#8
Excerpts
RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
RFE/RL Security Watch
Vol. 2, No. 46, 14 December 2001
Security, Corruption, and Foreign Policy in Russia
and the Post- Communist Region
(Compiled by Victor Yasmann)
Å AS ANALYST SAYS PUTIN IS STILL FINDING HIS WAY. Writing in "Moskovskii komsomolets" on 5 December, the international relations director at the Institute of U.S.A. and Canada, Anatolii Utkin, said that despite Russia's clear moves toward better relations with the West, President Putin has yet to determine the course the country will ultimately take. Utkin said Putin is hesitant to make big concessions to the United States for fear of antagonizing China and the Arab world.
Å AS RUSSIA PREPARES TO ASK FOR EXPANSION OF ITS ARCTIC TERRITORY. A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on 10 December that Russia has informed the United States, Canada, Norway, and Denmark that it is ready to submit an official request to the UN for the extension of Russia's exclusive economic zone in the Arctic Ocean by 1.2 million square kilometers (see "RFE/RL Security Watch," no. 12, 9 October 2000, and no. 36, 17 September 2001) ITAR- TASS reported. The territory Russia seeks is extremely rich in hydrocarbon resources. The spokesman admitted that both the U.S. and Canada are "very reserved" about Russia's intentions to gain control of the territory.
MOST RUSSIANS REGRET DEMISE OF USSR, BUT DO NOT FAVOR ITS RESTORATION. Over 70 percent of Russians lament the fall of the Soviet Union, and this number continues to rise, lenta.ru reported on 9 December, citing an opinion poll conducted by the Public Opinion agency on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the official dissolution of the Soviet Union on 8 December 1991. But the poll of 1,500 respondents in 44 regions also reported that some 72 percent do not think that restoring the Soviet Union is possible or necessary. The number of those who regret the disintegration of the Soviet Union has grown by 10 percent since 1992, when the first poll on that issue was conducted, lenta.ru reported.
MORE BOOKS ABOUT PUTIN. The Russian market for political best- sellers is inundated with books about President Putin, which has led to the establishment of his own small cult of personality, polit.ru reported on 3 December. Political scientist Vadim Pechenev, in his newly released book "Putin: Last Chance for Russia?" compares the Russian president with the hero of the Aleksandr Pushkin poem "Yevgenii Onegin," while in his book "Russian Challenge," the French author Victor Lupan makes comparisons between Putin and Napoleon. Finally, the astrologist Aleksandr Astragor, in his book "The Mystic Side of Putin," offers his readers a formula of Putin's soul that, in his view, is governed by the planets Mars, Venus, and Pluto.
DRAFTER OF CORPORATE BEHAVIORAL CODE SUSPECTED IN CORRUPTION. The Corporate Behavioral Code that was prepared by Igor Kostikov, the head of the Federal Securities Commission, and presented by him to the West as an example of Russia's movement toward a civilized market economy, is in fact a document that leaves much room for abuse, "Novaya gazeta" reported on 3 December. According to experts from the Association for Protection of Minority Shareholders, Kostikov has added many loopholes into the document in order to suit his own business interests. The paper noted that, as Kostikov is both the head of the Russian securities market and his own investment company that controls up to 40 percent of the municipal bond market in Russia, it is not surprising that there are no provisions in the code to ban such conflicts of interest.
RUSSIA TO RECEIVE DOCUMENTS ON BONY AFFAIR. Russian law enforcement authorities have been informed by the U.S. Justice Department that it is ready to transfer documents to them concerning the Russian side of the Bank of New York (BONY) scandal, "Vremya novostei" reported on 11 December. The documents pertain to the investigation of illegal transactions in 1994 worth some $2 million between BONY and the Russian company Nizhnegorodets. The transactions were allegedly authorized by then-governor of Nizhnii Novgorod Boris Nemtsov, and Anatolii Chubais, who headed the State Property Committee at that time. Several days after the transactions were made, "Nizhnegorodets" declared bankruptcy. The documents reportedly name Nataliya Gurfinkel-Kagalovskaya, a central figure in the BONY affair, as the person who made the transaction.
NEWSPAPER SAYS LUKOIL TAKING CONTROL OF TV-6 ON KREMLIN'S ORDERS. LUKoil head Vakhit Alekperov is taking control of TV-6 not because of his business interests, but under the direct instruction of the Kremlin, which would like to put a leash on the independent station, "Moskovskie novosti" wrote on 4 December. The paper argued that, had Alekperov really needed a mass media outlet, he never would have sold the profitable REN-TV, as he did recently. Furthermore, Alekperov also has personal interests in the deal -- by abiding by the Kremlin's will now, he can expect many more favors from it in the future, the daily said.
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