants invaded villages in Dagestan in August, which
helped prompt Russia to send troops into Chechnya in September. 

The Russians took about two-thirds of Chechnya in the first months of the
war, but have stalled in the mountains, the last major area still under
Chechen control. 

Meanwhile, a delegation from the European Committee for the Prevention of
Torture on Sunday visited a huge detention camp at Chernokozovo, where
human rights groups say Russian forces routinely torture inmates. 

Trevor Stevenson, leading the delegation, said he did not see signs of
torture but that abuses probably had occurred earlier, according to
Interfax and ITAR-Tass. 

Meanwhile, Chechens continued to flee into neighboring Ingushetia, with
about 1,900 refugees arriving Sunday, officials in the Ingush capital
Nazran said. Another 1,800 Chechens returned to areas under Russian control. 

********

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