May 27, 2001 

This Date's Issues:   5271 • 5272

Johnson's Russia List
#5271
27 May 2001
davidjohnson@erols.com

[Note from David Johnson:
1. Interfax: New edition of Red Book on endangered species in Russia.
2. Reuters: Russian liberal group to form formal party.
3. Interfax: Russian right-wing party congress adopts policy declaration.
4. BBC Monitoring: NTV, Russian right-winger speaks of his party's basic values. (Chubais)
5. RIA: RUSSIAN NOBLE ASSEMBLY'S CONGRESS IN MOSCOW.
6. RIA: SOVIET-U.S. ABM TREATY TURNS 29.
7. Robert Bruce Ware: Re No Change in Chechnya (JRL 5270).
8. AP: Chechen High Schoolers Graduate.
9. The Russia Journal: Alexander Golts, FSB dictates as Chechnya rages on. Security chiefs tell editors to print propaganda on conflict.
10. BNS: Russian poll shows over half afraid of Baltic states' NATO membership.
11. Reuters: NATO MPs to mull expansion on ex-Soviet territory.
12. AFP: Talk of a new war as Armenia and Azerbaijan shelve summit.
13. Reuters: Mutiny, protests mar Georgian Independence Day.
14. The Times (UK) letter: Lord Bethell, Extraditions to Russia criticised.
15. AP: Russian Oil Company Investigated. (Sibneft)
16. The Sunday Times (UK): Mark Franchetti, Uzbek leader takes fight to the Muslims.] 

*******

#1
New edition of Red Book on endangered species in Russia 
Interfax 

Moscow, 25 May: Some 414 animal species inhabiting Russia have been entered 
in the Red Book, the director of the Institute of Ecological and Evolutionary 
Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dmitriy Pavlov said at a press 
conference in Moscow about the publication of The Red Book of Rare and 
Endangered Animal Species in Russia. 

Pavlov recalled the first edition of the book issued in 1983 which contained 
246 species including 49 invertebrates, 197 vertebrates, 58 mammals, 107 
birds, 11 reptiles, 4 amphibians, 9 fishes, and 34 insects. 

The new edition of the Red Book already includes 155 invertebrates, 259 
vertebrates, 65 mammals, 39 fishes, 123 birds, 21 reptiles, and 42 molluscs. 

Pavlov said that among Russia's animals threatened by extinction are the Far 
East leopard - "no more than 30 of them are left in Maritime Territory", the 
snow leopard, the mountain ram, the Sakhalin musk-deer, the long-tailed 
eagle, and other species. 

He admitted that the book "has become three times thicker" not so much due to 
dwindling numbers of animals or their deteriorating habitats, but due to the 
fact that "many animals have been better studied, particularly invertebrates, 
for it's that group that has most inflated the book". 

He noted that despite the fact that the past 15 years have been very hard for 
nature conservation, out of the 246 species taken under federal protection 
and control in 1983, three species have been fully restored (marmot-baibak, 
white-cheek duck, white goose), 11 have increased their numbers, and 126 have 
at least stabilized. 

However, Pavlov expressed concern over the absence of a state programme aimed 
at the protection of rare species and poor financing of ecological measures. 
He insisted that a new edition of the Red Book should be issued every ten 
years, but it was not done in 1993 due to financial and organizational 
problems. 

The deputy-head of the environmental protection and ecological safety 
department of the Ministry of Natural Resources Valentin Ilyashchenko said, 
in turn, at the press conference that in the process of approving the new 
edition at various official levels "great controversy arose over including 
the beluga [a kind of sturgeon - Interfax] in the Red Book" the result of 
which was that, though admittedly needing special attention, the fish was 
left out of the Book. "After the Volgograd hydro-power plant was constructed, 
beluga lost nearly all its spawning grounds, and the overall situation is 
such that nearly all our sturgeons may end up in the Red Book," warned 
Ilyashchenko. 

*******

#2
Russian liberal group to form formal party
By Ron Popeski

MOSCOW, May 26 (Reuters) - One of Russia's prominent liberal groupings met on 
Saturday to found a formal political party and elect a leader pledged to 
reverse declining poll ratings. 

The Union of Right-Wing Forces (SPS), one of two major right-of-centre 
groups, created a surprise in the December 1999 parliamentary election by 
securing 8.6 percent of the vote. 

The movement, whose ranks include important pro-business figures, commands 
about five percent support in current surveys. 

Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister, was favoured to win the 
leadership later on Saturday. Also in the running were Yegor Gaidar, who 
launched liberal reforms as Russia's first acting prime minister, and 
academic Aleksei Kara-Murza. 

Most speakers at the one-day congress called for policies to define the SPS 
as a right-of-centre party promoting business, individual rights and Russia's 
small middle class. 

But most rejected suggestions of joining forces with Yabloko, Russia's other 
major liberal grouping. Yabloko, led by economist Grigory Yavlinsky, has also 
ruled out a formal merger while backing tactical cooperation. 

"We must create a genuine right-of-centre party. Sometimes our position is 
such that those in power are to the right of us," former Prime Minister 
Sergei Kiriyenko told delegates. 

"But it looks even worse when we have no position at all." 

NEMTSOV BACKED FOR LEADERSHIP 

Nemtsov, one of five current co-chairmen, said the SPS could only champion 
legal reform, liberal property laws and freedom of speech if it created an 
efficient country-wide organisation. 

"To put our ideas into action, we must win an election and I'm certain we can 
do so if we are together," he said. 

Most speakers backed Nemtsov's leadership bid. 

But influential SPS figure Anatoly Chubais, architect of the 1990s 
privatisation scheme widely accused of selling off assets cheaply, refused to 
take sides. Chubais now heads Russia's electricity utility. 

About a dozen groups within the SPS have disbanded recently to form a formal 
party and comply with a new law on election rules. 

Liberals spearheaded reforms in the final stages of Soviet rule and immediate 
aftermath of the collapse of communism. But their electoral support has been 
eroded over the past decade by mass poverty triggered by the transition to 
the market economy. 

Polls put the pro-Kremlin Unity party, created just before the last election, 
slightly ahead of the Communists, the largest party in parliament. Yabloko 
and the SPS lie third and fourth. 

The SPS, created in 1998, has been accused by critics of being indecisive in 
whether it backs President Vladimir Putin's more cautious economic reforms. 
And some delegates said members should address the problems of millions 
living in poverty. 

"We must not forget that there are others, the great masses who have not seen 
any benefits and who look to us with hope," said SPS member of parliament 
Vera Lekareva. 

*******

#3
Russian right-wing party congress adopts policy declaration 
Interfax 

Moscow, 26 May: The Union of Right Forces (SPS) has said its top priority
is "to defend the gains of young Russian capitalism and the developing
Russian democracy". 

The SPS political declaration adopted at the party's constituting
convention underway in Moscow on Saturday says "Russia was thrown back in
the 20th century. But thanks to selfless efforts by dissidents, human
rights activists, democratic politicians, economic reformers and the first
Russian businessmen, Russia has made a gigantic step politically,
economically, and morally." 

The section concerning "The main national resource" stresses that this
resource is "not coal or timber, machine tools or rockets but the intellect
of free citizens in a free country". 

The congress set SPS priorities in foreign policy. The declaration notes
that "the main foreign challenge is the danger of finding oneself on the
edge of the globalization process and falling out of the community of
leading countries, to which Russia does not yet belong". 

"Instead of the obsolete principle of balance of power, which actually
breeds international confrontation, we propose a global contract or
coordinated world development and integrated security. Russia should
initiate a new comprehensive system of peace, democracy, and stability
guarantees," the document says. It emphasizes that Russia can have no other
interests than those of its citizens, because no department or corporation
is a national interest bearer. "The bearer of national interest and Russia
is a class of active and independent people, adherent to democratic values
and involved in the free market economy," the declaration notes. 

It urges Russia to actively promote political and economic ties with the
West as a strategic priority partner. "The ideology of Russia's 'special
way' is an attempt to impose the role of international outsider on our
country," the SPS believes. 

It also urges the state to bear responsibility for the rights and freedoms
of former USSR citizens who live in post-Soviet states and who "identify
themselves with Russia regardless of their nationality and citizenship". 

Russia should pursue this foreign policy objective through "effective
repatriation and immigration mechanisms". 

As for Russia's global mission, the declaration points to the task of
forming "a Northern Ring of Europe-Russia-Japan-and North America." 

*******

#4
BBC Monitoring
Russian right-winger speaks of his party's basic values 
Source: NTV International, Moscow, in Russian 1500 gmt 26 May 01 

One of Russia's leading politicians, Anatoliy Chubays, has said the
emerging right-wing political party will defend liberal values, such as
freedom, human rights, private property and the market. Chubays was
interviewed during the founding congress of the Union of Right Forces in
Moscow. He said his party's attitude towards the president and the
government would depend not on personal liking or disliking, "but on the
extent to which the authorities' actions correspond to what we believe is
our ideology and our ideal". The following are excerpts from report by
Russian NTV International television on 26 May: 

[Presenter] The founding congress of the Union of Right Forces party is now
under way in Moscow... Here is our correspondent Yuriy Lipatov live from
the congress... 

[Correspondent] I would like to ask our guest about the developments at the
congress. 

[Anatoliy Chubays, chairman of the board of directors of United Energy
Systems of Russia] The holding of the congress is the main thing. When
quite recently, in August 1999, the first association of democrats, which
was called the Union of Right Forces, was beginning to take shape, nearly
everyone was saying that this was not possible, nothing would come out of
this, this was hopeless. Life is telling us the opposite. First, not only
we united, we also won in the Duma elections. Second, today we are making
another step: for the first time in the history of Russia, a single
powerful structure, right-wing and liberal, with a single charter, is now
emerging from the union of nine organizations. This is a party with
individual membership and, at last one can say this firmly - literally
several minutes ago this question was voted, - with one chairman. I think
this is a fundamental move directed at strengthening all reasonable and
sane political forces in the country, and this is a basis for a long-term
development for decades. 

[Correspondent] Does the fact that the party's structure has been defined
mean that the principle of single command is introduced? Or will it work
differently? 

[Chubays] I would say that a balance has been defined, a very reasonable
one, from my point of view, between the principle of single command and the
principle of collective leadership. We have decided that the party will
have a chairman and, along with the chairman, the party will have a
co-chairman, who will work together with the chairman. 

[Correspondent] Anatoliy Borisovich, do you think that in the end there
will emerge an opposition party? In general, is there anything in which you
can be in opposition to the present authorities? Are there things in which
you are prepared to confront firmly the present authorities? 

[Chubays] You know, there are parties and movements which define their
position on the basis of whether they like or dislike the government or the
president. Our logic is different. Our party has been formed not on the
basis of our attitude towards an individual, a politician, but on the
principle of our attitude towards basic political values, such as freedom,
human rights, private property or the market. This is a basis for the
emergence of the party, the exact same basis thanks to which we received
support in the Duma elections. On the basis of this, we resolve your
question. There are actions of the president and the government which we
believe right and we support them, all the more so as dozens of key
figures, our direct supporters and like-minded people, are working with the
president and the government. There are also actions of the president and
the government which we believe wrong, and we do not support such actions,
we oppose them. Anyway, we proceed not from liking or disliking
individuals, but from the extent to which the authorities' actions
correspond to what we believe is our ideology and our ideal. 

[Correspondent] Do you like the phrase constructive opposition, as part of
the definition of your party? 

[Chubays] No, I don't particularly like it because I don't believe we
should a priori put ourselves in an inflexible position. The government is
putting forward measures to reform the pension system. We think these
measures are sensible. Thus, we are not an opposition, we support the
government. The government is putting forward measures to return the old
Soviet anthem. We are categorically against it, we think this is
unreasonable. Why should we drive ourselves in a corner beforehand? Why
should we force ourselves to make one and the same decision all the time,
which could be against our ideology? 

[Correspondent] Anatoliy Borisovich, are you planning to take part in
elections in the near future, for instance, in the next presidential
elections? This is an inevitable question. Do you think there are people in
the party ranks who are capable of competing against the incumbent
president in the next elections, or perhaps later? 

[Chubays] You see, at the congress today, we did not discuss our
presidential candidate or candidates for other political offices. But since
we are not just a strong party but one of the key parties of the country, I
am confident that in order to be regarded as such, the party must have
people capable of competing for any state office. I am confident that there
are such people in the Union of Right Forces. 

[Correspondent] In the near future, during the next presidential elections. 

[Chubays] I believe such people exist already. But whether these people
will stand for presidency in the next elections or later, depends on the
tactics we will choose. 

[Correspondent] Here is my last question. Judging by your insider
observations, who will stand a better chance at the elections of the
party's leader? 

[Chubays] You know, this is exactly why the congress is unusual. This is
not a question of behind-the-scenes negotiations, we don't have to
rubber-stamp a decision. This is a question of a real democratic procedure,
during which the congress delegates will make their decision. Please be
patient, I hope that the decision will be made literally in an hour or so
and we will learn about it. 

*******

#5
RUSSIAN NOBLE ASSEMBLY'S CONGRESS IN MOSCOW

MOSCOW, 26 May 2001. /From RIA Novosti correspondent Nikolai Valkovsky/. --
Moscow will host the 9-th congress of the Russian Noble Assembly on
Saturday. The delegates of the congress are to sum up the results of the
organization's performance over the past decade, draw up plans for
subsequent activity, and discuss the current problems. The congress will
bring together representatives of 70 organizations of the Russian nobility. 

The Russian Noble Assembly ceased to exist in 1917 after the October
Socialist Revolution had completely changed the face of the country. The
dictatorship of the proletariat instituted by the new authorities outlawed
the nobility's values and did away with the nobility itself as a social
class. Thousands of representatives of the Russian gentry emigrated abroad,
with those who stayed being subjected to harsh repressions by the Soviet
authorities. 

The Russian Noble Assembly was resurrected by the remaining representatives
of the country's gentry and their descendants in 1991, following the demise
of the Soviet Union, collapse of the ruling Communist Party and the entire
Soviet system. The Assembly promotes research of the Russian history,
renders assistance to compatriots abroad, and carries out extensive charity
activities. 

*******

#6
SOVIET-U.S. ABM TREATY TURNS 29

Moscow, May 26, 2001 (RIA Novosti) -- It is 29 years on Saturday, May 26,
since the USSR and the U.S. signed the ABM and SALT-1 treaties. Under the
ABM Treaty, the sides assumed the obligation not to deploy ABM systems in
their territories and not to create the basis for such defense. Each of the
sides is entitled to deploy ABM systems in one region - either in the area
of silos from which intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are
launched or around its capital. At the same time, the radius of any of
these regions should not exceed 150 kilometers and no more than 100
anti-missile launching devices could be deployed. 

Most important of all, the ABM Treaty codified the obligation of the sides
not to create, test or deploy see-, space or mobile ground-based ABM
systems or their components. Thus, the sides clearly delimited strategic
and tactical ABM systems, thereby ensuring non-violation of the 1972 ABM
Treaty. 

The Soviet-American provisional agreement on certain measures to limit
strategic offensive arms, or SALT-1, restricted the number of
submarine-launched ICBMs and their carrier vehicles: 710 and no more than
44 for the U.S. and 950 and 62 for the USSR. 

So, for the first time in world history a stable situation of
military-strategic balance, which was nicknamed "the balance of fear", was
established almost thirty years ago. 

In the past year, however, the U.S. has more than once attempted to pull
out from the ABM Treaty. Ex-President Ronald Reagan took the first attempt
in 1980, when he came out with his notorious Strategic Defense Initiative
(SDI). Now the George Bush Administration intends to withdraw from the ABM
Treaty. 

However, the present situation has one very substantial difference from the
situation which existed in the early 1980s. At that time Reagan's SDI was
rather a bluff, while at present national missile defense, or NMD, is
technically feasible. 

U.S. attempts to link changes in the ABM Treaty to the changes that have
occurred in the world situation in the past three decades and new missile
challenges allegedly coming from such countries as North Korea, Iraq, Iran
and Libya do not hold water. North Korea is the only one of these countries
that has successfully tested a missile vehicle. But the distance to Japan
and the distance to the U.S. are different. Furthermore, Russian President
Vladimir Putin made public at the summit in Okinawa the promise he received
from the North Korean leadership to stop the work that had begun and not to
disturb developed countries by its missile launchings. 

Yes, the world situation has changed in the past few decades. But there is
no ground to upset the existing strategic stability system by destroying
the contents of the ABM Treaty. In Moscow's opinion, proliferation of
missiles and missile technology can be prevented, above all, by political
and diplomatic means without going beyond the framework of the ABM Treaty. 

The striving of the White House to deploy NMD at any cost is aimed against
the strategic potential of Russia and China, first and foremost.
Furthermore, it wants to be able to use this system in the future as an
effective instrument of "might-is-right" policy. 

*******

#7
From: "Robert Bruce Ware" <bruce@brick.net>
Subject: Re No Change in Chechnya (JRL 5270)
Date: Sat, 26 May 2001 

With its editorial alleging "No Change in Chechnya" (JRL 5270), the
Washington Post continues its traditional myopia concerning events in the
Caucasus. On one hand, the merit of the Post's restricted view is its
focus upon Russian abuses. These cannot be overlooked, and the Post
deserves credit for its consistent attention to the human rights of the
Chechen people.

However, the lop-sided perspective of the Post is evident whenever these
events are placed within a broader context. Consider one of the
illustrations that the Post invokes to support its claim that there has
been no change in Chechnya: The trial of Colonel Yury Budanov concerns the
abduction, sexual abuse, and murder of an 18 year old Chechen girl by a
Russian officer. Russia's new defense minister, Sergei Ivanov, recently
seemed to rationalize this atrocity. The Post is correct in its
observation that these events, and others such as the mass grave near the
federal military base outside Grozny, are deplorable in absolute terms.
They cannot possibly be justified. But before we conclude, with the Post,
that there has been no change in Chechnya we must recall that Budanov was
promptly arrested and tried. At least in this case, there is hope that
justice will be served.

Compare events such as these with those that occurred in the region prior
to the Russian reoccupation of Chechnya in 1999. For example, in January
1996 Salman Raduyev led a group of Chechen fighters in a raid upon the town
of Kizlyar in the neighboring Republic of Dagestan. Prior to this raid the
Dagestanis had been largely sympathetic to the Chechen cause, and had taken
130,000 Chechen refugees into their homes. On January 6, Raduyev and his
men stormed a quiet neighborhood in Kizlyar and herded over 3,000 civilian
hostages into a hospital. The event recalled the cowardice of Chechen
leader, Shamil Basayev, who, in 1995, took hostages in a Russian maternity
hospital. At the end of the Raduyev's adventure, and with the help of
Russian artillery, over 100 Dagestani hostages had been killed. The event
was a turning point in Dagestani/Chechen relations. Today Dagestan accepts
zero Chechen refugees and has been expelling Chechens residing illegally in
the Republic. In a recent survey that I conducted of 1000 Dagestanis, 76%
of the respondents said that they viewed Chechnya as a serious threat.

After January 1996 Raduyev returned to Chechnya, where he and Basayev
continued to enjoy military and political prominence. At no time in the
years from 1996 to 1999 did Chechen authorities arrest Raduyev or charge
him in the abduction and abuse of thousands of innocent Dagestanis. Nor
were his actions ever officially repudiated. Only after the Russians
returned to Chechnya was Raduyev arrested and charged. Dagestani officials
have told Russian authorities that Raduyev cannot be returned to Dagestan
since he certainly would be killed by the thousands of Dagestanis who have
proclaimed blood vendettas against him.

Here are the differences between Budanov and Raduyev: Budanov allegedly
abducted, abused and murdered an innocent civilian. Raduyev abducted and
abused thousands of innocent civilians. Budanov was quickly arrested and
brought to trial by Russian authorities. There is hope for justice.
Raduyev was never arrested and tried by Chechen authorities. The members
of numerous Chechnya-based kidnapping organizations were never arrested and
tried by Chechen authorities, as they have been by the Russians. Without
Russian intervention there was absolutely no hope for justice. The
situation in Chechya has changed at least this much.

While Minister Ivanov's effort to legitimize Budanov is absolutely
deplorable, it is nonetheless mild compared to numerous and persistent
efforts to justify the failure of Chechen judicial and political systems
during Chechnya's years of de facto independence. Russaphobes and other
apologists frequently cite the devastation of Chechnya's infrastructure
during the first Chechen war, and the failure of Russian reparations after
1996, in order to explain why the people of Chechnya stood by passively
during three years in which Chechnya-based gangs kidnapped, tortured,
enslaved and murdered thousands of people in the region. But it is
impossible to justify torture, slavery, and murder on any grounds
whatsoever, and it is impossible to apologize for those who passively
tolerated these in their midst. Just like the rape and murder of an 18
year old girl, just like a mass grave, just like the abuse of thousands of
innocent Dagestanis, just like the abduction of hostages from a maternity
hospital, these are absolute evils. The hardships of economic devastation
cannot be used to justify the conduct of people in Chechnya in 1998 any
more than they can be used to justify the conduct of people in Germany in
1938. 

It is possible for journalists and analysts, such as those at the Post, to
sustain their myopia because they persist in the simplistic view that the
conflict in Chechnya involves only Russians and Chechens. In order to do
so they must ignore the forces in Central Asia and the Middle East who fund
and arm the Chechen militants, and they must ignore the human rights of the
numerous peoples, most of whom are both Kavkasian and Muslim, who live in
the vicinity of Chechnya. But it is simply hypocritical to protest the
Russian abuse of the Chechen people while ignoring the Chechen abuse of
people in Dagestan, Ingushettia, Ossetia, Stavrapol, Krasnador,
Azerbaijan, and Georgia. It is long past time that the Post awakened to
the facts that the Chechens are only one among hundreds of peoples who
inhabit the Caucasus, and that on the basis of bitter experience most of
these others view Chechnya as a threat.

The persistance of this threat was underscored by Basayev's recent
acknowledgement of his own responsibility in the abduction of Kenneth
Gluck, the American humanitarian aid worker.

Moreover, editorials such as that in the Post, which call for change in
Chechnya, invariably fail to specify how things in Chechnya can possibly be
changed. Certainly there can be no question that the Russian military has
been both criminal and foolish in its systematic failure to protect
ordinary Chechens. But the militants hide among Chechen civilians to
attack Russian forces. When the Russians lash out civilians are abused and
killed. A military solution appears to be impossible at any time in the
foreseeable future, but with whom should Moscow negotiate a political
settlement? Basayev has recently confirmed that his adversarial
relationship with Chechen President Maskhadov and various warlords has
persisted throughout recent years. Since leaders in Chechnya are
chronically at odds with one another, and since nearly all of them refused
to accept the authority of Maskhadov, who in Chechnya could possibly
guarantee any agreement that the Russians might offer? Nor can Russian
forces simply withdraw from Chechnya, as they did in 1996, since that would
mean that all the other peoples of the region would once again be
victimized by Chechen gangs. No one has ever detailed any realistic and
informed alternative to the fighting in Chechnya. In their next piece on
Chechnya, perhaps the editorial staff at the Post will present such a plan.
Until then, repeated calls for Russian authorities to achieve something
that no one in the West can even envision are both counterproductive and
hypocritical.

The fact is that the situation in Chechnya might have changed a little more
for the better were it not for the persistence of editorials such as that
in the Post. The tragedy of analysis such as this is that its simplicity,
myopia and imbalance makes it all to easy for Moscow to dismiss it.
Western journalists, analysts, human rights organizations, and policy
makers have echoed and entrenched an imbalanced perspective that is simply
out of touch with the reality of the situation in the Caucasus. Far from
protecting the rights of peoples in the region, such analysis can only
serve the interests of hard-liners and xenophobes on all sides. We cannot
hope to communicate our concerns about Chechnya to Russian authorities
until we begin to acknowledge the full complexity of the problems in the
Caucasus. The tragedy is that editorials such as that in the Post are one
of the reasons that there has been so little change in Chechnya.

******

#8
Chechen High Schoolers Graduate
May 26, 2001
By MUSA SADULAYEV

GROZNY, Russia (AP) - For teen-agers across Russia, their last day of high 
school was celebrated with singing and drinking in the streets. For 
teen-agers in Chechnya's capital, the day - accompanied by explosions and 
shootouts in the distance - meant the end of an education wracked by two 
wars. 

``I will never forget my school years. I will remember wars, shellings, cold 
classrooms, iron stoves,'' said 17-year-old Magomed Aliyev, standing outside 
School No. 41 in Grozny, near the shattered city's central market. 

``I will remember oilcloth in the windows instead of glass, and how shrapnel 
hit the walls of our classroom during shellings,'' he said. That happened 
four times; the last time was last month, he recalled. 

Just three other students made it through their 11 years of schooling to 
finish with Aliyev on Friday. They started school in this once-bustling 
capital as the Soviet Union was collapsing and Chechen separatists were 
rising to power. 

``Ten years ago there were 31 kids in my class,'' said Aiza Nadyrova, teacher 
of the graduating class. ``Many of them left Grozny because of the wars, and 
now I have only four who finish school this year.'' 

Classmates of all ages helped the graduates celebrate Friday, dancing and 
laughing outside the ramshackle school, near a gutted apartment building. 

The school was closed several times during the current war between Russian 
forces and Chechen rebels, which has raged since September 1999, and the last 
war, in 1994-6. 

Even though Russian forces have claimed to control Grozny and most of 
Chechnya for the past year, daily violence is palpable. 

Rebels who make their way into the capital clash at night with Russian forces 
or pro-Moscow Chechen police. Remote-control mines explode around the city. 
Civilians - including children - often fall victim to the violence. 

``Shootouts in the center of Grozny have become a common thing to us. We 
aren't scared of them anymore, we've already seen a lot. But we are scared 
for the school kids,'' Nadyrova said. 

Her school, she said, was lucky. ``Many schools were razed to the ground.'' 

Russia traditionally celebrates May 25 as ``Last Bell'' day, marked by 
parties and performances marking the last regular school day for the 
graduating class. The students then have a week off before exams begin June 
1, and formal graduation parties are held at the end of June. 

For all the difficulty of school life in Grozny, adult life is even more 
daunting for Aliyev. 

``I would like to continue my education. I love poetry and would love to get 
a literature education. However, I don't want to go to study in Russia where 
police are very aggressive against Chechens,'' he said. 

Chechnya has few functioning colleges and limited class offerings, and they 
are often targets for Russian troops who fear they harbor rebels. 

``There doesn't seem to be a way out, and I feel so frustrated,'' Aliyev 
said. 

******

#9
The Russia Journal
May 25-31, 2001
FSB dictates as Chechnya rages on
Security chiefs tell editors to print propaganda on conflict 
By ALEXANDER GOLTS

A significant media event emerged when Russia’s security chiefs met with
the editors of five newspapers after reporting to President Vladimir Putin
on the situation in Chechnya. Rather than publishing accounts of their
impressions or analyses of what they heard, the editors published a
transcript of the press conference prepared for them by the FSB. 

I could be mistaken, but if I recall correctly, the last time all the
newspapers printed pre-approved "comrade general secretary’s answers to
questions from journalists" was in 1987-88. 

There can be no mistaking where the wind is blowing. The meeting this month
brings to mind a Soviet joke about Napoleon, who comes to Moscow to watch
the military parade on Red Square. The tanks and missiles, which if he’d
had them, would have made victory at Waterloo a cinch, don’t impress him.
What really grabs his attention is the newspaper Pravda. 

"If I’d had a newspaper like this," he exclaims, "no one would ever have
known I lost the battle of Waterloo."

Of course, it’s not so hard to understand the defense minister, interior
minister and head of the FSB, who didn’t want anyone trying to analyze the
patent nonsense they come out with. And it’s possible that the editors,
trying at once to be loyal to the authorities and keep their self-respect,
were only too happy to have someone relieve them of the need to speak their
own minds.

Harsh facts

But the situation in Chechnya today is such that sooner or later, there
will be no choice but to stare the harsh facts in the face. On the day that
the security ministers painted the successes of the anti-terrorist
operations, the authorities published official statistics on federal
losses. This data shows that over the last three months – that is, over the
period since the large rebel groups have been crushed – the federal forces
have lost around 100 soldiers. What this means is that despite the soothing
statements of the security ministries, full-scale partisan war continues in
Chechnya.

From a bureaucratic and propaganda point of view, the security ministries
can claim a decisive victory. Putin doesn’t want to ask why federal
soldiers are still being killed at the same rate even though the main
separatist forces have been liquidated. As for the journalists and
analysts, they won’t take the risk of raising such inconvenient questions. 

In any case, to judge by the words of FSB head Nikolai Patrushev,
establishing control over Chechnya with minimum losses for federal forces
isn’t Moscow’s main aim at all. Instead, the main aim is to "prevent the
representatives of international terrorism from returning to Chechnya and
to the North Caucasus in general." If someone said Moscow’s aim was to
prevent perfidious representatives from Mars from sneaking into Chechnya,
the operation would have been carried out with even more success.

In reality, the military operation in Chechnya has gone into a dead end,
and everyone participating in it knows this full well. The might of the
Army, its artillery, armored vehicles and attack aircraft is virtually
useless against countless rebel detachments made up of just five to 10 men
each. But at the same time, withdrawing Army troops from Chechnya is a
frightening prospect – everyone remembers how the Chechen separatists took
Grozny after command was handed from the Defense Ministry to the Interior
Ministry in summer, 1996. This is why the most that has been done is to cut
back the federal group a little. 

Military initiative

But in conditions of full-scale partisan war, the federal troops make an
obvious target for rebel terrorist attacks. The federal troops are
surrounded by people who by day are peaceful civilians and by night lay
mines and attack checkpoints that have enough trouble just defending
themselves, let alone anyone else. The rebels have the military initiative
entirely in their hands. 

According to the lengthy and unconvincing explanations given by FSB head
Patrushev to the editors, the key rebel leaders haven’t been caught yet
only because of the risk of heavy federal losses. (Even though federal
forces are losing one to two men a day as it is.) This is enough to make
clear that the Russian secret services are powerless in Chechnya.

Added to all this is the fact that Moscow isn’t able to meet all its
commitments to financing the operation. Putin’s sudden visit to Chechnya,
which was supposed to make sure that soldiers got paid the money promised
them for taking part in military action, ended with these payments
abolished altogether from May 1. Other payments were increased instead, but
the result is still a three-fold drop in earnings for the soldiers. 

Canceling contracts

A large number of soldiers who had signed contracts to go fight in Chechnya
have asked for them to be ended. This means that come summer, conscript
soldiers will replace the contract soldiers in Chechnya. Although Putin
decreed that soldiers could be sent to a conflict zone only after six
months of training, it’s unlikely military officials will be able to keep
to this rule. 

With cutbacks going on at the moment in the armed forces, the Defense
Ministry will have a hard time maintaining numbers in Chechnya and abiding
by all the rules at the same time.

This is the key to understanding Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov’s
sensational statement at the meeting with the editors. Speaking of Col.
Yury Budanov, currently on trial in Rostov-on-Don for the murder of a
Chechen girl, Ivanov said that at a human level, he feels sorry for
Budanov. "Budanov is a victim both of circumstances and the inadequacies of
our laws," Ivanov said.

This approach explains why the lawlessness of federal troops in Chechnya
continues to this day. What it points to, in essence, is an unwritten
social contract. The Kremlin has thrown the Army into a war that is
impossible to win. What’s more, it is unable to pay the soldiers for the
risks they take. This is why it doesn’t feel it has the right to demand
that soldiers obey the law. But this, of course, means that the civil war
in Chechnya will never end.

*******

#10
Russian poll shows over half afraid of Baltic states' NATO membership 
Source: BNS news agency, Tallinn, in English 1021 gmt 26 May 01 

Moscow, 26 May: Admission of the three Baltic states into NATO is the
fourth threat to Russia's national safety, most eminent foreign policy
experts of the Russian Federation have said. 

According to a recent poll that questioned Russia's experts, a total of
52.9 per cent of respondents fear the alliance's eastward enlargement to
include Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. 

Meanwhile, terrorism is seen as the biggest threat to Russia, indicated by
over 60 per cent of those polled in the survey, which was carried out by
Russia's independent institute for social and national problems in
cooperation with the Moscow Ebert fund. 

The results published in the Izvestiya newspaper on Friday suggest that
international terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism are the biggest threats
(61 per cent), followed by the country's low competitiveness in world
markets (58.3 per cent) and the widening gap between Russia and the West in
terms of scientific and technical potential. 

The survey questioned expert groups in charge of the preparations for
Russia's foreign policy guidelines, concepts and opinions in state
structures, science and educational institutions, press, public
organizations and political parties. 

*******

#11
NATO MPs to mull expansion on ex-Soviet territory
By Peter Mladineo

VILNIUS, May 26 (Reuters) - NATO parliamentarians meet next week for the 
first time on former Soviet territory to discuss alliance expansion, U.S. 
missile defence plans and Balkans bloodshed, the head of their assembly said 
on Saturday. 

Russia's associate delegation pulled out of the spring session in protest at 
the plan to stage it in on ex-Soviet terrain -- the Baltic republic of 
Lithuania -- for the first time since the U.S.-led alliance was formed in 
1955. 

Russia, which dominated the Soviet Union before its disintegration a decade 
ago, objects to Lithuania and other ex-Soviet states bidding to join NATO. 

"...They communicated to us that they believed that to attend this particular 
meeting in this particular location would represent in their view their 
acquiescence in the possibility of this country joining NATO," assembly 
General Secretary Simon Lunn told journalists in Vilnius, the Lithuanian 
capital. 

Although neither Russia nor Lithuania is a NATO member, they are allowed to 
participate in the alliance assembly as associates, along with 15 other 
non-member states. 

Despite Russia's protest, Lunn said the assembly still hoped to adopt a 
declaration calling on the NATO leadership to issue invitations to "any 
European democracy" that meets NATO entry criteria and wants membership. 

"The assembly emphasises that the last round of enlargement has been 
successful in enhancing peace and stability in the entire Euro-Atlantic 
region, and that NATO must sustain the credibility of its open-door policy," 
the draft resolution says. 

PROPOSED U.S. MISSILE SHIELD ON AGENDA 

The assembly's roughly 300 members, whose resolutions are non-binding, will 
also take up the divisive issue of U.S. President George W. Bush's plans for 
a national missile defence shield despite fierce objections from Russia and 
China. 

Key U.S. allies in Europe like Britain and Germany have straddled the fence 
on the issue so far, arguing that Bush has not yet decided what systems he 
wants to deploy, while France has criticised the project. 

"Missile defence is an area where there is clearly a divergence of views ... 
There are some misunderstandings and some misperceptions on either side of 
the Atlantic," Lunn said. 

The Balkans will also figure heavily in the discussions and the assembly is 
expected to vote on a resolution welcoming reform in Yugoslavia after the 
October fall of nationalist autocrat Slobodan Milosevic. 

The resolution suggests formal ties between Belgrade and NATO under its 
Partnership for Peace programme but that conditions should be attached, such 
as cooperation with the Dutch-based U.N. tribunal which pursues Balkan war 
criminals. 

The resolution warns ethnic Albanians in old federal Yugoslavia that violence 
by nationalist groups in their midst them has eroded the international 
sympathy they built up during the 1999 Kosovo crisis. 

It also calls on Macedonia to "address the political and economic grievances" 
of its minority Albanians, on whose behalf guerrillas are fighting government 
forces. 

******

#12
Talk of a new war as Armenia and Azerbaijan shelve summit

YEREVAN, May 26 (AFP) - 
Amid dark warnings of a possible new war over the enclave of Nagorno 
Karabakh, Armenia and Azerbaijan on Saturday said they had failed to agree on 
holding a summit to reach a peace agreement.

A spokesman for Armenian President Robert Kotcharian said plans for a summit 
with President Heydar Aliev of Azerbaijan, originally to have been held on 
June 15 in Geneva, had been shelved "indefinitely."

Aliyev, speaking on television in the Azeri capital of Baku, warned that his 
country was ready to go to war again if no peaceful solution could be reached 
over the disputed enclave, which is inside Azeri territory but populated 
mainly by ethnic Armenians.

"I am sure that with certain concessions the conflict can be resolved," he 
said. However, "some forces in the country still have ideas of a military 
nature," he added.

"We are ready for war, but today there is no need for it."

Officials said the planned summit was shelved at the suggestion of the 
sponsors of the so-called Minsk group -- Russia, France and the United States 
-- which concluded after a recent tour of the region that there was little 
hope of achieving real progress.

The co-chairs of the Minsk group, charged with finding a solution to the 
13-year-old regional conflict, felt that it would do no good to rush into a 
summit and that neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan was prepared to enter a peace 
agreement, an Armenian spokeswoman said.

Nagorno Karabakh declared itself independent in 1991 with Yerevan's support, 
prompting a war in which 30,000 people died.

There has been little progress towards a political settlement since 1994, 
when the two sides agreed on a ceasefire.

A spokeswoman for the Armenian foreign ministry said the Minsk group had 
considered that "neither Armenia, and certainly not Azerbaijan, is ready for 
compromise."

"This does not however mean that the process (of consultations) has been 
halted," the foreign ministry spokeswoman said. Asked when the two presidents 
might meet, she said it was "difficult to say."

A successful meeting between Kocharian and Aliyev, in Key West, Florida in 
April had raised hopes of a breakthrough.

However the United States's negotiator at those talks, Carey Cavanagh, said 
last week that the two leaders were not doing enough to prepare their 
respective populations for a possible peace deal.

*******

#13
Mutiny, protests mar Georgian Independence Day
By Niko Mchedlishvili

TBILISI, May 26 (Reuters) - Nationalist protesters clashed with police in 
Georgia on Saturday hours after President Eduard Shevardnadze defused an army 
mutiny, as the country marked a decade of independence with echoes of past 
turmoil. 

Hundreds of armed national guardsmen were back in their barracks after 
Shevardnadze talked them into abandoning a mutiny over pay overnight. But at 
least one policeman was seriously hurt when protests turned violent in the 
centre of the capital. 

The events brought a worrisome air of deja vu to a country whose decade of 
post-Soviet independence saw four wars, a handful of minor rebellions, an 
unresolved refugee crisis and an ongoing energy crunch that leaves it dark 
and cold in winter. 

Shevardnadze, a former Soviet foreign minister known for his role in 
fostering East-West detente in the 1980s, has himself survived two 
assassination attempts. Late on Friday he again employed his negotiating 
skills, persuading some 400 soldiers to return to barracks and end a protest 
over wages. 

"All (the mutineers) have gone back to barracks, except for two tanks that 
ran out of fuel," Defence Ministry duty officer Albert Gabadze told Reuters 
on Saturday. 

In central Tbilisi, several hundred nationalist protesters bearing 
broomsticks and wooden crosses clashed with truncheon- wielding riot police 
at a rally shortly after midday. 

Tbilisi police chief Soso Alavidze told Reuters at the scene that the head of 
the city's criminal search unit had been taken to hospital with a serious 
head wound. 

Riot police head Temur Mkebrishvili said that altogether 15 police had been 
hurt. Several protesters also bore signs of injury as the crowd dispersed. 
Alavidze said there had been arrests but did not say how many. 

The protesters were supporters of Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Georgia's first 
post-independence president, ousted in a violent 1992 coup and replaced by 
Shevardnadze. 

SHEVARDNADZE PROMISES PROSPERITY 

Shevardnadze marked Independence Day with a visit to a hilltop monument to 
Georgian writers, where he unveiled a sculpture in honour of a philosopher. 
He later met students and athletes at the government headquarters. 

"I congratulate you on the 10th anniversary of independence. In our country, 
not all is as it should be. We have suffered chaos and civil war. But I 
promise, you will live in a flourishing country with territorial integrity," 
he told them. 

A parade was called off, apparently because of lack of funds. 

Although the country remains poor, it has been comparatively stable for the 
past few years. 

But Friday's mutiny and Saturday's protests were reminders of the political 
turmoil of the early 1990s, when two ethnic groups fought wars for 
independence and battling supporters and opponents of Gamsakhurdia reduced 
central Tbilisi to rubble. 

About 400 fully armed men of a national guard battalion quit their garrison 
outside Tbilisi and occupied a police base. 

After a day of suspense and official accusations of high treason, 
Shevardnadze went to negotiate in person -- only to find the mutineers were 
demanding 14 months of back wages. 

The rebels agreed to return to their garrison in exchange for a presidential 
pledge of immunity from prosecution. Shevardnadze sounded a conciliatory 
note. 

"The state is no less guilty than they are in what has happened; in normal 
conditions this would not have happened," he said after the talks. He told 
the students on Saturday that the mutineers "were young people just like you, 
and it is no surprise that the president met young people who were upset." 

The incident was simpler than many Shevardnadze has faced. 

Shortly after he was installed in Tbilisi, he personally led forces to 
humiliating defeat in the rebel Abkhazia province, one of two regions that 
fought wars to claim independence. Tens of thousands of Georgians driven from 
the regions remain homeless. 

In 1993, Gamsakhurdia tried to retake power in an armed uprising. He died in 
unclear circumstances. 

The crumbling economy remains by far the biggest problem for most Georgians. 
The average monthly wage is just $35 and half the population of 5.5 million 
live below the poverty line. 

There is no heat in winter and electricity blackouts have been a daily 
routine for years. The International Monetary Fund this month withheld a loan 
for want of visible improvements. 

******

#14
The Times (UK)
May 26, 2001
Letter
Extraditions to Russia criticised 
FROM LORD BETHELL, MEP FOR LONDON REGION (CONSERVATIVE) 

Sir, On April 17 the British Government passed a statutory instrument under 
the Extradition Act 1989 according to which the British police are obliged to 
arrest any individual who is wanted on a criminal charge by the public 
prosecutor of the Russian Federation. 

The Russian authorities have already started demanding the extradition of 
individuals from Western countries. For instance, they are trying to get 
their hands on the former KGB Colonel Alexander Litvinenko, who has taken 
refuge in England. He is suspected of punching a suspect on the nose during 
interrogation and, most recently, of treason. A few days ago, after several 
months' wait, Britain gave him political asylum. 

The 1989 Act allows us to refuse to extradite a political refugee, but the 
Russians do not always distinguish the political from the merely criminal and 
they sometimes invent criminal charges against persons they do not like and 
wish to get hold of. 

For instance, the businessman Anatoli Bykov was recently arrested in Hungary 
under a Russian extradition warrant on a charge of murder. Back in Russia the 
case collapsed because it turned out that the murdered man was still alive. 
But Mr Bykov is still in prison in Russia. He has been told he can go free if 
he hands over to the state several million dollars' worth of aluminium 
shares. 

On the basis of a similar agreement the Russian prosecutor persuaded the 
Spanish police to arrest the multi-media producer Vladimir Gusinsky on 
charges of embezzlement. (His television station, NTV, had criticised the 
behaviour of Russian troops in the Chechnya war.) He spent a month in 
solitary confinement before the Spanish Court of Appeal ruled that "the facts 
do not amount to a crime" (News in brief, April 19) and set him free, but the 
Russians have made it clear that they have other warrants ready to be used, 
in Spain and in other Western countries. 

Mr Gusinsky, who runs a substantial business in Gibraltar and has the right 
of residence there, now wants to live and do business in the United Kingdom. 
But, since Russia and Britain are now joined by the 1989 Act and the British 
will give him no guarantee against arrest, he is wary of coming here. 

I know that Russia is now a member of the Council of Europe, but the rule of 
law does not yet prevail in that country, and it was unwise of the Government 
to have used the April 17 instrument to tie us together in this way. 

Yours sincerely,
NICHOLAS BETHELL,
European Parliament,
c/o 2 Queen Anne's Gate, SW1H 9AA.
May 23.

*****

#15
Russian Oil Company Investigated
May 25, 2001

MOSCOW (AP) - Russian oil company Sibneft is being investigated for alleged 
tax violations by Russian prosecutors, a company spokesman said Friday. 

Sibneft spokesman Nick Halliwell said that prosecutors had opened a criminal 
case against the company. He said the matter had previously been investigated 
by the tax police and was resolved in Sibneft's favor. 

The investigation concerns allegations that Sibneft failed to pay $12 million 
to $14 million in value-added taxes and obtained tax privileges it was not 
entitled to, the Interfax news agency said, citing the press service of the 
Prosecutor General's office. 

The report also said the Prosecutor General's Office is investigating alleged 
embezzlement by the management of Sibneft. 

``We're aware of the investigation, but we are not in any way concerned by 
it,'' Halliwell said, adding that the company was ``surprised'' by what he 
said was a repeat investigation. 

In August, tax police seized documents at Sibneft, which is controlled by 
Roman Abramovich, a tycoon who was elected governor of the remote Chukotka 
region last year and is said to have strong Kremlin connections. 

Abramovich was also an ally of mogul Boris Berezovsky, one of Russia's most 
controversial and disliked figures. Berezovsky was close to former President 
Boris Yeltsin's inner circle, but has fallen out of favor with the Kremlin 
under President Vladimir Putin and is under investigation in a probe into 
embezzlement from the Aeroflot airline. He denies wrongdoing and has remained 
abroad, refusing to appear for questioning. 

******

#16
The Sunday Times (UK)
27 May 2001
Uzbek leader takes fight to the Muslims 
Mark Franchetti, Tashkent 

AS A talented medical student, Bahodyr, 25, looked forward to a well-paid 
career in his native Uzbekistan. He always got top marks and was his family's 
only hope of a better future in this deeply impoverished central Asian 
country. 

There was just one problem. His beard was an all-too-visible sign of his 
Muslim faith. The university rector gave him an ultimatum: shave it off or 
face expulsion. 

Bahodyr refused and now divides his time between driving a battered Lada taxi 
and carrying sacks of rice in the market at Tashkent, the capital, for 60p a 
day. 

Although he did not return to university, it was not long before he shaved 
off his beard. "It has become too dangerous," said Bahodyr, who was too 
frightened to give his surname. "I heard of other religious students with 
beards who were picked up by police, taken to a cell, severely beaten and 
forced to shave. People disappeared and were sentenced to 15 years for 
anti-state activities. So I, too, shaved." 

Young men with beards have become a rare sight in Uzbekistan, a predominantly 
Muslim country of 25m people; only old men can safely sport facial hair. Many 
women have stopped wearing headscarves for fear of appearing to be religious 
extremists. 

The crackdown on beards is part of a wider campaign by President Islam 
Karimov, who claims to be fighting the spread of Islamic fundamentalism in a 
region haunted by the instability of nearby Afghanistan. 

Since a series of bombs shook Tashkent in 1999, killing 15 people, Karimov, 
63, has ordered the arrest of thousands of devout Muslims in what has been 
likened to Stalin's campaign of terror in the 1930s. 

Officers from the former KGB monitor mosques, while police frequently plant 
drugs, bullets and religious leaflets on suspects. The practice is so 
widespread that some Muslims have sewn up their pockets. 

Show trials are held almost daily. Dozens of men and women are jailed for up 
to 20 years after being charged with seeking Karimov's overthrow, solely 
because they are devout. In some cases, playing football has been presented 
as evidence that suspects were trying to acquire the fitness that fighters in 
a holy war would need. 

Western observers have registered hundreds of instances of torture to extract 
confessions. They claim detainees are beaten, given electric shocks, 
mutilated, raped, starved and often killed. Some prisoners have been beaten 
in front of their lawyers, forcing them to turn down legal assistance. 
Suspects' relatives are also being arrested and tortured. 

"My son was first picked up by police and beaten because he had a beard," 
said Karima Muhamedova. "Then he was caught handing out a leaflet denouncing 
the death in custody of a friend. That was enough to get him 20 years. Then 
they took my other son and gave him 16 years. 

"I saw them in jail. They could barely walk and their fingers were black with 
bruises. I don't know where they are now." 

Most political prisoners are sent south to Zhaslyk, where a prison was built 
recently on the site of a former Soviet chemical warfare testing ground. At 
least 38 inmates died there last year. 

"It's a concentration camp" said Vasilia Inoyatova, a human rights campaigner 
who saw the inside as an inmate's relative. "Prisoners spend the day 
squatting in overcrowded cells with their hands behind their backs. To move 
they must ask for permission and thank Karimov. They are made to sing the 
national anthem 50 times a day, and can relieve themselves only once a day 
when they have to run through two lines of guards beating them with batons." 

Fear stalks Uzbekistan. Telephones are tapped, people disappear in the night 
and there is no opposition press. 

Karimov's authoritarian style has not stopped Vladimir Putin, the Russian 
president, from supporting him. Uzbekistan was one of the first countries he 
visited after taking office. 

Last month he agreed to give Karimov military aid to help him deal with 
Islamic rebels. The Russians are keen to restore their influence in a region 
and Putin sees in Karimov a strongman on a mission to crush fundamentalism. 

Western diplomats believe, however, that far from curbing religious 
extremism, Karimov is fuelling it. "It's a misguided policy," said one senior 
diplomat in Tashkent. "The people he is locking up are not terrorists, they 
are devoutly religious members of the opposition. Karimov is pushing them 
right into the arms of the extremists." 

*******

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