Johnson's Russia List
#6062
7 February 2002
davidjohnson@erols.com
A CDI Project
www.cdi.org

[Note from David Johnson:
1. Interfax: Russian special services know identities of all suspects 
of 1999-2000 terrorist attacks in Moscow.
2. Reuters: Zoellick urges U.S. Congress act on Russia trade.
3. Jamestown Foundation Monitor: LIBERALS PROTEST TV-6'S CLOSURE.
Intelligentsia and the masses view TV-6's closure very differently.
4. Reuters: Russian media freedoms still uncertain - minister. (Lesin)
5. gazeta.ru: Minister Admits Threat To Press Freedom In Russia.
6. gazeta.ru: Investment Climate, Seek Kremlin Support.
7. Kommersant: Litmus Test for Religion. Deputy Chuyev takes freedom of 
conscience a step further.
8. eurasianet.org: Ivan Torbakov, RUSSIA FOCUSES ATTENTION ON CASPIAN 
BASIN ISSUES.
9. Reuters: Putin sees Europe summit for Petersburg birthday.
10. RFE/RL: Jolyon Naegele, Efforts Failing To Preserve Evenks' Nomadic 
Way Of Life (Part 1).
11. The Globe and Mail (Canada): Gnawed to the bone. The dinosaur industry 
is big business. But while Canadians are currently enjoying Russia's finest 
specimens, the museums back home are having to do without. GEOFFREY YORK 
investigates how Moscow's collections are dying out.]

*******

#1
Russian special services know identities of all suspects of 1999-2000 
terrorist attacks in Moscow

MOSCOW. Feb 6 (Interfax) - Russian special services know the identities of 
virtually all those involved in the acts of terrorism in Moscow, in 
particular, the apartment bombings in September 1999 and the blast in the 
underpass at Pushkin Square in August 2000, chief of the Russian Federal 
Security Service (FSB) department for Moscow and the Moscow region Viktor 
Zakharov has said. 
   "The search for people who committed terrorist attacks, including the 
apartment bombings and the blast at Moscow's Pushkin Square, is underway," 
Zakharov said in a Wednesday interview with the Vesti-Moscow TV program on 
the RTR channel. "In fact all the people [involved in the terrorist attacks] 
are known: Some of them have been detained and already brought to justice, 
and others are being actively searched for," he said. 
   "This work will go on until all those people are found and brought to 
justice," Zakharov said. 

*******

#2
Zoellick urges U.S. Congress act on Russia trade
By Doug Palmer
  
WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick on 
Wednesday urged Congress to end an irritant in trade relations with Russia 
dating from Cold War concerns about Soviet emigration policy. 

In testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, Zoellick said lifting the 
1974 "Jackson-Vanik" emigration measure would reflect the changed U.S.-Russia 
relationship since the collapse of the Soviet Union over a decade ago. 

Under the provision, Russia must show it does not restrict emigration before 
it can gain "most-favored nation" tariff levels -- the levels for which most 
trade partners qualify. Without MFN status, tariffs would be about 10 times 
higher. 

The provision has been an irritant in trade relations with Russia even though 
the United States has certified in recent years that Moscow has open 
emigration policies, and MFN status has been granted. 

President George W. Bush first asked Congress in November to lift the 
restriction. Since then, there has been some activity on the issue in the 
U.S. House of Representatives, including a bill introduced by Ways and Means 
Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, a California Republican. 

"The Russians are understandably sensitive about Jackson-Vanik, which places 
their trade relations with us in a different category," Zoellick said. 

However, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, 
has argued for retaining the measure until Russia is a member of the World 
Trade Organization. 

That would give U.S. negotiators the most leverage in negotiating the terms 
of Russia's entry into the world trade body, Baucus said last month in a 
letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell. 

Washington took that approach with China, which joined the WTO late last year 
after negotiating a comprehensive bilateral trade pact with the United States 
in 1999. 

But Zoellick told the panel he thought a similar "course would be a mistake" 
in the case of Russia "and would work against U.S. commercial and foreign 
policy interests." 

"To use Jackson-Vanik in this way would signal that we still treat Russia as 
a former foe, not a possible friend," Zoellick said. 

Meanwhile, Zoellick suggested it could take many years of work until Russia 
is ready to join the world trade body. 

"We hope to make progress this year and over the course of the president's 
first term (which ends in 2005) to try to get Russia into the WTO," he said. 

WTO Director General Mike Moore gave a more optimistic time frame last month, 
saying Russia could join the WTO sometime in 2003. 

Zoellick said the United States expected the WTO to produce a "first draft 
working party report" on Russia's accession by the end of March. 

That will set the stage for further consultations with Russia and other 
trading partners on what Moscow needs to do to become a member of the WTO, he 
said. 

*******

#3
Jamestown Foundation Monitor
February 6, 2002

LIBERALS PROTEST TV-6'S CLOSURE.
Intelligentsia and the masses view TV-6's closure very differently

A group of leading democratic politicians yesterday issued a
statement protesting the closure of TV-6, the private national
television network majority-owned by Boris Berezovsky. The
channel's signal was cut January 22 on the orders of Russia's
Press Ministry, which was acting on a Higher Arbitration Court
ruling that TV-6 be liquidated.

The statement of protest is worth quoting in full: "The closure
of the TV-6 television channel, however you feel about its
owners, has returned Russia to a situation in which national
television, the information source most accessible to citizens,
is de facto monopolized by the government. In such a situation
it is not possible to have a public discussion from all sides
about the authorities' actions at all levels, or to fight either
corruption or the tyranny of bureaucrats, which means that the
quick development of the economy, with the goal of improving
people's lives, is [also] not possible. It is especially
deplorable that the imperfections of the legal system were
exploited in the liquidation of TV-6 and the authority of the
judicial branch once again damaged.  We believe that only with
existence of different points of view on the TV screen--which
can be provided only by having a variety of owners of television
channels, including public, private and state--can a society be
created in which the government exists for its citizens."

Among the signatories to the statement were former Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev; former Finance Minister Boris Federov, who
now heads the "Forward, Russia!" movement; Yelena Bonner and
Sergei Kovalev, the veteran human rights activists; Oleg Orlov,
the head of the Memorial human rights group; Grigory Yavlinsky,
head of Yabloko; Boris Nemtsov, head of the Union of Right-Wing
Forces (SPS); Konstantin Borovoi, head of the Party of Economic
Freedom; Aleksei Simonov, head of the Glasnost Protection Fund;
and Igor Yakovenko, head of The Union of Journalists of Russia
(SeverInform, February 5).

At the same time, the results of a poll carried out late last
month show the degree to which the liberal intelligentsia's
concern over TV-6's fate is not share by average Russians. The
poll was conducted by the All Russian Center for the Study of
Public Opinion (VTsIOM) over January 25-28 among 1,600 Russians
from eighty-three towns and cities in thirty-three of Russia's
eighty-nine regions.

VTsIOM asked the respondents whether they had heard about TV-6's
closure and, if so, how they felt about it. Twenty-one percent
chose the word "bewilderment" to describe their feelings, 11
percent picked "indignation," five percent chose "alarm," four
percent chose "satisfaction," none picked "fear," 38 percent
said they had "no emotions at all" about TV-6's closure, 18
percent said they had not heard about the closure. Three percent
said the question was hard to answer. Asked what they thought
was the main reason for TV-6's closure, 43 percent said "a
conflict between 'economic subjects'" (this is more or less the
explanation President Vladimir Putin and his supporters gave),
and 33 percent said "political circumstances (more or less the
explanation given by Berezovsky, the TV-6 team and their
supporters). Twenty-four percent said the question was difficult
to answer.

Asked whether they thought Putin was involved in deciding the
station's fate, 27 percent said they thought neither the head of
state nor members of his inner circle intervened in the
decision, 32 percent said they thought Putin had not intervened
but that members of his inner circle had, 8 percent said they
thought Putin himself took the main decisions regarding TV-6's
fate, 33 percent said it was a difficult question to answer.
Asked who they thought lost most from TV-6's closure, 36 percent
said the TV-6 journalists, 20 percent said television viewers,
18 percent said Berezovsky, 9 percent said democracy in Russia.
Seventeen percent said the question was hard to answer. Asked
whether they supported Press Minister Mikhail Lesin's decision
to replace TV-6's programming temporarily with sports
programming from the NTV-Plus satellite channel, especially
since NTV-Plus plans to broadcast the Winter Olympics from Salt
Lake City, 52 percent said they backed Lesin's decision and 12
percent said they did not. Thirty-six percent said it was hard
to say (Polit.ru, January 31).

Putin has ordered the government to study the feasibility of a
national sport channel, and there has been talk that TV-6 will
become that channel. A tender for the station's license is set
for March 27 (see the Monitor, January 31).

*******

#4
Russian media freedoms still uncertain - minister
By Clara Ferreira-Marques
  
MOSCOW, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Media Minister Mikhail Lesin, the man who flicked 
the switch to close Russia's last independent national television channel, 
said on Wednesday economic and private interests still played too great a 
role in the media. 

Lesin ordered TV6 closed last month after a court upheld a ruling it was 
bankrupt, giving the Kremlin a virtual monopoly of the airwaves for the first 
time since the Soviet era. 

Speaking to the State Duma lower house of parliament, Lesin said the Moscow 
media had emerged from the ownership and censorship disputes that followed 
the Soviet Union's collapse but that many regional bosses kept a tight grip 
on journalists. 

"In the regions, the media are still used to solve business problems," Lesin 
said. "There is unquestionably a threat to freedom of speech." 

Regional leaders amassed huge influence under ex-president Boris Yeltsin and 
local elections remain marked by populist pitches to voters and even by the 
detention of journalists. 

Several reporters were detained while covering an election in recent weeks in 
Yakutia, in Russia's far north. The Moscow daily Vremya Novostei newspaper 
described the contest as "the most scandalous vote in the history of regional 
elections." 

Journalists have been frequent targets in Russia. 

In July 2000, the head of an independent radio station which exposed official 
corruption in Smolensk in western Russia was murdered by his home. A number 
of journalists covering the military campaign in rebel Chechnya have also 
been found dead. 

CALL FOR ALTERNATIVE VOICES 

The head of Russia's Journalists' Association, Igor Yakovenko, said Lesin had 
finally "understood the obvious" -- that political interference was a bad 
thing. But he made clear that held true for the centre as well as the 
regions. 

"One of the first steps ought to be to make a list of people who own stakes 
in the media and to reduce the weight of the government," Yakovenko told Ekho 
Moskvy radio. 

Liberal deputy Viktor Pokhmelkin also criticised state control, saying not 
enough was being done to allow dissenting voices to air their views and state 
television and radio tended to show a single view. 

"If you believe Mr Lesin, all the editors like and are loyal to the 
president," he said. "You forget there are alternative political forces in 
state bodies, including parliament." 

For his part, Lesin said financial heavyweights now wielded considerably less 
influence over the national media and were therefore less likely to be able 
to "settle scores." 

"In recent years, there has been a clear politicisation of the media. It has 
been governed not so much by economic, as by political principles," he told 
deputies. "But I believe the situation in which whole sections of media 
served specific persons, financiers or businessmen, is now improving." 

Lesin told parliament a tender to find a new broadcaster to replace 
independent channel TV6 would be free and open to all, including the same 
team of journalists who broadcast on the frequency before it was shut down 
last month. 

"It will be an open contest," he said. 

The channel's owner, Boris Berezovsky, said the shutdown was part of a 
campaign to bring to heel all Russian media. Many of the channel's 
journalists had left NTV, an independent channel taken over by gas giant 
Gazprom after it ran up large debts. 

*******

#5
gazeta.ru
February 6, 2002
Minister Admits Threat To Press Freedom In Russia
By Ivan Chelnok  

Russian Press Minister Mikhail Lesin made two sensational statements.
Firstly, he admitted that there is threat to the freedom of press in
Russia, and this threat comes from the private owners of media outlets.
Secondly, he said that the director general of Gazprom’s media holding
Boris Jordan together with a Russian banker, has bought Vladimir Gusinsky’s
share in NTV. Boris Jordan, however, immediately refuted the minister’s
statement as “not true” and expressed regret the public is being misled by
rumours. 

On Wednesday the Press Minister appeared before the lower house to answer
the deputies’ questions. Addressing the house, the minister admitted that
there is a real threat to the freedom of speech in Russia, adding that the
freedom of speech remains heavily dependent on the issue of ownership. 

Mikhail Lesin is convinced that the threat to the press freedom emanates
from private owners, who introduce censorship in their media outlets. 

In the minister’s opinion, one of the key mistakes of the past years is the
failure of the state leadership to work out its own strategy of media
market development. The political interests pursued by the state in that
sphere often prevailed over the economic component, he said. But, he
remarked with satisfaction, now the situation improves gradually. 

Lesin denied rumours that the fate of the TV6 channel, or more
specifically, the frequency on which it used to broadcast, has been
predetermined. Such statements are nothing but "lies and slander", he said. 

The minister pledged to apply all efforts to ensure that the work of the
tender commission set up by the Russian government would be transparent so
as to avoid speculations. 

The minister did not even rule out the possibility of public control over
the commission's activity, including supervision by deputies. 

Answering questions from deputies critical of the state-owned television,
the minister reminded them that editorial policy is defined by the chief
editor of the media in question. As a minister, he has no right to
interfere or to use administrative resources in dealings with an editor. 

His second statement came after the minister left the Duma conference hall
and appeared before the press. 

Mikhail Lesin told reporters that the director general of Gazprom’s media
holding Boris Jordan together with a Russian banker, has bought Vladimir
Gusinsky’s 30% share in NTV. Gusinsky had retained the stake in the
channel, after Gazprom took over the most of his media empire over debts in
April last year. 

Asked by Interfax how true the information was, Lesin said: "If I didn't
believe it, I would not be talking about it”. 

But almost as soon as he said that Boris Jordan refuted the minister’s
statement. It is not true, Jordan said, adding: “It’s a pity that the
public is being mislead”. 

In an exclusive comment for NTVRU.com web-site Vladimir Gusinsky called the
minister’s words “wishful thinking”. “Neither I, nor my partners know
anything about an offer to sell part of media assets to Mr.Jordan and to a
mysterious “Russian banker”,” Gusinsky said. 

Earlier, media repeatedly named among the possible future owners of the NTV
such figures as the chief of Mezhprombank Sergei Pugachev, Alfa-Bank’s
chairman Mikhail Fridman, and Boris Jordan, whose brother Nicholas Jordan
heads a representation office of the Deutsche Bank in London. 

Mezhprombank’s Sergei Pugachev, who has become a senator recently (he
represents the Republic of Tuva in the Federation Council), is said to be
one of the president Vladimir Putin’s closest friends, and, according to
some sources, has played an important role in the NTV conflict last year. 

Russian Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper wrote that in many respects namely
owing to Pugachev the Kremlin and the gas giant adopted a more “careful and
balanced” approach to evaluation of assets of the media empire that once
used to belong to Gusinsky. 

Gazeta.Ru wrote that Alfa-Bank also could be one of the possible buyers.
Gazeta.Ru sources said that Fridman had authorized the first chief of the
Kremlin staff Vladislav Sourkov to represent his interests in negotiating
the deal. Sourkov used to work for that bank before. 

Moreover, in 2001 Alfa-Bank extended a $12 million loan to NTV, arousing
speculation that that in the long run the bank would like to take control
over the channel.  

*******

#6
gazeta.ru
February 6, 2002
Investment Climate, Seek Kremlin Support
By Andrei Litvinov  

After their first, failed attempt to persuade the Prosecutor General to
discharge SIBUR top executives from custody Russian business majors decided
to appeal for help to the head of the state. Chief of the Russian Union of
Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Arkady Volsky met with the president
Vladimir Putin to discuss measures necessary “to create a favourable
investment climate” in Russia. 

On Tuesday, February 5, the president of the Russian Union of
Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) Arkady Volsky met with Vladimir
Putin in the Kremlin. RSPP chief tried to explain to the president how
damaging certain actions of the power-wielding authorities against Russian
businessmen were for the investment climate in this country. 

The head of the state listened carefully to his guest’s reasoning and then
invited the Union’s board to the Kremlin to discuss the issue together. It
was agreed that the next meeting would take place in March. 

SIBUR drama began at the end of the last year when Russia’s gas giant
Gazprom asked the Prosecutor General’s Office to investigate suspected
misdemeanours within its daughter company SIBUR (Siberian-Ural
Petrochemical Company), wherein Gazprom holds 51% stake. Gazprom alleged
SIBUR management had illegally sold off assets worth $85 million through
its affiliates. 

On January 8 the Prosecutor General’s Office detained SIBUR president Yakov
Goldvosky, vice-president Yevgeniy Koshits and board chairman of the
company Vyacheslav Sheremet, who is at the same time a board member of
Gazprom. 

Three days later Vyacheslav Sheremet was released under a travel ban,
whereas two other suspects remained in custody. On January 18 the
prosecutors finally charged both with the abuse of office under Article
201, part 2 of the Russian Criminal Code. 

On the same day when the Prosecutor General’s Office announced the charges,
Gazprom said it had worked out a compromise with SIBUR management and
wanted to withdraw its complaint against the company. However, the
Prosecutor General’s Office ignored the appeal. 

Alarmed by the impact the criminal investigation in SIBUR may have on the
investment climate in general, top executives of leading Russian businesses
– board members of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs asked the
chief prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov for the meeting. 

RSPP members asked Ustinov to release Goldovsky and Koshits from custody
against their personal guarantee that neither of the SIBUR directors would
leave the country for the duration of the investigation. Vladimir Ustinov,
however, refused on the grounds that the charges the executives face are
too grave. 

Ever since the day of arrest of SIBUR top managers, representatives of the
Russian business elite have been trying hard, yet in vain, to persuade the
state authorities that when combating economic crimes prosecutors should
act more carefully, avoid arrests, and think of the international
reputation of Russian firms. 

Moreover, after the RSPP members met with the Prosecutor General, the
charges against Goldovskiy were extended. On January 31 the Prosecutor
General's Office added a new charge against SIBUR Yakov Goldovsky. Apart
from abuse of office, he is now accused of “misappropriation of company’s
property entrusted to him” under Article 160, part 3 of the Russian
Criminal Code. The article stipulates a punishment of up to 10 years
imprisonment. 

And still, the chief of the Union Arkady Volsky decided to take the risk
and asked the president Putin for a meeting. On Tuesday the meeting took
place. Apart from SIBUR, Putin and Volsky had many other things to discuss. 

This Friday the RSPP board session will be held. Over 200 delegates from 80
Russian regions are expected to take part in the session. Volsky said the
event “is very important for determining the further course of the economic
development of the nation”. 

The key issue for discussion at the Friday session is, indeed, vital: how
to ensure further economic growth in Russia notwithstanding low oil prices. 

Vladimir Putin evinced strong interest in the subject and even, as Volsky
said after the meeting, “gave a number of recommendations”. 

RSPP chief, however, did not specify what exactly the president had
recommended, but assured the reporters, that the entrepreneurs would by all
means follow the president’s advice. 

Russian business elite is eager to demonstrate that it is deeply concerned
with the problems Russia faces, and tries hard to act in strict compliance
with the law. 

Volsky told the president about the draft bill On the Status of Employers’
Unions elaborated by the RSPP. The recently enacted Labour Code envisages
the adoption of such law. 

The businessmen’ union has many other far-reaching plans, such as, for
instance, to hold a Russo-Belarusian economic forum in the near future. 

Volsky also passed to the president the request of his RSPP colleagues.
When the U.S. president George W.Bush arrives for a visit in May, Russian
businessmen would like to meet with him. 

By the way, after his meeting with Volsky, Putin had a phone conversation
with Bush, and it is quite likely, that the U.S. president has already been
informed of Russian businessmen’ request. 

Putin and Volsky agreed that in March the president would again meet with
the members of the Union’s board in the Kremlin. 

The meeting will discuss the implementation of reforms in natural
monopolies, state tariff policies, and, according to Volsky, “the creation
of a favourable business climate in Russia, the impact of the state
leadership on that, and, what’s most important, measures to decrease the
negative phenomena, connected with the law enforcers’ activities”. 

*******

#7
Kommersant
February 6, 2002
Litmus Test for Religion 
Deputy Chuyev takes freedom of conscience a step further
By Pavel Korobov
(therussianissues.com)
 
Alexander Chuyev, deputy chairman of the Duma Committee for Public 
Associations and Religious Organizations, unveiled his draft bill "On 
Traditional Religious Organizations in the Russian Federation" when he met 
journalists yesterday. Should it be enacted, religion will be taught in 
schools, government-run television channels will show religious programs free 
of charge and traditional religious denominations will be exempt from taxes.

According to Chuyev, he has built his draft on the existing law "On Freedom 
of Conscience and Religious Organizations." It defines four types of 
traditional religions. First - a denomination would be able to claim the 
status of a traditional religious organization if it has been in existence 
for at least 50 years and unites at least one million worshippers. A 
denomination operating for at least 50 years and uniting at least 100,000 
followers would be given the status of "traditional religious organization of 
an ethnic group." "A historical traditional religious organization" would 
have to be in operation for at least 80 years, but the draft does not say how 
many followers it must have. And, finally, foreign denominations recognized 
at home as an inseparable part of the historical, religious and cultural 
heritage would be given the status of "representative of a foreign 
traditional religious organization." The embassy of the country concerned 
would be asked to issue a letter of recommendation confirming inseparability. 

Status would be granted by a federal commission in support of traditional 
religions, which would include five members appointed by the State Duma, five 
nominated by the Federation Council and ten appointed by the president. 

Deputy Chuyev maintains that the new law should provide for mandatory 
religious education and that Scripture will be taught as it is interpreted by 
traditional religions. The draft also calls on government-run television and 
radio channels to provide free airtime to religious organizations. 
Traditional denominations and their non-commercial structures would be exempt 
from profit tax and value-added tax. 

The draft suggests that government agencies and traditional religious 
organizations conclude agreements to make it easier for the Church to fight 
child homelessness and care for the elderly and the disabled. It also says 
the property of traditional religious organizations taken away under court 
rulings should be returned to them. 

The architects of the bill also have good news for the members of the 
proposed commission in support of traditional religions: their salaries would 
match those of federal ministers. 

According to Chuyev, President Putin has given his backing to the draft 
albeit only in verbal form so far. 

The existing law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations" passed 
in 1997 and amended in 2000 is far more liberal than Chuyev's draft. The 
state's priorities in its relations with religions are set out only in its 
preamble. It says the two houses of Parliament have passed the law on the 
assumption that the Russian Federation is a secular country. They recognize 
the Orthodox Church's special role in Russian history, but they also respect 
Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and other religions as an integral part of the 
historical heritage of the peoples of Russia. The law does not mention any 
particular tax concessions, but it does say "the state regulates the 
provision of tax and other concessions to religious organizations and gives 
them financial, material and other assistance." The law does not impose a 
timeframe on the registration of religious organizations, nor does it provide 
for the establishment of a special body to register them. It also does not 
provide for a special registration procedure concerning the representatives 
of foreign religious organizations. 

*******

#8
eurasianet.org
February 5, 2002
RUSSIA FOCUSES ATTENTION ON CASPIAN BASIN ISSUES
By Igor Torbakov

Russia and the United States are busy forging new strategic alliances and 
reshaping old security arrangements in Central Eurasia. In response to the 
growing US presence in Central Asia, Russia is targeting the Caspian Basin, 
seeking to enhance cooperation with Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. The Kremlin 
is keen to resolve two inter-related strategic issues - retaining control 
over the region's vast energy resources, and resolving the question of the 
Caspian Sea's territorial division. 

So far in 2002, several high-profile US delegations have toured Central Asian 
states. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archives]. Those 
US diplomatic initiatives have been matched by two late January summits held 
in Moscow. Those meetings involved Russian President Vladimir Putin and his 
Turkmen and Azerbaijani counterparts - Saparmurat Niyazov and Heidar Aliyev. 
The two summits, Moscow observers say, produced somewhat different results, 
reflecting the varying degree of Ashgabat's and Baku's dependence on Moscow. 

In the center of Putin-Niyazov talks was the issue of Russian purchases of 
Turkmen gas. The significance of the topic, Russian commentators point out, 
has increased "after the landing of the US troops in Turkmenistan's 
neighboring countries of Central Asia and in Afghanistan." 

"So far, Turkmenistan doesn't have any export routes other than across 
Russia," notes the influential Moscow business daily Vedomosti. "However, in 
a couple of years this situation might change." 

To forestall Russia's losing its monopoly on the transit of energy resources, 
Putin unveiled a proposal to Niyazov to form a Eurasian gas alliance. The 
group would comprise the four gas-extracting CIS countries - Russia, 
Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. If this alliance takes shape, Moscow 
experts contend, it could end up exerting considerable influence over the 
world gas market. 

"Russia is the largest producer of the 'blue fuel,' and Central Asian 
countries aspire to play, in the near future, an important role in the world 
gas trade, first of all as Russia's competitors," writes regional analyst 
Arkady Dubnov in the Vremya Novostei newspaper. 

Western geopolitical strategies in the 1990s, Dubnov argues, were based on 
the backing of alternative sources of energy and transport routes that would 
bypass Russia. Now, Dubnov adds: "if Moscow manages to gather all the 'new' 
gas countries under its aegis, it would be able to 'regulate' their 
competitiveness in its own favor."

Putin's initiative also received an endorsement from the Moscow News weekly. 
"If these plans [to forge the Eurasian gas alliance] are realized," writes 
the paper's Central Asia expert Sanobar Shermatova, "Moscow will, in fact, 
snatch up the initiative, currently held by America, in managing the post-war 
energy projects in Central Asia and Afghanistan."

According to some well-informed Moscow sources, Putin's initiative appears to 
reflect not so much the feasibility of the ambitious project, but rather the 
fact that Moscow has failed to reach a bilateral agreement with Ashgabat on 
the amount of purchased Turkmen gas.

Indeed, the Moscow summit talks between Putin and Niyazov were generally 
unproductive. The two leaders could not achieve a breakthrough on 
Russian-Turkmen differences over the division of the Caspian Sea. [For 
background see the Eurasia Insight archives]. Of five Caspian littoral 
states, Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan suggest that the seabed be divided 
into national sectors while the water be kept in common use - a scheme that 
would leave Iran with the smallest sector. Iran wants to divide the seabed 
equally, and Turkmenistan appears to constantly waver between the two 
proposals. 

Since Niyazov has been reluctant to join the Caspian "troika," many Moscow 
observers have accused the Turkmen leader of trying to torpedo the Caspian 
deal. Lacking the economic levers to resolve the problem of the disputed oil 
and gas fields - first of all, the money needed to explore them - Niyazov, 
analysts say, has chosen instead to sabotage the Caspian settlement.

"Turkmenbashi is going out of his way to drive the Caspian issue into a blind 
alley," wrote the Novye Izvestiya newspaper right after the end of Moscow 
summit. Only the active efforts of the other shoreline states "may prevent 
[Turkmenistan's president] from playing up the Caspian card in his favor," 
says the newspaper.

Immediately following Niyazov's visit, Putin and Aliyev met for talks that 
also focused on the Caspian question. The Azerbaijani and Russian leaders 
discussed the framework for a bilateral agreement on Caspian-related issues. 
Russia and Azerbaijan both have signed bilateral accords with Kazakhstan that 
clearly establish their respective Caspian sectors. Once Russia and 
Azerbaijan reach such an agreement, "use of the Caspian mineral resources 
will be fully solved between our three nations," Aliyev said at a news 
conference in Moscow. 

Later, in an interview with the leading Moscow daily Izvestiya, Aliyev 
pointed out that Baku has forged a "strategic partnership" with Russia. He 
stressed that the two countries had "reached complete understanding on the 
principles of [Caspian] division." 

Both Russian and Azerbaijani experts agree that a Caspian deal became 
possible only after Moscow and Baku settled the issue of Gabala radar station 
in Azerbaijan. Moscow had sought a long-term lease of the early warning radar 
station. Azerbaijani officials had been reluctant to give Russia control of 
the facility for an extended period. Ultimately, the two sides compromised on 
a 10-year lease. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight 
archives]. 

Not all the stumbling blocks in Azerbaijani-Russian relations have been 
removed, however. Azerbaijani politicians would like to see a "more active" 
(read pro-Azerbaijani) Russian stance in the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement. In 
a recent interview with the Obshchaya Gazeta weekly, Eldar Namazov, the 
Azerbaijani political scientist and former advisor to president Aliyev, 
expressed the hope that "the general evolution of [Russian strategic] 
thinking will eventually result in the revision of the idea of Russia's 
'military bridgehead' in Armenia."

According to Namazov, the security architecture in the Southern Caucasus can 
be reshaped in two ways. According to one scenario, Russia can step up its 
efforts in settling the regional conflicts "on the basis of territorial 
integrity and inviolability of borders." However, if Russia remains inactive, 
Azerbaijan and Georgia could invite NATO countries, including Turkey, to set 
up military bases on their territory. "The symptoms of such turn of events 
can already be perceived," Namazov said. [See related EurasiaNet story].

In the new international situation shaped by September 11 and its aftermath, 
Baku is intent on keeping its options open. This may portend more tough 
bargaining over the Caspian Sea's division and other issues. "We must 
continue work to reach agreement among all the Caspian states," Aliyev said. 
"I think that we will be able to achieve that, but it's difficult to say how 
long it would take.

Editor's Note: Igor Torbakov is a freelance journalist and researcher who 
specializes in CIS political affairs. He holds an MA in History from Moscow 
State University and a PhD from the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. He was 
Research Scholar at the Institute of Russian History, Russian Academy of 
Sciences, Moscow, 1988-1997; a Visiting Scholar at the Kennan Institute, 
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington DC, 1995, and a 
Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University, New York, 2000. He is now based in 
Istanbul, Turkey.

*******

#9
Putin sees Europe summit for Petersburg birthday
  
MOSCOW, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed on 
Wednesday that all the leaders of the European Union be invited to St 
Petersburg for a grand summit next year, when the imperial capital holds a 
300th birthday celebration. 

Putin, once deputy mayor of St Petersburg, often promotes his home city, 
which despite elegant baroque streets and world class museums has fallen on 
hard times, missing out on the post-Soviet investment boom seen in Moscow. 

He has hosted world leaders there, including Britain's Tony Blair, Germany's 
Gerhard Schroeder and France's Jacques Chirac, often for informal meetings or 
arts premiers that contrast with official summits in stuffier Moscow. 

As a sign of how seriously he takes the anniversary event, Putin summoned top 
cabinet ministers for a meeting of committees planning St Petersburg's 300th 
anniversary, as well as a smaller party marking the 1000th birthday of Kazan, 
on the Volga River. 

"Both celebrations are events on a national scale. St Petersburg and Kazan 
both played important historical roles in the establishment of the Russian 
state," Putin told dignitaries at the meeting. 

Russian news agencies quoted him later as saying he hoped to invite the heads 
of all European Union countries for the St Petersburg fete in May next year. 

The anniversary falls during the "white nights," when St Petersburg's long 
northern summer evenings are traditionally filled by a performing arts 
festival and crowds of revellers throng its stately canals and bridges. 

Russia is spending $387 million this year to fix St Petersburg up ahead of 
the anniversary, sprucing up monuments and working on a ring road to direct 
traffic away from the historic centre, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told 
reporters. 

Kazan will get about one-tenth as much. 

But Kirill Lavrov, director of St Petersburg's top drama theatre, warned that 
the city needs serious work before it can easily accommodate huge crowds of 
VIPs. 

"Our city, St Petersburg, is somewhat rundown," he told reporters after the 
meeting. "We will be able to paint the facades, but many of the city's 
problems run deeper." 

******

#10
Russia: Efforts Failing To Preserve Evenks' Nomadic Way Of Life (Part 1)
By Jolyon Naegele

Russia's second-largest oil company, Yukos, has launched a massive investment 
project in the Evenk Autonomous District in central Siberia to drill and pump 
crude oil. In the first of a three-part series, RFE/RL correspondent Jolyon 
Naegele looks at the impact that a century of modernization has had on the 
indigenous population of some 8,000 Evenks, who suffer from crippling 
poverty, rampant alcoholism, and the disappearance of their nomadic 
traditions.

Prague, 6 February 2002 (RFE/RL) -- Across Siberia, small, traditionally 
nomadic ethnic groups have been fighting a losing battle for decades, if not 
centuries, against encroaching Russian settlement and the ensuing pressures 
of assimilation, economic development, and alcoholism.

The collapse of the Soviet Union a decade ago resulted in new hardships as 
cradle-to-grave socialism gave way to dog-eat-dog Wild East capitalism.

A case in point is one of Russia's least-developed regions, Evenkia, a vast 
area of 767,600 square kilometers, nearly as large as Turkey, inhabited by 
some 20,000 people -- 8,000 of them Evenks. The remainder are settlers from 
elsewhere in Russia who arrived in several waves -- the first with the 
founding of the settlement of Vanavara in 1921.

During the economic upheavals in Russia during the 1990s, many residents left 
the region for more populated districts far to the south, leaving behind a 
decimated, formerly nomadic population no longer able to survive in the taiga 
and devastated by rampant alcoholism.

Pavlina Brzakova is a Czech doctoral candidate in anthropology at Prague's 
Charles University who has made seven solo expeditions to Evenkia during the 
past decade. She has been witness to a disappearing way of life, recording 
the last shamans and traditional singers, interviewing the last nomadic 
reindeer herders and collecting, translating, and publishing folk tales.

"These are the last few, small families who succeeded in maintaining a herd 
[through Soviet times] or won back possession of their herds after the 
collapse of the sovkhozes and kolkhozes [state and collective farms]. There 
are fewer and fewer such families," Brzakova says. "A program supporting 
nomads was established in 1991 but soon collapsed when they realized that the 
oldest generation was dying out -- mainly people who are no longer able to 
live in the taiga and can no longer take care of themselves."

A center was set up for the elderly at Vanavara to care for former nomads too 
old and infirm to rough it in the taiga. But the nomads inevitably 
experienced depression and alcoholism.

There have been a variety of attempts to encourage Evenks and other small, 
northern peoples in Siberia to return to a nomadic way of life, with mixed 
results. Brzakova says the Evenk generation that, theoretically, would be 
able to return to the region's original nomadic way of life no longer has the 
experience to do so.

Starting in the 1930s, 24-hour-a-day nursery schools and boarding schools 
were established so that the parents could lead a nomadic life and watch over 
the herds. Meanwhile, their children were educated by Russian teachers and 
began to speak Russian, not Evenk. After a while, they were no longer able to 
communicate in any language other than Russian.

"Since they've been living in a village, are sedentary and have gone through 
the whole system of boarding schools until adulthood, they are not capable of 
orienting themselves in the taiga," Brzakova says. "They haven't even any 
basic know-how about how to look after the herd [or] what it means to be a 
nomad. At best, they are able during hunting season to catch fur-bearing 
animals. That's all they are capable of. And so they spend all summer in the 
village doing nothing -- at the most fishing and drinking vodka."

Nevertheless, Brzakova says the idea of nomadism is receiving considerable 
publicity: "Now, within the framework of national revival [among northern 
nomadic peoples], handbooks on nomadic life are being published. There's a 
lot of interest all across Siberia in these. These books have been a great 
success. But of course there's the question of what practical effect they 
will have. Everyone is buying them, and everyone has the tendency to return 
to being a nomad because of pressures from the difficult economic situation. 
They are aware that if they don't look after themselves, no one else will 
either."

From 1993 to 1994, local authorities made herds of reindeer available. 
Whoever wanted to raise the reindeer would receive a subsidy in the form of 
fodder. Evenks would claim a herd, Brzakova says, but not bother to build 
fences. Inevitably, the herd would wander off, or else the owners would 
slaughter the herd for food. As a result, Brzakova says a return to a nomadic 
way of life has proven difficult in all but a few cases, mainly in the area 
around Tura and Baikit.

As Brzakova puts it, "Basically, the nomadic way of life is all but gone, and 
it appears that attempts to revive it are not succeeding because these 
attempts are too artificial and people don't really want to" return to the 
taiga.

Yet, the Czech anthropologist notes, even amid the despondency and 
alcoholism, there appears a growing sense of national identity among the 
Evenks.

"The Evenks only began expressing themselves [nationally] in the last two 
years, possibly at the urging of the Yakuts in the [neighboring] Sakha 
Republic, because the contacts are very close, even though traditionally they 
were enemies," Brzakova says. "But all the same, the fact that the Yakuts are 
advancing and are organizing all sorts of conferences, it seems that they are 
having an effect on the Evenks because they are in close proximity to each 
other and participate in these conferences and are trying to express 
themselves as a nation."

But Brzakova notes the wide dispersion of Evenks across northeastern Asia is 
a handicap: "The Evenks are spread out from the Yenisei [River] eastwards 
across all of Siberia. Those who live in the Evenk Autonomous Okrug 
[district] number 8,000, but in total there are about 29,000 Evenks. 
Ten-thousand of them live in China, and 4,000 live in Mongolia. So they 
really are spread out, which is to their great disadvantage because they have 
fallen victim to assimilation, in contrast to the Yakuts, who are 
concentrated in their Republic of Sakha or Buryats and who have their own 
territory. Where they are more compact, they are capable of resisting 
assimilation and acculturation. In these places, they are more nationalistic 
[toward the local Russian population]. They won't let Russians work as civil 
servants and the tendencies for [national] revival are stronger."

Evenkia now has its own anthem, called "Hymn of Native Evenkia." The first 
stanza, which we heard sung in Russian by Evenk pop singer Oleg Chapogir, 
goes like this:

"May peace shine over native Evenkia,/ Over our beautiful, raw country,/ May 
the power of the new Russia strengthen,/ Fraternally bound by a common fate 
forever,/ Evenkia my Evenkia, hope and pride of the nation,/ Evenkia my 
Evenkia, its riches and our freedom!"

Brzakova describes the recording, if not the lyrics, as a valiant effort, 
considering the conditions under which it was made -- in a homemade, one-man 
studio in the Evenk central settlement of Tura. The recording is now 
available on cassette. Brzakova says it has been a tremendous success with 
local residents.

Brzakova says the "Evenks want the Evenk Autonomous Okrug to be Evenk." 
However, she says Evenk nationalism is not expressed in terms of violence but 
rather in an interest in gaining positions in the local administration -- and 
in the development of a fledgling Evenk intelligentsia.

In addition to publishing a bilingual newspaper, "Evenkiiskaya Zhizn" (Evenk 
Life), Evenks in the okrug capital, Tura, have published an Evenk grammar 
book, a songbook, a cookbook, a dictionary of Evenk names, and a catalog of 
Evenk artists.

Brzakova says: "What sort of people are in the Evenk intelligentsia? There 
aren't many university-educated people among them. Within the framework of 
the national revival, these people are largely the offspring of parents who 
were nomads, and they remember this, but they don't live in the taiga. Simply 
put, there is a kind of deep sympathy. They feel the need to look for their 
roots, and so they try, for example, to compose songs, even if Evenk songs 
were originally improvised. They sang what they saw around themselves."

Brzakova recorded one of Evenkia's last shamans, Nona Tarpushanok, singing in 
her sleep inside her "choom," or tepee, in August 1993, four months before 
her granddaughter allegedly killed her in a drunken argument. It is an epic 
tale of men going off into the taiga to hunt.

Brzakova acknowledges that the chances of the Evenk intelligentsia helping 
the region find a way out of its dire economic situation are "very small." 
But she says young Evenks do represent a certain hope for the future. The old 
nomadic world is probably gone forever, so they must become accustomed to the 
contemporary world.

In Brzakova's words, "They will have to learn to accept responsibility for 
their decisions." In Soviet days, someone else always assumed responsibility. 
Now, she says, most Evenks do not know how to deal with the new conditions. 
They do not understand that living somewhere and having electricity all cost 
money. They are unable to evaluate their work, or to plan. Instead she says, 
they live from day to day.

Thus, Brzakova says, it is hardly surprising when the Russian oil company 
Yukos, which is building up its operations in the Evenk district, says it is 
unable to find suitable Evenks to hire. But, she warns, "We just can't chase 
them back into the forest."

Brzakova concedes that in tracking the decline and transformation of the 
Evenks, she herself has amassed knowledge of benefit to the Evenks.

"I'd say that a chapter is now closing for me personally. I feel that there 
is nothing left there to examine. But, of course, there is still a bond of 
sorts with them, because when a person travels back and forth over 10 years 
-- seven trips usually lasting four months each, the last one lasted two 
months -- there is a certain emotional bond with the people there. So, of 
course, while there won't be any more anthropological research, I don't think 
that this was my last trip there." 

Amid the current Evenk national revival, Brzakova's collection of Evenk folk 
tales, called "Goromomo Gorolo" ("Long, Long Ago"), originally published in 
Prague, has recently been issued in an expanded edition in Siberia.

*******

#11
The Globe and Mail (Canada)
February 6, 2002
Gnawed to the bone
The dinosaur industry is big business. But while Canadians are currently 
enjoying Russia's finest specimens, the museums back home are having to do 
without. GEOFFREY YORK investigates how Moscow's collections are dying out
By GEOFFREY YORK
         
MOSCOW -- The Russian schoolchildren are gaping at a towering skeleton of a 
tyrannosaurus, its teeth bared menacingly. It seems a ferocious and 
terrifying creature -- until the museum guide admits it is only a copy.

"We have two originals of this dinosaur," she tells the Russian students. 
"One is in Canada now. The other is in the United States."

The display cases of Moscow's paleontology museum are littered with empty 
stands and scraps of paper with written apologies for the absences of 
dinosaur skeletons. Dozens of the museum's unique discoveries have been 
touring for years in foreign cities, including Toronto, where promoters are 
exploiting the Western fascination with huge prehistoric creatures in the era 
of Hollywood blockbusters such as Jurassic Park.

Dinosaurs are big business, especially in a country like Russia where 
controls are lax and corruption is widespread. And now a small group of 
entrepreneurs has managed to seize control of Russia's dinosaurs, stripping 
the assets of the Moscow paleontology institute and exhibiting many of the 
most unusual skeletons in lucrative foreign markets.

It doesn't leave much for Russian aficionados to enjoy. "I don't understand 
why they had to take away so many things," muttered Alexander Zavadsky, a 
Moscow engineer, as he walked through the museum with his wife on a recent 
afternoon. "There are too many vacant spots here. Most of the objects are 
poor-quality copies. There should be more for Russians to see in our museums."

Moscow's paleontology institute can boast one of the world's richest 
collections of dinosaur skeletons, fossils, skulls, eggs, mammoth tusks and a 
vast array of other remains from the awesome creatures that lived millions of 
years ago. The 200-year-old collection is the product of decades of research 
by Soviet and Russian scientists who hunted patiently through the deserts of 
Mongolia and other dinosaur hotbeds.

A few years ago, however, some shrewd businessmen realized that the fossils 
were a commercial goldmine. Dinosaurs had captured the Western imagination, 
and the Russian collection was one of the best sources of the real stuff.

Since then, the gaps in the Moscow museum have grown steadily bigger. Russian 
scientists are worried that their one-of-a-kind specimens could be damaged by 
the constant strain of packing, unpacking, shipping, loading, unloading and 
public display in cities around the world, from Australia and Japan to 
California and Kansas, and now to Toronto, where the Royal Ontario Museum has 
borrowed the Russian dinosaur skeletons for its own exhibit of Great Asian 
Dinosaurs. (The ROM announced on Friday that the exhibition helped push the 
museum's attendance levels to record levels in December and January.)

An even greater worry is the growing number of gaps in the backroom storage 
cabinets of the Moscow Paleontological Institute, where a series of 
mysterious thefts has triggered allegations of insider corruption.

When a group of Western scholars tried to investigate the wave of fossil 
thefts, they say they were obstructed by the institute's top directors. They 
also alleged that most of the thefts were never reported to the police.

The scholars concluded that the thefts were organized by a well-connected 
group of insiders at the institute. But nobody was ever arrested for the 
thefts, and most of the stolen fossils were never recovered.

The institute's vice-president, Igor Novikov, says the institute is being 
"persecuted" by a "group of slanderers." He says the institute halted its 
co-operation with the international working group because one of the Western 
scholars was illegally refusing to return a borrowed object from the 
institute (a charge that the scholars deny). He also insists that the 
institute reported all of the thefts to the police and managed to recover 
some of the missing objects.

The flow of money generated by the Russian fossils is continuing to rise, 
with revenue spun from the exhibits and related merchandise. But Russian 
scientists say they are ignored when they ask for an accounting for the cash. 
In an opaque structure of deals, the money seems to go to private 
intermediaries.

The intermediaries in the ROM exhibit are companies called the International 
Academic Agency (NAUKA) and the Pleiades Media Group. Pleiades is headed by 
Alexander Shustorovich, a wealthy 35-year-old Russian-American businessman 
with a flashy lifestyle who owns homes in Paris and New York. He is also the 
co-founder of NAUKA.

NAUKA has close links to the institute, yet its revenue is privately 
controlled. Russian newspapers have reported that NAUKA's deputy director is 
the daughter of the institute's director, one of the officials accused by the 
Western scholars of blocking investigations into the fossil thefts.

The same company is now seeking to represent other Russian scientific 
institutes in their foreign exhibits. Most have refused.

Despite the heavy flow of cash generated by the dinosaur business, little of 
the money is trickling down to the researchers who form the backbone of 
Moscow's paleontological institute.

Larisa Doguzhayeva, a scholar who has worked for 23 years at the institute as 
a specialist in ammonites (prehistoric mollusks), gets a monthly salary of 
less than $100. She has no access to the Internet, she has to pay for her own 
printer ink and paper, and she cannot get funds for train trips into the 
Russian provinces to dig for fossils.

Doguzhayeva and other Russian scientists have emerged as leading critics of 
the institute's bosses. They say the institute's income from foreign museums 
has declined drastically since NAUKA gained control of its exhibits. In a 
letter in 1998, seven of its scientists said the institute is secretly 
privatizing its fossils and concealing thefts from its collections.

For the past five years, the scientists have repeatedly asked the institute 
to account for the money from the exhibits, but they say they have never 
received a reply.

"It's huge money," Doguzhayeva says. "Our best specimens are shown in other 
countries, and NAUKA has a monopoly on all [the institute's] exhibits. How 
are they using this money? They aren't using it to support productive 
researchers."

The Royal Ontario Museum refuses to say how much it paid to NAUKA for the 
right to display the dinosaurs, although it says the fees were "consistent 
with normal international exhibit fees."

Other sources say the money can be substantial. Museums and exhibit 
organizers are reportedly paying up to $50,000 a month for Russian dinosaur 
collections. Just one of the Moscow institute's best-preserved skeletons, a 
Saurolophus angustirostris, has an estimated value of $15-million. (It is 
currently on display at the ROM exhibit.) Even the copies, which are 
sometimes sold during exhibits, are worth thousands of dollars.

The stolen fossils are also highly valuable, especially by the standards of 
poorly paid Russian scientists. A skeleton of a giant prehistoric lizard, 
which disappeared from the institute and later surfaced in Japan, is worth an 
estimated $750,000.

Problems first emerged with a series of thefts in the early 1990s. Dozens of 
valuable specimens -- including 27 prehistoric skulls, several dinosaur 
skeletons, mammoth tusks and remains of the extinct cave bear -- disappeared 
from the institute without any signs of break-ins or forced entry. By some 
estimates, the specimens were worth more than $1.5-million. At the same time, 
Western scholars noticed that similar specimens were being offered for sale 
by private dealers outside Russia.

In 1992, a German scientist discovered a 240-million-year-old amphibian skull 
which had mysteriously gone onto the market in Germany. He borrowed the skull 
from the dealer and took it to his office. When he examined the skull under 
special lighting, he found a partially erased catalogue number from the 
Moscow institute.

The scientist insisted that the skull should be returned to the institute. 
Curiously, however, the institute's directors resisted the idea, although 
later they grudgingly agreed to the return of the skull.

In 1994, scientists formed an international working group to hunt for the 
stolen fossils and return them to the Moscow institute. Among the members 
were scholars from Britain, France, Germany, Japan and the United States.

After compiling a long list of stolen skulls and other fossils, the group 
tracked down the dealers who were selling the fossils and, in some cases, 
established that the dealers had links to the Moscow institute. The group 
also discovered that the robbers were able to bypass the institute's alarm 
system. It charged that the institute's bosses were concealing information on 
the thefts, denying the thefts, refusing to report the incidents to the 
police, and denying the commercial activities of its own officials.

"Numerous lines of evidence point to an organized group operating within PIN 
(the paleontology institute), with direct access to PIN collections, 
well-developed contacts with foreign commercial dealers and the facility to 
move stolen items through Russian customs," the international group said in a 
1997 report.

Beginning in 1991, the institute's collections "have been systematically 
pillaged by a well-organized group consisting largely, or entirely, of PIN 
personnel," the group added.

Because the institute's top officials refused to co-operate with the 
investigation, the international group was eventually forced to suspend its 
work. One of its members, Cincinnati paleontologist Glenn Storrs, says the 
directors were "nothing but obstructive" to the group's efforts to 
investigate the thefts and return the stolen fossils.

Critics charge that too many fossils are being declared "scientifically 
worthless," allowing them to be legally exported and sold on foreign markets 
for thousands of dollars.

Doguzhayeva recalls how the Russian Ministry of Culture asked her to examine 
a collection of 12,000 ammonites from Russia's Volga River region last year. 
She concluded that the fossils were beautifully preserved and warranted 
scientific study. But she was stunned to learn that the paleontological 
institute had already certified that the ammonites were scientifically 
worthless and could be exported.

In another incident in 1996, she was visited by a German fossil dealer and a 
former institute scientist who had created a private fossil dealership. She 
says they offered to buy a large collection of ammonites that she had 
recently gathered in field research. "Larisa, don't you want to have German 
marks?" she remembers them asking her.

Doguzhayeva says she refused to sell the ammonites because they were state 
property. But when she returned from a conference in Spain a few weeks later, 
she found that the collection had disappeared from an office drawer. There 
was no sign of forced entry, and she says asked the institute to report the 
theft to police and they did not.

The same German fossil dealer who tried to sell the stolen amphibian skull in 
1992 that started the investigation by the Western scientists has enjoyed a 
close relationship with the institute for the past decade. He was arrested in 
1998 at a Russian border post when he tried to enter Finland with a van 
loaded with half a tonne of Russian fossils. Officials said he had documents 
for only a third of the fossils. But the investigation was eventually dropped 
and the dealer was released.

In recent years, the number of thefts seems to have declined, while the 
institute has expanded its involvement in lucrative foreign exhibits. Some 
Russian scientists are worried that the institute is making money from 
exhibits that can endanger unique dinosaur skeletons, some of which are 
holotypes -- the basic reference specimens for different species, usually the 
first-discovered specimens. They argue that these specimens should be kept in 
carefully protected rooms in Moscow.

"These objects, some of which are millions of years old, are very vulnerable 
and fragile," says Vladimir Zhegalo, a former institute scientist who now 
serves as an expert at the Russian Culture Ministry. "Changes of temperature 
and humidity can affect them, and X-raying at customs points can ruin them. 
In some cases, bones have broken up on the way from the institute to the 
customs offices."

Novikov accuses Zhegalo of being "prejudiced against the institute." He says 
the institute is taking "all possible measures" to avoid damage during 
transportation, including the use of special equipment and packing material.

For its part, the ROM is "always very concerned" about the safe 
transportation and handling of its exhibits, according to spokesman Francisco 
Alvarez. "The specimens were expertly packed, and will be repacked, by 
technicians and scientists from the paleontological institute," he said.

As for the danger of damage when the dinosaur skeletons are unpacked by 
customs officials, this is "a normal hazard involved with any international 
exhibition of artifacts or specimens," he said.

The museum says it doesn't know what NAUKA does with the revenue from the 
Toronto exhibit, but it believes that by presenting the dinosaur exhibit the 
ROM is "supporting the paleontological institute." The exhibit also allows 
scholarly exchanges between Russian and Western scientists, which are "a 
significant benefit" to the institute, the museum says.

Alvarez said the museum has no comment on the allegations of corruption at 
the paleontological institute. He said the museum's senior curator, Hans 
Sues, has had "excellent relationships" with many Russian scientists for two 
decades and he is only aware of a single theft at the institute many years 
ago.

*******