September 7, 2000    
This Date's Issues: 4496  4497  

Johnson's Russia List
#4497
7 September 2000
davidjohnson@erols.com


[Note from David Johnson:
1. Moscow Times: Anna Badkhen and Anna Andreyeva, Lack of State 
Support Hits Single Parents Hard.
2. BBC MONITORING: DUMA CHAIRMAN SAYS PUTIN MAY SUPPORT PARLIAMENT 
MOVING TO ST PETERSBURG.
3. The Guardian (UK): Ian Traynor, Kursk crew died 'within minutes' 
4. Izvestia: THE TALIBAN CAN REACH OUT TO EVERY RUSSIAN HOME.
5. Izvestia: Diminished Responsibility. (re Chechens)
6. Interfax: MOSCOW PATRIARCHY BLASTS U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT.
7. BBC MONITORING: JOURNALISTS UNION OPPOSES MEDIA FUNDING SECRECY.
8. Moscow Times: William C. Brumfield, Find Nation's Historical 
Memory 'Out There' 
9. Wall Street Journal: Jeanne Whalen, Russian Ads Come Back to 
Life After Fire in Moscow's Television Tower.
10. Vremya MN: Ecological Impact of New Russian Oil, Gas Fields 
Assessed.
11. Interfax: AUTHORITIES UNWILLING TO FIGHT CORRUPTION - 
SWISS PROSECUTOR, RUSSIAN INVESTIGATOR.
12. RFE/RL: Askold Krushelnycky, East: Corruption Destroys 
People's Faith In Democracy.
13. BBC MONITORING: RUSSIA WANTS "FAIR AND SAFE" WORLD ORDER - 
FOREIGN MINISTER.] 


******


#1
Moscow Times
September 7, 2000 
Lack of State Support Hits Single Parents Hard 
By Anna Badkhen and Anna Andreyeva


Vera Pshenichnikova emerged from the room clutching three red roses, a folded 
piece of colored fabric and a backpack for her daughter. 


She was immediately engulfed by a small crowd of fatigued women and children 
who clogged the hallway of the Taganka Children's Fund. 


They were all waiting for their share of backpacks, roses, fabrics, and, 
conceivably, clothes. Some of the children were alarmingly skinny. 


Neatly but poorly dressed, the roughly 70 women and children who waited for 
charity goods at the Taganka fund last week were all members of single-parent 
families. 


City Hall officials say it is impossible to calculate how many single parents 
live in Moscow, since many couples with children are not married. Vladimir 
Shepilin, the director of the fund, says 45 percent of the parents of 
Moscow's 1.4 million children are single. Almost all are women. 


Most single parents have low incomes and depend on the state subsidy of about 
300 rubles per child paid monthly to all single parents, said Lyubov Ishchyuk 
at the Moscow city committee for family and youth. 


"We are social outcasts and this place is one of the few that helps," said 
Pshenichnikova, 46, who survives with her 9-year-old daughter Yana on the 900 
rubles she makes each month helping invalids and elderly people in the city. 


Pshenichnikova lost her job at a city maintenance office six years ago after 
taking a three-year maternity leave. 


Although the labor code guarantees that a new mother can take three years off 
without losing her job, employers seldom comply, Sheplin said. Many companies 
resist hiring women with small children because they are considered likely to 
take frequent sick leave, he said. 


Few single mothers receive child support. Although an alimony law does exist, 
Sheplin said it is rarely enforced. 


Another woman who came to the fund last week, 77-year-old Valentina Biranova, 
broke into tears when asked about her life with granddaughter Nadya, 10, 
whose mother died several years ago and whose father never visits. 


Were it not for the fund, Biranova said she would not know how to survive. 


Ishchyuk said there are almost no single fathers in Moscow and those men who 
raise their children alone are not eligible for the child support that single 
mothers get. 


Shepilin said that of the roughly 400 single parents in the Taganka district 
overseen by his fund f which was founded in 1991 and operates on grants it 
receives from British-based charity organizations f three are men. They did 
not show up for last week's giveaway. 


Even the scanty child support offered by the state is often hard to get, 
according to Lyubov Kushnir, deputy head of the Moscow-based Right of Child 
advocacy group. 


Kushnir said her group often helps single mothers who have not received their 
child support for months due to bureaucratic red tape and it also helps 
single women who simply need money or food. 


Meanwhile, the number of single mothers in Russia is on the rise. 


Of the 1.3 million children born across the country in 1998, 345,891 were 
born to single mothers, said Olga Kolesnikova of the State Statistics 
Committee. 


In 1996, about the same number of children were born, but fewer than 300,000 
of them had single mothers. 


It is difficult to say, however, whether all these mothers live alone with 
their children, she said. 


Many women don't get married so they can receive child support from the 
state, Ishchyuk said. 


Shepilin says his fund does not require that people seeking assistance 
provide documents proving they are single parents. 


*******


#2
BBC MONITORING
DUMA CHAIRMAN SAYS PUTIN MAY SUPPORT PARLIAMENT MOVING TO ST PETERSBURG
Text of report by Radio Russia on 6th September 


[Presenter] State Duma Chairman Gennadiy Seleznev has told Radio Russia he
believes that President Vladimir Putin may support the idea of parliament
and other federal agencies moving to St Petersburg. 


[Seleznev] If Putin does get tired of all these bureaucrats, all this Mafia
that has stuck to everything around the president - he is still trying to
get rid of these oligarchs somehow - he may decide to act like Peter [the
Great, the Russian emperor]. 


[This may happen] After he gets tired of trying to convince them to stop
stealing and start working honestly - we are not in the way of your
businesses but you must stop spending all your time in the Kremlin offices,
trying to use someone in the administration to influence decisions so that
they are in favour of your businesses. After he gets tired of all this, he
will put his foot down and say: you, my dear oligarchs, can stay here if
you like while we are starting a new life in St Petersburg. 


******


#3
The Guardian (UK)
7 September 2000
Kursk crew died 'within minutes' 
Ian Traynor in Moscow 


All the 118 seamen in the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk died almost 
instantly when it sank in the Arctic on August 12, the Russian authorities 
said yesterday. 


Ilya Klebanov, the deputy prime minister heading the government inquiry into 
the accident, told a Russian television station: "I can say almost certainly 
that by the time the Kursk sank to the seabed, no one was alive." 


His remarks were buttressed by Colonel-General Valery Manilov, the deputy 
chief of staff, who said that most of the Kursk crew died within two minutes 
of the disaster. He reiterated the official Russian view that the Kursk was 
sunk by a collision with another, probably Nato, submarine. 


Responding to widespread criticism of the delays in trying to rescue the 
crew, Gen Manilov said that for technical reasons the British and Norwegians 
would have been unable to launch their effort any earlier, even if they had 
arrived immediately. 


He ruled out "friendly fire" from a Russian ship taking part in naval 
exercises as the cause, and said there could not have been an accidental 
explosion of a torpedo on board the Kursk. 


"The probability of the collision is confirmed by the statistics," he said. 
There had been 11 documented collisions between Russian/Soviet and foreign 
submarines since 1967, eight of them in the theatre of operations of the 
northern fleet, to which the Kursk belonged. 


******


#4
Izvestia
September 7, 2000
[translation from RIA Novosti for personal use only]
THE TALIBAN CAN REACH OUT TO EVERY RUSSIAN HOME
By Maxim YUSIN

We see our worst fears come true: the Islamic fanatics are 
on the verge of winning the civil war and getting entrenched on 
the external borders of the CIS. The buffer zone in Northern 
Afghanistan, which the Northern Alliance controlled in the past 
few years, can topple within weeks. 

Militant Islam is confidently marching into the 
post-Soviet states. Tajikistan has long become the scene of a 
civil war and a bridgehead for exporting "the true faith" into 
other CIS states.
Kirgizia is living only between Wahhabite attacks, which 
quickly follow one another. Its weak armed forces cannot stop 
the extremists on the national border. The Islamists are making 
inroads into Kirgiz territory, occupying villages and resisting 
the government troops for several days, and then leaving 
without any haste - and with impunity. 
But their main target is not Kirgizia or even Tajikistan. 
It is Uzbekistan. Their main enemy is the Uzbek president, 
Islam Karimov, and their strategic goal is to tear out of 
Uzbekistan the fertile Ferghana Valley and to proclaim a Moslem 
state there.
If the secular regime is toppled in Tashkent (thank God, 
this is not an immediate threat), the expansion of the Taliban, 
Wahhabis and other like-minded groups will spread on towards 
the North. The next target would be Kazakhstan and the Volga 
republics of Russia with their Moslem population. 

******


#5
Russia Today press summaries
Izvestia
September 6, 2000
Diminished Responsibility
Summary


An unidentified source in the Prosecutor General's office told Interfax that, 
one of these days, famous Chechen terrorist Salman Raduyev is to take 
psychiatric expertise, because "his responsibility causes strong doubts". If 
Raduyev is declared irresponsible by this expertise, then he cannot face a 
court trial. He will be put in a mental hospital and eventually may even be 
released, if the treatment brings positive results.


Thus, Salman Raduyev will not give testimony in the Court about his "feats" 
of 1995 in Kizlyar and Pervomaiskoe, where he kept hostage dozens of 
civilians. This is the most important outcome of the whole story with his 
detention. Some time earlier, two other important Chechen witnesses 
disappeared, who had been detained by federal troops, famous field commander 
Ruslan Alihodjayev and head of Chechen President's administration Apti 
Batalov. France Press reported that Alihadjayev had died from heart attack in 
the Lefortovo jail (Moscow), but later it appeared that he had never been 
taken to Moscow after his arrest on May 17. Thus, he simply disappeared. 
Batalov was secretly released from custody two months ago, and may be living 
in Chechnya, in Istanbul or in Dubai now. The fact of his release has become 
known to the media only by chance.


We will hardly ever know the true story of the Caucasian wars of the past 
decade. Numerous special services have had intermingled and complicated 
interests there. And revelations can cost too much. Suffice to say that 
famous Chechen field commanders Shamil Basayev and Ruslan Gelayev received 
their training from Russian subversive specialists in Abkhaziya, which was 
conducting its war with Georgia for independence in the early nineties. At 
the same time, Russian officers worked in the headquarters of the Georgian 
Defense Minister, Tengiz Kitovani.


Raduyev could tell the court something about the connections between Chechen 
militants and Russian special services. And now is not the right time to hear 
about this.


******


#6
MOSCOW PATRIARCHY BLASTS U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT


MOSCOW. Sept 6 (Interfax) - A Moscow Patriarchy official has
criticized the latest statement of the U.S. Department of the State
alleging that there is no true freedom of conscience in Russia.
The department's annual report on international religious freedom,
published on Wednesday, argues that the Russian government does not
always respect the provision for equality of religions.
This is another case of the United States interfering in Russia's
internal affairs, the official told Interfax. He dismissed the
accusations, saying that cult legislation is much tougher in numerous
European countries and the term 'state religion' even exists.
Concerning Western criticism that the Russian authorities have very
close ties with the Orthodox Church, the official said that "Orthodox
Christianity has for a thousand years been the largest Russian
confession, followed by an absolute majority of the country's citizens.
While all traditional religions are equal before the law, they are not
equal before history."
The official said he regrets Washington's silence "about
unprecedented violations of the freedom of conscience in Ukraine, where
the largest confession of that country, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of
the Moscow Patriarchy, is subjected to veritable physical terror."


******


#7
BBC MONITORING
JOURNALISTS UNION OPPOSES MEDIA FUNDING SECRECY
Text of report by Russian newspaper 'Segodnya' on 6th September 


A scandal is developing over the top-secret item in the draft state budget
relating to state support for the mass media. Yesterday the leadership of
the Journalists Union disseminated the statement "Russia's Information
Security Is in Jeopardy." 


As we reported (see `Segodnya', 2nd September), the draft budget submitted
to the State Duma distributes funds in the mass media section beneath a
"Top Secret" stamp, the same as the "State Arms Programme" - until recently
the only top-secret item in the Russian budget. 


"Mikhail Lesin's Ministry for the Press, Radio and Television Broadcasting
and Mass Communications is becoming a power ministry, and it is possible
that what we are observing is an attempt to forge a powerful information
weapon. It is necessary to ascertain what this will include - jamming
devices or funding for a 'Ministry of the Truth'. In any case, this is
illegal. Such covering up of information is a most flagrant violation of
the laws 'On the Mass Media', 'On Information, Information Technology and
Information Protection' and 'On State Secrets' and of the Russian
constitution as a whole," Igor Yakovenko, general secretary of the Russian
Journalists Union, told `Segodnya'. 


The State Duma Budget Committee declined to speak about the hush-hush
items, referring to criminal liability for divulging such information. The
most general data relating to the distribution of the funds enshrined in
the draft budget are known. The lion's share of them (5.5bn roubles) will
go into television and radio broadcasting - into the state mass media,
moreover - and almost all in the form of targeted subsidies. 


But it is the distribution of grants and subsidies among the specific state
media that is stamped "Top Secret", whereas the 2000 budget clearly
prescribed how much was due to go to the All-Russia State Television and
Radio Broadcasting Company and its "daughters". 


"The closed nature of budget items increases the possibility that
appropriations for the mass media will be stolen," Igor Yakovenko believes.
It is also possible to assume another version: The top-secrecy is connected
with the fact that the state has enshrined in the budget state support for
mass media which are not state media today (such as ORT or NTV) or,
conversely, is planning to abolish certain state media and has made this
secret in order to avoid premature publicity for its "media plans". 


******


#8
Moscow Times
September 6, 2000 
ESSAY: Find Nation's Historical Memory 'Out There' 
By William C. Brumfield 
William C. Brumfield, recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2000-01, is a 
professor of Slavic Studies at Tulane University and author of numerous books 
on Russian architecture. He contributed this essay to The Moscow Times. 


In the occasional commentaries I have published in this space during the past 
four years, I have drawn attention to the valiant work of cultural 
institutions in the provinces and in particular the local history museums of 
the Russian north. Whether in cities such as Vologda or small towns such as 
Kargopol and Velsk, these institutions have preserved local pride and 
cultural memory under daunting odds. I would also argue that these local 
museums have been an important source of spiritual values at a time when the 
Russian Orthodox Church is still struggling to overcome decades of 
secularization and apathy toward religion. 


Historical memory has now become one of the few cohesive elements in this 
nation's culture and its strength is largely based on local initiative. 
Paradoxically, perceptions of the nation's history have been dominated by a 
centrist view, even as the country has survived its historical cataclysms 
through an agglomeration of local economies and cultures whose existence 
passes largely unknown even within other regions of Russia itself, not to 
mention for the overwhelming majority of Western observers. 


I have also advocated the need for greater awareness of the specifics of life 
in the provinces, from Arkhangelsk to the eastern reaches. In its entirety, 
this may appear a pointless, even impossible task, but we must do more to 
understand the diversity of this enormous country. On a purely human level, 
we should attempt to learn more about those Russians in the countryside whom 
we so often relegate to the statistics of failure. 


These concerns occurred to me with renewed intensity after a recent trip to 
one of the most remarkable sites that I have visited during many years of 
photographic fieldwork in Russia. The village of Kimzha, located near the 
Mezen River in the far north of Arkhangelsk region, is remarkable not just 
for its early 18th-century Church of the Odigitria Icon, with its five 
soaring towers over a structure of massive larch logs. To be sure, it was a 
photograph of that church that convinced me that I had to go there, despite 
that fact that Kimzha can only be reached over a primitive winter forest 
track of some 100 kilometers, which ceases to exist after the first thaw in 
early April. (The only other way is by small airplane from Arkhangelsk.) For 
all of the beauty of this church, what surprised me still more from the 
moment of my first visit in March was the extent to which the village's 
massive log houses, built during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, have 
been preserved. And this is not some open-air museum in which a few log 
houses have been reconstructed. It is a functioning, living environment. Yes, 
some of the houses stand abandoned and others have been modified with plank 
siding. But the overall milieu survives. To a large degree, it is the very 
absence of roads, the "isolation factor" that accounts for this remarkable 
survival. 


But something more important has happened here. After all, hundreds of 
villages throughout the north were simply depopulated during the 20th 
century. Kimzha has survived against all apparent odds. When I returned in 
late July to spend a week there, some of the reasons for this survival became 
obvious to me. One can speak loudly of the spirit of the people, yet what I 
saw was a much more modest, unpretentious sense of place f a sense that is 
too diverse to reduce to stereotype. 


In a village of some 300 inhabitants in the summer (and about half that in 
the winter), many of the inhabitants are elderly or retired, coming back to 
the village that was a part of their childhood. They live in close contact 
with the rhythm of the seasons f a time for berries, a time for mushrooms, a 
time for hunting and fishing. Although the former dairy kolkhoz, surrounded 
by rusting machinery for which there is no fuel, is a shadow of its Soviet 
size, a large part of the dairy herd has reappeared through individual 
ownership. Having lived within this community, I can attest to the purity and 
taste of the fresh milk, cottage cheese and ryazhenka produced throughout the 
week by individuals who own one cow or a few. 


Farming on this scale is not easy work, but it is a reliable source of 
sustenance for people who have few other resources. Indeed, it was a surprise 
to me to find that Kimzha has retained a number of residents in their 30s, 
with young children. These families tend to be large and with modest means. 
Much of their income will eventually go to sending their children to be 
educated in Arkhangelsk. But in the meantime, these families f and others who 
come for the summer f have the unique privilege of living in this community. 


With this larger group of permanent residents in Kimzha, a few have banded 
together to save the church and form a local orthodox parish. The church was 
consecrated last summer and is now opened every day for prayer, although 
regular services are very rare. The question of restoring this great monument 
to full use is very much open to question, although the building itself is 
strong enough to last for many more decades. 


Ironically, this apparent idyll, with all of its current problems related to 
economic difficulties, could be fundamentally changed by an economic 
windfall. It is no secret that there is oil f a lot of it f in northern 
Arkhangelsk region. And much of that wealth lies under the Mezen district. 
Even now, the roar of machinery has returned to Kimzha f not farming 
equipment, but heavy earth-moving equipment. A road is finally being built to 
Mezen through Kimzha, a dirt road, but one that can be used year-round. 


This is extremely difficult work, to build a road straight through a northern 
swamp. The crews work throughout the year, day and night, on a week's 
rotation. At this rate, the road should be completed within another two 
years. Obviously, such an effort could only be justified by the presence of 
major natural resources f and probably with some form of subsidy from oil 
companies. With the completion of this road and the further development of 
oil exploration and drilling, the Kimzha environment would most likely 
undergo a radical change, and not necessarily for the better. We shall see. 


In the meantime, my amazement at the beauty of Kimzha is tempered by an 
awareness that not only are we largely unaware of this richness, but we are 
also not encouraging the next generation of specialists on Russia to explore 
this world. It is they who will direct future policy toward Russia and teach 
students about this great country. To the extent that they have little 
experience in this country "out there," we run a significant risk of ignoring 
Russia and its strengths at a time when so much within it seems on the brink 
of disaster. 


*******


#9
Wall Street Journal
September 6, 2000 
[for personal use only] 
Russian Ads Come Back to Life After Fire in Moscow's Television Tower
By JEANNE WHALEN (jeanne.whalen@wsj.com)
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL


MOSCOW -- The Russian advertising business, after slowly creeping back from 
the country's 1998 economic blowout, looked ready to crash again when 
Moscow's main television tower went up in flames last month.


But TV stations are stumbling back on air much sooner than expected, and, if 
the government can quickly finish restoring broadcasts, the ad market should 
continue enjoying its best growth in years.


Agencies and TV channels this week are grappling with compensating 
multinational and local advertisers who lost prepaid airtime during the fire. 
There is some bickering over who will pay the bill for the lost advertising 
time, with TV channels arguing the fire was a natural disaster beyond their 
control. Television broadcasts weren't disturbed in most parts of Russia but 
were knocked off the air for a week in Moscow, the most lucrative consumer 
market.


Recovering Airtime


The government rigged up a temporary antenna to restore broadcasts in 85% of 
Moscow this week, albeit of poor, fuzzy quality. Assuming this can quickly be 
fixed, ad agencies don't believe the fire at the Ostankino Tower will derail 
expected growth in television ad spending of 30% this year to $240 million 
(267.2 million euros). Marketers' TV budgets are expected to increase another 
30% in 2001, according to Gallup AdFact, which tracks media spending in 
Russia.


This is still tiny by world standards but marks a healthy turnaround here, as 
economic growth and consumer spending swing upward two years after the 1998 
collapse. Available advertising airtime for October on the top six TV 
channels was sold out in August, which last happened in the boom year of 
1997. "Big advertisers have increased their budgets and a new group of local 
marketers who want to advertise has appeared," says Sergei Piskaryev, 
president of Media Vest, the media-buying arm of ad agency D'Arcy Masius 
Benton & Bowles's Moscow office.


Ad agencies this year have been hiring new employees and boosting salaries as 
advertisers increase ad spending, according to the Russian Association of 
Advertising Agencies, or RAAA. "This shows that until the Ostankino fire the 
situation was stabilizing," says Elena Marchenko, director of RAAA. She 
agrees that broadcasts should be repaired quickly but cautions that ad 
spending could drop if they aren't.


Television in Russia is king -- because many products marketed here have 
foreign names, the consumer must see the brand name to remember it, making 
radio less helpful, ad agencies say. Outdoor advertising received a boost 
during the television blackout, while Internet and print media hoped to 
attract new advertisers, though any growth was likely small. Some radio 
stations immediately boosted their prices by 50% as the TV fire burned, but 
they didn't attract much additional business, ad men say.


Boon for Cable, Satellite


Procter & Gamble acknowledges the Moscow TV blackout put a small crimp in 
advertising campaigns supporting the July launch of deodorant brands Secret 
and Old Spice but says heavy outdoor advertising softened the blow. "The 
launches did suffer but there was no drama," says P&G spokesman Andrei Bader. 
"We do not envisage huge losses and we hope to get compensated [for lost 
airtime] as a result of this week."


That P&G is launching any new brands at all this year is a testament to the 
improving Russian consumer market. Most big foreign marketers froze or 
reduced ad budgets after the 1998 crash made their goods too expensive for 
many Russian shoppers.


Nestle, whose bright red coffee mugs and cheerful teenage spokesmen looked a 
bit fuzzy and washed out on shaky TV broadcasts, said it is counting on quick 
repair of the TV tower. "As broadcasts in Moscow and the Moscow region are 
gradually being restored, we aren't rushing to make any cardinal changes in 
our advertising strategy," says Elena Kustova, media manager at Nestle's 
Moscow office.


Russia's fragile TV stations, dependent on advertising more than ever as the 
Kremlin puts pressure on media and threatens their independence, are now left 
to work out compensation for the lost airtime. Since most ad contracts 
include a clause allowing for force majeur situations, marketers won't be 
getting cash back. Instead, national television channel ORT is offering to 
make up about 10% of the advertising time some big clients lost in Moscow 
last week, says Viktor Kolomiyets of Video International, which sells ORT's 
airtime.


NTV, the privately held television channel locked in a long battle with the 
Kremlin over its critical coverage of President Vladimir Putin, says the fire 
may have even boosted its prospects. In the absence of regular television, 
subscriptions to its paid satellite service NTV Plus grew by 2% within a 
week, to 142,500. NTV's ability to keep airing its programming -- and 
advertisements -- during the TV blackout should give the government, which 
owns half of ORT and all of RTR, serious pause to consider investing in more 
modern satellite- and cable-transmission systems, ad industry executives say.
*******


#10
Ecological Impact of New Russian Oil, Gas Fields Assessed 


Vremya MN
30 August 2000
[translation for personal use only]
Article by Marina Sokolovskaya: "After Us, the Deluge" 


The oil companies are destroying Russian nature 


The 1st International Practical Conference, SRP-2000 (agreement on 
developing Russian oil and gas deposits with the participation of foreign 
investors who receive their share of the extracted products) is to take 
place at the beginning of September in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Vladimir 
Putin and Bill Richardson, U.S. Secretary of Energy, are expected to 
attend. 


Much has been said in the last few years about the fact that the SRP 
[production-sharing agreement] mechanism is not developed in Russia, and 
foreign companies therefore do not want to work in our country. The 
country is losing billions of dollars as a result. 


But the developments of new oil and gas deposits and the increase in the 
volumes of oil transport by sea may turn out to have unforeseen 
ecological consequences for Russia. 


There are four principal projects today -- they are already extracting 
oil on the Sakhalin shelf and transporting it through the Sea of Okhotsk 
to Japan and the United States. Next on the list is the development of 
deposits in the Barents and Karsk seas. Great hopes are linked with the 
export of oil supplied by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (KTK) through 
the Black Sea, and by the Baltic Pipeline System, correspondingly through 
the Baltic. The plans are to transport 30-60 million tonnes of oil a 
year along Russia's Black, Okhotsk and North seas. 


In the euphoria of big money expectations, however, an extremely 
important circumstance is being overlooked. Not a single country is 
insured against oil spills, even in planned operations. Neither the 
level of personnel training nor the newest technology provide full 
guarantees. It is even calculated that 0.02 to 0.03 percent of the oil 
transported in the world yearly ends up in the sea during extraction and 
transport. This is not counting major accidents. For example, 30,000 
tonnes of oil were spilled on the shore of France last year as the result 
of an accident to the tanker Erik. And 40,000 tonnes, in the 
catastrophe of the American tanker, Exxon Valdiz, in Alaska in 1989. 
The damage that time was $5 billion. In striving to secure themselves 
to the maximum, many Western countries have passed laws in which all 
procedures connected with the extraction and transport of oil are 
prescribed in detail. 


Russia has no such laws. 


A Love for Bankruptcies 


The extraction of oil in accordance with the Sakhalin-2 project began 
last summer on the Northeastern shelf of Sakhalin. The Sakhalin Energy 
Investment Company Limited (SEIK) was the operator of the project. We 
cannot help but say a few words about the prehistory of the development 
of this deposit. 


In 1992, a government commission chaired by Vladimir Danilov-Danilyan 
summed up the results of the announced competition of proposals of 
foreign firms to develop the oil and gas resources of the Sakhalin shelf. 
Leading world companies took part in the tender, including Shell and 
Exxon. But the winner of the competition was a consortium consisting of 
the MacDermott, Mitsui and Marathon Oil corporations (MMM). The 
government commission gave as the reasoning for its choice the fact that 
the consortium "has most completely fulfilled the requirements of the 
Russian side, has experience in developing deposits under Arctic 
conditions and possesses sufficient financial potentials to put the 
project into effect." It is surprising that the company's financial 
condition did not put the members of the commission on guard. At the 
moment of completing this "successful transaction," MacDermott had losses 
of $400 million, and Marathon -- of $70 million. 


MacDermott has been going to ruin for several years. Marathon is 
leaving the project right behind it. But joining in as a partner there 
appears, not even a "daughter," but a "granddaughter" company -- 
Shell-SEIK, registered in the Bahamas by three British nationals. Its 
charter capital is $100 million. 


Economical Foreigners 


One of the most important conditions of the Sakhalin-2 tender that was 
won was, as entered in the decision of the commission, the "satisfaction 
of the needs of Russia's Far Eastern region for gas and oil." Supplies 
of gas on the domestic market were to have begun in 1995. But SEIK is 
retracting its promises to build a reliable ecological security system, 
and is beginning to extract oil. According to Vitaliy Gorokhov, 
corresponding member of the RAYeN [Russian Academy of Natural Sciences] 
and expert of the Ekoyuris Institute of Ecological-Legal problems, the 
company was completing its building and equipping at the same time that 
the fish were spawning. Some 523,000 cubic meters of earth were moved 
when the Molikpak platform was installed. The materials of the state 
ecological expert appraisal indicated that this could harm or disturb the 
migratory route of salmon. SEIK, however, was little worried about the 
fate of the salmon. All the ecologists' reprimands were ignored. 


The next ecological problem was the dumping of drilling liquids, 
interstitial waters and drill cuttings (sludge) into the sea. In 
accordance with world technology, these burials are carried out at 
special refuse sites. But this would have required substantial 
expenditures from the developers or the deposits. SEIK and ENL decided 
to economize. Knowing that Russian water legislation prohibits dumping 
waters of this sort into the sea, they lobbied for their interests as 
much as they could. And they got their way. In the summer of last 
year, Sergey Stepashin, who was at that time chairman of the government, 
signed an order which permitted wastes to be dumped into all the seas of 
the Far East. In so doing, he failed to take into consideration the 
fact that it is in the Sea of Okhotsk that 65 percent of the Russian sea 
products are caught. It was then that public ecology organizations 
complained to the Supreme Court, which recognized the order as illegal. 


The total extraction of oil for the Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 projects 
should be 30 million tonnes. The plans are for the oil to go along 
pipelines to the south of the peninsula, to the Prigorodnoye settlement. 
Moreover, they intend to lay the company's oil pipeline through spawning 
rivers, earthquake-prone sections and forests. According to Vitaliy 
Gorokhov, projects of this sort are in operation in the world, for 
example, in Alaska. But there the companies are supplied with 
legislation within a strict framework and are forced to protect nature to 
the maximum. The pipelines are therefore removed from the ground and 
installed on special supports in earthquake-prone places, places where 
fish spawn and even where deer roam. Naturally, this sort of pipeline 
installation is extremely expensive. 


Sakhalinrybvoda has repeatedly stated that the route would cross 463 
streams and 65 very important salmon rivers, which provide up to 73 
percent of the humpback salmon. And in 1993, the State Ecological 
Expert Appraisal evaluated the Sakhalin-2 project and gave the decision 
that "developing oil and gas deposits on the Sakhalin shelf, with a 
surface pipeline laid to the south of the island, was fraught with 
irreversible consequences for the fish industry, which is a priority 
sector in the oblast's economy.... Not enough attention was paid to the 
methods and periods of the pipelines' passing through numerous rivers and 
to a guarantee that the spawning grounds and the purity of the water 
would be preserved." This had no effect on the foreigners, however. 
The plans to build the pipeline may soon begin to be realized. 


A Cabal Agreement 


It is, essentially, extremely difficult to stop the damage being done by 
Western entrepreneurs. First of all, because there is powerful support 
within the country for the activity of the oil companies. The State 
Ecological Expert Appraisal gave a negative decision on the Sakhalin-1 
project. According to Russian legislation, the work was to be 
discontinued. But it goes on as if nothing had happened. Moreover, 
the Russian government concurred with a cabal agreement in accordance 
with which all the debatable questions (including ecological) are removed 
from Russian jurisprudence. The agreements will be interpreted in 
accordance with English law (the Sakhalin-1 project) and in accordance 
with the legislation of the state of New York (Sakhalin-2). In the 
opinion of Vitaliy Gorokhov, with the appearance of the arbitration 
investigation, the Russian side is virtually doomed to lose the case. 
Last year, for example, the action of the Sakhalin Oblast State Ecology 
brought against the defendant -- the company, Esson Oil and Gas Limited 
-- concerning compensation for the damage done to the natural 
environment, was dismissed because the company demanded that the case be 
transferred to the arbitration court of the Stockholm Chamber of 
Commerce. At that time, the mass death of fish, within a range of from 
907.2 to 1,111.6 tonnes, was recorded by the SAKHNIRO Institute. But 
neither the environmental protection prosecutor's office nor the oblast 
committee to protect the environment could take the matter to court. 
The companies, in response to all the claims, handed over taunting 
dispatches, the sense of which boiled down to the fact that the 
entrepreneurs would not be responsible for stupid fish, which eat God 
knows what. 


Vera Mishchenko, president of the Ekoyuris Institute of Ecological-Legal 
Problems, told us that it is difficult to find the truth when the 
consistent squandering of natural resources goes on in the country. 
Licenses for an activity, particularly in the sphere of oil extraction, 
are issued to anyone you like. Two years ago, ecologists, accusing 
state officials of what was going on in Sakhalin, sent materials to the 
General Prosecutor. There however, in the best Soviet tradition, they 
sent the papers on to the Sakhalin prosecutor's office, which justly 
replied that it was not competent to monitor the activity of state 
officials at the federal level. 


******


#11
AUTHORITIES UNWILLING TO FIGHT CORRUPTION - SWISS PROSECUTOR, RUSSIAN
INVESTIGATOR


MOSCOW. Sept 6 (Interfax) - There is much truth in the statement
made by the Swiss State Prosecutor Bernard Bertossa that the Russian
justice system is unwilling to fight corruption, Nikolai Volkov, former
head of the team investigating the so-called Aeroflot case, told
Interfax on Wednesday.
"What is happening to our oligarchs, in particular [Vladimir]
Gusinsky, suggests that politics prevails over the law and a kind of
bargaining is continuously underway," Volkov said. The latest move by
Boris Berezovsky, one of the main suspects in the Aeroflot case,
concerning the transfer of his stake in ORT television may have been
prompted by the investigation into the case, he said. "My impression is
that the authorities use the law enforcement system for bargaining with
oligarchs, with criminal cases opened and closed, people arrested and
released," Volkov said.
Speaking of his removal from the investigation of the Aeroflot
case, he said: "I would not like to think that this was done to paralyze
the investigation, but what Prosecutor Bernard Bertossa has said
confirms, unfortunately, that there was no reason to take the case from
me."
"My Swiss colleagues are still phoning me to express their sympathy
and lack of understanding for what my superiors have done. Why should
horses be changed in midstream, they ask," Volkov said.
His dismissal was most probably caused by his desire to bring new
charges in the Aeroflot investigation once he had obtained new documents
in Switzerland, he said.
"I still think the investigation has sufficient evidence to bring
certain individuals to criminal justice for their part in pilfering and
laundering hundreds of million dollars of Aeroflot's money," Volkov
said.


******


#12
East: Corruption Destroys People's Faith In Democracy
By Askold Krushelnycky


The sixth in our series of reports on pervasive corruption in the 
post-communist states focuses on the effects both petty and high-level fraud 
have had on the societies where it has taken hold. RFE/RL correspondent 
Askold Krushelnycky examines the problems involved.


Prague, 6 September 2000 (RFE/RL) -- Some of those who have made money 
corruptly in the former communist countries try to justify their actions by 
comparing their practices to what was called the U.S. "robber-baron" 
capitalism of the 19th century. 


But Stanley Kober, a foreign-policy analyst at the U.S.' Cato Institute, says 
there are strong differences that undermine any such comparison. Many of 
those who amassed great wealth and built powerful business corporations in 
19th century America frequently did use unfair, dishonest and brutal means. 
But they also built railroads that opened up the country, founded new 
communities, created businesses, built factories, dug valuable mines and 
provided a dynamic environment which encouraged new ideas and inventions. 


"Robber barons were actually creating things. I mean, the problem there, as 
people point out is that they were sort of like monopolies. But here [in 
Russia] what do you see is being created? Also, you don't see a lot of 
investment going in. You see a lot of capital flight." 


In Russia and other post-communist societies, a well-connected few have 
created very little. They use their privileged positions to take control of 
former state property, or to loot their countries of natural resources or 
anything else that can be sold abroad. 


What's more, the old-style U.S. cavalier capitalist reinvested most of his 
profits in his country. Post-communist rich businessmen prefer to keep their 
money in foreign accounts and do little to stimulate the development of their 
countries' economies. 


Corruption is a major inhibitor of democratic development when it is 
prevalent at the highest levels of government. Bribery is used to neutralize 
parliamentarians and other leading politicians who are elected to represent 
ordinary people and to act on their behalf. Intimidation, violence and murder 
suppress many of those who want to act in an honorable way and raise their 
voices against corruption. 


Such phenomena, common in many post-communist societies, not only rupture the 
democratic process. They actually destroy people's faith in democracy because 
they equate democracy and capitalism with the sort of ruthlessness and 
massive dishonesty that are the hallmarks of their corrupt leaders and 
businessmen. 


Don Jensen, a former U.S. diplomat in Moscow who is now RFE/RL's associate 
broadcast director, says corruption has bred cynicism among ordinary people 
in the former Soviet bloc. 


"There is a growing cynicism by the average person in one of these countries 
watching the corruption take place. There's growing cynicism about so-called 
democratic change. Across the board, we've seen in the past 10 years a 
universal decline in so-called democratic processes and institutions." 


Jensen says that in many post-communist countries voters turn away from 
liberal and democratic politicians because they associate democracy with the 
corruption and impoverishment which has befallen them since the collapse of 
communism. 


"Even in places like the Czech Republic, people say they still believe in 
communism of some sort -- about 20 to 25 percent -- and it's not because they 
really believe in communism, they're [simply] disenchanted with the outcome 
of some of the reforms we've seen in the past 10 years. This has been largely 
due to corruption." 


In many of the post-communist states, branches of government, powerful 
business interests and organized crime groups --which often resort to murder 
-- are often tightly intertwined. Sometimes, they are even indistinguishable 
from one another. 


"There was always organized crime in these countries but the problem 
of-course is what's crime and what's the state -- and the distinction is very 
blurred." 


In these societies, criminals can become so strong that it is difficult to 
say who is the junior partner in the relationship between them and those 
heading a political power structure riddled by corruption. The forces at the 
state's disposal (the courts, police and intelligence system) work 
repressively to protect the interests of a corrupt state and stifle 
individuals who oppose it. They themselves become corrupt beneficiaries of 
the system. Those who try to be honest are fired from their jobs, or worse. 


Because there is a widespread popular perception that those with money or in 
positions of power do not heed the law and can bribe their way out of 
trouble, confidence in the rule of law has eroded and been replaced by 
contempt for the justice system. 


Viktor Gitin, a former member of the State Duma from the democratic Yabloko 
Party, says that an independent, honest court system is badly needed in 
Russia. 


"It's because our court-system doesn't work that many crimes and legal chaos 
are possible. In this situation, no one carries any responsibility [for their 
acts], and when people know that they won't have to assume that 
responsibility, bureaucrats, deputies, or ordinary citizens stop thinking 
that breaking the law can have undesirable results." 


Corruption also hinders political and economic transparency, necessary in a 
democracy. Key decisions are taken secretly by a few people for their own 
benefit. The majority is excluded from the political mechanisms that govern 
their lives and they are subject to legislation they play little part in 
formulating -- the opposite of democracy. 


Corruption also holds back economic reforms and the development of a true 
market economy from which the majority can benefit because the status quo is 
the one convenient to those reaping the profits of corruption. Jensen says: 


"Corruption distorts the market, it corrodes the rule of law, it undermines 
the confidence in normal people in the ability of their leaders to deliver on 
promises of social welfare that leaders always talk about." 


Although some Western companies have undoubtedly taken part in corrupt 
activities in the post-communist countries, most have been dismayed by the 
adverse business environment fostered by corruption. Many Western firms and 
investors have withdrawn or reduced their activities because they are fed up 
with becoming the targets of corrupt officials demanding bribes, of being 
cheated by corrupt businessmen, of being at the mercy of a corrupt legal 
system. They feel the competition is unfair when they are competing against 
rivals who pay bribes and receive favored treatment. 


International lending institutions such as the International Monetary Fund 
have also become reluctant to throw good money after bad following 
revelations of how Russia and Ukraine deceived or misused funds totaling 
thousands of millions of dollars. 


In sum, corruption corrodes a society. When nepotism replaces merit, when 
cunning and cheating replace trust and honesty, when force and murder triumph 
over the law and a sense of decency -- then the threads binding together a 
civil society are weakened and eventually destroyed. 


(RFE/RL's Sophie Lambroschini contributed to this report) 


*******


#13
BBC MONITORING 
RUSSIA WANTS "FAIR AND SAFE" WORLD ORDER - FOREIGN MINISTER
Source: Russian Public TV, Moscow, in Russian 1700 gmt 6 Sep 00 


Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has said Russia's priority in the
third millennium is to build a new "fair and safe" world order based on
abidance with the UN Charter. In an interview broadcast live on Russian
Public TV on 6th September, Ivanov also spoke about the initiatives put
forward by President Vladimir Putin in his address to the Millennium Summit
in New York, and the agreements reached during Putin's meeting with US
President Bill Clinton. Ivanov insisted that the Yugoslav delegation should
be allowed to attend the summit. The following are excerpts from the
interview. Subheadings have been inserted editorially 


[Presenter] Live on a [video] link from New York, we now have Russian
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov... 


Igor Sergeyevich, what concrete results can one expect from this
[Millennium Summit] meeting? It is quite clear, after all, what people are
interested in... 


New Russian initiatives on nuclear materials, space 


[Ivanov] First of all I would like to emphasize that two hours ago the
Russian president addressed the Millennium Summit. His address is already
being widely discussed. In the address, special emphasis was placed on our
firm stand of support for the leading role that should be played by the
United Nations in international affairs in the 21st century. This stand is
backed by the overwhelming majority of participants in this summit. 


The president's address also contained two very important initiatives. The
first one concerns nuclear weapons nonproliferation. The gist of it is that
an international project should be set up under the aegis of the
International Atomic Energy Association to exclude the use of enriched
uranium and pure plutonium in peaceful energy production. 


The second initiative concerns convening an international conference in
Moscow in 2001 on the prevention of militarization of space. These two
initiatives are, you realize, very important. They are currently being
discussed by the participants, and we hope to begin their practical
implementation in the near future. 


Putin, Clinton issue joint statement 


At the moment, other leaders are making their addresses. Simultaneously,
after [Putin's] address, talks were held between the US and Russian
presidents. They centred on strategic stability issues. A statement was
issued at the end of the meeting, containing an initiative on cooperation
in the area of strategic stability. Appended to the statement is a plan of
implementation of specific agreements. These agreements concern a wide
range of strategic stability issues - talks on START-3, drawing up measures
to monitor missile technology exports, issues of nuclear weapons
nonproliferation - in short, all the issues that make up strategic
stability. These agreements, signed by the presidents, are of fundamental
importance... 


Russia favours new "fair and safe" world order 


[Q] What are Russia's priorities for the third millennium? To what extent
do they coincide or clash with the [priorities of] other countries, above
all the USA and China? 


[A] Russia's priorities in the third millennium consist above all in
creating a fair and safe world order that will allow all the states and
peoples to build a peaceful future for themselves. This is a realistic
goal, and it is the main issue, the main topic discussed today - how to
create this world order. We believe it should be created above all - and
the Russian president said this - through abiding by the UN Charter and
through building this world order on strict abidance by the standards and
principles of international law. It only in this way that can we build a
safe and fair world for all. 


Dangers of bypassing UN 


[Q] In recent years, a trend has emerged in relations between certain
Western countries and the UN: some issues - I'll be blunt, I mean the war
in Yugoslavia and the bombing in Iraq - were tackled bypassing UN
mechanisms. As I understood from Clinton's address, he referred to these
actions as the collective will of mankind. As I understand it, you disagree
with this view. Who else disagrees? 


[A] I think that all those who are in New York today emphasize, by the
sheer fact of their attendance, the importance attached to the UN. US
President Clinton too said in his address that the UN was a unique forum
which is meant to continue playing a key role. 


You are quite right in saying that attempts have been made - unfortunately,
with a tragic outcome - to bypass the UN and even use force to resolve
certain conflicts. You know what this resulted in - an even greater tragedy
and a rise in international tensions. We would like to hope that lessons
were learnt from these crises. 


Summit absentees 


[Q] I understand that the North Korean delegation has failed to arrive, and
there is no Yugoslav delegation either, while Libya and Iraq are
represented by the lower ranks, as it were. So there will still be pariah
states on the globe in the third millennium, won't there? 


[A] There are different motives involved in each of these cases. As far as
Iraq is concerned, it is represented at the level of deputy prime minister,
Mr Tariq Aziz. He is here, working actively. A decision on this was taken
by the Iraqi leadership. 


As for Yugoslavia, the matter of issuing a visa to the head of the
delegation has not been resolved yet. We are actively working to make
certain that this mistake - I repeat the word mistake - is put right,
because the US administration has an obligation before the UN not to
prevent any delegation from taking part in the proceedings. The Yugoslav
delegation should be taking part. 


As for the Korean delegation, there was an incident at the airport, when an
attempt was made to body-search [members of] the Korean delegation. This
happened in Europe and not in the USA, when they were changing from one
flight to another. The Korean delegation then returned home in protest.
This is very sad, because meetings were to take place in New York between
the leaders of North and South Korea, as well as other meetings, in order
to discuss further steps to achieve a settlement in the Korean peninsula.
We shall try to do our best to somehow ease the effect of these unfortunate
incidents. 


Global threats and challenges 


[Q] I understand that Kofi Annan said the main goal of this summit and of
the work of the UN was to exert collective influence on global evil. At
least all the countries are united in their understanding of what global
evil is, aren't they? 


[A] Quite right. With regard to the threats and challenges - you can use
the word evil here, and terrorism is probably the greatest evil, but there
is also drug trafficking, organized crime and so on - we prefer talking of
challenges and threats facing mankind. These are the threats and challenges
facing everyone, they are global, and therefore a response to them should
be united and collective. It is in this that the UN, which unites all the
nations in the interests of peace and stability, should play a key role... 


******