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CDI Library > Johnson's Russia List

Johnson's Russia List
 

 

May 23, 2000    
This Date's Issues: 4318  4319  4320

Johnson's Russia List
#4320
23 May 2000
davidjohnson@erols.com


[Note from David Johnson:
1. St. Petersburg Times: Anna Badkhen, State Environment Body Goes Way of Dodo.
2. BBC MONITORING: NTV, RUSSIAN ECOLOGIST SLAMS DECISION TO CLOSE ENVIRONMENT AGENCY.
3. deadline.ru: Lev Levinson, Labor Unions To Be Sidelined by Labor 
Code: Working Overtime Will Become Our Human Right.
4. Stratfor.com: Putin Appoints Two Outsiders to Key Posts.
5. Reuters: Russian land of volcanoes embraces geothermal power.
6. Washington Post: Richard Cohen, Putin's Bad Company.
7. Reuters: Germany's Grass, other writers rap Russia over war.
8. Reuters: Russian PM says no plans to sack c.bank chief.
9. Moscow Times: The Man on His Plan. (Interview with German Gref)
10. Moscow Times: ROUND TABLE: Kasyanov Looks Set to Choose His Own Plan.
11. Rossiyskaya Gazeta: Diseases in Russia Seen on the Increase.
12. Vek: Nikolai SHMELYOV, Impoverished Russia Is Financing the Outer World. How Much Openness Is Needed For Our Economy? 
13. Reuters: Putin introduces new Russian spymaster.]


*******


#1
St. Petersburg Times
May 23, 2000
State Environment Body Goes Way of Dodo
By Anna Badkhen
STAFF WRITER


MOSCOW - In what environmentalists called "a step away from the civilized 
world," President Vladimir Putin last week abolished the federal committee 
that monitored most of the country's environmental issues.


Last Wednesday, Putin signed a decree abolishing the State Committee for the 
Environment, the main government body responsible for monitoring and 
analyzing all facets of the environment except those related to nuclear 
issues. According to the decree, the committee's monitoring functions will be 
transferred to the Nature Resources Ministry.


In an interview Monday, committee head Viktor Danilov-Danilyan called the 
decree "absurd."


"Environmental testing and environmental control must be carried out by an 
independent body. Meanwhile, the Nature Resources Ministry itself exerts a 
major negative impact on the environment, and all of its numerous projects 
are objects of [our] monitoring," Danilov-Danilyan said.


"The ministry ... will certainly kill all environmental activities," he said, 
adding that if the ministry is entrusted with ecological control, "the 
environmental activities will begin to degrade rapidly."


According to the decree, the committee's specialists will not be 
automatically transferred to the ministry, and it is unclear how the ministry 
will fulfill its new monitoring duties. Abolishing the committee, however, is 
a lengthy process that may take up to three months, Danilov-Danilyan said, 
adding that he hoped the country's green lobby would put enough pressure on 
the government to result in a reversal of the decision to liquidate the 
committee - which he said should be deemed a government "mistake."


Environmentalists have repeatedly criticized Danilov-Danilyan for his halfway 
policies. Last fall, for example, the environmental chief publicly supported 
a project to import spent nuclear fuel to Russia for long-term storage, 
calling the plan profitable. The project is lobbied by the Nuclear Ministry 
and is sharply criticized by both Russian and international activists.


On Monday, however, independent environmentalists unanimously supported 
Danilov-Danilyan, and called the decree a conscious step by a government that 
does not care about the environmental situation in the country.


"Even the presence of a shabby State Committee for the Environment is better 
than no environmental monitoring body whatsoever," said Greenpeace Russia 
spokesman Alexander Shuvalov.


In a news release distributed last week, Greenpeace Russia called the 
liquidation of the committee "a step away from the civilized world."


"From now on, Russia is absolutely helpless against the army of industrial 
and commercial moguls who shamelessly steal its natural resources," the news 
release said.


"This [liquidation] is a step towards de-environmentalization of the state," 
said Vladimir Slivyak, coordinator of nuclear programs for the Moscow-based 
Ecodefense group.


"Maybe the next to go will be the State Nuclear Inspection Agency [or 
Gosatomnadzor]," a body that monitors and analyzes all civilian nuclear 
facilities in the country, Slivyak said.


Alexander Nikitin, the renowned environmental activist who heads the Russian 
branch of the Norwegian environmental group Bellona, said the committee was 
eliminated because it was "an inconvenient body."


"If the government had a chance to abolish the rest of the green 
organizations, it would have done exactly that," Nikitin said.


Nikitin spent over 10 months in a Federal Security Service jail and four 
years under constant surveillance on charges of high treason and espionage 
for co-authoring a report with Bellona on the environmental hazards posed by 
Russia's Northern Fleet. A recipient of several international awards for his 
environmental activities, Nikitin was finally acquitted by the Supreme Court 
last month.


While Russia has drawn international criticism for punishing its 
environmental activists, it pays remarkably little attention to ecological 
problems. According to Danilov-Danilyan, in 1999, the country allocated only 
0.2 percent of its budget to support environmental work.


At the same time, the environmental chief said earlier this year that 61 
million Russians - almost half of the country's population - live under 
environmentally dangerous conditions, noting, for instance, that the air in 
120 Russian cities is five times more toxic than acceptable levels.


*******


#2
BBC MONITORING 
RUSSIAN ECOLOGIST SLAMS DECISION TO CLOSE ENVIRONMENT AGENCY
Source: NTV, Moscow, in Russian 23 May 00 


A leading Russian ecologist has called on President Vladimir Putin to
explain the abolition of the Russian State Committee for Environment
Protection, saying it was vital to have an ecological monitoring agency
independent of the body responsible for exploiting natural resources. 


"We spent 20 years campaigning to prove that one cannot combine the
functions of exploitation [of natural resources] and monitoring [of the
environment] under one department," Aleksey Yablokov, the president of the
Russian Centre for Ecological Policy, said in remarks broadcast by Russian
NTV on Tuesday. 


"We had finally achieved a situation where we had some kind of independent
and separate ecological department where the monitoring functions were the
main thing. 


"But now the functions of monitoring the environment are being handed over
to the department which is engaged in exploiting natural resources. This is
prohibited even by Russian legislation," he added. 


Yablokov said that the decision to abolish the Environment Protection
Committee had implications for the world at large, not just Russia, and
that Putin would have to explain what prompted him to issue the
presidential decree axing the committee to US President Bill Clinton. 


"This is an event of more than a Russian dimension... I think Putin will
have to explain his position during the summit with Clinton because that
position just does not make sense," he said. 


*******


#3
May 22, 2000
deadline.ru
Lev Levinson
Labor Unions To Be Sidelined by Labor Code:
Working Overtime Will Become Our Human Right
[translation for personal use only]


Vladimir Mironov, a former judge of the Moscow City Court, once opened the
employment record of one of his visitors. In the record, the inscription
"fired" was followed with a variation of the four-letter word. One might
guess that the boss got sick enough with his employee to resort to such a
verbiage. Nevertheless, in the past, under Soviet-era labor committees, it
was
hard to imagine any kind of administration doing such things even to a
hopeless alcoholic and shirker.


In essense, the government draft of the Labor Code sends a similar message
to all workers in the country. At least this is how labor unions are bound
to read the draft.


A year ago, there had already been a conflict in the Duma over this project.
Then, its discussion was suspended: both branches of power agreed that it
wouldn't be prudent to push through such an unpopular bill on the eve of
elections. Now, when everybody got elected, the Labor Code is back on the
agenda. Its consideration is scheduled for June 7.


There is little need to explain that the present composition of the Duma
will not let the government be frustrated in any of its desires.
Nevertheless, in the course of his confirmation hearings, Kasyanov responded
to a question on Labor Code by saying he was unfamiliar with the issue and
hadn't read the document, that he will give appropriate instructions, but
that these days the government needs tax bills much, much more.


Formally speaking, there have been three drafts. But only one of them,
prepared in the Labor Ministry, has the official status. The authors of the
other two - Teimuraz Avaliani, a radical communist, and Anatoly Golov from
Yabloko - lost their Duma seats. (...) Just before the hearings on the Prime
Minister's confirmation, a fourth alternative draft was introduced in the
Duma. The fact that among his authors there are influential communists
Anatoly Lukyanov and Valery Saikin, Andrei Isaev (a labor union leader from
the Fatherland) and Gasan Mirzoev, chair of the Guild of Attorneys (from the
Union of Right-Wing Forces) serves as a guarantee that final decisions will
be postponed at least until the fall. Avaliani's and Golov's proposals will
still have to be taken into account (unless someone will find some trick in
the Duma by-laws), but only this latest draft can provide a real
counterweight to the government bill.


The 30-year old Code of Labor Laws (KZoT) is obsolete. Its guarantees are
not being observed. The acting laws do not make employees answerable for the
fulfillment of their obligations under contract. (...) Many provisions are
unconstitutional and at odds with international law. Thus, it is legal to
terminate an employee that is temporarily disabled, which is in violation of
the ILO Convention. Or, another example, an employee has no right to quit
from a fixed-time contract position "without sufficient reasons".


Yet, with all deficiencies of the present law, the document that several
governments have been trying to impose upon the country throws it back by
about a hundred years. (...) In fact, the government wants to abolish the
8-hour working day limit. Employers will be entitled to "negotiate" even a
12-hour day, and, in case overtime work is done "voluntarily", employees
will be paid at a regular rate, without increase. It will be enough to sign
a declaration - at the employer's proposal - stating that you request
permission to work 56 hours a week instead of 40. What else does the
government want? To legalize payments in kind, in medieval style. Then,
employers will be able to shift the burden of marketing low-demand products
onto the shoulders of their employees.


In the government draft, employers are not answerable for non-payment of
wages. Meanwhile, employees can be fired if they decline to work without
pay. The bill expands the scope of grounds for firing and reduces
limitations on it. This Code would remove the ban on firing pregnant women,
mothers of young and disabled children. Employers would become entitled to
change labor conditions without warning, while today they are obliged to
inform their workers about these changes two months in advance.


The informal argument runs like this: the 8-hour working day limit and many
other regulations have not been enforced in practice for many years -
everybody does whatever possible to survive. Some are happy to get paid at
least in kind. Wouldn't it be better just to legalize the order that emerged
over time? Following this logic, the government decided to make at least
employers happy. And since the latter don't need unions, it's best to get
rid of them at all. The draft code strips them of any influence over
management: the boss can take any decisions on his own. Strikingly, the
"socially oriented" Yabloko advertising the "pro-employee" Golov draft, does
not pay attention to even more far-reaching proposals contained in this
project - such as entitling employers to fire workers without explanation if
the company's size is less than 30 people. (...)


Same themes can be found in the famous Gref program, which proposes large
cuts in unemployment benefits and encourages out-of-court settlements of
labor disputes.


The authors of the government bill resort to the principle of equality of
negotiating parties, i.e. equality of employees and employers, as a legal
basis for the "labor legislation reform". But a pure civil approach is not
applicable to labor relations, where one side has a more advantageous
position in the first place. The goal of labor laws is just the opposite: to
protect employees from the economic supremacy of employers. This requires
working legal mechanisms, including Processual Labor Code, which the
government promised to introduce back in 1996, but forgot abotut this
promise. Meanwhile, its draft Labor Code has already received the IMF
approval.


*******


#4
Stratfor.com
Putin Appoints Two Outsiders to Key Posts
May 23, 2000


While keeping most of his Cabinet intact, Russian President Vladimir Putin
has appointed new faces to two key posts ­ naming an intelligence
professional with experience in the United States and Germany to run the
country’s foreign intelligence while placing a little known Siberian
official in the role of energy minister.


Over the course of the last week, Putin appointed Sergei Lebedev to run the
Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and named Alexander Gavrin energy
minister. The president’s selections appear to foreshadow his plans for
economic reform. Though unannounced, the plan will likely focus on luring
foreign investment while making national industries profitable. Each man
will bring particular skills to both endeavors.


Lebedev has a background reminiscent of the president’s. Lebedev, 52, is a
KGB veteran. Born in Uzbekistan, he graduated from both the Kiev
Polytechnic Institute and the Diplomatic Academy of the Soviet Foreign
Ministry. Like Putin, Lebedev worked for the KGB in Germany during the Cold
War. Since 1998, he has been the official representative of the SVR to the
United States.


He seems likely to add value to Putin’s new government because of his
experience in gathering information on the two most important economic
targets: the United States and Germany. Putin’s plan will probably rest on
developing investment, trade and technology with the two countries that can
offer Russia the most benefit.


In contrast, Gavrin is a comparative unknown ­ which may be the reason that
the president selected him. He has not circulated much in Moscow. Born in
Ukraine, Gavrin has been serving as mayor of the western Siberian town of
Kogalym ­ the home of a major subsidiary of LUKoil, the country’s petroleum
giant. Gavrin also holds degrees in the industry, according to a report by
the Interfax news agency.


Other than being a member of the All-Russia party, Gavrin has been
relatively isolated from Moscow politics. Putin is struggling to separate
Russia’s network of wealthy businessmen from their influential roles in
politics, and a Siberian mayor would seem a practical choice. Gavrin may
bring the administration a conflicted set of loyalties, however. His
knowledge of LUKoil is an asset but he is probably beholden ­ in some
measure ­ to the company’s powerful director, Vagit Alekperov. 


*******


#5
Russian land of volcanoes embraces geothermal power
By Peter Henderson

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, Russia, May 23 (Reuters) - The earth's heat bursts 
from volcanoes in Russia's Far Eastern ``land of fire and ice,'' a remote 
region betting that geothermal power will bring it investment and an 
independent source of energy. 


Renewable power would safeguard one of Russia's most pristine regions, though 
bankers -- and investors who would be relied on to fund expansion -- are 
watching to see whether the region can repay a $100 million Western loan. 


The Kamchatka peninsula juts into the Pacific Ocean on Russia's side of the 
Bering Straits, nine time zones from Moscow and tied to the mainland chiefly 
by the legends of its bears, volcanoes, geysers and main city of 
Petropavlovsk, closed to Russians and foreigners until the early 1990s. 


The world's last major run of caviar-bearing wild salmon and a port base for 
sea fishing validate the city's existence, but ferocious winters have taken 
their toll since the Soviet Union's demise because of diminished subsidised 
shipments of fuel. 


``We live forever on tankers which come -- or do not,'' said Kamchatka 
Governor Vladimir Biryukov. 


``Now that more than half the region lives below the poverty level, people's 
inability to pay restricts our ability to dependably finance fuel purchases. 


``Energy has always has been the basis for industrial growth. It is the basis 
for securing life for society. So our main programme and the main capital 
investment is to build an energy base that would use our own resources.'' 


VOLCANIC POWER 


A solution of the region's erratic power supplies is bubbling away 
underground next to the Mutnovsky volcano, one of about 30 stretching down 
the peninsula which is roughly half the size of Texas or France. 


OAO Geoterm, a Russian engineering firm set up by scientists, is developing a 
geothermal field abandoned in Soviet days and plans to complete a $150 
million power plant at the end of next year. A prototype is up and running. 


Hot water and steam heated by the earth fuel the geothermal plants. The steam 
runs turbines which produce electricity and can also be used to heat another 
substance with a lower boiling point than water, which can produce even more 
steam and energy. 


Officials plan to pump used steam back into the ground to bury the traces of 
sulphur and other elements that would otherwise contaminate the environment 
and ensure steam wells do not leak pressure and sap the field's power 
potential. 


Geoterm says the new plant will produce up to 50 megawatts and the field 
could yield from 150-300 megawatts. The top end is nearly enough to power 
Petropavlovsk, says Oleg Povarov, Geoterm's vice-president. 


He says geothermal stations could in theory produce almost two percent of 
Russia's electricity. 


Geoterm shareholders include regional authorities and the national power 
utility UES, and Povarov says success is certain for current and future 
investors and the project. ``There is no electricity problem in Kamchatka. 
The problem is financing.'' 


The project has attracted the European Bank for Reconstruction and 
Development (EBRD) which has lent $100 million for the plant. 


REALITY MAY BITE 


Success may not be so simple. 


Viktor Luzin, Geoterm's chief in Kamchatka, busts a couple of myths about 
geothermal power -- it is not completely clean and is expensive to start up 
and maintain, especially in Kamchatka, where snow blocks the access road for 
most of the year. 


``It is a misconception that geothermal stations are cheap, that you don't 
have to pay for fuel,'' he said. ``There are costs of the well -- drilling, 
repairing equipment, monitoring of the well and the geothermal field. 


``Energy from hot water and steam is about the same price as from fuel oil or 
coal. The only difference is that it is a renewable energy source... and the 
ecology.'' 


An EBRD representative, who asked not to be named, said geothermal 
electricity would be cheap, a view shared by the governor and Povarov. 


But the biggest question mark hanging over plans is the ability of the local 
utility and its customers to pay for their electricity so Geoterm can repay 
the loan. 


The EBRD, conscious of the risk, gave its credit to the federal government 
for lending to Geoterm, effectively requiring it to guarantee the loan. 


It also helped push through a power purchase agreement, Russia's first, which 
through a series of deals between various government bodies ensures energy 
tariffs will cover payments on the loan until its maturity in 10 years. 


The question is whether customers, in turn, will pay for the electricity they 
use, a chronic Russian problem. 


The regional administration secured oil supplies this winter -- Governor 
Biryukov said the utility Kamchatenergo could not always buy fuel because it 
was owed so much. 


``You can't just blame Kamchatenergo. You have to speak more about the 
ability of the population to pay and the ability of the government to support 
payments for social infrastructure, payments for electricity and heat,'' he 
said. 


The EBRD also has some concerns about repayment. Investors expected to fund 
the next stage of expansion of the geothermal power works would expect to see 
results before making commitments, the bank representative said. 


Luzin says the economy will pick up and factories will be able to pay for 
their electricity, but when Biryukov was asked if households could pay, he 
replied: ``They will, sometime.'' 


*******


#6
Washington Post
May 23, 2000
[for personal use only]
Putin's Bad Company
By Richard Cohen


Who is Vladimir Putin, anyway? Is he the democrat he says he is, a regular 
freedom-of-the-pressnik, or is he a neo-autocrat, who step by step will 
return to some of the policies and practices of the old Soviet Union? As of 
yet no one can say, but the signs--especially recently--are not encouraging. 
The man keeps some strange company. 


Earlier this month, for instance, the Kremlin invited an indicted war 
criminal, Yugoslavia's Gen. Dragolub Ojdanic, to Moscow. He met with the 
Russian defense minister and the army's chief of staff. On both occasions, 
the Russians neglected to put the cuffs on him, which is what they are 
required to do as members of the United Nations. This was a clear signal that 
Putin is going to play by his own rules.


Ojdanic's visit shows a studied and brassy contempt for the United Nations, 
its war crimes tribunal in the Hague and--most important--for common decency. 
In the words of his indictment, Ojdanic is accused of "crimes against 
humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war." In plain language, 
we're talking ethnic cleansing.


The United States has protested Ojdanic's visit but is not prepared to 
confront Russia in the Security Council. The Clinton administration has 
decided this is not the way to go. Instead, it will do its confronting in 
private, maybe when Secretary of State Madeleine Albright meets with her 
Russian counterpart, Igor Ivanov, or maybe when Bill Clinton meets with Putin 
himself at next month's summit. "This is serious," said one U.S. official. 
Yes, indeed. Let's see if the Clinton administration treats it that way.


For a host of reasons--some of them sound and some of them just plain wishful 
thinking--this administration has been loath to confront Moscow. One reason 
is that it would like Moscow not to go ape if the United States goes ahead 
with a missile defense system. Another reason is that the administration has 
a stake in trying to prove it has not been wrong in making nice-nice to 
Russia. A third reason is that it's still feeling out Putin, trying to 
determine if he is the man of his comforting words or of his alarming 
actions. There's cause for pessimism.


Under Putin, the authorities raided the office of an opposition news 
organization, Media-Most, carting off records and even videotapes of popular 
programs. Before that, Russian forces seized the journalist Andrei Babitsky, 
who was reporting critically from Chechnya, and swapped him for three Russian 
POWs. Putin says he respects freedom of the press. Any more of this sort of 
respect and the press will be thoroughly cowed.


In Chechnya Russia has flouted international norms of warfare by, in effect, 
making war on the civilian population. As with the United States in Vietnam, 
it is admittedly hard to distinguish non-combatants from combatants, but the 
Russians haven't really tried. They leveled Grozny, the capital, treating 
everyone the same. It was a perverse example of Russian democracy.


These, though, are domestic matters--even Chechnya, the Russia's insist. But 
in foreign relations the pattern is no more promising. Russia remains buddies 
with Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic. Recently, in 
fact, Moscow has exhibited its commitment to Serbia by propping up the 
tottering Milosevic regime. It has granted Belgrade a loan for $102 million 
and has offered to sell it oil at below market prices. Maybe Putin has not 
noticed that Milosevic, too, has been indicted for war crimes.


About half of the people accused by the war crimes tribunal have either been 
arrested or have turned themselves in. This is not a bad record for an 
organization that was initially thought to be all good intentions and no 
action. The tribunal has proved that individuals, even political leaders, 
will be held accountable for crimes against humanity.


Ojdanic ought to be one. He commanded the units that rousted Albanians from 
their homes, killed some of them, herded the rest onto packed trains, 
deprived them of food and water--and forced them out of Kosovo. The action 
recalled the roundups of Jews by German units during the Holocaust. The 
planning was just as thorough, although the outcome was less lethal. Still, 
someone had clearly studied history.


The hospitality Moscow accorded Ojdanic--its indifference to universal norms 
of morality--is reminiscent of the days when it supported terrorist 
organizations. Back then, the Soviet Union had a lot of blood on its hands. 
Now Russia merely overlooks the blood others have on their hands.


******


#7
Germany's Grass, other writers rap Russia over war
By Gareth Jones

MOSCOW, May 23 (Reuters) - Nobel Prize-winning author Guenter Grass and other 
writers on Tuesday condemned Moscow's eight-month military campaign in rebel 
Chechnya and warned against the erosion of democratic freedoms in Russia. 


Addressing the annual congress of International Pen, which campaigns for 
authors' rights and freedom of expression, they said writers had a moral 
obligation to speak out against censorship, persecution and state-sponsored 
violence everywhere. 


``We have to demand an end to the war against the Chechen people. And 
likewise an investigation, under U.N. auspices, of all war crimes committed 
by either side,'' said Grass, winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize for Literature. 


He said the war was ``without reason, without mercy.'' Moscow says it is 
fighting ``international terrorists'' in Chechnya and has ignored Western 
calls to halt the offensive and to begin peace talks with the separatist 
leaders. 


Russia has vowed to probe allegations of human rights abuses but has refused 
to allow an independent U.N. investigation. 


``(Literature) does not turn a blind eye, it does not forget, it does break 
the silence,'' Grass told several hundred delegates attending the first PEN 
congress to be held in Russia. 


Grass, 72, is a veteran campaigner for left-wing causes and is best known for 
his epic 1959 novel about Germany's Nazi past, ``The Tin Drum.'' 


Novelist Andrei Bitov, president of the Russian arm of International PEN, 
said the congress gave writers a valuable chance to speak out against a war 
which, in Russia, remains broadly popular despite the large loss of life 
among both Chechen civilians and Russian troops. 


``The whole of Russian society has suffered from this war,'' said Bitov in a 
news release. 


The president of International PEN, Mexican poet and novelist Homero Aridjis, 
told Reuters some members had expressed doubts about holding the congress in 
Russia because of the war. 


NO ENDORSEMENT OF RUSSIAN POLICY 


``Our presence here does not imply support for Russia's policy in Chechnya or 
its attempts to curb freedom of expression,'' said Aridjis. 


But he added that the decision to hold this year's congress in Russia was 
rich in symbolism. 


``To read the history of Russian literature is to read the history of 
political harassment of writers, from (Fyodor) Dostoyevsky to Alexander 
Solzhenitsyn.'' 


The great 19th century Russian author Dostoyevsky narrowly escaped execution 
for his political activities and was exiled to Siberia. Solzhenitsyn, like 
Grass a Nobel Prize winner, recounted life in Stalin's labour camps in his 
``Gulag Archipelago.'' 


Now 81, Solzhenitsyn lives as a recluse just outside Moscow and was not 
expected to attend this week's PEN gathering. 


In his speech to the congress, Aridjis said delegates would discuss threats 
to writers and journalists around the world. 


He mentioned the brief detention earlier this year of Russian journalist 
Andrei Babitsky, whose coverage of the Chechen war angered the Kremlin. 


He also broached the trial of Russian environmentalists Grigory Pasko and 
Alexander Nikitin, the target of serious allegations by Russia's FSB domestic 
security agency. 


Russia's Supreme Court acquitted Nikitin last month of revealing state 
secrets while working for a Norwegian environmental group. Pasko was freed in 
an amnesty last summer immediately after being sentenced to three years in 
prison for passing details of nuclear pollution to Japanese television. 


International PEN was founded in London in 1921 and has been linked down the 
decades with many famous writers including Britain's H.G. Wells and 
Polish-born Joseph Conrad, U.S. playwright Arthur Miller and Germany's Thomas 
Mann. 


It has about 12,000 members, all published authors, and 137 regional offices 
around the world. 


******


#8
Russian PM says no plans to sack c.bank chief

MOSCOW, May 23 (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov dismissed 
a newspaper report on Tuesday that Central Bank Chairman Viktor Gerashchenko 
was about to be dismissed, Itar-Tass news agency reported. 


``The question of the dismissal of the chairman of the central bank of Russia 
has not been raised and is not being discussed,'' Tass said, quoting Kasyanov 
during a visit to the Belarussian capital Minsk. 


Britain's Financial Times newspaper on Tuesday quoted a senior Russian 
official as saying Gerashchenko might be forced to quit within the next six 
months as President Vladimir Putin tightened his grip on the country's 
financial levers. 


Gerashchenko laughed off the possibility of his sacking earlier on Tuesday. 


``For almost 12 years with small interruptions the central bank has had four 
chairmen, while the government has already had nine heads,'' Gerashchenko 
told journalists on the fringes on a banking congress. 


``Let them slander, but anything can happen in our lives.'' 


Gerashchenko took over at the helm of the central bank after the 1998 
financial crisis led to a sharp devaluation in the rouble and a domestic debt 
default. 


******


#9
Moscow Times
May 23, 2000 
The Man on His Plan 
By Alexander Bekker
Vedemosti


As work on the Center for Strategic Research's economic blueprint reached a 
last-moment fever-pitch, Alexander Bekker of Vedemosti spoke last Wednesday 
to German Gref. 


Q: 
>From what the papers have published, your work seems to be a qualitative 
re-think of Ludwig Erhardt's post-World War II reforms in Germany, with 
elements of the Chilean and South Korean models built in. 


A: 
No one else's model can be applied here. Of course there are some general 
principles of reform. And there are common problems and relatively standard 
solutions to them. But this does not mean we have taken the Chilean or 
Malaysian model as a foundation. And particularly not the postwar German 
model. I don't think it correct to compare our program with those implemented 
earlier. There isn't a single country that has emerged from such a condition. 
Never has there been such a closed, militarized economy organized like one 
big venture. Ten years of reform is too short for empirical studies. The 
initial experience with liberalization and privatization showed that market 
instruments don't yield results automatically. This shows the necessity for 
considering the peculiarities of a developing Russian economy and the 
mentality of our managers and workers. We sometimes want to skip certain 
stages, but ... society doesn't accept it. We can't use the experience of 
developed countries with taxes or customs regulation. Our program is based on 
the real situation in Russia. 


Q: 
There have been reports in the press that your strategy is all show. How much 
of your document is just technicality, and how much of it is really 
applicable? Or is it just going to be shelved for prosperity? 


A: 
The program has three formats, and they really are technically different. The 
short version gives direction within the various spheres. It's like the 
Chilean reformers' 15-page memorandums. The large version, the program 
concept, explains what to do and how in each sphere. And finally, the most 
technical format has never been drafted: the means for implementing the 
program. It's more than just words. Everything there is written out in 
detail, the deadlines, which laws have to be enacted, what kinds of 
regulations. 


Q: 
For 10 years? 


A: 
For the next four years. We have a 10-year planning period. We have to look 
into the future to determine what kind of Russia we want to see, what kinds 
of trends there will be. But the actual forecast period is four years. This 
is how we're planning all our work. And for that matter, it's quite detailed. 
For example, it includes a presidential decree for the president to name his 
own authorized representatives in major federal regions. We worked to have 
the second part of the Tax Code before the Duma and have the deputies pass 
it, as outlined in our program, by Aug. 1. In a word, the strategy remains a 
strategy, but it is simultaneously absolutely grounded in reality. 


Q: 
What do you know about Yury Maslyukov's program? If the press is to be 
believed, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov is preparing to use it as tactical 
operating plan for the next year to year and a half? 


A: 
I haven't seen Maslyukov's original program. But you can't make a 
comprehensive conclusion from the excerpts published in the media. 
Nevertheless, you can see parts of our program in it. It needs to be 
determined how compatible the two programs are. We have never discussed this 
with Kasyanov. If there's a problem and we use Maslyukov's program, I think 
we can conduct an analysis and decide how valuable such a system would be, 
and how much of a role Maslyukov's program would play in the next year and a 
half. 


Q: 
What was the point of encouraging competition among the programs when yours 
was already underway? 


A: 
I don't think there's any competition. That a program is being developed at 
the Duma is good. But there is no point in thinking that there are any 
realistic alternatives to the Center for Strategic Research's strategy. I 
know well the amount of resources needed to prepare a quality program. The 
resources aren't available for creating a true alternative to our program. 


Q: 
A well-written economic program is not the same thing as a reliable 
bureaucrat. Who of those with you at the Center for Strategic Research are 
likely to go into the government? 


A: 
I think the specialists who worked on the program are the nation's brightest. 
We're all grateful for the fate that brought us together. Most of those 
specialists could help implement the program. They aren't limited to 
theoretical experience, they've proven themselves in business. And some of 
them - Oleg Vyugin, Mikhail Dmitriyev, Alexei Ulyukayev - had very high posts 
in the last Cabinet. 


******


#10
Moscow Times
May 23, 2000 
ROUND TABLE: Kasyanov Looks Set to Choose His Own Plan 


Which program will the government choose? 


Regarding [former First Deputy Prime Minister Yury] Maslyukov's program, I 
honestly don't believe it even exists. There was nothing serious in it 
earlier, and I think [Maslyukov] has not had much time or desire lately to 
write a program. It seems that [Prime Minister Mikhail] Kasyanov has a lot of 
people working for him who used to work for Maslyukov. So they've taken some 
remnants of [Maslyukov's] program by default. [Economic Development Minister 
German] Gref failed to formulate a program by March 26, and after that was 
inevitably drawn into the competition with other candidates. I think Kasyanov 
will prevail just because it's logical. After all, a program should be 
written by the people who are going to implement it. The ministers in 
Kasyanov's government are going to have to implement the program. So in 
accordance with that, they're going to have to be the ones to decide what to 
do and how. If Putin doesn't like it, he can fire the government. Of course, 
Gref could be asked for some input. But it would be impossible to tie down 
Kasyanov with someone else's program in its entirety. 


Sergei Alexashenko 
director, Development Center 


I think Mikhail Kasyanov will still try to build up some kind of political 
career for himself. So this Maslyukov program will be used as a demonstration 
of his independence. And I have the impression that Kasyanov will use 
leftists in the State Duma as a basis for developing his political status, 
because Putin already has the rest. But as regards threats to Gref's program, 
I think they're exaggerated. Of course, Kasyanov is personally trying to show 
that it has nothing of significance to offer. However, the events of recent 
days have shown that both the president and the government are acting more in 
line with the Gref program than anything else. For example, all the decisions 
regarding review of regional leaders' authority clearly come from ideas 
developed by [Gref's] Center for Strategic Development, as well as the tax 
laws that have been sent to the Duma. And there are more reasons to consider 
that the government's activities will be based on Gref's program. Moreover, I 
think it will be subjected to a comprehensive reworking. At least some 
adjustments need to be made to it. 


Alexei Zabotkin 
analyst, United Financial Group 


No one's program. The government is going to base its decisions on 
expedience. I don't think any of the [programs] that have been developed 
would make a suitable plan of action, if for no other reason than the fact 
that they all involve a different time frame. A strategy should give 
direction only. It cannot and should not spell out a detailed list of 
activities for each day. We can only hope that, under the guise of a 
relatively liberal program, something else won't be implemented, something 
like tightening control and increasing the government's role in the economy. 
An attempt to consider everything of value from alternative programs could 
become a useful tactic for the government. However, attempts to find 
consensus, especially on very basic issues, could lead to the development of 
an inconsequential and eclectic document. In such a case, everyone 
participating in the process would lose interest in it, and it would never be 
implemented. 


Andrei Vernikov 
chief economist, ABN Amro Bank 


The overwhelming majority of state programs will either never be fulfilled at 
all, or never implemented in their entirety because, by their very nature, 
they do not take into account the reality of the situation. In the final 
analysis, Mikhail Kasyanov will select that which is most acceptable to the 
new government and the president. If an option doesn't suit the country's 
leadership, then it will probably be adjusted to make it more acceptable, and 
then begin to be implemented. If it yields good results, that will mean the 
right decision was made. If not, then they'll start making changes and adapt 
it to the changing situation. The result will be one new program after 
another ... and the process will go on and on. Every program's author has his 
own truth, his own perspective on the current set of tasks to be 
accomplished. 


Igor Zakharov 
chairman, Sodbiznesbank 


*******


#11
Diseases in Russia Seen on the Increase 


Rossiyskaya Gazeta
May 19, 2000
[translation for personal use only]
Report by Irina Krasnopolskaya: "Not Summer but Contagion all 
Round: Sanitation and Epidemiology Inspectorate Makes Forecast 
for Holiday Season" 


Gennadiy Onishchenko, the Russian Federation's 
acting first deputy health minister and Russia's chief state sanitary 
inspector has said that even before the onset of the summer season there 
are harbingers that it will not be one of the best. The sanitary and 
epidemiological situation is not stable: 26 different sicknesses are 
"announcing" their increase. 


Many intestinal diseases are making advances for the second year in a 
row, including typhoid, which hastened to declare itself in Chechnya 
before the start of the summer season in April. 


You get the impression that acute intestinal infections are getting ahead 
of time, striking the population even before the arrival of the warmth. 
Dysentery increased its incidence by 45% over the first three months of 
this year. Salmonella is not slumbering either, although its 
"successes" are significantly more modest, it has gained only 3%. And 
there are also the so-called unidentified agents of acute intestinal 
diseases. For now they account for 6% of inroads into health but by 
summer they will come out in force. The statistics of the first quarter 
of this year are guarantee of this -- 19 Russian Federation components 
have found themselves in the thrall of serious outbreaks of infection. 


Most troubles are perhaps being caused by water, or rather what is called 
water but what is in fact little suitable for drinking. 87 people have 
suffered from it in Arkhangelsk Oblast and 187 in Irkutsk Oblast. 2,614 
people have suffered from 14 outbreaks of acute intestinal diseases over 
the short interval from 1 April to 10 May. Acute dysentery has been 
raging in Cheboksary and Novocheboksarsk since 27 April. It already has 
1,662 people, including 971 children, on its account. This count would 
surely have been much less and perhaps dysentery would not have been able 
to show itself at all if the Chuvashia administration had paid attention 
to the state of the drinking water. 


Not far from Yekaterinburg is the village of Kalinovskiy. For a long 
time it was a secret, closed place. They opened it up. But did not 
think about the water its residents drink. As a result, the water pipe 
joined the sewerage system. The outcome of such a union is clear. The 
money that must now be spent on treating intestinal infections would have 
been more than enough to put the water pipe in order. 


Hemorrhagic fever has manifested itself without waiting for the summer 
season: In the first quarter of this year there was 14 times more of it 
than in the same period of last year and more than 2,500 people have 
fallen sick with this terrible disease. There are leaders in this: 
Bashkortostan and Tatarstan, and Orenburg, Samara, and Ulyanovsk Oblasts. 
Two people have died from Crimean hemorrhagic fever in Stavropol Kray. 
The summer forecast for this disease is pessimistic. 


According to our scientists' statistics, this disease has a very high 
death rate of 60%. Treating one person sick with it costs 250,000 
rubles. That is a lot more than the funds needed to prevent the fever. 
It is caused by a tick that resides on livestock. But in Stavropol 
Kray they did not find money to give the stock the relevant treatment. 


It seems that the upcoming summer will see a continuing increase in 
sickness from hepatitis A, B, and C. The "guarantee" of this is this 
year's 42% increase in hepatitis A. And the fact that over the first 
three months of 2000, hepatitis B was 18% up on the first quarter of last 
year and hepatitis C by as much as 61%. We have hepatitis leaders too: 
Karelia; Leningrad, Novgorod, Rostov, and Omsk Oblasts; Moscow, and St. 
Petersburg. 


Successful inroads are being made into our lives by lice, which we must 
expect to become more active in summer; lice like warmth. 70,610 people 
have fallen victim to this foul insect. Who? Above all they are the 
denizens of children's pre-school establishments, schools, vocational and 
technical colleges, and homes for the disabled. 


We are not succeeding in stopping the march of HIV and AIDS across 
Russia. There are quite a number of newcomers among its victims, 
regions that the disease seemed to have passed by before. It has now 
taken a firm hold in Ryazan, Kemerovo, and Samara Oblasts. And if we 
consider that drug addicts become more active in summer and that this is 
the season for the priestesses of free love, we must expect the ranks of 
AIDS carriers to be filled out. 


Nevertheless, there are bright patches on the gloomy "infection field." 
This chiefly concerns the implementation of the program to eliminate 
poliomyelitis in the Russian Federation. No instance of poliomyelitis 
sickness caused by the savage virus has been registered on Russian 
territory since 1997. We can say that Russia is successfully fulfilling 
the program for eliminating this dangerous disease that was adopted by 
the World Health Organization in 1998. 


However strange it may seem, against the backdrop of a growth of 
infections brought on by sex and the drug addict's syringe, syphilis is 
on the wane in our country. There is all of 16% less of it in 
comparison with the first quarter of last year. It only remains to hope 
that summer's "time of love and tender passion" will not spoil these 
indicators. 


*******


#12
May 19, 2000
Vek
Nikolai SHMELYOV: Impoverished Russia Is Financing the Outer World.
How Much Openness Is Needed For Our Economy?
[translation for personal use only]


What are Russia's external economic interests? Should Russia's economy be
open or closed to the outer world? Recently, there has been a plenty of
debate around these issues.
Clearly, in principle, one can only welcome an attempt to open up our closed
economy. But not in the way we have it now. Alas, the 1990s have
demonstrated: we were overly zealous in opening our economy that had been
self-isolated from the rest of the world.
Now it is time to take stock of the downsides, not the upsides of our
openness.
These negative aspects logically result from our abrupt opening of the door
wide before the outer world. We created privileged conditions not for our
exporters, not for our national producers, but for Western producers and for
our importers. These have been unfair privileges.
Overall, these have been monstrous errors on a strategic scale. Not
surprisingly, they ended in catastrophy in August 1998. In the big picture,
this was the result of the country's unprepared openness.
A second result of our Open Door policies was Russia's virtual
transformation into the whole world's creditor. We, Russians, being in
misery, afford ourselves the luxury of helping the global economy - by
hundreds of millions of dollars. This amount is at least three times the
size of all forms of foreign capital inflows, including foreign government
aid, the aid by international organizations, all loans by IMF and the World
Bank, all direct as well as portfolio investment, credits, and so forth.
A third result is that Russia affords the luxury of virtually open crediting
of the U.S. economy and of American government. Some people might say: in
the period of reforms, Russian economy needed a stable anchor, and the
dollar was invited to play that role. But accepting dollar as our anchor
means exactly direct crediting of U.S. Treasury by Russian consumer, by the
Russian state.
One cannot build an open macroeconomy overnight, by assault. Such a goal
requires at least 10 to 15 years to fulfill. And this can be done only under
condition of really functioning market institutions and mechanisms inside
the country: mechanisms that ensure the growth of production, technological
progress, growth in the quality and competitiveness of products.
Therein, probably, lies the answer to the question: what are Russia's
foreign economic interests, what kind of industrial policies does it need?
But this is largely the matter of political skills and ability to govern.
The question is about the degree of competence in our government, at the
decision-making levels.
This requires enormous work, which is intertwined with the question of
whether our government is capable of such an undertaking. Is it competent at
all for a work on this scale?
Another issue is that of a truly creative approach to the world experience.
Do we need to borrow, and if so, from whose experience - European, American,
Chinese?
We are a European country. These days, there is a certain new formula of
social life that is taking shape in Europe. It has a distinctly social
democratic coloring. Its substance is the democratic, federative,
parliamentary nationhood, with a developed civil society and respect for
human rights. With socially oriented marked economy. With a very large state
influence as a regulator of the economy and in some sectors as proprietor
and manager of wealth.
Perhaps, the most crucial element of this experience is the creation of the
quality of life that is worthy of human being. As compared to our deplorable
quality of life, that is unaccountable for by any "objective causes"
whatsoever.


Nikolai Shmelyov is Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences
and Director of the Institute of Europe.


******


#13
Putin introduces new Russian spymaster

MOSCOW, May 23 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin turned up on Tuesday at 
the headquarters of Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service to introduce 
its newly appointed head to staff, an SVR spokesman said. 


Putin and Sergei Lebedev, appointed the new spymaster last week, worked in 
1980s as Soviet intelligence officers in Communist East Germany. 


Lieutenant-General Lebedev, 52, replaces Vyacheslav Trubnikov, nominee of the 
previous Kremlin leader, Boris Yeltsin. 


The SVR spokesman, contacted by telephone, gave no details of the meeting at 
the headquarters in a Moscow suburb. 


``The president would want to see at the helm of the Foreign Intelligence 
Service a person sympathetic to him, which whom he had personal contact,'' 
the daily Kommersant daily quoted General Yuri Kobaladze, former head of the 
SVR press office, as saying. 


Kobaladze said Lebedev's work record in Europe was an important factor in the 
nomination, along with his close association with Putin. 


``Lebedev is a 'European'. It is always good when trends change,'' Kobaladze 
said, clearly referring to Trubnikov's association with Asia.Trubnikov's 
predecessor in the SVR, Yevgeny Primakov, was a Middle East expert. 


Before being summoned by Putin, Lebedev worked for two years as SVR 
representative in the United States. 


``He is a master of espionage,'' Kommersant quoted an unnamed officer at SVR 
press service as saying of Lebedev. 


******

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