April 29, 2000    
This Date's Issues:  4275 • 4276 

Johnson's Russia List
#4276
29 April 2000
davidjohnson@erols.com

[Note from David Johnson:
1. Boston Globe: GLOBE WRITER HONORED FOR CHECHNYA COVERAGE.
(David Filipov)
2. Itar-Tass: Parliament to Decide Its Transfer to Imperial Capital.
3. AFP: Russia takes to portable phone: minister.
4. Itar-Tass: Russians Differ on Euthanasia Poll. 
5. Bloomberg: Russia Offers Help Curbing N Korea's Missile Effort, 
Post Says.
6. Moscow Times: Igor Zakharov, BOOKWORM: Farewell Yeltsin.
7. The Guardian (UK): Amelia Gentleman, Putin's youth marching to a vapid tomorrow.
8. The Electric Telegraph (UK): Marcus Warren, Nature reclaims ghost town of Grozny.
9. Bratislava's Pravda: Ingushetia President Views Guerrilla War in Chechnya.
10. AFP: CHECHEN MEN FLEE GROZNY AHEAD OF RUSSIA'S MAY HOLIDAYS.
11. Moscow Times: Pavel Felgenhauer, Fighting Wars That Can't Be Won.
12. The Electric Telegraph (UK):Remember the Cold War? Brighton 
Beach is home to Russia's emigrés. Here you are assailed by the 
smells, sounds, queues and even the rudeness of the Soviet Union. 
Vitali Vitaliev investigates.
13. Russia Business Review: Masha Hedberg, A Case of Stolen Identity; Fake Products Cause Genuine Problems. (re trademark infringements and counterfeiting)] 

*******

#1
Boston Globe
April 28, 2000
GLOBE WRITER HONORED FOR CHECHNYA COVERAGE
Globe Staff

NEW YORK - Boston Globe reporter David Filipov last night received the
Overseas Press Club's Hal Boyle award for best newspaper or wire service
reporting from abroad for his coverage of Russia's war in Chechnya. 

Filipov, the Globe's Moscow bureau chief, was cited for the group's top
prize
by judges for his courage, persistence, and vivid depictions of "the ambiguity
of a war in which Russian troops fought Islamic militants, Russian bandits
fought Russian soldiers, and Chechen gangs fought Russians." "This honor is
richly deserved," Globe editor Matthew V. Storin said. "David is not only a
highly knowledgeable foreign correspondent, aided by his fluent Russian
capability, but also he's courageous."

Among other winners at the annual awards ceremony were The Associated Press
for its investigation of reports of widespread killings by US troops
during the 
start of the Korean War; Mark Schoofs of the Village Voice for his
examination
of AIDS in Africa; and several who were recognized for coverage of Kosovo
including: National Public Radio, NBC Nightly News and Newsweek.

Boston Herald reporter David Talbot won an award for reporting on
international environment on the price of oil development in Ecuador, and
Sebastian Rotella of the Los Angeles Times won the best Latin American
reporting award.

*******

#2
Parliament to Decide Its Transfer to Imperial Capital.

ST. PETERSBURG, April 29 (Itar-Tass) -- A first meeting with the agenda of 
the transfer of the Russian parliament from Moscow opened in Russia's second 
city of Saint Petersburg on Saturday. 

The speaker of the State Duma lower house of parliament, Gennady Seleznyov, 
heard out proposals to move the parliament from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. 

The meeting was attended by city governor Vladimir Yakovlev who campaigns for 
Saint Petersburg's housing the parliament. 

Yakovlev, a member of the Federation Council, or parliament's upper house, 
said he knew that many of regional governors who make up the upper house, 
spent much of their time in Moscow "pushing through" their regional projects 
in ministries, to the detriment of law-making. 

Yakovlev said the grounds of the CIS Parliamentary Assembly located near the 
Tavrichesky Palace were reserved for construction of a parliamentary center. 

Seleznyov said the State Dduma would vote on the parliament's transfer before 
the end of the spring session. 

He was shown pictures of the parliamentary center. It would be located on a 
40 hectare territory and complete with rooms for plenary sittings, offices 
and apartments for deputies. 

Seleznyov said the State Duma works in very inconvenient conditions in its 
Moscow's building on Okhotny Ryad which used to house the Soviet-era State 
Planning Committee. 

He said the State Duma had repeatedly asked Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov to 
allocate a plot in downtown Moscow for a new parliamentary center, 
unsuccessfully. 

Yakovlev and Seleznyov said the new parliamentary building would add "another 
vertical" to Saint Petersburg's architecture without damaging its classical 
image. 

They said construction would take 36 months and the building would be an 
"excellent gift" to the new State Duma. 

They claimed that the construction project would not use the federal budget's 
money. 

Its cost-effectiveness would come in proceeds on leasing the parliament's 
Moscow building. 

Seleznyov said President-elect Vladimir Putin knows of the project, although 
not of all of its details. 

Luzhkov told reporters on Saturday that the transfer of the parliament to 
Saint Petersburg "will hardly go as far as the Federation Council". 

The Russian capital should be first moved from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, he 
said. 

Luzhkov said he calmly met the proposal to transfer the parliament, as the 
have a "mostly politicking nature". 

He said he saw no sense in the affair because "now the poor country should 
solve the matters of economy restoration". 

Moscow's status of the capital envisions location of all state authorities in 
it, he said. 

*******

#3
Russia takes to portable phone: minister

MOSCOW, April 28 (AFP) - 
Russia is undergoing an explosion of mobile phone use, with 1.7 million units 
in the country and numbers doubling every year, Russian Telecommunications 
Minister Uri Pavlenko said Friday.

"Use of portable phones in Russia is exploding at the moment," the minister 
told Moscow's Echo Radio, adding that 75-80 percent of portables were used in 
the capital alone.

Unit numbers are doubling every year, Pavlenko said.

The numbers of portables rose 20 percent in the first three months of this 
year alone, he added.

Growth is being fuelled by stiff competition between Russian operators 
anxious for a bigger slice of a growing market, forcing prices down.

Another factor is the coverage offered by mobile phone companies, which in 
many areas has surpassed a crumbling state telephone network.

******

#4
Russians Differ on Euthanasia Poll. 

MOSCOW, April 29 (Itar-Tass) -- Russians differ on admissibility of 
euthanasia, or assisted death of people with incurable conditions. 

A poll conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (ROMIR) has 
found 39.1 per cent of respondents to see euthanasia, which stands for "good 
death", as a justified intervention. 

Another 18.7 per cent said euthanasia would be justified in any case and 20.4 
per cent were in favour of it "in most cases". 

Some 32 per cent were negative on terminating lives of the hopelessly ill. 

Twenty per cent said euthanasia cannot be justified in any circumstance s and 
12.8 per cent said it was not justifiable "in most cases". Of those polled, 
15.6 per cent were of the opinion that decisions on euthanasia should be 
individualised, with some cases justifiable and some not. 

Over 12 per cent were uncertain. The poll involved 1,500 respondents. lyu/gor 

******

#5
Russia Offers Help Curbing N Korea's Missile Effort, Post Says

Washington, April 29 >(Bloomberg)
-- Russia has offered to help curb North Korea's missile program if 
the U.S. drops a proposal to amend a 1972 treaty and build a national missile 
defense system, The Washington Post reported, quoting an unnamed senior U.S. 
official. The Clinton administration will review the proposal made by Russia 
Friday, but still will seek changes in the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty at a 
June 4-5 summit in Moscow, the official said, according to the Post. The 
administration promotes the missile system as a defense against possible 
attack from rogue states such as North Korea, but Russia has consistently 
rejected any proposals to amend the ABM Treaty, the Post said. 

The U.S. has told Russia that it would field only a limited missile defense 
system capable of destroying 20 to 25 incoming warheads. 

******

#6
Moscow Times
April 29, 2000 
BOOKWORM: Farewell Yeltsin 
By Igor Zakharov 

This is my last column before Vladimir Putin officially becomes Russia's next 
President, so it is only appropriate that I write about the end of the Boris 
Yeltsin epic, or at least the latest - and, perhaps, final - round of books 
devoted to his presidency. Is this really the final round on Yeltsin? 

Several of my colleagues in the publishing world paid fat advances to 
well-known authors for manuscripts on Yeltsin to be completed by late spring 
- just in time to hit the book stands for June's presidential elections. 
Included among these pre-paid authors was Vitaly Tretyakov, editor of 
Nezavisimaya Gazeta, who publicly promised a political and psychological 
profile of our beloved Boris Nikolayevich that was sure to be a bestseller. 

Early presidential elections killed these projects. But at least two authors 
were lucky or farsighted enough to beat the deadline. 

Oleg Poptsov's "Trevozhniye Sny Tsarskoi Svity" ("Troubled Dreams of the 
Tsar's Retinue") is a well-written and highly informative account of 
Yeltsin's second term, and deserves to be read by every student of modern 
Russian life in and around the Kremlin. A successful writer and editor in the 
'80s, Poptsov later was among those who organized the Russia TV channel. 
Before he got his current job as head of TV Center, he spent some time as 
president of Pushkinskaya Ploschad, a publishing house for newspapers and 
magazines. A devoted liberal, Poptsov is a keen observer of post-Soviet 
bureaucracy. His present tome is equal in quality the hefty bestseller he 
produced several years ago, "Khronika Vremyon Tsarya Borisa", ("Chronicles of 
the Times of Tsar Boris.") 

"The Yeltsin epoch is an epoch of unrealized democratic hopes and economic 
prosperity, an epoch of two wars and two coups," writes the author. 
"[Yeltsin's] presidency was teeming with revolt, drama, pain, despair and 
hope. He lost his power, and it was picked up by others who were not worthy 
of it. His diminishing strength was not enough to reclaim it. Had he been 
younger, he would have been able to get his power back. He was persuaded and 
forced to give up his power peacefully. And as his last protest - a final 
whim - he named his inheritor. His body became heavy and weak, but his 
obstinacy remained, as before, that of a tsar." 

These words are from the final pages of Poptsov's manuscript, which went to 
press Feb. 29 - a month before Putin won the presidential elections. Looking 
to the future, Poptsov wrote, "The nation again talks deliriously about 
dictatorship, and the future president looks in turn as a savior and a 
thunderer." 

Published by Sovershenno Sekretno, the 700-page tome costs 100 rubles and is 
available at most bookstores. 

*******

#7
The Guardian (UK)
29 April 2000
[for personal use
Putin's youth marching to a vapid tomorrow 
Amelia Gentleman in Moscow 
Saturday April 29, 2000 

A successor to the Komsomol youth movement was launched in Russia this week, 
dedicated not to communist ideology but to the support of Vladimir Putin. 
The movement has already been sneeringly dubbed Pusomol - Putin's Union of 
Youth - but organisers yesterday responded to jibes by unexpectedly declaring 
themselves entirely satisfied with this title. 

"The name Pusomol is not a bad one because we have supported and we will 
continue to support Putin," said member of parliament Alexandra Burataeva, 
who has recently been appointed youth leader. 

Traditions familiar to former members of the communist youth league are to be 
resurrected for the new movement. Organisers will create teams of student 
volunteer labourers to work on state building projects, as well as motivating 
young people to devote their Saturdays to sweeping neighbourhood streets and 
performing tasks for the good of society. 

The organisation will be the official youth section of the amorphous 
pro-Putin political faction Unity (also known as Medved, the Bear) which was 
hastily thrown together before last December's parliamentary elections in a 
shrewd and hugely successful bid to wrest votes from anti-Kremlin parties. 
Organisers hope ultimately to attract a membership of millions of Russians 
aged between 14 and 30. 

Despite winning nearly a quarter of seats in the elections, Unity's 
ideological stance was - and remains - unclear. The creation of a youth 
movement comes as the bloc struggles to define itself as a political force 
before its first party congress at the end of May. 

Political analysts in Moscow yesterday described the formation of the youth 
movement as a dress rehearsal for the establishment of a strong nationwide 
Unity party structure, soon to be set up in support of the president. 

"This is a clear attempt to instil political ideas into the mass 
consciousness of society - using the not yet quite forgotten traditions of 
the communist era," said Kiril Kholodkovsky. He said the movement's launch 
was the first step in an attempt to transform Unity from a synthetic, cynical 
creation into an active political body. 

Mr Putin was not present at the movement's inaugural assembly this week, but 
a letter underlining his warm support was read out. 

In the nostalgic environment of Moscow's Palace of Youth - where Komsomol 
meetings once took place - newly appointed regional leaders expressed a range 
of somewhat confused ideas about the rationale behind the youth movement. 

"Why have we set up this movement? For unification!" one man said, declining 
to elaborate further. "We aren't trying to create a bright new future, we 
want to live now," another speaker declared. 

Ms Burataeva had another, equally vapid, explanation. "We need to form a new 
generation of socially active people," she said. "We want help every young 
person to become the person he wants to be, from president of Russia, to 
world champion." 

She admitted that the movement had much to learn from the heritage of the 
Komsomol, which was launched in the aftermath of the revolution as part of a 
mass mobilisation drive for the Communist party. 

Describing the aims of the movement, one of the Komsomol pioneers said: "We 
must rescue children from the harmful influence of family life... We must 
nationalise them... From the earliest days of their little lives, they must 
find themselves under the influence of Communist schools." 

Ms Burataeva shied away from such an all-encompassing approach, and said that 
Unity Youth members would not be forced to join, nor would they be coerced 
into taking part in Soviet-style choreographed marching processions. Instead 
of Komsomol anthems, members would be encouraged to sing Russian pop songs. 
The old Komsomol insignia has been abandoned, and a nationwide contest has 
been launched among members for new slogans and badges. 

In the same way that ambitious Komsomol members could launch themselves on 
the political ladder while still at school, so too can Unity Youth members 
boost their career prospects by diligent activity in the movement. "We want 
to nurture a new generation of competent, energetic politicians who will be 
ready to take over from us," Ms Burataeva said. 

******

#8
The Electric Telegraph (UK)
29 April 2000
[for personal use only] 
Nature reclaims ghost town of Grozny
By Marcus Warren

DEVASTATED, deserted and eerily quiet by day, the centre of Grozny is a 
huge monument to the destructive power of modern weapons and the challenge of 
repairing the damage they inflict.

The main rebel forces abandoned the Chechen capital almost three months ago 
but its new Russian rulers appear to have little idea what to do with the 
conquered city. A view from the top of our armoured personnel carrier as we 
drove down its main avenue yesterday was uncannily similar to its appearance 
only days after the Russian army captured the city in February.

The main difference is the arrival of spring and the extravagant growth of 
weeds, bushes and grass unchecked by the presence of man and now threatening 
to engulf whole districts. Another few months of this sort of neglect and 
emptiness and many parts of Grozny will be in danger of disappearing beneath 
the undergrowth - an urban jungle in the most literal of senses.

A few more cars can be seen on the roads. There are fewer soldiers manning 
the checkpoints, and sniper fire and exploding booby traps no longer echo 
through the city. All the same, what was once the largest city in Russia's 
North Caucasus has mislaid most of its inhabitants and there seems to be 
little chance that many will return soon.

What passes for a town square in the new Grozny is a small open space in the 
north of the city. Its soup kitchens and water tanks attract some of the 
remaining residents and some of those thinking of returning. Mohammed 
Gilkhayev, who came back a week ago, said: "I have to walk for one and a half 
miles just to collect water. What are my impressions? I don't have any 
impressions because there is nothing of the city left."

Another draw for the Chechens is the requirement to register with the new 
authorities. The bureaucracy is rough and ready. A bus pulls up to collect 
passports and on its return an officer shouts out the names of those who have 
received the precious stamp. The Russian authorities are not laying on a 
lavish welcome for those returning and an argument is still raging in Moscow 
over what to do with the ruins of Grozny - rebuild, level to the ground or 
leave them as they are.

Much of the city was damaged in the 1994-96 Chechen conflict but a new layer 
of devastation, the result of the heaviest fighting Europe has seen since the 
Second World War, has been piled on top of the old rubble. For the moment, 
the Russian military appears to view Grozny as a policing problem more than a 
heap of ruins in need of reconstruction.

Of the little building work which has taken place since February, much has 
been of concrete slabs and barbed wire for checkpoints. Only two cranes were 
in evidence in the whole city yesterday and they stood over Grozny station 
while cheap female labour whitewashed walls and laid down track.

The railway staff have not been paid yet but hoped they would receive wages 
by the end of the month. There is lots of work to do in Grozny but little 
money to pay those who do it. Rauga Vashtayev, who was waiting in the town 
square to re-register his papers, said: "I can find a job without too many 
problems but all my potential bosses tell me to start work now and maybe I 
will get my salary later."

Like most Grozny residents, he had returned to find his house uninhabitable, 
its roof blown off, rooms destroyed and the contents looted. According to one 
Russian minister, 47,000 people have returned home to Grozny but the real 
figure is probably less than a fifth of that. Most come back to inspect the 
damage to their property and then head off in despair to refugee camps or 
relatives.

Only three families are living in a 128-flat block on Labour Street, all 
veterans of the three-month winter bombardment by Russian forces. One of 
those left behind, Lyubov Grigorieva, Russian by nationality, turned up at 
the only church in Grozny yesterday to mark what was Orthodox Good Friday. 
She had come not because she was Christian - she wasn't - but because she 
wanted "to do a bit of clearing up".

The Mikhail the Archangel Church was roofless and debris filled the interior. 
It was unclear whether a priest would be found to take the Easter services. A 
group of elderly Russian women gathered outside to receive a piece of paper 
signed by a general certifying that they had been "forced to stay in Grozny" 
during its bombardment and storming. The form would allow them to receive 
backdated pensions if they chose to leave Chechnya. Chechens would not be 
granted the right to receive pension arrears.

Almost all the Russian women were determined to leave as soon as possible, 
even though one of Moscow's arguments for launching the war last autumn was 
the need to protect people like them. Mrs Grigorieva said of months spent in 
cellars sheltering from the bombing.: "It was hell, pure hell, but we 
couldn't leave then and now we don't want to leave just clutching plastic 
bags, we want to go with all our belongings. Chechnya is no place for us. 
They say that it will start all over again in August and I do not want to go 
through that again."

******

#9
Ingushetia President Views Guerrilla War in Chechnya 

Bratislava's Pravda in Slovak
April 26, 2000
[translation for personal use only]
Interview With President of Ingushetia Ruslan Aushev, by Felix 
Alekseyev; in Moscow, date not given: "Afghanistan in Chechnya" 

[Alekseyev] You were one the first people to 
warn that a guerrilla war had started in Chechnya. 
How long could it last? 
[Aushev] If no political solution is found, it can last for years. 
Guerrillas are developing their activities in Chechnya, just as I 
foretold. I have some experience from Afghanistan, which enables me to 
make confident predictions. All prerequisites for a long and 
successful guerrilla war have been fulfilled in Chechnya. The 
resistance movement is supported by the locals and has a united command 
not only on the territory where guerrilla groups are actively operating, 
but also beyond this area. 
[Alekseyev] However, Moscow still officially denies that a guerrilla 
war is raging in Chechnya... 
[Aushev] Those who have doubts should read the history of guerrilla 
movement in the Great Patriotic War. The same was happening in 
Afghanistan, too, where guerrillas were fighting against us. 
[Alekseyev] The examples of Vietnam and Afghanistan have shown that 
the military potential of great powers is not sufficient to defeat a 
guerrilla movement. Are the people in Moscow not aware of this? 
[Aushev] I read newspapers and can do nothing but wonder. Today, 
everybody is calling for a political dialogue, including State Duma 
deputies and the Foreign Minister. It is, of course, very nice to hear 
that everyone is starting to understand that, from the military 
viewpoint, the development in Chechnya has reached deadlock. What is 
missing is a political decision that could help Russia get out of this 
situation. In general, it seems to me that people in Moscow are still 
confused about what is going on in Chechnya. I am afraid that even 
President Vladimir Putin does not know everything. He is provided with 
distorted information, especially with regard to people's sentiments. 
There are more than 200,000 Chechen refugees here in Ingushetia today. 
I know from discussions with them that they consider Aslan Maskhadov 
President of the republic. It is not possible to close one's eyes to 
this fact. 
[Alekseyev] However, Russian official representatives stress that 
the only thing to talk about with Maskhadov is an unconditional 
capitulation. Is there any leader on the Chechen side with whom Moscow 
could enter into a political dialogue? 
[Aushev] Of course there is. It is nobody else but the repudiated 
Maskhadov. We are witnessing an interesting approach: They are 
asserting that Maskhadov no longer controls anything or anybody in 
Chechnya. But, in this case, all our military commanders should be 
removed from high posts. If Maskhadov does not control the groups of 
soldiers, then it is incomprehensible why the federal troops still 
encounter organized resistance and are not able to fulfill their mission 
-- to suppress the dispersed rebel groups. How is it possible that 
fierce fights are lasting nine months, when nobody is in command of the 
enemy's progress? According to my information, soldiers obey 
Maskhadov's commands in the mountains. Unit commanders may have many 
different opinions on the present situation and relations with Russia, 
but they are carrying out their common mission. So far, they do not 
seem to suffer from a lack of arms and other equipment. If the center 
enters into a dialogue with Maskhadov, I am convinced that it is in his 
power to stop combat activities. 
[Alekseyev] Russian generals are declaring that they would consider 
stopping the fighting before the rebels are crushed and starting peace 
talks with Maskhadov as an act of betrayal... 
[Aushev] From the psychological viewpoint, I, of course, understand 
the soldiers' sentiments. But they must also understand that the knot 
cannot be cut without the Chechen people. The guerrilla war is bound 
to erupt again and again. More traps are waiting for us, as well as 
attacks against army columns from ambushes. In principle, I do not 
like to see soldiers poach on political territory. The country cannot 
be held hostage to political decisions. I have seen in Afghanistan 
where such an attitude can lead. 

*******

#10
CHECHEN MEN FLEE GROZNY AHEAD OF RUSSIA'S MAY HOLIDAYS

ACHKHOI-MARTAN, Russia, April 28 (AFP) - Said, 51, was not sticking around 
his ruined home town of Grozny to find out how the Russians planned to 
conduct a special security operation coinciding with the May Day holidays. 

His possessions piled into a beat-up Russian-made Zhiguli car, Said, like 
many other men still lingering in the ruined capital, was fleeing south for 
the holidays to avoid the likelihood of being rounded up by the police. 

"I start every time an armored vehicle rumbles past my gate," he said. "The 
Russians arrest someone every day. Sometimes the men return later, and 
sometimes they don't." 

Tens of thousands of Russian troops in Chechnya have been put on heightened 
alert for the May holidays which stretch from May 1 through the May 9 victory 
day celebration that marks the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. 

According to Russian military reports, the rebels are planning a series of 
sabotage attacks to coincide with the holidays, which might catch federal 
soldiers off guard. The Chechen fighters deny any such plan. 

Russian reports say that hundreds of separatist gunmen have slipped into the 
Chechen capital, nominally under Russian control since February, to launch a 
deadly counterattack against government soldiers next month. 

The potential for renewed violence in Grozny, and the increasingly jittery 
nerves of Russian troops in the city, have prompted an exodus of Chechen men 
who might be viewed as fighters taking part in the war. 

"When I was driving out of Grozny, soldiers manning one of the checkposts 
wanted to take away my car," an elderly Chechen said, adding that he got off 
lightly after slipping soldiers a bribe equivalent to about a dollar. 

"Everything depends on the soldiers' mood," confirmed another Chechen man 
named Khamzat, 53. "I drove my things from Grozny to Achkhoi-Martan and you 
have to pass 10 checkpoints." 

Not that life, for the few who have remained, was easy in Grozny before - 
people there are engaged in an endless hunt for food and water after the few 
distribution networks that survived the 1994-96 war were destroyed by last 
this second conflict. 

The city has been leveled to the ground, beyond recognition, while at least 
20 civilians were reported killed over the past seven days after stumbling 
across mines and other explosives still lying among the rubble. 

Yet today, Khamzat said he had no choice but to pay the bribes to get out 
because the alternative of staying in Grozny - where his house has 
miraculously survived - at the moment is growing far worse. 

"In Grozny, you hear about people getting killed every day," Khamzat said. 

"The other day my neighbor was killed. He ran a tiny food stall across the 
street and never fought. They are shooting all the time, especially at night. 
I can only imagine what it will be like now." 

The Chechen men fear that Russian troops in Grozny, already accused of 
slaughtering civilians during so-called mopping up operations in the course 
of the six-month war, will only turn more fearsome following Moscow's order 
to step up security next month. 

"Now that the holidays are here, once more they won't let us live," said 
Ramzan, 36. 

"And then the Russians ask why we want independence. Right now Chechnya is 
one big filtration camp," he said in reference to the notorious Russian-run 
jails where civilians are meant to be separated from rebel fighters. 

******

#11
Moscow Times
April 29, 2000 
Fighting Wars That Can't Be Won 
By Pavel Felgenhauer 

After the war in Vietnam ended, a proverb appeared in the U.S. military that 
is still popular today: "The United States did not have 10 years of 
experience in Vietnam; it had a one-year experience repeated ten times in a 
row." 

Politicians do not learn, militaries do not learn; they do not learn the good 
way, and they do not learn the bad and bloody way. Today, 25 years after the 
fall of Saigon, the American people are still asking the same question: What 
were we doing? They still have found no clear answer. 

Russia today is in its 10th year of dealing with a separatist rebellion in 
Chechnya. An entire generation of Russian political and military leaders has 
matured. President-elect Vladimir Putin was an obscure KGB officer serving as 
a spy in Germany in 1991 when the trouble in Chechnya first began. Still, it 
is clear that a decade of war, confrontation and negotiations with Chechen 
warlords have not taught anyone in the Kremlin anything good. 

Last fall, when Russian troops marched on Grozny again, Putin told the nation 
that this time it would be done right: The enemy would be defeated, 
casualties would be low, the war would be short, and the Chechens themselves, 
not the Russians, would fight the rebels and chase them out of villages. It 
actually seemed at times that Richard Nixon was back, talking of 
"Vietnamization of the war" (a notion that the Vietnamese would fight 
Vietnamese, while the U.S. soldiers would go home). But this time the 
conflict was in the Caucasus, and it was Beslan Gantamirov leading a 
pro-Russian proxy force against the guerrillas. 

Putin's scheme did not work. Official Russian casualties of dead and wounded 
are today nearing 10,000. At night, Russian troops, besieged in their 
dugouts, cannot know who is shooting at them today. Gantamirov's "militia," 
or "regular" rebels? 

And there seems to be no end in sight. Russian troops officially have 
occupied all of Chechnya's territory, but, as happened once before in 
1995-1996, occupation does not mean victory. On the contrary, Chechnya has 
turned into a quagmire, with guerrilla attacks becoming even more efficient 
and deadly; casualties continue to mount. 

Winning an anti-guerrilla war is no easy matter. Today it is fashionable 
within the Russian military to recall the experiences of the 1940s and 1950s, 
when Soviet forces quashed separatist guerrilla movements in the Baltic 
republics and in Western Ukraine. Recently I took part in a round-table 
discussion on anti-guerrilla warfare with some former KGB officers. One of 
them was a veteran who took part in the Stalinist anti-guerrilla campaign 
against nationalist Ukrainian rebels as an undercover agent. He said: "It's 
easy to win an anti-guerrilla war; just put a company of soldiers in each 
Chechen village and give them a KGB operative as chief." 

But there are some 200 villages and hamlets in Chechnya. More than 200 
companies add up to divisions, some 150,000 troops. Stalin had the men, but 
Putin's Russia does not have such resources. 

But the Stalinist victory in the Baltics and Ukraine turned out to be a 
defeat in disguise. When Mikhail Gorbachev tried to reform the Soviet Union, 
it was in Western Ukraine and the Baltics that the most vicious separatist 
movements emerged. The Soviet Union would not have disintegrated so 
dramatically if the anti-guerrilla war was lost and the Baltics with Western 
Ukraine were outside its borders in 1991. 

The United States did much better after its defeat in Vietnam than did the 
victorious Communists. Russia should learn this lesson: If the Chechens so 
desperately want to isolate themselves into a self-imposed tribal homeland - 
let them. That's their problem, not ours. 

Pavel Felgenhauer is an independent defense analyst based in Moscow. He 
contributed this comment to The Moscow Times. 

******

#12
The Electric Telegraph (UK)
29 April 2000
[for personal use only]
Remember the Cold War? 
Brighton Beach is home to Russia's emigrés. Here you are assailed by the 
smells, sounds, queues and even the rudeness of the Soviet Union. Vitali 
Vitaliev investigates 

In the course of their trans-American travels during 1935 and 1936, Ilf and 
Petrov bumped into only one compatriot - a Ukrainian from Volhynia selling 
popcorn in Schenectady, New York State. 

These days, they would have had many such encounters. In New York City alone 
there now live more than a million Russian speakers - washed up on US shores 
by waves of Soviet (and later Russian) emigration. 

The Russian network of modern New York is as thick and branchy as a Siberian 
fir. It incorporates more than 50 newspapers in American-accented Russian 
(for those who haven't quite learnt English yet) and one in Russian-accented 
English (for those who have all but forgotten their Russian); countless 
Russian restaurants, where one can get borscht, caviar, vodka and, 
occasionally, food poisoning; Russian bookshops, bath-houses, surgeries and 
funeral homes. People concluding business deals on their mobile phones, in a 
curious mixture of Russian and English, have become a common sight in 
Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, which the Russians jokingly refer 
to as Bronsk. 

Had Ilf and Petrov come to New York in the year 2000, they would definitely 
have visited Brighton Beach, an area in south-east Brooklyn bordering Coney 
Island. In the past 25 years, 150,000 Soviet emigrants, mostly from Odessa, 
have settled there, radically altering the face of the neighbourhood. 
Formerly regarded as "a retired poor man's Miami Beach", it is now known as 
"Little Odessa". 

Not worth a visit in the 1930s, when, according to the 1939 WPA Guide to New 
York, Brighton Beach was but "a densely populated year-round residential 
area, with closely packed apartment houses", or even in the early 1970s, when 
it was a crime-ridden ghost town, it is now one of the most idiosyncratic 
places in New York. To go there is to step back 20 to 30 years, into a 
country that doesn't exist any more: the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. 

Spiritually, linguistically and psychologically, Brighton Beach is not part 
of the US. "We don't go to America. We have nothing to do there," its 
residents like to say. An American, arriving there by accident, stands out 
and gets stared at - like an Eskimo in the streets of Abu Dhabi. 

On a wet morning, when Manhattan resembled a post-modernist version of Venice 
and the shoe-cleaners near Grand Central Station were earning more in one 
hour than during the whole of July, I left the United States and boarded a 
B-line subway train to Brighton Beach. 

My wobbly carriage resembled an Aeroflot plane of the 1980s. Having crawled 
through China Town, covered with spider-like hieroglyphic graffiti, the train 
rattled across Manhattan Bridge and entered Brooklyn, whose littered streets 
and battered red-brick houses were full of Soviet-style despair. Having heard 
a lot about the dangerous types who ride the subway during the day, I looked 
around nervously and kept my hands in my pockets (which were empty anyway). 

Soon, I concluded that I was the most dangerous type on the train, simply 
because for most of the trip I was alone in my carriage: no one in his right 
mind - not even beggars or muggers - would think of going to the Soviet Union 
by New York subway in the middle of a working day. 

Nearly two hours later, I got off the train in Coney Island Avenue - Brighton 
Beach's own "Broadway". It was raining, and the wind from the ocean grabbed 
my umbrella like a street bully, trying to break it in two. The whole 
neighbourhood, lying in the shadow of the elevated railway, looked like the 
interior of a huge neglected house with leaking roof. 

I was surrounded by painfully familiar smells and sounds. The air reeked of 
borsht and fried pirozhki (meat pies). In front of me, a fat angry-faced lady 
was telling off a young woman pushing a pram: "Button up your baby, mother, 
or you will freeze it to death!" 

Almost all signs were in Russian: "Michael Kozhin - American Dentist", 
"Footwear from Italy", "Best Goods" (a one-dollar shop selling hats, toys, 
suitcases and tacky postcards), "Cheap Goods from Russia" (this shop was 
Chinese-owned), "We Accept Foodstamps" and "Bella Works Here". 

Having resisted the temptation to see Bella at work, I wandered off to the 
nearest Gastronom (food shop). Inside, there was a queue for cut-price 
concentrated orange juice. As in the Soviet Union, one had to queue for the 
cash desk first and then for the counter, behind which a busty blonde in a 
grubby apron was unhurriedly handing over the coveted cartons. "Are you 
buying it or not, woman?" she shouted at a little old lady, whose decrepit 
shopping trolley squeaked like a Moscow tram turning the corner. The queue 
was regularly jumped by rough-looking men buying packets of Marlboro - 
without a whisper of protest from anyone. 

The whole scene struck me as utterly un-American, for in the US, according to 
The Americans: A Study in National Character by Geoffrey Gorer, even "the 
smallest purchase should be accompanied by a smile, and the implied assurance 
that the vendor is delighted and privileged to serve you". People did not 
smile in the Gastronom; facial expressions fluctuated between uncomplaining 
indifference towards the customers and "the implied assurance" of the vendor 
that she had a personal vendetta against everyone in the queue . . . 

I couldn't tear my gaze from the vatrushki (cheese pies) - like those I used 
to have for my school lunches; from fat-oozing salo, a pure pork lard that 
can be sliced and eaten with bread; from dusty bottles of Troika kvas, a 
mildly alcoholic drink, made of yeast and rye bread; and from other culinary 
delights of my previous Soviet life. 

"Can I have a cabbage pie, please?" I asked the salesgirl politely, when my 
turn came. "Are you flirting with me, or what?" she snarled. She must not 
have heard the word "please" since childhood. 

There were no self-service food stores in Brighton Beach, where, despite the 
over-abundance of food, shopping for it remained a masochistic Soviet 
experience, featuring totally superfluous cash desks, rude salesgirls and 
queues to be jumped. 

Not so in numerous music stores, where I was allowed to browse on my own, 
having deposited my shoulder-bag with a blue-faced attendant in exchange for 
a nomerok - a soiled piece of cardboard with a number. "We've got plenty of 
Russian criminal folklore," an attendant told me proudly, inviting me to look 
at a stand holding hundreds of tapes and CDs. Do I look like an underworld 
type?" 

I ventured into "Parikmakherskaya", a barber's shop run by Syoma, an old Jew 
from Minsk and a former "Soviet activist" (in his words). Squinting to ensure 
he didn't chop off my ears, he complained of his life in Brighton Beach: "We 
are besieged by home-grown gangsters. The other day they killed a jeweller. 
Burst into his shop and shot him in broad daylight. And took the jewellery." 

"The Mafia? Which Mafia?" Liova, a leading Brighton Beach businessman, raised 
his bushy eyebrows in response to my question. "All this Russian Mafia bull 
was invented by New York City fathers, who hate us for being so 
entrepreneurial and successful." 

He proceeded to tell me how they were slowly but surely driving Africans and 
Puerto Ricans from the area, and I suddenly realised why music of the 
underworld was in such great demand in Brighton Beach. The people, having for 
generations had to cheat the Soviet system to survive, were finding it hard 
to change their way of thinking. Some of the scams originating from Brighton 
Beach, such as the sale of water-dissolved petrol to gas stations across 
America, stunned the country by their crafty simplicity. Talking of the 
so-called Russian Mafia, an NYPD spokesman once noted: "It is much easier to 
deal with a criminal who breaks the law than with a person who doesn't know 
that the law exists." 

By mid-afternoon the rain stopped, and couples of elderly immigrants, wearing 
that indelible "I am waiting to be hurt" expression, could be seen strolling 
along the wet wood-paved boardwalk. From time to time they would stop and 
stare at the ocean, as if trying to discern the outlines of their native 
Odessa on the horizon. Some of them would later go to Odessa Restaurant, 
where a local bard, Willie Tokarev, performs his nostalgic songs. In one, he 
calls Brighton Beach "a gipsy encampment". True, its residents are as 
rootless and as gipsies, but unlike gipsies they have stopped wandering. 

It was with relief that I boarded the train back to America. Half a day in a 
country that no longer existed had been more than enough. 

To while away the journey, I leafed through a thick Russian rag. My attention 
was captured by this ad: "Never!!! The Weiner Brothers' funeral parlour will 
never refuse service to Russian Jews!" I remembered that in "the regional 
centre of N.", a fictitious Russian town, described by Ilf and Petrov in 
their brilliant novel The Twelve Chairs, there was a "Do Us the Honour" 
Funeral Home. Had the writers not been dead for 60 years, I could have 
believed they had visited modern Brighton Beach. 

Vitali Vitaliev was assisted by the New York Travel Advisory Bureau. Call 
(09060) 40 50 60 for a free copy of its guideand a discount card. Vitaliev's 
new book, 'Borders Up!', published this monthby Simon & Schuster. 

******

#13
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2000 
From: PBNNathan@aol.com (Paul Nathanson)
Subject: Trademark infringements and counterfeiting 

Russia Business Review/April Issue
A Case of Stolen Identity
By Masha Hedberg

Trademark infringements and counterfeiting continue to plague businesses
working here, and reportedly cost companies millions and millions of
dollars each year.

What's in a name? For many companies, pretty much everything: their
reputation, consumer confidence in their products, the profitability of
their brands, and years and millions of dollars sunk into careful
promotion, advertising and marketing of the name.

"We've been building up our brand identity for decades, and now someone
is trying to illegally piggyback on the name we have built up for
ourselves," said Yury Vatskovsky, the in-house lawyer for Eastman Kodak,
which has for close to a year been fighting to dislodge a small Russian
company, Spectre Service, from the kodak.ru domain site.

Though Spectre was quicker to register the name with the Russian
Institute of Public Works, the agency that oversees domain registration,
such usurpation of the Kodak name is in clear violation of not only the
Russian law on trademarks, but also the laws governing company names and
fair competition, Vatskovsky said.

Kodak discovered kodak.ru only after partners and clients began to call
the company to complain of the site's poor quality, the lawyer said.

The incidence of cyber-squatters is indeed on the rise, experts say, and
trademark piracy in the realm of Internet domain names is quickly
becoming a major source of concern for companies, both foreign and domestic.

According to Tom Thomson, the Russian Federation representative for the
Coalition of Intellectual Property Rights, which has recently conducted
a survey on intellectual property protection and enforcement in Russia,
domain-grabbing is a new area of trademark infringement, and conflicts
here are difficult to resolve as Russia lacks any legislation
specifically regarding trademark protection on the Internet.

Vatskovsky, however, said the problem lies less with the laws than with
their enforcement and interpretation by courts.

"We feel that the existing laws are enough to prove that such [brand
name] usurpation is unlawful," Vatskovsky said. The current laws on
trademarks and intellectual property in general do not specifically
cover the Internet, though neither do they specifically exclude it.

Vatskovsky added that the main problem has been with the courts, which,
according to the lawyer still do not understand how to handle
intellectual property rights - and at times adopt a hostile position
when it comes to suits lodged by foreign firms. 

While Kodak's claims have been repeatedly turned down, Russian cinematic
giant Mosfilm won the fight to return the mosfilm.ru site from a
cyber-squatter in the same court to which Kodak had applied with
"absolutely identical claims," Vatskovsky said. 

"The laws are there, only they don't always work," he said, adding that
Kodak, out of principle, will not buy "what's already ours," though the
company was given the opportunity - with is a heavy price tag attached.

RIPW, the body that registers domain names, states it is not responsible
for checking for trademark registration with Rospatent before allocating
domain names, instead of giving out names on a first come, first serve
basis. 

Stealing identities

However, while the advent of the Internet has opened up a new sphere of
potential dangers, traditional trademark and intellectual property
rights, or IRP, problems remain to challenge brand householders and
trademark owners in Russia, with the CIPR survey showing that businesses
consider weak protection of IRP to be among the top three obstacles to
working in Russia. 

"The recent survey found that the losses to trademark and brand holders,
as well as to the state, are pretty significant," Thomson said. "It has
also shown that concern over IRP violations has increased substantially,
and has almost reached the same level as customs and taxes as barriers
to doing business in [Russia]."

Fifty-two percent of the survey participants cited intellectual-property
protection as a primary challenge to doing business in Russia, while
customs and taxes received 54 percent and 52 percent, respectively.
Of those companies that were willing to disclose financial information,
half placed their yearly losses caused by IRP violations (mostly
trademark infringement and counterfeiting) at about $1 million, while
another third said losses totaled between $5 million and $59 million or
more. 

"The legal foundation is there," said Evgeny Ariyevich, international
partner with the law firm Baker & McKenzie, "though it needs
improvement." He said several amendments that would strengthen trademark
protection have been stuck in the State Duma since last year. 
Among the area that need to be strengthened is Rospatent's ability to
annul registration, Ariyevich said. According to the lawyer, at present
Rospatent's authority to annual is limited, and "there is no direct
relation between court decisions, the decisions of the Anti-Monopoly
Ministry and Rospatent's ability to annul."

He added that in several instances, Rospatent has annulled a trademark
registration, citing a case where a Russian company registered "Jurassic
Park" as a trademark. However, the registration was revoked after
Universal Studios proved the name Jurassic Park had already become well
known in Russia before the local firm had filed for registration. 

According to Thomson, another key issue that still needs to be codified
into Russian law is the principle of "well-knowness," that is, when a
trademark, for instance the name Coca-Cola, is recognized as being so
widespread that it has precedence over others in terms of registration.
International IRP standards, such as those set by the World Trade
Organization, an organization which Russia hopes to join, have clearly
established the principle, he said.
According to Rospatent, Russia is also nearing such acceptance, and
Rospatent is working on draft procedures for the registration of
so-called well-known brand names. However, though Vatskovsky heralded
this as a welcome addition, he said that it could lead to paradoxical
situations in which such "obviously famous names like Coca-Cola or

Mercedes Benz" will have to submit documents providing that their names
are known. 

"But though there are still a number of important gaps that need to be
filled, overall, the legislative regime here is pretty good," Thomson
said. "The biggest issue here is with enforcement [of the laws]."
Legal experts agree that one of the cardinal problems in terms of
enforcement is that many lower courts lack the expertise and the
sophistication to rule on complex trademark cases, not being all too
familiar with legal precedents and standards set out in international
treaties, or even existing Russian legislation. Some have also cited the
potential corruptibility of the courts, and inherent bias toward Russian
firms and brands.

Another problem is that the criminal penalties that apply to IRP
violations, as set out in the Criminal Code, are not strong enough to
act as deterrents, Ariyevich said.

According to statue 180 of the Criminal Code, a company can be fined for
trademark infringement no more than 400 minimum salaries ($1,180) - and
only if it was proven that there was criminal intent.
According to Alexander Korchagin, director of Rospatent, there have been
several court cases that are beginning to shape trademark law. He cited
a 1999 case where a Russian firm registered "MeterInch" as a trademark,
though it was already held by a U.S. firm. After a Russian court ruled
against the Russian company, Rospatent annulled the Russian trademark. 
However, luck and verdicts have swung in other directions for some other
foreign firms. Another much talked about case involved tobacco giant
Philip Morris, and its Soyuz Appolo and Bond Street cigarette brands.
According to Philips Morris, two local brands put out by Moscow-based
Invest Trust, Soyuz Planeta and Evro Street, are so similar to in
packaging to their more famous foreign counterparts that they are
misleading to customers, and thereby violate Philip Morris' trademarks
in Russia. 

However, thus far courts of law have repeatedly ruled in favor of Invest
Trust. 

"We filed twice, we lost twice," said Karen Moore, Philip Morris'
corporate council for Russia.

"In all three hearings, the judges were out for about the time it takes
to smoke a cigarette, or less," Moore said. "When a decision is handed
down in a minute and a half, it doesn't seem to me that it could have
been a professional review of [of the evidence]."


Fake Products Cause Genuine Problems
By Masha Hedberg

Another major trademark-related issue is counterfeiting - which is
outright trademark piracy, Thomson said. He added that counterfeiting
seems to have grown in the post-crisis economy, as both the methods of
counterfeiting and channels of distribution have become more
sophisticated. 

"For us, the most worrisome problem now is counterfeiting, though we
keep an eye on trademark violations as well," said Jennifer Galenkamp,
head of external corporate affairs at Nestle. "There is some legislation
on the books, but it needs to be strengthened, as does the actual law
enforcement. But for now it doesn't seem that IRP violations are a top
priority for the government."

When asked what proportion of their companies' products sold in Russia
are counterfeited, 8 percent of the CIPR survey respondents said none,
64 percent said less than 10 percent, while 28 percent of the companies
indicated that more than 10 percent are counterfeit and 12 percent said
more than 25 percent are.

ŇA lot has to do with Russia's lack of financial resources and
technology to be able to address the issue,Ó Thomson said, citing
customs as an example. In some countries, customs have totally
computerized systems that allow them to verify product authenticity when
goods enter the country.

Law enforcement agencies that police such as things as kiosks also did
not receive glowing marks, according to the survey.

Though survey participants gave Rospatent relatively high marks in terms
of protecting intellectual property rights, some companies have voiced
complaints that at times Rospatent experts are all too human, subject to
outside influences, and at times reach erratic decisions, giving some
what they deny to others. 

"It's both a question of educating judges and getting Rospatent to make
an effort to clarify legislation," Philip Morris' Moore said. "What's
more, there should be greater coordination between Rospatent decisions
and court decisions."

But while most agree the level of protection is offered in Russia is
less than desirable, some firms also acknowledged that they themselves
have not done enough to protect their brands and names. According to the
survey, only 60 percent of the polled companies registered trademarks in
the last year.

******

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