Center for Defense Information
Research Topics
Television
CDI Library
Press
What's New
Search
CDI Library > Johnson's Russia List

Johnson's Russia List
 

 

September 29, 2000    
This Date's Issues: 45464547

 



Johnson's Russia List
#4547
29 September 2000
davidjohnson@erols.com


[Note from David Johnson:
1. Jonathan Steele: Anatol Lieven/4546.
2. Dmitri Glinski Vassiliev: Yugoslav crisis.
3. Jerry F. Hough: Re: 4545-Kudelina/Military Spending.
4. Dale Herspring: Kursk -- once again.
5. AP: Russia laments losses at Sydney Games.
6. Ben Aris: Kremlin improves bureucrat efficiency.
7. The Times (UK): Alice Lagnado, Putin forced to retreat on reform 
of military.

8. USA Today: John Omicinski, Intellectuals must tell truth about 
Russia.

9. RFE/RL: Sophie Lambroschini, Russia: Reports Says Women Bear Brunt 
of Poverty.

10. AFP: Fearing arrest, Russian media magnate ignores witness summons.
11. The Economist (UK): Russia and its neighbours. Frost and friction. 
The countries of Russia’s former empire face a winter squeeze by the 
Kremlin.

12. LLoyd's List (London): John Helmer, RUSSIAN SHIP CAPTAINS THREATEN 
TO SCUTTLE VESSELS IF WAGES NOT PAID.

13. RIA: FORMER YELTSIN'S CHIEF BODYGUARD PUBLISHES EMBARRASSING BOOK.
14. Interfax: RUSSIA'S UNION OF RIGHT FORCES OUTLINES PRIORITIES FOR 
2001.

15. Rossiiskaya Gazeta: WHOM RUSSIANS TRUST. (poll)
16. Moscow Times: Putin Lists New Names For Holidays.] 


******


#1
From: Jonathan.Steele@guardian.co.uk
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 
Subject: Anatol Lieven/4546


Dear David,


Anatol Lieven's strongly-worded attack on the lack of a comparative and
"historicist" approach in much of today's academic and journalistic writing
about Russia's current foreign policy is absolutely right. It is a pity that
he does not see that the same sort of approach was needed in analysing Soviet
foreign policy.
He could, and should, be equally forthright in attacking the massed
ranks of
Sovietologists and Russophobes who failed to understand that Lenin, Stalin,
Khrushcehv and Brezhnev behaved no differently from state leaders in other
countries in almost always putting expediency and their vision of the national
interest well ahead of their publicly proclaimed ideology and moral
principles.
Why is it only now, when Soviet communism is no more, that we should suddenly
start to look at Russian defence and foreign policies objectively and
comparatively?.
When the danger of an East-West nuclear war was far more real than it is
now, surely it was even more incumbent on professionals to remain cool and
sensible in their analysis rather than letting hatred of Soviet communism
blind
them.
If I may make a commercial -- though it is not a commercial since the
book
is long out of print and unbuyable -- I tried to take this approach in my
1983
book 'The Limits of Soviet Power', published in the USA as "Soviet Power",
at a
time when the Reagan administration was banging on about evil empires, the CIA
was grossly exaggerating the Soviet weapons programme, and both were
misunderstanding the extent of Soviet influence in Africa, the Middle East,
and
Central America.
Like peace, unprejudiced analysis and professional standards are
indivisible.


Yours,
Jonathan Steele
The Guardian
London
e-mail: jonathan.steele@guardian.co.uk


*******


#2
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 
From: "Dmitri Glinski Vassiliev" <dmitri_glinski@mtu-net.ru> 
Subject: Yugoslav crisis


Dear David:


It appears that enough time has passed to draw some conclusions on the
Russian government
response to the latest Yugoslav crisis. Russia may be the only external
force which has had the credentials required to help Yugoslavia avoid its
descent into another civil war. Russia was given this opportunity by being
one of the few governments whose observers were allowed in the Yugoslav
elections. With this, Russia could have seized the long-delayed chance to
change the tragic history of that country for the better with impeccably
legitimate means. Russian observers should have provided their evidence on
the election results (together with other observers), and if it showed the
first-round victory for Dr. Vojislav Kostunica (as I think it would), Russia
should have extended him immediate recognition as the new Yugoslav
President.


The absence of a clear Russian position, or at least some clear enunciation
of the criteria which would guide the Kremlin's position in this crisis is
as deplorable as it is a fairly predictable foreign policy extension of our
domestic developments. Insofar as our government has any sustained foreign
policy beyond its relations with the G-7 and the IMF, in Yugoslavia they
have been clinging to the last nomenklatura regime of Eastern Europe, in the
ugliest stage of its decay. Both Western expansionists and their strategic
partners in Moscow badly needed this little monster in the middle of
Europe - the former to justify their interventionism, the latter for the
sake of their politically and financially lucrative position as occasional
mediators. Meanwhile, the Yugoslavs withstood two mutually reinforcing
agitprop machines - the one of their own government and another one operated
by those in the West for whom another foreign civil war could be a vehicle
to advance their own agendas. In these impossible circumstances, the
Yugoslavs gave only 5% to their local brand of Zhirinovsky. These results
attest to the endurance of the nation's common sense and rationality in
spite of all the destruction and brainwashing, and this alone would be
enough to make Yugoslavia, if military confrontation is avoided, the moral
superpower of Europe.


Although many things are uncertain at this moment, it seems that Kostunica
represents the current of democratic nationalism in the traditional,
developmental sense of this word. This rising trend has substantial support
in many countries, where there is growing discontent both with local
nomenklaturas that have privatized the public sphere and with intrusive
globalism of the end-of-history enthusiasts. It is too early to judge his
specific policies, but if he succeeds to avoid a violent confrontation with
Milosevic (which he clearly cannot win), he will have far-reaching
opportunities for influence well beyond the borders of his country.


Dmitri Glinski Vassiliev
IMEMO RAS


*******


#3
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 
From: "Jerry F. Hough" <jhough@duke.edu> 
Subject: Re: 4545-Kudelina/Military Spending


Deputy Finance Minister Kudelina's discussion of military 
spending is quite important. Her information about the Ministry of 
Defense debts, which budget appropriations were used to pay off at the 
same time that new debts were incurred with new deliveries not paid for, 
illustrates beautifully how the old system worked. If that system is 
being phased out with the cancelling of old debts, that is a major 
plus. However, in Soviet agriculture, they often cancelled old debts 
and then did not appropriate enough to cover expenses and new debts 
arose. The rise in oil prices gives Russia a breathing space, and they 
should use it to force-feed investment. The West should not be 
concerned with an increase in Russian military spending if it only means 
a regularization of the budget process and a covering of upkeep, etc. 
It costs money to have a stable military to keep control of nuclear weapons.


*******


#4
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 
From: falka@ksu.edu (Dale Herspring)
Subject: Kursk -- once again.


I appreciate Mr. Ware's comments about an inspection. 
Unfortunately, we are once again put in an impossible position. 
Permit me to explain. I just retired after 31 years of active and 
reserve service in the US Navy. I had some very sensitive 
clearances, and a fairly high rank (0-6). With all that, I would not 
be permitted on a US nuclear submarine without an escort. I would 
certainly not be permitted to wander around the skin of the sub. 
Besides, as others have pointed out, just looking at the part of the 
sub would do no good. From a security standpoint, the whole idea 
is a non-starter. Indeed, I suspect this is why the Russian 
generals brought up the idea -- they know it is a non-starter. 
Sometimes governments hide behind security. However, when the 
lives of more than a hundred men are at stake as they are in a 
submarine, I think security concerns must be paramount. This is 
not the first time the Russians have used this approach. As a 
former arms control negotiator, I saw it happen many times -- set-
up a strawman, propose a means for "verifying" what happen, but 
do it in a way that they know ahead of time that it is unacceptable. 


By the way, hydrogen peroxide (mentioned by another writer) is 
very dangerous. We stopped using it in our torpedos in the mid-
fifties. 


*******


#5
Russia laments losses at Sydney Games
September 28, 2000
By ANNA DOLGOV

MOSCOW (AP) - Even as the Russian team surged to second place in the medal 
count, Russia on Thursday mourned losses by its once-unbeatable Olympic 
champions in Sydney as a national tragedy. 


``It happened. There is an emptiness. Nothing else,'' the daily Moskovsky 
Komsomolets said in a front-page story Thursday. 


The greatest blow for Russia was the incredible defeat of the legendary 
Alexander Karelin - a Greco-Roman wrestler who had never before lost an 
international match - by America's Rulon Gardner, a wrestler who had never 
been good enough to win an NCAA or world meet. 


``Karelin lost. The great and unbeatable champion, who had never stood on the 
second step of the medals podium, ascended to it yesterday - as to a 
gallows,'' Russia's main sports daily Sport Express said in a front-page 
column. 


By any normal measure, Russia's Olympic performance has been stellar. It has 
won the second-highest number of medals after the United States, and has the 
third-highest number of golds. 


But for a nation that has bitterly suffered the lost of its superpower 
status, and the erosion of its symbols of national pride - science, space 
exploration and the arts - the losses have been painful. The achievements of 
its athletes remained one of the last things Russia could still glory in. 


``We won't have any more like them,'' the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda said in 
a story headlined ``The Giants Are Leaving.'' 


``They have closed a thick volume of what many will regard, already tomorrow, 
as fairy tales of Russian sport.'' 


A poll last week by the independent ROMIR agency indicated that nearly 64 
percent of Russians expected their team's performance at the Sydney Games to 
be ``very successful'' or ``rather successful,'' while only 22 percent 
expected a failure. 


On Wednesday alone, Russia's Irina Privalova won the gold in the 400-meter 
hurdles, and tennis player Yelena Dementyeva garnered the silver. On 
Thursday, tennis star Yevgeny Kafelnikov won a gold medal. 


But the games also brought scores of disappointments for Russia. 


Swimmer Alexander Popov, the world's dominant sprinter since 1992, finished 
sixth in the 50-meter freestyle on Sept. 22 and was runner-up in the 
100-meter, failing in his attempt to win Olympic gold an unprecedented third 
straight time in both events. 


Andrei Chemerkin, the man renowned as the strongest in the world, couldn't 
outlift Iran's Hossein Rezazadeh in a battle of 1,000-pound lifters, and the 
Russian female gymnasts were shut out from the all-around medals. 


And then there was Karelin's stunning defeat. 


``Yesterday, Russia's team in Sydney was dealt the most brutal blow,'' the 
business daily Kommersant said in a front-page story. ``Russia's symbol in 
sports, the unbeatable Alexander Karelin ... was beaten.'' 


Some chalked up Karelin's loss to alleged bias on the part of the judges. 
Others blamed Karelin's entry into politics, saying it distracted him. 


In December, Karelin won a seat in the lower house of parliament, the State 
Duma, as the No. 2 man in the pro-government Unity party. 


``After all, one cannot sit on two chairs at once,'' Kommersant wrote. 


*******


#6
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 
From: "Ben Aris" <ben@glasnet.ru> 
Subject: Kremlin improves bureucrat efficiency


I am sending a cutting from this week's Russia Regional Report. The key
issue with all of Putin's reforms is implementation. While at big business
level he is still looking pretty ugly -- the Media Most confiscation and the
recent row over mobile phone licenses are the most obvious examples -- at a
lower level he seems to be making some effort to improve implementation,
which is new for Russia.


This gives us a confusing picture of Russia as these big public fights are
bad for Russia's image. Personally I think that Putin doesn't have full
control over the govt. The Media Most affair is more than likely
Putin-driven as Gus was political enemy number 1. The Kremlin doesn¹t see
the fight for control over Media Most as a freedom of the press issue, but
simply as an attack on a political enemy powerful by dint of the control he
has over media ­ now the most potent political force in Russia.


However, this summer¹s attack on the oligarchs and other big business, I
think, was more a case of high-ups in the bureaucracy having a pop -- partly
because these people don¹t like all the power the corporations have gained
and partly as a ploy to garner more political power to themselves. The most
recent examples are the row over mobile phone frequency allocations and a
"criminal investigation" by the tax police into UES. Both were ridiculous
and both stopped almost as soon as they started, which says to me that it
was a high-up who ordered these moves only to be ticked off and told to stop
by Putin shortly after.


The Russian bureaucracy is a wilful beast this is why I thought this item
was so interesting. It comes on the back of other similar moves to increase
efficiency and cut graft, which include: the Kremlin has set up a Financial
Intelligence Service to cut tax evasion and capital flight; the Federal
Securities Commission has set up a Corporate Governance Task Force and taken
more direct control over its subsidiaries; and a regional treasury system is
up, working and being expanded.


EastWest Institute
Russian Regional Report
Vol. 5, No. 35, 27 September 2000


PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION SEEKS TO IMPROVE QUALITY OF BUREAUCRATS.


President Vladimir Putin's administration recognizes that one of its chief
problems is the quality of its employees--there is no incentive structure to
incline them to work in the interests of the federal government. To remedy
the problem, the administration has decided to go back to a system similar
to that used by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union. When Yeltsin came to power, he effectively dismantled the old system.


In particular, the administration is planning to reinstate the Moscow-based
position of inspector. The plan is to recruit the best people from the
regions, those capable of ultimately serving as governor, and have them work
as inspectors in the presidential administration for two or three years
(depending on the political situation on the ground), handling issues
related to their home regions. During the Communist era, the central
leadership made clear to its regional recruits that the individual running
each region was in the job temporarily but that the central party apparatus
would last forever. To advance their careers, the Central Committee
inspectors understood that they had to be loyal to the central authorities
rather than the current regional elite. The best of the inspectors could
count on winning an important appointment in the regions.


In today's conditions, when governors are elected, the Kremlin will try to
have its trainees elected as governors. The Kremlin would make it clear to
local voters that electing the Kremlin's candidate would ensure that their
governor would have access to federal funds and the other benefits of close
ties to the federal government. If regional voters reject the Kremlin's
choice in favor of another candidate, that person will likely be frozen out
from such access. The Kremlin expects to start sending such candidates to
the regions within two years and as the governors' election schedule
dictates. - Petr Kozma in Moscow


*******


#7
The Times (UK)
29 September 2000
Putin forced to retreat on reform of military
FROM ALICE LAGNADO IN MOSCOW
PRESIDENT PUTIN has bowed to pressure from the powerful military lobby and
back-pedalled on an earlier pledge to make speedy cuts to the bloated
Russian Army and transform it into a modern, professional force. 


Fears are now increasing that large numbers of underpaid, hungry,
badly-motivated troops with access to arms including nuclear weapons will
pose serious security dangers, both to Russia and to the outside world. 


Mr Putin said: "There will be no massive, wholesale reductions of Russian
armed forces. Measured, calm and smooth work is needed to optimise the
military machine." 


The sinking of the Kursk submarine in August and Russian losses in two
Chechen campaigns revealed the inadequacies of the Russian Army, where pay
is low and training and discipline are poor. 


He said that he would delay cuts in the Armed Forces, which observers have
agreed were in drastic need of reform, after this week's meeting in the
Kremlin with the Security Council, an advisory body dominated by military
and former KGB chiefs. 


Earlier this month Igor Sergeyev, the Defence Minister, said troops would
be cut by 350,000. But this week Mr Putin said there were "objections" from
military commanders and reforms needed to be worked out more slowly. 


Mr Putin will have an uphill task persuading the powerful military, without
whose support he would not have been elected President, to modernise the
dilapidated Russian Army. Like Mr Yeltsin before him, he recognises the
need to modernise but cannot afford to lose the backing of the military,
who in Russia have a significant say in the running of the country. 


In a veiled criticism of the army's refusal to change, he told the meeting:
"We spend colossal resources on the military, and we allow the military
budget to be wasted on peripheral issues that have nothing in common with
either the army's combat readiness nor with its direct supplies." 


He did not mention the army's other failings. Soldiers are poorly nourished
and lack proper combat training. In the two recent Chechen campaigns,
villagers reported feeding hungry young conscripts who begged them for food. 


Discipline is so bad that commanders have been unable to stop wartime
looting or attacks on civilians. Last June an army general in charge of a
strategic missile base in Siberia sent commandos to storm electricity
substations to stop the electricity company from cutting off power to the
base. 


Draft-dodging is rife, with the majority of young men in Moscow failing to
join up. 


Despite the series of complaints, many top brass fiercely oppose
modernisation and are pushing instead for increased funding to help the
army to regain its lost status. 


Under communism, army officers were respected in society and the army had
more standing among foreign powers, which were unaware of its poor
condition. Many top commanders also fear losing material privileges, such
as free country cottages, and job cuts during a time of instability and
high unemployment. 


*******


#8
USA Today
September 21, 2000
Intellectuals must tell truth about Russia
By John Omicinski
John Omicinski writes for Gannett News Service 


WASHINGTON - U.S. intellectuals, writers and government-types have spent most 
of the 20th century bamboozling themselves about Russia and the Russians. 


There was the famous case of Walter Duranty, The New York Times Pulitzer 
winner who covered up the Stalin-ordered famine in Ukraine in 1933-34 that 
took tens of millions of lives. 


Duranty reported the Ukraine countryside had plenty to eat and was ''being 
transformed by the greatest revolution in history'' - though he knew 
otherwise. His successor, Harold Denny, reported in 1934 that Ukraine's crop 
was a ''victory for collectivization'' and that he had eaten ''honey fresh 
from Bolshevik bees.'' 


And nothing has changed as we head into the 21st century. 


After a decade of media reporting and U.S. government boasting about the 
''success'' of Russian reforms, about its yearning for democracy, about its 
bright future, what do we see? A Russia in the midst of a medical and social 
disaster, losing close to 1 million people a year, ravaged by old diseases 
like diphtheria and new ones like AIDS, and run by an ex-KGB agent and his 
personal coterie. 


Russia is depopulating at rates not seen since World War II. New figures in 
the Russian press forecast a decline of 53 million Russians by 2050, to 93.5 
million. The situation has become so alarming that a new government campaign 
pleads with women not to have abortions. 


How ironic, isn't it, that it was Lenin's Russia that first legalized 
abortion? 


Yet here, rosy scenarios abound. 


Two years ago, Vice President Al Gore reported that ''optimism prevails 
universally'' about Russia. Last year, Washington Post writer Robert Kaiser 
enthusiastically reported ''Russia looks terrific to me ...'' 


But in Russia, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn - a hero when he was a Soviet dissident 
and now ignored because he is a critic of U.S. reform efforts - writes that 
former President Boris Yeltsin ''destroyed or looted'' the economy, the 
culture and moral life. ''We live literally amid ruins, but we pretend to 
have a normal life,'' he wrote. 


In his new book, Failed Crusade, New York University professor of Russian 
studies Stephen Cohen examines in depth what he calls the Clinton 
administration's ''grand policy ... to transform post-Communist Russia into 
some facsimile of the American democratic and capitalistic system.'' 


Cohen concludes it has been the ''worst American foreign policy disaster 
since Vietnam, and its consequences more long-term and perilous.'' 


Again the best and brightest have failed because of hubris. When will they 
learn some humility about manipulating other people's fates? 


Many journalists signed on as cheerleaders, Cohen notes, and again won 
Pulitzers and other prizes. As in the bad old days of Uncle Joe Stalin, Uncle 
Boris got lots of favorable ink and little investigation. They ''pardoned 
present deprivations,'' says Cohen, ''in the name of future benefits that 
never arrived.'' 


Ivy League scholars applauded and compared Yeltsin to Jefferson and 
Washington when he sent troops to blast the Parliament building in 1993. Like 
Stalin's U.S. backers argued in the '30s, Yeltsin's purges sparked the old 
excuse, ''You can't make omelets without breaking eggs.'' 


Yevgeny Primakov took over briefly as prime minister in 1998 and 1999 and 
tried his best to implement a sane, Roosevelt-style New Deal to get Russia 
limping again. But American journalists and Clintonites gave Primakov the 
cold shoulder because he wouldn't accept Washington's report cards or 
''shock'' reforms. 


Clinton still hasn't given up on thinking that his theoreticals are key to 
Russia's future. 


In June, on what was his last official trip to the benighted land, he stood 
before the Duma (a democratic body he seems to despise) and said ''Americans 
have to overcome the temptation to think we have all the answers'' but then, 
according to one news report, he proceeded to make a speech sounding like a 
''State of the Russians'' address. Chutzpah, thy name is Clinton. 


So we're left with a Russia filled with crumbling nuclear reactors, sinking 
nuclear subs, little or no medicine, and hooded hooligans with submachine 
guns. 


Millions, including nuclear forces' installations, owe the government $65 
billion in unpaid electricity bills and the infrastructure crumbles. Every 
''Dark Monday'' more alcoholics of all ages die after their final weekend 
binges. 


Only the jokes keep many from slipping into the final depression. A current 
one: ''Have you heard the official explanation for the Ostankino fire? It 
burned because it was hit by another television tower - a foreign one, of 
course.'' 


>From here on out, the best U.S. Russia policy may be jokes and prayers. At 
least they're honest. 


*******


#9
Russia: Reports Says Women Bear Brunt of Poverty
By Sophie Lambroschini


Russian authorities boast of improvements in social benefits for the poor, 
particularly for those receiving regular pensions. But a little-noticed study 
published this year by the World Bank on the "feminization" of poverty in 
Russia points to a deteriorating situation for women, especially single 
mothers. Moscow correspondent Sophie Lambroschini speaks with a single parent 
and members of a charity trying to help them. 


Moscow, 27 September (RFE/RL) -- Russia's Minister for Social Policy 
Aleksandr Pochinok says that for all but 30 million Russians who live in 
extreme poverty living standards "are going up for the first time." He told 
RFE/RL last week that pensions have increased 38 percent this year and will 
continue to grow. 


But there's been little improvement in the life of Olga Ivanova, a 
48-year-old Moscow invalid with cardiac problems. She is raising two 
grandsons and caring for her bed-ridden mother on social assistance amounting 
to little more than $60 a month.


Our correspondent visited Ivanova's threadbare apartment. She saw Pavlik, a 
pale three-year-old who is almost deaf climbing from his bed to the table and 
back again. Dima, a frail 11-year-old suffering from untreated bronchial 
asthma, joined his brother in play.


Their grandmother, left alone with them after the chidren's mother ran away, 
tried to describe her life through tears and shouts at Pavlik who was rolling 
on the floor and screaming:


"We live, as you can see yourself, poorly. Pavlik! I had a heart attack but 
became my grandson's guardian. The little boy is [an] invalid, the older one 
goes to kindergarten. My mother's paralyzed. We live off $64 [1,800 rubles] a 
month [in total combined income]. My son sometimes gives me money and 
sometimes he doesn't. My daughter doesn't [even] pay the rent. So I go to [a 
government assistance facility] and get something there for the boys. 
Sometimes I don't even have any bread for them." 


According to Tatiana Troitskaya of the Taganka Children's Fund, a charity 
specializing in helping single-parent families in Moscow's Taganka district, 
Ivanova is not even one of the more extreme poverty cases. Troitskaya says 
some of the families she sees don't even have beds, huddling in one room of 
their apartments while renting out the other. 


The Taganka Fund assists about 500 families and more than 700 children. 
Divorced mothers left alone with their children make up most of the cases. 
But unwed mothers as well as widows -- in a country where men's life 
expectancy has dropped to 57 years -- are also a prime aid target. The fund's 
director, Vladimir Shepelin, notes that almost one half [about 45 percent] of 
Moscow's families fall into the "single-parent" category. All of them, he 
says, have had to adapt to a new social order and to material hardships. 


"During World War II, women also stayed alone with their children. But they 
weren't lost. They knew how to fight against food shortages. But now, they 
don't have society's support and they don't understand what's going on. They 
suffer from bureaucrats. They suffer from material difficulties. They suffer 
because their children are out of control. Among [the fund's] mothers, there 
are a lot with higher education -- scientists, people from the arts. These 
specialties are not wanted on the job market at the moment."


One of the reasons that single-parent families often have less money coming 
in than pensioners -- the primary group targeted by government social policy 
-- is that pensioners vote, but children don't. Shepelin explains:


"Their [that is, single-parent families'] income level is lower, according to 
our data. A single-mother's or other [single parent's income] ranges from $11 
[300 rubles] to $54 [1,500 rubles]. Remember, that's for two family members 
and is, much less than a pension. So the arithmetic is very simple: The needs 
[of single-parent families] are two to three times higher, while their income 
is twice as low."


Other figures make the same point. Pensions can go as high as $30 a month, 
while single-parent aid is about $8 a month. Benefits for children are about 
two dollars monthly, while a widow's pension can be 10 times as much.


The study published earlier this year (May) by the World Bank on "the 
feminization of poverty" in Russia confirms in stark statistics what Shepelin 
sees daily in practice. The study says Russian women's vulnerability is 
growing, particularly among single mothers and women pensioners, and that 
slight increases in benefits won't make much difference. 


The study also says poverty is spreading since the economic crisis in August 
1998 by incorporating families with two working parents whose combined 
earnings are not enough to feed their children." In addition, it points out, 
the material status of families is further sapped by the decline of social 
institutions, such as hospitals and schools. Even though primary school is 
nominally free, a majority [86 percent] of students' parents chip in for 
maintenance and repair costs.


*******


#10
Fearing arrest, Russian media magnate ignores witness summons


MOSCOW, Sept 29 (AFP) - 
Fearing arrest, Russian independent media magnate Vladimir Gusinsky ignored
a summons Friday from prosecutors to appear as a witness in their criminal
inquiry into alleged fraud by his Media-MOST empire.


Gusinsky, who has remained outside Russia since July 27 when he left for
Spain after separate fraud charges were dropped against him, was summoned
to the general prosecutor's office Friday morning.


But his Media-MOST company sent a fax to investigator Valery Nikolayev
explaining that Gusinsky was on an extended foreign business trip between
July 31 and October 31 and could not attend, Interfax cited Nikolayev as
saying.


The investigator said prosecutors had no plans at present to force Gusinsky
to comply with their request. A top prosecution official threatened
Thursday to issue an international arrest warrant for the media tycoon.


Company lawyer Pavel Astakhov said Gusinsky, currently either in Spain or
Britain, feared he would be detained if he returned to Russia to be
questioned. 


In June, the 47-year-old businessman turned up for questioning as a witness
and was arrested and briefly thrown in jail on charges of defrauding the
state of 10 million dollars in a sweetheart privatization deal in 1997.


"It is impossible for Gusinsky to present himself before prosecutors
because we had a very bad experience. In June he was detained when he was
asked to come as a witness. We are afraid that he can be arrested,"
Astakhov told AFP.


Deputy Prosecutor-General Vasily Kolmogorov said Thursday that prosecutors
had begun an inquiry into the illegal transfer of shares offshore by top
Media-MOST managers, following a complaint from state-linked gas giant
Gazprom.


Media-MOST immediately denounced the prosecutors' move as the latest salvo
in a bid by the Russian government to seize control of the country's only
independent media group, a vocal Kremlin critic.


The state is the largest shareholder in Gazprom, which has mounted a
hostile takeover of Media-MOST.


Gusinsky says he was blackmailed into surrendering his debt-ridden
newspaper-to-broadcasting group. A sale agreement inked on July 20 included
a clause halting legal proceedings against him, and he has now repudiated
the deal.


The gas giant in turn has accused Media-MOST of moving abroad part of the
40 percent of its shares pledged to Gazprom as collateral for 473 million
dollars in loans.


*******


#11
The Economist (UK)
September 30-October 6, 2000
Russia and its neighbours 
Frost and friction 
MOSCOW 
The countries of Russia’s former empire face a winter squeeze by the Kremlin 
IT MAY be by accident, or more likely by design, but every one of Russia’s
former Soviet satellites that has decided to pursue an independent course
is in increasing trouble. Whereas Russia once tried to dominate its former
satrapies through the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a waffly
organisation that talked endlessly and did little, the Kremlin’s new policy
is clear-headed and tougher. Each country faces a different mixture of
threats. 


There are three main ones: energy, visas and guns. Russia supplies most of
its former empire with gas. Threatening to turn off the tap, as winter
approaches, is a big stick against energy-poor countries such as Ukraine,
Moldova and Georgia, which already owe billions of dollars for fuel. Russia
is pursuing a much fiercer policy than in past years, demanding that the
debts be settled with shares in pipelines, refineries and so on. 


Russia is also threatening to build new pipelines to reduce the amount it
pays its neighbours in transit fees. One, still on the drawing-board, would
bypass Ukraine, taking Russian gas directly to the West via Belarus and
Poland. Another, closer to being built, would divert oil exports from the
Baltic states to a new terminal near St Petersburg. 


Visas matter because many people from impoverished countries such as
Georgia and Azerbaijan work in relatively prosperous Russia, sending money
home to their families. Russia announced last month that by November it
would pull out from a CIS agreement on visa-free travel. Republics with
close ties to Russia, such as Armenia, will see no change. Those that see
their future elsewhere will be in trouble. Georgi Baramidze, a member of
Georgia’s parliament, says the new policy is a “punishment” for his
country’s insistence that Russia should close its military bases there.
Some 500,000 of his countrymen are working in Russia, he guesses. “Without
remittances from Russia, these economies go straight down the toilet,” says
an American specialising in the region. 


The Russian army is trying hard to hang on to its foothold in Georgia. It
has started pulling out equipment from the most sensitive base, next to the
capital, Tbilisi, but says it wants to keep the next-door military air
field. When Georgia then banned Russian military flights in its air space,
Russia’s top military commander promptly accused Georgia of allowing
hundreds of Chechen fighters to mass on its border, a dangerous accusation
that Georgia has always denied. 


Elsewhere, Russia is trying to hang on to its military bases by relabelling
them as peacekeepers’ facilities. In mainly Romanian-speaking Moldova,
Russia maintains a big military base in a separatist enclave called
Transdniestria, which abuts Ukraine and is largely populated by Slavs.
Against the wishes of Moldova’s government, the Kremlin now suggests that
Moldova and Transdniestria should together become a “common
state”—“guaranteed” by Russia. It also threatened last week to blockade
Moldova’s rail system, if a debt is not paid promptly. 


Russia may be using still dodgier tactics elsewhere. Uzbekistan, an
autocratically run and independent-minded country in Central Asia, is
facing a mysterious Islamic insurgency. Its president, Islam Karimov, said
crossly this week that Russia was exaggerating the threat, and was trying
to intimidate his country into accepting Russian bases. Nerves there and in
other former Soviet Central Asian republics have also jangled on the news
that the Islamic Taliban forces in nearby Afghanistan are advancing north. 


In Ukraine, the largest and most strategically important of the former
Soviet republics, trouble is brewing too. In the heavily russified east of
the country, protests have erupted, with demands that the Russian language
should have a higher status; in the western regional capital, Lvov (Lviv to
Ukrainians), Ukrainian zealots want its role reduced. Both protests are
unusual and worrying in a country that has prided itself on its ethnic
harmony. Russia has also imposed anti-dumping duties on Ukrainian pipes,
one of the country’s main exports. 


Russian pressure on the “near abroad”, as Russians call the ex-Soviet
republics, is not new. In 1996 several republics in the firing
line—Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova—set up, with American
encouragement, a mutual support grouping called GUAM, after its members’
initials. Uzbekistan joined in 1999. It has no formal structure, apart from
a website, and its meetings have been irregular. Its main success has been
in co-ordinating its members’ positions in arms-control negotiations over
the issue of Russian troop levels. 


Earlier this month, however, its leaders, meeting at an international
gathering in New York, said that GUUAM (as it became) would solidify and
expand. They announced twice-yearly summit meetings, a new push to build
east-west energy pipelines (crucially important if they are to shed Russian
influence) and said they would try to establish a free-trade zone,
something the CIS has signally failed to manage in the eight years of its
existence. America last week voted $45.5m in new military assistance to
GUUAM countries. 


Finding new members will be difficult. Georgia’s president, Edward
Shevardnadze, says that Romania wants to join, although Romania’s
ambassador in Washington says firmly that this is an “exaggeration”.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former American national security adviser who is
close to the project, has been encouraging GUUAM to bring in Turkey,
Romania or Poland as “observers”. 


But given the difficulties that its weak, poor, ill-governed members face
already, it is hard to see others queuing up to join. Helped by the high
oil price, and with the steely Mr Putin in charge, Russia is looking
stronger, and its ex-Soviet neighbours weaker, than at any time since the
break-up of the Soviet Union. 


*******


#12
From: "John Helmer" <helmer@atom.ru>
Subject: RUSSIAN SHIP CAPTAINS THREATEN TO SCUTTLE VESSELS IF WAGES NOT PAID
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 


David: The attached is to be appear in my London paper, Lloyd's List. You
and the JRL audience should watch closely in the weeks ahead, as inside
this story is a major test of Putin's new governors-general against
corrupt regional forces. In this case, Gen. Pulikovsky against Governor
Nazdratenko. Best, John 


LLoyd's List (London), October 1, 2000
RUSSIAN SHIP CAPTAINS THREATEN TO SCUTTLE VESSELS IF WAGES NOT PAID
By John Helmer in Moscow


A battle over who controls one of Russia's largest fishing-fleets 
operating in Pacific waters is now threatening Russia's leading European
seaport,
St. Petersburg.


Frustrated by months of legal wrangling and more than a year's delay in 
receiving crew wages, the captains of six refrigerator vessels in St. 
Petersburg port announced yesterday they will scuttle their ships, and block 
the port channel, if crew claims of more than US$1 million are not paid 
immediately.


The reaction from the St. Petersburg authorities has been mixed. Irina
Krikun, 
a spokesperson for the trade port company told Lloyd's List: "If the action 
takes place, it will certainly inflict damage to the port. But so far we have 
nothing to do with it. The ships are located at moorages N49 and N50. These
belong to the St. Petersburg timber port."


"This is beyond my imagination," an official from the timber port, who asked 
not to be named, told Lloyd's List. "I don't believe they really mean to take 
such a step. They only want to draw public attention."


Draw attention, the scuttling threat certainly did on Thursday, when it was 
broadcast in bulletins of national network television news, and published 
in Moscow newspapers.


According to Alexander Bodnya, St. Petersburg representative of the Seafarers 
Union of Russia, "the situation is difficult to resolve. The port is losing 
money, because the moorages are not paid for. The sailors and their families
suffer without salaries. The ships have been out of operation for quite a 
while, and soon will be inoperable. The whole affair poses a danger to the 
port."


The six vessels have been anchored in St. Petersburg since July 1999. The 
crews have not been paid since then, and Bodnya estimates the wage bill
is now about US$1 million.


In evidence presented in a St. Petersburg court hearing in May of this year 
indicated the registered owners of the six ships are several different Cyprus 
companies. They are operated by West Rif Management Ltd., also of Cyprus.


The vessels were built for refrigerated cargoes, and are less than ten years 
old. Construction was financed by the Royal Bank of Scotland, but the 
Cypriot-registered owners have defaulted on their repayment obligations.
The bank has prepared seizure orders, should the ships sail into foreign 
ports.


The application by the ships' creditors to the St. Petersburg court in May
was 
upheld, and an auction ordered. 


VostokTransFlot, a big Vladivostok-based fishing company, claims it is 
the real owner of the six ships. According to VostokTransFlot, the Cypriot 
corporate ownership of the vessels had been arranged illegally. It 
opposes the creditors' sale ordered in St. Petersburg, and has obtained a 
Vladivostok court injunction to stop the auction from going ahead. 


Backing VostokTransFlot's position is the Primorskiy Krai government, 
Russia's far eastern coastal region, and its powerful governor, Yevgeny 
Nazdratenko.


Bodnya, the union spokesman, told Lloyd's List "we insist that the ships must 
be sold. The law is on our side, but there are superior powers
in the Primorskiy Krai administration. Instead of resolving the case, the 
administration is exercising pressure methods."


Just how far Governor Nazdratenko is willing to go in this, and other
shipping 
disputes, was illustrated recently, when he forced the dismissal of
Tatiana Laktionova, the chief judge of the Primorskiy Krai Arbitration
Court. Laktionova was dismissed, she claimed in a recent appeal to the
federal 
Supreme Court in Moscow, because she refused to follow the governor's 
direction in several ship debt claims, including one involving 
VostokTransFlot.


Alexei Binetsky, the Moscow lawyer representing Laktionova, told Lloyd's List
the governor's action against the judge is "unlawful and unconstitutional."
Binetsky added that the judge's appeal to the Supreme Court was supported
by a 
letter from President Vladimir Putin's new representative in the region,
General Konstantin Pulikovsky.


The seafarers union is supporting the sale of the ships, because it sees no 
other way to clear the debts, and pay the crews.


"The Scots are right to want their money back," Bodnya told Lloyd's List. 
"VostokTransFlot may be right as well that the ships were illegally 
transferred. But the way out is simple. The ships must be sold, and the debts 
paid. Let the owners sort out the rest of it."


******


#13
FORMER YELTSIN'S CHIEF BODYGUARD PUBLISHES EMBARRASSING BOOK
Russian news agency RIA 


Moscow, 28th September: The former Boris Yeltsin's chief bodyguard, now 
chairman of the newspaper 'Stringer' editorial board, Aleksandr Korzhakov, 
and 'Stringer' editor-in-chief Leonid Krutakov have presented to reporters a 
newly published book which they called "a comprehensive collection of 
Russia's compromising materials". 


The official title of the book is "Yellow Pages - a Telephone Guide for Those 
Willing to Get Involved in Big Politics". It has been published in 2,000 
copies, they said. Korzhakov is "an information provider", Krutakov said. He 
is also responsible for settling possible legal conflicts. 


The first part of the book includes what they call texts of bugged telephone 
conversations by some prominent politicians, businessmen and journalists, 
including Anatoliy Chubays, Boris Nemtsov, Alfred Koch, Boris Berezovskiy, 
Sergey Dorenko and Aleksandr Nevzorov. Those materials were published in the 
past by the media. 


The contents of the second part look even more mysterious: "printouts of 
audio materials which have been obtained by 'Stringer' under the guise of 
Media-Most security service computer database". 


Korzhakov told reporters that "the country should know its heroes". At the 
same time he refused to disclose his sources of information. 


Krutakov has said that 'Stringer' is planning to publish the guidebook 
"Power-2000" and the comprehensive list of State Duma lobbyists. 


******

#14
RUSSIA'S UNION OF RIGHT FORCES OUTLINES PRIORITIES FOR 2001
Interfax


Moscow, 28th September: The Union of Right Forces has outlined its priorities 
for 2001. 


One of the priorities is greater investment in education, leader of the Union 
of Right Forces State Duma faction Boris Nemtsov said at a news conference at 
the Interfax main office on Thursday [28th September]. The faction supports 
increasing budget spending on education by R5bn. 


The faction is also working to connect the computers in 400 Russian schools 
to the Internet, Nemtsov said. 


Another priority is military reform and the transition to a professional 
armed forces within the next three to five years, Nemtsov said. "The defence 
ministry must become a political department headed by a civilian," he said. 


Regional elections will be another concern of the Union of Right Forces. 
Nemtsov said they would form Union of Right Forces factions in the 
legislatures of no less than 20 regions. 


"The Union of Right Forces will work to unite with the Yabloko party no later 
than in 2001 for the sake of pooling efforts in the parliamentary election of 
2003," Nemtsov said. 


As for the pre-election situation in a number of Russian regions, Nemtsov 
said there is a battle "between the governors, the representatives of the 
ruling party and the leftists" there... 


Nemtsov said he is concerned about the situation in Tatarstan, where 
President Mintimer Shaymiyev may be re-elected for a third term in office. 
"That brings to naught all Putin's efforts to put the country in order and 
bring local laws in compliance with federal legislation. I cannot understand 
why Putin is keeping silent," he said. 


Nemtsov said he did not doubt that Shaymiyev would both agree to run for 
re-election and be the sole candidate. "The state of affairs in Tatarstan is 
a mine under the construction of the federal state," he said. 


******


#15
Rossiiskaya Gazeta
September 29, 2000
[translation from RIA Novosti for personal use only]
WHOM RUSSIANS TRUST
The ratings of Russian president Vladimir Putin and 
chairman of the government Mikhail Kasyanov have markedly grown 
over the past month. 

This was reported by the all-Russian public opinion 
research center on the basis of the results of representative 
polls conducted late last month and the end of September. A 
total of 1,600 Russians took part in each of them.
Thus, during the poll conducted at the end of August, 60% 
of respondents said that they approved of the activity of the 
head of the Russian state, whereas at the end of September the 
figure was already 65%. Thirty percent of respondents 
disapproved of Putin's activity last month and 27% - this 
month. 
Russians' attitude to the work of premier Mikhail Kasyanov 
has improved. In August, 42% of respondents approved of his 
activity.
A total of 38% of respondents positively assessed the work 
of the Russian government in August against 39% now (negatively 
assessed - 49% and 50%, respectively). Twenty-five percent of 
Russians approved of the activity of the Federation Council a 
month ago and 30% now (disapproved - 52% and 46%, 
respectively). 
The rating of State Duma chairman Gennady Seleznev has 
also grown over the past month - 33% of Russians approved of 
his activity on this post in August and 38% - now (the number 
of those who disapprove of his work has been down from 44% to 
41%, respectively). 
The positions of Federation Council chairman Yegor Stroyev 
have also strengthened - 31% of the polled supported him in 
August and 33% now (36% and 35% of the polled disapproved of 
the speaker's activity, respectively).
Today, 22% of respondents trust none of Russian 
politicians (the figure for the last month was 27%).


******


#16
Moscow Times
September 29, 2000 
Putin Lists New Names For Holidays 


President Vladimir Putin submitted a letter to State Duma Speaker Gennady
Seleznyov this week asking the lower house to amend the Labor Code by
including the new names of national holidays. 


The proposed changes will affect Article 65 of the Labor Code but will not
change the dates of the holidays, a presidential spokeswoman said. 


Under the proposed bill, the day commemorating the anniversary of the
Proclamation of Russia's Sovereignty, marked on June 12 since 1990 and
popularly called Independence Day, will be renamed Russia Day. This
apparently was in response to some people's lighthearted questioning,
"Independence from whom?" 


The day commemorating the anniversary of the Great October Socialist
Revolution on Nov. 7, which was renamed the Day of National Reconciliation
and Accord by President Boris Yeltsin in 1996, will be listed under its new
name. 


Russian Constitution Day, marked on Dec. 12 since Yeltsin's 1994 decree
declaring it a holiday, will be included in the holidays list. 


Holidays on the list that will keep their current names include New Year's
on Jan. 1 and 2, Orthodox Christmas on Jan. 7, International Women's Day on
March 8, Victory Day on May 9, and May 1 and 2, which is now officially
called the Day of Spring and Labor. 


******

 

Return to CDI's Home Page  I  Return to CDI's Library