March 4, 2001   

This Date's Issues:   5130 • 5131

Johnson's Russia List
#5131
3 March 2001
davidjohnson@erols.com

[Note from David Johnson:
1. Itar-Tass: Over 9,000 Questions Amassed for PUTIN'S Internet Interview.
2. Boston Globe: David Filipov, Incidental casualties in the war on Chechnya. Russians' rage visits Caucasus.
3. The Sunday Telegraph (UK): Anne Applebaum, Soviet-style terror has the media at bay.
4. BBC: Gorbachev still packs a punch.
5. The Guardian (UK): Amelia Gentleman, Holy row divides relatives of Tolstoy. Attempts to recommunicate Tolstoy to the Russian Orthodox church look likely to fail.
6. The Sunday Times (UK): Mark Franchetti, Inside Moscow.
7. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: Is There a Future for Independent Media in Russia? (Matt Bivens)
8. strana.ru: Getting rid of bureaucrats will save $5.8Bln. (Gref)
9. RFE/RL's Weekly Reports.
10. The Russia Journal: Alexander Golts, Russia's proposals outdo even NMD's fantasies. Moscow can't provide positive counteroffer.
11. Peter Neyev: OPEN LETTER FROM THE RUSSIAN PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTITIONER. (response to Lesin)
12. CONGRESS FUNDS 2001 RUSSIAN LEADERSHIP PROGRAM; NEW CENTER FOR RUSSIAN LEADERSHIP TO MANAGE EXCHANGE PROGRAM.
13. GREENPEACE REVEALS DOCUMENTS PROVING CORRUPTION BY RUSSIA'S ATOMIC MINISTER AND CALLS FOR HALT TO HIS PLANS TO IMPORT RADIOACTIVE WASTE.] 

*******

#1
Over 9,000 Questions Amassed for PUTIN'S Internet Interview

MOSCOW, Mar 04, 2001 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- More than 9,000 questions
have amassed for President Putin's interview with Russian and foreign
Internet news sites.

Yet the Strana.Ru national information service, the Gazeta.Ru news site and
the BBC information service will not be able to ask all of them to the
Russian leader during an hour-long interview to begin at 6 p.m. Moscow time
on March 6.

A source in Strana.Ru has told Itar-Tass they will ask the president
"questions, which are the most frequently asked, and the ones the president
has not answered during his traditional interviews with the press."

"Vladimir Putin will also hear questions, which have been announced the
most interesting in federal districts' contests for the best question to
the president," the source said.

About 40 percent of questions vary from idle curiosity to serious
philosophical matters, a source in Gazeta.Ru said. Russian citizens are
also interested in the reform of public utilities and housing,
anti-bureaucracy measures, changes in the tax code, the situation in
Chechnya and many international problems.

Residents of Europe, Asia, America, Australia and Africa ask about
democracy, the freedom of press, human rights, the situation in Chechnya,
economic reforms and environmental problems. The foreigners are most of all
interested in Russia's possible reaction to the American deployment of a
national missile defense system.

It will be the first Internet interview of the Russian leader, a source in
the Kremlin press service has told Itar-Tass.

*******

#2
Boston Globe
4 March 2001
Incidental casualties in the war on Chechnya
Russians' rage visits Caucasus
By David Filipov, Globe Staff

NOVOLAKSKOYE, Russia - Aliyat Orzarbayev has a huge crater where his living
room used to be, the result of a direct hit from a Russian shell that blew
away half of his house, his garage, and his barn. He did not blame the
Russian Army when it happened. He does now.

Almost all the houses on Orzarbayev's street bear grim reminders of the
Russian military assault 16 months ago on this Caucasus foothill town, on
the tense frontier with Chechnya. There are rooms without roofs,
shrapnel-scarred walls, gaping holes where windows were.

Dozens of townspeople were killed in the battle that raged in Novolakskoye,
a poor farming town in the Russian republic of Dagestan, just over the
eastern border of Chechnya, in September 1999. But no one here was angry
with the Kremlin or the Russian Army then.

The federal force had been sent in to chase out a force of Chechen-led
Islamic militants who had occupied the town a few days earlier. The toll in
lives and damage was heavy, but back then the people of Novolakskoye seemed
to see it as a price worth paying to drive out the Chechen invaders.

These days, people here are not so sure. Their fields are mined, which
means they can make a living only if they want to risk their lives.

The one road leading into town is blocked off by a checkpoint; soldiers
check everyone's documents. The border area is a war zone; troop carriers
and tanks rumble along a fierce array of trenches and armaments.

Another state-appointed inspector came by recently to assess the damage. As
they always do, this inspector told Orzarbayev that it was not bad enough
to merit any of the money that the Russian government had promised to
rebuild Novolakskoye.

None of his neighbors have received any compensation, either. And now they
are mad at Moscow, too. It does not matter that Moscow has sent most of the
money, and that it probably has been diverted by local officials.

''They promise us reconstruction, but for one and a half years, we have
been living in the cold among the ruins,'' Orzarbayev said.

The rumble of artillery over the border from Novolakskoye is a reminder
that the conflict in Chechnya rages on, despite Moscow's assurances that
the military stage of its ''antiterrorist operation'' is over, and that all
that remains is to mop up a few remaining bands of militants.

That has somehow not stopped the rebels in Chechnya from crossing into
Dagestan to steal cattle or to take a respite from the fighting.

''This is not a life,'' Orzarbayev said. ''I had a home, I had a normal
life. And this war has ruined everything.''

It is remarkable that anyone here would say that. Dagestan, and border
towns like Novolakskoye in particular, suffered the brunt of the
lawlessness and chaos that reigned in the Caucasus in the three years that
Chechnya, de facto, was independent after the disastrous 1994-1996 Russian
campaign against the rebels.

In the three years afterward, and until Russian troops poured back into
Chechnya in October 1999, dozens of people in Dagestan were kidnapped and
held for ransom in Chechnya.

Armed gangs frequently crossed over from Chechnya, stealing cars, cattle or
anything else they could take back. Federal authorities were unable to
pursue criminals into Chechnya, and the separatist government was either
unwilling or too weak to put an end to the attacks.

The Chechen anarchy soured the Dagestanis, who are predominantly Muslim,
and who have supported Chechnya in its centuries of resistance to Kremlin
rule. When militants led by a Chechen commander, Shamil Basayev, and a
Saudi-born deputy, who goes by one name, Khatab, crossed into southern
Dagestan in August 1999, Dagestanis rushed to form militias to help federal
troops to fight off the invaders.

''We will not be able to forgive the Chechens any time soon,'' said Shamil
Kerimov, mayor of the mountain town of Botlikh in southwestern Dagestan,
the scene of heavy fighting. ''We were like brothers to them, and they
destroyed our houses. That is not something we will forget any time soon.''

In other parts of Russia, and in the West, many people question the
Kremlin's motivation for sending troops into Chechnya. One theory has it
that the whole war was part of a dark conspiracy by security forces in
Moscow to get Vladimir V. Putin elected president.

Proponents of that theory have suggested that forces loyal to Putin set off
apartment bombs in the Russian capital and elsewhere that killed 300 people.

Few people support that theory in Dagestan. When a bomb exploded on Sept.
4, 1999, in the city of Bunaiksk, killing 58 people, suspicion fell not on
the Kremlin but on a radical Islamic sect, popularly known as the Wahabbis,
that is allied with Khatab.

Dagestan's Supreme Court is preparing to hear a case against six men, all
of whom are accused of having trained at a Khatab camp in Chechnya, and
whom prosecutors accuse of setting off the Bunaiksk blast.

The judge in the case moved the trial recently to a jailhouse in Dagestan's
capital, Makhachkala, after he received a tip that Khatab had been planning
to send some of his fighters to try to free the defendants.

But if the anti-Chechen mood seems more intense in Dagestan than elsewhere,
few people outside Russia seem to be aware of it.

Most journalists who cover the war travel to Ingushetia, west of Chechnya,
where most of the refugees from the fighting live in tent camps. When Mary
Robinson, then the United Nations high commissioner on refugees, traveled
to the Caucasus last year to investigate human rights violations against
civilians, she refused to meet with Dagestani officials, and she canceled a
visit to Novolakskoye.

If Robinson had gone, she would have seen a town in ruins. By most
accounts, the Chechens had left the village by the time the main army
forces arrived. As has often happened in Russia's two recent campaigns in
Chechnya, the town was probably empty of enemy fighters as federal
artillery pounded it.

''After the first day, the Chechens were gone,'' said Sagit-batal Uzunov,
the mayor of Novolakskoye. ''The police came in and started looting and
burning houses. If anyone got in the way, they killed them.''

Someone almost killed Uzunov. A bullet hit him in the leg, and he spent
seven months recuperating. Many townspeople left before the fighting, but
some, like Akhyat Batiberiyeva's husband, stayed behind to try to protect
their property. He died in the bombardment when their house took a direct
hit, but Batiberiyeva said she has not received any compensation.

Some locals were arrested when police went door to door looking for rebels.
About 20 percent of Novolakskoye's population of 5,000 is made up of ethnic
Chechens, and many of them were detained on suspicion of aiding the rebels.

Zelimkhan Gamadayev and his two sons spent seven months in prison, where,
he said, they were frequently beaten; he was freed when his wife, Malika,
paid police $1,500.

Corruption appears to play a big part in the reconstruction effort, or lack
thereof, in Dagestan. Last March, prosecutors opened 15 criminal cases
against officials who had been diverting money for victims of the fighting
to relatives and friends. People in Novolakskoye say this is happening
here, as well, although there have been no convictions.

''An inspector came over and told me I was not entitled to anything because
my house is not so badly ruined that I can't live in it,'' said Isaak
Yayayev, whose home is missing a few walls and roofs. ''They say you can
get compensation if you know someone in places of influence.''

''I don't know anyone of influence,'' Yayayev told a reporter as he walked
back through the shrapnel-dotted gates of his home. ''Do you?''

*******

#3
The Sunday Telegraph (UK)
4 March 2001
Soviet-style terror has the media at bay
By Anne Applebaum in Moscow

PRESIDENT PUTIN'S tightening grip looks likely to crush his country's last
privately owned TV station.
 
By any standards NTV, the only remaining privately owned television station
in Russia, is in a peculiar position. Its chief shareholder, Vladimir
Gusinsky, has fled the country, having been arrested once already. Its
ownership is in dispute. Its bank accounts have been inexplicably frozen.
The offices of its parent company Media-Most have been raided by armed tax
officers.

Indeed, many of Media-Most's journalists - the group owns newspapers,
magazines and Ekho Moskvy, the only independent news radio station in
Moscow - have experienced various degrees of harassment. Sometimes, they
are refused entry to government press conferences; at other times, they
receive unsolicited assignments from state-owned media groups with
mysterious access to their home telephone numbers. It is now considered a
matter of time before the company is taken over by the state.

Alexei Venediktov, the chief editor of Ekho Moskvy, says that President
Vladimir Putin told a recent meeting of Media-Most's journalists: "Your job
is to support the state." Mr Venediktov is stunned by the Russian leader's
profoundly Soviet world view. "I told him, 'We are not an instrument of the
state'," says the radio chief. "He didn't know what I was talking about. He
thinks that there is state press and anti-state press. He actually doesn't
understand that the press might play an independent role in a civil society."

Nor, it seems, is he the only one. Of late, the saga of NTV, with a clutch
of flamboyant personalities at its centre - the American tycoon Ted Turner
has been rumoured to be negotiating to buy the disputed Media-Most shares -
has attracted a great deal of attention.

On the one hand, the general director of NTV, Evgeny Kisilyov, has launched
a very public crusade to "save" its independence. When he appears on his
own weekly programme, he often delivers extensive monologues about the free
press.

On the other hand, dark rumours circulate about the behaviour of Mr
Gusinsky, who took large loans from Gazprom, the state-controlled natural
gas giant. Gazprom, whose interests are inextricably linked to those of Mr
Putin, is suing for its money, which it would like in the form of a
controlling package of Media-Most shares - thereby formally ending NTV's
independence.

What remains of an independent press elsewhere in Russia is dead or dying,
while there is a simultaneous growth in fear of speaking out against the
powers-that-be. The Glasnost Defence Foundation, which monitors press and
broadcasting, reckons that only about a quarter of the country's media are
now nominally in private hands and, even then, many owners are businessmen
who front for the state authorities.

By the end of this year, the figure looks likely to fall to five per cent.
Across Russia, powerful regional governors, appointed by Mr Putin, are
already creating media-holding groups which will, among other things,
control all access to advertising, effectively eliminating even the
semi-independent regional media that currently exist.

Without NTV, the country may soon resemble a "Russia of the 1970s",
according to a colleague of Alexei Simonov, the Glasnost Defence
Foundation's president. There would be a vast state propaganda machine, and
a tiny group of barely tolerated "dissidents" opposing it. Perhaps not
coincidentally, that is also the Russia - not Stalin's nightmarish Russia,
but Brezhnev's stultifying Russia - in which Vladimir Putin came of age,
and to which he often nostalgically looks back.

Those not destroyed financially may be eliminated by other means. At Novaya
Gazeta, a feisty Moscow bi-weekly newspaper with a circulation of about
100,000, one journalist has been murdered. Another was unexpectedly
arrested last week in Chechnya. (Novaya Gazeta is one of the few papers in
Russia to oppose the Chechen war.) Yet another journalist, Oleg Lurye, was
recently beaten unconscious by thugs, who then carved deep scars in his
face with a knife. Mr Lurye had published a series of articles about
corruption in high places, and says he will continue to do so.

Nevertheless, the paper's editor-in-chief concedes that even he has a
"feeling of threat" which he never had before. Advertisers have begun to
drift away. Last year, the journal was subjected to almost 30 "tax
inspections", which have now become the established form of state
harassment in a country where the tax laws are so complex and so
contradictory that it is all but impossible for any company to comply with
them.

Outside Moscow, methods have been more direct. Last summer, the Bashkir
authorities laid siege to the region's only independent radio station for
nine days, then stormed the offices and led the station's employees away in
handcuffs.

In Moscow, the authorities are more careful, says the radio chief Alexei
Venediktov. "Putin wants to stay in the club of world leaders," he points
out. "He wants to keep up a civilised facade." Instead of handcuffing
journalists, the harassment will probably continue at a low level, causing
only minimal public reaction, either in Russia or abroad.

That, perhaps, is the oddest thing about the slow attempt to eliminate the
opposition media - and, ultimately, opposition thinking - in Russia: the
stunning silence that surrounds the whole process. A small group of
intellectuals and journalists lobby for the right to oppose the official
line. Many others, including most journalists, appear to share their
president's Soviet world view.

"Society supports the destruction of NTV," says Mr Simonov, of the Glasnost
Defence Foundation. In their current "national patriotic mood", he adds,
many Russians assume, like their president, that "opposition" journalists -
especially those with super-wealthy proprietors - are by definition working
against the interests of the nation.

*******

#4
BBC
3 March, 2001
Gorbachev still packs a punch

Mikhail Gorbachev says he remains an optimist and considers he has led a
successful life as he celebrates his 70th birthday.
However, the former Soviet leader still has strong views on international
affairs.

In a radio interview, he warns the United States against going ahead with
its missile defence plan and Nato against absorbing the Baltic states
without Moscow's consent.

Praise for Bush...

Mr Gorbachev describes US President George W. Bush as "a lively man". "He
is natural, not stuck up, not a show-off. There is something definitely
Texan about him".

He said he had received a letter from the new US president, "quite an
informal one... the contents are interesting. It gives rise to many hopes."

But Mr Gorbachev expressed serious concern in his Moscow Echo radio
interview about Washington's plans for its national missile defence system.

...But warning for Washington

"I think they have not thought it out very well. As a politician, I think
this is a harmful move because it will give an impetus to the arms race.

"How can America create security for itself while the rest of the world is
left to its own devices? No country in the world is capable of doing this.

"The Americans have admitted they do not listen to others enough. Let them
listen to us and their allies while they are making up their minds," he
suggested.

Europe itself was against the system, he said.

Moscow would not stand by idly if plans went ahead for the Baltic states of
Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to join Nato, Mr Gorbachev warned.

Moscow had no part in the plan which was "even directed against Russia. It
is replete with danger. Russia is sure to retaliate."

Achievements

Friends of Mr Gorbachev have also published a book to mark his birthday.

Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying in the book: "I always was, and
remain, an optimist. I have no reason to complain. I have succeeded in life."

Despite a number of mistakes, his achievements had been considerable: "The
rights and freedoms of people, new democratic institutions, an open
society, new relations with other countries and the end of the 'Cold War'."

"I was against quick and hasty solutions which rejected the existing
situation out of hand," Mr Gorbachev said.

But he cautioned: "Russians still have a lot to do to become free people."

And in remarks quoted by Interfax news agency, he praised the current
President, Vladimir Putin, for "managing to keep the situation under
control without neglecting the people, increasing pensions and doing much
more."

Mr Putin had travelled a "long road" in a short time.

"It is beyond me why some people are trying to crucify him."

******

#5
The Guardian (UK)
2 March 2001
Holy row divides relatives of Tolstoy
Attempts to recommunicate Tolstoy to the Russian Orthodox church look likely
to fail.
By Amelia Gentleman

Leo Tolstoy's controversial religious convictions incensed the Russian
establishment during the last years of his life. A century later, his
capacity to infuriate the Russian Orthodox church has not abated.

On the 100th anniversary of the writer's excommunication last week, his
great-great grandson Vladimir Tolstoy called on the head of the Russian
church to readmit him to the fold. This mild request for tolerance has
prompted enraged controversy among Tolstoy descendants and an exasperated
response from the church.

Vladimir wrote to the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II to request that
the excommunication decree be revoked, appealing for posthumous forgiveness
on the grounds that Orthodox believers were thrown into confusion by the
church's rejection of the Russian writer. "Russian people are forced to
choose between a national genius and the national religion. This is a very
complex contradiction in society and within every person," he explained.

"Russians cannot renounce their nation's prophetic genius who is our
culture's pride and honour," his letter stated. "Now that humanity has
reached a new level of spiritual tolerance, I'm entitled to hope that my
great ancestor's role in history can be reconsidered."

His appeal has not received the approval of the Tolstoy clan throughout the
world - many of whom have pointed out that the writer maintained a
strongly-felt distaste for the Orthodox church until his death, rejecting
numerous attempts to reconvert him and dismissing the church's rituals as
meaningless sorcery.

Tolstoy formulated his own version of Christianity towards the end of his
life, emulating a Russian peasant's unsophisticated faith in God. He
developed his belief - known as Tolstoyanism - in a series of works, most of
them considered too heretical to be published in Russia. He advocated
chastity, abrogated all forms of killing, and challenged most teachings of
the church - questioning the concept of the Holy Trinity, the divinity of
Christ and the immaculate conception.

He made no attempt to disguise his contempt for the ceremonial rites of
Orthodox church, portraying priests as villains and shocking readers with
viciously critical descriptions of church services. The church denounced much
of his later work as unacceptably blasphemous.

Vladimir, who runs the Tolstoy museum at his estate outside Moscow, has been
overwhelmed by a stream of emails from relatives this week, complaining about
his campaign.

Fyodor Svetana, a distant relative who works at another Tolstoy museum in
Moscow, said the pardon campaign was pointless and irrelevant, adding that
Tolstoy died in 1910 "unrepentant, without any intention of seeking a
reconciliation".

An official response from the patriarch has not yet been delivered, but
judging from preliminary remarks made by Alexei II, the chances that the
excommunication will be overturned look remote. "He brought this upon himself
when he wrote his study of the Gospels and a series or works wholly oppposed
to the Orthodox church. We cannot review this decision because a review is
only possible when the individual changes his position," the Patriarch said
on Wednesday.

Father Vsevolod Chaplin, one of the Patriarch's representatives, clarified
these remarks adding that it would be unusual to reverse the decision now,
particuarly given the clarity of the original case.

"It is possible that Tolstoy was on the path to repentence, but he didn't get
there. One should remember that after the excommunication ruling was made,
Tolstoy said himself that he was in agreement with this decision and did not
consider himself a member of the Orthodox church," he said.

Seeking to reassure Orthodox believers about the writer's afterlife
prospects, he added cheerfully that excommunication was by no means a
sentence to hell. "Excommunication does not represent damnation as many seem
to think; it is simply the recognition that the author's views were wholly
incompatible with those of the Orthodox church," he said.

*******

#6
The Sunday Times (UK)
4 March 2001
Inside Moscow
By Mark Franchetti

That's not Stalin's boy

For more than 10 years, Yevgeni Dzhugashvili has promoted himself as the
grandson of Joseph Stalin. With his squat figure and thick moustache he bears
a remarkable resemblance to the Soviet dictator. He not only speaks like
Stalin but also shares his political views.

But now Galina Dzhugashvili, Stalin's granddaughter, has called him an
impostor and challenged him to undergo a DNA test in Moscow to prove his
identity. "This man is not who he claims to be - he is living a fantasy," she
said. "On my side of the family nobody had even heard of him, and suddenly he
pops up publicising himself."

The 64-year-old Dzhugashvili, a former military engineer in the Soviet space
programme, has been embraced by Stalinists across the country. In April he is
due to appear with the grandsons of Winston Churchill and Theodore Roosevelt
at a symposium in the Netherlands to recall the 1945 Yalta conference, at
which the allied leaders met to decide Europe's future.

Dzhugashvili insisted last week that his birth certificate showed that his
father was Yakov, Stalin's womanising eldest son who had had an affair with
his mother, Olga Golysheva, before being killed in the war.


Russian priests are routinely asked to confer blessings on the fish stocks
that sustain lakeside communities, and most simply pray at the water's edge.
Father Nikander, of Moscow, has other ideas.

To the consternation of fellow monks who feared they might be expected to
follow his example, he pulled on a wetsuit with his black robe and jumped
into the icy lake near his monastery just outside the city, taking an icon
and cross with him.

His superiors were so impressed that he now has to travel across the country,
immersing himself in every pond and lake that needs his attention. Whether
the fish regard his dunkings as a blessing is another matter.

A reputation shot to bits

In an effort to appear more open, the Federal Security Service (FSB), the
former KGB, is allowing visitors into the basement of its infamous Lubyanka
headquarters for the first time. For a small fee you can enjoy a guided tour
of the premises where confessions were extracted from opponents of successive
Soviet regimes.

The initiative will do little to reassure prospective FSB recruits. The
basement walls are still riddled with bullet holes marking the execution of
dozens of dissidents dating back to the 1930s.

No smiling, this is Russia

Smile and the whole world smiles with you - apart from Russia. The interior
ministry has stipulated that smiling is no longer permitted on passport
photographs.

The regulation, a throwback to the communist era, was apparently prompted by
police advice that smiling "distorts" the face, making it hard to compare the
photograph with the person at passport control. A newspaper has urged its
readers to "smile in the passport" and promises to help anyone whose
application is rejected on grounds of jollity.

*******

#7
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Russian and Eurasian Program Vol. 3, No. 5, Feb. 22, 2001
Is There a Future for Independent Media in Russia?

On February 22, 2001 Carnegie Endowment Senior Associate Michael McFaul
hosted
a lunch meeting with Matt Bivens, former editor of The Moscow Times. The
presentation was the fifth session in "state of the State" monthly series,
which seeks to increase understanding of the recent developments and prospects
of the key institutions of the Russian state.  We provide below a short
summary of Bivens's remarks and the discussion that followed.

In his presentation, former editor of The Moscow Times Matt Bivens focused on
the interconnectedness between the political situation and press freedom in
Russia. The widespread corruption and authoritarian tendencies of the Putin
government have had a corresponding effect on the freedom of the press, and
civil liberties in general. Although there are still a few people in
government
unmarred by major scandals (such Alexei Kudrin, Viktor Khristenko, and German
Gref), it is evident that the government is ridden with corruption -- Bivens
listed numerous high profile investigations, which have involved Russia's
ministers.  The ethos of corruption and disregard for civil liberties resulted
in many instances of harassment of journalists and the media.  
Infamous cases of RFE/RL journalist Andrei Babitsky and media oligarch
Vladimir
Gusinsky point to the unwillingness of the Putin government to tolerate
opposition and criticism.  Bivens noted that press freedom usually declines as
elections draw near, citing the angry stand of Central Election Commission
against the "None of the Above" campaign before the March 2000 presidential
elections. Also, media sources that question the official "Chechen terrorist"
version of fall 1999 Moscow bombings appear more likely to have financial
problems and experience journalist intimidation.

The talk and the discussion that followed were off the record.

Summary by Victoria Levin, Junior Fellow with the Russian and Eurasian
Program.

*******

#8
strana.ru
March 2, 2001
Getting rid of bureaucrats will save $5.8Bln
 
According to Minister for Economic Development and Trade German Gref, due
to a package of draft bills on economic de-bureaucratization the burden on
enterprises and the country's population will drop by $5.8Bln as a result
of the removal of administrative barriers.

Moscow University scientists estimate that each Russian family loses 18
dollars a month due to an increase in retail prices resulting from a huge
number of administrative barriers in the economy.

However, the package of draft bills on economic de-bureaucratization is
expected to run into difficulties in the State Duma. Gref does not rule out
the possibility of some government departments lobbying a "no" vote because
they dislike the prospect of removing administrative barriers in the
entrepreneurial business.

The Minister maintains that the State Duma will have no support base to
block the passage of the bills if the president's "stiff support" of the
government will be matched by public backing.

The package will face similar problems in the Federation Council. According
to Minister Gref, the country's regional administrations issue unlawful
licenses in support of 600 types of entrepreneurial activity.

Bureaucrats might find a way out of the situation by issuing departmental
ordinances emasculating amendments to an act on licensing, which were
approved by the government Friday. But then a provision that will be
incorporated into the act will prohibit an extension of a list of
activities subject to licensing, a point stressed by the Minister: "There
will be no departmental acts extending the list of licensed types of
activities," he is quoted as saying. According to him, more than 250 types
of activity are licensed by documents other than the current law.

*******

#9
Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2001
From: AleksandrovS@rferl.org (Yulia Aleksandrovskaya)
Subject: RFE/RL's Weekly Reports

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has launched a new weekly online report,
"Media
Matters," on Central and Eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet
Union. This report is a summary of freedom of the press issues, such as
censorship and pressure on the media, imprisonment and maltreatment of
journalists, closure of media outlets, and problematic media laws. "(Un)Civil
Societies," launched in May of last year, will now present weekly online
summaries of other human rights topics, including religious and ethnic rights,
freedom of assembly and association, imprisonment and pressure on
activists, and
other third-sector developments in Eastern and Central Europe and the
countries
of the former Soviet Union.

"Media Matters" -- which is published every Friday -- is available on the
RFE/RL
website at: http://www.rferl.org/mm/

"(Un)Civil Societies" -- which is published every Wednesday -- can be
viewed at
http://www.rferl.org/ucs/

*******

#10
The Russia Journal
March 3-9, 2001
Russia's proposals outdo even NMD's fantasies
Moscow can't provide positive counteroffer
By Alexander Golts

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and U.S. Secretary of State Colin
Powell are now on first-name terms. This is the main, if not the only,
positive result of the meeting in Cairo between the two countries'
foreign-policy heads. Of less cause for optimism is the decision to renew
consultations on missile-defense issues by both sides' experts.

Both sides, it seemed, were doing their best to dampen the atmosphere
before the meeting. Moscow continued its categorical line on U.S. National
Missile Defense (NMD) plans, saying the missile shield would set off an
uncontrollable arms race.

"Our military-technical analysis shows that the threat of a so-called
'problem' state launching an intercontinental ballistic missile attack
against the United States, which the United States presents as the main
reason for developing NMD, is not real," Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev said.

"The only reason the United States has for deploying NMD, in our opinion,
is its desire to achieve strategic domination of the world. It is our deep
conviction that such a system, if deployed, would be primarily directed
against Russia. This is why we remain firm on our position. Russia will not
agree to 'adapt' and will consequently liquidate the [1972 Anti-Ballistic
Missile] Treaty."

But if Moscow hoped to put Washington on the defensive, it was the wrong
move. The United States was quick to strike back. Instead of justifying the
U.S. plans, Secretary for Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that Russia spreads
nuclear and missile technology round the world and then complains when
America tries to protect itself from the consequences.

As if to confirm these words, the State Department then issued an official
statement "regretting" the sale of nuclear fuel by Russia to India, a
country with a military nuclear program, and which hasn't subjected all its
nuclear facilities to IAEA supervision.

Moscow had no more luck with its idea of speaking with the United States on
behalf of a broad coalition of states opposed to NMD. The Americans'
assurances that NMD would also cover Europe had an immediate effect on
their Western European allies. NATO Secretary-General George Robertson even
told me it would be more accurate now to refer to NMD as Allied, rather
than National Missile Defense. Of the world's great powers, only Russia and
China remain outside this planned coalition now. But even were it inside,
Moscow would have to settle for playing second fiddle.

Just before the meeting between Ivanov and Powell, the Kremlin suddenly
realized the lack of positive signals it was sending to Washington and
hastily began to dispatch some. During a Security Council meeting on export
controls, President Vladimir Putin said there had been problems with both
the Atomic Energy Ministry and the Russian Space Agency in this area. This
amounted to an admission that Rumsfeld's reproaches were justified.

Defense Minister Sergeyev, meanwhile, was given the job of presenting
Robertson with an alternative Russian project for a non-strategic missile
defense system. Putin first proposed this idea to then President Bill
Clinton last summer. The Americans immediately asked for the technical
details, so as to see how serious the Russian proposals were. They never
got them.

The latest proposal, it seems, is no clearer than the last one. Rather than
setting out the specifics of developing a missile-defense system, it
proposes discussion on whether such a system is needed. The technical
details remain vague. Last summer, Russia proposed destroying missiles
launched by "rogue states" during the boost phase immediately following
launch. If Russian anti-missile defense systems like the S-300 and S-400
were stationed close to the borders of countries like North Korea and Iran,
this would be technically feasible.

But judging from Robertson's statements, Moscow has given up on the idea.
According to the head of the Defense Ministry's International Cooperation
Department, Gen. Leonid Ivashov, the idea now is to create a special group
that would be deployed in areas where there was a danger of missile attack
in crisis situations.

Moscow has already studied this kind of strategic missile defense system,
which proposes destroying approaching enemy missiles using a nuclear
explosion in space. This scenario would give Russian military commanders
the chance to station themselves in defended command centers, but is not
likely to suit Western European countries.

Unless Russia has developed some totally new technology over recent years
(which is unlikely for many reasons), it will only be able to offer its
partners its existing missile defense systems, which have a limited range
of action. This means destroying missiles either just after launch, or in
the final phase, as the missile approaches its target. In a crisis, the
Russian systems would have to be rapidly deployed in Western European
countries in the areas targeted by enemy missiles. The American plans look
far-fetched enough as it is, but the Russian proposals are even more
fantastic.

Robertson has few illusions regarding Russia's proposals and acknowledges
that their purpose may be entirely political. "It could be that this is an
elaborate wedge-driving exercise for the Alliance ," he said in an
interview with the BBC. "If that is the case - I don't think it is the
case, but if it was the case - it wouldn't succeed because whatever the
differences of opinion there may be among NATO members, the fact is that
the Americans have made a decision. And the Europeans will discuss and
debate it, and will arrive at - as we always do - a consensus position."

Perhaps this is indeed the case. But it's very doubtful that Moscow's
chosen tactics will bring any real result. The biggest problem in
Russian-American relations is that aside from a long list of complaints,
Moscow can't propose any positive program.

******

#11
Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2001
From: Peter Neyev <ccgneyev@mtu-net.ru>
Subject: OPEN LETTER FROM THE RUSSIAN PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTITIONER.

March 2, 2001
OPEN LETTER FROM THE RUSSIAN PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTITIONER
TO:
Mrs. Veronica Moiseyeva
· Russian Public Relations Association,
· International Public Relations Association / Russia
Mr. Gleb Pavlovski
· Efficient Policy Foundation
Ø Johnson's Russia List
· The Russian Federation Government
· The Right Forces Union
· VEDOMOSTI
· Soobsheniye-Ekspert
Ø The Moscow Times

FORWARD TO THE PAST

The day before yesterday Minister for Press and Information Mikhail Lesin
announced a 'Cold War' propaganda campaign against US. He also elaborated
on a plan to build a positive image for Russia in the West.

Professional participants of the Russian PR market, who have built
civilized norms of communications and public education in our country,
should express their attitude towards these government plans.

I am perplexed by frivolous treatment of such notions as 'propaganda' and
'image building' demonstrated by Mr. Lesin. He recklessly uses these
notions talking about Russian foreign policy issues, and, particularly, the
need to defend the freedom of press in US, which is clear intervening into
home affairs of a foreign state.

Image building is a composite discipline of Public Relations practice,
which completely denies propaganda.  We treat propaganda as 'conscientious
misleading the public, including manipulation with real facts and coverage
of events, stemming from wittingly weak totalitarian or criminal platform'.
The only lame excuse for propaganda is military warfare or state of emergency.

Making such a statement the Russian leadership ignores civilized
international norms, which are reflected in the International Charter for
Public Relations Practitioners, charters of Russian Public Relations
Association, International Public Relations Association, principles of all
established PR companies. It is possible that minister Lesin is not aware
of such rules, but then his competence in this position should be questioned.

Or maybe the ministry is trying to distract the public attention from
numerous accusations of Mr. Lesin in corruption and limitation of the
freedom of speech in his own country, not somewhere in US?

We should raise another serious issue. It happens so that the Russian
market is trying to observe international standards while state authorities
are dragging themselves and all the country back into marginal ideological
concentration camp, in fact recreating the notorious Ideological Department
of the Communist Party Central Committee.

If it is so, then the professional PR community should decisively
dissociate itself from such 'projects' and statements.

It is amazing, under the circumstances, that the biggest international PR
agency Burson-Marsteller has committed itself to participate in Lesin's
program. In the interview in the VEDOMOSTI Moscow newspaper (February 28),
which is a joint venture between Wall Street Journal and Financial Times,
the agency's managing director Peter Himler is enthusiastically discussing
the opportunity for Russia's international image enhancement, expressing
B-M's interest in participating in a tender, which is being organized by
the ministry. It is more to that. Mr. Himler is telling about 'B-M's
special PR campaign in the framework of the 'Desert Storm' military
operation in Kuwait. Never believing my eyes, I called the Moscow
representative of B-M Roman Diukarev, who confirmed every word in the
interview, which had been faxed to VEDOMOSTI from B-M's New York office. 

As a former vice president of the 7-th largest world PR agency BOZELL SMG,
with 10 years personal track record in PR business, I must express deep
concern over this situation. The leading world agency is openly admitting
the fact that it accepts state propaganda in Russia, and also participates
in military operations, which is a prerogative of special information
warfare army units. 'This is the famed American democracy' - Soviet
propagandists would typically say. 

But I cannot share this message. Because, as a former insider, I am aware
about the highest ethical standards of the overwhelming majority of
established US and British PR agencies. I am sorry for B-M, which is
obviously loosing its credibility.

Still there may be another explanation. It seems that 'ideological Cold
War' is nourished not only in Russia. Some people in US are anticipating
big budgets in the face of the new propaganda warfare. Long time without
war makes life dull and under financed.

There is another concern. Frenzied, immoral, but very rich bureaucrats
adhered to the ideas of the North Korean dictator Tchukhe (reliance only on
internal country capacities), make us, the Russian citizens, hostages of
their evil games. It is them, who spoil Russia's reputation in the West.
Why bother about foreign investment, market development, emerging middle
class etc.?

As an independent Russian market participant involved in international
business cooperation, primarily with US partners, I consider Mr. Lesin's
plan provocative and extremely hazardous to my business, business of other
free market PR and business consultants.

In my turn, I suggest the Russian and US PR agencies, backed up by the
Russian Foreign Ministry and US State Department, Russian and Western
corporations should not only formulate their position here, but develop an
alternative program promoting friendship and cooperation between Russia and
US, Russia and other Western countries. Looks it is the right time to start
promoting peace, not war, even if this war is only ideological, so far. 

Sincerely yours,
Peter Neyev
Managing consultant, Capital Consulting Group
Russian coordinator for EASTERN BLOCK International Consulting Consortium
on Russia
Member of the Expert Council for Legislation on Foreign Trade and
Investment under the State Duma
Consultant for the World Bank and US AID in Russia

*******

#12
Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2001
From: Paul Nathanson <paul.nathanson@pbnco.com>
Subject: CONGRESS FUNDS 2001 RUSSIAN LEADERSHIP PROGRAM; NEW CENTER
FOR RUSSIAN LEADERSHIP TO MANAGE EXCHANGE PROGRAM

February 21, 2001 Contact: James R Dickenson
Tel: (301) 946-4222; Fax Same
E-mail:
jdickenson1@compuserv.com
Russian Leadership Program:
(202) 707-8943

CONGRESS FUNDS 2001 RUSSIAN LEADERSHIP PROGRAM; NEW CENTER FOR RUSSIAN LEADERSHIP TO MANAGE EXCHANGE PROGRAM

Congress Approves Nearly $10 Million
in Funding to Continue Program

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has announced that Congress has
provided $9.978 million in fiscal year 2001 funding for the Russian
Leadership Program (RLP) and has authorized the creation of a Center for
Russian Leadership in the legislative branch to implement the unique
exchange program.

The RLP is a nonpartisan initiative of the U.S. Congress designed to foster
a mutual exchange of ideas and opinions among political leaders and
citizens of Russia and the United States.  Since 1999, 3,650 Russian
leaders, including 150 members of the Russian Parliament, have been hosted
in the United States for seven- to 10-day visits under the auspices of the
RLP. Congress asked the Library to administer the RLP for each of its two
years as a pilot program.

Public Law 106-554 established the Center for Russian Leadership within the
legislative branch to continue the mission the RLP has conducted on a pilot
basis for two years: enabling emerging political leaders of Russia at all
levels of government to gain significant, direct exposure to the American
free-market system and the operation of American democratic institutions
through visits to governmental institutions and communities at comparable
levels in the United States.

The chief sponsor of the Center legislation is Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).
Sen. Stevens also sponsored the legislation that originated the RLP pilot
program in 1999. 

"Dozens of my colleagues in the Senate and the House have hosted their
Russian counterparts under the auspices of the RLP and have seen firsthand
the unique opportunity that the RLP provides to improve relations with a
new generation of Russian political leaders," said Sen. Stevens. "I am
proud to have sponsored all the authorizing legislation for the program and
look forward to helping the Library shape the transition to the new Center
for Russian Leadership."

"The RLP's managers, hosts and participants are honored that Congress has
chosen to continue to support the RLP," said Dr. Billington.  "The creation
of the Center is the culmination of our efforts to establish lasting,
mutually beneficial relations between members of Congress and other
American political and civic leaders and their counterparts among Russia's
emerging leadership."

The Center will be independent of the Library of Congress, but the Library
is authorized to provide space and support services to the Center on a
reimbursable basis.  The $9.978 million appropriated by Congress in fiscal
year 2001 will finance this year's RLP exchanges under the current "Open
World 2000" exchange model administered by the Library.  The appropriation
will also fund the transition to the new Center.

In addition to the public funding provided by Congress, the Center will
solicit  contributions from the private sector to ensure the long-term
continuation of the RLP.  "Creation of the Center allows the Russian
Leadership Program to draw more effectively upon the resources of the
private sector," said former Rep. James W. Symington, chairman of the RLP's
Advisory Committee. "Private sector leaders will play an important role not
only in contributing funds, but also in providing guidance to the Center's
management and participating in the program."  (A list of Advisory
Committee members is included with this release.)

The first step in establishing the Center is the appointment of a Board of
Trustees.  The Center's board will include nine members, two to be
appointed by the U.S. Senate, two by the U.S. House of Representatives and
four by the Librarian of Congress, who will also serve on the Board.

Although it will take several months for the RLP to make the transition to
the Center, Dr. Billington held discussions in Moscow in December with
Speaker Gennady Seleznyev and other leaders of the Russian Duma on exchange
priorities for the coming year.  "There seems to be general agreement on
placing emphasis on the rule of  law and on providing exchange
opportunities not only for legislators but also for judges, prosecutors and
others responsible for law enforcement and administration," said Dr.
Billington.

The RLP was proposed by Dr. Billington, a leading historian of Russian
culture, who suggested that Russia could benefit from a program similar to
the post-World War II Marshall Plan, which brought groups of emerging young
German leaders to the United States.  "The participants in that program are
a Who's Who of those who crafted Germany's democratic government after
World War II," he said.

The U.S. Congress appropriated $10 million to the RLP in both fiscal year
1999 (PL 106-31) and fiscal year 2000 (PL 106-113) and established the
pilot program in the Library of Congress.  The American Councils for
International Education: ACTR/ACCELS has managed the logistical aspects of
the program on behalf of the Library.

The RLP "Open World" program was created in 1999 with the esteemed Russian
academician Dmitry Likhachev as co-chairman.  In its first two years, the
RLP brought a wide range of new Russian leaders to the United States.  The
program selected participants from 88 of 89 Russian regions and from all
levels of leadership: national, regional and local.  The Russian leaders
were hosted in 46 states and the District of Columbia by nonprofit and
governmental organizations with expertise in operating exchange programs,
including the American Foreign Policy Council, the Center for Democracy,
the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute
for International Affairs, Rotary International, the Russia Initiative of
the United Methodist Church, the Friendship Force, Peace Links, Meridian
International Center and the International Institute of the U.S. Department
of Agriculture Graduate School.

"Open World 2000" brought 92 State Duma deputies - more than 20 percent of
the Russian State Duma - and 14 Federation Council members to the United
States.  The parliamentary delegations were grouped by area of interest,
including defense, national security, rule of law, federalism, environment
and energy.  A member of Congress or a governor hosted each parliamentary
delegation, whose members traveled to Washington for high-level meetings
and to their congressional or gubernatorial host's home state or district
for site visits, briefings and roundtables.  Twenty-one U.S.
representatives, four U.S. senators and five governors served as RLP hosts.
 "The RLP provides an opportunity for those who participate in our
democratic process to offer insight on a one-on-one basis with our Russian
counterparts," said Sen. Stevens.

In 2000, the Russian Leadership Program also sponsored 10 RLP alumni
conferences in cities across Russia to hear directly from participants
about ways to strengthen the program, and to put RLP participants
throughout Russia in better touch with each other.  In a survey conducted
among the 1999 participants attending the conferences, almost half of the
respondents reported that the scope of their professional responsibilities
had increased, and 26 percent reported that their employment status had
risen since their RLP participation.

The RLP owes much of its success to date to the support of the U.S.
ambassador to the Russian Federation, James F. Collins, and to the work of
his dedicated embassy staff. "The Russian Leadership Program represents a
remarkable achievement of public diplomacy," said Ambassador Collins.  "The
new Center on Russian Leadership promises to continue the program's success
in bringing the peoples of the United States and the Russian Federation
closer together." 

For additional information, please contact Jim Dickenson at (301) 946-4222

********

#13
www.greenpeace.org
2 March 2001
GREENPEACE REVEALS DOCUMENTS PROVING CORRUPTION BY RUSSIA'S ATOMIC MINISTER AND CALLS FOR HALT TO HIS PLANS TO IMPORT RADIOACTIVE WASTE

Moscow - Greenpeace today released a confidential report from the Russian
Parliamentary Anti-Corruption Commission detailing the large-scale illegal
business activities of the Minister of Atomic Energy, Evgeny Adamov, and
called on the Duma to reject the Adamov-backed plans, estimated to be worth
$20 billion, to turn Russia into the world's nuclear waste dump.

The 19 page document lists dozens of illegal business activities by Adamov
since the early 1990s. Adamov set up at least 10 companies both inside and
outside of Russia. For example, on August 24, 1994, he set up the
consulting and management company "Omeka, Ltd". Registered in Pennsylvania,
USA, at the end of 1999, the company had assets valued at US$ 5,080,000, of
which $3,150,000 were owned privately by Adamov and a further $1,500,000 by
his wife. Currently Omeka has consulting contracts with Tekhsnabexport, the
wholly owned import arm of Minatom, the company which would most likely
benefit from any imports of spent fuel from overseas.

As an employee of Minatom, Adamov is forbidden to have any private business
interests, however, the report reveals a complex business portfolio which
for example earns him some $US15,000 per month via Omeka. Adamov worked
from 1962-1986 as an engineer at Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, under
Minatom, from 1962-86, as director of the secret NIIKET Institute, Moscow,
under Minatom from 1986-98 and as Minister of Minatom since March 4, 1998.

On April 23 1999 Adamov declared during question time in the Duma: "...
since I'm minister I have never received any business revenues on my
private bank account".

Given the conclusions made, the Committee recommended that all information
related to Adamov's activities be submitted to the President, Security
Council, Russian Federation Government, Federal Security Service and
Prosecutor General's Office.

The report further also states that in 1995 Adamov signed a contract with
the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran for the design of a heavy water
production plant for a nuclear research reactor, violating international
nuclear non-proliferation agreements, to which Russia is a signatory.

"This is a wake up call for the Duma members who voted in favour of
Adamov's multi-billion proposal for importing nuclear waste. They must now
throw out the plan which is nothing more than a money making scheme for
Adamov and the rest of the Russian nuclear mafia," said Ivan Blokov of
Greenpeace Russia.

The report was presented at a closed session of the Anti-Corruption
Committee on February 20th. It is likely that this was the real reason for
the delay in the second Parliamentary reading of the controversial law
amendments to allow the import of Spent Nuclear Fuel scheduled for February
22nd and now expected on March 22nd.

"Adamov has to be fired immediately and the activities of the Ministry of
Atomic Energy must be investigated. Plans to import radioactive waste must
be stopped when they come before the Duma on March 22," said Tobias
Muenchmeyer of Greenpeace International.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
- Tobias Muenchmeyer +49 30 440 58 960
- Ivan Blokov +7 095 257 41 22

www.greenpeace.org/~nuclear/waste/russianwaste.html

Click the following link for the confidential report from the Russian
Parliamentary Anti-Corruption Commission detailing illegal business
activities of the Minister of Atomic Energy, Evgeny Adamov (in Russian)
www.greenpeace.ru

Notes for editors:
10 companies that Adamov has set up:
1. 1990: "Forum of scientists and specialists for the Soviet- American
dialog", Moscow.
2. 1990: Forum "Energopool", Moscow.
3. 1993: "Transpool", Moscow.
4. 1993: "Energo Terminal Service", Moscow.
5. 1994: "Omeka Ltd", Monroville/USA.
6. 1995: "Logic Realty", Moscow.
7. 1997: "Energopool", Delaware/USA.
8. 1998: "Allumincotrade", Moscow After appointment as minister.
9. 1998: "Rinsc Ltd", USA and Moscow.
10. 1998: "Agloski International Ltd", Nice/France

*******

CDI Russia Weekly:  http://www.cdi.org/russia

Johnson's Russia List Archive (under construction):  http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson