October 9, 1999    
This Date's Issues: 3551 3552

Johnson's Russia List
#3552
9 October 1999
davidjohnson@erols.com


[Note from David Johnson:
1. Reuters: Gorbachev mulls comeback as social democrat.
2. AP: Boris Yeltsin Hospitalized With Flu.
3. Itar-Tass: Debakey Last to Get Jittery Over Yeltsin Health Hearsay.
4. Reuters: Russian opposition bloc registered for election.
5. Itar-Tass: Data on Candidates' Incomes To Be Scrupulously Checked.
6. Kommersant: Tatyana Dyachenko Was Summoned For Interrogation.ON A KIDNAPPING CASE.
7. David Filipov: Hypocrisy and double standards as regards document checks.
8. John Semlak: Re: 3550 Tribunsky/Hypocrisy.
9. Itar-Tass: Official Rules Out Passport Regime in Moscow.
10. The Guardian (UK): A thaw in the Gulag. Where has the KGB gone? Ian Thomson on Colin Thubron's magical return to Russia.
11. Moscow Times EDITORIAL: 41 Refugees Die Yet Few Seem to Care.
12. AFP: Dzhambulat's Generator Sheds Light On War For Ordinary Chechens.
13. Stratfor: Putin Benefits From Chechen Conflict.
14. RFE/RL: Michael Lelyveld, Caspian Nations Face Difficult Choices On Pipeline Around Chechnya.
15. Itar-Tass: US, Russia Pursue Non-Proliferation Plan of Action.
16. Itar-Tass: US Chief Counterterrorism Coordinator to Visit Russia.] 


*******


#1
Gorbachev mulls comeback as social democrat


MOSCOW, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said on 
Saturday he might return to Russian politics to lead a Social Democratic 
party being formed for December's parliamentary election. 


Gorbachev, who won less than one percent of the vote when he tried to make a 
comeback in a Russian presidential election in 1996, said he had many 
international projects which could not be abandoned but would seriously 
consider the offer. 


``I need to think about whether I will join the initiative group to create a 
united Social Democrat party in Russia as its head or if I will participate 
in some other fashion,'' he said. 


Gorbachev was offered the chance to lead a new Social Democratic Party by a 
congress of politicians and activists who intend to run under a social 
democratic banner. 


The delegates included former Moscow mayor Gavriil Popov and formally decided 
to enter the race of the State Duma (lower house of parliament) in a December 
19 election. 


The group is to draw up a list of candidates for the party, decide its 
election programme and tactics and where they will put forward candidates. 


``Russia's national interests can only be expressed by social democracy, but 
that is possible only when we are united,'' Gorbachev said. 


Gorbachev was marginalised in Russia after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet 
Union, but his wife's battle with leukaemia and her death in September 
sparked an outpouring of compassion from both the Russian media and public. 


*******


#2
Boris Yeltsin Hospitalized With Flu
October 9, 1999
By BARRY RENFREW

MOSCOW (AP) - After months of relatively stable health, President Boris 
Yeltsin was rushed to a hospital Saturday with what doctors said was the flu 
and a very high fever. 


Yeltsin, 68, was resting in Moscow's Central Clinical hospital, where doctors 
were working to bring down his temperature, presidential spokesman Dmitry 
Yakushkin said. 


The Kremlin said the situation was not serious, but officials could not say 
how long Yeltsin would be in the hospital. Although no meetings were being 
scheduled, none of the president's plans had been canceled, Yakushkin said. 


Yeltsin has suffered from poor health for years, and his latest illness will 
again raise questions about his ability to handle his responsibilities. 
Russia is embroiled in a new war in Chechnya, and important parliamentary 
elections are scheduled for December. 


It was the first time in seven months that Yeltsin was reported hospitalized 
by the Kremlin. He was in the hospital at least five times last winter for 
respiratory and ulcer problems. 


The news of Yeltsin's hospitalization led Russian television newscasts, but 
did not create much reaction. Russians have long been accustomed to the poor 
health of the president, who is unpopular these days because of his perceived 
failure to solve pressing economic and social problems. 


Trying to put a positive spin on the situation, Yakushkin said Yeltsin would 
watch a televised soccer match between Russia and Ukraine on Saturday. 


The Kremlin, after years of handling the president's poor health, has tended 
to put Yeltsin in hospital at the first sign of any problems. Yeltsin started 
to feel unwell Friday evening, Yakushkin said. 


Yeltsin attended some meetings in the Kremlin last week, but otherwise was 
not very visible. 


His health has been problematic for years. Heart trouble led to multiple 
bypass surgery in 1996, and he has had recurring bouts of pneumonia and 
respiratory infection. He has also suffered this year from back pain and an 
ulcer. 


The latest illness comes at a time when Russia is again fighting in Chechnya 
and the government is making critical decisions on the military campaign. 


Yeltsin insists he is fit enough to serve out his term in office, which ends 
in the middle of next year. The constitution bars him from seeking a third 
term. 


Opposition leaders have called repeatedly for him to step down early because 
of his health. 


Yeltsin's aides had said Friday that he might take a vacation soon to rest 
from several months of a heavy workload. Plans for an international 
conference in Turkey and a visit Japan this year may have to be reviewed, 
they said. 


The president's last vacation was a 10-day rest in July. His work since then, 
which has included dismissing a prime minister, ``warrants a breather,'' 
Yakushkin said Friday. 


*********


#3
Debakey Last to Get Jittery Over Yeltsin Health Hearsay.


WASHINGTON, October 9 (Itar-Tass) - News that President Boris Yeltsin is 
likely to go on vacation in October has stirred another wave of guesswork 
about his health. 


However, Michael DeBakey, American pioneer in heart bypass surgery, remained 
his unruffled self. 


He told reporters on Friday that the rumours about deterioration of Yeltsin's 
health were unfounded. 


Presidential press secretary Dmitry Yakushkin said at a briefing on Friday 
that "Boris Yeltsin may go on vacation in October". 


He explained that Yeltsin last holidayed in July for some ten days, and his 
recent busy work schedule "warrants a breather", as "it is very difficult to 
work long, considering the age of Boris Yeltsin and other factors". 


It were "other factors" that set off the talk that Yeltsin, who underwent 
multiple aortocoronary bypass surgery in 1996, was headed for another 
operation, The Washington Post said. 


DeBakey said he did not know of any preparations for a new operation or 
Yeltsin's heart problems. 


If there were, DeBakey said he would be informed. Debakey was a key 
consultant in 1996 preparations for the operation that was performed by 
Russian surgeon Renat Akchurin, his one-time trainee in bypass surgery. 


DeBakey said he was inclined to think that Yeltsin is having no medical 
problems. Should they occur, they would be reported to him over telehone, he 
said. 


DeBakey said he had had a telephone conversation with Akchurin a day earlier 
but on a different subject. Yeltsin's health was not discussed altogether, 
DeBakey said. 


He said he often heard various rumours about Yeltsin' health and could not 
make out where they originated, adding that the only thing about which he was 
certain was that most of the hearsay was in fact groundless. 


*******


#4
Russian opposition bloc registered for election

MOSCOW, Oct 9 (Reuters) - A major opposition bloc led by ex-prime minister 
Yevgeny Primakov was registered for Russia's December parliamentary election 
on Saturday, but complained some of its candidates had been disqualified over 
technicalities. 


Primakov and another of the Fatherland-All Russia bloc's top leaders, Moscow 
Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, are expected to be leading candidates in presidential 
elections next year when President Boris Yeltsin is obliged by the 
constitution to step down. 


The central electoral commission, after four days of deliberations, ruled 
that 10 candidates on Fatherland-All Russia's party list could not stand 
because traffic police said they had failed to provide full information on 
cars they owned. 


A further 11 candidates withdrew voluntarily on similar grounds, leaving the 
bloc with 240 candidates on its party list. 


Commission chairman Alexander Veshnyakov told reporters that despite its 
registration being approved, about 20 of the group's candidates were 
undergoing further investigation. 


Registration for the December 19 election is being conducted under new, 
untested regulations aimed at preventing people with criminal records from 
getting into the legislature. 


The new rules include checks on each candidate by police, security services, 
banking authorities and even traffic police. 


Leaders of Fatherland-All Russia, who accuse the Kremlin of trying to 
undermine their election campaign, said the hitch over registration had been 
purely technical. 


``I know that the central electoral commission gives rough treatment to our 
bloc,'' Interfax news agency quoted Luzhkov as saying. 


``I wish it would treat other participants in the race in just as toughly, or 
even better objectively.'' 


Under election rules, half the deputies in the 450-seat State Duma, the lower 
house of parliament, are elected on party lists, while the other half are 
elected in single-member constituencies. 


Fatherland-All Russia, which aims to end Communist domination of the Duma, 
also backs 118 candidates in constituency races. 


********


#5
Data on Candidates' Incomes To Be Scrupulously Checked 


MOSCOW, October 6 (Itar-Tass) -- There will be 
scrupulous checks of information about the incomes of candidates to the 
State Duma, Alexander Pochinok, the Russian tax minister, said on 
Wednesday at a seminar for chairmen and secretaries of electoral 
commissions form 42 Russian subjects. 


He said the data on income will be verified on the basis of the Tax 
Ministry's information. In addition, questions will be addressed to law 
enforcement bodies, federal tax police and bodies of foreign countries. 
He said that many of those who aspire to Duma membership have property 
abroad. It is not very willingly that the information about one's 
property abroad is supplied, he said. 


Pochinok said the verification will be continued until after the end of the 
elections. "Our task is to ensure that the spending on the election 
campaign be made only through special accounts in the Savings Bank. After 
last year's crisis, the spending for the elections cannot be as high as 
for at the previous ones. 


Alexander Veshnyakov, the chairman of the Central electoral commission, told 
reporters that the information regarding the lists of candidates from 
Fatherland -- All Russia, the Communist Party of Russia and the LDPR, as 
well as on Yabloko election association, is to be checked. 


"These lists have been sent to the Tax Ministry to be checked. The 
ministry, just as all other agencies, is given ten days to submit 
information to the registered. This involves large work as there are over 
200 names on the lists. Veshnyakov said that, on the basis of this 
information, the Central electoral commission will be passing a decision 
on registering the list as a whole these decisions will be made on 
separate candidates, if need be.


*******


#6
Russia Today press summaries
Kommersant
8 October 1999
Tatyana Dyachenko Was Summoned For Interrogation
ON A KIDNAPPING CASE
Summary
Tatyana Dyachenko, a daughter and advisor of President Yeltsin became 
involved in a kidnapping case. Next week, the Moscow Western District 
prosecutor will summon her for interrogation. However, investigators 
themselves think that it might be a provocation.


The kidnapping case involved Bora Pavlovich, a Moscow representative of the 
Yugoslav construction company Dimont who was taken hostage by criminals 
disguised as FSB officers in June. Pavlovich spent two weeks as a prisoner in 
a private house in the Moscow region. The bandits dictated letters to him to 
be sent to Yugoslavia. One of these contained a half-million dollar money 
transfer request to Hansabank in Riga. Besides, they forced Pavlovich to make 
a phone call to his motherland to give his family the fax number to which the 
money order form was to be faxed as confirmation. Besides, Pavlovich sent a 
letter containing a pager number to which payment confirmation was to be made.


When the Yugoslav was released, it appeared that the number of the pager 
belonged to popular television writer Aleksandra Belyavskaya. She has already 
been summoned and interrogated by prosecutors. Aleksandra Belyavskaya did not 
deny that she received messages: "500 thousand dollars were transferred to 
your account" several times on her pager. However, she could not understand 
this and, thus, simply ignored the messages, thinking it was a silly joke.


But investigators were really shocked when they found out that the fax number 
belonged to the office of Tatyana Dyachenko, President Yeltsin's daughter and 
advisor. It is located in the number one building of the Kremlin.


Most probably the criminals used the fax number of Yeltsin's daughter and the 
pager of television writer as an attempt to disorient the investigation.


*******


#7
Date: Fri, 08 Oct 
From: dmf@cityline.ru (David Filipov)
Subject: hypocrisy and double standards as regards document checks


Thank you for running Tribunsky's Russia Journal piece about Western
hypocrisy in covering the bombs and the subsequent crackdown (JRL#3550)


This is a must-read for anyone who wishes to understand the increasingly
ugly mood here. You may not agree with the author's implicit conclusion
that we must break some innocent Caucasus eggs to make the omelet of
Russian security, but he speaks for a lot of people, and note that he's NOT
a staff writer for Sovetskaya Rossiya or something.


As for Tribunsky's arguments regarding the need for "tough and resolute"
measures, a few observations from the ground:


1) The "tough and resolute" document checks occur mainly in public places
like markets and busy streets; has it occured to their proponents that
terrorists might skulk along back roads, or use well-faked documents? The
document checks are aimed at people with dark complexion, but the "Chechen
terrorists" could have hired Slavs to do the job, couldn't they? Not only
that, there are Chechens with blond hair and blue eyes. Come to think of
it, no one ever proved that Chechens were behind the blasts. 


Incidentally, many of the Chechens in Grozny I spoke to last week were as
horrified about the attacks as I, a resident of Moscow with family members
living in apartment blocks around town. Many have relatives in Moscow who
could easily have been apartment bomb vicitms. I found it interesting that
people who live in a place that still looks like Dresden in 1945 had room
for sympathy for 200 apartment bomb victims in the city whose leaders just
a few years ago tried to carpet-bomb them back to the bronze age and killed
tens of thousands of innocent Russian citizens in the process.


But what brought home the real meaning of the document checks for me was
going around town with the Russian police, watching them crack down (I not
only took part in a few arrests, I also had my documents checked by the
police I was travelling with 5 times over a 12 -hour period; I am pretty
swarthy) The officers I was with were convinced their efforts would not
lead to the arrest of the terrorists who set off the bomb, but they saw
them as an excellent chance to deport "blacks" from Moscow. 


2) People who support document checks as a way of preventing alleged
Chechen terrorism often point, as Tribunsky does, to the Chechen clan
tradition as a way of justifying incrimination by ethnicity. However, in
speaking of traditions, they almost never point to the Chechen warrior
tradition that prohibits attacking an enemy's defenseless wives and
children (like bombing apartments.) I'm not saying that today's Chechens
always adhere to their traditions; on the contrary, I believe it is a
fallacy to say that traditions fully explain each Chechen's behavior.
Incidentally, this is a fallacy the Russian military employs every time it
concludes peace deals with "Chechen elders" in Chechen villages. Alas, the
elders no longer carry the authority assigned to them by tradition, as
anyone who has been to Chechnya could tell you.


3) Tribunsky compares the document checks to the humiliating procedures
Russians are subjected to when they travel to the US or Britain; this
misses the obvious point that Chechens or Dagestanis in Moscow are Russian
citizens. I at first found it surprising that in making his point about
Western hypocrisy, Tribunsky fails to draw the better, more obvious
parallel to the way US police have treated African-Americans. Then again,
to point that out you have to oppose heavy-handed and outwardly racist
police tactics. Tribunsky clearly supports them.


David Filipov
The Boston Globe
Moscow 


********


#8
From: "John Semlak" <johnnina@cityline.ru>
Subject: Re: 3550 Tribunsky/Hypocrisy
Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1999 


This letter is in response to Alexander Tribunsky’s article entitled “Outcry
about ID checks: Disgusting hypocrisy” in the October 4-10, 1999, edition of
The Russia Journal.


The only thing disgusting to me was reading this article in The Russia
Journal. Though I agree that newspapers should present all sides of any
issue, Tribunsky’s piece showed how thin the ice that he and all supporters
of Moscow’s registration system is. He fails to offer evidence that Moscow’
s regime of document checking will increase Moscow’s security, nor does he
give proof that the people primarily targeted by the regime, Caucasians and
specifically Chechens, were even involved in the bombings which prompted a
heightening of the document checks. He does not refute that the regime is
racist and illegal on many levels. In the end, this article simply makes me
believe more firmly that Moscow’s ‘propiska’ regime is wrong.


A month after the bombings, it is still not known who committed any of the
bombings referred to by Tribunsky (I assume he meant the one in the Manazh
shopping mall and the two in apartment buildings). Nor is it known of the
Manazh shopping mall bombing was connected with the other two. Hard
evidence linking Chechen terrorists, in particular the widely suspected
Shamil Basayev, has not been uncovered. Numerous groups, including a
Dagestan liberation organization and a far-left anti-consumerism
organization have claimed responsibility for one or more of the blasts,
though these claims cannot be accepted as proof since terrorist acts often
receive false claims of responsibility. While a connection with the
conflict in Dagestan and Chechnya remains a strong possibility, it will
probably never be known who exactly the perpetrators were or what
nationality they were. Tribunsky makes no mention of the fact that these
crimes, tragic indeed, have not been solved. Despite this lack of evidence,
many people, including members of the Russian media, government officials,
and police officers, have begun to blame Chechen terrorists for the
bombings. Moscow has responded with an increase of its widely criticized
‘propiska’ regime, which theoretically targets all unregistered ‘guests’ in
Moscow from Russia and the CIS, but both before and after the bombings has
been concentrated on darker-skinned people, especially those of Caucasian
origin. Tribunsky does not refute this.


Tribunksky also does not provide any evidence that the document checks are
effective, because they are not. Since a fake Moscow ‘propiska’ can be
bought easily, determined terrorists will bypass Moscow’s police if they
want. There is a strong possibility that the bombers did exactly that. It
has also been mentioned in the Russian press that the bombers hired people
of ‘Slavic appearance’ to help set up the bombs. So even if the bombers are
of non-Russian non-Moscow origin, there are ways for them organize further
bombings despite the regime.


The propiska regime is also thoroughly corrupt. It is widely known that
many Moscow police officers accept or demand bribes to let violators stay.
More disturbing, however, are reports that many Caucasians have been beaten
by policemen during document checks or apartment raids. Tribunsky makes
little mention of this nor attempts to explain how such a corrupt system
could possibly be effective in increasing security.


Tribunsky attempts to divert attention from the above issues by claiming
that in sympathizing with Caucasian minorities, Westerners are ignoring the
victims of the recent Moscow bombings. He claims this is hypocrisy. But
Tribunsky himself is grossly ignoring many things. Yes, the bombings were
tragic, but they certainly do not compare to the inhumanity of the war in
Chechnya. Not nearly enough has been done to acknowledge the gross abuses
by Russian soldiers during the war. Most Russians are not even aware or
simply ignore that all Chechens, along with several other ethnic groups,
were deported by the Soviets to the East during WWII, a cruel process during
which thousands died. Tribunsky also ignores the current day-to-day life of
Caucasians in Moscow, who face racism, discrimination, bribe-taking,
harassment from the police and authorities, and other abuses which are not
infrequently violent or fatal. While the bombing campaign is probably
temporary, this phenomenon is permanent.


Trubunsky’s argument that Muscovites need to feel security in the wake of
the bombings does not hold water either. Aside from above arguments that
document checking is hardly effective, the real danger Muscovites are in is
a little exaggerated. In the three bombings 200 people died in a city of 11
million. Two apartment buildings were bombed out of 30,000 in Moscow. Yes,
it is scary. Security should be reviewed and measures should be taken.
But, nevertheless, the real danger Muscovites are in is not much bigger than
getting hit by a drunk driver, dying from the city’s pollution, or being
beaten to death by a drunken husband. Certainly, the danger does not
justify gross human-rights violations.


And gross human-rights violations they are. Moscow’s propiska regime, even
if it were enforced without racism and corruption, violates the constitution
of the Russian Federation and declarations and treaties of the United
Nations and Council of Europe which Russia claims to adhere to. The regime
bars freedom of movement, an internationally recognized right inscribed in
Russia’s own constitution and virtually makes Moscow and independent state
with its own immigration controls. Tribunsky’s argument that these policies
are similar to the visa policies of Western countries toward Russia is like
comparing apples and oranges. Moscow is not an independent country and
certainly Western nations do not have such controls for people entering and
attempting to reside in the capital cities of their own countries.


Tribunsky attempts to argue that the majority of Muscovites support the
security measures, which is undoubtedly true. But human-rights violations
are simply not justifiable by the will of the majority. That would be like
saying that discrimination against blacks in America or anywhere else could
be justified by saying that the majority of people support the
discrimination. Chechnya is still part of the Russian Federation, a fact
few Russians want to dispute. As such Chechens are Russian citizens, just
like dozens of other ethnic groups that reside within Russia. All of them
deserve the same rights as all Russians citizens.


The bottom line is, racism is simply not a solution to Moscow’s recent
bombings nor is it justifiable in any situation. Adhering to racial and
ethnic stereotypes, a trap Tribunsky falls into at various times, especially
his statement that Caucasians have ‘pride in the unwritten law of blood’,
will not only fail to solve problems, it will also increase tensions between
Russians and other ethnic groups in Russia. Russia will become a safer and
more secure place by building better relations among the various ethnic
groups who live within. Both Russia and Moscow will be looked upon better
by the international community when efforts are made to improve the legal
rights and the enforcement of those rights of all ‘guests’ from Russia and
abroad.


John Semlak
Moscow-based expat


*******


#9
Official Rules Out Passport Regime in Moscow 


MOSCOW, October 6 (Itar-Tass) -- "There has never 
been any special passport regime in Moscow and there will be no such 
system in the future, too, but every person, who comes to the capital, 
will have to register," Chief of the Passport Section of the Moscow 
Interior Department Mikhail Serov stated here on Wednesday. 


He agreed that the "existing system of registration is imperfect", 
adding however, that it is the duty of the police to keep record of those 
who come to the capital. In order to create a smooth registration 
mechanism, it is necessary, first of all, to normalise the influx of 
outsiders from other parts of the country. Explaining why this is 
necessary, he noted that the migration processes generated crime. 
According to official statistics, 32.6 per cent of all the crimes 
disclosed in the capital were committed by outsiders. 


According to the Moscow Interior Department, as many as 621,000 newcomers 
were 
registered in the capital this year, including 370,000 from the CIS 
countries. Today, there are 98.6 thousand registered outsiders in Moscow. 


The Moscow Interior Department is continuing its work to find people, 
who are illegally staying in Moscow. Replying to complaints that the 
Moscow police was sometimes abusing its powers in the process of 
registration, Serov noted that there was a special telephone number, 
which anybody could dial to state his grievances. "We shall examine them 
and take very tough measures to cut short such abuses," he stated.


********


#10
The Guardian (UK)
9 October 1999
[for personal use only]
A thaw in the Gulag 
Where has the KGB gone? Ian Thomson on Colin Thubron's magical return to 
Russia


In Siberia by Colin Thubron 287pp, Chatto & Windus, £17.99 


Colin Thubron brings back few souvenirs of his solitary wanderings, but his 
notebooks are crammed with life stories. From these he fashions a meticulous 
reportage tinged with poetry. His two wonderful accounts of communist Russia 
and China - Among The Russians and Behind The Wall - narrated the lives of 
ordinary people trapped beneath the crust of dictatorship. Classics of the 
genre, they were written with an unerring eye for human desolation. 


Thubron's eighth travel book, In Siberia, contemplates Stalin's slave-labour 
camps and the frozen immensity of Tartar territory. This is some undertaking. 
Weeds now sprout from the isolation cells and the Gulag watchtowers have 
grown over with moss. Yet the abandoned sites still overwhelm with their 
sense of past suffering. My mother, as a Russian Balt persecuted by Stalin, 
lost friends to the Siberian ice-fields. Among them was the Tallinn lawyer 
Arnold Susi, a key figure in Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago. In 1945 
Susi vanished in the deeps of Novosibirsk, a statistic among the millions of 
Siberian dead. 


How is Thubron (a descendant of the first poet laureate, John Dryden) 
qualified to speak of the Gulag? His previous work, The Lost Heart of Asia, 
was constrained by a very English sang-froid and reserve. However, this new 
book is Thubron's finest achievement to date. Almost every page radiates 
gem-like images and an exquisite literary craft. Few can write with Thubron's 
poise and style; he is a marvellous story-teller. The culmination of a 
lifetime's travel in far-flung Soviet lands, In Siberia is also a restless 
personal quest. The former USSR has consumed much of Thubron's adult life: 
was it worth it? In this refreshingly candid account, tantalising details 
emerge of the author's teenage years in Canada where his father was military 
attache. We learn that Thubron is unmarried, childless and (at almost 60) 
well past the terminal age for the average Siberian male. Beneath the 
mandarin prose lies a death-haunted personal narrative. 


For much of his 15,000-mile journey, Thubron is light-headed with amazement. 
Where are the KGB? In the Brezhnev years when Thubron explored Russia in a 
decrepit Morris Marina, his notebooks were confiscated by government spooks. 
(To lose a passport is the least of a travel writer's worries: to lose our 
notes is a nightmare). Fifteen years later Thubron is now free to meet anyone 
he wants in Siberia. The harrowing immensity of the place eludes easy 
description, however. Rather than explore its geography, Thubron chooses to 
travel down the strata of Siberian society, recording the changes that have 
occurred. This is Thubron's unique gift to modern literary travel; he was 
among the first to abandon conventional travel narrative and focus instead on 
chance encounters with the people. Thubron still is a magician in this field. 


Rasputin lookalikes, religious shamans and Gulag survivors all create an 
enduring image of Siberia that is less a country than a strange region in the 
mind. Named after the Tartar sibir (sleeping land), Siberia is bigger than 
the United States and western Europe combined. Where is its heart? 
Post-communist Siberia is in perilous upheaval, simmering in a stew of 
uncontrolled private enterprise, orthodox fundamentalism and booze-inflamed 
nostalgia for the Czars. The local mafia grow fat on imported delicacies, 
while the poor roam hopefully for reindeer meat. But the reindeer pastures 
were ruined by acid rain and Siberian children drink vodka at the age of 12. 


Thubron is less interested in politics, I think, than in finding the 
unchanging spirit of a place. His Siberia is the same timeless land that 
Dostoevsky described in his great prison memoir, The House of the Dead. 
Thubron drinks fermented mare's milk (declining sautéed horse intestines and 
pine-flavoured elk) like a local herdsman. But his fair skin and wiry 
physique mean he is constantly mistaken for a down-at-heel Balt. Thubron's 
epic journey east to Vladivostock passes by the icy graves of ancient 
Scythians and the world's deepest lake - the mythical Baikal. Throughout, his 
wanderings are accompanied by a progressive shedding of western prejudice and 
preconceptions. Siberians are mostly dark-haired but they are not the hirsute 
descendants of Genghis Khan. The late (though admittedly peroxide) Raisa 
Gorbachev was herself from Siberia. 


Thubron's quest ends in the feared Gulag archipelago round the Siberian city 
of Magadan, where temperatures can still plummet to -97F. Under Stalin there 
were brutal maimings, murders and torture here but also unexpected acts of 
kindness. ("Cruelty is invariably accompanied by sentimentality," the 
deported Arnold Susi told Solzhenitsyn). Still, it's hard for Russia to 
conceive that all these political deaths - an estimated 62 million in the 70 
years after the 1917 Revolution - were in the name of progress. Colin Thubron 
has completed a glorious quartet of travel books with In Siberia. Scholarly, 
superbly written, it will last well into the next millennium. 
*******


#11
Moscow Times
October 9, 1999 
EDITORIAL: 41 Refugees Die Yet Few Seem to Care 


When NATO airstrikes would hit, by accident, a column of refugees in 
Yugoslavia, it would unfold like this: The news would be reported instantly, 
prominently and in detail by Western media; NATO would announce it was 
looking into the matter; and, reasonably quickly, NATO would acknowledge due 
responsibility, apologize sincerely and then, once again, lay out its war 
aims. Later, if Bill Clinton or Tony Blair were to appear in public, they 
would be asked about the matter, and they would give respectful, if resolute, 
replies. 


When Russia hits, by accident, a column of refugees in Chechnya, the scenario 
unfolds entirely differently - and this speaks volumes about Russia, Chechnya 
and the West, about their militaries and the media. 


Consider reports that on Tuesday a Russian tank fired upon a busload of 
refugees, killing 41. News of this came out in trickles, buried 
after-thought-low in Western media accounts. By Thursday, Reuters had 
obtained amateur video footage of the event and started offering it up 
aggressively for the international attention it deserved. 


The Russian media were not impressed, and the Russian military denied the 
report out of hand. Why even check into it? Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's 
flippant remarks about the matter summed up the official attitude. It didn't 
happen, Putin said, because "if there had been such an incident, refugees 
would not still be fleeing to Russia." Ha ha. (So, maybe Russia's refugee 
problem will solve itself if enough refugees get killed?) 


While Western media have already documented numerous civilian casualties, the 
Russians insist - dishonestly - that their precision bombing hits only allies 
of Shamil Basayev. And need we even discuss President Boris Yeltsin's 
non-response? He is not having a two-week nose operation this time, but he's 
still hiding. 


The mafia-like Dzhokhar Dudayev regime, followed by the Kremlin's 1994-1996 
airwar on civilians, has left Chechnya in a state of nature - where 
war-crazed "field commanders" roam, aid workers are murdered and kidnappings 
are epidemic. The Kremlin has done nothing to rein in these horrors - and 
instead has reneged on promises of postwar reconstruction aid and otherwise 
undercut Russia's only friend in the region, President Aslan Maskhadov. 


Now we are at war again - but as civilians are dying needlessly, criticism is 
muted. After all, Chechnya is hellish - so much so that not only is it hard 
to get the news out properly, but that the news itself - that children on a 
bus have been killed by accident - becomes distorted by hateful memories of 
the warlords and the Dudayevites, and by official propaganda that Chechens 
are a race of terrorists and bandits. 


*******


#12
Dzhambulat's Generator Sheds Light On War For Ordinary Chechens


ALKHAN-KALA, Russia, Oct 9, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Chechens hungry 
for news of Moscow's war against the rebel republic gather in Dzhambulat's 
courtyard to hear the latest reports from the front: his generator-powered 
television set providing a cherished link to the outside world.


"It's difficult to keep up with what's going on in Chechnya, but it's so 
important for us," sighed Indira Shibayeva, 23, one of around 50 people who 
regularly gather to listen to the impromptu open-air newscasts in this town 
of 15,000 souls on the southwestern outskirts of Grozny.


Indira has no generator and like most Chechens has been hard hit by power 
shortages since the war waged by Russia on its independence-minded republic 
escalated a week ago with a ground offensive by federal troops.


"In general, we have only three hours of electricity a day," said one of her 
friends.


Deprived of power, many Chechens have also turned to Russian-language radio 
broadcasts by foreign stations, with the BBC, Radio France Internationale and 
the US-funded Radio Liberty the most popular.


The news broadcasts can be picked up across the entire region, unlike the 
home-produced programs of Chechen radio.


"I can't wait for the radio news to see whether world opinion will at last 
get outraged by what's going on and stop the war," said Indira.


Chechen newspapers have failed to reached Alkhan-Kala since Russia launched 
its relentless air campaign against Chechnya on September 5, residents 
relying instead on people who work in the Chechen capital to bring local 
newspapers back to the town.


Russian air strikes have also made it dangerous to transport newspapers, 
newsprint and other basic print shop materials outside the capital, forcing 
many publications, already in difficulty because of power shortages, off 
news-stands.


Bizarrely, however, many Moscow-based newspapers such as Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 
the business daily Kommersant and Komsomolskaya Pravda, continue to be 
available in Grozny, despite the imposition of a Russian security zone around 
the bulk of the rebel republic.


The papers are spirited into Chechnya from the neighboring Russian republics 
of Ingushetia and Dagestan, arriving around three days late.


The journals have a heavy pro-Moscow bias, backing to the hilt the Russian 
government's official line that Chechnya has become a haven for Islamic 
guerrillas waging a terrorist campaign against Russia.


Alkhan-Kala, half of which was destroyed during the 1994-96 war, has so far 
been spared attack by the Russian air force.


But while keeping abreast of the news is possible thanks to Dzhambulat's 
generator, getting in touch with loved ones remains a constant source of 
anxiety for the town's residents.


The phone system was destroyed in the last war, and all but one of the mobile 
telephone companies have seen their networks destroyed by the heavy Russian 
air campaign launched at the beginning of September.


"I had to wait for hours in one of the three or four telephone centers that 
still operate in Grozny so that I could speak to my cousins in Moscow," said 
Indira.


Adding to an already hazardous existence, many Chechens have been laid off 
work since the war started. Indira, like thousands more in the republic 
receive no salary, social security payments and has to dig deep into her 
meager savings to eke out a living.


"My relatives said I should come to Moscow, but I don't want to go," said 
Indira. "Our relatives in Russia help us. A few people can help an entire 
village survive," she said. 


*******


#13
Stratfor Commentary
www.stratfor.com
October 9, 1999
Putin Benefits From Chechen Conflict


Russia's offensive in Chechnya is proving to be a temporary political success 
for the current administration. By tapping into the public's nationalistic 
sentiments, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has gained public approval, which 
has allowed him to push forward in Chechnya with relatively little criticism 
or backlash. 


Putin vowed in mid-August to defeat the terrorists responsible for the Moscow 
apartment bombings, tapping into a national concern that legitimizes his 
power and regains Russia's national pride. Already determined to drive the 
Chechen rebels out of Dagestan, Putin skillfully tied the urban bombings to 
the rebels, which eventually led to Russia's current push into Chechnya. 


Putin's current political success derives largely from a Russian willingness 
to indulge in nationalist sentiment, dating back to the confrontation with 
NATO over bombing in Kosovo. A public used to embarrassing scandals and 
increasing Russian reliance on the West has welcomed with pride Putinâ' 
hard-line tactics, which include a pledge to combat terrorism and a refusal 
to end the offensive until any future Chechen rebel threat is eradicated. The 
current administration's ability to spin the Russian media has also been a 
factor in Putin's success. The Interior Ministry continues to report lopsided 
victory and casualty numbers on the Chechen front, painting a victorious 
image.


The government's recent tactic has won it domestic favor. Putin's 
anti-terror mission has quieted a once sardonic Moscow media, which had 
severely criticized the administration for its failure to quell the Islamic 
rebel events in Dagestan. His approval rating has soared to 31 percent, 
making him the third most popular official in Russia. Opposition from his 
opponents, such as presidential hopefuls Yevgeny Primakov and Moscow Mayor 
Yuri Luzhkov, has been lukewarm at best. And NATO, although it disagrees with 
a Russian-Chechen war, has asked only for a peaceful solution. All of this 
popularity, however, is contingent upon Russian success in the Caucasus.


In the midst of Russia's political and economic turmoil, Putin's 
anti-terrorist aggression brings confidence and pride. Putin in turn gains 
temporary public support, but only so long as Russia's Chechen campaign is 
not marred by huge casualties. The public's pride, and Putin's success, 
would quickly evaporate in the event of defeat.


******


#14
Russia: Caspian Nations Face Difficult Choices On Pipeline Around Chechnya
By Michael Lelyveld


Boston, 8 October 1999 (RFE/RL) -- Nations in the Caspian Sea region may be 
facing difficult choices as the result of Russia's invitation for them to 
join in building an oil pipeline to bypass Chechnya.


The proposal was disclosed Tuesday by an official of the Russian pipeline 
company Transneft. Sergei Ter-Sarkisyants, a Transneft vice president, said 
Russia is asking Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to take part in the 
pipeline plan to detour around Chechnya. Transneft estimates that the line 
through Dagestan will take six months and $100 million to build.


The figures fall far short of those given recently by other Russian 
officials, who have publicly discussed options for raising $200 million to 
$250 million for the Chechnya bypass. When the pipeline alternative between 
Baku and Novorossiysk was first proposed in 1997 by former Deputy Prime 
Minister Boris Nemtsov, officials said it would take nine months and cost 
$220 million.


The huge cut in the cost estimate may reflect the pressure on Transneft to 
accomplish a political task. Last month, a new chairman of the company was 
forcibly installed by the government of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who 
ordered the pipeline to be built. Transneft has little money available for 
such a large unplanned expense. It might be unwise for officials to admit 
that they cannot do the job. One possible solution is to claim a lower price.


Another way out of the problem would be to share the burden with other 
Caspian countries, after trying to convince them that they would benefit as 
well. Two years ago, Russia planned to sell Eurobonds to finance the bypass 
on its own. Foreign financing seems impossible now with a war going on.


Russia's Caspian neighbors may be tempted to join in a project that would 
help them to gain export capacity. The line through Chechnya has been closed 
or subject to illegal tapping for most of this year. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan 
and Turkmenistan all depend on Russia in some way for access to export 
markets. Helping Russia with the bypass might open the door for cooperation 
on other export routes.


The alternatives to cooperation could also prove hazardous. Russia's 
relations with Turkmenistan appear to have turned frostier since last month 
when Ashgabat claimed sovereignty over a sector of the Caspian where it is 
conducting exploration. The country was warned by the Russian Foreign 
Ministry, which rejected the claim.


Tensions have been aggravated this week by Russian press reports charging 
that Turkmenistan is providing passage for Afghan terrorists on their way to 
Chechnya. Ashgabat has condemned the allegations, calling them "nonsense" and 
"dirty insinuations." Russia has leveled similar accusations of support for 
the rebels against Azerbaijan and Georgia, which both support pipeline routes 
from the Caspian that would avoid Russia. Moscow's message seems to be not 
only that it would appreciate help in a time of trouble but that it can also 
use pressure on its neighbors to make them choose sides.


But analysts say that aiding the bypass project would be ill-advised. The 
detour through Dagestan would help to create a virtual embargo of Chechnya, 
depriving it of future income, exports or strategic value. Those who join in 
construction or share in its benefits are likely to become Chechnya's enemies 
and potential targets for retaliation. It is hard to imagine that a Caspian 
partnership for the pipeline would be regarded as an ordinary business deal. 
So far, the Chechens appear to have steered clear of interfering with any 
pipelines in the region, except the one that runs across Chechnya. Far-flung 
Chechen business interests have generally supported Azerbaijan President 
Heydar Aliyev, arguing that he will bring greater prosperity and trade to the 
Caucasus, even though he has promoted a main export pipeline route that does 
not run through Chechnya.


But a cooperative bypass project that is designed to cut off all future 
transit through Chechnya could change the equation in the region, creating 
the appearance of an alliance against the rebels. There would be an advantage 
for Russia, but it is hard to see one for the other Caspian nations.


Meanwhile, U.S. officials have renewed their own invitation to Russia to 
participate in building the Baku-Ceyhan oil line. Speaking in Moscow this 
week, Jan Kalicki of the U.S. Commerce Department said that greater pipeline 
capacity for the Caspian will be needed even if a Chechnya bypass succeeds. 
Russia would be welcome to participate in the U.S.-backed project, an offer 
that was first made over two years ago.


But peaceful cooperation seems even less likely now, while pipeline projects 
have become an extension of war.


*******


#15
Ukraine Will Not Join NATO, Prime Minister Says.


MOSCOW, October 9 (Itar-Tass) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Valery Pustovoitenko 
said his country "is not and will not be joining any blocs". 


"This issue is constantly hashed out in Russia and raised by some political 
parties in Ukraine, especially on the eve of elections," Pustovoitenko said 
in a television conference that linked Moscow and Kiev on Saturday evening. 


The conference was simultaneously broadcast by Russia's ORT and Ukraine's 
"1+1" channels. 


The prime minister advised everyone who is concerned about Ukraine's possible 
accession to NATO to study its constitution which clearly says that "Ukraine 
is a non-bloc country. It does not and will not join any blocs." 


"This is written in the constitution, and no one will be able to change the 
constitution now or in the near future," he added. 


Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov pointed out that his country's position 
on NATO expansion "is absolutely clear and definite". 


Assessing Ukraine's position upon return from a two-day working trip to Kiev, 
Ivanov stressed the need to stick to the statements "made by the leadership 
-- the president, the prime minister and the foreign minister" of the 
republic. 


"I have not heard them make any statements that Ukraine is getting ready to 
join NATO," he said. 


Earlier in the day, Ukrainian parliament speaker Alexander Tkachenko said 
there is no question of his country's accession to NATO or any other military 
bloc. 


"Ukraine stays clear of all blocs by the constitution and there can be no 
question of its admission to NATO or other military organisations," Tkachenko 
said as he met the military at Levanevsky in the Zaporozhye region. 


At the same time, Tkachenko expressed deep concern about the fact that 
Ukraine has disarmed itself and destroyed "unique underground military towns 
created by the human mind". 


"Now, powerful neighbours do not want to reckon with our country as a week 
state," he concluded. 


******


#16
US, Russia Pursue Non-Proliferation Plan of Action.


WASHINGTON, October 9 (Itar-Tass) - The United States and Russia are pursuing 
the non-proliferation plan of action approved by the two states's 
governments, a non-proliferation and national security aide to the US energy 
secretary, Rosa Gottemuller, told reporters on Friday. 


She accompanied Energy Secretary Bill Richardson during his recent visit to 
Russia, where he held talks with Nuclear Power Minister Yevgeny Adamov. 


Gottemuller said Richardson and Adamov in particular addressed the range of 
measures in the field of non-proliferation of nuclear materials and 
technologies. 


This work involves diplomat and technical experts of Russia and the United 
States. Their efforts aim at "clarifying some aspects of cooperation" of 
Russia with other countries, in the first place with Iran, and abolishing 
concerns over sales of nuclear technologies and materials on the 
international market. 


Russia is a member of the Group of Nuclear Suppliers, Gottemuller said, and 
the US Enbergy Department is trying to reach an understanding with Russian 
partners on expectable dangers of exports of certain technologies that can be 
used in nuclear weapons programmes outright or that have dual purposes. 


Gottemuller said the US administration is still concerned over Russia's 
cooperation with Iran "in some fields". 


Richardson said at his meeting with Adamov that this cooperation should not 
go beyond the boundaries of construction of the first reactor of the Bushere 
nuclear power plant, as it was agreed a few years ago at a meeting of US Vice 
President Albert Gore and Russia's former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. 


In general, the US administration thinks the non-proliferation and export 
control problem of Russia can be solved only by the Russian government, and 
the joint "plan of action" should be helpful to this. 


The plan was developed by Adamov and the US energy secretary's arms and 
international security aide John Holam. 


The plan was adopted after the US administration imposed sanctions on 
Russia's Energy Engineering Institute and Mendeleyev Chemical-Technological 
Institute . 


Washington was suspicious that the two research centers' cooperation with 
Iran assists its developing nuclear weapons. 


Moscow disagreed, but embarked on the search for a compromise. The Russian 
government hopes that implementation of the "plan of action" will facilitate 
the US' lifting its sanctions against the two Russian research centers. 


*******


#17
US Chief Counterterrorism Coordinator to Visit Russia.


WASHINGTON, October 9 (Itar-Tass) - The chief coordinator of the U.S. state 
counterterrorism department, ambassador Michael Sheehan, plans to visit 
Russia in late October. 


The ambassador told a briefing for foreign reporters in Washington that he 
would most likely arrive in Russia when the planned meeting of Group of Eight 
law-enforcement senior officials was concluded. The meeting, that will 
discuss measures against international organised crime, is to be held in 
Moscow from October 19-20. 


The diplomat recalled he had visited Russia as the head of a U.S. government 
delegation last February, long before the series of terrorist acts in Russia 
last September. 


But already at that time, the Russian and U.S. governments realised that the 
two countries had common interests in fighting against terrorism all over the 
world and decided to launch the dialogue. In the past few weeks, the contacts 
became broader, and they will develop, the diplomat said. 


*******

Web page for CDI Russia Weekly:
http://www.cdi.org/russia