March 13, 2001 

This Date's Issues:   5145 • 5146

Johnson's Russia List
#5146
12 March 2001
davidjohnson@erols.com

[Note from David Johnson:
1. strana.ru: Majority of Duma deputies does not intend to support government no-confidence vote.
2. Reuters: Yeltsin shown on TV at home, receives Putin.
3. AFP: Kursk salvage delay could be "indefinite": Russian media.
4. Reuters: Russia unveils 5-yr plan for "patriotic education."
5. RIA: UN DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME TO PRESENT REPORT ON HUMAN POTENTIAL IN RUSSIA.
6. Obshchaya Gazeta: GLOBALIZATION TRAPS. An interview with Sergei Karaganov on defense and foreign policy.
7. Vedomosti: Mikhail Delyagin, NEW OLIGARCHY. PUTIN'S RATING MAY CRASH SOON.
8. Obshchaya Gazeta: Maksim Glikin, RED IS IN FASHION. A young generation of communists is gathering strength.
9. AP: Leftist Score Advance in Latvia Vote.
10. The Russia Journal: Francesca Mereu, A look at East Europe's post-communist media. (Interview with Owen Johnson)
11. Wired News: Michelle Delio, Inside Russia's Hacking Culture.
12. Newsday: Bart Jones, A Russian Renaissance. Growing community of immigrants reshaping Long Island.
13. Argumenty i Fakty: MIDDLE CLASS EXPANDS.]

*******

#1
strana.ru
March 12, 2001
Majority of Duma deputies does not intend to support government
no-confidence vote

Two days before the Duma decides the fate of the no-confidence vote in the
government (March 14), this demarche by the Russian Communist Party faction
has practically exhausted its potential as the "driving force" behind a
large-scale political intrigue.

The results of a blitz opinion poll conducted by ITAR-TASS show that the
majority of deputies does not plan to support the Communists' initiative and
views it as a propaganda trick aimed at shoring up the weakening positions of
the Communist Party among the so-called protest electorate.

Representatives from practically all the Duma factions, with the exception of
the Communists themselves, as well as the string-along Agrarians, have made
it clear that they do not see sufficient grounds for the Cabinet's
resignation, and that is why they have no intentions of playing in one team
with the leftists against the Cabinet of Mikhail Kasyanov.

In the Duma corridors practically all are convinced that the balance of
forces that is unfavorable for the supporters of a no-confidence vote cannot
be changed even by the stand of certain Unity faction members. The latter
have been receiving appeals from local Unity branches to support the
Communist initiative "out of tactical considerations," i.e., to bring the
whole matter to a reelection of the present Duma as one not sufficiently
constructively cooperating with the president.

At the March 6 Unity faction meeting some of its rank and file members
sharply criticized the authors of such "tactics." One of the leaders of the
Unity Party and First Deputy Speaker, Lyubov Sliska, spoke out strongly
against such an idea. As a result, the faction postponed its decision on the
no-confidence vote for another week. Observers view such a postponement as
the faction's readiness not to enter into a showdown with the right-centrist
factions that reject the idea of teaming up with the Communists no matter
what the motives might be.

The no-confidence vote has been categorically rejected by the Fatherland -
All Russia (FAR) faction (46 seats) and Unity's closest ally - the third
largest association - the People's Deputy group (62 seats). The initiative of
the leftists has been criticized by the rightist faction SPS (Union of Right
Forces) and Yabloko (32 and 20 seats respectively) that intend to make their
official decision on this issue only on the eve of the voting in the Duma.
The Regions of Russia group (41seats) will be voting in an
each-member-for-himself regime. However, even in that group there are
practically no supporters of ousting the Cabinet that may automatically
deprive them of their own seat in the lower house.

Only the LDPR (Liberal Democrats) has not yet defined its stand (19 seats).
Representatives of the faction have expressed different views on this matter.

As a result, the blitz poll participants point out, even hypothetically the
supporters of a no-confidence vote will not be able to collect the required
226 seats.

*******

#2
Yeltsin shown on TV at home, receives Putin

MOSCOW, March 12 (Reuters) - Boris Yeltsin received a visit from his
successor on Monday, and Russian television showed the first pictures of the
former Russian president since a six-week hospital stay that sparked rumours
he was near death.

Yeltsin left a Moscow hospital on Sunday, after being confined with an acute
viral infection and pneumonia since the end of January.

His prolonged hospital stay had sparked speculation that his health had
seriously declined, and last week aides even took the step of denying he had
died.

Monday's pictures, aired without sound, showed Yeltsin seated in a sweater,
speaking while his wife Naina laughed. Yeltsin's protocol chief and top aide
Vladimir Shevchenko was also present.

A Kremlin spokesman said President Vladimir Putin had visited Yeltsin's house
on Monday morning, but did not say what the two men had discussed. Putin was
not shown in the television pictures.

Shevchenko later told Interfax news agency that Yeltsin had taken a stroll
outdoors near the house after a half-hour conversation with Putin.

Yeltsin, who steered Russia's transition to capitalism during nine years as
Kremlin leader, has a record of health problems that often sidelined him
during the later years of his presidency.

His latest illness produced none of the political tremors that similar
incidents did while he was president, but the silver-haired patriarch remains
an important, controversial symbolic figure in the Russian political realm.

The former president was seeking "to throw off the burden of the hospital and
reacclimatise himself," Interfax quoted Shevchenko as saying. He added that
Yeltsin was no longer undergoing special medical procedures, but was taking
"medicine and vitamins."

*******

#3
Kursk salvage delay could be "indefinite": Russian media

MOSCOW, March 12 (AFP) -
Financial difficulties that have caused a month's delay in the start of work
to lift the Kursk submarine from the bottom of the Barents Sea could result
in the operation being put off indefinitely, Russian media warned Monday.

Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov admitted Sunday that "contractual
problems" between the Kursk's Russian constructor Rubin and a Norwegian-Dutch
consortium charged with raising the wreck meant the start of the operation
would begin towards the end of this year rather than the summer.

The Kursk sank on August 12 last year at a depth of 108 metres (350 feet) for
reasons that remain to be determined, with the loss of all 118 crew.

Klebanov, who heads a government commission investigating the causes of the
disaster, admitted the contracting parties were having "difficulties" getting
the estimated 80 million dollars needed for the operation.

A Brussels-based fund-raising group, the Kursk Foundation, is charged with
finding most of the money, with the Russian government to contribute around
one third.

The business daily Kommersant said the situation regarding the submarine's
lifting was now "critical," with the problems coming from the Russian side.

"Without the Russian contribution, the consortium will refuse to begin work,
and the Foundation will be unable to start collecting the money," it quoted a
leading member of the government commission on the Kursk, deputy Rear-Admiral
Valery Dorogin, as saying.

Klebanov noted that the Russian contribution to costs would be 20 million to
25 dollars "plus the cost of drawing up the operational plans."

He warned that any funds that the international consortium failed to provide
would have to come out of the heavily endebted Russian government's current
budget.

But Kommersant accused the minister of seeking to evade responsibility and
warned that the lifting operation "may possibly be put off for good."

The daily Sevodnya also believed it was "doubtful" that the preparatory
construction work needed to begin the operation could be completed by the
autumn, and that "the most realistic perspective is that the Kursk will
remain a mass grave."

Klebanov's comments Sunday were the first Russian admission that the
operation was at risk for financial reasons.

The previous Monday, reaffirming Moscow's commitment to raising the
submarine, he denied the Kursk Foundation was having problems collecting
funds.

"Neither the president (Vladimir Putin) nor the government has annulled the
decision to refloat the Kursk this summer," he said, dismissing media reports
that the project was foundering because Moscow had not made its contribution
to the cost.

Putin pledged in the days following the disaster that the wreck of the Kursk
and its two nuclear reactors, along with the bodies of the crew, would be
recovered.

However salvage work cannot be carried out beyond the autumn because of the
stormy weather that prevails during the winter months.

Military officials in the Barents Sea-Kola peninsula region of northern
Russia are believed to be reluctant to allow Western technicians to operate
there because of the large number of military installations in the region.

Ecological groups have also expressed concern at possible pollution by
leakages from the Kursk's two nuclear reactors.

The government committee has yet to report on the cause of the Kursk
disaster, believed to be due to the explosion of an experimental torpedo.

*******

#4
Russia unveils 5-yr plan for "patriotic education"

MOSCOW, March 12 (Reuters) - The bad news is that Russian society is plagued
by "indifference, egoism, individualism, cynicism, unmotivated aggression and
a lack of respect for the state and social institutions."

The good news is that a cure is on the way.

Russia unveiled a five-year plan on Monday for "patriotic education" to solve
a raft of social ills listed by the government and awaken "a high patriotic
consciousness and feelings of loyalty to the Fatherland."

The government's "Decree on the State Programme 'Patriotic education of the
citizens of the Russian Federation for 2001-2005,"' was published in a full
page of the official Rossiskaya Gazeta daily.

It gives a committee 170 million roubles ($6.4 million) to dispense for
funding patriotic museum exhibitions, academic research, sporting events,
contests and conferences.

An entire section is devoted to "state activities for the propaganda of
patriotism in the mass media," including prizes for patriotic journalists and
funds for the "active opposition to distortion and falsification of the
history of the Fatherland."

The text could ring alarm bells in a country that was ruled for decades by a
Soviet totalitarian state that deliberately manipulated history to repress
its citizens.

But "cynical" Russians had a different take.

"It's not tragedy. It's farce," Andrei Piontkowsky, a Moscow political
analyst, told Reuters. "It means that a great many people are going to
receive a lot of money, and make patriotism their profession."

*******

#5
UN DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME TO PRESENT REPORT ON HUMAN POTENTIAL IN RUSSIA

MOSCOW, March 12. /From RIA Novosti correspondent Kristina Rodrigues/. Today
the UN Development Programme (UNDP) will present a report on the development
of the human potential in Russia.

As RIA Novosti has learnt, this document is the sixth in the series of
reports, started in 1995 on the initiative of the UN Development Programme
and the government of Russia. Independent experts are the authors of this
document, and globalisation is its central theme.

The problems of the changes in the economy, information space and
technologies, the questions of crime and drugs abuse, migration, and the role
of mass media will be considered in the document.

It is expected that a comparative analysis of the situations in regions of
Russia and the index of the development of the human potential will be
presented.

New head of the UN system in the Russian Federation Frederick Lyons, Deputy
Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Olga Sharanova, and governor of
the Samara Region and chairman of the budget committee of the Federation
Council Konstantin Titov will participate in the presentation of the report

*******

#6
Obshchaya Gazeta
No. 10
March 8-14, 2001,
GLOBALIZATION TRAPS
An interview with Sergei Karaganov on defense and foreign policy
Author: Stanislav Tarasov
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]
SERGEI KARAGANOV BELIEVES THAT RUSSIA HAD BETTER STOP FIGHTING THE
US NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE, WHILE AT THE SAME TIME CONTINUING
NEGOTIATIONS ON START II: THIS MAY BE THE MAJOR REASON FOR RUSSIA'S
POSSIBLE STRATEGIC DECISION.

An interview with Sergei Karaganov, who heads of the presidium of
the Foreign and Defense Policy Council.

Question: It is generally believed that western political ideas
reach Russia three to five years after they appear in the West. That
is why there is now an impression that the ideas of globalization that
are now being discussed all over the world have taken Russia aback,
haven't they?

Karaganov: You said three to five years? I should say that we are
about thirty years behind the rest of the world concerning studying
the globalization issues. The topic, or to be more precise the
challenges we are facing now were actively studies in the West in late
1960s. What is the result? As we know, at the latest economic forum in
Davos, Russian entrepreneurs and their western colleagues were
speaking different political languages. We need to stop being
suspended between two worlds: in geopolitical, moral, economic, and
political senses. It is high time to finally chose a main line and
start moving forward. What scenario will the Russian president prefer?
It seems to me he mostly sticks to the western-European model of
development. At the same time, it is also obvious that now he is being
dragged into another course, in both domestic and foreign policy.
Question: So, you want to say that Russia's cooperation with Iran
or North Korea is a "traditional course"; while cooperation with the
western countries is a "progressive course". Isn't it possible to
cooperate with both simultaneously?

Karaganov: It is necessary to analyze each case separately.
Cooperation with Iran is all for making money. Cooperation with North
Korea is an attempt to break through into the western world: here we
suggest to west what it is unable to do by itself. We suggest that the
ambitions of North Korea are limited concerning the possibility to
proliferate the technologies for producing nuclear weapons. That is
why I believe that concerning this issue President Vladimir Putin has
chose the right course.

Question: When do you think the Kremlin was wrong in its foreign
policy activities?

Karaganov: I believe that the idea of creation of the CIS has
been counter-productive from the very beginning. It was supposed to
soften the blame placed on Boris Yeltsin for the break-up of the USSR.
And it is time to admit that the attempts at regional post-Soviet
integration have failed. however, on the other hand, we do not have
many prospects with the dominating global integration model, where the
US are merciless toward their competitors. And staying between the two
centers of the regional integration - Europe and South-East Asia -
Russia will inevitably be torn apart, unless it is unable to become a
bridge between them. Now the Russian president has started to
establish bilateral relations with the post-Soviet states. However,
there are problems here as well. Actual questions are: how to build
such relations and what resources all this will take. And from an
larger perspective, the major thing is what geopolitical orientation
the Russian elite will choose. The options are as follows: "To be the
third in the west or the second in the east?" In both cases "being the
first" is excluded.

Question: Basing on all this, what should Russia's attitude
toward NATO eastward expansion?

Karaganov: We should oppose it. Of course, we could spend
tremendous effort and resources on fighting this "evil"; but it is the
same as trying to restrict population growth in China from the
outside. By the way, the latter is potentially more dangerous for
Russia.

Question: It seems sometimes that the Russian elite has lost its
way in the maze of globalization models and has lost its
guidelines....

Karaganov: That is why I say that it is necessary to make the
right choice. Russia has always been an enclave state. And the whole
country has never been a civilization zone of either Europe or Asia.
Peter the Great is Europe, the Golden Horde is the East. And through
all the times, the Russian leadership drifted in this or that
direction. Now, we again have to choose.

Question: How should we assess the debate on the proposed US
national missile defense?

Karaganov: It is an artificial issue. It is based on two factors:
first, the US want to spend an "excess" $50 billion not on resolving
its social problems, but on development of new military technologies.
Second, the US has realized that it is impossible to keep control of
proliferation of nuclear technologies: in ten to twenty years the club
of nuclear powers will have up to 10-15 countries. We can fight the
ideas of the missile defense system, while realizing that we have no
chances to practically stop its creation. Of course, thus we can
protect China or weak positions on the missile defense system of some
western European countries. But, to my mind, Russia had better stop
fighting; while at the same time continuing negotiations on START II.
Moscow should bear no responsibility for the decisions of Washington.
And I think this may be the major meaning of Russia's possible
strategic decision.

(Translated by Arina Yevtikhova)

*******

#7
Vedomosti
March 12, 2001
NEW OLIGARCHY
PUTIN'S RATING MAY CRASH SOON
Author: Mikhail Delyagin, Director of the Institute of Problems of
Globalization
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]
Source: Vedomosti, March 12, 2001, p. A2

Vladimir Putin continues Primakov's course. He does not allow
oligarchs in politics, he gives them free reign in economic expansion.
At the same time, he chooses not to notice the methods used in the
inevitable redistribution of property.

Economic expansion earns businesses political influence. In the
past, oligarchs were "appointed" by the state. These days, oligarchs
make themselves and do not owe to the state.

Influence of the new oligarchy became clear when the Duma was
adopting amendments to the 2001 federal budget. Senior Deputy Premier
Kudrin and Surkov, Deputy Director of the Presidential Administration,
fought for privatization of the companies Chelyabinskenergo, Zapsib,
and Kuzbassugol. The two functionaries did more than go against the
president's and the premier's position on the matter and promote the
interests of large corporations. They almost landed the country in the
technical default.

These days, Russia hears the threats to liberalize hard currency
regulation. Property is defenseless in the country, and the freedom of
import and export of capitals will end up in the freedom of export. It
will result in devaluation and probably a default on the eve of the
2003 debt crisis.

Xerox crates are forgotten. Following faction discipline or
succumbing to persuasions, many deputies do not even suspect that they
act within the framework of a colossal and silent mechanism of
lobbying. It is thanks to this mechanism that literally any budget
will be adopted by the Duma, even budgets like the 2001 federal one
with its arithmetic errors. The price of adoption is more important
for documents than the contents.

There is every reason in the world to believe that not a single
economic law was adopted in the last several years without lobbyism.
Many analysts suspected it, but actions of Kudrin and Surkov
confirmed the suspicions. These two officials are heralds of the new
oligarchy which is entering the political arena with as much
determination as it did in early 1996.

Yeltsin could ignore the opinion of the population precisely
because he had support of the oligarchy he himself had established.
Putin, however, relies on the shaky substance of the people's
expectations and on state officials who are permitted absolutely
everything in return for loyalty (Nazdratenko is a perfect example).
Putin is a hostage of his own popularity but "politics for the sake of
rating" inevitably deteriorates into populism and the rating
eventually crashes. And dependance on bureaucracy makes the latter
unmanageable.

Inability to handle economic problems has already generated
antipresidential slogans in Primorie and Kaliningrad. The third round
of liberal reforms may crash Putin's popularity and generate a
political crisis. In other words, the president is forced to rely on
those who will not abandon him, on oligarchs.
(Translated by A. Ignatkin)

*******

#8
Obshchaya Gazeta
No. 10
March 8-14, 2001,
RED IS IN FASHION
A young generation of communists is gathering strength
Author: Maksim Glikin
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]
MORE AND MORE YOUNG PEOPLE WITH GOOD JOBS AND EDUCATIONS ARE JOINING RADICAL COMMUNIST AND SOCIALIST GROUPS. THEY ARE DOING SO IN PROTEST AGAINST ECONOMIC INEQUALITY. THIS TREND IS VERY UNUSUAL, AND MAY BECOME DANGEROUS IF THE SITUATION IN RUSSIA IS NOT CHANGED FOR THE BETTER.

As we know, communism is a faith for the poor and uneducated. But
it is impossible to say that about those who call themselves "the new
left." Their leftism seems to be just a teenage vice, like smoking pot
in a school lavatory.

Yekaterina Skvortsova, aged 28, a biologist by profession, is a
member of the Union of Marxists.

Dmitry Nachin, aged 25, is a graduate of a pedagogical institute.
Now he works as a sales manager at a large company in Moscow. He is a
Trotskyite, a member of the International Workers' Committee.
Oleg Shein, aged 28, also has a higher education. He used to be
engaged in founding independent labor unions in Astrakhan. He does not
resemble a "victim of the system" at all: he has made a vertiginous
political career for his age and has even become a Duma deputy.
The aforementioned people led by Oleg Shein are now uniting "the
new left." Recently, about 30 left groups and independent labor unions
united into a bloc. It is planned to set up a strong Marxist party
based on this bloc.

It is not that easy to understand why these well-to-do people
have joined in the struggle for workers' happiness.

Yekaterina Skvortsova: What I dislike about this life is not that
someone else owns a luxury while I don't. I can't tolerate the fact
that I have to do what I don't like and I can't do what I like. I'm a
biologist, and I'd gladly study ecology. But I'm ashamed to say how
much specialists who still work in my laboratory earn.

Dmitry Nachin: I do have a good job. But I'm not an amoeba that
can just swallow some food and be happy. I never forget that my father
is an ordinary driver, who came to Moscow from the provinces in Soviet
times and now lives in a barracks in terrible conditions. My mother is
unemployed and my brother goes to school, where textbooks are
constantly lacking and where a teacher once died during a hunger
strike. Can this state of affairs be called fair?

The largest organization of the young left is the Union of
Communist Youth (UCY) which has about 38,000 members. The UCY is
larger than many current political parties. This organization is not
noted for any large-scale actions, and its official status is the
youth branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF).
So, members of this organization study communism by Zyuganov's
"schoolbooks."

However, their teachers do not seem to trust them much. The UCY
does not have a right to political activity of its own. "Komsomol"
members cannot run for deputies and arrange their own actions. Many of
them are already not that young, but the Communists unwillingly accept
them to their party. Old bureaucrats of the party apparently fear that
"the young blood" may oust them from the top position and infect the
respectable party with radicalism of the youth.

However, devout Marxists consider Zyuganov's party and its
Komsomol degraded entities fortifying the bourgeois-criminal regime.
According to sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky, who is an expert on
the left movement, "new Communists" view the CPRF as a large decaying
corpse lying in their way. Kagarlitsky says, "They are right to some
extent. The CPRF is a monopoly for left viewpoints, whereas its own
viewpoints are far from opposition to the government.

In the opinion of Oleg Shein, this monopoly will soon collapse.
Supporters of Russia's capitalist future need not fear CPRF
conformists and clamorous old women from Anpilov's party. The most
dangerous are young Communists, who are actually enraged and full of
ideas.

Being actually devout communists, the new left deify the working
class and believe that the cause of liberation of working people
should be started from launching the labor union movement.
This is a good idea, since talking to working people it is more
convenient to introduce oneself as a labor union activist than a
Trotskist. The new left are aware of he fact that it is impossible to
gain a large political capital by revolution agitation, whereas it is
easy to gain it by protesting against ungrounded dismissals, delays of
wages, and violations of the Labor Code.

Judging from our talks with the young left, they are not very
successful with their work with the working class.

While people are growing up to understand their young "teachers,"
the young left are growing their muscles in tiffs with other
applicants for the role of "people's pastors." For instance, not long
ago some left radicals quarreled with representatives of the UCY
during a picket near the Palestinian Diplomatic Representation in
Moscow. The left radicals were against the current disobedience
campaign against the Israeli government, whereas representatives of
the UCY tried to hinder them by chanting anti-Zionist slogans.
Another tiff between the left radicals and Barkashov's fascists
ended in involvement of knives.

The style of political shows of the left radicals is radical too.
For instance, picketing the Kazakh embassy in Moscow in December 2000,
Moscow Trotskists did not say a word: they were only whistling with
whistles loudly.

A youth art group led by artist Anatoly Osmolovsky has also
displayed unique forms of agitation. Its members once came to Red
Square and lay down stark naked in the shape of a three-letter taboo
word.

Even Zyuganov himself has suffered from them. During a street
assembly Moscow extremists were throwing tomatoes at him. During a
picket in which Duma deputies took part extremists were throwing
bottles with red paint at them.

As a rule, such extraordinary escapades are punished as
infraction of the public order. However, left radicals have committed
a number of scandalous crimes too. For instance, the recent explosion
by the reception of the Federal Security Service was arranged by three
girls from the organization New Revolutionary Initiative. When the
girls are released from prison, the new left will have their own holy
martyrs.

This trend is not so threatening as AIDS or drug addiction so
far. However, it is impossible to guarantee that there will be no more
outbursts of the communist disease in the country that lived under the
communist yoke for over 70 years. Political analyst Alexander Tarasov,
an expert on extremist movements, believes that left radicals will not
be a serious social threat for the following several years. But it is
difficult to say what is in store for Russia in five or six years.
Everything depends on how rapidly the number of unsettled young people
will grow. So far, Russia's "protest contingent" consisted of old
people, who are unable to shatter social principles. However, they
will soon be substituted by a young generation.

Boris Kagarlitsky: It is known that all political movements start
in the most educated environment. At the end of the 1980's, young
people obtained a lot of new opportunities: they could make a career
by the age of 25. But now young people who were late for the division
of the pie are gaining power. Everything is divided already, all the
best jobs are occupied by people who can be called "the Gaidar
generation." What should those who are late do? It is not their fault
that they were not born on time. If young people from the working
class become gangsters or drug addicts, having failed any other
business, intellectuals become revolutionaries.

The ten years of Russia's reforms have spoiled the natural
succession of generations. Those who have occupied all social
vacancies will not be old yet when new applicants for their positions
will grow up. There will be no other influx of new vacancies. Thus,
the army of unemployed young people will grow year after year.
The attractive and educated young people who call themselves
Marxists now look harmless imitators who like to play "the heroic
past." But what if they will play "the communist future"? Russian
grown-up politicians are convinced for some reason that this will
never happen and that young people will always vote for Yavlinsky and
Khakamada.

(Translated by Kirill Frolov)

*******

#9
Leftist Score Advance in Latvia Vote
March 12, 2001
By STEVEN C. JOHNSON

RIGA, Latvia (AP) - Left-wing parties, shut out of national government since
this former Soviet republic regained independence a decade ago, appear to
have made strong gains in municipal elections, according to early results
Monday.

The preliminary, official results showed the leftist Social Democrats winning
the biggest bloc of votes in the capital, Riga, making it likely they will
get the most seats of any party on the city council.

Tallies from Sunday's voting in rural districts across this small Baltic
nation were expected to follow suit - meaning the conservative, pro-European
Union parties that run the country will have suffered a political setback.

``People are disappointed in the policies of the last 10 years and they
understand that we represent interests of the poor and the middle class, not
the rich,'' said Social Democrat leader Dainis Ivans.

Victory for the left in elections for 4,335 municipal posts does not
immediately threaten the center-right national government - comprised of
Latvia's Way, People's Party and the nationalist Fatherland and Freedom
party. But it indicates the political landscape may be shifting as the
country looks ahead to parliamentary elections next year.

``The results show that it's possible to get a majority in the next
parliamentary elections and form a government,'' Ivans said.

Voters turned out in record numbers Sunday, about 62 percent of the eligible
1.3 million, up slightly from municipal elections in March 1997. The last
parliamentary elections were held in 1998.

The People's Party and Latvia's Way retained support in some areas, including
the western coastal city of Liepaja, where the two together collected some 35
percent of the vote.

In Latvia's political and economic heart, Riga, the People's Party managed
10.6 percent - about six seats- and Latvia's Way 8.7 percent - five seats -
according to partial, official returns.

The Social Democrats won about 23 percent of the vote in Riga, entitling the
party to 14 seats on the 60-seat municipal council, according to preliminary
vote tallies. Another leftist party, For Equal Rights, notched 21 percent,
and 13 seats.

Nationalist Fatherland and Freedom, a junior partner in the national
government, won 17 percent of the vote in Riga and 11 seats. The rest of the
vote was split among 30 other parties.

Since independence in 1991, successive center-right governments have overseen
steady economic growth while keeping inflation low and reining in public
spending through program cutbacks, pension reform and reduced state
subsidies.

The Social Democrats have accused the government of ignoring poor Latvians
and called for higher pensions, farm subsidies and a minimum wage. It says
the government is selling out to foreigners by privatizing key state
industries.

*******

#10
The Russia Journal
March 10-16, 2001
A look at East Europe's post-communist media
By FRANCESCA MEREU / Media Watch
The media in Russia is currently abuzz over, well, the media - with
Media-MOST and NTV at the tip of everyone's lips. Francesca Mereu
interviews Eastern European media expert Owen Johnson on the subject.

Since the fall of communism, the Eastern European media system has changed
beyond recognition, with countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic and
Hungary leading the way in professional news organizations.

Most of the media in the region are in private hands and the ownership is
mostly foreign. In Poland, for example, the biggest publisher is
German-owned Heinrich Bauer Publishing House, which owns more than 20
newspapers and weekly magazines.

While some observers within these countries have criticized domination from
outside, others stress that foreign owners had the money to buy modern
equipment, and foreign ownership helped guarantee stability and
independence for the unstable and insecure media of the early 1990s.

Owen Johnson, a journalism professor at the Indiana University School of
Journalism, is an expert on the Russian and Eastern-Central European media
systems and has examined the situation in depth.

Last month, he took part in a conference entitled "Journalism after the
U.S.S.R.: 10 years on" at Moscow State University's Journalism Faculty. On
the sidelines, he spoke to The Russia Journal about the media in this part
of the world.

The Russia Journal: What are the differences between the Russian media
situation and that of the other post-communist countries? Is it possible to
make a comparison?

Owen Johnson: One of the big differences between Russia and most of the
other former communist countries is the important role that the central
Russian press and television played in the past. Their influence was felt
in every corner of the country; so when there is a battle over control, it
is seen as an important issue of the overall political system.

Whereas, if you compare the situation with Poland where you have only one
really national newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza - the rest are more on a
regional basis - it's not seen as such an important major political concern.

Poland has several competing [television] channels that have relatively
equal power in a strong original basis. This, I think, is an important
difference.

RJ: What about press freedom?

OJ: Firstly, we need to define what is meant by "press freedom." Does press
freedom mean the ability to say anything that you want in an article or in
an editorial? Or does it mean the right to speak out openly on the
editorial page? Does it mean fair criticism? It is difficult for a foreign
observer, like myself, to know if the battle over NTV [television channel],
for example, is an issue of freedom of the press or how much of it is an
issue of business matters and debts. It is very difficult to say.

It is also difficult to know when people should be concerned about
limitations on freedom of the press. One could say that if you look at all
the Russian newspapers now, practically every possible opinion is
represented. But Westerners, when they talk about freedom of the press,
tend to say: "Well, can all these opinions appear in one newspaper?" In
Russia, it is more likely that one newspaper will represent one opinion and
another newspaper will represent another opinion.

If a television network is feeling some pressure, is it because of the
opinions that have been stated there or the critical articles that have
been written, or are there private individual matters? So, it is difficult
to answer the question with certainty.

Most Americans would say television has to present the news and not to
follow some kind of opinion. Americans would recognize that there are
different ways of reporting a news story. In the case of a strike, for
instance, do you report from the standpoint of the owners, strikers or from
people who are using the products that are normally made by the strikers?
Do they support the strikers or do they not? There are different ways to
report these opinions. I think television is a most difficult issue because
there has been far less competition than in other fields.

[But] how important is it when some of the more important newspapers have
very small circulations? What is the circulation of Izvestia or
Nezavisimaya Gazeta? They are much lower than one would expect considering
the newspapers' influence. People in Moscow tend to talk about those papers
because they are here. ... But people out in the other cities?

Russian media observers say that people don't buy newspapers because
journalists are not able to satisfy their needs. Dmitry Murzin, the editor
of [daily] Vremya MN, complained to journalism professors that he is having
big trouble finding professional journalists to work with his paper. He
said that after the fall of the Soviet Union in Russia the number of
newspapers has increased, but not the number of professional journalists.

RJ: What is going on, from a professional point of view, in other
post-communist countries? Do they have the same problems that Russia has?

OJ: Part of the debate is: Do you have to have a journalism education or a
university education in order to be a professional?

Walter Lippman, one of the most famous American journalists of the 20th
century, participated in an experiment. He went to Harvard University -
where they don't teach journalism - and then after he graduated he started
writing for a magazine called the New Republic.

Eventually, he was editor for the New York Herald Tribune; he was a
columnist for many, many years. He had no journalism education and he said
you don't need that. What you need are some signs from the public about
what a journalist should be.

And, to a certain degree, many Russians still think that journalists should
have opinions. And as long as many people in the public think that,
somebody wanting to be a journalist is also going to come in with the
expectation "here I have my right to state my own opinions whenever I want.
I don't have to worry about collecting all the facts. I don't need to worry
about balance in the issues, because that's not what the people want."

If you have editors who say: "We are going to run a professional newspaper,
and if you are going to work for me you need to learn to collect facts, you
need to learn to collect information," then you won't have problems with
lack of professionalism. People will come to that newspaper expecting to
work in a professional way.

I think, probably, in East-Central Europe, Poland, Hungary, the Czech
Republic and Slovakia there is some greater professionalism. But that's
because the ... newspapers are commercial enterprises and ... want to make
a profit.

I think the editor's position is very, very important in helping to decide
on who'll be hired and on what kind of news they will present.

RJ: Are there any good newspapers in Russia?

OJ: It's hard to say, because the Russian newspapers keep changing. Every
time you think there is one newspaper that's going to provide reliable
information, then something changes.

******

#11
Wired News
March 12, 2001
Inside Russia's Hacking Culture
by Michelle Delio

Security experts were not surprised by the FBI's warning last week that more
than 1 million credit card numbers have been stolen from e-commerce websites
in the last 12 months by crackers who took advantage of a hole that could
have been patched with software that was made available three years ago.

But a bit of intrigue was added to that report: Most of the dirty work was
being done by "organized hacking" groups in Russia and the Ukraine.

Security experts weren't surprised about that, either.

Many of their peers in the Western world say Eastern Europe's computer
crackers and hackers are the most skillful in the world -- far superior to
the so-called "script kiddies" who have gained a fair amount of notoriety.

"We call Russia the Hackzone because there are so many of us here, and we are
so good at what we do," said Igor Kovalyev, a self-described cracker living
in Moscow. "Here hacking is a good job, one of the few good jobs left."

Kovalyev claims he is often hired to "have fun" with the websites and
networks of his employer's competitors.

He is paid 3,000 rubles per job -- about $104 American. It may not sound like
much, but a college professor gets paid about $150 per month.

"The Russian hacking scene is incredibly sophisticated," said Ken Dunham,
senior analyst at Security Focus. "These guys are excellent programmers and
they really understand networks --- how to get in and out without a trace."

Russian crackers have been at the center of some notorious computer crime
cases.

Vladimir Levin, in one of the first online theft cases to be prosecuted, was
sentenced to three years in prison for removing $3.7 million from various
Citibank accounts in 1995. Levin accomplished this with a personal computer
and a dial-up connection to the Internet.

More recently, in October 2000, Microsoft discovered that its network had
been breached, admitted that the crackers had probably had a good look at
software projects under development, and said that the trail led back to an
address in St. Petersburg, Russia.

"Russian crackers do amazing things with very limited computing power. They
are smart and they cover their tracks very well," said Frank Voden, a
consultant with U.K. firm TechSolutions.

"And they have excellent programming skills, which many of the so-called
crackers in the U.S. do not possess. These Russian guys aren't just
downloading tools and running them without knowing what they are doing. They
know exactly what they are doing."

Alexei Badkhen, a 32-year-old Moscow resident, who describes himself as a
"secret security guy," said that cracking and hacking is an important part of
the underground culture in Russia, as it is in many other countries.

But he feels that there is more approval for Russia's crackers throughout
Russia than there is elsewhere.

"When I was in school, in the 1980s, we were encouraged to hack American
software. We had to dissect the programs to understand them so that we could
make them work on our systems," he said. "So we say we were the first country
to have a hacker culture. And Russia gives excellent technical education, but
you have many highly skilled people with no jobs."

Badkhen believes that many Russian teenagers start cracking because they want
to get on the Internet but can't afford the costs of the service. So they
learn how to steal passwords.

"Plus, the person says, 'How can I afford to spend two months' salary on a
copy of (Microsoft) Office? I cannot,'" Badkhen said. "But I can spend a
half-month salary and get a CD burner that lets me make many copies of
software. What is the better investment?"

Badkhen said that hacking and cracking is a fairly open activity in Russia,
and said he often goes to Moscow's Gorbushka market to purchase pirated
copies of software and CDs filled with the latest cracking tools.

"We don't download the tools so much, as you maybe would in other countries,
because our connections to the Internet are slow and the phone service goes
bad a lot," he said. "So we trade by CD at the markets. The police come often
and take the CDs away. But new copies are easy to make."

Badkhen said a copy of Microsoft's Windows 2000 was available at the market
on Monday for about 60 rubles (US $2.09); along with Office 2000, priced at
55 rubles.

But he prefers to focus on the homemade CDs, which have bright labels
advertising their wares. "Hackers Toolkit," "All You Need to Start Hacking,"
and "Hack the World" are some of the titles Badkhen remembers seeing
recently.

Most of the better cracking CDs cost about 80 or 90 rubles.

Badkhen said that he can also buy pirated software at some newsstands, along
with "snacks and vodka -â?" so you go home, eat, drink and play with your
computer. What could be a better night?"

Russia does officially forbid cracking and hacking, with prison sentences of
up to 10 years plus fines. A special technical crime department has been
established as part of the Russian Interior Ministry, but the government has
"bigger things to worry about," Badkhen said.

"Plus we were taught to share, that people who have one thing should share
those things with their community. So we share software. And we help you to
share also the information on your networks."

American websites are a favorite target of Russian crackers, something that
Badkhen said really escalated when the U.S. became involved in the dispute
between Serbia and Kosovo.

"Many of us felt that what the U.S. was doing to the Serbs was wrong, and we
retaliated by attacking government websites and big companies. I know that
your White House was attacked many times, and so was the defense computers.
Did your newspapers not mention this?" Badkhen asked.

The attacks were reported, and the FBI confirmed in press statements that the
"Moonlight Maze" attacks allowed Russian hackers to access nonclassified but
sensitive information from Department of Defense computers.

Kovalyev said that stealing credit card numbers is the "best resume" for a
Russian cracker. But other popular activities are studying the ways to "get
into networks of foreign businesses, plus virus writing, and password
discovery," said Kovalyev, who believes that Russian websites such as
Hackzone and the "launched in Russia" Drink or Die are the most sophisticated
of all hacking sites.

"You should tell American hackers to learn Russian," Kovalyev said.

Both Kovalyev and Badkhen said they heard that Russian crackers had gotten
"good information" from the Microsoft crack in October.

"Let me say that we know very well the insides of the software used on many
websites," Kovalyev said. "And so we know where the holes are. But you make
it easy by not fixing even what you can fix. And so we visit. Hello!"

*******

#12
Newsday
March 11, 2001
A Russian Renaissance
Growing community of immigrants reshaping Long Island
by Bart Jones
Staff Writer

"Sleepovers" didn't exist in the former Soviet Union. So when Irina Vainblat
immigrated to the United States and her teenage daughter Veronica started
asking to stay overnight at friends' homes, Vainblat was mystified.

Today, the Cedarhurst resident not only understands the American custom, she
explains it to newly arrived Russian immigrants.

Vainblat runs a program at the Greater Five Towns Y in Cedarhurst that helps
immigrants from the former Soviet Union assimilate to America. The program
also helps the immigrants, most of whom are Jewish, rescue their faith, which
was often viciously suppressed in their homeland.

"Practicing Judaism was illegal, so no one knew the richness of their
heritage and tradition," Vainblat says. "They only knew they were different,
disliked, and lived in fear of persecution." Immigrants from the former
Soviet Union are part of one of the largest waves of Jewish migration in
history, a worldwide diaspora that was unleashed a decade ago by the collapse
of the Soviet Union.

After settling initially in communities such as Brighton Beach in Brooklyn
and Forest Hills in Queens, many Russian immigrants are moving east to Nassau
and Suffolk counties, which now boast one of the largest Russian populations
in the nation, says Roy Fedelem of the Long Island Regional Planning Board.

Four of the 24 professors in the Electrical Engineering Department at SUNY
Stony Brook are Russian. So are eight in the Physics Department, says physics
research professor Vasili Semenov. The head of the obstetrics and gynecology
department at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, Dr. Boris
Petrikovsky, is a Russian immigrant.

The Interart gallery in Huntington is run by Russian immigrants and features
work by Russian artists. A new cafe in Port Jefferson is becoming a gathering
spot for the Russian community.

The transition to America is full of pitfalls for many of them as they adjust
from a nation where the state owned and controlled everything from bakeries
to newspapers, to one where capitalism and free enterprise reign.

Vladimir Azbel, owner of Rachelle's European Pastry Shop and Art Cafe in Port
Jefferson, says that shortly after his family arrived in the United States,
they went for a ride in Minnesota, where they were living, to look for a
place to picnic.

They found a lovely spot with a house on it, pulled their car over and
started a charcoal fire for a barbecue. Suddenly a man came running out of
the house, whisked his children inside and demanded to know why the Russians
were making a fire in his yard.

The Azbels had no idea the man owned the land. In the communist Soviet Union,
the government owned almost everything and you could picnic where you liked.

The Azbels apologized and invited the man to join them.

Azbel, 45, who immigrated in 1974 and worked for several years as a linguist
in the FBI's foreign counterintelligence unit, says some of his American
customers complain that his wife, Marina, isn't friendly enough in the pastry
shop. In communist Soviet Union, all businesses were state-owned, so little
incentive existed to smile at customers.

"I'm teaching my wife to be more friendly and to smile more," Azbel says.

Russians have been coming to America in waves since the late 1880s and early
20th century, when pogroms, state-sponsored anti-Semitic campaigns, and
later, the 1917 Russian Revolution, prompted thousands of people to flee.

Another wave occurred after World War II, and was followed by yet another in
the 1970s, when the "refusenik" movement helped provoke international protest
over anti-Semitism in the former Soviet Union. The refuseniks were Soviet
Jews who were refused permission to leave the country.

The biggest wave yet started in 1989 when communism began collapsing and the
former Soviet Union allowed hundreds of thousands of people, most of them
Jewish, to leave. It set off one of the largest migrations of Jewish people
in history, said Gary Rubin of the UJA-Federation of New York. In the last
decade, 900,000 Jewish people from the former Soviet Union have fled to
Israel. Another 300,000 have migrated to the United States, about half of
them to the New York metropolitan area.

Tens of thousands more have gone to Canada, Germany, Australia and other
countries. The total number of Jewish people in the world is estimated at 13
million.

"What's happening on Long Island is part of a worldwide phenomenon," Rubin
said.

He estimates that 250,000 Jews from the former Soviet Union now live in the
New York metropolitan area. In the mid-1990s, the only country that was
sending more immigrants to New York was the Dominican Republic.

On Long Island, the 1990 census found that nearly 97,000 Russians were living
in Nassau County and made up 7.5 percent of the population, Fedelem says.
About 44,000 were living in Suffolk, where they made up 3.3 percent of the
population. The census did not determine how many of the Russians were
Jewish.

Figures from the 2000 census won't be available until later this year, but
Fedelem says the Russian population is going in one direction: up.

The Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky of the Church of Our Lady of Kazan in Sea Cliff,
one of a handful of Russian Orthodox churches on Long Island, says attendance
at weekly services jumped by about one-third in the last decade, mainly
because of new immigrants.

He said he gave up preaching in Russian during services in the 1980s because
most parishioners spoke English, but the recent influx has prompted him to
return to a bilingual service since many newcomers speak only Russian.

Long Island doesn't have a "Little Russia" yet, though enclaves are emerging
in areas such as Stony Brook and around Brookhaven National Laboratory in
Upton.

Thousands of Jewish Russian immigrants also live in Far Rockaway, near the Y
in Cedarhurst. One of them, Lev Molot, 88, says he was a soldier in the
Soviet Army during World War II when the Nazis surrounded St. Petersburg for
900 days, blocking most supplies from getting in. Some 600,000 people died.

Molot's own parents and three sisters, who were living elsewhere in the
Soviet Union, also were killed by Hitler's troops.

Decades later, when the former Soviet Union started allowing Jewish Russians
and others to leave, he jumped at the chance, departing in 1994 at age 82.

"In Russia, everything is upside down," he says through a translator. "In the
United States everything is the right way." Azbel's pastry shop in Port
Jefferson has become a gathering spot for many Russian immigrants. It sells
30 Russian language newspapers and magazines.

Every morning Azbel drives to Brooklyn to buy fresh Russian and European
pastries, and loaves of "Nikolas II" bread, named after the czar overthrown
in the 1917 Russian Revolution.

On the shop's wall is a bugle and small flag he keeps as a memento from his
junior high school. The flag says in Russian: "To the fight of the right
cause of the Communist party of the Soviet Union. Be prepared!" Azbel says he
never believed deeply in communism, but joined the party because it was the
only way to get ahead. "It was a career move," he jokes.

Anti-Semitism was anything but a joke, and is what propelled many of the
Jewish people to flee the former Soviet Union. Many Jews lost their jobs or
were jailed because of their faith, says Annelise Orleck, a history professor
at Dartmouth College and author of the 1999 book "The Soviet Jewish
Americans." During the 1924-53 Stalin regime, many were killed.

With their religion under attack, many Jewish people fell away from their
faith and came to know less and less about it, Vainblat says. Not long after
she arrived in the United States in 1991, a 75-year-old Jewish Russian woman
asked her what Passover is. Vainblat herself wasn't certain, but soon learned
and began teaching others.

Kishkovsky notes that repression in the former Soviet Union was aimed not
only at Jewish people, but all religions. Secretly giving Sunday school
classes in the Russian Orthodox Church, a Christian religion similar to
Catholicism, could get people fired from their job or land them in jail, he
says.

Most churches and synagogues were turned into offices or warehouses, or blown
up with dynamite. Bibles, Torahs and Qurans used by Muslims had to be kept
hidden.

The communist system "was designed to destroy religion," Kishkovsky says.

"You were made to feel like a pariah if you were engaged in religious life."
At the Y program, which is sponsored by the UJA-Federation of New York,
Russian-speaking children are taught songs and dances to perform during
Jewish holidays. Adults are taken to synagogues to learn about Judaism,
attend Broadway plays and listen to lectures on how the Social Security
system in America works.

The program started a decade ago and each year serves at least 2,000 people,
including many who get help with such basic needs as clothing, furniture and
filling out government forms.

Many immigrants still feel caught between the two worlds. Irina Azarenkova,
an artist affiliated with Stony Brook's arts center, arrived in the United
States in 1995 and still visits her beautiful native city of St. Petersburg
once or twice a year.

"I don't know where home is now," she says. "I love my country. But I start
to love this country, too."

*******

#13
Argumenty i Fakty
No. 10
March 2001
MIDDLE CLASS EXPANDS
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]

The National Standard of Living Center has released income
figures for 2000. For the first time since the 1998 crisis, the
figures are favorable. Average incomes rose slightly, even after
inflation. Thus, over the past year the consumer basket of goods
became 178 rubles (18.4%) more expensive, whereas the average per
capita income increased by 533 rubles (32.5%).

It is worth noting that incomes rose at all levels of society.
Therefore, 5% of the poor managed to get above the poverty line in
2000 and enter the low income category (which now accounts for 29% of
the population). The ranks of the middle class likewise grew, by 3%.
However, in the 11 poorest Russian regions, the average income
even of working citizens is still lower than the minimal wage. For 69%
the average income is higher than one but lower than two minimal
wages; only in 9 regions it is higher than two minimal wages.

*******

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