September 12, 2000    
This Date's Issues: 4506  4507  4508

Johnson's Russia List
#4508
12 September 2000
davidjohnson@erols.com


[Note from David Johnson:
1. AFP: Russian arms stockpiles both timebomb and economic opportunity.
2. Reuters: Power company turns off lights at Russian army base.
3. Newsweek: Putin’s Manhattan Makeover.
4. AFP: Almost Half Of Estonians Want Russians To Leave.
5. Reuters: Russian minister sees no need to raise Kursk.
6. Itar-Tass: Nuclear Reactor of Kursk Poses No Threat to Environment.
7. Transitions Online: Elena Chinyaeva, The Real Tragedy of the Sunken 
Kursk.
8. St. Petersburg Times EDITORIAL: Cemetery Teaches New Forgiveness.
9. BBC MONITORING: RUSSIAN COMMUNIST LEADER EXPANDS ON MOVE TO SUPPORT 
KREMLIN, DROP OLD ALLIES.
10. Newsweek International: Stefan Theil, A Cold West Wind. 
Aspiring EU members shut borders to people and goods from the east. 
11. New York Times: Michael Wines, Tennis Star Puts Russia in Heaven.
12. AFP: Assassination attempt on Putin foiled last month: Ukraine.
13. Reuters: Russia's H2 growth to slow, govt pledges reform.
14. Reuters: Gorbachev, Kohl to mark key post-Cold War treaty.]


******


#1
Russian arms stockpiles both timebomb and economic opportunity


MURMANSK, Russia, Sept 12 (AFP) - 
The Russian Northern Fleet has built up huge stocks of obsolete missiles, 
torpedoes and shells that are simultaneously timebombs and a golden economic 
opportunity for local residents.


Many of the arms depots here are laxly guarded, a nearly open invitation to 
thieves to make off with thousands of tonnes of weaponry, quite aside from 
the explosive danger these stockpiles present to people living nearby.


But at this northwestern Russian port on the Arctic Ocean, about 200 former 
military officials and their families are taking advantage of the economic 
opportunities that come with dismantling the weapons.


They earn up to 2000 rubles (72 dollars) a month in addition to their monthly 
pension of 4000 rubles, nearly double the average local salaries.


That is an enviable income in an area battered by an economic crisis and 
major cutbacks in the defense budget.


The cash-strapped Russian army is no longer able to adequately guard the 
depots, and barbed wire on top of the fences and walls does not deter thieves.


"The number of (military) units charged with guarding the stocks has gone 
down and the security has gravely deteriorated," Georgy Brusilovsky, a former 
Russian military officer, told AFP.


He is now the chief engineer for the Metpererabotka-Sever company, which has 
since February of this year been in charge of dismantling and recycling 
weapons.


"The only solution is to recycle," he said.


The security problems became particularly acute to the 400,000 residents of 
Murmansk towards the end of last year, when a shell was found in the 
stairwell of a local building.


The investigation revealed that children had put the shell there after 
stealing it from a nearby depot, which showed police how easy it was to get 
into such places.


In May and June of this year, residents in Saint Petersburg learned how 
dangerous such depots can become, when a series of explosions was only 
brought under control at the last minute.


An explosion at a weapons depot in the Ural region in June 1998 killed 14 
people.


In a red brick building in the middle of the Northern Fleet base, employees 
dismantle weapons of all shapes and sizes, removing explosive charges from 
shells and recycling the brass from cartridges, all under the watchful eyes 
of security forces.


The company plans to recycle about 6,000 weapons every day.


About 50 people work here, all of them former Russian military officers, 
their wives or other members of their families.


The company belongs to Metpererabotka, a group founded in Moscow in 1998 by 
former high-ranking military officials.


Residents welcomed the company to Murmansk, especially for the economic 
opportunities it brought them.


But "we're not engaged in altruism," said Garegin Tsaturov, also a former 
military officer, who now heads the main shareholder bank for Metpererabotka.


"Recycling weapons is an attractive activity from an economic point of view," 
he said.


The bank will recoup the initial investment of 500,000 dollars within a year, 
he said.


One tonne of brass can fetch between 700 and 900 dollars on the Russian 
market, Andrei Vassiliev, who heads the Murmansk recycling company, said.


The integrated systems of many of the torpedoes and ballistic missiles being 
recycled are also rich in gold and other precious metals.


******


#2
Power company turns off lights at Russian army base

MOSCOW, Sept 12 (Reuters) - A Russian power company said on Tuesday it had 
temporarily cut off electricity to a military base due to a row over debts, 
but soon restored it. 


The base belongs to the Strategic Rocket Forces, which controls Russia's 
land-based arsenal of nuclear weapons. 


``We cut them off yesterday but almost immediately reconnected them. Last 
night, we came to an agreement and they promised to pay up,'' said Vladimir 
Kazbayev, the main engineer at the Ivanovo energy distribution company 
(Ivenergo). 


The base is in the town of Teikovo, northeast of Moscow. It owes about 15 
million roubles ($540,000) to his company, Kazbayev told Reuters. 


It was not clear if there were nuclear weapons at the base. 


A spokesman for the Strategic Rocket Forces, Vyacheslav Davidenko, said the 
power cut had not affected the military capability of the base, only the 
homes of personnel and the staff headquarters. 


``Everything has now been resolved,'' he said. 


Russian power companies frequently resort to power cuts in order to persuade 
cash-strapped customers to pay up. Such disputes have in the past halted 
trams in major cities. 


Strategically important installations, such as military bases, are usually 
spared such tactics, although Davidenko said it was by no means the first 
time that electricity supplies had been halted to military bases because of 
financial problems. 


Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as 
saying the incident was intolerable and that the Finance Ministry paid the 
Defence Ministry sufficient funds to cover its electricity bills. 


``This is a sad, completely mistaken and categorically intolerable 
incident,'' he said. 


Russia's vast armed forces have been suffering a big shortfall in funds since 
the collapse of the Soviet Union. 


Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev was recently quoted as saying the armed forces 
would be cut by almost a third by 2003 to save money. Among the areas to be 
trimmed are the Strategic Rocket Forces, which Sergeyev used to head. 


Over the weekend, a failure in Russia's creaking electricity grid forced 
Russia to shut down several nuclear reactors, including those at a gargantuan 
top-secret fuel reprocessing plant, officials disclosed on Monday. 


They assured the public there was no danger, but the head of the huge, secret 
Mayak reprocessing plant, in the remote Ural mountains, said only his staff's 
``near-military'' vigilance had prevented serious trouble, such as harmful 
emissions. 


($-27.84 roubles) 


******


#3
Newsweek
September 198, 2000
Periscope
RUSSIA
Putin’s Manhattan Makeover 


Vladimir Putin may not run a superpower, but he’d still like us to
think he does. Never mind that the Russian president’s popularity has sunk
since the recent Kursk submarine disaster. Or that his government just
announced a stunning 29 percent cut in the size of the Russian military—an
implicit admission that Moscow can no longer afford to keep up with NATO or
the United States. Putin whirled through last week’s U.N. Millennium Summit
in New York like a potentate, aggressively pursuing his own brand of
diplomacy and driving home the point that he’s no Boris Yeltsin, jovially
toeing the Western line.
All week, Putin continued to drive a wedge between America and its
Western allies over missile defense, proposing a ban on military uses of
space. Then he balked at Clinton’s efforts to expand the United Nations’
role in humanitarian intervention beyond sovereign borders.
Putin also showed that while he hates pesky journalists at home, he’s
willing to engage them abroad in the interest of good PR. He chose his
spots carefully, agreeing to an interview with Larry King and attending a
dinner hosted by NBC’s Tom Brokaw, where he seemed to impress the media big
feet with his intellect and humor. His charm offensive was aided by the
pricey Western PR firms the Kremlin turns to whenever the president’s image
needs buffing up abroad. In recent months, hired media guns have helped
Putin place carefully tailored editorials in major English-language
newspapers. Let’s hope they aren’t getting paid in rubles.


******


#4
Almost Half Of Estonians Want Russians To Leave


TALLINN, Sep 12, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Almost half of ethnic 
Estonians believe non-Estonians are not loyal to Estonia and that their 
departure would benefit the country, a poll showed Monday.


The poll, excerpts of which were published in Eesti Paevaleht daily, is part 
of long-term monitoring by the Integration Foundation.


One third of Estonia's 1.4 million population are non-Estonians, mainly 
Russians, who settled in Estonia during the Soviet occupation of 1940-1991.


Forty-six per cent of ethnic Estonians agreed in the poll that the departure 
of non-Estonians would benefit Estonia.


Forty-five per cent of ethnic Estonians said they believed non-Estonians were 
not loyal to the Estonian state and did not support its development.


"Confused answers by (ethnic) Estonians showed their minds are still 
undergoing a transition period," political scientist and member of the 
research team Raivo Vetik told AFP.


"The Estonians replied in a controversial way: some answers show a negative 
attitude towards non-Estonians, while in a related answer, the same 
respondent replies in a positive and inclusive way," Vetik said.


"Negative answers from Estonians are related to the emotional Soviet past, in 
which the Estonian language and culture were suppressed," he said. "But 
rationally thinking, the Estonians understand they can't do without the 
non-Estonians."


Vetik said the poll findings indicate a trend towards acceptance by Estonians 
of the Russian population. "At the beginning of the 1990s, it was official 
policy that the Republic of Estonia should encourage the departure of 
non-Estonians," he said. "Today, the official policy is integration, and it 
is reflected in the poll results."


Of the 500,000 non-Estonians in Estonia, more than 112,000 have become 
naturalized citizens of Estonia. A further 80,000 non-Estonians hold Estonian 
citizenship by birth.


Half of the remaining 300,000 non-Estonians carry aliens' passports or live 
in Estonia with residence permits because they are citizens of the Russian 
Federation. 


*******


#5
Russian minister sees no need to raise Kursk

MOSCOW, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Russia's minister for atomic energy said on
Tuesday he saw no pressing reasons for raising the wreck of the Kursk
nuclear submarine from the bottom of the Barents Sea, where it sank exactly
a month ago. 


Russian officials have said they will recover the 118 bodies of the Kursk's
crew. But the comments by Atomic Energy Minister Yevgeny Adamov were the
first indication that the submarine, powered by two nuclear reactors, might
be left on the seabed. 


``From the point of view of the nuclear reactors, and the nuclear
situation, there is no need to raise the submarine,'' Adamov said in
televised comments. 


He was also quoted by Interfax news agency as saying raising the submarine
could itself create a radiation leak. 


Russia has previously said it would consider ways of raising the
17,000-tonne Kursk, which was flooded after two explosions ripped through
its bow on August 12. 


Adamov would not be likely to take any decisions on whether or not to raise
the submarine. 


Environmentalists have said leaving the submarine where it is could be
dangerous because sea water might gradually become contaminated if the
reactors are in any way damaged. 


The Russian navy says the Kursk's reactors shut down automatically shortly
after it sank. Norwegian environmental group Bellona has said the Kursk's
reactors are among the safest in the Russian fleet. 


The company which built the Kursk has said it is planning to recover the
bodies of the crew by cutting large holes in the side of the 505-feet-long
(154-metre) submarine, to enable divers to enter its cavernous hull. 


Russian officials have said the bodies should be recovered in the next
couple of months. 


The last submarine to sink with a Russian crew, the Soviet Komsomolets
which went down off Norway's northern coast in 1989, was never recovered
from the seabed. Forty-two of the 69-man crew died in that accident, and it
sank with two nuclear-tipped torpedoes still on board. 



******


#6
Nuclear Reactor of Kursk Poses No Threat to Environment.


MOSCOW, September 12 (Itar-Tass) - The nuclear reactor of the sunken 
submarine "Kursk" poses no threat to the environment, and the radiation level 
in the area of the accident does not exceed the permissible norm, Russian 
Atomic Energy Minister Yevgeny Adamov told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. 


According to Adamov, the reactors of the submarine are of extremely little 
danger from the point of view of a technogenic catastrophe. Adamov reminded 
of the fact that several nuclear installations were buried on the floor of 
the World Ocean, and in none of the incidents the radiation level had been 
registered as exceeding the norm. 


The government commission investigating the causes of the catastrophe of the 
"Kursk" submarine includes the chief designer of the nuclear reactor of the 
submarine, deputy department chief of the Atomic Energy ministry and 
designers from enterprises of Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow, Adamov said. 


Adamov pointed out that the condition of the nuclear reactors of the Kursk 
submarine is such that it does not require that the submarine be salvaged. 


Speaking at a press conference at the Itar-Tass Adamov declared that from the 
point of view of the security of nuclear power reactors, no factors - 
ecological or other factors, exist which demand that the submarine be 
salvaged. Lifting the submarine from the bottom of the Barents sea poses no 
threat from the nuclear point of view, but the threat of radioactive 
contamination exists - the boat has a high concentration of curies, Adamov 
said, adding that this threat was minimal. 


In order to turn a potential threat into a real one we should go out of our 
way so as to carry out the lifting operation very inaccurately. I do not 
think that the Rubin enterprise which is in charge of this operation will 
make any error if plans to salvage the submarine are realised, Adamov said. 


******


#7
Transitions Online
September 2000
www.tol.cz
The Real Tragedy of the Sunken Kursk 
by Elena Chinyaeva 
Elena Chinyaeva is a political columnist for the Moscow-based Kommersant
Vlast 
In the West, mass media continue to press on people a view that somehow in
Russia--or in any other non-Western country--a technological disaster is
not what it is, but something ideologically and politically different. The
West is condemning Russia for its so-called "Cold War" military secrecy
surrounding the submarine tragedy--but if a NATO sub sank, no one would
ever know.


The Russian submarine tragedy—the first such military accident to receive
international publicity—demonstrated that the world is not ready to cope
with such cases, either technically or mentally. Western media reports were
overladen with gloating commentary on the inferiority of Russian technology
and the KGB-style military secrecy. Those reactions seemed as if they were
trying to reroute public attention from the previous failures of Western
technology—the National Missile Defense system (NMD) and the Concorde
disaster. Meanwhile, the Russian mass media were busy stirring up
nationwide hysteria, deftly exploiting people's emotions and their general
dissatisfaction with post-perestroika life. 


The greater point was lost on most observers: If we are indeed entering a
new era of globalization, the international community must find a way to
deal in concert with technological accidents—which are most likely to
proliferate given the inevitability of further technological progress—as
well as with large-scale natural calamities, such as last year's
devastating earthquake in Turkey. To accomplish that, not only must
specialized international agencies be created, but most importantly,
international public opinion will have to be prepared to perceive such
cases as par for the course. 


Since 1945, a handful of Soviet submarines have been left on the bottom of
the world's oceans as a result of various disasters—the same applies to the
fleets of NATO countries. Such accidents have always remained top military
secrets that were never allowed into the grasps of the media, or public. In
unusual contradiction to that tradition, the Kursk disaster—in accord with
the newly accepted standards of democratic openness—has for the first time
in Russia been allowed to become the focus of international attention.
Everyone involved has used the tragedy as an instrument to forward their
personal agendas. 


Squeezing the Kursk discussion between a pedophilia case and girls
outperforming boys in British schools, a host of a BBC World channel
political talk show—gaily clad in parrot-like colors—tried hard to appear
solemn as he condescendingly pressed his guest, a Russian journalist, to
admit to some sort of military cover-up, that his country's technology is
failing, and that it could in no way have dealt with such a tragedy on its
own. Uncompromisingly critical opinions of Russia were also offered by two
British female journalists. Only their American colleague had the insight
to say that in a similar situation, Americans would have never allowed
anybody near the site of such a catastrophe. Still, an evident conclusion
was suggested—the West is concerned, very much troubled in fact, about the
poor and inept Russians continuing to hang on to nuclear toys. Something
must be done! 


THE KURSK TRADING CARD 


In Russia, the issue became a valuable trading card in internal political
rifts. A number of journalists who have been at war with the Kremlin over
"freedom of press," welcomed the news as a new argument in the conflict,
accusing the government, the president, the navy fleet, the army, the
politicians, and other journalists of being guilty for the Kursk tragedy—as
well as a number of other recent tragedies that have hit the country. A
hysteria infested the nation as the story of trading sailors' lives for a
hunk of metal became the hottest-selling item in the news. The ratings
soared. 


The Kursk disaster does indeed pose questions: Was everything done to save
the crew? What was the cause of the disaster? And how should the incident
be perceived in the international context? 


Submarines either survive or perish in the water—that comes with the job,
and no submarine sailor is unaware of it. Conscripts who serve on
submarines—the Kursk crew was said to have consisted mainly of professional
officers—obviously don't have much choice. Still, it is an accepted view in
the naval community that the crew from a sunken submarine can rarely be
saved from above, through hatches, due to the peculiarities of construction
and decompression. 


A view being thrown about now by Russian officials is that the Kursk crew
most likely died in the first three minutes after the disaster. As to its
cause, the opinion prevails in the Russian navy that the Kursk collided
with another navy vessel, probably belonging to one of the NATO
countries—they always observe Russian navy maneuvers, as was the case in
August. There is little evidence available to sustain this version, aside
from some items supposedly found on the sea bottom near the disaster site,
which are now being guarded by the Russian navy so they can be raised and
examined. 


The Kursk disaster, being part of a chain of modern-day technological
failures—from the Challenger catastrophe to the failed NMD and the Concorde
crash—suggests that the international community has to look at this
phenomenon as an attribute of a new technological era. The NMD, the
Concorde, and the Kursk all rely on sophisticated technology and ought to
function without problems. However, tragedies like these will continue to
happen because mankind cannot create everlasting things. To create
everlasting things would run against the logic of creation
itself—everything in our world is mortal. The further we progress
technologically, the more certain we are to blindly unleash destructive
powers, the likes of which we have no means to eliminate. The only way out
is to combine international efforts to neutralize them and control the
damage. 


Yet in the West, mass media continue to press on people a view that somehow
in Russia—or in any other non-Western country—a technological disaster is
not what it is, but something ideologically and politically different.
Furthermore, a disaster in the West is not treated as reason enough to
start working on a new concept of world security. The failure of the recent
tests of the American NMD led to the postponement of the decision to start
building it, not to the understanding that a missile is better if it is
shot down at its launch than near its destination. Such a early warning
system—a proposal Russia recently devised—would be much more effective and
realistic than the various star wars scenarios on the table now. 


Already last year, following the disastrous earthquake in Turkey, the
Russian Emergency Situations Ministry proposed the establishment of an
international agency to deal with natural and technological disasters. The
response in the democratic and technologically advanced West has been mute. 


So far, only in American science-fiction do people of the Earth act in
concert—but under American or Western, guidance. Perhaps that is the real
problem hindering the international community's entrance into the new era
of globalization. Russia, given its superpower legacy, knows better than
most how difficult it is to share power. The world's security depends on
how quickly the current leaders of the world will demonstrate enough
maturity to understand the real challenges of the future. 


******


#8
St. Petersburg Times
September 12, 2000
EDITORIAL
Cemetery Teaches New Forgiveness 


WITH the 59th anniversary of the beginning of the Leningrad Blockade coming 
at the end of last week, the opening of the Sologubovka cemetery for German 
soldiers killed in World War II has come at a particularly sensitive time.


For those who survived it, the "900 Days," as it became known, is to this day 
the single most monumental - and monumentally tragic - event of their lives. 
And veterans of the blockade are not yet ready to forgive all.


This is hardly surprising: There are veterans of the war in all of the 
countries which suffered at the hands of the Nazis who still harbor suspicion 
toward Germany and its people.


And this is the case in countries where the terrors of Nazism were felt to a 
much lesser degree than they were in Russia, which lost untold millions of 
lives, and whose recovery from the early thrusts of the German Army was 
achieved with sacrifices that even now manage to shock and stupefy us.


Even though it is hoped that the cemetery will become a symbol of 
reconciliation, dedicating a space on Russian soil to 80,000 fallen German 
soldiers is not a gesture which is going to be appreciated by everyone.


It is unlikely that this will have escaped the German War Graves Association. 
But it will, and must, press ahead with the message that soldiers on both 
sides need to be buried and honored before the war can be declared over in 
the hearts of the countries who fought it.


Praise should go, then, to the Russian Orthodox Church for allotting its own 
land for the Sologubovka cemetery. The Church is not traditionally an 
institution noted for its welcoming attitude to outsiders and foreign 
influences, but in this case it has done exactly the right thing and given 
forgiveness and reconciliation a chance.


Forgiveness is an infamously difficult emotion to find, and is achieved only 
through the awakening of painful memories and a great deal of anger. War 
memorials of all descriptions are ambiguous monuments in this respect: On the 
one hand, we are thankful that the conflict is over and promise to learn 
lessons from it; on the other, we remember the deaths and the enmity, and for 
many the temptation is there to draw lessons of a different, more belligerent 
sort.


One can only hope that the Russian and German veterans who came to the 
cemetery's opening on Saturday managed to make a few friends. If anyone did, 
then the War Graves Association will have succeeded in its task.


******


#9
BBC MONITORING 
RUSSIAN COMMUNIST LEADER EXPANDS ON MOVE TO SUPPORT KREMLIN, DROP OLD ALLIES
Source: Russia TV, Moscow, in Russian 1630 gmt 11 Sep 00 


Leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennadiy Zyuganov
has said that he is prepared to back the Kremlin provided Putin gets rid of
ministers who want to wipe out the natural monopolies and privatize the
national wealth. Interviewed on Russia TV's "Podrobnosti" programme on 11th
September, he said he did not intend to insist that the government resign
but suggested that Putin should bring more representatives of the Unity
movement into it at the expense of the privatizers. He said that the break
announced today with governors Tuleyev, Rutskoy and Gorbenko had come about
because the latter had chosen to go their own way and predicted that his
party would score major successes in the governor elections without them.
The following are excerpts from the interview. Subheadings have been
inserted editorially. 


[Pashkov] Gennadiy Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party of the Russian
Federation, said today that he is ready to support the executive authority
in every way which corresponds with Russia's national interests, that the
State Duma's progovernment Unity faction will very soon split and that this
will be connected with the activities of former State Duma deputy Boris
Berezovskiy and, finally, that the CPRF will refuse to support governors
Rutskoy, Tuleyev and Gorbenko in the forthcoming elections for governor.
Our guest on "Podrobnosti" today is CPRF leader Gennadiy Zyuganov... 


Conditions for supporting Kremlin 


Let's get down to the main issues straight away. Is the CPRF faction really
ready this time to support the executive authority, the Kremlin? 


[Zyuganov] We have always worked energetically with people who are
interested in the rebirth of our country and in the creation of normal
conditions for people to work and live in. 


Russia today is at a crossroads. Either we following the new state line
which takes the national interest as its guide or continue with the old
policy of [acting prime minister in the early nineties Yegor] Gaydar or
rather [Economic Development and Trade Minister German] Gref. If the choice
is in favour of the latter, of liberal reforms when the land is sold off
and they try to finish off the nuclear missile shield, when the railways
are sold off and the last natural monopolies are eliminated and when even
our forests are sold into private hands then there will be nothing left of
Russia. 


So we shall do everything we can to ensure that people who understand how
far things have gone and recognize that very little time indeed is left in
which to take decisions gain the upper hand in the executive structure. 


Just lately Berezovskiy has been kicking up a big rumpus and putting on a
public display with just one aim in mind: he wants to distract the public's
attention from the main thing. The government is currently developing one
policy to revive the homeland and another which is promoted by the same
group which has tortured the country for ten years and which seeks to sell
off all the natural monopolies, including our forests. We will work with
those who support our national interests. 


[Q] And so, there is a sort of duality, a two-sidedness in your relations
with the Kremlin, the government, the presidential administration and the
president himself. You say you will support those who support the national
interests of Russia, Can you name some names for us please. 


[A] Indeed I can. There is a real fight going on right now. There are two
groups: one is the continuation of the family [Yeltsin clan], Berezovskiy,
[energy chief Anatoliy] Chubays and Gref. This group is now doing
everything it can to divide the railways into 17 sectors and privatize
them. That would spell the end of Russia as a single unit. Let's say
[Deputy Prime Minister Viktor] Khristenko and his team have prepared a
programme for selling off our forests into private hands. Sixty-nine per
cent of the territory of Russia is forest. It is our national wealth...
Putin instructs him to stop destroying the industry. But they have already
sold the pulp and paper industry and stopped timber processing. So instead
of doing what he's told, Khristenko summons and sacks all those who are
investigating and tries to have the forests destroyed by some other mafia.
So there's a few names for you from the group which is now ruthlessly and
quickly trying to - [words lost as presenter interrupts] 


[Q] But you are naming people with whom the CPRF and you personally have
had poor relations for a pretty long time already. There is nothing new
about that - 


[A] Hang on a minute Serezha. For now there is no Putin government. There
is no [Prime Minister Mikhail] Kasyanov government either. There are these
groups, one is the family [Yeltsin entourage], the second is controlled by
Chubays and Berezovskiy and there are others as well. So we are suggesting
- and we are to have a meeting with Putin on Wednesday [13th September] -
let's establish a normal government which is capable of extricating the
country from crisis. 


[Q] That's interesting. So the CPRF is going to insist on the resignation
of the current cabinet of ministers? 


[A] No that's not how we see it. We see things differently. The personnel
must be assessed on merit and a strong team must be formed. Look. You say
Unity is the ruling faction in the Duma, don't you? 


[Q] You mean the main progovernment one? 


[A] Yes, that's right. What representatives does it have in government?
There's only [Emergencies Minister Sergey] Shoygu whose job is to save the
situation after explosions and the destruction of enterprises. There is
no-one else. The whole of our finances and the budget is in the hands of
Chubays's mob. The whole lot. They have brought forward the new budget in
the Duma. There's a bit more. But what is the overall policy in this new
budget? There is nothing for science and the training of scientists. There
is virtually nothing for investment... 


Putin as a leader must have his own programme, his own team, his own mass
media, his own policy. If that doesn't happen there can be as much talk as
you like about a strong state and new policies but the whole lot will be
codswallop. Either this problem is resolved or you will see things getting
far worse in the months ahead. 


Break with old allies, governor elections 


[Q] Your position is clear on that. Let's turn to today's events. You said
today that the CPRF won't be supporting some very well known, popular
figures and ones who are very popular on their own patch in the regions.
That is a new step. You are ready to go it alone and do without such
powerful allies as Tuleyev, Rutskoy and Gorbenko. 


[A] Well, it's you who calls them allies, not I. They have chosen their own
road. They were with us in the patriotic union. After they became governors
they began to serve their own interests or those of another team. That was
their choice... 


[Q] But won't that weaken your party? 


[A] No it won't. No way, I assure you... 


[Q] How many seats do you count on winning in the coming elections? If I'm
not mistaken there are about 30 governorships to be filled by the end of
the year. In the last elections you were clear leaders. How do things stand
now? 


[A] Nine elections have already been held - Altay, Leningrad and so on. We
came out top in five of them - either those whom we supported directly or
those with who we had reached agreements and whom we helped get elected. We
have an opportunity now not just to consolidate our position but to
strengthen it... 


[Q] You still haven't said how many governorships are you counting on
winning. 


Congress of People's Patriotic Union 


[A] The whole lot will be ours. On 23rd September we will hold a congress
of the People's Patriotic Union of Russia [PPUR]. We have prepared a new
blueprint. There are those who try to put us in bed with Berezovskiy but he
has gone his own way. Let's not stop him [laughs]. We have already decided
on nearly every candidate. We are holding talks and we will agree on the
main problems: the economy, support for the elderly and children... 


[Q] I'm glad you mentioned the PPUR. There was a report today - and the
source isn't named - that allegedly the CPRF is preparing this congress on
the quiet, keeping it a secret from its allies and that it is preparing to
make the PPUR consist only of the CPRF, leaving it without Podberezkin,
without Govorukhin and without Tuleyev. 


[A] But they have already left. They have gone. They are no longer with us.
They haven't worked with us for the last year. They have gone. That is
their business. 


[Q] But does the PPUR now consist only of the CPRF? 


[A] No. Of course not. There's the agro-industrial union, the Academy of
Sciences and lots of institutes, the agrarian and academic trade unions,
the servicemen's trade union... We have got much stronger and have purged
ourselves of all those who kept on wavering. The congress will take place
soon, we will decide on our candidates and work more energetically. 


[Q] Thank you. That was Gennadiy Zyuganov, the leader of the CPRF, who
intends to support the executive authority - or at least that part of it
which he sees as being in accordance with national interests - who does not
intend to support Rutskoy, Tuleyev or Gorbenko at the elections for
governor and who intends to win the elections for governor in most of
Russia's regions by the end of the year. All the best. 


******


#10
Newsweek International
September 18, 2000
A Cold West Wind 
Aspiring EU members shut borders to people and goods from the east 
By Stefan Theil
September 18 issue — I’m ashamed of what people from my country have to do
to survive,” says Svetlana, an unemployed Ukrainian schoolteacher.
Svetlana, 27, is downing vodka with her husband at a seedy, $2.50-a-night
guesthouse next to the bus station in Przemysl, just over the border in
Poland. 
LIKE MANY UKRAINIANS, Svetlana now ekes out a living in the border
bazaars that sprang up across Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin
wall. Every few weeks, Svetlana crosses into Poland carrying bagloads of
goods to sell at a jumble of derelict stalls and tables in what used to be
the football stadium in Przemysl. Svetlana refuses to give her last name,
not from shame, but because the Poles are cracking down on traders like
her. 
Even before it begins to admit new members, the EU will spend more than
.50 million this year to toughen eastern-border security in the “applicant
states” 
From Poland north to Estonia and south to Romania, former Soviet states
and satellite nations are tightening their eastern borders. All aspire to
join the European Union, which offers more open trade with rich nations
like France and Germany, but demands greater vigilance against contraband
goods and illegal immigrants from the east. Even before it begins to admit
new members, the EU will spend more than .50 million this year to toughen
eastern-border security in the “applicant states,” including money for
four-wheel-drive vehicles, night-vision equipment, uniforms and German
advisers. Once they join the EU, new members will be able to travel
visa-free in Western Europe, but will have to demand visas from former
Soviet allies to the east. The widened EU will push the unofficial border
between Eastern and Western Europe about 400 miles east, across the width
of Poland. And the cold-war echoes are lost on neither side. At a recent
diplomatic summit, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski warned against
erecting a “new curtain” across Europe. 
The warning comes a bit late. No one knows the scope of the “bazaar
economy,” but economists figure that tightening border restrictions will
cost 140,000 jobs on the Polish side, and probably more in Ukraine.
Svetlana says she’s been refused entry at the border several times now,
even though she trades legally in women’s cheap clothing, lace curtains and
sneakers. She says she’s been shoved and bruised by the masked,
machine-gun-wielding Polish border brigades who now regularly raid local
guesthouses, kicking in doors to search for illegal immigrants and
Customs-dodgers carrying contraband cigarettes and liquor. “They used to
leave us alone but now they humiliate us,” Svetlana says.
The border trade boomed after communism collapsed in 1989. Poles
rushed to Ukrainian factory towns like Lviv and Chernivtsi to buy cheap
tools to fix their homes. Ukrainians went to Poland’s markets to stock up
on Western-style clothing and household goods. Families long divided by the
border were reunited; some Ukrainians settled in Poland for good. Polish
frontier towns like Przemysl turned to the border trade—running
guesthouses, driving shuttle buses to the border, working for Customs.
Today the hills above Przemysl are lined with new, whitewashed villas built
with the modest gains of the bazaar economy.
On the Ukrainian side, where recovery from the post-Soviet collapse
has been slow, the trade was a matter of survival. Unemployment runs as
high as 30 percent and the average monthly wages of $30 are less than one
tenth those in Poland. “I couldn’t buy enough food for my family,” says
Roman Timofeyu, who quit his $28-a-month job as a nurse to sell
Ukrainian-made toys in Przemysl. Many others slip over the border carrying
contraband—cheap Ukrainian vodka or cigarettes—concealed under baggy
peasant clothes. Known as ants, most of these small-time smugglers are
women. About 3,000 still cross the pedestrian checkpoint at Przemysl each
day, then drop their goods at a Polish dealer’s booth just behind the
border for a small, quick profit.
Not all the trade is in goods. In some villages, $3,000 in cash will
get an Afghani, Sri Lankan or Chinese migrant across the border and heading
on toward Western Europe. But it’s getting tougher. At Poland’s frontier
with Russia and Belarus farther north, strict new visa requirements have
already cut traffic in half. While Ukrainians still don’t need visas, a new
law requires them to carry at least $125 in cash—four months’ wages—when
they enter. At Korczova, north of Przemysl, there’s a brand-new .30 million
Customs terminal partly funded by the EU, complete with X-ray equipment and
endoscopic cameras to peer through the walls of crates and trucks. A few
years ago there were only 140 Customs agents in the Przemysl border
district. There are 800 now.
Officers of the Polish border guard are now trained in Germany, and
EU officials regularly visit Poland to check up on their progress. They’ve
installed computer passport readers and special microscopes to authenticate
visas. In the first six months of this year, they turned back 11,000 people
at Przemysl, up from 14,000 in all of 1999. As a result of Poland’s
crackdown, Germany reports a marked decline in the number of illegal
crossings at its own border with Poland almost 400 miles farther west.
“We’re not in the EU yet but we’re fulfilling the role of barrier already,”
says Capt. Witold Lesko, a border-guard official who recently returned from
a training course in Germany.
The bazaar economy is dying. Witold Zajonc, owner of three
guesthouses in Przemysl, says the raids by border guards have been scaring
off Ukrainian customers. His hostels are mostly empty now, with 40 percent
fewer guests than two years ago. Tomasz, a 31-year-old unemployed Polish
agricultural engineer, used to run three stalls at the Przemysl bazaar
selling clothes to Ukrainians. Each week he shipped in as many as five
truckloads from Warsaw, making enough money to build a three-story house
for his family. Now he’s shut down the stalls and lives off his savings.
“There are no more clients,” he says. “Everyone I know is giving up.”
The Ukrainian traders are bracing for even tougher border controls.
EU rules are clear: by the time Poland joins, Ukrainians will have to apply
for hard-to-get visas. For Poland, the benefits of open borders with the
West far outweigh the losses from reduced trade with the east. Already,
Polish trade with the EU is $49 billion a year, compared with just $6
billion with former Soviet states—including a mere $1 billion with Ukraine.
In any case, economists point out, the region’s development ambitions
should aim higher than makeshift markets supporting an army of shabby
traders. The worry of some Poles is that tightening the border will push
Ukraine into Russia’s arms, and provoke an increasingly angry backlash in
Moscow. When Estonia slapped new visa requirements on Russians last month,
Moscow filed a formal diplomatic protest. The trick, then, will be for
aspiring members of the Western club to put up a new curtain that feels
more like velvet than iron.

******

#11 
New York Times
September 12, 2000
[for personal use only]
Tennis Star Puts Russia in Heaven
By MICHAEL WINES


MOSCOW, Sept. 11 - In a country where there are but two sports - soccer, and 
everything else - Russians were positively glowing with pride today over the 
athletic prowess of 20-year-old Marat Safin.


This, even though he practices a third-tier sport, tennis, in which the only 
physical contact is between a racquet and a ball. And even though he is an 
ethnic Tatar, a people often derided here - a millennium after the fact, to 
boot - as Attila the Hun's henchmen. And even though he and his family left 
Russia four years ago to live and play tennis in the sunnier climes of 
Valencia, Spain.


Mr. Safin's accomplishment far outweighed any imagined negatives. On Sunday, 
he became the first Russian ever to win the United States Open. Better still, 
he did it by demolishing the reigning American champion of world tennis, Pete 
Sampras, in straight sets.


It would be wrong to say Russians bear the average American any great ill 
will. On the other hand, it would be just as wrong to say Russians have not 
been itching for the opportunity to show that they are as good as the 
so-called sole remaining superpower, particularly after a devastating August 
of submarine sinkings, flaming television towers and stage whispers that the 
Russian bear can no longer manage his own affairs, much less the world's.


And so President Vladimir V. Putin hailed "a bright new star" in the tennis 
firmament, and added, "we are pound that today's victor is a Russian." 
Reporters trailed Mr. Safin to a New York nightclub to chronicle his 
early-morning victory celebration. And this evening, the young tennis star's 
New York triumph - and his $800,000 first prize - led all three network 
newscasts.


"On behalf of all Russians, we will be your fans," cooed an anchor- woman on 
ORT, Russian Public Television, at the end of a telephone interview on the 8 
p.m. news. 


"We're happy to have such young men being so optimistic," chimed her male 
co-anchor.


A reporter for NTV, a competing network, cheered, "The first Russian who is 
the U.S. champion!" and then deadpanned, "Nobody heard anything from Marat 
that he wanted to change citizenship."


Although his parents moved him to Spain in 1996, where he established a base 
for his tennis career, there seems little doubt in Mr. Safin's mind today of 
where his roots lie. He is no stranger to Moscow, his hometown, where he has 
occasionally been spotted at stylish nightclubs.


When a reporter for the newspaper Izvestia tracked him down before sunrise on 
Monday in a New York disco - drinking celebratory beer, not vodka - the new 
Open champion credited much of his victory to the counsel of Aleksandr V. 
Volkov, the Russian tennis star who had earlier made it to the Open 
semifinals.


And he made it clear that his next stop, before flying to Sydney and a spot 
on the Russian tennis team in the summer Olympics, would be Tashkent, 
Uzbekistan, a former Soviet country where he had committed himself to friends 
to play in a decidedly lower-rung tournament.


The nation seemed to return the embrace. From the top down, Russia - and its 
Soviet predecessor - have long pigeonholed people by religion and ethnicity 
beyond what most Westerners would consider acceptable. Tatars and Caucasians, 
usually Muslim, usually darker-skinned people, have borne the brunt of 
discrimination, and Mr. Safin's name marks him as being of Tatar descent.


But today, news accounts did not identify the new tennis sensation as a 
"Rusian," the term applied to Russian citizens who are not necessarily Slavs, 
but instead as a "Russki," the label usually reserved for Russia's majority 
Slavic population.


At least one Russian Internet chat site noted sarcastically tonight that the 
Soviet government once conferred the same appellation on another Tatar who 
gained world-class status in his field, Rudolf Nureyev.


But in an age when Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan have made race an 
afterthought in sports, it was unclear whether Russians were appropriating a 
Tatar achievement or the achiever himself as their own.


Or perhaps, as Labor Minister Aleksandr Pochinok observed, all Russia has a 
more powerful reason to celebrate Mr. Safin's victory. Not only has a major 
new force in tennis surfaced in Russia, he told the newsradio station Echo 
Moskvy - but "a major new taxpayer" has arrived, too.


*******
#12
Assassination attempt on Putin foiled last month: Ukraine


KIEV, Sept 12 (AFP) - 
An assassination attempt against Russian President Vladimir Putin was foiled 
last month at a summit of ex-Soviet nations in Yalta, the head of Ukraine's 
security services, Leonid Derkach, was cited as saying by Interfax Tuesday.


He said that several suspects believed to be preparing an attempt on Putin's 
life had been arrested in Ukraine's Crimea peninsula following a tip-off from 
intelligence agencies in other countries.


******


#13
Russia's H2 growth to slow, govt pledges reform
By Svetlana Kovalyova

MOSCOW, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Russia's economic growth will slow in the second 
half of 2000 and next year and the government has to speed up reforms which 
will lead to sustained growth, officials said on Tuesday. 


``We have quite good economic growth, but it will slow down by the end of the 
year, compared to the first half,'' Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin told 
an investment conference. 


The government expects gross domestic product to grow 5.5 percent in 2000 and 
4.0 percent in 2001 after a 7.5 percent rise in the first half of this year. 
GDP grew 3.2 percent last year after a 4.6 percent fall in 1998, when an 
economic crisis hit Russia. 


Local news agencies quoted Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov as saying during a 
trip to St Petersburg the government must hurry deep structural reforms as 
positive effects of the 1998 rouble devaluation had faded. 


The government must resolve a chronic non-payment problem in the economy, 
push forward with restructuring the so-called natural monopolies and carry 
out transparent tariff policy, Kasyanov said. 


High world energy prices have given the Russian economy, largely dependent on 
oil and gas export revenues, a strong boost in recent months, but 
international financial organisations have urged the government to carry out 
structural reforms. 


MUST PURSUE STRUCTURAL REFORMS 


``We should implement structural reforms more actively and create the 
economic fundamentals to sustain growth,'' Kudrin 


said. 


Kudrin said the government would pursue a more open economic policy and 
publish an International Monetary Fund review of the country's economy due to 
be released shortly. 


He said the government would provide a level playing field for businesses and 
would next year cut the number of credits to enterprises as they had in most 
cases been given to companies with political clout. 


The overall tax burden would ease by 1.2 percent of GDP next year, but the 
government would tighten tax administration and channel part of additional 
budget revenues towards foreign debt repayment, he said. 


The government would take measures not to allow the rouble to strengthen too 
quickly and would restrain growth in consumer price inflation, he said, 
without giving precise forecasts. 


``We have provided for keeping inflation at the levels forecast at the 
beginning of this year. I hope we'll continue this stable policy in the near 
future,'' he said. 


Russia's inflation slowed to 1.0 percent month-on-month in August from 1.8 
percent in July. Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov has said year-to-date 
inflation was 12.6 percent, in line with the government's 18-20 percent 
forecast for annual inflation. 


Kudrin also said the government planned to review at the end of October 
amendments to a much-needed land code, vetoed by former president Boris 
Yeltsin. The land code aims to liberalise and facilitate the sale of farm 
land. 


*******


#14
Gorbachev, Kohl to mark key post-Cold War treaty

BERLIN, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet president, 
will join former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl in Berlin on Tuesday to mark 
the 10th anniversary of the big-power treaty that ended the Cold War division 
of Germany. 


Signalling the start of celebrations that will end with the completion of 
reunified Germany's first decade on October 3, Gorbachev will make the 
keynote address at an event hosted by the Free Democratic Party. 


It was Gorbachev's willingness to pull nearly 400,000 Soviet troops out of 
formerly communist East Germany -- in return for financial indemnities from 
Kohl's government in Bonn -- which made the ``Two-Plus-Four'' Treaty of 
September 12, 1990, possible. 


It was signed in Moscow by the foreign ministers of the four victorious 
powers which occupied Germany after World War Two -- the Soviet Union, United 
States, France and Britain -- and the governments of the two Germanys, which 
merged three weeks later. 


Kohl, making a rare public appearance as he battles to save his reputation as 
architect of reunification following a funding scandal in his own party, the 
Christian Democrats, will not speak, FDP officials said on Monday. 


In Berlin on Monday, Gorbachev met Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. In a speech 
to his ruling Social Democratic Party, he hailed the freedoms east Europeans 
had won with the end of communism but also warned against ``neo-liberal 
fundamentalism'' which subjugated social values to global market economics. 


The reunification celebrations are likely to be rather more subdued than last 
year's extravagant commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 
9, 1989, the event which marked the beginning of the end for the division of 
Europe into competing blocs. 


The main official event, in Dresden on October 3, has been overshadowed by a 
dispute over whether Kohl, 70, should take part because his role in the 
funding scandal remains unclear. In the end, the former chancellor spared his 
party colleagues the embarrassment of barring him by saying he would stay 
away. 


Ten years on, many of the 17 million east Germans remain substantially poorer 
than their 65 million western counterparts though very much better off than 
Gorbachev's compatriots in Russia or citizens elsewhere in the former Soviet 
bloc. 


Nonetheless, the message of official celebrations will be that Germany's 
new-found unity has been a success, though much investment is still needed in 
rebuilding the east's economy. 


The other main speaker on Tuesday will be Hans-Dietrich Genscher, who as West 
German foreign minister played a key role in winning Soviet approval for a 
treaty under which the united Germany remained a member of the Western 
defence alliance, NATO. 


******