July 5, 2001 

This Date's Issues:   5336 • 5337

Johnson's Russia List
#5337
5 July 2001
davidjohnson@erols.com

[Note from David Johnson:
1. Reuters: Harry Potter learns to speak good Russian.
2. AFP: Russian radio execs threaten to quit over "state takeover"
3. Washington Post editorial: Glimpses of Mr. Putin's Soul.
4. Moscow Times: Anna Badkhen, The Country's a War Zone.
5. Moscow Times: John Freedman, Third Theater Olympics a Colossal Triumph.
6. AP: Documents Reveal Spy Campaign. (MI5)
7. Reuters: Russia seeks to win trust at G8 finmin talks.
8. Novaya Gazeta: Ivan Trefilov, MUSCOVITES SWELL THE RANKS OF THE PEOPLE FROM ST. PETERSBURG. Patrushev, Ivanov, Zaostrovtsev are the core of Putin's team.
9. APF: Kazakhstan's bid to lure back capital viewed as test.
10. Albert Weeks: On Straus re meaning of the Fourth (JRL #5335).
11. Rossiya: Alec Kivi, VLADIMIR ZHIRINOVSKY: RUSSIA NEEDS SOME SCREAMING! An interview with LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky.]

********

#1
Harry Potter learns to speak good Russian
By Andrei Shukshin

MOSCOW, July 5 (Reuters) - Who to choose -- Harry Potter, trainee wizard, or
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark?

That was the dilemma facing Maria Litvinova, Russia's top translator and
world-renowned expert on Shakespeare, when she agreed to set aside her
cherished research into the Bard of Avon to translate the tale of a
bespectacled wannabe wizard.

"It was not easy for me to accept this offer. I am over 70 and time is too
precious for me now to spend it on anything else but my research," she told
Reuters after finishing the translation of the second volume of J K Rowling's
"Harry Potter" adventures.

Litvinova says she has absolutely unorthodox views on Shakespeare and it is
her life's goal to prove her point. But she felt it was no less urgent to
give Russian children the best of Harry Potter who has so mesmerised children
the world over.

"But the book is such a gem that it was unbearable for me to think that the
magic of the language would be lost on Russian readers," she said.

Litvinova said she never regretted her decision and even felt that Harry
himself seemed keen to help her.

"Instead of the planned six months I managed to finish the work in 90 days.
What is that, if not magic?"

PARENTS COMPLAINED

The adventures of the young boy stumbling his way through an exciting world
of mystery and magic appears to have cast a worldwide spell, selling 100
million copies from Argentina to China.

Russian children have been treated so far to only the first of the
four-volume saga. Rosman, publisher of the Russian-language edition, soon
started to receive calls from parents distressed by the poor quality of the
translation.

"Parents complained that their children were devouring the book -- and the
not-so-good Russian it was written in," Litvinova said.

"And Rosman asked me to help them with the 'Chamber of Secrets', the second
book, which went on sale in Litvinova's translation on July 1.

The standard of Russian translation plummeted from its Soviet peak with the
collapse of Communism in 1991 as publishers flooded the market with
second-rate Western crime and horror fiction, churned out with little regard
for linguistic flair.

English syntax pollutes most translations and has even begun to influence
radio and television, with presenters often inadvertently using grammatical
constructions completely alien to native Russian-speakers.

Mikhail Markotkin, Rosman's chairman, said his company was embarrassed by its
gaffe in choosing the initial translator, and was doing its best to repair
the damage.

"It was sub-standard," he told Reuters at the launch of "The Chamber of
Secrets" in Moscow. "We have decided now to make corrections to the version."

Markotkin said the first book, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone,"
topped the Russian children's best-seller lists with sales of around 100,000
copies, and the company was assailed by children desperate to discover when
they could get their hands on the sequel.

"Kids are ready to wait for two, four months, for half a year -- which is
astounding for a market where people usually lose interest after two or three
months," he said.

CUT PRICE HARRY FOR RUSSIANS

"The Chamber of Secrets" has an initial print run of 50,000 with a further
run of the same size planned in two to three weeks' time. That is extremely
high for a country where living standards remain low and most books are sold
in large cities.

Markotkin said the book was selling at well below average European and U.S.
prices in order to broaden its reach. He said Rosman was planning to increase
the price steadily from the current $2.5, as new Harry Potter books hit the
book stores.

He declined to reveal how profitable "Pottermania" has been for Rosman, but
was visibly excited about the company's victory in the lucrative tender for
what has become a global publishing phenomenon.

Harry Potter tales have been translated into 42 languages from Albanian to
Zulu and have transformed Rowling, a single mother writing in an Edinburgh
cafe between school runs, into a millionaire.

GOLDMINE

Pottermania has worked its magic for the businessmen behind the books'
success, but large-scale financial reward has passed Litvinova by. Her
translation royalties from Rosman, for three months of intensive work, were
equivalent to less than the cost of a cut-price notebook computer.

"I'm not bothered about how much they pay me. Money means absolutely nothing
to me. I am from the old Soviet school -- mind over matter," she said,
sitting on a creaking armchair in a room with fading wallpaper peeling from
the walls.

"What I am really ready to die for is the beauty of the Russian language --
and my beloved Shakespeare," Litvinova said.

Living on a shoestring, she said she could not afford the kind of research
Rowling's translators abroad indulged in, like Japan's Yuko Matsuoka who
ordered a knickerbocker glory ice cream to see what it looked like.

But Litvinova said she was sure her profound knowledge of English life and
literature would compensate amply for any such shortcomings.

Fearful that her advanced age should cramp the text, she also asked a team of
younger translators to look over her shoulder to make sure Harry sounded like
his real teenage self.

"All that made me feel younger myself," she said when asked if it was time
for her to go back to Shakespeare. "To be honest I am already translating the
third book."

********

#2
Russian radio execs threaten to quit over "state takeover"

MOSCOW, July 5 (AFP) -
Senior executives at Russia's Echo Moscow radio, the last bastion of the
independent Media-MOST group which was sucked up into state-owned gas giant
Gazprom, said on Thursday they would resign unless the "state takeover" of
their station was halted.

Majority shareholder Gazprom has said it would sell a 9.5 percent stake in
Echo Moscow to staff as a guarantee of their editorial independence but the
station said it had no written agreement and feared Gazprom would renegue.

And Gazprom's control over the station was confirmed late Wednesday when a
Moscow arbitration court rejected an appeal by Echo Moscow against an earlier
decision transferring a 25 percent stake to Gazprom in lieu of overdue loans.

"The process of nationalisation of Moscow Echo has started," chief editor
Alexei Venediktov, one of the stations's founders, told AFP, adding: "I do
not want to work in state radio."

He said that he had little faith that Gazprom's media director Alfred Kokh
would relinquish the 9.5 percent stake. "We have been deceived by Gazprom
several times since we started negotiations," said Venediktov.

A 14-percent stake that exiled Media-MOST owner Vladimir Gusinsky promised to
give staff would have handed them overall control, but the shares were
impounded by the state prosecutor on Monday.

The fate of Echo Moscow is seen as a test of Russia's commitment to free
speech after Gazprom's controversial takeover of Media-MOST's other media
outlets this summer.

Headed by the dynamic Venediktov, the station is fiercely independent and is
regarded as Russia's best radio source of accurate, fast news delivered in an
impartial way.

The media freedom watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres has already expressed
concern that the state was trying to take over the station, and asked French
President Jacques Chirac to intercede during his recent visit to Russia.

The Kremlin insists that it has no wish to interfere in the media and views
the takeover of Media-MOST by Gazprom as a purely commercial matter.

The Media-MOST group, which included NTV television station, a newspaper and
a news magazine, was unable to pay back more than 200 million dollars it had
borrowed from Gazprom.

Gazprom took its debtor to court and in May obtained a ruling under which it
was handed Media-Most shares equivalent to the value of the borrowings. That
gave Gazprom overall control of Media-Most.

Gazprom took effective control of the Media-MOST group, which included NTV
television station, a newspaper and a news magazine, in May after a court
ruled that companies controlled by the gas company should be handed shares in
lieu of unpaid debts.

The gas company changed the editorial line of most of the outlets, reining in
criticisim of the Kremlin, but Echo Moscow struck a deal with shareholders to
retain its independence.

The station said five executives, Sergei Buntman, Irina Tsvei, Vladimir
Varfolomeyev and Tatyana Scheglova, had tendered their resignations "in
protest at the effective transfer of the station into state control."

"In their view there is a serious concern that Gazprom will not honour the
agreement concluded on Wednesday about the transfer of shares to Moscow Echo
staff," the station said in a statement.

The staff of Echo Moscow currently own 28 percent of the equity in the
station and say they can also call on a five percent stake owned by satirical
magazine Ogonyok.

If Gazprom sells them the 9.5 percent holding they would have 42.5 percent.

That would leave them without a controlling stake but it would mean that
Gazprom, which through subsidiaries holds 52 percent, would forfeit its
overall control. "No one will have the controlling stake," said Venediktov.

*******

#3
Washington Post
July 5, 2001
Editorial
Glimpses of Mr. Putin's Soul

ON MONDAY Vladimir Putin's prosecutors brought criminal charges against the
director of a small television station that has been a last-ditch refuge for
independent journalists driven out of the NTV network this year. On Tuesday,
his police raided the offices of Echo of Moscow, an independent radio station
that is the final remnant of the NTV empire not yet crushed or taken over by
Mr. Putin's cronies. While this was going on, Mr. Putin himself was
delivering another defiant and dissembling statement about Chechnya,
declaring in front of French President Jacques Chirac that the persistent
Chechen resistance to his brutal military campaign there was the work of
"foreign mercenaries who have large quantities of heroin." In New York,
meanwhile, Mr. Putin's ambassador was single-handedly blocking a revamping of
U.N. sanctions against Iraq, thwarting the Bush administration's high-profile
attempt to stop the rehabilitation of Saddam Hussein.

We're still hoping to get that glimpse of Mr. Putin's soul that President
Bush talked about last month -- the one that convinced him that the Russian
president "is a straightforward, honest man" and "a remarkable leader" whom
his administration can trust. In the absence of such insight, we must rely on
Mr. Putin's public acts -- which continue to be those of a budding autocrat
who is systematically liquidating his country's free press, responding to
restless minorities with lies and dirty war and seeking to restore Russian
influence in the world by supporting and encouraging such enemies of the
United States as Iraq.

From Mr. Putin's point of view, these various campaigns are going better than
ever; since his meeting with Mr. Bush and the president's effusive
endorsement, Western objections to his regime and its tactics have all but
died away. Take Mr. Chirac, whose relatively strong criticism of Mr. Putin's
invasion of Chechnya chilled Franco-Russian relations through much of last
year. The Russian president was anything but subtle in his handling of Mr.
Chirac's visit to Moscow this week, dispatching his police to the Echo of
Moscow studios before the station was due to interview the French leader, and
making his preposterous pronouncement about Chechnya as Mr. Chirac stood by
his side. Yet Mr. Chirac -- evidently eager not to be bested by Washington in
the romancing of Mr. Putin -- took his humiliation well; rather than
criticize the raid on Echo of Moscow or Mr. Putin's actions in Chechnya, he
instead stressed the "considerable convergence" the French and Russian
governments were achieving.

Mr. Bush came into office pledging not to be seduced by a Kremlin leader, in
the way he charged President Clinton had been taken in by Boris Yeltsin.
Prior to his first meeting with Mr. Putin, his advisers claimed that the
president cared about issues such as press freedom, Chechnya and Moscow's
support for rogue nations and would tell Mr. Putin that U.S.-Russian
relations would depend on them. The administration insists that it is not
prepared to trade tolerance for Mr. Putin's destruction of Chechnya and
Russian democracy for the Kremlin's strategic cooperation on missile defense.

Mr. Bush himself told an interviewer last week that his regard for Mr. Putin
would not last if "he proves otherwise." So Mr. Putin's behavior during the
weeks since the summit raises a question: Will President Bush respond?

********

#4
Moscow Times
July 5, 2001
The Country's a War Zone
By Anna Badkhen

"Everywhere is war. Me say war." — Bob Marley.

NAZRAN, Ingushetia — An attack helicopter roared a few meters above our car
and disappeared behind an emerald green slope of the North Caucasus
foothills. On the ground, a dozen tanks pointed their silent guns at us. A
group of policemen wielding Kalashnikov automatic rifles waved us past a
checkpoint.

Chechnya was close, just behind the steep wooded ridge — but this was not
the war in Chechnya. This was peacetime in Ingushetia.

Russians bring their guns and tanks to Ingushetia, a republic that borders
Chechnya. Chechens bring their wounded and homeless here. Everything about
its neighbors is bringing it misery.

But it's not as though the war that rages on in Chechnya has spilled into
this exquisite mountainous land. In fact, war has always been here, and in
every other Russian city and town.

In the United States, a system of interstate highways was created so that
the army could quickly move across the country and congregate anywhere it
needs to strike. In Russia, it's everything that surrounds the country's
roads and highways that serves the military: cows, pastures, forests and
even that hydroelectric dam that spans the Volga in Yaroslavl region. The
dam apparently is a highly strategic military site, so key to Russian
military plans that it's not even on the map lest some errant, malevolent
U.S. bomber should decide to bomb it into oblivion.

Fields, rivers and lakes in the Chelyabinsk region, in the southern Urals,
are contaminated by a plutonium plant that used to build nuclear bombs. A
chemical weapons storage site leaks poison into the groundwater in the
Kurgan region next door. Decommissioned nuclear submarines are left to rot
by the sea outside Murmansk, in Russia's north. Advanced surface-to-air
missiles accidentally explode at military bases outside Moscow. City crowds
vacationing at summer cottages in Karelia relax to the sound of nightly
shootings: It's target practice, the usual.

For ages, Dutch investors have been eyeing a part of downtown St.
Petersburg known as New Holland — an assortment of 300-year-old red-brick
warehouses sprinkled atop a set of tiny islands. Arched stone bridges
connect the islands. Patches of grass stick out from between the bricks,
and birch trees grow randomly from the walls; the warehouses need repairs.
The Dutch would love to turn the old, crumbling buildings into shopping
malls with entertainment centers and restaurants. And wouldn't it be lovely
to row around the canals that separate the islands?

But you can't, and the Dutch won't. The Russian army stores its ammunition
and uniforms and God knows what else in New Holland, and the Russian army
is not planning to move out. A 20-minute walk from the Hermitage, New
Holland is a spooky, damp patch of darkness, a piece of prime real estate
surrendered to the war.

Drivers outside St. Petersburg find signs on both sides of your road that
read: "Stop! Warning: free fire zone!" That's because the forests around
the city are military firing ranges.

If you walk into the forests outside St. Petersburg, you get hit by target
practice.

In Ingushetia, you can see similar signs. But if you veer off the road in
Ingushetia, the tanks, the attack helicopter that roars nearby, and
possibly soldiers lying in ambush will all be shooting at you.

Either way, you die — in a beautiful land and a de facto war-zone.

Anna Badkhen is a freelance journalist in Moscow.

********

#5
Moscow Times
July 5, 2001
Third Theater Olympics a Colossal Triumph
By John Freedman

Can there be anyone in Moscow who was not touched by the amazing 70 days of
the Third International Theater Olympics?

I can't imagine it. Even those who never set foot in a playhouse must have
run across the street theater performances. And even those who never cross
the threshold of their front door must have seen or heard the massive media
coverage.

The conclusion of this magnificent theatrical orgy — it ended on Friday
when a ship of fools seemingly pulled by a bicyclist on water set sail up
the Moscow River from behind the Rossiya Hotel — can't help but entice me
to climb up on a soapbox, light a sparkler or two and shout out a few lofty
words of commentary.

The Theater Olympics were a stunning success. For 70 days they made
legitimate news of culture and the arts. That is no small task in a country
that is fighting a protracted, internal war in Chechnya and continues to
grapple with enormous problems of economics and corruption, to say nothing
of such fundamental issues as defining how it will be governed in the
coming century.

Was there an element of opportunism and escapism in the public, political
and journalistic enthusiasm surrounding the Olympics? Of course. Is that
the conclusion to be drawn from what we have witnessed over the last two
months? No.

Here is the crux of the matter: The way to Russia's heart is through its
arts. And Russia's greatest gift to the world is culture. Need I say more
than Tolstoy, Tchaikovsky, Malevich, Eisenstein, Rostropovich and Brodsky?

Have you ever watched a detective thriller? Has it occurred to you that
Colombo and every other mumbling police inspector is merely a pale
reflection of Porfiry Petrovich from Fyodor Dostoevsky's seminal novel
"Crime and Punishment"?

Some believe the arts are merely entertainment and that entertainment is
something you relegate to wasted hours on lost weekends. At the U.S.
Embassy recently I stood in line for a couple of hours with a friendly
British citizen. When he learned that I write for The Moscow Times, he was
intrigued. When he heard I write about theater, he laughed, "Well, I've
never read you, then!"

My partner in line is no worse off for that. Some people — my editor, for
instance — may even envy him. But, if he isn't getting his information
about Russian culture from some other source, he can't possibly see more
than the tip of the iceberg that is Russia.

And that brings me right back to the Olympics.

I could go on at length about the Olympics' artistic achievements. One show
alone, "The Polyphony of the World" — a mind-bending, innovative hybrid of
music and theater composed by Alexander Bakshi especially for this festival
— will undoubtedly go down in history as a landmark.

But these Olympics, coordinated by Moscow's International Confederation of
Theater Associations, also impressed with their organization, efficiency
and can-do philosophy.

Imagine bringing 100 musicians from all over the planet to perform for two
days as the great violinist Gidon Kremer and other world-class stars did in
"The Polyphony of the World." The confederation did that.

Imagine building, on short notice, a 1,200-seat arena in Kolomenskoye park
with stables for two dozen horses and living space for some 50 performers
and staffers. The confederation did that.

Just imagine the logistics of putting on 150 shows and nearly 50 clown and
street theater events from 35 countries. The confederation did that and
more. And the vast majority of these events were attended by
standing-room-only crowds.

Thanks to the prestige of the Olympics, Moscow's architectural landscape
has changed. Mayor Yury Luzhkov was convinced to chip in heavily and
complete the construction of the new Meyerhold Center on Novoslobodskaya
Ulitsa and the new School of Dramatic Art on Ulitsa Sretenka in time for
the festival to begin in April. Furthermore, the city hurried-up its
renovation of the Hermitage Garden as the venue for the carnivals. These
excellent venues and this attractive park are now ours to use for years to
come.

It is rumored that the great American director Robert Wilson, after seeing
the resounding success of the Olympics here, has gone home to drum up
support to hold the next Olympics in the United States.

Valery Shadrin, the general producer of the Moscow Olympics and the general
director of the Confederation of Theater Associations, proved himself a
magician. This man originally conceived the idea of conducting an
international theater festival — the Chekhov International Theater Festival
— at the most horrendous time imaginable. It was 1992, the Russian
infrastructure was falling apart, wars were starting all over the former
Soviet Union and nobody had any money. "Certainly not for culture,"
everyone cried.

Shadrin figuratively pulled out his leaky boat of an idea and paddled it
upstream by hand. He was modest. He mostly invited guests from the former
Soviet Union and kept the number of participants to about a dozen.
Political friction between Georgia and Russia caused two Georgian troupes
to back out. A coup in Tajikistan and unrest in Armenia forced the
postponement of shows originating in those countries, but Shadrin brought
them here late and showed them anyway.

The Theater Olympics, in essence, the fourth running of the Chekhov
International Theater Festival, indicate that Shadrin has graduated from
magician to genius. And, like anything involving genius, his idea is
simple: Culture in Russia is a sphere in which you can get down to business.

I'll say it again: The Theater Olympics proved again that if you don't know
the arts in Russia, you don't know Russia.

********

#6
Documents Reveal Spy Campaign
July 5, 2001

LONDON (AP) - As World War I engulfed Europe and revolution stirred in
Russia, British spies urgently tried to supply the Russian government with
information that could stop the Bolsheviks' rise to power.

Declassified documents from Britain's MI5 spy agency, released Thursday by
the Public Record Office, show an agency worried that the Russian government
had grown too weak to stop the revolutionary movement led by Vladimir Lenin
and Leon Trotsky.

Britain feared - correctly - that Russia would pull out of the war against
Germany if the Bolsheviks took power.

``Until such men as Trotsky are finally convicted, anti-war agitation will be
carried on in the factories of Petrograd (St. Petersburg), Moscow and other
large centers and Leninite doctrines will continue to be promulgated among
the simple-minded peasantry,'' warned a document written shortly before the
1917 October Revolution.

Among the declassified documents compiled by British spies were papers
tracking the movements of Trotsky during his years in exile in Western
Europe, extracts from his and intercepted letters.

``It is impossible to overestimate the necessity of supplying the pro-war
parties in Russia with every available detail of information regarding these
men's doings in England, France and America both during and before the war,''
the document said. ``This question is no less important for England than it
is for Russia since it directly concerns the war.''

MI5 already had intercepted Trotsky's mail - including a 1916 letter in which
he complained of being spied on in France.

But Britain's spy chiefs ultimately allowed Trotsky to slip through their
net. In April 1917, a ship carrying the Russian revolutionary to Russia from
the United States docked in the Canadian port of Halifax. Trotsky was
interned in a British prisoner-of-war camp - and then ordered released on the
orders of Lt. Col. Claude Dansey, a British secret-service officer.

Trotsky returned to Russia and helped lead the Bolsheviks to victory.

On the Net:

Public Record Office, http://www.pro.gov.uk/

********

#7
Russia seeks to win trust at G8 finmin talks
By Svetlana Kovalyova

MOSCOW, July 5 (Reuters) - Russia, boosted by good economic data and the
likely passage of a bill on money laundering, will lobby to win back investor
trust when finance ministers from the world's richest nations meet in Rome on
Saturday.

Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin will talk up Russia's economy when the Group
of Eight (G8) -- which groups Russia with G7 members the United States,
Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Canada and Italy -- meets, analysts said.

The G7 members are all major creditors of Russia which is struggling under
some $140 billion in foreign debt as it carries out structural reforms.

Russia has floated the idea of converting parts of $40 billion of Soviet-era
debt to the Paris Club of creditor nations into investments and Kudrin may
lobby for this plan.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov painted a rosy picture of
political stability and a resurgent economy when talking to foreign investors
at the World Economic Forum in Salzburg.

Kasyanov also said on Tuesday gross domestic product grew four percent or
more in the first five months of the year, adding the pattern of growth was
encouraging as it was boosted by rising domestic demand and investment.

Russia's economy ministry said at the end of June it expected GDP to rise by
5.5 pct for the whole of 2001, up from the original official target of 4.0
pct. GDP was up 8.3 pct in 2000, a post-Soviet record, but the government cut
the 2001 forecast to 4.0 percent.

But Russia's world image as an investment destination was shattered in the
1998 financial crisis, when the government defaulted on billions of dollars
in domestic debt.

Foreign investors are still reluctant to return to the country saying they
were worried about murky business climate.

The finance ministers' talks precede a gathering of foreign ministers later
in the week, which culminates in a summit of leaders on July 20-22.

DEBT REPAYMENT, LAW AGAINST "DIRTY" MONEY A BOON

Kudrin, also Deputy Prime Minister, has said the likely passage of the bill
against money laundering would help Russia avoid potentially humiliating
international sanctions facing the country if it does not step up a fight
against criminal funds.

"This is the first serious step in fighting 'dirty' money passing through
Russia. This law will improve Russia's image and strengthen the financial
system," Kudrin said on Wednesday when parliament backed the bill in a vital
second reading.

Russia's reputation came under fire last month when the Financial Action Task
Force (FATF), an international agency set up to fight the legalisation of
criminally obtained funds, criticised the country for being a hub of money
laundering.

The FATF, created by the G7, also threatened financial restrictions if Russia
did not take legal measures to fight the practice by the end of September.

Russian media said the bill was likely to pass through parliament in a third
final reading on July 11, giving Kudrin and President Vladimir Putin a trump
card in showing Russia's crime fighting credential in talks with his G7
partners.

Alexander Livshits, Russia's former long-time envoy to the G7, said Russia
would like to present itself as an equal member of the Group of Eight because
its good economic performance allows the country to repay previous debts
without new borrowing.

"In the early 1990s Russia needed international support and some early G7
summits did declare such support, but now I do not think there is a need for
it," Livshits told Reuters.

He said Russia's foreign debt was unlikely to be high on the talks' official
agenda as Russia, after a temporary setback in January, returned to an
original debt payment schedule. It has pledged to stick to it in the future,
including a peak in 2003.

Russia missed some payments to the Paris Club in January, citing finance
problems, but after a flurry of angry comments from the Club the government
backed down, resumed payments and caught up with the original payment
schedule.

********

#8
Novaya Gazeta
No. 45
July 2-4, 2001
MUSCOVITES SWELL THE RANKS OF THE PEOPLE FROM ST. PETERSBURG
Patrushev, Ivanov, Zaostrovtsev are the core of Putin's team
Author: Ivan Trefilov
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]
PUTIN'S NEW TEAM ALREADY EXISTS - AND IS GRADUALLY SQUEEZING BORIS YELTSIN'S PEOPLE OUT OF THE CORRIDORS OF POWER. THE PRESIDENT'S TEAM NOW INCLUDES PEOPLE FROM MOSCOW AND ST. PETERSBURG, MOST OF THEM FROM THE SOVIET KGB. A REVIEW OF THE PAST YEAR'S MAJOR CHANGES AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES.
Putin's well-planned appointments and dismissals in key state positions

OVER A YEAR PASSED SINCE THE INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN. IN SPRING 2000 ALL ANALYSTS EXPECTED THE PRESIDENT TO START GETTING RID OF YELTSIN'S LEGACY AND FORMING HIS OWN TEAM. THESE DAYS IT IS APPARENT THAT THE NEW TEAM ALREADY EXISTS - AND IS GRADUALLY SQUEEZING BORIS YELTSIN'S PEOPLE OUT OF THE CORRIDORS OF POWER.

Needless to say, the team's core is composed of Vladimir Putin's colleagues from the Soviet KGB.

General Nikolai Patrushev, Director of the Federal Security
Service (FSB), is the first of these. He has Putin's confidence; the
president listens to Patrushev more than to anyone else. Patrushev
used to be Putin's senior assistant at the Main Control Directorate of
the presidential administration and at the FSB. Patrushev is privy to
much of the information the president needs for decision-making. This
concerns personnel decisions as well. According to some sources, the
president's lengthy confidential consultations with Patrushev preceded
the decisions to promote Boris Gryzlov to interior minister and to
replace Rem Vyakhirev at Gazprom with Alexei Miller.

Sergei Ivanov, the first civilian defense minister, is the second
figure here (numerically, not in terms of influence with the
president); he is a career intelligence officer and analyst. It took
Ivanov a year to transform the Security Council into a powerful center
where state policy was formulated. Ivanov mobilized the analytical
resources of intelligence, which had all but been abandoned during
Yeltsin's murky reign, and gave these resources to Putin. It is common
knowledge that there was a time when important decisions were never
made at all, because inside information on the decisions to be made
was leaked to numerous lobbyists. What Ivanov did amounted to
establishing information security - which helped Putin prevent
interference by representatives of the old team and their creatures in
the central staff with the process of preparing key decisions. From
this point of view, Ivanov's promotion to defense minister is logical.
The Defense Ministry is to become the center where Russia's foreign
policy and defense policy are formulated. This strategy is not going
to rely solely on friendship with the United States.

Patrushev and Ivanov are usually regarded as people from St.
Petersburg. There are, however, some Muscovites in the new
presidential team - playing important roles and wielding considerable
influence.

The third figure is undoubtedly Yuri Zaostrovtsev, Deputy
Director of the FSB for economic security and counterintelligence.
Unlike Patrushev and Ivanov, this officer is not well known by the
public. Actually, being in the spotlight is not what he wants - since
Zaostrovtsev takes care of sensitive missions for the president. It's
enough to say that he coordinated all law enforcement agencies in the
Media-Most case. Zaostrovtsev is 44, he launched his career in the
Soviet KGB. In the last years of the Soviet Union Zaostrovtsev was in
charge of customs. In 1993, when the system was falling apart, he made
use of an invitation from former prime minister Nikolai Ryzhkov and
went in for the financial security of banking. Zaostrovtsev returned
to state service five years later when Putin and Patrushev ascended to
positions of power. At first he worked at the presidential Main
Control Directorate, but returned to the FSB with Putin. These days,
Zaostrovtsev is entrusted with a vital mission. He is supposed to see
to it that the state regains its long-lost control over huge financial
flows - from Gazprom to customs. Along with everything else,
Zaostrovtsev is responsible for the president's relations with
"responsible major businesses" (meaning the business leaders who are
prepared to accept the new system of relations between business and
government). According to certain sources, Zaostrovtsev commands
unquestioned respect among many tycoons.

Almost no one would have believed two months ago that the
omnipotent Rem Vyakhirev of Gazprom would be dismissed - but he was.
Alexei Miller, 39, is already in charge of the "Gazprom generals". As
a prominent Russian politician once put it, restoring order in Gazprom
is a more difficult task that toppling the government.

Some sources imply that the very structure of the government
bodies may be dramatically altered as soon as this autumn. The old
administration will be replaced with a more compact chancellory
providing information to the president. The strategy for domestic
politics will be the province of the Security Council and State
Council, structures headed by the president himself. Once known for
his closeness to Boris Berezovsky, Vladimir Rushailo is unlikely to
retain his post as secretary of the Security Council for long. It is
reasonable to expect him to be replaced with someone from the "team
from Moscow and St. Petersburg". Geopolitical matters will be the
province of the Defense Ministry and the Foreign Ministry.

The future of Central Bank Chairman Viktor Geraschenko and
Mikhail Vanin of the State Customs Committee is also in doubt. The
president is not exactly pleased with their performance in stemming
capital flight. Personnel reshuffles at the Central Bank and the State
Customs Committee are expected this autumn.

The Property Ministry is unlikely to remain unaffected by all the
planned changes. Minister Farid Gazizullin has outlasted several prime
ministers, and appears to have lost all control over the processes of
privatization. This control is now in the hands of Igor Shuvalov,
Cabinet chief-of-staff, and Vladimir Malin, Chairman of the Federal
Property Fund. Shuvalov and Malin are close to Chukotka Governor Roman
Abramovich, the most powerful Russian oligarch only recently. Their
closeness to Abramovich is reason enough for the president to want
them gone. The very concept of privatization prepared by Mikhail
Kasianov's Cabinet generates more and more questions. The Cabinet's
"specialists" cannot explain why state property should become private
without tenders, and even without any supervision whatsoever by the
legislative branch or law enforcement agencies.

"The team from Moscow and St. Petersburg" is in place and in
action. What Putin takes into the next presidential election depends
on its performance.

*******

#9
Kazakhstan's bid to lure back capital viewed as test

ALMATY, July 5 (AFP) -
An attempt by Kazakhstan authorities to lure back millions of dollars to its
economy is being watched closely by other former Soviet states which saw huge
volumes of cash move abroad after the Soviet Union collapsed a decade ago.

Kazakhstan saw possibly billions of dollars in capital disappear under
mattresses or squirreled away abroad by businessmen when taxes were high and
the future uncertain after it gained its independence in 1991.

But improvements in the economy, lower taxes, stability and confidence in the
banking sector has led the government to believe that a one-off capital
amnesty could entice entrepreneurs to repatriate their money.

The country's citizens were given a 20-day period, since extended by 10 days
until July 13, to legalize their hidden cash by depositing it in Kazakh banks
untaxed, with no questions asked.

The amnesty, which is being watched closely by Russia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan
among others, is targeted mainly at businessmen who made huge profits from
selling commodities in the early 1990s and who avoided paying tax, said
National Bank Chairman Grigory Marchenko.

The National Bank hopes that 300 million dollars will be legalized under the
measure, while the finance ministry suggested a more optimistic 500 million
dollars.

The authorities hope that the cash will be invested in the real estate
sector, in state securities or left in the banking sector, Marchenko said.

But the measure is also being carried out to build confidence between
citizens and the state.

"People will not be willing to put their money into bank accounts if they
feel that their wealth will be threatened on the grounds of past laws," said
one industry watcher.

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development President Jean Lemierre said
in Kazakhstan that the measure could boost respect for the rule of law but
stressed it should happen only once.

Otherwise the amnesty might be seen as rewarding entrepreneurs who have
effectively committed a crime by not paying tax.

The opportunity could also be used by corrupt officials to launder ill-gotten
wealth, opposition activists fear.

"Only corrupt officials, who want to legalise their income, need this
measure. It is also needed by the leadership of Kazakhstan," said Amirzhan
Kosanov, of the Republican People's Party.

He referred to reports last year that the Swiss authorities had frozen bank
accounts of Kazakh officials amid an alleged bribe scandal that implicated
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Kazakh officials have denied the claim.

As yet Kazakhstan's amnesty has proved disappointing, with some 1,000 people
legalizing nearly 150 million dollars over 20 days, half the amount the
National Bank had hoped for.

The poor initial results could signal a belief among entrepreneurs about the
lack of domestic investment opportunities in Kazakhstan, experts say.

The oil-rich Central Asian state has been successful in attracting foreign
direct investment to its booming energy sector.

However Kazakhstan needs to strengthen the rule of law and make the business
environment more entrepreneur-friendly if it wants to encourage investment in
other spheres, experts say.

According to Marchenko, the amnesty appears so far to have reached its target
audience but he concluded that too much time had been spent discussing how
much money would return.

"The main stress should have been on increased trust between small and medium
businesses and the state and that these businessmen move from the shadow to
the legal sector of the economy," he said.

In general, it is too early to say whether the action should be recommended
to other former Soviet states.

"What we have won and lost as a country will be clear only after the whole
thing is over," he said.

********

#10
From: "Albert L. Weeks" <AWeeks1@compuserve.com>
Subject: On Straus re meaning of the Fourth (JRL #5335)
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2001

With all due respect to Mr. Ira Straus's thoughtful
"critique," as it were, of the relative meaning of the American
Fourth of July and the contrasting importance (in his view)
of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution,
and the overall significance of the War of Independence,
his view, as I read it and to put it gently, is "distinctive"
as it regards that war, or "revolution," its outcome and its
lasting importance. On this Fourth of July, Mr. Straus's essay
on its anniversary provokes a number of questions.

In my library was a copy of the American Declaration,
which was published in Russian in 1918 in hundreds of
copies and distributed in the young Soviet Republic
(via the Hoover ARA relief organization) in the c. 1919-20.
(I recently donated this book to the Hoover Library in Stanford.)
Its distribution caused an uproar in Soviet Russia, as might
be expected under conditions of Lenin's Robespierre-like
dictatorship. The rebelling Kronstadt sailors of 1921, many of
them disillusioned Bolsheviks, picked up on several of
the Declaration's democratic concepts hurling them at
Lenin's Bolsheviks. Thousands of these sailors, soldiers, and workers
were mowed down by detachments of the Red Army under Gen. Tukhachevsky's
command on orders issued by Lenin and
Trotsky 80 years ago this past winter.

Far from being less important than what followed by way of
post-American Revolution tracts, the Declaration was the
heart of and the key to the lasting significance of the War
of Independence. It towered, in fact, over all other documents
issuing from it.

This incredible document, written by Jefferson and inspired by John
Locke and others, lent to that war a good deal more than serving as
a mere talisman of "separation"--from the Crown or from
Europe (Mr. Straus adding that isolationism was a byproduct of
the War of Independence--a position that I, for one, would
question; it had much deeper roots). The Declaration was
cited and deferred to in post-Communist scholarly discussions
in Russia during the drafting of the new Russian constitution
in the early '90s together with its conception of civil rights.

The fact is that the Declaration helped spark the French
Revolution that followed the Ameroican Revolution by several
years and that was inspired by it. The Declaration led to France's
rather vast, emotional and propagandistic "Declaration of the
Rights of Man." This declaration was soon, in any case, flouted
by succeeding regimes in France (flouted in a sense up until
the recent past, since women did not acquire suffrage in France
until only after World War II--women's rights being a part of
the French declaration).

Too, the American Declaration was the inspiration for the
American Bill of Rights of 1800, itself a most influential document
worldwide. To suggest that the Declaration's noble allusions to
freedom were canceled by American slavery is a familiar plaint.
But it was the ideals contained in the Declaration that underlay
the Abolitionist Movement and whose enlightenment eventually
led to Emancipation itself!

For good reason, the late great English scholar Sir Ernest Barker
singled out the Declaration of Independence as by far the most pregnant,
democratic public doctrine or tract ever enunciated in modern times by a
political movement, and endorsed and instrumented, if painstakingly
tardily, by a leading nation-state. DeTocqueville concurred.

*******

#11
Rossiya
July 5, 2001
VLADIMIR ZHIRINOVSKY: RUSSIA NEEDS SOME SCREAMING!
An interview with LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky
Author: Alec Kivi
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]
VLADIMIR ZHIRINOVSKY DISCUSSES A RANGE OF ISSUES IN RUSSIAN
POLITICS: POWER PLAYS IN THE DUMA, FOREIGN POLICY, AND PUTIN'S
PERFORMANCE AS PRESIDENT. ACCORDING TO ZHIRINOVSKY, DEMOCRACY WILL BE THE DEATH OF RUSSIA, IT DOESN'T FIT THIS COUNTRY. IT IS ALL RIGHT FOR POLAND OR FINLAND, BUT NOT RUSSIA. RUSSIA NEEDS A MONARCHY.

Question: You have come up with several initiatives recently -
reorganize the Duma, cut some committees, replace the speaker...

Vladimir Zhirinovsky: I've spent eight years in the Duma. I know
that we don't need at least half of the committees. What do we need 29
committees for? Fourteen will suffice. Members of these committees are
bored to tears, they don't have anything to do. And each committee has
its staff, office space, cars, dachas... All this costs money. What
really counts, however, is that these committees are not doing
anything.

It is common knowledge how committees are formed. A prominent
person is elected to the Duma (a former prime minister, governor, or a
deputy prime minister) and a committee is formed especially for him.
Enough of that. It's the old Soviet habit. Half of the committees can
be disbanded, and the number of bureaucrats will go down by 500,000.

We often complain that office space is at a premium. I need more
for my staff, for example. I don't have any space to allocate to the
people who are really working... Reforms are truly essential!

Question: What about the speaker?

Zhirinovsky: Seleznev has been the speaker for too long. It's a
kind of compromise with the Communists. Behave yourselves, one of you
is the speaker after all. Seleznev is not the speaker because he is
needed by the lower house. He is the speaker because it is the
Kremlin's way of making friends (at least in part) with the
Communists. It would have been all right had the Communists taken care
of the powers-that-be, but all their setbacks indicate quite the
opposite. Seleznev is not the man for the job - precisely because he
represents a different ideology. He is a leftist, and the nation has
been living with a different ideology for a long time.

Question: And how does the lower house take your proposals?

Zhirinovsky: All right. My proposals are backed up by the
People's Deputy group and Unity. The Union of Right Forces, Fatherland
- All Russia, and Yabloko mounted a campaign in January last year
against Seleznev's election as speaker. Most factions advocate a
revision of the package agreement and want another speaker. The longer
we delay, the greater are the chances of a drastic resolution of the
problem. I'm talking about disbandment of the Duma, expected by next
spring. Hence all this hurry to pass all necessary laws. The six-month
break will suspend all work - disbandment of the Duma, new elections,
and so on... All this will take six months at least. That is why all
necessary laws will be passed by the New Year and the break will not
disrupt legislative work then.

Question: Why is it that whatever you say inevitably comes true
at a later date? It is intuition, or what? Are you perhaps expressing
someone else's opinions?

Zhirinovsky: I don't express anyone's opinions but my own.
Predictions, that's what I've been doing all my life. All politicians
we have are politicians by chance only. Take Nemtsov, for example. He
was on vacation in Sochi during the August 1991 attempted coup. He
never had an inkling of what politics was back then. Afterwards he
rushed to the Cabinet, was asked "Are you from Nizhny Novgorod? We
need our people there," and that was that. Yavlinsky is a zombie. The
Americans needed him for a time.

Question: He is not on TV much these days. Does he attend Duma
meetings?

Zhirinovsky: No one needs him any more. Yavlinsky has
accomplished his mission. The Americans abandoned him, and here no one
needs him. Gusinsky relied on him once. Where is Gusinsky now? Where
is his NTV network?...

The Kremlin supports the Union of Right Forces for the time
being, but its support will not last long. If the URF interferes with
the Kremlin's initiatives the way it did in the debate on the
amendment to the law on the media (the matter concerned controlling
interests and foreigners, if you recall), it will be thrown overboard.

As for the LDPR and myself personally, no one ever managed us. On
the contrary, there were attempts to put the party under pressure.
Remember how we were ousted from the last parliamentary election?
That's your proof! Had we been expressing someone's ideas, had we been
dependent on anyone, we'd have been cherished.

Instead, we are being beaten. Instead, we are being impaired in
every possible way and particularly during the elections. It took me
considerable effort to send a delegation to Iraq. Why? Thanks to
Seleznev, even though the Communists did not mind it and were even
represented in our delegation. But Seleznev put up obstacles.
Actually, obstacles are put up by everyone who is associated with our
political elite and mafia.

Question: Is there a mafia in the Duma?

Zhirinovsky: Sure.

Question: A few more words on the subject, please.

Zhirinovsky: There are several mafias, all of them restricted to
some specific sphere. The fisheries mafia prevents passage of the law
on fishing. There is also a mafia of assets and finances. All
finances, all premises are controlled by a certain group. Seleznev
holds everything in his hands. We don't know anything about how many
cars the Duma has, how many other assets, premises, computers, and so
on. Where is all of it? We don't know anything about the Duma's
expenses...

There is a mafia that specializes in lobbying. There is a
personnel mafia as well.

Question: And what mafia is Vladimir Zhirinovsky part of?

Zhirinovsky: I'm clean.

Question: But if mafia groups in the Duma promote or scuttle
bills, the LDPR faction appears to be all on its own. Perhaps you'd do
better to consolidate with someone?

Zhirinovsky: It is difficult because our bills are directed
either against the left or against the democrats. Consolidation with
anyone is difficult from this point of view.

Of course, it is difficult for us promote any particular bill. We
constantly explain to our voters that we need 100 seats in the Duma,
or at least 50. It will be much easier for us then.

Question: Vladimir Putin has been president for over a year. What
is your opinion of him as the president and as a person?

Zhirinovsky: Results are needed for a proper evaluation. If the
Chechen problem is solved and terrorism in Chechnya is ended, it will
be a result. For the time being, the problem there has been about 70%
solved. If Russia retains its positions in the Balkans and increases
its presence there, it will be great. It will be a result too. Or take
the Middle East. Betrayal of Iraq would mean that we are still
pursuing Boris Yeltsin's course.

In other words, hard facts are needed. Putin began his presidency
all right. Much needed laws were adopted and are being adopted. But if
economy doesn't show any successes, it will mean that we've overlooked
something. The matter concerns economic amnesty, which I've spoken
about repeatedly. Four years ago the Duma refused to call an economic
amnesty. As a result, all the laws on income tax, profit tax and so on
cannot play their role properly because the major law, the one on
economic amnesty the LDPR proposed, is missing. This way the
government is bound to take a beating on the domestic front.

I think we will be able to come up with the first evaluations in
2003, when half of Putin's term will be over.

Question: The president is meeting with leaders of Duma factions
and politicians nowadays. Individually. Do you receive invitations?

Zhirinovsky: Infrequently. I think that the matter concerns the
pressure from the apparatus and the presidential circle. Besides, we
have few votes in the Duma. Twelve or fifteen votes cannot be
decisive. We are the smallest faction now, even though we have 0.5%
more deputies than Yabloko.

Still, our relations with the Kremlin are more or less all right.
It is not as though we had its favor, but neither would I say we sense
antipathy.

Question: How would you appraise Mikhail Kasianov as the prime
minister?

Zhirinovsky: Kasianov is too soft. The only tough decision he
made concerned dismissal of Muzafarov after the flood in Lensk. That
was all. So many flaws in the country in the last two years and only
one person fired! Fired only relatively, by the way. The person was
relieved of his duties as head of the commission. Had he been
dismissed as head of a committee of the Gosstroi, it would have meant
something.

We should remember that what is good for a small country is not
necessarily good for Russia. Russia needs some screaming, it needs
tough decisions. Ours is a huge country with a cold climate and
constant wars and revolutions. Softness will only result in chaos.

Question: The media speculates that Chubais is allegedly
promoting Nemtsov for president...

Zhirinovsky: Let him. He will fail. It's pointless. Chubais
himself may fall down. It is understandable actually that they want
their own candidate for president. Someone from the democratic camp,
at least, because Yavlinsky is a waste... Yeltsin would have brought
Nemtsov to the top had he been able to. Nemtsov was on Yeltsin's list
of potential successors. The list also included Chernomyrdin,
Aksenenko, Stepashin, Primakov... There were lots of people on the
list. But times change and lists change too. Nemtsov proved the wrong
man for the job, just like Yavlinsky. A democrat cannot rule Russia.
Democracy will be the death of Russia, it doesn't fit this country. It
is all right for Poland or Finland, but not Russia.

Question: Why then a D in the name of you party, LDPR?

Zhirinovsky: To underline our difference from the Communists who
only think in terms of monopolies, state and party ones. We, on the
other hand, advocate a presidential republic. While supporting the
constitution in general, we advocate tough and drastic measures. We
are democrats in the economic matters, for example, but not democrats
at all when the matter concerns borders, territories, security, and so
on.

Question: Now that the king has won the election in Bulgaria, do
you think restoration of monarchy is possible in Russia?

Zhirinovsky: I sent a letter to Putin proposing a constitutional-
monarchic regime in Russia. We should start with changing the title of
the head of state. He should be titled the Supreme Ruler of Russia, or
Tsar. The procedure of succession is the following: the acting head of
state appoints the Supreme Ruler. This way we will put an end to
nationwide election of the head of state because it is difficult for
Russians to make the correct political decision what with all the
pressure, propaganda, blackmail, and so on...

Question: And what do you suggest?

Zhirinovsky: Monarchy should be by appointment, not through
elections. I mean that the acting head of state should appoint his
successor. Not the traditional way when a member of the family steps
in to replace the ruler who dies. I mean appointment of someone who is
not a relative.

All political parties and organizations are to be disbanded, all
elections abolished, structures like the Duma and local legislatures
disbanded. All legal acts are issued by the monarch and by local
leaders within their provinces. The state should be split into 14
territories, each of them with a population of about 10 million. For
example, seven more federal districts may be added to the existing
ones. Division of the state by the ethnic principle should be stopped.
All ethnic-territorial formations are to be abolished.

The National Assembly of Representatives is to meet once a year
to express the people's opinion towards the head of state and the
laws. It will have 2,500 members. Each territory forms a delegation of
100 people. Three hundred more are appointed by the monarch, and 300
more are promoted by various public organizations. The Assembly
endorses candidates for succession.

The term of office of the head of state is nine years. All these
amendments to the constitution may be offered for a nationwide
referendum in April 2002 or 2003. As of January 2004, the country may
have a new political regime already.

This is what Russia needs.

Question: It's rather odd, you know, hearing the proposals to
disband the Duma from leader of a Duma faction.

Zhirinovsky; This is what I call a clean position. We don't need
parties. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was not a party, it
was a state structure.

Parties, the parliament, and all this are bad for Russia. Hence
all our problems. We will never make any progress while the Western
model is preserved here.

Question: Do you mean dictatorship?

Zhirinovsky: Yes, but it will mean survival of the state,
development of the economy, protection of Russian citizens from crime.
We don't have any of that now. We'd better chose the lesser of two
evils.

(Translated by A. Ignatkin.)

*******

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

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

CDI Headlines:  http://www.cdi.org/

Defense Monitor:  http://www.cdi.org/dm/2001

Weekly Defense Monitor:  http://www.cdi.org/weekly/