Johnson's Russia List

#2131

3 April 1998

davidjohnson@erols.com

[Note from David Johnson:

1. Reuters: Yeltsin Tells Tax Dodgers: Pay up or Else.

2. AP: Yeltsin allows Duma to delay vote on premier's confirmation.

3. Interfax: Communists To Propose New Course For Russian Govt.

4. Moskovskiy Komsomolets: Mikhail Rostovskiy, "Eye of a Needle for Premier.

Kiriyenko Will Going to Night School." ( Kiriyenko Promoted Because He Is No

Rival to Yeltsin).

5. Robert Lyle (RFE/RL): Russia: IMF Head Says Reforms Are At Work.

6. New York Times: Michael Gordon, Alexander Lebed: Would-Be Yeltsin Heir

Faces Big Test in Siberia.

7. Komsomolskaya Pravda: Andrey Kabannikov, "Among General Lebed's Plans

There is a 'Marshall Plan'."

8. Washington Post: Blake Marshall, The Method to Yeltsin's 'Madness.'

9. Boston Globe: David Filipov, Art. From the first scene to the last in

Moscow,

Cambridge troupe basks in glow of a culture's passion for theater.

10. Russia Today Satire: The Man Who Would Be Prime Minister.

11. Reuters: Yeltsin Steps up Pressure for START 2 Ratification.]

*********

#1

Yeltsin Tells Tax Dodgers: Pay up or Else

Reuters

3 April 1998

MOSCOW -- (Reuters) President Boris Yeltsin appealed on Friday to Russia's

many tax dodgers to pay up and warned them they faced severe punishment if

caught.

"Somebody may think, in the old Russian way, 'perhaps it will pass me

by, they won't catch me', but our tax police are quickly gaining

experience," Yeltsin said in his weekly radio address.

"Last year more than 200,000 people were found to be not paying their

taxes. They face fines, sometimes big ones, or even a criminal

investigation," he said.

Tax dodging is rampant in Russia, where laws are regularly flouted and

the state is viewed with deep mistrust.

Poor tax collection largely accounts for chronic wage arrears suffered

by public sector workers including teachers and doctors that helped

persuade Yeltsin last week to sack his government and nominate a new prime

minister.

Yeltsin said the number of honest citizens paying their taxes was

increasing, but he admitted that it was still too low.

"This year we expect more than five million people (to pay their taxes),

which is four times more than in 1995," he said. Russia's total population

is nearly 150 million.

He said individual taxpayers accounted for up to 80 percent of money in

the state coffers of developed countries, while in Russia the figure was

just 6 percent. This meant it was difficult to cut the heavy tax burden on

industry, he said.

"Of course it is always a shame having to part with hard earned money

but it can't be helped," Yeltsin said, reminding Russians that their taxes

were needed to build schools and hospitals and to pay the police and army.

"When a majority of people pay their taxes Russia will become a truly

civilized country," he said.

This week is the deadline for Russians to fill in their income

declaration forms and Yeltsin said he had handed his to the tax inspectors

like any other citizen.

He said the government was trying gradually to reduce the tax burden,

especially on Russia's emerging middle classes, but said this was only

possible if everybody paid what they owed.

Western economists and international creditors have often expressed

concern about Russia's low tax revenues, which last year prompted the

International Monetary Fund (IMF) to delay disbursement of a $9.2 billion

four-year loan.

The government has pinned its hopes on a new tax code currently working

its way slowly through Russia's parliament. ( (c) 1998.

********

#2

Yeltsin allows Duma to delay vote on premier's confirmation

Associated Press, 04/03/98

MOSCOW (AP) - Russian lawmakers postponed a vote on Boris Yeltsin's nominee

for prime minister today after the president offered them a face-saving way

out of a looming showdown.

Yeltsin has been feuding with the Communists and other hard-liners in

the Duma over the formation of a new government since he abruptly ousted

the previous one on March 23.

Hard-liners oppose Yeltsin's nomination of 35-year-old reformer Sergei

Kiriyenko, citing his relatively young age and lack of experience. They

want to play a role in forming the new government and to scale back the

president's free-market economic policies.

Yeltsin initially ignored the demands and threatened to dissolve the

Duma unless it approves his choice. But now he appears willing to compromise.

Today, Yeltsin revoked his earlier nomination of Kiriyenko and

resubmitted his candidacy in a letter to the Duma, parliament's lower house.

The move, a legal formality that gives the house an extra week to

consider the candidate, was taken ``for the sake of preserving political

stability and public accord,'' Yeltsin said in the letter.

He also agreed Thursday to hold broad discussions with his legislative

opponents next week and suggested they propose candidates for ministerial

posts in the new government.

At the same time, Yeltsin has said he will retain key members of the

outgoing Cabinet and has no plans to reverse his economic course.

Kiriyenko said he hoped the discussions, scheduled for Tuesday, would be

the ``continuation of a constructive dialogue,'' the Interfax news agency

said.

Interfax quoted him as saying the dialogue proved ``we are in a position

to jointly work out a program that can serve as the basis for the

consolidation of forces.''

Yeltsin said today that the new government should follow tight-money

policies aimed at a strong ruble and low inflation. The hard-liners want

more social spending and state subsidies for ailing industries.

The president also made it clear he would not accept opposition calls

for a coalition government, presidential spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky said.

Yeltsin's readiness to consult with parliament ``in no way indicates the

president agrees to the emergence of a government formed on the principles

of a `coalition Cabinet' or a `government of national accord'. These ideas

are unacceptable for the president,'' Yastrzhembsky said.

Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, meanwhile, warned that his faction -

the Duma's largest - would reject Kiriyenko despite Yeltsin's compromise

steps. He also said Communists would only propose their candidates to the

Cabinet if the president agrees to revise his economic policies.

However, other Communist leaders have indicated they would rather accept

Kiriyenko than face early elections. The Communists may be more willing to

act on Kiriyenko's nomination after a nationwide labor protest planned for

Thursday.

Zyuganov said parliament debate on Kiriyenko's confirmation would likely

be held in a week.

Under the Russian law, Yeltsin would have to dismiss parliament and

call new elections if lawmakers reject his candidate for premier three times.

********

#3

Communists To Propose New Course For Russian Govt

MOSCOW, April 3 (Interfax) - The Russian State Duma will fix the date for

voting on the candidacy of Sergei Kiriyenko for the post of prime minister

after the April 7th roundtable consultations, leader of the Communist Party

*Gennady Zyuganov* told journalists Friday. The lower parliamentary chamber

will hold the voting either next Wednesday or Friday.

Kiriyenko "himself is interested in working out approaches which can be

implemented during the consultations," Zyuganov said.

Zyuganov reiterated his idea that Kiriyenko should "for a start, serve

as first deputy prime minister for several years."

Zyuganov did not say whom he wanted to see as the prime minister.

Two options are currently available: "either a dialogue, or a war," he

said.

Kiriyenko "acts quite well" but he personally has nothing to do with the

situation, he said. Kiriyenko "is being thrown into a raging sea after a

rope was tightened" round his neck, he said.

Asked whether the Communists will put forward their candidates for the

post, Zyuganov said they "would propose a qualitatively new course,

otherwise it does not make sense."

********

#4

Kiriyenko Promoted Because He Is No Rival to Yeltsin

Moskovskiy Komsomolets

31 March 1998

[translation for personal use only]

Commentary by Mikhail Rostovskiy: "Eye of a Needle for Premier.

Kiriyenko Will Going to Night School"

It can be assumed that Sergey Vladilenovich's [Kiriyenko's]

achievements in one field and...his total lack of achievements in another

have propelled him up into Chernomyrdin's seat.

" It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for

a stranger to become an insider among the fuel tycoons," people among the

"energy" elite say. But Kiriyenko has brought off precisely this acrobatic

stunt. In the spring of 1997, the president of the Nizhniy Novgorod-based

Norsi-Oil company flatly refused to immediately become minister of fuel.

Because he was not very well known among the fuel and energy complex

leaders. So he went into training....

Exactly one year later, one of the closest associates of the new

acting prime minister explained Sergey Vladilenovich's rapid rise to

Moskovskiy Komsomolets in the following terms: "In recent years, the post

of premier in Russia has belonged to the fuel and energy complex. The

appointment of the boss shows that nothing has changed." But Kiriyenko has

not simply won the confidence of the leaders of the fuel and energy

complex....

When Energy Minister Petr Rodionov resigned in the spring of 1997, his

office was viewed with the utmost disdain. Fuel bosses openly said they

had no need of helmsmen with the rank of minister and that they would

manage on their own. But Sergey Vladilenovich did not try to steer the

sector. Instead, he managed to find for his ministry a new little job.

For example, Kiriyenko, as the new first deputy fuel minister, all of a

sudden began talking about the problem of "equal access to the oil

pipeline." That is, companies' oil export quotas should depend on the

amount of oil they produce rather than the go-getting qualities of their

bosses. And this rule was eventually introduced. Furthermore, Sergey

Vladilenovich managed to more or less stabilize the situation with regard

to the power industry in Maritime Kray and even to find a common language

with the Ichkerians [Chechens]. The oil question was almost the only one

in which Moscow managed to get what it wanted from Groznyy. By the spring

of 1998 "ministry financial manager" Kiriyenko was needed by everyone.

Sergey Vladilenovich also demonstrated a staggering ability to work

with people. Kiriyenko managed to establish relations with nearly all the

business and government bosses that he needed to while preserving his

independence. Over recent months he spent almost the same amount of time

talking with his old friend Nemtsov and his new partner Chernomyrdin.

Sergey Vladilenovich has managed to remain on good terms with Berezovskiy

while supporting the Rosneft privatization pattern which is dreadful for

BAB [Berezovskiy]. But this certainly does not mean that the new acting

premier is infinitely good-natured and simply unable to feel a strong

dislike for someone. Sergey Vladilenovich, for example, cannot stand his

fellow townsman Boris Brevnov. It is said that, as head of the Nizhniy

Novgorod NBD bank, Brevnov once did not behave very ethically toward

Kiriyenko, who was head of the Garantiya bank. Brevnov is now surely very

sorry about this: If he had Kiriyenko's backing, the future of the chief

of YeES Rossii [Integrated Energy Systems of Russia], who is virtually

doomed to dismissal, could be different.

"Unfortunately, I do" was the new Acting Premier Sergey Kiriyenko's

reply when Moskovskiy Komsomolets asked whether he realizes that he can no

longer avoid politics. But Sergey Vladilenovich also clearly realizes

something else: He has inherited Chernomyrdin's former office precisely

because he has avoided politics until now.

Since 1997 the Presidential Staff has consistently pursued a line of

"demeaning" the White House. It has humiliated the government -- stripped

the vice premiers of special planes and special bodyguards -- and has tried

to strip it of real powers: If the administrative reform conceived on

Staraya Square is implemented, the government may turn into a simple office

attached to Yeltsin's staff. At first officials thought this was merely a

continuation of the traditional rivalry between the two departments. But a

different explanation is now most popular. B.N.'s [Yeltsin's] entourage is

preparing for a third term, and so it wants to have an obscure premier,

that is, a "zero" rival. Kiriyenko's candidacy is simply ideal from this

point of view. Even though he is quick on the uptake, Sergey Vladilenovich

is simply theoretically incapable of becoming a readymade candidate for

becoming "Boris Nikolayevich" before 2000. The experience, popularity, and

connections needed for this cannot be acquired so quickly.

And, finally, a question of fundamental importance for all ordinary

Russians. Will the country gain from a respected and talented but new man

like Kiriyenko becoming premier? Unfortunately not in the next few months,

for sure. The present state of the economy calls for urgent action, but

the government has now been half-bombed. Kiriyenko will have to

simultaneously build and learn. The drawbacks of night school have long

been known....

********

#5

Russia: IMF Head Says Reforms Are At Work

By Robert Lyle

Washington, 3 April 1998 (RFE/RL) -- The head of the International Monetary

Fund, Michael Camdessus, says that no matter who is in the next Russian

government, "reforms and reformism are at work in Russia."

The Managing Director of the IMF on Wednesday revealed that he had

personally warned Russian President Boris Yeltsin about the dangers of an

Asian-like "incestuous relationship between banking, government and

corporate sectors" in Russia. On Thursday he added that Yeltsin responded

by saying "let's attack that, let's change that, let's reform it."

Camdessus first spoke publicly of the concerns he had raised with

Yeltsin at a U.S.-Russia Business Council meeting in Washington, but said

only that Yeltsin "didn't reject" the assertion.

On Thursday, however, in a speech and question session at the National

Press Club in Washington, Camdessus expanded on the story, adding that

Yeltsin and then-Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin had reacted by saying

"yes, you are right" and adding the commitment to do something about it.

On the basis of that conversation, said Camdessus, the fund and Russia

were able to prepare the reform program for 1998 and early 1999 for

continuing implementation of Russia's long-term, 10,100 million dollar

loan. Camdessus says the 1998 program agreement should be signed in Moscow

as soon as the next government is in place.

Camdessus said he warned Yeltsin of three ways in which Russia was

dangerously close to the underlying problems that brought about the Asian

financial crisis -- a still-weak macroeconomic framework, a still weak

banking sector, and a growing oligarchy which is "enormously" like the

Asian system of chaebels, which are closed, family-controlled,

conglomerates with secret ties to banks and government officials.

But, asked reporters, haven't many of the Russian reformers, like

Anatoly Chubais and Chernomyrdin, been removed from government and

relegated to oblivion?

Not at all, said Camdessus. After talking with Yeltsin, said the

Managing Director, "believe me, he's committed more than ever to reform."

As to former First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais, Camdessus

laughed and said: "I think you are burying a little bit rapidly my friend

Anatoly. He's young, very strong, in very good health and certainly a man

with a future in Russia."

Whether he's in the government or not, said Camdessus, Chubais will

"continue to be a driving force" in Russia for years to come.

The IMF head said he has also come to know acting Prime Minister Sergei

Kiriyenko and believes he's "strongly committed" to reform.

The importance of the nature of the next Russian government to foreign

investors became clear at the U.S.-Russia Business Council session. The

President of the council, Eugene Lawson, said the "climate" for trade and

investment in Russia remains "as much a part of the problem" as finding

money to do deals.

He said the needed legislative framework has "never quite materialized"

and that until a viable tax code is approved, a foreign investment law

enacted, and crime and corruption actively discouraged, western investment

in Russia will remain low.

It could get worse. The private Washington-based consulting group G-7,

which advises U.S. and Asian investors, told its clients this week that

with the Russian cabinet "still in flux and expected to be filled with

less-experienced ministers, investors need to be even more concerned about

Yeltsin's troubled health."

The group warned its investors to "take heed" because Yeltsin is a

physically weakened leader who, by removing Chernomyrdin, "deprived his

country of a clear successor."

*******

#6

New York Times

April 3, 1998

[for personal use only]

Alexander Lebed: Would-Be Yeltsin Heir Faces Big Test in Siberia

By MICHAEL R. GORDON

ACHINSK, Russia -- Alexander Lebed stood in the Siberian chill in nothing

more than a dark business suit and told the voters that his iron hand could

turn their region around.

The overflow crowd in the auditorium was bundled up in bulky coats and

fur hats. Siberia may be rich in natural resources, but Achinsk is too

strapped to pay its heating bills.

"It is not an economist who is needed today," Lebed declared. "It is an

expert on crisis management. Nobody can tell me the name of an economist

who has had any success in our huge country."

A year and half after he was dismissed by President Boris Yeltsin, Lebed

is running for governor of the huge Krasnoyarsk region in a bitter race

that could make or break his political career.

Victory would give the former general a powerful base for his campaign

to capture the presidency. Defeat could be cataclysmic. So far, it is very

much an uphill battle.

"If I lose this election, there is nothing for me to do in the

presidential elections," Lebed conceded in an interview. "And if I win the

election and don't prove to be a good governor, there will also be nothing

to do at the presidential elections."

Yeltsin's decision to dismiss his Cabinet has intensified the infighting

over the 2000 presidential race. With two years to go, it seems as if the

starting gun has already gone off.

Victor Chernomyrdin, the stolid former prime minister, is a contender.

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has been rushing around the country, striking

nationalist poses.

Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov has been trying to revive his party's

sagging fortunes by portraying Yeltsin's shake-up as a national crisis.

Then there is Lebed, a raw political talent who seems to speak with the

dull roar of a Russian bear. Standing ramrod straight, Lebed looks a bit

like his own bodyguard.

A shallow opportunist to his critics and a charismatic crusader to his

supporters, Lebed became a national sensation by coming in third in the

1996 presidential race. He worked briefly as Yeltsin's national security

adviser before being cast out for coveting Yeltsin's job too openly.

Lebed, 47, is no stranger to adversity. As a Kremlin aide, he risked the

wrath of Russian nationalists by negotiating an end to the conflict in

Chechnya. But Siberia is proving to be his toughest test.

To understand why Lebed is putting a high-stakes gamble on a province

2,400 miles from Moscow, think of a region that extends from North Dakota

to Texas. (Krasnoyarsk is one-fourth the size of the United States.)

Then imagine that the governor of the region is also a representative in

the national legislature. (The governor of Krasnoyarsk is a ranking member

of Russia's upper house of Parliament)

Also consider that the region has some of the nation's largest

factories and richest resources. Krasnoyarsk has the country's biggest

metallurgical complex -- Norilsk Nickel -- as well as chemical plants,

aluminum factories and two closed nuclear cities, off-limits to Russians

without special permission.

Further, imagine that it has often been a barometer of political trends.

Krasnoyarsk only has a population of 3.4 million, but the 1996 voting

results closely paralleled the national outcome.

The timing of the governor's race is also convenient for a politician

with presidential ambitions. While Lebed was born in the southern region of

Rostov and later served as a parliamentary deputy from the Tula region near

Moscow, he did not have to worry about a residency requirement. To run for

governor of Krasnoyarsk, a candidate simply has to produce a long list of

voters' signatures.

Lebed, to be sure, has several things going for him. He is famous.

Kranoyarsk has an anemic economy, which is just beginning to turn around.

Lebed has retooled his image. He rarely growls like a nationalist.

Instead, he has assumed the role of a decisive manager and populist, who

promises, if elected, to hold visiting hours for disgruntled citizens twice

a week.

His small motorcade races from town to town in politically-correct

Russian-made Volga sedans and Lada compacts. The shiny Mercedes and BMWs

that prowl Moscow's streets are conspicuously absent.

Lebed's engaging wife, Nina Aleksanrovna, accompanies him to his

campaign meetings. A dutiful partner, she watches approving from the

sidelines and avoids political questions.

"It is the man who must choose the road," she said, when asked about

Lebed's decision to stake his political future on Kransoyarsk. "It is the

woman's role to stand by his side."

Running for governor also seems to be kind of a family business. Lebed's

older brother reigns over neighboring Khakassia, one of Russia's 20 ethnic

republics. The Russian press has charged that he won thanks to his support

of corrupt businessmen in the aluminum industry.

But Krasnoyarsk is a much tougher fight. The current incumbent is Valery

Zubov, a former sociology professor who spent two years teaching at the

University of Oklahoma. He has painted Lebed as an outsider with dubious

financial backers who views Krasnoyarsk as a stepping-stone on his march to

the Kremlin.

Zubov is also supported by Luzhkov, a Lebed rival who subscribes to the

axiom that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. He is planning a trip to

Krasnoyarsk to stump for Zubov.

The Communists have been hammering away at Lebed, too. They would like

to have the monopoly on the downtrodden and disaffected.

The Communist candidate is Pyotr Romanov, who was born in a prison camp

after his father was jailed by Stalin but who became a Communist anyway. An

experienced politician and former factory director, Romanov tells voters

that if Lebed is elected "it will take him at least six months to

understand the situation."

If no candidate wins a majority of votes in the April 26 balloting,

there will be a run-off between the two leading candidates. Most observers

expect the race to come down to Zubov and Lebed.

Lebed's meetings in Achinsk, a factory town 150 miles northeast of

Krasnoyarsk, show the obstacles his campaign faces.

While wage arrears and layoffs are a big problem, weary resignation,

not anger, seems to dominate. Data collected by the Lebed campaign also

indicate that the voters tend to prefer the devil they know and that Zubov

is ahead of the pack.

While Lebed sought to tap the voters' anxiety, he has no economic

program to speak of and instead talks in vague homilies.

"Instead of giving you fish every day, I will give you a fishing rod,"

he told the voters here. "Catch as many as you can."

Lebed also brandished his patriotism and military service to counter the

charge that he was a newcomer who does not have Krasnoyarsk's interests at

heart.

Still, some questions here were as frosty as the weather. Workers and

pensioners wanted to know what a military man could do about the economy.

Others asked about reports that Lebed's campaign is being financed by Boris

Berezovksy, as part of a strategy to draw votes away from Luzhkov, or by

the magnates in Krasnoyarsk's aluminum industry.

Lebed was not always adept with his answers. He denied that Berezovsky

was his financial backer but insisted he could not reveal his contributors

because they cheated on their taxes and would be hounded by the tax police.

The comment seemed to inadvertently capture the moral ambiguities of

Russia -- and of its politicians.

"It is so-called 'gray' money," Lebed told his listeners. "Like you,

they are a little bit of a swindler."

*******

#7

Doubt Cast on Lebed Claim of New 'Marshall Plan'

Komsomolskaya Pravda

24 March 1998

[translation for personal use only]

Report by own correspondent Andrey Kabannikov: "Among General

Lebed's Plans There is a 'Marshall Plan'"

Washington -- Is it possible to fight for the job of Krasnoyarsk

governor from Washington? Aleksandr Lebed spent the whole of last week on

the other side of the Atlantic working on a new "Marshall plan" for a

particular Russian region. Originally the former Security Council secretary

was invited to America to settle once and for all the question of the lost

"nuclear suitcases." But by the time he arrived the fuss over that

erstwhile sensation had finally died down. To draw a tactful line under

the affair he himself had created the visitor declared at hearings in the

U.S. Congress research and development subcommittee that "for technical

reasons the devices rapidly lose power."

Lebed was unable to dispel some of the U.S. legislators' anxieties.

Political instability, economic crisis, corruption, crime, and separatist

aspirations in the provinces are, according to him, the real threat to

Russian security. The West cannot count on Russia as a reliable partner.

But if it tries to protect itself by creating a cordon sanitaire it will

encounter an embittered country with its hackles erect, which would not

encourage a sense of security in Americans.

"I want to get out of Moscow; you can't do anything there," Aleksandr

Ivanovich said. "I want to create a model -- a new center of power, whence

the reconstruction of Russia will begin and which will teach people to

respect it and not allow crooks to heap ignominy upon it."

"Stop believing scoundrels," he urged U.S. investors. "Money is

attracted to Russia through the use of democratic slogans and then

immediately stolen." To counterbalance this, Lebed, meeting with Texas oil

barons, the management of the Motorola corporation, and representatives of

New York Jewish business circles, promised to set up at home in Krasnoyarsk

a system "in which it is an advantage to be honest," investors will have

guarantees, and small and medium- size business will have firm support.

As a result, as the retired general reported at the final press

conference in Washington, a project has essentially come into being which

provides for U.S. capital investments in the economy of future governor

Lebed, a kind of new Marshall plan. "Or, if you like," Aleksandr Ivanovich

remarked, "you can call it a 'Marshall-Lebed plan'." Is it a bluff, like

the "nuclear suitcases"? Time will tell.

*******

Washington Post

April 3, 1998

[for personal use only]

The Method to Yeltsin's 'Madness'

By Blake Marshall

The writer is executive vice president of the U.S.-Russia Business Council

in Washington.

Is Russia ready for a 35-year-old prime minister -- a man described by

one newspaper as nothing more than "a convenient temporary stooge" for

President Boris Yeltsin? That has been the question since Yeltsin shook up

his cabinet late last month and named Sergei V. Kiriyenko -- a little-known

former banker, oilman and ministry official -- to be chairman of the

government.

Since then, the spoken and written references to Yeltsin's having lost his

marbles have been too many to count. Why such an out-of-the-blue nominee to

replace the deposed Viktor Chernomyrdin as prime minister? Yeltsin could

have played it safe with another even-keel helmsman, an old, familiar

government face.

The fact that he did not carries a clear message: Yeltsin wants

reformers -- of whom Kiriyenko is a most promising one -- governing

Russia's development into the next century.

Kiriyenko's selection means an emphasis on economics over politics,

indeed a stated preference for a government that is not political in its

orientation. Yeltsin spoke last week about the need for officials to "talk

less and do more," indicating that the previous top tier wasted too much

time on political infighting and that the battles with the "oligarchs" had

become too public. He has chosen technocratic management over speechmaking,

a choice so clearly recognized that it led the Financial Times of London to

refer to Kiriyenko as the "geek in the Kremlin."

But despite his youth and relative inexperience, Kiriyenko is a good

choice for several reasons. The time is right to stack the deck throughout

the ministries circuit and get some key accomplishments on the books to

demonstrate the long-awaited benefits of reform to Russian voters, who will

elect a new parliament in 1999 and the next century's first president the

following summer.

Perhaps, for example, an effort can be made to build on last year's 0.4

percent economic growth by passing a new tax code, or solidifying a

framework for developing Russia's energy sector, with Western

participation. There is little debate among most governing elites, or at

least among market-savvy economists, about what needs to be done. The

challenge is to muster the political will and deploy the political capital

necessary to act before the campaign season heats up.

That means not only legislative engineering but also the willingness to

go for broke -- something Chernomyrdin never dared do because he feared it

would cost him support for his own presidential bid. Trying to make

everyone happy by telling various factions what they want to hear

compromises vision, clouds sound policy objectives and comes at the expense

of delivering on the agenda.

Yeltsin has selected a head of the government with a lot less to lose

(and much to gain). Kiriyenko has solid reform credentials, formal training

in economics and finance and hands-on experience in the private sector,

paying wages to employees and shoring up pension funds in a competitive

marketplace.

Moreover, Kiriyenko is no threat to Yeltsin, while his relatively clean

slate leaves little to argue with him about and no old scores to be

settled. That's exactly what Russia needs at this stage of its transition,

even if staying out of the fray makes for boring copy. He is respected by

the Chernomyrdin centrists and favored by powerful Russian oil and gas

interests because he knows their issues and understands their importance to

Russia's prosperity.

While he is a relative newcomer to the upper echelon of Russia's

political elite, his limited interaction with foreign investors has given

the American business community confidence in his abilities as an

influential economic reform strategist and an astute political operative

with substantial managerial skills. Kiriyenko's most significant foreign

exposure came three weeks ago during the Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission

meetings here in Washington. The official and private-sector reviews were

uniformly positive.

Kiriyenko's detractors cite his youth and relative lack of experience.

But experience at what exactly -- logging many years in a stifling

ministerial bureaucracy? It's not as if many people in today's Russian

political culture have accumulated a wealth of experience confronting the

challenges the country currently faces. Certainly the reform charge over

the past six years has not been led by Soviet-style managers born in the

pre-war era -- people whose worldviews may have changed, but only because

the rules of the game forced them to.

In urging the Duma to confirm his choice -- the vote next Wednesday

follows Kiriyenko's nomination speech in the Duma today -- Yeltsin has

threatened to use his constitutional prerogative to dismiss the parliament.

The battle lines are drawn -- but for a lively discourse, not a

constitutional crisis. Duma leaders are not willing to call Yeltsin's

bluff, mainly because they know it's not a bluff. Their big political stunt

has long been scheduled for next week: a national protest day, now deprived

by Yeltsin of its central slogan: "Remove the Government." They can't back

off at this point and demonstrate their irrelevance, but serious opposition

to Kiriyenko is unlikely.

Expect some entertaining theatrics as Duma deputies possibly vote

Kiriyenko down once or even twice before saving face by cutting a "deal" --

either on personnel to portray a diluted sense of power-sharing, or on a

timetable for paying back wages.

This year's full-court press on reform will begin in the second quarter

with Kiriyenko's confirmation, followed by the reappointment of Boris

Nemtsov to his current post or a similar top job. Also look for economists

from the Yabloko and Our Home Is Russia factions in the Duma to fill senior

slots at the ministries of economy and finance. Headed by Anatoly Chubais,

the previous lineup may have been the "economic dream team," but it's a

safe bet that this new cast will boast not only a powerhouse roster of

talented economists but also greater credibility and influence when it

comes to guiding policy initiatives through the Russian parliament.

*******

#9

Boston Globe

3 April 1998

[for personal use only]

Art

>From the first scene to the last in Moscow, Cambridge troupe basks in glow

of a culture's passion for theater

By David Filipov

MOSCOW - Traditions, good or bad, die hard in Russia. And so it is that one

of the choicest pieces of real estate in the heart of Moscow, a square

wedged between the Kremlin and the Bolshoi Theater, is occupied by the

Moskva Hotel - a sullen, Stalinesque living monument to the peculiar

mixture of oppression and sleaze that comprises the most dubious traditions

of mid-priced Russian lodging.

Insistent prostitutes make nightly room calls (''Do you want to have

sex? No? Why not?''). Dour floor ladies stare as you come and go. Surly

doormen won't let you in without a room pass. Kiosks in the lobby bristle

with vodka and whiskey. And yes, toilet paper is a problem.

As the American Repertory Theatre arrived in Moscow from Cambridge last

week to pay tribute to one of Russia's better traditions - this country's

passion for theater - Robert Orchard, the ART's managing director,

reflected on why he chose to put the company up at the Moskva.

''When they wake up in the morning, they're going to know they're in

Russia,'' Orchard said.

Not that anyone in the company needed any reminding. ART is here to take

part in the Chekhov Theater Festival, a 2 1/2-month extravaganza featuring

130 performances of 52 productions from 28 cities in 21 countries. The

festival commemorates the 100th anniversary of the founding of one of the

world's most famous playhouses, the Moscow Art Theater.

The first major company from the United States to perform in Russia in a

decade, ART was handed the additional honor of opening the festival last

Thursday, with artistic director Robert Brustein's production of Luigi

Pirandello's ''Six Characters in Search of an Author.''

As they got their first look at the Moscow Art Theater stage, where

Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenkoonce once trod,

members of the company groped for the words to express their awe for the

theater that has so influenced American drama.

'Sacred territory,'' said Orchard.

''It's like being in Mecca,'' said David Ackroyd, who plays the father

in ''Six Characters.''

''Our relationship to the Moscow Art Theater is like a child to a

parent,'' said Brustein. For ART's Moscow shows, he put some of that

reverence into a scene in ''Six Characters,'' where actors taking a break

from a rehearsal talk about the ghosts that haunt the Moscow Art Theater -

Chekhov, Gogol, and Stanislavsky.

Along with ''Six Characters,'' the ART is performing Joseph Chaikin's

production of ''When the World Was Green,'' a new play written by Chaikin

with Sam Shepard, and Andrei Serban's production of Carlo Gozzi's fairy

tale ''The King Stag.''

But the company did not bring any Chekhov to the Chekhov festival.

''Oh no, that would be the height of arrogance,'' Orchard said. ''We

would tremble at the thought.''

Mecca of theater

In many ways, Moscow is the Mecca of modern theater, and not just

because of its rich history. The American actors were amazed that all six

major Russian television networks sent cameras to the premiere. In a week

when the world media was focused on President Boris Yeltsin's Kremlin

shake-up, the festival's opening made the news pages of major Russian

dailies. And for those who did not watch TV or read the papers, there was

the huge banner strung across Tverskaya Ulitsa, central Moscow's main

street, advertising ART's shows.

In the United States, theatergoers make up about 4 percent of the

population. In Russia, theater is mass culture.

Oleg Tabakov, one of Russia's best-known actors, is also one of

Russia's biggest film stars. Meryl Streep, who got her start with Brustein

at Yale Rep, no longer performs on the stage. Few big-time box-office

attractions in the United States do. In Russia, few film stars avoid the

stage.

''I have to be able to show my students that I can do what I'm teaching

them,'' said Tabakov, who is also the director of the Moscow Art Theater's

acting school. ''To be able to act on the stage is a matter of dignity.''

While Russia struggles with its post-Communist transition, a government

that can barely pay its own employees continues to finance theater.

Theaters, it must be said, are also learning how to make use of their real

estate. The Moscow Art Theater rents out part of its centrally located

building to businesses. Most theaters have opened restaurants.

And despite the arrival of other night-life alternatives, such as

first-run cinemas (last week ''Titanic'' docked in Moscow), theaters play

to nightly sellouts.

''The theater is more important to Russia - it's part of everybody's

everyday life,'' said Alexander Popov, director of an exchange program ART

has set up with the Moscow Art Theater, over breakfast at La Kantina, the

popular Mexican restaurant run by the Yermolova Theater.

Beginning next year, American students will spend three months in

Moscow, studying with Russian actors and seeing what it is like for an

actor in, as Brustein put it, ''a society that names its streets after

artists and writers, not businessmen and generals and presidents.''

Quirks and critics

But like hotels with mandatory room cards, the theater culture here is

not without a few quirks that took the American actors by surprise.

''Six Characters'' is supposed to begin gradually, informally, as a

group of actors shows up to rehearse a performance (of ''The King Stag''

for ART's Moscow production). But the Moscow festival organizers insisted

on opening with a trumpet fanfare and speeches by a deputy mayor who got

Chekhov's name wrong and a host who read out the names of sponsors (''And

let's not forget the wings of our Russia, our glorious Aeroflot'').

The offbeat beginning of ''Six Characters'' came as a surprise to some

in the audience, who were still arguing with a security guard long after

the ART actors wandered onto the stage.

On opening night, some of the crowd displayed the downside of that

legendary Russian theater-going passion. One member of the audience kept

making calls on his cell phone. Two local theater critics sitting behind me

talked for three-quarters of the show. Then one of them fell asleep.

Part of the problem appeared to be mechanical. The

simultaneous-translation transmitters buzzed loudly, which some of the

actors later said distracted them even more than the fact that they were

playing on the Moscow Art Theater's hallowed stage.

The translation itself was shaky. Anyone who understood English laughed

at the jokes. But the Russian-only speakers kept straight faces during

lines like ''Why can't we do something that cheers people up, like `Crime

and Punishment'?''

Or maybe that joke fell flat because a well-performed production of

''Crime and Punishment'' would cheer up most Russians.

One of the critics, Grigory Zaslavsky of Nezavisimaya Gazeta, suggested

after the show that Americans should concentrate on sending Broadway

musicals to Russia.

''We've never seen them here, and that's what you do well,'' he said.

''Russians can't do musicals. It would be like Americans trying to do

serious drama.''

Other viewers were more charitable on opening night.

''We have a lot to learn from the Americans,'' said industrialist

Alexander Vladislavlev, who attended the premiere. ''And they have a lot to

learn from us. So this visit is a positive thing.''

Ackroyd felt the same way, especially after the second show last Friday

night, when ART got a taste of the rhythmic applause Russian audiences save

for the shows they really like.

''I'm having a great time,'' he said. ''We feel the differences in the

audiences. But theater is really important here. Coming from a place where

theater is a poor relation, that's something we can appreciate.'' The

company is returning to the United States today.

There were no reservations on the opening night of ''The King Stag'' on

Tuesday, in which Ackroyd played the magician Durandarte.

Equal parts Shakespearean comedy and Disney feature film - the costumes

were designed by Julie Taymor, who did the costumes for the Broadway

production of ''The Lion King'' - ''The King Stag'' was a crowd-pleasing

success from curtain to curtain. More of that rhythmic applause. I think I

saw Zaslavsky doing it, too.

********

#10

Russia Today Satire

http://www.russiatoday.com

The Week That Was

The Man Who Would Be Prime Minister

By Mary Campbell

"A scholarly-looking man with glasses and thinning dark hair, (Sergei)

Kiriyenko said he was as astonished as anyone when Yeltsin sacked the whole

government on Monday and asked him to form a new Cabinet. fI the burly

Chernomyrdin embodied the old-style apparatchik, solid but gray, Kiriyenko

represents a newer model with free-market business experience. In his spare

time, he loves scuba diving and Japanese martial arts." -- Reuters

(Boris Yeltsin and Sergei Kiriyenko, his newly nominated prime minister,

are taking a walk outside Yeltsin's Gorky-9 residence. They continue

walking throughout the dialogue)

Yeltsin: Sergei! (slaps Kiriyenko on back, knocks him down, doesn't notice)

Kiriyenko: (scrambling back to his feet) Yes, Boris Nikolayovich?

Yeltsin: Sergei!

Kiriyenko: Yes?

Yeltsin: Sergei, my boy, I have chosen you as my prime minister and now I

must assign you your tasks. Are you ready?

Kiriyenko: Yes, Boris Nikolayovich!

Yeltsin: (slaps him on back, knocks his glasses off) That's the spirit!

Number one ­ solve nonpayment crisis!

Kiriyenko: (replaces glasses, produces notepad and pencil, writes) Solve

nonpayment crisis…

Yeltsin: Number Two: Kick-start economy!

Kiriyenko: (writing) Kick-start economy…

Yeltsin: Number Three: Reform military!

Kiriyenko: (writing) Reform military…

Yeltsin: Number Four: Find cure for common cold! (explaining) I'm tired of

this coughing and sneezing, Sergei, hanging out at Gorky 9 working with

documents ­ see what you can do.

Kiriyenko: (writing) Find cure for com…Boris Nicholayovich, don't you

think my workload is getting a bit…heavy?

Yeltsin: I know what you're thinking! You're thinking "But when will I have

time to scuba dive and practice my martial arts?" And my answer to you,

Sergei, is this ­ dive into your work and attack your list of tasks! Karate

chop the nonpayment crisis! (Karate chops Kiriyenko across shoulders,

knocks him down)

Kiriyenko: (scrambling to his feet) Yes, Boris Nicholayovich!

Yeltsin: Number Five: Stop NATO expansion!

Kiriyenko: (writing) Stop NATO expansion…

Yeltsin: Endear yourself to the Communists! End our dependence on the IMF!

Increase foreign investment! Protect the environment! Stop Yury Luzhkov

from wearing that silly hat!

Kiriyenko: (writes feverishly) …silly hat…

Yeltsin: Improve tax collections! End the influence of the financial

industrial groups! Pass the Land Code! Knock some sense into Lukashenko!

Kiriyenko: (trotting along behind, trying to keep up) …collect Lukashenko…

Yeltsin: (suddenly stopping) Do all this Sergei my boy, and come the year

2000…

Kiriyenko: Yes?

Yeltsin: Come the presidential elections…

Kiriyenko: (barely containing his excitement) Yes?

Yeltsin: Come the time for me to choose a successor…

Kiriyenko: (hardly breathing) Yes?

Yeltsin: You'll probably be too tired to even VOTE let alone run! Ha ha!

(Slaps Kiriyenko on the back, knocks him down)

*******

#11

Yeltsin Steps up Pressure for START 2 Ratification

2 April 1998

MOSCOW -- (Reuters) Russian President Boris Yeltsin stepped up pressure on

Thursday for parliament to ratify the START 2 strategic arms accord with

the United States.

Yeltsin told acting Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev to push ahead with

efforts to persuade the opposition-dominated Duma, or lower house, to

approve the 1993 treaty slashing the number of deployed U.S. and Russian

nuclear warheads.

"The Russian president pointed to the necessity of continuing the

Defense Ministry's work with deputies, in close cooperation with the

Foreign Ministry," Yeltsin's press service said after he met Sergeyev at

his Rus residence outside Moscow.

The U.S. Senate has already ratified the treaty, which would cut the

number of Russian and U.S. deployed nuclear warheads from about 6,000 each

to no more than 3,500 each by the year 2007.

But Russian parliamentarians balk at the cost of the cuts and fear the

United States is developing new missile defense systems that could violate

the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty. Washington denies the charges.

Pressure is mounting on the Duma from the Kremlin and the White House.

Washington has said it wants the treaty ratified before President Bill

Clinton next holds a summit with Yeltsin, although it has stopped short of

making approval a formal condition for such a meeting. No date as been set

for a summit.

Yeltsin met Sergeyev before scheduled talks with the two parliamentary

speakers and his acting prime minister, Sergei Kiriyenko.

The presidential press service said Yeltsin and Sergeyev discussed

progress in military reforms and Sergeyev's talks this week with the Greek

and Namibian defense ministers.

Sergeyev was defense minister in the government sacked by Yeltsin last

month and is widely expected to keep his post when the new Cabinet is named.

*******

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