August
8, 2000
This Date's Issues: 4445•
4446 •
Johnson's Russia List
#4446
8 August 2000
davidjohnson@erols.com
[Note from David Johnson:
1. Reuters: Seven dead, at least 28 injured in Moscow blast.
2. AFP: Off and running: Putin the crusader completes spectacular year.
3. Moscow Times: Boris Kagarlitsky, How Europe Perceives Bush the
Younger.
4. RFE/RL: Ahto Lobjakas, EU: Russia Calls For Clear Strategy On
Enlargement.
5. Los Angeles Times editorial: Progress and Worry in Russia.
6. Irish Times: Seamus Martin, ARRIVAL OF MARTYR'S HEAD IN MOSCOW
STIRS RUSSIAN SOUL - MORE PEOPLE QUEUE FOR ST PANTELEIMON THAN FOR
LENIN'S MAUSOLEUM.
7. DAILY YOMIURI (Japan): John Jerney, CARNIVORE AND ITS COUSINS
THREATEN PRIVACY.
8. Interfax: RUSSIA, USA TO DISCUSS STRATEGIC STABILITY AT UN SUMMIT
IN NEW YORK.
9. Interfax: RUSSIAN COMMUNIST PARTY LEADER CRITICIZES PUTIN'S
LACK OF ACTION.
10. BBC MONITORING: PUTIN SAYS HARVEST IS GOVERNMENT'S TOP
PRIORITY.
11. New York Times: Patrick Tyler, With Bunkers Manned, Vodka War
Is in Stalemate.
12. Segodnya: Svetlana SUKHOVA, KREMLIN PROCEEDS TO SECOND STAGE
OF REFORM.]
*******
#1
Seven dead, at least 28 injured in Moscow blast
By Patrick Lannin
MOSCOW, Aug 8 (Reuters) - A blast ripped through a busy rush-hour underpass
in Moscow on Tuesday, killing seven people and injuring at least 28 just a
short distance from the Kremlin, a Moscow city official said.
Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov described the explosion as a ``terrorist act''
and did not rule out a link to Russia's rebel Chechnya region, Interfax
news agency said.
Dozens of people, many with shredded and bloody clothing, stood about in
shock around one of the entrances of the underpass, which crosses under the
capital's main thoroughfare, Tverskaya Street.
One woman was carried to an ambulance, her flesh severely charred and blood
gushing from her nose. Another woman lay on the pavement, screaming in pain
as paramedics bandaged her legs.
``There are seven dead. Eight people have been seriously injured and 20
slightly injured,'' city official Alex Musikansky told Reuters.
A second bomb was later found and defused near the site of the explosion,
Interfax news agency reported.
Natalya Zulumatova, the ends of her hair singed and her ankles stained with
blood, said she was inside one of the small kiosks which line the inside of
the passage when the blast hit just after 6 p.m. (1400 GMT)
``We were inside the stand. We heard a bang and the lights went out. I was
hit by the blast wave,'' she said. ``There was smoke all over the place. We
all managed to get out in the smoke. I saw many injured people.''
Yevgeny Karamyan, his face covered with ash and dust, said he was walking
past the entrance when the explosion occurred.
``I heard a roar. In the first second I could not understand what had
happened,'' he said. ``I saw injured people.''
NTV commercial television showed people, their faces covered in blood and
clothes badly torn, staggering out of the underground passage and
collapsing on the pavement.
Dozens of police and ambulances were arriving at the scene and Tverskaya
Street had been closed off.
Half an hour after the blast, smoke was still pouring from the underground
passage, jammed with shops selling everything from cosmetics to compact
discs and leather goods. The entrance to the passage was completed blackened.
A young girl sat listlessly next to a pool of blood on an adjacent
sidewalk. Her hands were covered in black.
Clusters of people wandered dazed through the square, some looking for
relatives.
``I don't know what happened,'' wailed one of two women, looking grimly
across the square. ``I was supposed to meet my mother here.''
Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo has informed President Vladimir Putin
of the explosion, Interfax said.
Police have stepped up security across Russia, especially in the country's
North Caucasus region, fearful of renewed attacks by Chechen rebels.
Moscow launched its campaign in the breakaway region of Chechnya in
September last year after blaming a series of bomb attacks in the capital
and other Russian cities on the rebels.
The first bomb blast hit a Moscow shopping centre.
*******
#2
Off and running: Putin the crusader completes spectacular year
MOSCOW, Aug 8 (AFP) -
Untested and unknown, President Vladimir Putin rose from secret service
obscurity one year ago Wednesday to become the head of Russia's government,
launching a crushing wave of political crusades.
But analysts now warn that his temporarily-stunned foes may catch up to him,
should Putin ever slow down.
"This was the year of Putin's non-stop victories. He had the will to win that
others before him did not," said political scientist Sergei Markov, in
reference to Putin's predecessor and mentor Boris Yeltsin.
"But if Putin stops moving forward, his opponents in the end will figure out
how to unite and fight him," said Markov, director of Moscow's Institute of
Political Studies.
Facing retirement last August, a spiritless Yeltsin fired yet another prime
minister and placed then Federal Security Service (ex-KGB) chief Putin in his
place.
Few then believed Yeltsin's words -- that he was grooming Putin, once a
mid-level KGB spy, to be his successor.
Since then, according to analysts, Putin has shattered the often-arbitrary
system Yeltsin used to ruled Russia.
"I think that his greatest accomplishment has been breaking up how Yeltsin
ran the state," said Andrei Ryabov of the Carnegie Moscow Center.
"Yeltsin's main two groups of elite, the regional leaders and financial
oligarchs, have been sidelined from the decision-making process. Few thought
that this could be accomplished so swiftly," Ryabov said.
Putin has also won mixed but generally positive reviews from the West.
Investors have applauded his assault on the vast powers of the frequently
corrupt regional chieftains and agreed that, in the long term, Putin's recent
attack on Russia's business tycoons was for the best.
The war in Chechnya -- supported by the public and vital to Putin's March 26
election victory -- was frowned upon, yet eventually written off as Russia's
internal affair.
The jailing of independent media chief Vladimir Gusinsky also caused a brief
stir, with press freedoms here put in doubt.
But the case against Gusinsky has since been dropped, with analysts
suggesting that it was a warning shot to political forces that decide to
stand in the 47-year-old president's way.
"Today, his political potential as a national leader is higher than ever,"
Ryabov said.
"It can only be compared to what Yeltsin briefly had in the autumn of 1991,
after his August triumph over the Soviet Union's Communists."
Indeed, the latest public opinion polls place Putin's approval rating at
above 70 percent, one of the highest ever recorded for any politician in
modern Russia.
Putin's problem now, analysts say, is figuring out how to keep this momentum
going. And not everyone agrees that he has a clear game plan.
"His main challenge is that with Yeltsin's regime disassembled, he has to
construct something new. This period will be much more difficult for Putin.
It is always easier to break things apart," Ryabov said.
"I am not convinced that at this stage our new president knows what he wants
to achieve after winning these reforms."
Putin is facing several short-term challenges, some as simple as forcing
Russians to pay for the electricity they use, others as Machiavellian as
keeping his government troops from bickering or uniting against him.
"His biggest test in the short-term will be the battle that revolves around
(state energy supplier) UES," said Yury Korgunyuk of the INDEM political
research institute.
"Right now UES is fighting against regional non-payers. Now we will see whose
side Putin picks," Korgunyuk said.
Ryabov added: "His second problem is that his coalition is made up of people
who view Russia's future very differently, and their own role in this future."
Putin's three teams include: liberal economists led by Alexei Kudrin and
German Gref; his Saint Petersburg-based secret service allies like Security
Council secretary Sergei Ivanov; and remnants of the old Yeltsin team headed
by Kremlin chief of staff Alexander Voloshin.
"So far, they all had a single enemy -- regional leaders and the oligarchs --
and they all worked together," Ryabov said.
"I am not certain that, with the external enemies removed, these competing
forces will be so easy to harmonize."
*******
#3
Moscow Times
August 8, 2000
How Europe Perceives Bush the Younger
By Boris Kagarlitsky
Boris Kagarlitsky is a sociologist. He contributed this comment to The Moscow
Times.
[DJ: Title in St. Petersburg Times' version:
"A Bush Win Might Serve Russia Well"]
When Bill Clinton was first elected U.S. president in 1992, many in Moscow
thought U.S. policy toward Russia f previously based primarily on
anticommunist ideology and the promise of destroying the "Evil Empire" f
would entail a more constructive approach. Opponents of the neoliberal course
expected that the new U.S. leadership would not unconditionally support the
Russian leadership's moves to privatize everything in its grasp, that it
would condemn the human rights violations and corruption of former President
Boris Yeltsin's reign.
Alas, the Democrats who came to power not only did not rethink the policy
toward Russia, they conducted it with a harshness and aggression the
Republicans could only have envied. Clinton supported the 1993 attack on
parliament and essentially approved the first invasion of Chechnya. In spite
of myriad protests, the Clinton administration has not shown particular
concern about the slaughter of civilians during the second Chechen war.
In foreign policy, the 1990s Democrats turned out to be even more
interventionist than their Republican predecessors. When members of Congress
sharply criticized the International Monetary Fund and U.S. policy toward
Russia after the 1998 financial crisis, Clinton expended great effort to
defend the Fund's position and maintain U.S. priorities, even as Republicans
stressed that Western recommendations had led to increased poverty in
formerly Communist countries.
The Republican administrations of Ronald Reagan and George Bush the elder
fought against communism; their priorities were primarily negative. The
Democrats who came after them tried to foster positive American values
throughout the world. But in practical terms, the course of the Clinton
administration was closely allied with policies of the IMF, the World Bank
and other transnational financial institutions. Washington was ready to
pressure those who doubted the wisdom of this "one true path," without regard
to moral costs, causing a clear double standard regarding human rights.
Governments conducting the "wrong" economic policy were punished not for this
policy but for human rights violations. Yet governments that engaged in even
worse violations of human rights f but whose economic and social policies
corresponded to standards of liberalization and globalization f were
forgiven. Belarus' Alexander Lukashenko is dubbed a monster when the police
break up an unsanctioned meeting, but Russia's Vladimir Putin is forgiven for
destroying whole cities in Chechnya.
Given this climate, a possible victory by George W. Bush over U.S. Vice
President Al Gore will not mean much change for Russia. Even the most
anti-Russian Washington administration cannot inflict more harm on our
country than the true "friends of Russia" of Clinton's team. An increase of
isolationist tendencies in the United States would be a boon, if not for the
entire world, then at least for Russia.
But Bush's pre-election rhetoric does not sound isolationist. He says the
Democrats' interest in their allies arises only crises. Bush suggests a more
active U.S. role in international alliances and organizations. Yet this
rhetoric directly contradicts the mood of a significant number of Republicans
who are requiring increased attention to internal U.S. affairs and who do not
trust global institutions.
How Bush the younger f should he win f intends to solve this contradiction
remains a mystery. But the issues facing the next U.S. president will
probably be strikingly different than those being discussed during the
campaign. The world stands on the brink of a new economic crisis; pessimists
predict another Great Depression, while optimists expect just a minor
recession. But the next U.S. president will have to lead his country and the
world in times of economic difficulties. And the coming crisis will require a
radical rethinking of the prevailing economic philosophy. Bush the elder led
the United States at a time when the Pax Americana was coming to fruition.
Ironically, his son may occupy the White House at the beginning of the demise
of the global empire.
*******
#4
EU: Russia Calls For Clear Strategy On Enlargement
By Ahto Lobjakas
At a time when eastward enlargement is one of the EU's main priorities, the
union appears to be neglecting Russia. RFE/RL correspondent Ahto Lobjakas
reports this may change as Russia focuses more closely on what it wants from
the EU.
Brussels, 7 August 2000 (RFE/RL) -- The European Union is coming under
increasing pressure to define its interests with respect to Europe's other
great power: Russia.
Last month, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Ivan Ivanov visited Brussels and
raised several concerns his country has over the EU's proposed enlargement in
Central and Eastern Europe. The EU has acknowledged the need to consult
Russia on enlargement, but so far has not set up any mechanism for this.
According to documents Ivanov was carrying on his visit, Russia is afraid
that the EU's enlargement may cost its companies the loss of their
traditional export markets.
The delegation also raised the issue of Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave wedged
between two EU aspirant countries: Lithuania and Poland. Russia says the area
should be given special treatment after enlargement, including visa-free
movement for Russian citizens through EU territory between Kaliningrad and
Russia proper.
He says Kaliningrad should receive additional EU aid in order to avoid the
emergence of a "socio-economic gap" between the enclave and its neighbors.
Although the EU in the past has frequently spoken of its "strategic
partnership" with Russia, Ivanov's visit appears to have caught the union
without a clear Russian strategy.
Russia currently receives only a small portion of the EU's aid to the former
Soviet Union, administered through the TACIS program. And the current EU
French presidency so far has neglected the EU's "Northern Dimension" proposal
for northwestern Russia -- arguably its most ambitious Russian initiative to
date.
The Northern Dimension policy, sponsored by Finland and Sweden, covers issues
such as nuclear safety, the environment, international crime, and the future
of Kaliningrad. The project is now likely to remain in limbo until Sweden
takes over the EU presidency next year.
Marius Vahl, a Russian expert at the Brussels-based Center for European
Policy Studies, says the EU's claim to have a strategic partnership with
Russia is neither strategic nor a partnership:
"There is a certain lack of confidence [on the part of] the EU in their
dealings with Russia. They [the EU] don't really try very hard when there
seem to be openings -- the Northern Dimension pilot region [scheme] is one
thing. I mean, you don't get the impression that they've actually tried to
push to see how far they could go with Russia."
Sweden has already said its presidency is going to pay particular attention
to Kaliningrad. Swedish official indicate they will re-examine the idea of
making Kaliningrad a Russian "pilot region" within the EU. This idea was
first proposed by Moscow a few years ago, but has been largely ignored by the
EU.
Vahl says the EU, however, is still ill-prepared to grapple with the most
sensitive issues of regional security.
He points out that the Northern Dimension initiative, while far-ranging,
makes no mention of the security situation in the region or of neighboring
Belarus, a close ally of Russia. Poland is already a member of NATO and
Lithuania is pressing to join the alliance.
"To me, those two points [security policy and Belarus] are ... the two main
concerns of Northern Europe. That's where things could go bad. The worst case
scenario would include one of the two issues, particularly NATO enlargement.
Of course, [the] EU isn't a military alliance, but they should at least be
able to discuss [these things] relatively openly."
He says eventually the EU will have to address these more difficult types of
issues if its relations with Russia are to develop. The situation in
Kaliningrad aside, it's clear the concerns of the EU and Russia are not
limited to economic matters.
******
#5
Los Angeles Times
August 8, 2000
Editorial
Progress and Worry in Russia
President Vladimir V. Putin Monday signed into law a radical overhaul
intended to simplify Russia's complicated and contradictory tax laws and
restructure an ineffective collection system. Investors were jubilant, and
the stock market soared. Confidence in Putin, however, may well be premature.
With the same political skill that led to the enactment of the tax law, Putin
is usurping regional political powers and moving against privately owned
media companies. It's too soon to tell where he is headed, but the signs are
ominous.
Putin's accomplishments during his first three months in office are
staggering and worrisome. He has weakened opposition in the Duma, the lower
house of parliament; restructured the potentially troublesome upper house;
emasculated the powers of regional leaders; taken on the despised "oligarchs"
and begun a purge in the powerful military. The Russians love it--seven out
of 10 approve of his performance--and Putin's political rivals stand divided.
The Kremlin insists that Putin needs all the power he can get in order
to implement the tax overhaul and market reforms, that he needs to curtail
the authority of corrupt regional bosses and rein in the economic might of
the oligarchs. Nearly every step Putin has taken has led to the weakening of
political opposition and removal of constitutional checks on his already
enormous powers, and in the fall he is expected to propose giving the Kremlin
even greater control of the Duma by scrapping elections based on party lists.
The Russian leader's erratic campaign against the oligarchs clearly
seems a determined effort to get rid of his political opposition. An example:
Vladimir A. Gusinsky, the owner of the independent NTV network that opposed
the war in Chechnya, was arrested as an embezzler, then exonerated and
released, apparently after he agreed to give up ownership of NTV. Another
oligarch, Vladimir Berezovsky, owner of the popular TV channel ORT and once
Putin's political ally, has been under pressure to sell since his station
opposed Putin's bid to sack regional governors and remove their membership in
the Federation Council, the parliament's upper house.
Putin has accomplished more in months than his predecessor, Boris N.
Yeltsin, did in years. He may even turn Russia's economy around and cleanse
the government of corruption. But, in the process, he is dismembering
Russia's pluralistic system, and that is a reason to worry.
*******
#6
Irish Times
August 8, 2000
(MOSCOW LETTER): ARRIVAL OF MARTYR'S HEAD IN MOSCOW STIRS RUSSIAN SOUL -
MORE PEOPLE QUEUE FOR ST PANTELEIMON THAN FOR LENIN'S MAUSOLEUM
By Seamus Martin
In the old days, which ended nine years ago this month, religion was to say
the least, unpopular. It was, in the view of Karl Marx, the 'sight of a
distressed creature . . . the spirit of spiritless conditions' and most
popularly, 'the opiate of the masses'.
Marx's monumental statue remains on Moscow's Theatre Square and, in certain
quarters, his spirit lives on. The Communist Party is, after all, still
Russia's largest and most popular political organisation. It no longer
commands a 'monopoly of power' - in fact, it is almost completely powerless
- but more people vote for it than for any other political grouping.
Despite all this, Russians remain an extremely spiritual people. The
celebrated Russkiy Dukh, the Russian Soul, lives eternally. Nowhere has
this been more obvious than in Moscow over the past few days following the
arrival in town of the head of the Orthodox martyr, Saint Panteleimon,
encased in a golden reliquary. The head was severed from the body on the
orders of the Emperor Maximian after a period of torture, which was
perfectly normal in the late third and early fourth centuries. It had
earlier been, without ostentation, on display in monasteries in the Moscow
region. Its arrival in the vast Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in central
Moscow, however, caused a real stir.
The cathedral, by the way, was originally built during a period of military
and religious triumphalism to commemorate the victory of Imperial Russia
over the Corsican upstart, Napoleon Bonaparte. Another little man of five
feet four inches or so determined in the 1930s that the entire edifice
should be brought down. Stalin's plan was to build a great phallic edifice,
taller than any skyscraper in Chicago, with a triumphant statue of Vladimir
Ilyich Lenin on top.
The plan did not work out. The terrain simply would not support such a
monstrosity. Instead, the hole in the ground left by the cathedral was
turned into an open air swimming pool called the Bassein Moskva.
Enter another man of restricted height, Yuri Luzhkov, mayor of Moscow, who
determined after the end of communist rule in the 1990s that the cathedral
should be rebuilt. He had this done in record time. Over the weekend,
Orthodox believers, in their tens of thousands, queued around the
reconstructed edifice to a length which exceeded even that which formed in
the old days at the mausoleum of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin on Red Square. It
should be noted here that Marx wanted communism to become 'the functional
equivalent of religion'. Although no-one in the long line would admit it, I
had the distinct impression that many who queued for St Panteleimon had
previously queued for Lenin. New times, as the Russian saying goes, demand
new songs.
Many of those in the vast queue were infirm. Some were obviously so, in
wheelchairs and with crutches, for in the Orthodox tradition, St
Panteleimon has been noted for curing all sorts of illnesses. Women were in
a very large majority and this presented a certain irony. In the Greek
monastery at Mount Athos, the usual home of the holy relic, the presence of
women and female animals has been anathema, following a sacred decree in
1060. In this manner, the holy monks have been protected from temptations
which, in this family newspaper, are better left undescribed.
For all this, the faith of those who presented themselves before St
Panteleimon's head over the past few days was simple and moving. One felt
that that an emotional gap was being filled and it is significant that
opinion polls have shown that almost half of Russian respondents would
describe themselves as Orthodox Christians.
On the other side of town, a spirit of a different, but equally Russian,
kind was the focus of attention. The Kristall distillery, which produces
the internationally renowned Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya vodkas, was
literally under siege. A group of 40 armed interlopers, who supported one
set of company directors, occupied the premises and held four rival
directors hostage. In this case, all those present were male and were
unlikely ever to have willingly stood in line to see either Lenin's body or
St Panteleimon's head.
This is the manner in which some business disputes are solved in today's
Russia. Nevertheless, despite decades of official atheism and years of
unbridled capitalist materialism, the old Russia endures.
******
#7
THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN/DAILY YOMIURI
August 8, 2000
CARNIVORE AND ITS COUSINS THREATEN PRIVACY
John Jerney, Special to The Daily Yomiuri
(Jerney is president of Volksware, Inc., a Silicon Valley-based publishing,
consulting and professional services firm specializing in e-commerce,
mobile computing, the Internet and Web publishing. If you have any
comments, suggestions or questions about Silicon Valley, please send them
along to jerney@volksware.com)
It was just a few months ago that I read an article in a leading U.S.
business magazine assessing the course of democracy in the new Russia. The
author offered mixed grades for the new administration of Vladimir Putin.
Probably fair enough.
However, even more notable to me was a warning issued by the author that
Russia may in fact be sliding back into being an oppressive regime because
of new regulations requiring all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to
install monitoring devices capable of routing Internet traffic to the
Federal Security Service, Russia's premier intelligence service and
successor to the notorious KGB.
This system, known by its Russian acronym SORM, requires all ISPs to
install small "black boxes" in conjunction with their routing equipment.
Critics in the West justifiably renounced this tactic as a throwback to the
bad old days. And I agree. So imagine my surprise when I found out that
both the United States and Britain have similar programs either already in
effect, or are passing laws enabling this type of personal invasion and more.
As reported by the major media in the Untied States, the U.S. Federal
Bureau of Investigation has been quietly insisting that U.S. ISPs also
install a black box at their sites. This device and its associated
software, known as Carnivore, most likely because of its potentially
voracious appetite, "sniffs" packets traveling through the ISP identifying
specific e-mail messages sent to and from particular individuals.
The system intercepts these messages and forwards a copy to the FBI, all
without anyone being the wiser. The FBI is also reportedly able to update
Carnivore, including resetting its list of targets, from a remote location
without contacting the ISP. This means that it is probably next to
impossible to verify whether Carnivore is acting according to court order,
as required by existing wiretapping laws.
News of Carnivore has caused numerous privacy groups, civil liberty
associations, and a broad range of Internet users and enthusiasts to stand
up and cry foul. Most troubling to these advocates is the closed nature of
the system. No one outside of the FBI knows how the black box works, what
types of messages it is intercepting, and how this information is being
compiled and used.
Across the pond in Britain, a similar storm is brewing. Over there, the
system is known as the Regulation of Investigatory Powers, or RIP. The
proposed system, which is being considered by the House of Lords, will
require all Britain-based ISPs to monitor and route all Internet data
passing through their computers to the Government Technical Assistance
Center (GTAC), a government agency roughly equivalent to the FBI in the
United States.
Sounds simple enough to defeat, doesn't it? I mean, anyone concerned need
only encrypt their communications, right? Not so fast. The RIP bill also
includes provisions for the British Home Office to legally demand the
encryption keys to any data communication. The legislation includes a
two-year prison sentence for those who choose not to comply.
That's bad enough, but here's where it gets really draconian. In the case
of a company or other organization, the Home Office can not only insist
that a person hand over the encryption keys to the government, but the law
also prevents that person from informing anyone else of these actions,
including the person's manager, coworker, or employer.
Interestingly, the provisions in Russia's SORM don't go nearly this far.
Back in the United States, Congress has begun to react to public pressure
by holding hearings on Carnivore. For her part, U.S. Attorney General Janet
Reno offered to release the technical specifications of Carnivore to a
"group of experts."
Feeling that this "group of experts" is a far cry from the type of public
scrutiny a system such as Carnivore deserves, the Electronic Privacy
Information Center (EPIC) recently went to court requesting "expedited"
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) processing, allowing all interested
parties to evaluate the constitutionality of Carnivore.
U.S. District Judge James Robertson responded by giving the FBI 10 working
days to come up with a timetable for releasing information about the
system. The FBI has agreed to comply, but we'll have to wait to see to what
degree.
So what's the big deal about systems such as Carnivore, RIP, and SORM?
Notwithstanding the hypocrisy in the West of slamming Russia for an
activity already under way in the Untied States and soon to be under way in
Britain, the real problem is the fundamental encroachment of freedom that,
if left unchecked, can cause a slippery descent down an already
all-too-well greased slope.
Recall that during previous "scares" in the United States, including but
not limited to the Red Scare, the civil rights initiative, and various
peace movements, the government amassed incredible files on both noted and
unnoted individuals including Martin Luther King Jr., John Lennon and
thousands of other suspected "troublemakers." Add to this the modern
tendency for both governments and corporations to employ increasingly
sophisticated profiling technologies, and the situation becomes potentially
serious. Profiles are already used by law enforcement agencies to screen
large cash purchases, identify "suspicious" airline travelers, and even to
signal which drivers should be stopped for potential drug trafficking.
Left unchecked, could Carnivore, RIP, or SORM be the first step towards a
much broader profiling of our online activities, helping to identify other
"suspicious" behavior? Government authorities say no, stressing that
Carnivore and its cousins are used simply to catch bad guys.
Conventional wisdom, on the other hand, recommends that we all stay alert
to these potential threats to privacy. Technology, after all, can serve to
both liberate and imprison free people. The responsibility is ours to have
technology reflect the morals and values by which we choose to live.
*******
#8
RUSSIA, USA TO DISCUSS STRATEGIC STABILITY AT UN SUMMIT IN NEW YORK
Interfax
Moscow, 7th August: Moscow and Washington will hold a series of
consultations on strategic stability in the framework of the meeting of
Russian and US presidents in September at the UN Millennium Summit in New
York.
Experts from the two countries will meet in a third country in mid-August
to discuss missile defence and the future START-3 Treaty, diplomatic
sources in Moscow told Interfax today.
The Russian delegation will be led by director of the Foreign Ministry
department for security and disarmament Yuriy Kapralov and the US one by
adviser to the Secretary of State for disarmament and arms control John
Holum.
The sources said that the consultations are expected to carry on the
exchange of opinions on the concept of the START-3 Treaty and concrete
proposals on key aspects of the future treaty.
Later, shortly before the summit, the strategic stability group will meet
in September in New York. On the Russian side it will be led by Deputy
Foreign Minister Georgiy Mamedov and on the US side by Deputy Secretary of
State Strobe Talbott.
Sources say Mamedov and Talbott will discuss "the whole range of questions
of strategic stability, including existing and possible new initiatives in
bilateral and multilateral cooperation in strengthening international
security, continuing the process of reducing armaments, improving nuclear
missile nonproliferation".
The upcoming meetings of Russian and US diplomats might also address the
initiative of North Korea to curtail its missile programme, if other
countries help it to launch satellites.
Diplomatic sources stress that the upcoming consultations "will rely on
understandings to intensify the dialogue on strategic stability" reached
during the latest meetings of the presidents of the two countries in Moscow
and during the G8 summit in Okinawa.
Consultations on strategic stability have been held regularly since
February of last year, however, the sides still have not overcome
differences on the key matter - the future of the ABM treaty.
The USA wants the treaty amended so it can deploy a national missile
defence system, while Russia believes that the implementation of this plan
would undermine the entire world system of strategic stability and spark a
new arms race.
*******
#9
RUSSIAN COMMUNIST PARTY LEADER CRITICIZES PUTIN'S LACK OF ACTION
Interfax
Moscow, 7th August: Communist leader Gennadiy Zyuganov has said he believes
Russian President Vladimir Putin's words and deeds often do not correspond
with one another.
Putin and his team "should have formulated all the key tasks the country
and government should carry out, defined the main priorities. This hasn't
happened," Zyuganov charged.
"As for the presidential message, it does speak of a strong state, support
for manufacturers and a qualitatively new policy. We have been talking
about this for ten years. The slogans are all ours - word for word,"
Zyuganov said in an interview to be published in tomorrow's edition of
`Pravda' under the headline "To lift up or finish off Russia?"
In his opinion, the Communist leader said, as correct as the slogans
proclaimed by the authorities are, the government continues the economic
policies of former President Boris Yeltsin. Russia last year extracted
mineral resources worth almost 80bn dollars, "but almost nothing reached
the state coffers," he claimed. "Several persons are pumping enormous
values and stuffing their pockets, keeping money in foreign banks, not ours."
He pointed to the harm done to the country by the policy pursued by the
chief executive of Russia's energy grid Unified Energy System, Anatoliy
Chubays. In a letter to Putin and the government, he directed their
attention to the attempts "by several oligarchs to get ahold of the Atomic
Energy Ministry," Zyuganov said. "Now they have got to railways in order to
tear them apart too."
"And this is how it turns out: one thing in words, another in deed," he says.
In his opinion, Zyuganov continued, not a single normal person could like
what is happening in the country. "I am sure that neither Putin nor other
people in the Kremlin like it. They have worked for state security. One can
see the whole world from that house (KGB headquarters, from an old Soviet
joke). They have the analysts, the information. They know what methods of
warfare are used against us."
Zyuganov is sure Putin "sees and understands everything".
"But in order to resolve problems, one should know where to go," he says in
the interview. "One should have a clear course, a concrete programme, a
strong team, a system of government, one should have a powerful system of
training personnel and know international experience," he said, stressing
that he disapproves of the current personnel policy.
Zyuganov also said he generally approves of Putin's efforts on the
international arena pointing out to Putin's successful visits to China,
North Korea and the G8 summit in Okinawa. "It is very beneficial to be
friends and cooperate with Arab countries with which we have never warred,"
he says. He also stressed the need to strengthen and expand contacts with
China, India, Vietnam and Yugoslavia. "Of course, we are for normal
relations with the United States, as two wings are also competing there:
one aggressive, the other more reasonable," he said.
******
#10
BBC MONITORING
PUTIN SAYS HARVEST IS GOVERNMENT'S TOP PRIORITY
Text of report by Russia TV on 7th August
[Presenter] President Vladimir Putin hold a traditional Monday meeting with
members of the government in the Kremlin today. At the meeting, Putin
instructed the government to stick to the strict schedule of presenting a
draft budget to the Federal Assembly.
[Correspondent] Yesterday Putin signed a new tax code into law. The
president stressed that these circumstances turned today's routine meeting
into an outstanding event. Putin thanked all members of the government who
took part in preparing the important document. At the same time, the timely
presentation of a draft budget should become another evidence of the
efficient work of the government.
[Putin] Next week, the government should receive a draft budget from the
Finance Ministry. If this happens, the government will be able to resolve
the problem of the timely preparation of the most important financial
document, the most important document for the life of the country. I hope
this will be so. I hope this will proceed in line with the new law, the new
tax code, and the government's programme, which has been approved some time
ago and prepared by the Economics Ministry.
[Correspondent] The president named harvesting as the second but no less
important issue, which required attention on all levels. He stressed that
the whole package of problems connected with harvesting must be tackled not
only by the Agriculture Ministry.
[Putin] This is an all-state problem. Please pay attention to this and
concentrate your attention on this in the near future and help all the
structures - federal and regional, the local authorities - in resolving the
most important problem of the national economy, the most important problem
facing the country in the near future. The harvest must be collected with
minimal losses and please do everything possible to achieve this.
Therefore, the problems of financing, supplying fuel and lubricants,
repairing equipment and all other problems connected with harvesting must
be the government's priority for the near future.
[Correspondent] After the meeting, Finance Minister Aleksey Kudrin told
journalists that the Finance Ministry would produce the main points of the
2001 budget on Wednesday 9th August.
[Kudrin] The main point of the 2001 budget is that it envisages the
100-per-cent financing of all main components of the public sector economy:
utilities payment, wages without delays, medicines, foodstuff, travelling
and 100-per-cent financing of all the servicemen, so that these people who
are being paid with public money do not experience problems but could
concentrate on their jobs.
[Correspondent] In the near future, the Finance Ministry will allocate an
extra R100bn on harvesting.
******
#11
New York Times
August 8, 2000
[for personal use only]
MOSCOW JOURNAL
With Bunkers Manned, Vodka War Is in Stalemate
By PATRICK E. TYLER
MOSCOW, Aug. 7 -- No shots have been fired yet, but there is a war going on
under the leafy summer canopy that shades the streets in the Lefortovo
district of the Russian capital. Here, on 20 acres of factory grounds,
thousands of workers are daily engaged in the production of one of Russia's
most essential commodities -- vodka.
Precisely because vodka is such needed balm for the Russian soul, the country
has been riveted -- in the political lull of August -- by the struggle for
control of the Krystall factory. It is one of the country's oldest
vodka-producing plants, and last year it rolled out 130 million bottles of
famous brands like Stolichnaya and Krystall, sold in the West as Crystall.
Given the factory's well-known trade marks and estimated value of $600
million, it was perhaps only a matter of time before this economic plum
became one that rival forces sought to pluck. The only thing both sides agree
on is that the federal government's attempt to reconsolidate control over the
lucrative vodka industry -- an effort that has increased since President
Vladimir V. Putin was sworn in in May -- set off the latest of Russia's
business battles.
On Friday, armed paramilitary policemen stormed the administration building
of the factory, ordering everyone out, ostensibly so tax authorities could
seize some documents. Once the building was secured, the troopers made way
for Aleksandr I. Romanov to enter the building and occupy the general
manager's suite, along with dozens of muscular private security guards who
were hired for the occasion. Then the Swat team departed.
Mr. Romanov, 37, has never worked at Krystall and knows little of the vodka
business. For the last several years, he has served as a vice president in
charge of public relations and other duties at Rosneft, Russia's state-owned
oil company. He describes himself as a highly trained "top manager" and only
grudgingly acknowledges that he went to school with the deputy minister in
the state property administration, who happens to be leading one of the
warring factions on Krystall's board of directors.
About 100 feet away from Mr. Romanov's second-floor encampment, the chief
accountant and acting general manager of the Krystall factory, Vladimir L.
Svirsky, also 37, leads the other faction of board members who control 40
percent of the company's stock. They have set up defensive positions at the
entrance to the factory's production lines where frightened workers tried to
complete their shift on Friday hoping that violence would not erupt.
"This shouldn't be happening in a factory as important as this," said
Svetlana Soborova, who has worked at Krystall for 18 years and sells the
product in the company's retail store.
And yet, on a weekend when a state of emergency had been declared in Moscow
to guard against possible terrorist acts by Chechnya rebels, neither the
courts nor police nor federal government seemed willing to act. The
neighborhood around the 100-year-old factory became a sea of muscle, with
private security guards hired by each warring camp facing off in front of the
huge enterprise, in which the state has a 51 percent controlling interest.
Each side sent patrols out to roam the streets and alleys around the factory
looking for ways to outmaneuver each other and get control of the premises.
"In Russia unfortunately we have the phenomenon of a weak state, where the
legal institutions, too, are very weak," said Grigory A. Koshkarov, a
financial adviser to the factory.
For the last two years, Russia's leaders have been rediscovering a truism of
the Soviet era -- that vodka, and the tax revenues derived from its sale, can
be the salvation of a beleaguered national budget.
But that will hold true now only if the government can re-establish control
over the wild vodka industry, where half or more of the market has been
seized by an enormous shadow industry of illegal and counterfeit distillers.
Last year, the government collected $470 million in taxes on alcohol
production, and some estimates indicate that this number could double under
tighter state control.
Soon after being sworn in in May, Mr. Putin signed a decree creating a new
state-owned conglomerate, Rosspiritprom, to consolidate state control over 50
distilleries in which the Russian government owns a majority stake and 20
others in which it is a minority shareholder.
The physical showdown over Krystall follows months of maneuvering in the
boardroom and the courts.
Mr. Romanov went to court last spring seeking to enforce the board's decision
to appoint him acting general manager of the plant, but the court ruled that
the appointment was illegal because opposing directors did not receive 10
days notice.
Mr. Romanov claimed that his rival Mr. Svirsky bribed the judge, but then
acknowledged that he had no evidence. The board met again in June and
reaffirmed Mr. Romanov's appointment, but Mr. Svirsky and his directors
walked out.
Mr. Svirsky asserts that one or another of Russia's business oligarchs close
to the Kremlin is behind Mr. Romanov's appointment and is seeking to get
control of the 40 percent stake in the company now controlled by employees,
managers and their allies. But Mr. Svirsky too said he had no proof of this
charge.
Instead of waiting for the courts to act on its petitions, Mr. Romanov's
faction orchestrated Friday's takeover.
In an interview, Mr. Romanov presented himself as the vanguard of state power
come to reclaim the alcohol industry from incompetents, thieves and
"swindlers." He accused Mr. Svirsky of disobeying board directives, and of
trying to become a "new oligarch" by amassing 40 percent of the company
shares and behaving like "Napoleon."
Mr. Svirsky countered that his faction of board members is fighting to keep
control of management, which he says is justified by record profits and tax
payments posted in 1999. "We are trying to prove our right to work at this
enterprise by the results of our work," he said.
By Sunday night, both Mr. Romanov and Mr. Svirsky were showing the strain of
their standoff. Desktops were littered with the detritus of cold cuts and
fast food. Mr. Svirsky needed a shave, and Mr. Romanov had been sleeping in
his clothes and worrying about Mr. Svirsky's guard dogs, one of them known as
a "man-eater," that might be loosed on his men if they entered the plant.
Today, Mr. Svirsky addressed employees returning to work, telling them to
ignore any orders from Mr. Romanov's men. And the chairman of the board,
Yevgeny A. Panteleev, reiterated his support for Mr. Romanov's insurgency.
"This is the face of our Russian democracy," said a somewhat grizzled
security guard, who wore blue sneakers and stood with his arms akimbo in
front of the factory gate. Mr. Svirsky has effectively blocked any actions to
turn over shares in the factory to his opponents by hiding the corporate
seal.
"I am like a kamikaze," Mr. Svirsky said, "and I will fight for my rights to
the death."
*******
#12
Segodnya
August 8, 2000
[translaition from RIA Novosti for personal use only]
KREMLIN PROCEEDS TO SECOND STAGE OF REFORM
Svetlana SUKHOVA
By initialling on August 7 the remaining two documents on
the procedure of forming the Federation Council and on
additions to the law on local self-government, President
Vladimir Putin has thereby completed the first stage of his
reform. From now on, the Kremlin is able to shape parliament's
upper house under its own patterns.
But the most important thing is that a "delay-action mine"
has been planted under Yeltsin's rather ramshackle
administrative system. Now regional heads can be temporarily
removed from office in connection with the beginning of legal
proceedings. The "mine" is to go off on January 1, 2002, when
governors lose their seats in the Federation Council. It is
quite possible, however, that the explosion will take place a
year or a year and a half earlier: the Kremlin intends to begin
the second stage of its reform without waiting for the results
of the first.
The next step is a new law on the formation of the Duma.
But, on the other hand, it is quite possible that the
translation of all the four initiatives concerning the reform
of the lower house, the Constitutional Assembly and the State
Council will begin simultaneously. This will coincide with the
beginning of amending the Constitution and the election of
thirty-nine governors. One way or another, a storm of the main
bastions of the old system of state power will begin in
September-October.
Taking into consideration that the President signed the
new law on the formation of the Federation Council only on
August 7 and the first gubernatorial elections will be held in
September, there is no doubt that a number of regions will have
no time to adopt their local laws on the procedure of
nominating candidates to become members of the Federation
Council. This means that a certain number of Federation Council
seats will remain vacant for a couple of months.
This is one side of the medal. The other is that the
"Sword of Damocles" of the "presidential-prosecutory justice"
will automatically hang over newly and re-elected executive
heads of the regions now that the governors have been stripped
of parliamentary immunity. In accordance with the presidential
law on amendments to the procedure of forming the bodies of
executive and legislative authority in the constituent members
of the Russian Federation, they can be temporarily suspended
from office at the request of the prosecutor.
The threat to be suspended and to be later nominated as
acting governor and the investigation which can continued on
end (at least till the expiry of the term in office) will make
many governors to be more compliant. Some of them will be made
members of the State Council.
The future local self-government situation is less clear.
Not only governors but also the President will have the right
to appoint and dismiss, for instance, the mayors of cities.
What if they disagree in a situation when the head of the
region has parliamentary immunity?
*******
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