June 1, 2001 

This Date's Issues:   5278 • 5279

Johnson's Russia List
#5278
1 June 2001
davidjohnson@erols.com

[Note from David Johnson:
DJ: The exact origin of JRL is already lost in the murky Yeltsin-past but 
I am going to designate this day as the official 5th birthday of JRL.
Are we all better informed? Are we all still interested?

1. Chicago Tribune: Colin McMahon, Idea to pay docs manure offers whiff of Russian reality.
2. AFP: Financier Soros warns of Russian health crisis.
3. Itar-Tass: Deputy premier denies Russian scientists have to report contacts with foreigners.
4. AP: Putin Vows Economic Reform of Russia.
5. gazeta.ru: Putin Promises to Please Oligarchs.
6. Interfax: Opinion poll on attitude of Russians to Commonwealth of Independent States.
7. RIA: WESTERN ERRONEOUS VISION OF OPPOSING TYCOONS BEREZOVSKY AND GUSINSKY TO PRESIDENT PUTIN.
8. RIA: THE SECOND EDITION OF THE SENSATIONAL BOOK ABOUT BORIS BEREZOVSKY IS BEING PREPARED IN THE USA. (re Paul Khlebnikov)
9. Moscow Times: Boris Kagarlitsky, Patriotism for New Russians.
10. The Economist (UK): Russia’s justice system. The path to reform—or another dead end? 
11. The Times (UK): Giles Whittell, Russians appeal to tourists with soup.
12. AFP: All the city's a stage for June arts marathon in Moscow.
13. AFP: Russian envoy criticises US "monopolisation" of Mideast peace efforts. (Primakov)
14. Moscow Times: Vladimir Kovalyev, Tickling the Presidential Funny Bone.
15. THE JAMESTOWN FOUNDATION PRISM: Elena Chinyaeva, POLITICAL CHANGES IN RUSSIA: DOES THE END JUSTIFY THE MEANS?]

*******

#1
Chicago Tribune
31 May 2001
Idea to pay docs manure offers whiff of Russian reality 
By Colin McMahon 
Tribune foreign correspondent 

VACHA, Russia -- Dr. Yuri Zotov likes his job as surgeon at Vacha's one and 
only hospital. The problem is the pay.

While the Russian government, under President Vladimir Putin, has improved at 
settling its debts, it still owes hundreds of millions of dollars in back 
wages. Workers in schools, hospitals, factories, coal mines and army barracks 
are accustomed to being paid late, being paid in part or being paid in goods 
instead of money.

But the latest barter offer dreamed up in Vacha caused a real storm.

Instead of rubles, Vacha's esteemed medical professionals were offered 3 tons 
of manure for services rendered.

Representatives of the city government said it was never an official offer, 
merely a suggestion.

But the idea insulted Zotov and his colleagues.

"It was announced at the doctors conference," said Natalya Koyokina, a 
paramedic who has worked at the hospital for 16 years. "`Please get paid with 
manure, if you want,' they said. The reaction was one of revolt mixed with 
laughter.

"What's going on? What are we working for, manure now?"

The thing is, in this agricultural region a few hours drive southwest of 
Nizhny Novgorod, manure is valuable. Even townspeople have garden plots where 
they grow potatoes, onions, carrots and other vegetables that will help them 
get through Russia's lean winters.

The fertilizer's value is why Vacha Mayor Alexander Abrosimov seemed so 
baffled when the medical professionals protested. Seeking some way to cover 
the December 2000 payroll, still unpaid as of May, Abrosimov came up with the 
manure idea.

"Everyone is looking for manure," Abrosimov told the Moscow Times. "Maybe the 
associations are not pleasant, but it's a needed commodity for every 
resident."

The hospital staffers, however, turned up their noses at the offer. A few 
workers rejected it out of principle. Others saw it as bad economics.

At 500 rubles, or about $18, a truckload of manure is not a bad payoff for 
folks who earn 200 to 1,300 rubles a month. But it would cost almost 500 
rubles to ship the stuff.

That some folks in Vacha even considered the manure deal--that they actually 
crunched the numbers on the tonnage and transport--shows how warped the 
economic system can get in Russia.

During the past several years, workers at Vacha's hospital and schools have 
been paid in bread, sausages, livestock feed, tools, cutlery, furniture, 
washing machines and bicycles, among other things.

Compared with other places, the merchandise is not too bad.

All over Russia, workers are being paid in goods rather than cash. On their 
days off, people can be seen along roadsides, hawking beach towels, vodka and 
other goods to get money to feed their families.

In some cases, the employers are caught up in a cycle of barter.

In other cases, it is the government that is cash poor but rich in IOUs. Say, 
for example, a company owes the city 1 million rubles in taxes. It cannot 
pay, but it can offer the city 1 million rubles in merchandise the city can 
use to pay its workers.

"Our wallets are full of pay stubs," said Koyokina, who works the ambulance 
runs during the day and then turns the shift over to her sister for night 
duty. "One month's salary is paid in eight or nine installments. It was the 
worst in 1997, when they delayed payments for half a year."

Wage arrears were gravest before Russia's financial crisis of 1998, when 
Russia was supposedly on the way to building a real economy. Former President 
Boris Yeltsin often talked about paying salaries, but his government 
consistently failed to follow through even as it got itself deeper and deeper 
into debt.

That changed after the ruble crashed in August 1998, when Yeltsin's so-called 
free market reformers were pushed out of power. Putin has since outlawed 
barter by government agencies. He has tightened the way money is transferred 
from federal and regional budgets. He also has tried to make local officials 
more accountable for the money that passes through their hands.

So far, Putin's team has cut federal wage arrears to 32.8 billion rubles, 
about 40 percent of what they were in 1998. Still, that debt remains huge: 
$1.14 billion that Russia owes its state employees.

Even in Vacha, though, things are starting to smell rosier.

A few days after Zotov's complaints were picked up by the national news 
media, Vacha officials scrambled to explain away the whole affair. They 
pointed out that no one was pressured to take the manure. They said the whole 
thing had been blown out of proportion.

After his chat with the Moscow Times, the mayor could not be reached for 
comment.

"Tell them I'm not here. Tell them I'm not here," the mayor could be heard 
bellowing in the background when called for an interview.

And at the chief doctor's office at the Vacha hospital, stacks and stacks of 
100-ruble notes suddenly materialized.

Hospital staff members were going to receive May's salary in full. They also 
would get their back wages from December 2000. By month's end, Vacha would be 
up to date.

"We would rather get our money and then there would be no problems," said 
Natasha, an X-ray laboratory assistant who was dragging along her 
bicycle--received as salary--and getting ready to head home. "We could buy 
the manure ourselves then."

*******

#2
Financier Soros warns of Russian health crisis

MOSCOW, May 31 (AFP) - 
US financier and philanthropist George Soros warned of a looming AIDS-related 
health crisis in Russia Thursday as he kicked off a five-day visit with talks 
with deputy prime minister Valentina Matviyenko. 

Noting the alarming advances made by AIDS and a tuberculosis epidemic in 
recent years, Soros warned of the "danger of AIDS and tuberculosis feeding 
off each other and creating a really serious health crisis".

"It is very important to make people aware of the danger in order to prevent 
this threat," he said, warning that the rate of growth of infection by HIV, 
the virus that leads to AIDS, in Russia was the fastest in the region.

Soros has invested several million dollars in combating the spread of 
tuberculosis in Russia, particularly in its prisons, and he said he held "a 
long discussion" on the subject with Matvieyenko since the programme was "now 
coming to an end."

Health, media and education were among the subjects discussed during a 
lengthy meeting with Matviyenko, Soros told a press conference.

He expressed "shock" at a report that Russian scientists had been ordered to 
report to higher authorities on all contacts with foreign organisations, 
saying he had raised the issue with Matviyenko, who had shared his surprise 
and dismay.

On Wednesday, human rights campaigner Sergei Kovalyov leaked documents from 
the Russian Academy of Sciences that directed institutes under its tutelage 
to adopt measures that would "avoid harm to the Russian state" -- notably 
through contacts with foreign scientists or funding organisations. 

Soros is due to meet numerous Russian cabinet members, heads of regional 
administrations, city mayors and other public figures during his visit to 
Russia, where he arrived late Wednesday.

Officials of his Open Society Institute say his visit was intended to focus 
on his philanthropic activities -- according to his OSI website, he has 
invested more than 750 million dollars in charitable activities in Russia 
over the past 13 years. 

Some of Soros's initiatives concern press freedom, and the financier was 
linked earlier this year with a consortium led by Ted Turner, the founder of 
CNN television, intending to bid for a stake in the beleaguered independent 
television station NTV.

The state-dominated gas giant Gazprom seized control of the station in early 
April. 

Soros's schedule of activities began with a discussion of his organisation's 
support for Russia's mass media. 

On Friday he was due to travel to the city of Yaroslavl, north of Moscow, to 
discuss the development of the Internet in Russia, remaining there Saturday 
to take part in regional discussions on education.

He will then travel to Krasnoarmeisk, in the Moscow region, on Sunday to meet 
with the administrative chiefs of 35 towns and discuss the development of 
Russia's smaller conurbations. 

On Monday he is due back in Moscow to launch another book, this time by his 
father Tivadar Soros, whose "Masquerade: Dancing with death in Nazi Hungary", 
deals with a Holocaust theme.

*******

#3
Deputy premier denies Russian scientists have to report contacts with foreigners 
ITAR-TASS 

Moscow, 31 May: Russian Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matviyenko has 
emphatically refuted the words of Sergey Kovalev, a well-known human rights 
champion, who said that all Russian scientists are to report their contacts 
with foreign scientists to senior officials of the Russian Academy of 
Sciences. She said so at a meeting with George Soros, president of the 
international foundation for the assistance to Russia. "I have respect for 
Sergey Kovalev, but, unfortunately, he sometimes uses information which is 
not quite reliable. In this case, too, his statement is groundless," 
Matvienko said. 

Speaking about cooperation between Russia and the Soros Foundation, she said 
that "we appreciate both material support and the fact that your actions 
induced the Russian authorities to view the problems of science, education 
and culture from a different angle." According to Matviyenko, the work of the 
Soros Foundation in Russia made it possible to attract additional financial 
resources to projects started by it. In addition to that, she continued, 
Russian companies "began to feel uncomfortable over the fact that it is 
foreign benefactors who are helping Russia. As a result of it, some major 
Russian companies also began to render assistance to education, science and 
culture. "Your work sets a good example for Russian business," Matviyenko 
said. 

*******

#4
Putin Vows Economic Reform of Russia
31 May 2001

MOSCOW (AP) - President Vladimir Putin promised Thursday that his government 
would ease currency controls and begin moves toward economic liberalization. 

The announcement came at the same time new government statistics recorded an 
increase in foreign investment in Russia's economy 

``Without solving this problem, we won't be able to solve other issues 
concerning the liberalization of economy,'' Putin said at a meeting with 
Russian businessmen in the Kremlin. 

Putin said his views on the currency controls ``almost coincide'' with those 
of the business community, and pledged that the restrictions will be 
gradually eased. 

Throughout the last decade, the government has introduced numerous limits on 
hard-currency trading and bank transfers abroad in a bid to stabilize the 
national currency and prevent capital flight. 

Those controls have hampered investments while failing to prevent Russian 
businesses from moving billions of dollars abroad. 

``In order to stem capital flight, we must allow capital export,'' said 
Vladimir Potanin, the head of the Interros group, who took part in the 
meeting. 

The meeting also focused on easing the tax burden and Russia's bid for 
joining the World Trade Organization. 

Meanwhile, foreign investment in Russia rose by 11 percent in the first 
quarter of 2001 to $2.7 billion from $2.4 billion the same time a year ago, 
the State Statistics Committee said Thursday. 

The increase brought the total stock of foreign investment in Russia to $31.9 
billion at the end of the first quarter. 

*******

#5
gazeta.ru
31 May 2001
Putin Promises to Please Oligarchs
By Andrei Litvinov, Lisa Vronskaya 

On Thursday Vladimir Putin met with 23 leading Russian businessmen - members 
of Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, in the Kremlin. 

Opening the meeting he invited his guests to discuss tax issues, 
liberalization of currency legislation and the prospects of Russia joining 
the World Trade Organization. 

These matters "go beyond the boundaries of the interests of big business 
alone and concern small and medium-size businesses too," he said. The 
formation of a sound business environment depends on the resolution of these 
tasks, Putin said. 

Vladimir Putin attempted to encourage the businessmen by again promising them 
liberalization of currency legislation and some changes in tax regulations. 

For their part, the entrepreneurs presented him with a plan that, if 
implemented, they claim would add $15 billion to budget revenues. 

The list of participants at Thursday's Kremlin "business" meeting did not 
differ much from that of 
the previous meeting between the president and the Russian Union of 
Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in January. 

Noteworthy was the presence of two board members from Gazprom: the ousted CEO 
Rem Vyakhirev and his fresh replacement Alexei Miller. 

Putin's protege Alexei Miller, who was elected Gazprom's CEO on Wednesday, 
was formerly introduced to the circle of influential businessmen. 

As for Vyakhirev, the president said a few words of appreciation for his 
year's of service and announced that a decree had already been signed to 
award Vyakhirev an order "For Services to Fatherland". 

The Businessmen expressed most concern over financial issues, in particular, 
taxation and currency regulation. 

Just as he did at their previous meeting back in January, the president 
promised his interlocutors that the state would fulfill the wishes of 
business. He informed them that by the end of June the government and the 
Central Bank will have prepared proposals aimed at the liberalization of 
currency legislation. 

The entrepreneurs want to see the obstacles in the way of financial flows 
reduced. The chief of Interros holding, Vladimir Potanin assumes the best way 
to limit the capital flight out of Russia is to allow exporting money 
legally. 

"A citizen must have the right to open an account wherever it is agreeable 
for him, and a company – the right to invest wherever it finds it more 
convenient," he said after the meeting. 

Speaking of currency regulation, Vladimir Putin reiterated the principle he 
has repeated many times: "First do no harm", which most likely means that 
for that time being no quick and radical steps will be taken. 

Speaking about the possibility of introducing a severance tax for oil & gas 
producers, Vladimir Putin backed the Finance Ministry's position on the 
matter. The Finance Ministry has been pushing for introduction of such a tax 
and insists that most of the collected tax should go to the federal budget. 
Regional authorities and companies oppose the initiative. 

Putin promised that the interests of the regions would surely be taken into 
consideration, which means that, most likely, the issue will be dropped until 
a later date. 

According to Yukos' chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky, "a stable and comprehensible 
level of taxation" was promised to the businesses. 

Incidentally, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was the responsible for the main 
revelation of the meeting. He handed the president the package of proposals 
aimed at boosting the efficiency of the oil sector. He claims that if 
implemented, those proposals could bring $15 billon of additional revenues to 
the budget. 

In closing, the president emphasized it was necessary to hold such meetings 
more often, the Union's chairman Arkady Volsky told the press after the 
meeting. 

The president said almost exactly the same upon closing the previous meeting 
in January. Then he also said it would be good to meet at least once a 
quarter. 

*******

#6
Opinion poll on attitude of Russians to Commonwealth of Independent States 
Interfax 

Moscow, 31 May: Russian nationals feel quite positive about the CIS. The 
overwhelming majority (79 per cent) support the development of the CIS, while 
only 10 per cent do not. 

The Public Opinion Fund released this information on Thursday [31 May] with 
reference to a poll of 1,500 respondents in Russian towns and villages done 
on 26 May, several days before the CIS summit in Minsk. 

The respondents said that Russia should first of all develop cooperation with 
Belarus (53 per cent), Ukraine (49 per cent), Kazakhstan (24 per cent), 
Moldova (17 per cent), Georgia (9 per cent), Armenia (7 per cent) and 
Azerbaijan (5 per cent). 

However, a plurality of respondents (44 per cent as against 56 per cent in 
March 1999) said that Russia had not benefited from its involvement in the 
CIS, while 27 per cent think the opposite (as compared to 20 per cent two 
years ago). 

In other words, Russians support the existence and development of the CIS 
despite the fact that they think the losses have exceeded the benefits. 

The majority of Russians (56 per cent) think that CIS countries will unite 
into one state sooner or later. Supporters of Communist Party leader Gennadiy 
Zyuganov (67 per cent) and rural residents (62 per cent) make this prediction 
more often than other groups of people. Twenty-nine per cent of those polled 
said that the CIS countries would grow more independent of one another and 
that they would never unite into one state again. Respondents younger than 35 
(35 per cent) and college-educated people (36 per cent) support this idea 
most. 

Nonetheless, the idea of a new state forming on the post-Soviet space in the 
future is predominant in all social and demographic groups. 

*******

#7
WESTERN ERRONEOUS VISION OF OPPOSING TYCOONS
BEREZOVSKY AND GUSINSKY TO PRESIDENT PUTIN

MOSCOW, MAY 31, RIA NOVOSTI - The well-known American journalist and 
historian Paul Khlebnikov, the author of the book "Kremlin Godfather Boris 
Berezovsky, or History of Russia's Plunder," has told reporters in Moscow 
that the West is wrong in treating the tycoons Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir 
Gusinsky as a counterbalance to President Vladimir Putin. 

He believes that the West does need Berezovsky as the new US Administration 
has not yet shaped its policies. Some people are afraid that Putin may 
emulate the old-style Soviet leader model, added the author. Still, the West 
is not right in opposing Berezovsky and Gusinsky to Putin, he maintains. 

Paul thinks that Russia should investigate into the catastrophy of the '90s 
while the prosecutor-general's office should indict those who are to blame 
for it. 

Concrete charges should be put up and a trial should take place even if the 
charges fail to be proved and the culprits are acquitted. This is the way to 
act in order to adequately punish those responsible for the current situation 
in Russia, argues the author of the book. 

Paul Khlebnikov's bestseller about Boris Berezovsky will be published in the 
Russian language in Russia and see its second edition in the USA this next 
August. 

*******

#8
THE SECOND EDITION OF THE SENSATIONAL BOOK ABOUT
BORIS BEREZOVSKY IS BEING PREPARED IN THE USA

WASHINGTON DC, MAY 31, RIA NOVOSTI. The sensational book by US journalist and 
historian Paul Khlebnikov about Boris Berezovsky, which is coming out in 
Russia in the Russian language, will see its second edition in August in the 
USA. The new edition will contain new materials about the Russian 
businessman, whom Khlebnikov called in his book "the godfather of gangster 
capitalism" in Russia. 

This was announced by the New York division of US Publishing House Harcourt, 
which published the first edition of the book last year under the title The 
Godfather of the Kremlin: Boris Berezovsky and the Plunder of Russia. 

The new edition of the book will be entitled The Godfather of the Kremlin: 
Russia's Decline in the Era of Gangster Capitalism. 

Khlebnikov's book produced an effect of "an explosion" in the USA. Peter 
Raddeway, professor of Political Science from George Washington University, 
who until recently headed the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, 
considers that this is a work of extraordinary courage and analytical force, 
where the author studies the personal qualities and activity of one of the 
most complex geniuses of evil in Russian and even world history. 

Explaining the reasons for publishing the book in the USA and preparing its 
second edition there, Harcourt Publishing House stresses that Boris 
Berezovsky's personality is unique in many respects. Just call any crisis or 
scandal and there will be a chance of Berezovsky being in the very midst of 
it, whether elections machinations, organized crime, misappropriation of IMF 
loans, money-laundering, assassination attempts, international contraband of 
arms and kidnapping during the war in Chechnya, notes the publishers' 
prospectus of the book. The book is based on "hundreds of tape-recorded 
interviews with prominent businessmen and civil servants, secret police 
reports, contract documents and outward surveillance films, says the 
prospectus. 

Paul Khlebnikov is an executive editor of the influential US business 
magazine Forbes. He is fluent in Russian, defended a thesis on Russian 
history at the London School of Economics and has been working with the 
Forbes magazine for more than ten years. 

Calling Khlebnikov's book on Berezovsky "angry", New York Times analyst 
Richard Bernstein, who wrote one of the first reviews on the book last 
autumn, stresses that the author cites examples of how in the conditions of 
Russian gangster style capitalism Berezovsky managed to take control over 
major Russian enterprises. This was accompanied by murders, most of them have 
not been exposed, writes Bernstein. 

Khlebnikov "reveals the important elements of closely-intertwined banking 
structures, industrial enterprises and Swiss holding companies, created by 
Berezovsky and others to snatch large shares of Russian wealth. He examines 
the critically important role of what he calls the Chechen mafia in ensuring 
the force used by criminal capitalism and shows the close contacts between 
Berezovsky and the leaders of the Chechen rebellion against Russian rule, 
notes the New York Times analyst. Khlebnikov managed to draw, in the person 
of Berezovsky, a concise and yet clear portrait of those of "the new Russian 
elite" who leaving Russia for their homes in Southern France, forget about 
the tens of millions of Russians remaining home - a beggarly crowd of the 
complaining, drinking and dying, writes the New York Times analyst. 

*******

#9
Moscow Times
1 June 2001
Patriotism for New Russians
By Boris Kagarlitsky 

In an orderly state, everything must be in its proper place. There should
be a party of power, youth organizations, a parliament, courts — all the
attributes of a democracy. If Unity is pretending to the role of the party
of power, then Moving Together has proclaimed itself the "second team" of
power, a sort of new Komsomol without the communist ideology.

After the organization's first few public activities, the liberal press
showered it with scorn. And, in fact, any group whose main purpose seems to
be to organize demonstrations of people carrying portraits of the president
and incomprehensible slogans like "Everything is going the right way!"
(vsye putyom) is certainly begging to be called the "Putin Youth."

Some newspapers, though, focused their attention on the completely
apolitical mood among the group's activists, their indifference to genuine
social issues and the thoroughly commercialized nature of the movement.
These papers, I think, were pretty close to the truth.

Moving Together's demonstrations so far have been both highly organized and
expensive. More, the press has reported that people who sign up with the
movement are given benefits such as free English-language courses and free
admission to local swimming pools and sports clubs. 

Nonetheless, it is unfortunate that no journalists seem to have taken a
look at the organization's documents. Not that doing so gives one any
better understanding of what the group stands for, but because it gives you
a sense of the tastes and concerns of those who stand behind Moving
Together. And that is important, since these people represent the
authorities — or at least one strong group within the ruling elite.

After a lot of general appeals to members to obey the Ten Commandments and
to renounce drunkenness and drugs, there are a number of general,
ideological declarations that merit attention. Moving Together condemns
communism and fascism, although it declares patriotism to be its highest
ideal. The reference to fascism here is clearly formal, intended simply to
put communism on the same level with a universally acknowledged evil. In a
single phrase, the entire Soviet experience is cast off as totalitarian and
anti-human. It is somewhat amusing to hear such things coming from people
whose daily existence consists of scrupulously copying Soviet
organizational methods.

In the early 1990s, the reformers/Westernizers viewed themselves as
opponents of tradition and the enemies of patriotism. They sought to break
with the past and completely rebuild all social structures. Inevitably, the
rhetoric of patriotism passed into the arsenal of the Communists. 

Now the situation has changed fundamentally. The new system has existed
long enough that it demands its own traditions, its own protective
ideology, in order to proclaim the existing order of things "natural" and
"inviolable." And so the authorities have run up against the problem that
traditional and patriotic slogans have already been absorbed by the
Communists. 

Moving Together is designed to separate patriotism from communism in the
minds of the young and to set them in opposition to one another. Instead of
Soviet patriotism, we will have New Russian patriotism, spouting private
property, the free market and liberal economics. Although the movement
seems to be having trouble choosing its heroes since all Russians over the
last century were careless enough to live under communism (some of them
even supported the Revolution!). So, they've settled on President Vladimir
Putin. It's not that they want a cult of personality — it's just that you
can't go wrong with Putin. 

Boris Kagarlitsky is a sociologist in Moscow.

******* 

#10
The Economist (UK)
June 2-9, 2001
Russia’s justice system 
The path to reform—or another dead end? 
Soviet-style “justice” has gone, but Russia’s courtrooms remain a shambles.
Vladimir Putin wants to clean them up. A real advance—if it happens

ASK any Russian judge and he will tell you that with a leaky courtroom, an
average of three criminal cases a day and a salary of around $100 a month,
measuring justice is a luxury he has no time to indulge in. There are
quotas to be reached. There are powerful prosecutors who telephone to say
they would not appreciate losing a case. There is also the local governor
who pays the court’s electricity bills, so the judge would be wise to take
that into account as well when handing out a sentence. Not to mention the
sloppy investigators whose incompetence has to be covered up during the trial.

Luckily, if the judge bends a few rules along the way, the only ones to
judge him are his fellow judges, so everything gets neatly hushed-up. The
defence lawyers are powerless, and the accused...well, they hardly count,
do they?

The days of show-trials, pre-scripted confessions like that of the engineer
pictured above admitting to “treason” in 1930, and justice handed out in
the courtyards of KGB prisons may be over, but Russia’s legal system still
has far to go. This, it seems, has caught the eye of President Vladimir
Putin, who last week sent the Duma bills embodying his most ambitious
project yet—a sweeping reform of the system.

The list of what is needed stretches endlessly. Russian courts are staffed
by under-qualified judges who see themselves as governmental bureaucrats
rather than an independent branch of the state. Prosecutors are lazy,
brutal and accountable to no one—except perhaps politicians and officials.
Poverty is pervasive, incompetence the norm, corruption rampant. And
acquittal rates in a good year reach 1%.

Mr Putin wants to raise the judges’ tiny salaries and pour money into the
courts, most of which now smell and feel like public lavatories. This, he
hopes, would end corruption and limit the influence of regional bosses. At
the same time, the notoriously corporatist behaviour of the judiciary would
be broken up by introducing outsiders—legal experts and law professors—into
the bodies that rule on the appointment of judges or their dismissal.

Mr Putin also says he wants jury trials to be introduced throughout the
country by the end of next year. Arrest and search warrants, he thinks,
should be handed out by the courts, not the prosecutors. Defence lawyers
would get more rights. At present, they are largely helpless observers of
the bargaining between judge and prosecutor on the length of their client’s
sentence. To insist that he is innocent is a breach of courtroom ethics so
serious that it can result in the accused getting a longer sentence just as
a lesson in humility for his lawyer. The court can also refuse to question
defence witnesses, or examine defence evidence. The new bills would at
least force a judge to explain in writing any such refusal.

Prosecutors would have no right to start a criminal investigation against a
lawyer. And their role in civil and commercial disputes would be
drastically curbed—so much, say cynics, that without their wise guidance,
judges might not know any more in whose favour to rule.

If they are passed, the bills could “help Russia show some symptoms of
being a civilised country”, according to Dmitry Kozak, a presidential aide
widely seen as the man behind the reform. Many still wonder. Mr Putin did
make the “dictatorship of the law” his catch-phrase, but people around him
still have the disturbing tendency to apply the law selectively, and mostly
against the president’s political enemies. Cynics say it would be unwise of
the president, by putting this right, to saw off the branch he is sitting on.

He may not have to. The bills now before the Duma hardly affect
prosecutors’ huge powers in criminal cases, which have long been mighty
weapons in Russian rulers’ battles against political opponents. Nowadays
they do not get sent to gulags for anti-Soviet behaviour, but a charge of
embezzlement can do the job.

What the reform could do is to change the lives of millions of ordinary
Russians entangled in civil suits, which can run on for years as judges
juggle 10-15 cases each day, or others accused of crimes such as robbery or
violence; most of these are still committed in drunken squabbles or marital
disputes. That on its own would be a real—and difficult—achievement.
Similar ambitious plans once harboured by ex-President Boris Yeltsin were
blocked by the stubborn obstruction of those who stood to lose, from
incompetent judges to prosecutors afraid of having to work for their
salaries. In the long term, the reforms might lay the ground on which,
independently of anybody’s plans, a new generation of responsible judges,
lawyers and prosecutors could spring up. Who knows, justice may yet reach
the courtroom. 

*******

#11
The Times (UK)
JUNE 01 2001 
Russians appeal to tourists with soup 
FROM GILES WHITTELL IN MOSCOW 

TAKE one poached Volga sturgeon. Add generous quantities of diced onion,
carrot and potato, a little celery and one bay leaf. Simmer in broth from
Moscow to St Petersburg. 

This recipe for Cossack sturgeon soup has won the first “best Russian
national railway food” award in a contest by the Russian railways ministry
to persuade the world there is more to Trans-Siberian cuisine than borscht
and tears. 

The prize was a saucepan set presented to the head chef of the Moscow-St
Petersburg Nikolayevsky Express. The venue Moscow’s Paveletsky station and
the message that even in one of Russia’s most stagnant monopolies — its
railways — there is new eagerness to please the customer. 

The contest, involving 14 dining cars from 12 railway lines that connect
the capital to Russia’s farthest reaches, came after a surprise
announcement by the Foreign Ministry that the painful visa application
process for foreign visitors to Moscow and St Petersburg is to be eased for
short trips. 

Taken together these developments should make possible a spur-of-the-moment
long Russian weekend and no need to bring a picnic. 

*******

#12
All the city's a stage for June arts marathon in Moscow 
By Bernard Besserglik 

MOSCOW, May 31 (AFP) - A theatre Olympiad including dance, opera and carnival 
parades, an international film festival, an Andy Warhol week: there may never 
be a better time for culture-vultures to descend on Moscow.

The city's performing arts scene is lively enough even on a routine basis, 
but the Third Theatre Olympiad -- currently in progress and running until 
June 28 -- has presented a wealth of world-class stage productions before 
avid audiences.

The term theatre is being interpreted broadly and the events involving 
performers from more than 50 countries range from clowning and street theatre 
to religious chants and recitations, with many bridging several disciplines. 

Forthcoming highlights include "Triptyk" by the famed French equestrian 
theatre Zingaro, based on music by Stravinsky and Boulez (June 3 to 21), but 
for some the festival's outstanding event was "The Polyphony of the World", a 
grandiose spectacle by composer Alexander Bakshi directed by Kama Ginkas, 
presented two weeks ago.

For the Moscow-based theatre critic John Freedman, the show was nothing less 
than "a watershed, designating the entry of music and theatre into the new 
century."

The show's world premiere, involving nearly 100 musicians, actors, shamans 
and folklorists, was "an extraordinary combination of two brilliant artists, 
each of whom are at the peak of their prodigious creative powers," Freedman 
said. 

Ginkas is one of a number of world-ranking Russian directors including Yury 
Lyubimov and Pyotr Fomenko whose work has made Moscow a leading centre of 
theatre excellence. 

The city's more than 200 playhouses have just been augmented by Anatoly 
Vasilyev's School of Dramatic Art on Sretenka Ulitsa, a sumptuous design 
blending contemporary architecture, medieval theatre and cathedral styles.

And while by contrast Russian cinema is in the doldrums, the Moscow Film 
Festival this year attempts to gain ground on its better- known Cannes, 
Venice and Berlin counterparts by going annual, having previously alternated 
with Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic. 

Traditionally showcasing eastern European cinema, festival organisers are 
expanding their scope, hoping to attract the recent Golden Palm winner Nanni 
Moretti's "The Son's Room" and other Cannes successes to join a programme of 
more than 100 films, including 18 in competition, commencing June 21. 

Moscow can by no stretch of the imagination be called a filmgoers' paradise, 
but there have been signs of a modest revival with European-style 
movie-houses springing up to form the basis of a post-Soviet distribution 
system. 

Institutional conservatism remains the distinguishing feature of Moscow's 
visual arts scene, but the avant-garde has evolved rapidly over the past 
decade, according to critic Katya Dyogot, and several noted foreign artists 
have chosen to base themselves in the city. 

And this week sees the normally staid Pushkin Museum open its doors to that 
icon of the swinging 1960s Andy Warhol, with a month- long exhibition of 
works by the leader of the Pop Art movement. 

The event kicked off Monday with a highly-publicised "Warhol week" featuring 
experimental movies by and about Warhol, an exhibition of works by Russian 
painters influenced by Warhol, and several concerts and parties devoted to 
the Czech-born artist.

But more than the visual arts or even theatre, it is music that lies at the 
heart of Moscow's appeal as a cultural centre. 

Recent weeks have seen the Russian premieres of works by the Polish composer 
and conductor Krzysztof Penderecki, along with the annual Alternative 
International Festival of New Music as well as operas and musical productions 
forming part of the Theatre Olympiad. 

And irrespective of whatever festival is currently being programmed, week in 
and week out, Moscow's music-lovers are spoiled for choice among the concerts 
and recitals at the city Conservatory and other performance centres, usually 
at prices that ordinary working people can readily afford.

Urging wider recognition of Moscow's status as a "cultural hothouse," the 
independent English-language daily Moscow Times noted recently how easy it 
was "simply (to) take a ride downtown and listen to the exquisite sounds of 
Vladimir Spivakov on the violin or Yury Bashmet on the viola." 

Pointing out the "day-to-day fare from world-class local artists" on the 
cultural scene, it observed that Moscow "is alive with its geniuses, those 
who work here and those who visit" and called for "three cheers for the city 
that has its arts in the right place." 

********

#13
Russian envoy criticises US "monopolisation" of Mideast peace efforts

CAIRO, May 31 (AFP) - 
Russian presidential envoy Yevgeny Primakov Thursday criticised US 
"monopolisation" of efforts to settle the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian 
conflict, saying it had created a stalemate situation.

"There is a need of enlargement (of contributions to peace efforts) ... 
because the monopolisation by one state has brought the situation to the 
corner and we should take it from this corner," Primakov told reporters in 
Cairo after a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

"If we are speaking about the enlargement, we (Russia) are ready to 
participate actively, actively, very active," added the former Russian prime 
minister and foreign minister, speaking in English.

Despite being a co-sponsor of the Israeli-Arab peace process, Moscow wields 
far less influence than Washington in the region.

"Now our plan is to support the Egyptian-Jordanian steps or intentions, and 
the document by Mr Mitchell as well," said Primakov, referring to the 
Mitchell report on eight months of Israeli-Palestinian violence and another 
initiatives by Israel's two neighbours with whom it has signed peace treaties.

"We don't need something else for the time being," he added.

"We should support these two documents which will help us to take the 
situation from this corner and to open the door for restoring the 
negotiations," said Primakov, a Middle East expert.

The two initiatives call for an immediate end to violence and a series of 
confidence building measures, such as a freeze on Israeli settlement building 
on occupied Palestinian land to open the way for peace negotiations to resume.

Asked if Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to visit the Middle East, 
Primakov answered: "It depends, of course, it depends. Now, if he visits one 
country it will create many problems," without elaborating.

Israel's ambassador to Moscow, Nathan Meron, said at the end of January that 
Putin would visit Israel during the second half of this year.

Primakov was also scheduled to hold talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister 
Ahmed Maher and Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa.

Primakov was in Egypt as part of a regional tour looking at the situation in 
the region which has already taken him to Jordan and Syria. He is also 
expected to travel to Libya and Tunisia.

******* 

#14
Moscow Times
1 June 2001
Tickling the Presidential Funny Bone
By Vladimir Kovalyev 
Staff Writer 

ST. PETERSBURG — "President Vladimir Putin has released a new program for
reform. It's first goal: 'To make people rich and happy. (List of people
attached.)'"

Don't panic. This objective will not cause heated debate in the State Duma
— because it is just one of more than a hundred Putin jokes featured in a
small book published in St. Petersburg earlier this month. 

The book's compiler, Dmitry Perevyazkin — who is a member of one of the
city's municipal councils — collected the jokes mostly among friends and
colleagues after finding that the existing humor on Putin lacked variety. 

"I tried to look on the web, but the same jokes keep surfacing on all the
sites," Perevyazkin said at a news conference Thursday. "I presented a
broader assortment of jokes in this book, including critical ones."

And there are certainly plenty of the latter: 

"Putin calls in the finance minister and says: 'Listen, what's going on
with the economy?' 

"'Er, I can explain …'

"'No, no, you don't need to explain. I can do that myself. Just tell me,
what's going on?'" 

Some of the jokes may offend readers' sensibilities. For example, on the
sinking of the Kursk submarine: "A navy officer: 'Mr. President, I have
good news and bad news.' Putin: 'What's the good news?' 'Those Granit
anti-submarine missiles we have really work.'"

But Perevyazkin did not seem worried about possible repercussions of his
joke book.

"I didn't have any problems printing the book. I just did some market
research and chose the publishing house that offered the best terms,"
Perevyazkin, a member of Yabloko, said in a phone interview Wednesday.

A small print run of 5,000 copies, published by St. Petersburg-based Dizain
press, will be sold for an unspecified price in suburban commuter trains,
according to Perevyazkin, who has already collected 80 more jokes for a
second edition to come out this fall.

The book is divided into sections, including Putin and freedom of speech,
Putin and elections, his way of thinking, catastrophes, the outhouse,
children and economics.

Many of the jokes play on claims by Putin's critics that the president has
a strong autocratic streak, akin to that of Soviet-era leaders — some of
whom figure in Perevyazkin's collection.

"Stalin appears to Putin in a dream, and asks: 'Can I do anything to help
you?' 

"Putin says: 'Why is everything here so bad — the economy is falling to
pieces, and so on. What am I to do?' 

"Stalin, without pausing for thought, answers: 'Execute the entire
government, and paint the walls of the Kremlin blue.' 

"'Why blue?' Putin asks. 

"Stalin replies: 'I had a feeling you would only want to discuss the second
part.'"

According to local media reports, presidential press officer Alexei Gromov
declined to comment on the jokes, saying he "had not seen the book yet."
But he did say Putin had heard other jokes about himself and his reaction,
according to Gromov, was a healthy laugh.

In Soviet times, humor lampooning political figures or the quality of life
was perhaps the most widespread form of dissidence, and it was not unheard
of for people to be arrested for spreading jokes construed as anti-Soviet.
A whiff of that era is discernible in "Jokes About Putin." 

"Our life five years from now:

"Don't think.

"If you think something, don't say it.

"If you think it and say it, don't write it.

"If you think it, say it and write it, don't sign it.

"If you think it, say it, write it and sign it, don't be surprised."

******** 

#15
THE JAMESTOWN FOUNDATION PRISM
A MONTHLY ON THE POST-SOVIET STATES
MAY 2001 Volume VII, Issue 5 Part 3

POLITICAL CHANGES IN RUSSIA: DOES THE END JUSTIFY THE MEANS?
By Elena Chinyaeva
Elena Chinyaeva, who holds a doctorate in modern history from Oxford 
University, is a writer with the leading Russian political weekly 
Kommersant-Vlast.

On April 27, Russia celebrated the 95th anniversary of its parliament. 
There was also something to celebrate, given that a fairly coherent 
political system is emerging out of the country's amorphous politics. 
Still, the fact that the new centrist coalition in the State Duma is 
avowedly pro-presidential puts the political process at risk: It means the 
executive can get any piece of legislation, however controversial, through 
the legislature. It also means increased responsibility for the executive 
branch, because the failure of reforms can no longer be blamed on a 
Communist-dominated Duma. Given that he can only rely on a team of close 
supporters in the bureaucracy, President Vladimir Putin must be quick and 
decisive in order to avoid a political downfall. With a bit of luck he 
might surmount economic difficulties. Politically, however, Russia remains 
an artificial democracy.

A ROUGH PATH TOWARDS A COHERENT POLITICAL SYSTEM

On April 12, two centrist factions in the Duma--the Unity bloc and the 
Fatherland bloc--announced their merger. A few days later, all four 
centrist Duma factions--Unity, Fatherland, Russian Regions and People's 
Deputy- established a coalition. Similar associations already exist on the 
left--the People's Patriotic Union, which includes the Communists and the 
Agrarians--and on the right, between the Union of Right-Wing Forces (SPS) 
and Yabloko. For Russia, the emergence of political system with three 
"flanks" is an achievement not to be taken for granted.

Unlike in developed democracies, class or corporate interests have never 
shaped political parties in Russia. Rather, they have been brought to life 
by groups of intelligentsia. The social revolutionaries, who viewed 
themselves a peasants' party, and the social democrats, who claimed to 
represent Russian workers, were established by--and consisted of--the same 
breed of educated people prone to heroic exaltation, fanaticism and social 
utopianism. The new parties established in the wake of the Tsar's October 
17, 1905 manifesto, which granted suffrage for selected strata of the 
population, had similar birthmarks: an inclination to radicalism, the 
elitism of their leaders and little mass support in a society largely 
ignorant of political work. Twelve years later the Communists installed 
one-party rule. Russia inherited from the Soviet period a fairly 
homogeneous society with a thin layer of socially active intelligentsia, 
which once again assumed the role of heralding society's different 
interests. With astonishing zeal, equaled only by their lack of appropriate 
skills, representatives of this Soviet educated class went about creating 
various parties--democratic, nationalist, liberal, military, patriotic, 
agrarian--that often consisted of few members. In December 1993, thirty-two 
election blocs competed for the seats in the Duma. The factionalism was 
immense, particularly among democrats, and Vladimir Zhirinovsky's Liberal 
Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), emerged victorious. The democratic bloc, 
Russia's Choice, led by the government's original reformist head, Yegor 
Gaidar, came second, with the Communists finishing third.

On the eve of the 1995 parliamentary elections, the rule giving 
representation only to those parties who received at least 5 percent of the 
vote or more was introduced. Nonetheless, forty-three parties and election 
blocs participated in the December 1995 elections. It was during this 
contest that the first was made to tame Russia's political chaos by 
creating a two-party system. In April 1995, the first 'party of power' was 
established--Our Home Is Russia (NDR), headed by Viktor Chernomyrdin, the 
former chief of the Russian gas monopoly and the then prime minister. NDR 
was meant to counterbalance a left-leaning "constructive opposition" that 
was supposed to gather together in a left-of-center bloc headed by Ivan 
Rybkin, who was then Duma speaker. However the Rybkin bloc failed, while 
NDR came in behind the LDPR and the Communists, finishing with only 10.1 
percent of the vote. Among the democrats, only Grigory Yavlinsky's Yabloko 
got into the Duma, while Gaidar' alliance did not even pass the 5-percent 
barrier. The Communist-led left proceeded to block any attempts by 
reformers in the government to complete the country's liberal transformation.

Anticipating Vladimir Putin's accession as president, the most rigorous 
attempt to structure Russia's political space was undertaken on the eve of 
the 1999 parliamentary elections. The pro-presidential Unity election bloc, 
headed by Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu, came in a close 
second behind the Communists, robbing the political left of a parliamentary 
majority. Still more interesting was the ascent of the Union of the 
Right-Wing Forces (SPS), the right-liberal election bloc headed by former 
Prime Minister Sergei Kirienko, Boris Nemtsov and Irina Khakamada, which 
finished fourth, beating both Yabloko and Zhirinovsky's LDPR. Out of the 
roughly thirty parties that participated in those elections, the only two, 
the Communists and the SPS, represented more or less comprehensive 
political ideologies. Most of the other political forces, including the 
rival Unity and Fatherland-All Russia blocs, fought for the same stratum of 
the apolitical Russian electorate using the same patriotic slogans. The 
Unity bloc won because it had stronger administrative support. Meanwhile, 
the success of the SPS was a sign that a new stratum with distinct 
political and economic interests had emerged. While Yabloko has remained 
largely a party of the intelligentsia--a party of "good people" with a 
generally prodemocratic but vague outlook--the SPS had its social base in 
the new generation of managers, entrepreneurs and intellectuals.

Following the elections, the SPS set as its goal to establish a new party 
by dissolving itself and merging with Yabloko. This, however, has proved 
particularly difficult, because the two parties in fact represent two 
different outlooks--Yabloko being a social democratic party and the SPS 
being the proponent of right-liberal values. In addition, Yabloko leader 
Grigory Yavlinsky has a record of rejecting all alliance proposals. The two 
parties have nevertheless formed a loose coalition in the Duma.

In March, a clumsy attempt was undertaken to write the Communists off as a 
major political force when the Unity bloc threatened to support the 
Communist vote of no confidence against the government. It could have led 
to pre-term elections and a further weakening of the Communists. However, 
this political coup failed on March 14, when the no-confidence measure 
failed to gather sufficient votes for passage.

Now, with the merger of the Unity and Fatherland blocs and the 
establishment of a centrist coalition in the Duma, the goal of establishing 
a political system comprised of three "flanks" seems to have been achieved.

WHAT FOR?

Taken at face value, the latest advancements in structuring Russia's 
political space are good news. However, the merger of until-recently 
hostile political forces--the Unity and Fatherland blocs--underscores the 
worrying fact that Russian politics lacks any principles, except that of 
expediency. Now united in support for President Putin, the newly 
established centrist party could bury the political process itself--the 
term "political process" being understood here as the public elaboration of 
a consensus on important issues through democratic procedures.

So, why has it been done? Judging by President Putin's annual address to 
the parliament, in which he concentrated on economic and social issues, the 
head of state's goal is to realize an ambitious program of reforms. He 
needs a supportive parliament to approve a wide range of pressing 
legislation: a new budget, an anticorruption law, a land code, military 
reform and changes in the judicial system and the criminal code, to name 
just few. With the political importance of the parliament reduced, the 
president, already vested with great powers by the constitution, has 
assumed even greater responsibility for planned reforms.

The president is rigidly constrained by time, given the need to make large 
foreign debt payments in 2003, and to act quickly while his popularity is 
still high. The debt payments could undermine the still-weak Russian 
economy in the absence of structural reform. Meanwhile, the president's 
core electorate, nostalgic for Soviet-style social benefits, will soon 
realize that social reforms advocated by the president--involving housing, 
the natural monopolies, education and health care--will mean a higher cost 
of living, while the possibilities to earn more will come later--that is, 
if the reforms are successful.

And, as always, a balanced macroeconomic policy is the last thing on the 
mind of the ordinary voter struggling to make the ends meet. Putin runs the 
high risk of soon being accused of having "let people down." While the 
president has little for parliamentary politics, draft legislation is 
prepared in abundance by his administration and the government, with little 
public discussion. The president's authority notwithstanding, this ensures 
that opposition from the entities to be reformed--the army, the 
military-industrial complex, the education and medical professions, the 
judiciary--will grow. Their representatives are demand a broad public 
discussion of the intended changes. Rightly so, perhaps, but the experience 
of the past ten years suggest that public discussion in Russia is often a 
best way to bury the very idea of reform. The president is willing to take 
the responsibility for doing what he thinks is necessary without worrying 
about a consensus. He appears to think that all he needs is a circle of 
reliable officials.

A "CADRE REVOLUTION"

On March 28, two days after the first anniversary of his election as 
president, Vladimir Putin made new appointments to the government: 
civilians Boris Gryzlov, formerly head of the Unity faction in the Duma, 
and Mikhail Fradkov, formerly minister of foreign trade and then deputy 
head of the Security Council, became Interior Minister and Tax Police 
chief, respectively. Sergei Ivanov, the head of the Security Council and 
retired intelligence general, became Defense Minister, while Lyubov 
Kudelina, formerly in charge of the military budget in the Finance 
Ministry, became Ivanov's deputy, responsible for the Defense Ministry's 
finances. Aleksandr Rumyantsev, head of the Kurchatov Institute of Nuclear 
Physics, became the new head of the Atomic Energy Ministry.

The tradition of building a power structure based on regional networking 
and close-knit centers of influence persists. Just as Boris Yeltsin brought 
to Moscow people with whom he used to work in the Sverdlovsk region, Putin 
has brought to power his former colleagues from St Petersburg. Yeltsin 
filled high positions with those who supported him during the failed August 
1991 putsch. Putin, for his part, facilitated the elevation of the Security 
Council--which was headed by his friend and a colleague from St. 
Petersburg, Sergei Ivanov--as a new center of influence rivaling the 
presidential administration, headed by Aleksandr Voloshin.

Meanwhile Putin has stopped halfway in his effort to "demilitarize" Russian 
public life, having tackled only three of over ten 'power' ministries. A 
thorough reform of the central apparatus is in the works: the number of 
ministries will be reduced, while their heads will act as presidential 
representatives responsible for certain tasks--Sergei Ivanov for military 
reform, German Gref for economic reform and Boris Gryzlov for reform of the 
police. Another hot issue on the political agenda is a profound judicial 
reform, which has been elaborated by Dmitry Kozak, the deputy head of the 
presidential administration, who is also from Putin's St. Petersburg team. 
He is also likely to be appointed to a high post, perhaps that of the 
procurator general. Another round of personnel changes, this time in the 
economic block, is also anticipated.

If the president sticks to his pledge of liberal reform, then with a bit of 
luck--if the international financial and oil markets stay stable--he might 
succeed in pushing through the intended economic reforms. However, the 
recent changes would leave Russia's political system a somewhat artificial 
democracy, in which the political process is determined not so much by 
democratic procedures as by administrative decisions.

*******

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