Johnson's Russia List
#6041
26 January 2002
davidjohnson@erols.com
A CDI Project
www.cdi.org

[Note from David Johnson:
1. AFP: Russian women locked in a "cycle of violence": Amnesty.
2. Los Angeles Times: John Daniszewski, Harrowing 911 Calls Point to a
Pitiless Moscow. Transcript reveals a desperate young man, trapped in a truck
pulverizing trash, pleading for help but meeting skepticism.
3. Baltimore Sun: Douglas Birch, Soviet spirit, but with cash. Success: 
Russian oil giant Lukoil blends capitalism with job security and benefits 
evoking an earlier generation. 
4. Reuters: Azerbaijan leader sees Caspian accord.
5. The Russia Journal: Andrei Piontkovsky, 10 miles of Iron Silk Road.
6. Sky News (UK): Geoff Meade, The Trouble With Russia... (re roads and
traffic)
7. The Economist (UK): Russia's media. Blank screens. Russia's last
independent television station has folded under state pressure.
8. pravda.ru: ANATOLY LUKYANOV: PUTIN FOLLOWS THE LINES OF GORBACHEV AND 
YELTSIN.
9. AFP: Russian bid to join WTO held up over farm subsidies.
10. AP: Euro Is Catching On in Russia.
11. Los Angeles Times editorial: Disarmament's Glacial Pace.
12. RFE/RL: Franceca Mereu, Military Experts Differ On Significance Of 
U.S. Military Spending Increase.]  

*******

#1
Russian women locked in a "cycle of violence": Amnesty
January 25, 2002
AFP
 
Russian women are locked in a vicious circle of violence and impunity for
their attackers, rights group Amnesty International charges in a yearly
report released to the media.

The London-based agency called on the authorities to take measures to
combat rampant violations of women's rights, warning that until then women
-- who make up a majority of Russia's population -- remain at risk.

In war-torn Chechnya in particular, women face a "horrific spectrum of
abuse, ranging from torture and rape to extrajudicial execution," the
report said Friday.

In several instances cited by the report, witnesses questioned by the
agency testified that pregnant Chechen women were raped by Russian soldiers
while in detention.

"Rape is not only used as a weapon of war -- women detainees are also
victims of this form of torture at the hands of law enforcement officials,"
the group reported.

Russian women in the country's numerous jails fare little better, as
"conditions in pre-trial detention facilities and prison colonies are
unimaginable and reminiscent of the Stalin era: overcrowded, unhygenic and
inhuman."

The imprisoned women have no hope that their perpetrators will be brought
to justice, as "prosecutors are notoriously reluctant to take into
consideration allegations... of sexual harassment, intimidation, torture or
ill-treatment in police custody."

Even women living far from conflict zones or jails were threatened, as
"disrespect for their integrity left them vulnerable as victims of domestic
violence and pawns to be trafficked for forced prostitution," the agency said.

According to earlier reports, nearly 25 percent of all Russian women are
victims of domestic violence.

*******

#2
Los Angeles Times
January 26, 2002
Harrowing 911 Calls Point to a Pitiless Moscow
Russia: Transcript reveals a desperate young man, trapped in a truck
pulverizing trash, pleading for help but meeting skepticism.
By JOHN DANISZEWSKI, TIMES STAFF WRITER

MOSCOW -- The young man was intoxicated but on his feet when he left a
billiards hall early Jan. 9. But he later awoke to find himself tumbling
inside a moving garbage truck, dodging massive blades slowly grinding
collected refuse into pulp.

For 23 minutes, according to a transcript of a series of calls made on his
cell phone to Moscow's 911 rescue service operators, 25-year-old Taras
Shugayev pleaded and cried, saying he was being squeezed and begging for help.

But the operators only advised him to alert the driver by banging from
inside the truck, and no discernible action was taken by Moscow's various
police forces--which, according to one rescue service spokesman, dismissed
the report as a prank. "Are you in a joking mood to be calling us like this
at 6 o'clock in the morning?" a police dispatcher reportedly said.

By his fourth call, during which the rescue service appeared focused mainly
on trying to learn who might have put him into the truck, Shugayev was
desperate.

"This is it, I think, I am suffocating. This is it," were the last words
recorded.

Police didn't respond until more than 24 hours later, when the man was
reported missing by his family. They retrieved his phone records and--with
the help of the rescue service recordings--pieced together what might have
happened. Now, in a grisly denouement to the drama, they are sifting
through a suburban dump, looking for possible remains.

Shugayev's case, which came to public notice in Moscow newspapers this
week, has sparked a criminal investigation and thrown an uncomfortable
spotlight on the callous indifference that can mark everyday life in this
often harsh city of 9 million people.

Was Shugayev stuffed into a garbage bin by muggers who regularly prey on
drunks? Did some acquaintance throw him into a garbage truck as a practical
joke? Were the people at the other end of the line too jaded, busy or tired
to respond to the possibility that a life was in danger?

Father Is Shaken, Mother Still Hopeful

"I simply don't know who to blame," Shugayev's shaken father, Boris, said
Friday. Meanwhile, the young man's mother, Raisa, still clung to the hope
that her 6-foot-2 son would come strolling through her door.

"I am sitting here--waiting for him to call and say: 'Mom, it's me. I'm
OK!' " she said.

"This horrendous story demonstrates once again that life is stranger than
fiction, especially in Russia," said police expert and crime-fiction writer
Marina Alexeyeva, who uses the pen name Alexandra Marinina. "Only in Russia
could they hire complete lunatics and plain idiots to work in such a
critically responsible agency as the rescue service, just because they pay
their operators peanuts.

"The man is dying. He is calling the only people who can and should save
him, and in return he is bombarded with the most stupid and immediately
irrelevant questions--like who put him there and how can they get in touch
with them."

Natalia Kochergina, a spokeswoman for the rescue service, said the
investigation was continuing but asserted that her records show that the
operators involved notified police within three minutes, as required. A
Central Moscow traffic police spokesman disputed that account, saying the
police have no log entry showing they were ever alerted.

"All the necessary phone calls were made. There is no doubt about it,"
Kochergina insisted. "The problem is that at 6 a.m., the police simply
treated this report as a joke."

Of 15,000 calls each day to Moscow's 911, most are not real emergencies,
and between 200 and 300 are pranks, she said.

"Shugayev's calls could have easily been taken for an act of hooliganism,"
Kochergina said. "Most often, this is what such calls turn out to be."

In incomplete transcripts published in the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, the
caller reports his situation at 6:20 a.m. and at first is asked to explain
how he got into the truck and then to say where the truck is heading.

"I am being turned and twisted here, but I am still alive. Please call the
traffic police," he pleads.

The call breaks off. A minute later, a different operator answers the
second call and asks again where he is.

"How am I supposed to know?" he answers. "It is totally dark in here."

The operator tells him to take matters into his own hands: "Can you
identify your presence, so that the driver would stop the truck and help
you out of it, young man? Have you got something to knock with? Where is
the driver?"

"He can't hear me. I have found out already that he can't hear me!"

By the Third Call, Operator Seems Testy

The call disconnects again, and by the third phone call, at 6:31 a.m., the
operator begins to sound irritated with the caller for not trying harder to
alert the driver.

"I have nothing to knock with! I am being squeezed!" the caller explains.

"Your hands are free since you have been able to dial the number. Find
something in the garbage," the operator says.

During the final call, starting at 6:35 and ending at 6:43, the operator
persists in asking who played this "trick" on him: "Can you remember your
friends' telephone number? We will find out in a second where you are."

The caller isn't heard again.

Someone apparently realized that it wasn't a prank: Shugayev's mother said
she got a mysterious phone call that evening from a rescue service worker
wanting to know if her son was at home.

"I asked what happened to him. And she said, 'Nothing,' and hung up. That
really got me worried," she said. She alerted her ex-husband and the next
day went with him to the police to start the investigation.

Unwilling to rely on authorities, an anguished Boris Shugayev has searched
through the mounds of garbage at the suburban Salaryevo dump himself.

"I don't know how he got into the truck. I don't know where he is now. But
I do believe he really was making those desperate calls from there," he said.

Anatoly Galibin, the driver of the state-of-the-art Mercedes garbage truck
that police now suspect was involved, said he would have thought it
improbable that anyone could have been dropped into his truck from a
garbage bin.

He agreed, however, that if someone was covered by garbage, it might have
gone unnoticed. And any cries for help wouldn't have been heard.

"If he was really inside and no one came to the rescue, he was doomed,"
concluded Galibin, who blames police. He said his truck had passed right in
front of several traffic posts and a police station.

"The police usually know which trucks work where, and they could have
easily tracked us down if they had wanted to," the driver said. "They could
have saved the guy."

Alexeyeva, a former police colonel, said she too is outraged.

"It all goes to show," she said, "that the life of a human being still
doesn't interest anybody in charge in this country."

Sergei L. Loiko and Alexei V. Kuznetsov of The Times' Moscow Bureau
contributed to this report. 

********

#3
Baltimore Sun
January 26, 2002
Soviet spirit, but with cash
Success: Russian oil giant Lukoil blends capitalism with job security and
benefits evoking an earlier generation. 
By Douglas Birch
Sun Foreign Staff

USINSK, Russia - On the stage of the House of Culture, a 20-something
couple in business attire raps to a karaoke beat, while a gang of other
young professionals gyrates around them. "Lukoil is reliable and stable!" a
blond oil specialist shouts into her microphone. 

"Lukoil has the biggest tanker fleet in Russia!" declares Dmitri Nikolayev,
a mining engineer. 

"One hundred twenty million rubles went to social programs in the past
year!" his partner proclaims. 

Not so long ago, these ambitious university graduates in this remote oil
town on the edge of the Arctic Circle would have been singing the praises
of the Communist Party during their holiday bash. Instead, they were
publicly declaring their love of their new capitalist bosses - precisely
the people their parents would have been expected to despise. 

It's not that Lukoil's latest crop of engineers and economists are
dewy-eyed idealists. After the performance, Nikolayev explained what he
really likes about Lukoil. "First of all, I have a job," he said. "And the
salary is good, and it's paid on time. Also, I expect to get an apartment." 

But the company, which produces one-fifth of all Russian oil, seems to
expect an unswerving loyalty reminiscent of what Communist ideology once
demanded. Russians, in turn, seem to want their employers to provide the
kind of job security and social benefits that the state used to offer. 

Lukoil President Vagit Alekperov, estimated by Fortune magazine to have a
personal fortune of $1.3 billion, says he considers Lukoil's 90,000
employees as members of a big family. That family is expanding, with Lukoil
purchasing Getty Petroleum of Jericho, N.Y., for $71 million last January -
giving it operating rights to 1,300 gas stations in the United States. 

And Alekperov probably won't stop there. He boasts that Lukoil will one day
buy Exxon, and become the world's biggest oil company. 

The question is, what might the world expect from Lukoil? 

When the company roared into Usinsk two years ago, the town of 60,000 was
desperately poor and demoralized. Eager to exploit rising petroleum prices,
Lukoil poured money into operations - exploring for new oil deposits,
repairing broken-down equipment and tripling the local work force. And it
seemed determined to make Usinsk a company town. 

First came a Lukoil service station, its red-and-white sign blazing in the
sable sub-Arctic night. Then came Lukoil's corporate offices, its lobby
furnished with leather couches, marble floors and a gushing fountain. 

The company built Children's City, a lavish playground that features a
mothballed jet plane and transport helicopter, both outfitted with rows of
computers. It bankrolled the reconstruction of the town's Orthodox church
and its mosque, cleared land for a new municipal park, built a bus station
and started work on a 50-room luxury hotel. It runs an orphanage here and
is constructing housing for its workers. 

Company executives call their approach a "social partnership" with
employees and the residents of the 30 regions of Russia where Lukoil
operates. And they acknowledge that they are trying, to some extent, to
replace some of the benefits workers lost after the fall of the Soviet
Union. "Lukoil," says Vladimir Mulyak, first vice president of Lukoil's
local subsidiary, "preserves the best traditions of the Soviet oil school." 

Critics say Lukoil has also preserved some of the worst aspects of the
Soviet era. Oganes Targulan, special project coordinator of Greenpeace in
Russia, says that when his group visited the town last year to survey
Lukoil sites, they were kept under surveillance and barred from visiting
the sites with the worst environmental damage. 

When the group tried to arrange a follow-up visit this summer, Targulan
found his reservation at the town's only hotel mysteriously canceled. He
suspects that word of his visit leaked to Lukoil. "It's like the Soviet
times, with KGB following you everywhere," he says. 

Lukoil didn't hire local oil industry veterans to top positions - they had,
after all, presided over the near death of the local oil industry in the
1990s, as well as a 1994 oil pipeline spill that dwarfed the 1989 Exxon
Valdez disaster. Native Usinskites also grumble that Lukoil officials, most
of whom migrated from the company's home turf in western Siberia, are
taking over local government. 

To win over suspicious residents, Lukoil established a small media empire -
including a radio station and a company-owned weekly newspaper, Northern
News. In the next few months, it hopes to create the area's first local
television station. Its main aim, company officials say, is to spread its
corporate message - that what's good for Lukoil is good for the Usinsk
region. "We wanted to promote the image of the company," said Yuri
Pochtamtsev, the public relations executive who doubles as editor of
Northern News. 

Does the company use its media holdings to criticize rival oil companies?
"We never throw mud in this town," Pochtamtsev says. "All we do is protect
ourselves." 

Yevgeny Rochev, editor of the rival New Usinsk, says Lukoil executives
refuse to talk to him and pressure their employees to subscribe to the
5,100-circulation Northern News. "They won't allow us to get information
about the oil industry here," Rochev complains. (Pochtamtsev denies that
anyone is required to subscribe to the Lukoil paper, though employees are
"encouraged" to do so.) 

But the town's vastly improved economy has muzzled most critics. A few
years ago, small apartments were selling for the equivalent of about $160.
Today, a two-bedroom unit may cost $40,000. 

In the last two years, Lukoil has tripled base pay for employees, to about
$300 a month from about $100. It plans to raise the figure to about $500 in
2002, company officials say, but the recent slide in oil prices may alter
those plans. 

Employees say they expect to have their jobs for life. Salaries have always
been paid on time, which is not the case at other Russian companies.
Medical treatment and vacations are company-subsidized. Lukoil even
organizes trips for the children of workers to Black Sea resorts. 

"Lukoil has worked persistently to restore the oil industry here," says
Yuri Grebnov, who has lived in the region 16 years and is chief engineer of
Lukoil's pump renovation facility. "With Lukoil coming to town, we have
hope for the future, hope for the next day." 

While Lukoil honors many Soviet traditions, it is far from a typical
Russian company. Alekperov, the president, graduated from the Oil and
Chemical Institute and worked his way up the ranks of the Soviet Union's
energy bureaucracy before being put in charge of a state-owned energy
company called Kogalymneftegaz in Siberia in 1984. 

As deputy minister of oil and gas during the last days of the Soviet
empire, he helped plan the privatization of the industry. Alekperov founded
Lukoil in 1991, merging Kogalymneftegaz with two other Siberian companies -
using their initials plus the English word "oil" to form "Lukoil." 

From the start, he was ambitious. Lukoil became Russia's first vertically
integrated oil producer: It pumps oil, refines it and sells it in service
stations. And Alekperov wanted Lukoil to operate like an American or
European corporation, which means making money through profits, rather than
investor fraud or money laundering. 

The company expanded rapidly, both here and abroad. In addition to its
Getty stations in the United States, it operates 1,000 retail gasoline
outlets in Russia and other former Soviet republics. 

That doesn't mean that Lukoil ignores the rules of Russian business -
especially when it comes to retaining the favor of Kremlin leaders. It
played a major role in financing former President Boris S. Yeltsin's 1996
re-election campaign. Recently, Lukoil's pension fund won a controversial
court battle to force the dissolution of TV-6, the last Russian television
network that operated independently of Kremlin control. 

Most shares in TV-6 are controlled by Boris Berezovsky, a onetime Kremlin
insider turned strident critic of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin.
Lukoil's effort to close TV-6 was widely seen as a favor to Putin. TV-6 was
spared at the last minute when it won an appeal to a higher court, but
Lukoil had made its point. 

Some Lukoil executives say that the company's social policies were inspired
by the example of the high wages paid by Western corporations. "I traveled
abroad in 1991 and was in the United States, and it was a strong
psychological blow to me," recalls Mulyak, chief of Lukoil's local
subsidiary. He saw that ordinary workers could afford many luxuries beyond
the reach of even well-educated Russians. 

Since Lukoil can't afford to pay Western-level wages, Mulyak says, it tries
to raise living standards by providing social services. 

Whatever their inspiration, Lukoil's paternalistic policies seem to have
won over the people of Usinsk. "After people said all those negative things
about Lukoil coming here," says Rochev, the newspaper editor, "they all
went to work for Lukoil." 

*******

#4
Azerbaijan leader sees Caspian accord
By Ron Popeski
  
MOSCOW, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Azeri President Haydar Aliyev said on Saturday
much progress had been made in resolving disputes over dividing the
resource-rich Caspian Sea among four ex-Soviet states and Iran. 

But Aliyev told a news conference at the end of a three-day visit to Moscow
although Russia, Kazakhstan and his own country had clinched agreements on
cooperation over the landlocked sea, much work was still to be done. 

Aliyev, 78, who has ruled Azerbaijan since 1993, met Russian President
Vladimir Putin during a visit that also settled the status of a Russian
missile-tracking station on Azeri soil. 

Russia and Azerbaijan, he said, had agreed to establish a median line
designating their Caspian border -- as Russia and Kazakhstan had already
done. He said both Moscow and Baku had started talks with Turkmenistan. 

"We have now agreed to move forward with determining the median line
between Russia and Azerbaijan. The issue of the use of the Caspian's
mineral resources between three states will then be definitively settled,"
Aliyev said. 

"We must proceed with the necessary work to reach agreement with the
remaining Caspian states. I believe we can achieve this, but I cannot
really say now when it will be achieved." 

Disputes over dividing the Caspian have bedevilled relations in the region
since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia, Kazakhstan and
Azerbaijan broadly agree each country's jurisdiction should be related to
the length of its coastline, while Iran wants to divide the sea into five
equal parts. 

Turkmenistan, apparently irritated by Azerbaijan developing fields it also
claims, has so far held back from any agreement. 

Russia's chief negotiator on dividing the sea, Deputy Foreign Minister
Viktor Kalyuzhny, suggested a deal could be clinched in April. 

A Caspian Sea summit has been repeatedly postponed as rows dragged on. 

Iran last year sent gunboats to chase off two ships owned by oil company BP
that were exploring waters claimed by Azerbaijan. And Turkmenistan warned
the Azeris to stop working on a field claimed by both countries. 

Aliyev's visit culminated in a deal letting Russia use the Soviet-built
Gabala missile-tracking station, a strategic lookout over a region
including India, Pakistan and the Gulf, for 10 years but recognising it as
Azeri property. 

Rows over the station had dogged relations between Moscow and Baku since
the collapse of Soviet rule. The two countries also signed an accord to
promote economic ties until 2010. 

*******

#5
The Russia Journal
January 25-31, 2002
10 miles of Iron Silk Road
By ANDREI PIONTKOVSKY
The writer is director of the Center for Strategic Research.

It would be incorrect to say that the events of Sept. 11 changed the
geopolitical situation in the world. Rather, they highlighted the changes
already under way or that have already taken place. 

As for Russia, with the joint operation with the West going on in
Afghanistan, which is at the same time resolving the important matter of
bolstering Russia’s security on its southern flank, the virtual conflict
with the West that the Russian political "elite" fought with such
enthusiastic passion has revealed itself as the farce it is. In this sense,
Sept. 11 was the symbolic end of the cold war between the Soviet
Union-Russia and the West.

The real security and survival issues facing Russia in the 21st century
aren’t about whether tiny Estonia will join NATO, but about whether Russia
will remain a key Eurasian power and keep its territory in eastern Siberia
and the Far East. The matter isn’t one of someone causing a military threat
to Russia in this region, though under certain circumstances this could
happen. The problem is that if current trends continue, these territories
will drift away of their own accord first economically and then
demographically. The situation is particularly worrying in the Far East,
where the Russian population is constantly declining and only 10 percent of
the region’s economic ties are with the rest of Russia. 

Many specialists see Russia’s presence in north-east Asia as not just a
security issue for Russia, but as a global geopolitical issue. I’ve already
quoted in the past the point of view of Thomas Graham, a member of the U.S.
State Department’s strategic planning department: 

"One thing is clearly evident: Stability in the Pacific region will find
itself under threat if Russia’s presence in Asia continues to weaken. It is
in the long-term strategic interests of the United States and most Asian
countries to have a strong and economically prosperous Russia in east Asia.
If this is the case, then our two countries, going on their clear common
interests, should think together about how Russia can rebuild its economy
in the Far East in such a way as to strengthen it sovereignty in this region."

While we get ready to think with our partners about how to rebuild our
economy in the Far East, Korea is lobbying a project at the highest level
that could become a catalyst for this process.

The project in question is a 14-kilometer railroad that would cross the
demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. This would link the
trans-Korean railway with the trans-Siberian railway, creating the "Iron
Silk Road," which would link the Pacific Ocean to Europe for the first time
in history across the Russian territories of Siberia and the Far East. 

It’s not that Russia doesn’t understand the importance of this project,
which would enable it to become a Eurasian bridge between the dynamic
economies of the European Union and the Association of South-East Asian
Nations, or ASEAN. The Railways Ministry has already held talks with a
number of European countries about extending the wide-gauge track sections
so as to avoid spending time changing the wheels at the former Soviet border. 

But the problem is that like virtually all the political, humanitarian and
economic projects agreed on during South Korean President Kim Dae-jung’s
visit to Pyongyang, work on the Korean stretch of the railroad between
Seoul and Shinuiju has come to a standstill, and after the failure of the
latest cabinet-level talks in November is now facing uncertainty.

This helps explain why during his December visit to Europe Kim Dae-jung
brought up the subject of the Iron Silk Road several times, including
during a meeting of Nobel prize winners in Oslo and while addressing
European parliament members in Strasbourg. He clearly hopes that the
European Union, which is increasing its contacts with Pyongyang, will be
able to put some pressure on North Korea and nudge it towards implementing
its agreed projects with Seoul.

The North Korean authorities have been deliberately putting the brakes on
all these projects recently, acting, it would seem, out of an instinctive
fear that greater contacts with South Korea will be a potential threat to
the north’s regime. This is despite the fact that no one in South Korea
supports hasty unification. On the contrary, the south understands that the
best scenario is one of gradual change with the North Korean "nomenklatura"
keeping a hold on power. 

And what is Moscow’s policy regarding Korea? To what extent does it fit the
proclaimed principles of pragmatism and making economic interests a
priority? Russia played host to comrade Kim Jong Il for two weeks last
summer. Tens of thousands of Russian citizens found themselves mocked and
211 humiliated just in order to cater to the whims of the North Korean
leader. 

The authorities made vague noises about important state interests,
including the trans-Korean railway, in an attempt to justify the situation.
But once the beloved leader returned to his capital, Pyongyang’s position
on inter-Korean cooperation became more hardline. Kim Jong Il, it seems,
enjoys having a joke with Putin. His previous joke about abandoning his
missile programs hasn’t been forgotten yet.

Let’s hope that Putin’s counterparts from the European Union can put Kim
Jong Il in a more serious mood. Then maybe Kim Dae-jung could turn out to
be right when he concluded his speech at the European Parliament with the
following: 

"Rudyard Kipling, who received the Nobel prize for literature in 1907,
said, ‘East is East and West and West, and never the twain shall meet.’ But
if he were alive today, he would have said instead, ‘East is West and West
is East, and never the twain shall part.’"  
 
*******

#6
Sky News (UK)
January 25, 2002
The Trouble With Russia...  
By Geoff Meade

If Britain demonstrates a strange logic in buying a record number of new
cars to further congest Europe's most crowded roads, Moscow's infatuation
with personal motor transport - despite excellent, cheap mass transit -
seems equally baffling. 

As the UK devotes billions more to public transport, the near-gridlocked
Russian capital may cast a warning of where we could be heading. Dr Tatiana
Shaumian, a Moscow academic, recently noted how perceptive 19th century
historian Nikolai Karamzin has proved to be in saying: "Russia has two
misfortunes, her roads and her fools."

Palm-greasing

The post-Soviet race to capitalism has married those ills in a damaging and
deathly embrace. Wide highways designed for swift movement of the
privileged and the military become choked with the Ladas and Volgas which
disposable incomes have brought within most people's reach. Kings of this
asphalt jungle are the black-windowed BMWs or towering four-wheel-drives,
favoured badges of often ill-gotten wealth among the new Russian rich. 

This mayhem is - nominally - policed by the grey uniformed GAI traffic
cops, whose black and white batons flag down violators at any intersection.
But poverty-level state wages leave too many susceptible to backhanders.
That means most infringers are waved on after the requisite "donation". Red
lights and speed limits assume little meaning to drivers who first
encountered palm-greasing when they paid for their licenses... and have
been buying their way out of difficulties ever since.

Slapdash enforcement and congestion mean motorists park wherever they
please and escape the jams by short-cutting across pavements, through
playgrounds and across any space their wheels will fit. Meanwhile endemic
tax dodging and corruption robs repair budgets, so the roads remain
cratered with potholes ever deepened by the harsh climate.

'Embezzlement'

Faced with predictions that, by next year, another 400,000 vehicles will be
queuing alongside the three million already on Moscow's streets, City Hall
has embarked on a frenzy of tarmac-laying. Late last year, President Putin
opened the latest six-mile section of the still incomplete third ring road.
Started in 1998, the scheme has been mired in corruption and controversy
ever since.

It is massively over-budget as city officials and construction firms come
under investigation for alleged fraud. In what one investigator termed
"embezzlement on a massive scale", suspected infringements have varied from
signing multi-million rouble contracts with shell companies which exist
only on paper to plain jerry-building. One bridge which overshot not only
the Moskva River but its own estimate - by more than £100m - was so poorly
constructed it needed major repairs before it could open.

Showpiece

Parking fines are so trivial - set by federal law and currently £2.25 - as
to be meaningless. Tickets are rarely issued, routinely ignored. Driving
standards are often idiotic and, with roadworthiness checks easily
circumvented, it's a rare journey that isn't delayed by accident or
breakdown. Blizzards over the year end brought some awesome traffic jams,
with some drivers shivering at a standstill for 16 hours with heaters
unable to combat -20C.

Such above-ground anarchy drives many to use Moscow's legendary Metro.
Built on an inexhaustible supply of cheap labour and raw materials between
the wars it remains a showpiece. The best stations are works of art,
platforms graffiti and litter-free and adorned by stained glass, sculpture
and elaborate chandeliers rather than adverts.

Stench

A ride of any distance along the city-wide network costs just 16p. But with
18 million passenger journeys a day and little investment since Soviet
Communism's collapse, it is starting to show the strain. Coaches,
trolley-buses and picturesque trams, too, are bursting at the seams. The
antics of freelance minibuses which challenge them for road space and fares
would make Britain's white van man seem like a vicar driving to communion.

While economic nosedive throughout much of the '90s forced the closure of
many noxious factories, their pollution has been replaced by the pall of
all these exhaust fumes. Russian-built cars run on leaded fuel, some using
poorly-refined 76-octane petrol which costs less than 20p a litre -
including 25% tax. The stench tastes on the lips, lingers on clothes and
may be implicated in increasing respiratory disease.

Restless 

As in all societies, there is a fortunate class who escape all this. In
Russia, it is the politicians, senior civil servants, Mafiosi and anyone
with sufficient financial clout to carve their way through the immobile
masses at speed with blue lights flashing. The acute disruption caused by
the President's motorcade, when miles of roads are closed off, has even
raised grumbling in the legislature, the Duma. After years of servility to
authority the locals are getting restless again - they have nothing to lose
but their snow chains.
 
*******

#7
The Economist (UK)
January 26-February 1, 2002
Russia's media 
Blank screens
Russia's last independent television station has folded under state 
pressure
 
WITH a bit of time, money and effort, it is still possible for 
Russians to be quite well-informed about their country and the world. 
But it is getting harder all the time. This week, the last opposition-
minded national television channel, TV-6, went off the air in mid-
sentence when the press ministry switched off its electricity. 

The immediate cause was a new twist in an intricate legal battle with 
a minority shareholder who is seeking to have the station declared 
bankrupt on an odd-looking legal technicality. The real reason, 
though, looks different. Closing down a popular and respected station 
seems strange, to say the least. The shareholder concerned is the 
pension fund of Lukoil, an energy company with close government ties. 

The Kremlin has two arguments. One is that the media will only be 
truly independent when freed from the pernicious influence of the 
tycoons. The parent company of TV-6 is owned by Boris Berezovsky, a 
devious and self-important businessman-politician in the past, who 
now lives in exile for fear of arrest if he returns to Russia. 
Journalists at TV-6 mostly joined from NTV, itself once the flagship 
opposition channel. The national gas company last year wrested it 
from its founder, another mogul, Vladimir Gusinsky, who now also 
lives in exile. Both men are controversial figures who used their 
media empires ruthlessly to advance their political and business 
goals.

But the anti-tycoons argument would carry more weight if television 
was now becoming freer under the new regime. It is not. News 
programmes usually lead with reverential accounts of the doings of 
the country's leaders. Reporting of topics the authorities dislike, 
such as high-level corruption and the misbehaviour of the security 
services (notably in Chechnya), is at best patchy. 

The Kremlin's other argument is that these rumpuses are in fact 
commercial disputes properly left to the courts. Of late, both 
President Vladimir Putin and his press minister, Mikhail Lesin, have 
been using this line, even praising TV-6 for its news coverage. If 
they ditched Mr Berezovsky, they would be allowed to continue 
broadcasting, journalists there were told by a Kremlin bigwig. 
Actions speak louder than words, however. If the Kremlin sincerely 
wanted TV-6 to survive, it beggars belief that Lukoil would persist 
with its lawsuits or see it removed from the airwaves so abruptly.

Through a screen, darkly

Where does that leave thoughtful or curious Russians? There is still 
a sprinkling of good journalists and good programmes on all the 
channels. They include pungent critics of the Kremlin, such as Yulia 
Latynina, a business journalist on the main state channel, ORT. She 
describes the government's current policy towards the media 
as "zombification". 

The best news (see table) now comes from the business press, from the 
radio and from the Internet. Ekho Moskvy, a punchy talk-radio station 
formerly owned by Mr Gusinsky but now independently owned, survives, 
at least for now. Its programmes are re-broadcast in the provinces 
too. Radio Liberty, an American-financed station dating from the cold 
war which now transmits programmes on local frequencies, has been 
picking up more listeners. It will soon be broadcasting in Chechen, 
despite vigorous protests by the Russian government. 


Although the Internet is still out of regular reach for the majority 
of Russians, millions do manage to go on line occasionally, most 
often at their workplace. They can read the websites of the small-
circulation print media, which in physical form have little reach 
outside Moscow, as well as a slew of Internet-only outfits.

For most of the population, though, the news comes from television. 
It may be bland, deferential, self-censored and visibly tweaked, but 
it is not the wholesale propaganda of Soviet times. So long as Mr 
Putin remains popular, lengthy accounts of his doings may be just 
what most viewers (and the president) want. 

*******

#8
pravda.ru
January 25, 2002
ANATOLY LUKYANOV: PUTIN FOLLOWS THE LINES OF GORBACHEV AND YELTSIN

PRAVDA.Ru interviewed Anatoly Lukyanov, ex-director of the general
department in the Communist Party’s central committee, and ex-chairman of
the Soviet Supreme Council, who was imprisoned on a suspicion in connection
with the State Committee for national emergency. Anatoly Lukyanov is
currently a State Duma deputy, a member of the Communist faction, and
chairman of the State Construction committee 

- Mr.Lukyanov, you are one of the leaders of the opposition in Russia who
has several times criticized the leadership. What is your opinion about the
two post-Communist leaders of Russia, Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin?
What do you think Putin’s presidency is to bring to Russia, chaos or
revival ? 

- To my mind, President Putin is following the policy of Boris Yeltsin. It
is based on patriotic views and is also connected with regular contacts
with the community, when he answers different questions rather
democratically. At the same time, his line is logical and strict from the
inside. His policy is directed towards gradual withdrawal of the state from
the economy sphere. It resembles the slogan of the prime minister of the
period of Yeltsin’s presidency, Yegor Gaidar, “state, get out of the
economy!" 

But the whole world makes for a different line. The influence of the state
on the economy is gaining force, and more and more financing is transferred
through the national budget. Social programs are being invested in, which
is why the disproportion between the social positions in the population
levels. It is done by tax increases for well-to-do people, by the
progressive income tax, first of all. 

The situation is quite different in Russia. The state has completely lost
priorities in the economy. The remaining 500 largest enterprises are
currently on sale. I mean the Slavneft oil company; attempts to sell it are
being made now. However, in accordance with the legislation, the
Russian-Belarussian joint-stock enterprise cannot be privatized. In fact,
only 15-17% of enterprises are state-owned now; we have greatly “advanced”
in the sphere. 

During his visit to Rome, Prime Minister Mikhail Kaysanov said that the
government’s top priority was not protection of the state, but protection
of property and proprietors. In Putin’s words, the power in the country has
been privatized by a group of individuals within the last ten years. And
over the whole period mentioned, the ideas and lines did not change. 

- Do you mean that young and insolent plunderers ousted the old ones ? 

- Nothing of the kind! These plunderers have misappropriated and destroyed
the production during the first privatization. They made their fortunes by
selling Russia’s largest enterprises for 5-6% of the real value. Then the
second phase of redistribution of property took place, when the slogan “we
must share” was the basis. We are experiencing the third stage now, when
false bankruptcies and the takeover of most enterprises are taking place. 

As for the president’s relations with the parliament, they differ from the
attitude of Boris Yeltsin. The relations of the ex-president with the State
Duma resembled an open war: he “executed” the last Soviet parliament – the
USSR Supreme Council in 1993 and later twice attempted to dissolve the
Duma. It was at the time when the Duma passed a denouncement of the
agreements achieved in Belovezhskaya Puscha (that entailed the break-up of
the USSR). Another attempt occurred in May 1999 when the Duma was about to
impeach the president. The facts are openly published in Yeltsin’s memoirs. 

Putin’s actions are quite different. The history of the State Duma
originates from 1906. The first two Dumas were dissolved by the Tzar, and
the third Duma created a majority for protection of the Tzar’s government.
Smart councilors like Sergey Vitte insisted on it. We are observing the
same now. A coalition has been created in the Duma to make the Duma pass
any propositions submitted by the president and the government, even
obviously unsuitable ones. The coalition is made up by the factions Unity,
Fatherland – All Russia, and the deputy groups Regions of Russia and
People’s Deputy. Yabloko, the Union of Right-wing Forces, and Liberal
democratic party work with the coalition in several spheres. 

The coalition provides for the realization of the president’s policies on
land, labor, tax, and pension legislation and for theneutralization of the
left-wing forces. This is done by voting. The united factions have 260
votes, and 130 votes are made up by the Communists and the Agrarians. The
pro-government factions face problems when some constitutional law is to be
passed or a veto to be overcome. It can be done with 300 votes only. Thus,
the tactic is quite evident. They are trying to create a weak parliament
that will operate obediently, like a workshop that mechanically passes
presidential and governmental decrees. 

As for the foreign policy, the left-wing forces have been supporting the
foreign activity of the president for a long period. I mean the improvement
of relations with Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba, India, China and the
establishment of links with the Arab nations, that considered to be a
positive factor. But now. Russia, through the president’s actions, advances
in moving closer to NATO, the liquidation of Russian military bases, the
detriment of the steady relations with the Arab nations, and making
concessions to the USA regarding the ABM Treaty, and many other problems. 

- So, you think that the president has taken a worthless position when he
received information that the USA broke the ABM Treaty and declined to give
any political estimations. 

I think such position is without foresight. It is a repetition of the line
and methods in solution of the foreign policy problems that were used by
Mikhail Gorbachev at the end of his presidency. Over the whole Soviet
period, all political talks were noted and then discussed by the Political
Bureau and the government. Very often, the line of the USSR leaders was
amended then. Political envoys of the country were instructed on their
political tactics before trips abroad. This was a certain control over
individual talks of the political leaders. 

Mikhail Gorbachev started changing the tactic when he held talks with
President Reagan in Reykjavik in 1986, with George Bush in Malta in 1989,
and Helmut Kohl in Arkhyz in June 1989 in a so-called private manner. 

Now the top talks are held in an individual manner again. The State Duma
receives no information about the course of the talks. And the government
and the president are often independent in settlement of very serious
problems, which should be solved by the Parliament and the whole of the
government. Yeltsin’s policy in organization of informal talks in the
sphere of important problems is followed now too. The governmental
authorities practically do not participate in the sphere of international
relations. 

- Do you mean, the government sticks to the rule “I do what I wish” ? 

This line is impossible in politics. A smart politician aims at acting so
that the rest of the people understand that he follows the rules and
traditions and conveys all important information. But, in fact, it is
difficult to stick to the rule. The president’s manpower policy has
resulted in the domination of the Northern Alliance. At the same time,
Putin’s conduct is prudent and efficient. He has grown into an experienced
politician already. His line remains consistent, and many new methods are
applied for creation of structures in the society and the parliament that
could be subject to the president’s policy. 

The same line is applied to the mass media. The authorities plan to
completely oust patriots from the mass media. Their public appearances are
controlled. 

Such a line will be probably used in other spheres as well. Local
representatives will make their own pro-president coalitions like those we
observe in the Duma and the Federation Council now. Communists and patriots
will face problems. 

They are to understand perfectly well the character of the powers that be
and call them by their real names: the power of corrupt capitals that
amalgamated with the oligarchs and criminal world. The power belongs to a
minority and is imposed on the population. This line aggravates the gap
between the rich and the poor. Now, it makes up a 1 to 40 ratio. 

Second, the positions in the regions are not to be neglected. A powerful
basis is to be created in the local authorities for further advancing to
the top levels. The elections in Moldavia, when the Communists have entered
a higher level by consolidation of the lower ones, may be an example for
such actions. This is a wise policy, as the left forces all over world act
so. 

To make the current power transparent for the people, all democratic
mechanisms are to be used. When patriotic newspapers, Sovetskaya Rossiya
(Soviet Russia) publish the course of voting in the Duma, we see the
results. Now, most deputies think better what they are to say to the
electors, before they press buttons during voting. Informing the electors
about activity of the deputies is to become systematic. 

At the same time, a legislative basis is to be created to make the deputies
answerable for failures to meet their own promises and obligations. The
left-wing forces are to appear more in public, to establish close contacts
with the population, especially with the youth. This is the key instrument
to be used by the Communists and the opposition. This was the opinion of
Vladimir Lenin, whose ideas are currently very popular. 

Anatoly Lukyanov was interviewed by 
Ilya Tarasov 
PRAVDA.Ru 
Translated by Maria Gousseva 

********

#9
Russian bid to join WTO held up over farm subsidies
January 25, 2002
AFP

Russia's bid to join the WTO, the subject of two days of formal talks here
this week, is hampered by Moscow's determination to maintain agricultural
subsidies, diplomats said.

Russia has been seeking admission to the World Trade Organization since
1993. This week's negotiations drew the participation of representatives
from 78 WTO member countries as well as a large team from Moscow.

Diplomats here said that while tangible progress was made, the issue of
farm subsidies remained a stumbling block.

While a WTO ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar last November adopted a
resolution calling for the gradual elimination of subsidies, Russia insists
they are necessary.

Citing the expense involved in the shipment of produce to ports over long
distances, Russian delegates said some form of government assistance was
needed to help farmers living in remote parts of the country.

Several WTO members also criticized Russia for the government protection it
extends to its civil aviation and aeronautics industries.

There was likewise opposition expressed to Russia's request for a long
transition period before it applies WTO regulations on sanitary standards
affecting trade in agricultural products.

The head of the WTO working group on Russia, Kare Bryn of Norway, on
Thuesday described this week's discussions as constructive and said
Moscow's adhesion process would be speeded up.

*******

#10
Euro Is Catching On in Russia
January 26, 2002
By BURT HERMAN
  
MOSCOW (AP) - Russians were doing double-takes in the GUM department store 
the other day: the suits, perfume and dresses normally priced in dollars or 
rubles were marked in euros. 

The euro has caught on more than experts predicted, but economists say the 
new multicolored notes likely won't replace the greenback as the currency of 
choice in a country where citizens take their hard cash seriously. 

``For the majority, it's, 'Dollar rules.' They're not even going to think 
about the euro,'' said Peter Westin, senior economist with Aton Capital Group 
in Moscow. 

Just after the Jan. 1 debut of euro bank notes and coins, Russian banks 
experienced a larger than expected volume of exchange in euros - more than 
the combined amount of the 12 European currencies that the euro replaced. 

Alfa Bank, the country's largest commercial bank, imported more than $16.2 
million from Dec. 25 to Jan. 11 - about 40 percent of the trade in U.S. 
dollars. A year before, the trade in European currencies was only about 10 
percent of that in U.S. dollars. 

Sberbank, the largest state-run bank, said it sold more than $11.2 million in 
the first half of January - almost 12 percent of the foreign currency sold in 
that period, up from about 3 percent last year for all European currencies 
combined. 

The early euro buyers likely are getting money for European travel and not 
for savings, Alfa Bank spokeswoman Svetlana Smirnova said. 

They also are looking to diversify their savings, Westin said. 

Russians know their U.S. dollars well. Their main economic indicator is not a 
stock index or the Central Bank interest rate, but rather the daily exchange 
rate with the ruble. Now it is just above 30. 

Most Russians hold their savings at home in so-called mattress dollars 
because of the economic turmoil that has racked the country since the 1991 
collapse of the Soviet Union. 

The value of those mattress dollars has been estimated at as much as $40 
billion. 

With all the previous uncertainty, people aren't likely to switch quickly to 
a new, untested currency. 

``Nobody thinks they'll get their money back,'' said Diana Maduabum, working 
at an exchange booth in a street kiosk selling candy bars and drinks. 

She said very few people had come to change their rubles for euros: ``People 
are already used to the dollar.'' 

No euros are in sight through the small glass window where Maduabum deals 
with customers, and the new currency isn't mentioned by several who stop by. 
One man buys $10, carefully holding the bill to the light to make sure it's 
authentic before walking away, while another asks if he'll get a better rate 
for changing $100 into rubles. 

The euro also has been weak since its 1999 launch, while the dollar has risen 
consistency, even during a recession and in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 
terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. 

However, the euro could make inroads because of Russia's trade with Europe. 

Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said last month the euro could bring 
the Russian and European economies closer together and should decrease the 
cost of foreign trade transactions. 

But Kudrin said the euro still wouldn't replace the dollar. Russia's imports 
remain small compared with its exports in valuable commodities such as oil 
and raw metals - all of which are internationally denominated in dollars. 

Most of Russia's foreign currency reserves also are in dollars. The Central 
Bank said the amount in euros is so small it wouldn't even give a figure. 

Trade is the reason that price tags in the GUM department store on Red Square 
- which leases space to such retailers as Hugo Boss, La Perla and Kenzo - are 
denominated in euros. 

Because it's illegal to mark prices in dollars, price tags across Moscow 
regularly are marked in ``conditional units'' - essentially a dollar 
equivalent at a less-advantageous rate. 

But at many stores in GUM, prices are in ``Boscars,'' a unit tied to the euro 
invented by the Russian company Bosco di Ciliegi that runs the shops. 

The company decided to implement euro pricing because it deals mainly with 
European firms for its imported clothes and cosmetics, Bosco spokeswoman Olga 
Yudkis said. 

That was a welcome surprise to last week's post-holiday sales customers, who 
thought the numbers in the hundreds - rather than thousands as it would be in 
rubles - were dollars as usual. 

Because of the euro exchange rate, they got an extra 10 percent off. 

*******
 
#11
Los Angeles Times
January 26, 2002
Editorial
Disarmament's Glacial Pace
       
The definition of "overkill" is the ability of one nation's nuclear weapons
to eradicate another country's population many times over. Russia and the
United States meet that definition in spades. There is no reason for both
of them to move so slowly to reduce their stockpiles of redundant nuclear
weapons.

This month the Pentagon announced it will reduce the number of operational
nuclear warheads from the current 6,000 to 3,800 over the next five years.
However, not all the warheads taken offline will be destroyed; an unknown
number will merely be put in storage. That represents an unfortunate
continuity with the Clinton administration, which also stored demobilized
warheads.

The primary reason for possessing nuclear weapons is retaliation. Enemies
must know that an attack from conventional, biological, chemical or nuclear
arms will be met by a devastating counterattack. Proponents of storing the
weapons rather than destroying them argue that we never know where a threat
will come from and we need more capability than all other nuclear nations
in the world combined: Russia, China, France, Britain, India, Pakistan,
presumably North Korea and Israel, maybe Iran and Iraq soon. That's
overkill on the overkill.

The Navy's Trident submarines each carry hundreds of nuclear warheads. With
enough submarines at sea, undetectable beneath the surface, retaliation can
be assured. Cutting the number of land- and air-based missiles would not
jeopardize security even when the Trident fleet is cut from 18 to 14.

Moscow officials understandably are upset that many warheads would be
available for reuse and could be refitted onto missiles, perhaps within
weeks. The U.S. and Russia had been ready to work out an agreement on
mutual reduction of nuclear warheads, which once totaled more than 20,000.
The number has been cut by about half under arms reduction treaties, a
major accomplishment. The planned cut in deployed U.S. nuclear weapons from
the current 6,000 to between 1,700 and 2,000 in 10 years also is movement
in the right direction. But Moscow prefers a binding treaty rather than an
informal accord on parallel reductions.

Washington would do well to listen to Russia's concerns. The United States
has legitimate worries about the security of Russia's stored nuclear
weapons and needs help from Moscow in guarding against terrorists or
unfriendly nations buying or stealing them. Washington has bought uranium
stripped from Russian warheads and used it to fuel American power plants, a
good example of cooperation. Destroying excess warheads would be a bigger
asset to security than storing them. 

*******  

#12
Russia: Military Experts Differ On Significance Of U.S. Military Spending
Increase
By Francesca Mereu

U.S. President George W. Bush has proposed an increase of $48 billion in
U.S. military spending, the largest such rise in two decades. The
mid-January announcement is largely in response to Washington's new role in
the international war on terrorism. The Russian government -- Washington's
old Cold War foe -- has yet to officially comment on the proposal, but two
military experts in Moscow are taking opposing views concerning the
significance of the U.S. announcement.

Moscow, 25 January 2002 (RFE/RL) -- There has been no official reaction
from the Russian government to U.S. President George W. Bush's proposal for
an increase of $48 billion in additional spending on the American military.

Bush said the extra money will be used, in part, to give service personnel
a pay raise, to acquire more precision-guided weaponry, and to build a
national missile-defense shield.

"My [2003 fiscal year] budget calls for more than $48 billion in new
defense spending. This will be the largest increase in defense spending in
the last 20 years, and it includes another pay raise for the men and women
who wear the uniform," Bush said.

In an effort to safeguard Americans at home, Bush said his budget will call
for hiring 30,000 airport security workers and an additional 300 federal
agents. The money also will be used to buy new equipment to improve mail
safety in the wake of the anthrax attacks and for strengthening research on
bioterrorism threats.

"The most basic commitment of our government will be the security of our
country. We will win this war [against international terrorism]. We will
protect our people, and we will work to renew the strength of our economy,"
Bush said.

If approved by the U.S. Congress, the Defense Department's annual budget
would increase to $380 billion.

So far, Russia -- whose military spending is difficult to determine but
which is a fraction of the U.S. defense budget -- has not officially
commented on Bush's proposal. RFE/RL spoke to two Russian military
specialists about the dramatic increase in U.S. military spending. Each
holds a different view on the significance of the U.S. announcement.

Sergei Karaganov is chairman of the Russian Council for Defense and Foreign
Policy. He told RFE/RL that the U.S. decision to spend more money in the
fight against international terrorism can only be considered positive.

"It is good, both for America and the rest of the world, to spend more
money in the fight against terrorism," Karaganov said.

While believing in the need to spend money to fight international
terrorism, Karaganov said the U.S proposal for a national missile-defense
shield is not worth the cost.

"As far as money for the ballistic missile defense system is concerned, I
hope that the American military and technological complex may earn profits
from it and so does the overall American economy. But I don't think that
[such a system] would be useful for the United States and for the rest of
the world," Karaganov said. "If the United States will be able to develop
[a missile-defense shield], many countries [like Iran, Iraq] and China
among them, would have many problems [since they would need to spend more
money to update their own defense systems]. Anyway, it is quite improbable
that the United States will [even] be able to develop [such a system]."

General Valeri Cheban is an adviser to Andrei Nikolayev, the chairman of
the State Duma's Defense Committee. Cheban told RFE/RL that Bush's
suggestion to increase U.S. defense spending is worthless, since the
September terrorist attacks on the U.S. demonstrated that military might
can do little to stop terrorists determined to risk their lives for their
cause.

"It is sad that a country that has a strong economic and financial
potential and immense political influence gets back on the track of [Cold
War] confrontation and tries to solve many problems by military force,"
Cheban said. "It is also sad that even though the events of 11 September
demonstrated that it is not big [military] formations or armadas of tanks
and airplanes that achieve today's political goals, but the kind of
[terrorist] acts [committed on 11 September], nevertheless, the United
States -- following the old pattern -- is now escalating its military power."

Cheban said Bush's announcement did not come as a surprise, since after 11
September, events "started to unfold so rapidly and dynamically and the
Americans themselves said that the era of unpredictability called for new
solutions."

Cheban said the mood in Russia today is not oriented on spending more money
on defense but instead is focusing on peacemaking operations and
humanitarian concerns.

"I think that the [Russian] response today does not necessarily have to be
an increase in defense spending," Cheban said. "We [in Russia] are inclined
to think that today the sources of danger are not of a military nature, so
we should shift our focus toward peacemaking operations, law and order
enforcement issues, social and humanitarian problems, including refugees
and the least-fortunate levels of society."

Alexander Golts is a Moscow-based journalist who regularly covers defense
issues. In an interview with RFE/RL's Russian Service, Golts said the
Kremlin cannot afford additional military spending, even if the Russian
military is badly in need of modernization.

Golts said the idea that Russia still has a military-industrial complex is
an illusion.

"Even now, our leadership lives with an illusion that Russia has a
military-industrial complex. In reality, it does not exist. We have about
1,000 companies that are listed as military enterprises but [that have]
actually long stopped making military products," Golts said. "Those endless
talks about new machinery don't go any further than just talks -- be it the
matchless Black Shark helicopter or the fifth-generation fighter jet. The
thing is that, even if those are possible to make, they are made as single
items from parts that are left over from Soviet times."

*******