Johnson's Russia List
#6113
4 March 2002
davidjohnson@erols.com
A CDI Project
www.cdi.org
[Note from David Johnson:
1. Reuters: Putin cool as Soviet nostalgics bluster.
2. Reuters: Georgian leader savours triumph on U.S. forces.
3. Interfax: Percentage of women Internet users increasing.
4. Moskovsky Komsomolets: THE VOICE OF AMERICA. Alexander Vershbow: we have
good prospects together. (interview)
5. Moscow Times: Oksana Yablokova, Forbes List's Rich Russians Get Richer.
6. Vek: Valery Solovei, THE WEST HAS NOTHING TO FEAR. Russia's citizens seem
to agree with Putin's pro-Western stance.
7. Ainsley Perrien: The Russia Journal US Edition.
8. David Lucterhand: Kazakahstan Corporate Debt.
9. Moscow Times: Lyuba Pronina, Paper: Defense Minister Faces Ax in Army
Shuffle.
10. AP: Russia to Start Dismantling Kursk.
11. Los Angeles Times book review: Michael Frank, The Lost World. (review of
BILLANCOURT TALES by Nina Berberova)
12. Financial Times (UK): Judy Dempsey, Nato to help Ukraine overhaul
forces.
13. New York Times: Sabrina Tavernise, In Siberia, Serious TV News Fights
to
Survive.
14. Wall Street Journal: Guy Chazan, Russia , U.S. Are in a Chicken Fight,
The First Round of New Trade War.
15. BBC Monitoring: Europeans fear loss of influence in NATO as Russian
role
increases - paper. (Der Spiegel)]
*******
#1
ANALYSIS-Putin cool as Soviet nostalgics bluster
By Jonathan Thatcher
MOSCOW, March 4 (Reuters) - The arrival soon of U.S. troops in yet another
part of the vast empire Moscow once ruled may have Russian MPs red with
anger, but it has also highlighted the increasingly pragmatic approach of
President Vladimir Putin.
"No tragedy" was the former spy-chief's balloon-deflating response to plans
by Washington, now sparking furious debate in Russia, to take its newest
campaign against terror to the impoverished former Soviet jewel of Georgia.
Analysts say that an economically and politically battered Russia, with its
poorly resourced military, is anyway not in much of a position to complain.
Putin, who has made a point of improving ties with Washington, knows it.
The troubled Transcaucasian state will join three other former Soviet
states -- in Central Asia -- as host to a U.S. military scouring the world
for those behind the September 11 attacks in the United States.
For many in Moscow it is the thin end of an increasingly fat wedge,
splitting away a buffer of protection that Russia took generations to build
around its often invaded borders.
COMMUNISTS COMPLAIN
Predictably, Gennady Zyuganov, head of the Communist Party, parliament's
biggest, led the public assault.
"The expansion of Americans all over the world is in place and what is
happening in Georgia is only another link in a chain of that global
invasion," his party's paper, Sovietskaya Rossiya, quoted him as saying at
the weekend.
"We demand that the government and President Putin urgently undertake steps
to oppose the real and growing military and other threats coming to our
country."
And the Russian parliament, seeking an opportunity for revenge, plans to
debate the possibility of recognising the breakaway Georgian province of
Abkhazia, a romantic sub-tropical area on the Black Sea that was beloved as
a resort area during both Tsarist and Soviet times.
"If the Americans bring their troops to Georgia, Russia will recognise the
independence of Abkhazia and (another Georgian province) South Ossetia,"
cautioned Dmitry Rogozin, head of the parliamentary committee on
international relations.
HUMILIATING REMINDERS
Analysts say it is the inevitable response of those Russians who look
forlornly on a world where they are no longer a major power, with each
reminder taking its humiliating toll.
"It's the Russian perception of its national dignity...There's a feeling
that we are not masters even in this limited political space," said Boris
Makarenko, deputy director of Moscow Centre for Political Technologies.
"Russia has to be pragmatic. Putin accepts that."
The view was echoed by Alexei Malashenko, scholar in residence at the
Moscow chapter of the Carnegie Institute for International Peace.
"A lot of deputies (MPs) still live in the Soviet Union. We have to get it
into our minds that Russia is a new country...Putin is beginning to feel
it," he said.
Even officials appear at times out of step with Putin.
Early last week, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov initially sounded a warning
of dire consequences if U.S. troops were stationed across the border in
Georgia. A few days later, after Putin's laid-back response, he softened
his stand.
It is not the first time that Putin -- whose cautious manner contrasts
sharply to the charismatic but erratic Boris Yeltsin he replaced two years
ago -- has let officials complain loudly over an issue and then, a few days
later, calmly deflated it.
LAWLESS GORGE
Washington's focus this time is on the lawless Pankisi Gorge in the north
of Georgia, where it believes followers of Osama bin Laden may be digging in.
On the other side of the gorge lies Chechnya, a mostly Muslim region of
Russia where Moscow has been battling unsuccessfully for years to crush
separatist rebels.
"The bright side of the situation is that now the U.S. recognises
international terrorists are there...if they are swept out it helps us in
Chechnya for sure," said Vyacheslav Nikonov of the independent think-tank
Fond Politika.
Georgia's relationship with Russia has deep roots.
In the late 18th century, Moscow's soldiers were helping the fellow
Christian region fend off attacks from the Ottoman Empire centred on the
other side of the Black Sea.
An exotic wine-producing nation that offers a whiff of romance for the more
dour Russia to the north, it was also the birthplace of Soviet dictator
Josef Stalin and his secret police chief Lavrenty Beria.
But in the decade since it became independent with the collapse of the
Soviet Union, Georgia has frequently accused Moscow of mischief-making
within its borders, and these days relations are brittle.
In particular, protracted negotiations to get Russia to take back large
numbers of troops based there in a leftover from Soviet times have still
not been concluded.
*******
#2
Georgian leader savours triumph on U.S. forces
By Peter Graff
TBILISI, March 4 (Reuters) - Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze, enjoying
a diplomatic triumph over Russia, said on Monday that President Vladimir
Putin had shown courage by backing down in a feud over U.S. military aid to
his country.
Iran's defence minister, meanwhile, underlined the strategic sensitivity of
the issue by expressing opposition to an American deployment in Georgia
after arriving in the Transcaucasus.
Putin abandoned Moscow's objections to U.S. plans to send elite special
troops to train and equip Georgia's army -- but only after an embarrassing
row had exposed cracks in the U.S.-led anti-terror alliance.
"I want to say that Putin's statement was truly brave. To say this was very
difficult," Shevardnadze said in his weekly interview on national radio.
Though deftly placing the accent on Putin's pragmatism and strength of
character, Shevardnadze, who has pursued closer ties with the West as a way
of offsetting Russia's influence, was savouring a triumph over his giant
northern neighbour.
Russia, which still maintains Soviet-era bases in Georgia and a
peacekeeping force in rebel Abkhazia, had offered to help the former Soviet
republic fight rebels from across the border in Chechnya who it says are
hiding in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge.
The U.S. aid effectively closed the door on that prospect, a clear snub for
Moscow.
ISLAMIC MILITANTS
Washington says its experts will help Georgia's army to deal with foreign
Islamic militants, possibly linked to Osama bin Laden, who have sheltered
in the gorge along with Chechens.
But the strategic location of the Transcaucasus region, where Russia, Iran
and NATO-member Turkey are vying for influence over oil and gas export
routes from the Caspian Sea, has made this mission more sensitive than
others.
Iranian defence minister Admiral Ali Shamkhani, whose country shares
borders with Georgia's neighbours Azerbaijan and Armenia, said after
arriving in the Armenian capital Yerevan:
"Tehran's policy has always rejected the participation of external military
forces in the countries near Iran's borders."
Washington has long had a policy of trying to reduce both Russian and
Iranian influence in all three states.
But Russia has centuries-old strategic and emotional ties to Georgia. Many
Russia politicians who were unmoved by the arrival of thousands of U.S.
troops in ex-Soviet states in Central Asia following the September 11
attacks in the United States, were furious at seeing similar developments
in Georgia.
After meeting Shevardnadze on Friday, Putin said the U.S. planned was "no
tragedy" for Russia and that Moscow only wished it had been informed sooner.
The American mission to Georgia, to begin later this month, is modest in
comparison with the deployments of U.S. troops in Central Asian ex-Soviet
states, where they are participating in combat operations in Afghanistan.
The United States has provided equipment and training for Georgia's border
guards for years, and last year sent a handful of helicopters with
instructors.
But the offer of anti-terrorism training and equipment amounts to a lifting
of a policy of not supplying Tbilisi with so-called lethal military aid.
******
#3
Percentage of women Internet users increasing
MOSCOW. March 4 (Interfax) - Women accounted for over 40% of the 4.2
million regular uses of the Internet in 2001, Galina Grishina, director
general of the "East-West: Women's Innovative Project," told a news
conference in Moscow on Monday.
The percentage of women among Internet users tends to increase, so the
Russian Internet may be used chiefly by women in a few years, she said.
Meanwhile, society shapes the Internet by moving all its stereotypes
there, Grishina said. In particular, women are generally believed to stay
far from informational technologies and to be preoccupied with other
issues, she said.
Solid information on actual problems that women face is in short supply
on the Internet, Grishina said.
"Women name professional interests, accessing sources of new knowledge,
and offsetting shortages of spiritual and cultural contacts among the basic
reasons for using the web. The Internet offers them society gossip and data
on shopping, cooking, cosmetics and fashion," she said.
*****
#4
Moskovsky Komsomolets
March 2, 2002
THE VOICE OF AMERICA
Alexander Vershbow: we have good prospects together
Author: Alexander Morozov
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]
THE RUSSIAN PUBLIC IS CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF ISSUES IN
RELATIONS BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE US: INCLUDING NATO EASTWARD
EXPANSION, THE US PRESENCE IN CENTRAL ASIA AND THE CAUCASUS, ECONOMIC
AND POLITICAL COOPERATION. ALEXANDER VERSHBOW, US AMBASSADOR TO
RUSSIA, DISCUSSES THESE ISSUES.
Interview with Alexander Vershbow, US ambassador to Russia.
For the past seven months, Alexander Vershbow has represented the
interests of the United States in Russia. On May 2, 2001, President
Bush announced the appointment of Mr. Vershbow as the new US
ambassador to Russia. Mr. Vershbow presented his credentials to
President Putin on October 17.
Mr. Vershbow supports NATO eastward expansion and -
simultaneously - expansion of strategic partnership with Russia.
The American ambassador is the author of numerous articles on
international relations.
Question: Last summer, when your appointment became known,
everyone in Russia was saying: "A hawk is coming here, a person who
developed the strategy of NATO eastward expansion."
Alexander Vershbow: I have repeatedly explained my position on
NATO expansion. Basically, we view NATO expansion as a positive
initiative, which guarantees stability and democracy in countries of
Central Europe.
The United States is responsible to the world community. There is
at times the necessity to intervene in order to prevent conflicts,
wars, and ethnic cleansing. We do not always have the same views on
tactics or approaches to these matters as the Russian government, but
the goals of the US and Russia are becoming increasingly similar.
Question: Did you mean "responsibility for peace in the world?"
Do you think, however, America is making now the same mistake the
Soviet Union once made? Perhaps, the effort to reduce the world to a
common American denominator will ensue the same result for America?
Alexander Vershbow: I cannot agree to equal the Soviet
internationalism and the United States' responsibility. For, the
former did not actually maintain the universal values - the importance
to secure democracy and freedom.
I think we may bear responsibility, for we view ourselves as
defenders of common values such as democracy and freedom in the world.
Perhaps, we do not always and 100% manage this task, but generally we
do. We do not declare we are authorized to dictate other countries how
they should live and we do not try to impose the American democracy on
other countries. However, when we see the established international
order and commonly accepted values endangered, then we have to choose
action. I am glad to note the Russian Federation is among the states
that share these common values with us.
Question: America likes to call itself an "arsenal of democracy".
However, an arsenal is an expensive thing. A while ago we published
comparative data on the defense budgets of the US and Russia. Your
defense budget outdoes the rest of the world's defense budgets
altogether. And while they said the USSR was a clay-legged colossus,
America can be called a one-legged colossus - and this leg is its
defense budget.
Alexander Vershbow: The US defense budget is expressed in great
sums, but our economy can afford it and our people approve of such
spending. We forecast what threats we will face in the new century and
we think it extremely important to remain in possession of the latest
equipment and technology to cope with these threats, so that the
asymmetry be in favor of the United States in any war.
Of course, Russia also ought to update its armed forces. The US
would benefit from having a stronger partner in the person of Russia.
Question: However, could this absolute military superiority give
rise to a dangerous trend - a moral superiority complex with regard to
other countries and peoples? Many in Russia think the symptoms of this
complex showed at the recent Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The
scandals over "Russian gold" gave Russians a reason to say the US
humiliated us on purpose. A well-known Russian television commentator
at once drew a conclusion from this: we should build up our weapons
arsenals, and then we will get more medals at Olympiads...
Alexander Vershbow: First, I think it absurd to give any
geopolitical assessments to the Olympics. I am sorry many observers
and journalists, as well as ordinary citizens of Russia, approach it
like this. Of course, the host nation always makes more noise because
it is easier for the hosts to get to the stand than for guests.
However, I don't think the Olympic judges were politically biased.
They were multinational, if you recall. The same could be said about
the International Olympic Committee, medical testing groups...
But you have really asked a serious question. It is true that a
country which has achieved power may become a victim to what is called
"the arrogance of the strong". Therefore, the president of this
country and all American leaders have a particular responsibility -
they must not yield to the temptation that we can manage the world's
problems alone. On the contrary. We should work with leaders of other
countries to protect the principles we value so. Just as we do this by
trying to expand the coalition against terrorism. We are trying to
mobilize other states to meet the challenge issued to the world
community.
Question: Many Russian politicians and media took the news of US
troops in Georgia as a challenge on the part of the US. This region
was traditionally thought a zone of Russian influence, wasn't it?
People in Russia are afraid now the US will "pull the blanket over to
its own side" in this region. Besides, this is not in keeping,
somehow, with what you say about America trying to act in coalition.
What a coalition is this if the Russian partner is just presented with
the fait accompli of the US military presence in the Caucasus?
Alexander Vershbow: I will be glad to explain the situation. We
have been consulting our Russian counterparts since October-November
on this matter and they know it is just a program of training and
supply. We only discuss with the Georgian party a program of training
Georgian armed forces to increase their ability to battle terrorism,
especially in the Pankisi Gorge. There is nothing new in this. We have
a program for cooperation with Georgia, which we have been carrying
out for the past six years.
We have a working group on Afghanistan where we discuss every
issue connected with fighting terrorism. As far back as October, we
held discussions on the possibility of the program of "training and
supply" as we call it...
Question: Could you dwell upon it a little - what kind of
Russian-American group is this? Who exactly discussed such issues on
behalf of Russia and America?
Alexander Vershbow: The Russian Foreign Ministry and the US State
Department. It was Trubnikov - Armitage, he is "number two" in the
Department, Powell's deputy (V.I. Trubnikov is first deputy foreign
minister of Russia - Ed.). We are concerned with such a response in
Russia, but this is a response to the wrong data. I emphsize, the
matter is only about a training program. There will be no our troops
in the Pankisi Gorge, they will be sent to training camps, bases, and
schools for training task force.
Question: Over ten years have passed and we have adopted
capitalism, but the living standards of average Americans, earning
$60,000 a year, are in no way comparable with the wages of average
Russians. Could this be the cause of the mutual alienation that is
still strong? That the ideological hatred of the Cold War period has
been replaced with economic envy, which is strengthened by Russia's
military weakness.
Alexander Vershbow: The envy one sometimes comes to hear about is
really a dangerous phenomenon. Unfortunately, the period of transition
to market economy went off not that smoothly as was expected in
Russia. First, many underestimated weak structural points of command
economy. Second, such a transition was psychologically very difficult
for a country that had lived under a different economic system for
seventy years. Perhaps there were errors in how privatization was
conducted, which resulted in concentration of wealth in the hands of a
few. Perhaps legal reforms were not paid enough attention, so there
was no system capable of curbing corruption.
Perhaps there were also errors on the part of the West - Russia
was given too much economic assistance without making sure where these
funds went.
Perhaps we missed the opportunity to integrate the Russian
Federation more closely with western economic and political
structures. One factor which could partially play a role is that
Russia did not know in the mid-1990s in what direction it was to go.
Either to the West, or along some other path, a "third" path.
I think under President Putin - who is dedicated to leading the
nation toward the West in the political, economic and even military
sense - there is another opportunity instead of the one missed in the
nineties.
And I believe an increasing number of Russians will be able in a
few years to raise their living standards and see prosperity of their
state, using the benefits of what we call "the middle class
lifestyle". In fact we are seeing the emergence of this middle class
in Russia, but this only applies to Moscow so far and some other large
cities. The policy the Russian government conducts and the reforms
advancing through the Duma - all this gives reason to believe the
progress in living standards will in future go beyond the limits of
the capital alone and reach the whole country.
Question: Your office suggests you associate in Russia with
people on whom the future of this country depends.
Alexander Vershbow: Throughout the seven months of my residence
in Russia, I have been trying to learn as much as possible about the
people representing those strata of society you mentioned. Most of
those I managed to talk to are supporters of the rapprochement taking
place between the US and Russia. However, there is also a certain
concern and pessimism, and views that the improvement in relations may
in a while disappear, evaporate, and Russia will have to experience a
disappointment for a third time. Like it did in the past: the first
time under Gorbachev and the second under Yeltsin. Therefore, I view
my task here as being the voice of optimism. I think it is not an
exaggeration when I say our relations are moving from partnership into
alliance. This is confirmed in fact. We are now united by conducting a
common battle against terrorists and protecting values common to all
humanity. We defend democracy and freedom against threats capable of
ruining our common civilization.
Question: What else can bind us apart from military partnership?
Alexander Vershbow: Looking ahead to the summit scheduled for May
this year when President Bush will come to Russia I can say we hope to
prepare for signing important documents connected with cooperation in
the sphere of security. We hope the attention of this meeting will be
focused on a document that will be legally obliging for both parties
and will fix a radical reduction of strategic nuclear weapons. We also
hope the new "mechanism of twenty" that will allow closer cooperation
between Russia and NATO will be effective. The matter is about Russia
being a full member and partner, taking part in working out strategic
plans together with NATO countries, and making joint decisions on
specific issues. This is different from the mechanism that existed
until now when 19 NATO member countries make a decision and then
invited Russia to discuss it. Parameters of the new mechanism are
currently being adjusted with the Russian side.
There are also other areas in which we can cooperate on mutually
advantageous terms. Central Asia can serve an example. It is in the
interests of both our countries to render assistance to former Soviet
Central Asian republics in strengthening democratic institutes and the
economic system, wherewith to prevent the danger of this region
transforming into a source of instability, like it was in Afghanistan.
We have no plans to leave bases in Central Asia, they are necessary
only for the period of anti-terrorist actions. In time, our relations
with Central Asian countries will become purely political and
economic, just as it was over the past decade.
I believe here should be no reason for either competition or
rivalry, but only joint work on strengthening security in this region,
which is also in the direct interests of the Russian Federation.
There is certain progress in the economic sphere, though many in
America prefer to trade in Russia, but not to develop production here.
Nevertheless, Ford will soon launch a joint venture to produce Ford
Focus cars in the Leningrad region, while General Motors is already
releasing the Chevrolet Niva model in Togliatti. The Pratt & Whitney
company is setting up production of aircraft jet engines in Perm.
These are examples of successful business relations and job creation.
As for the products of companies such as Pepsi-Cola and McDonalds,
they have already become the symbol of the American commercial
presence in Russia. People have just got used to them and pay them
almost no attention in everyday life.
I am sure we have good prospects together...
(Translated by P. Pikhnovsky)
*******
#5
Moscow Times
March 4, 2002
Forbes List's Rich Russians Get Richer
By Oksana Yablokova
Staff Writer
Oil baron Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been named the richest man in Russia for
the second year running by Forbes magazine, which released its annual list
of the world's billionaires Friday.
Khodorkovsky, 38, the head of the Yukos oil giant, saw his personal wealth
grow by $1.3 billion over the past year to $3.7 billion, earning him the
No. 101 spot on the list of 497 billionaires.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who has topped the list since 1998, lost
an amount almost double Khodorkovsky's net worth but held on to the title
of the world's wealthiest man with $52.8 billion.
Six other Russians are on the Forbes list, which suggests Russia's wealthy
bucked the global economic slump that chipped away at the fortunes of most
billionaires. The Russians managed either to maintain or increase their
wealth.
Oil and media tycoon Roman Abramovich was named the second-wealthiest man
in Russia, with $3 billion that put him in 127th place. Abramovich's
fortune more than doubled from last year, when Forbes ranked him No. 363
with $1.4 billion.
Alfa Group's Mikhail Fridman leapfrogged to 191st place with $2.2 billion,
up from No. 387 with $1.3 billion last year.
Abramovich, who is the governor of Chukotka, and Fridman overtook Interros
head Vladimir Potanin, whose fortune of $1.8 billion remained unchanged
from last year. He ranked No. 234.
Last year's newcomer to the Forbes billionaires' club Vladimir Bogdanov,
who heads Russia's fourth-largest oil producer Surgutneftegaz, took 277th
place with $1.6 billion, and LUKoil president Vagit Alekperov rang in at
No. 327 with $1.4 billion.
Aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska made the list for the first time, with $1.1
billion in 413th place.
This year's list of seven Russians is one less than the eight named last
year. Gone are two gas executives, former Gazprom CEO Rem Vyakhirev and
former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, who last year ranked 336th and
452nd with $1.5 billion and $1.1 billion, respectively.
Vyakhirev, who is widely thought to have amassed a fortune during his years
at Gazprom, was fired from the post in May amid accusations that he had
been involved in asset stripping at the state-controlled company. He was
immediately named chairman of the board.
Chernomyrdin, once the head of the Soviet gas industry, was appointed
Russia's ambassador to Ukraine shortly before Forbes released its list last
year.
It was unclear why the two men had been dropped. Forbes did not respond to
requests for comment.
Kommersant cautioned that such an exclusion did not mean that the list was
the last word on Russia's billionaires. "It should be noted that the data
used by the magazine's analysts is quite relative," the daily wrote. "So
the indices [used to define billionaires] do not always correspond to
reality."
With the list, Forbes profiles Khodorkovsky's climb from the rags of a tiny
communal apartment to the riches of Bank Menatep and then Yukos.
"Khodorkovsky has an earnest demeanor and a high-pitched voice that is
often difficult to hear, but appearances are deceiving," the story says.
"This is a tenacious and ruthless businessman."
Forbes revisits the collapse of Bank Menatep in 1998, which led foreign
creditors to claim a 29 percent stake in Yukos for $266 million in debt.
The creditors later dumped those shares -- analysts say at a steep loss --
when Yukos announced a share issue that would have diluted their stake to
almost nothing.
Forbes also re-examines Khodorkovsky's acquisition of Yukos during the
notorious loans-for-shares auctions of the mid-1990s in which many
businessmen snapped up assets for a song.
The magazine goes on to point out that that was then. "The financial
free-for-all is yielding to an ethic of reinvesting in your business. And
among the old-time oligarchs, Khodorkovsky is leading the charge," Forbes
said.
Yukos is Russia's No. 2 oil company with a market capitalization of about
$15 billion. Yukos is also the fastest-growing oil firm. Khodorkovsky said
in January that the company increased output 17 percent in 2001 and plans
to boost it 17 percent to 20 percent this year.
Abramovich's Sibneft oil company was also a growth leader in 2001.
Russians first appeared on the Forbes list in 1997, with Boris Berezovsky
in the No. 1 spot with $3 billion. As a result of the 1998 crisis, no
Russians made the list in 1999 and 2000.
The billionaires on this year's list were all but mum about the report, and
the Russian press did little more than sum up the rankings.
Asked what he thought about the country's billionaires, Anatoly Aksakov,
deputy chairman of the State Duma committee on economic policy and
entrepreneurship, told the Izvestia newspaper Saturday that he harbored no
"negative feelings."
"The most important thing is that they bring some benefit to the country
and use their wealth in its interests rather than just their own," he said.
Billionaires:
Eleven years after the fall of communism, post-Soviet Russia is home to
seven billionaires, with an average age of 41. In a mostly down year for
billionaires, all seven Russians managed to equal or increase their last
year's net worth.
Rank Name Net worth ($bln) Source Age
101 Mikhail Khodorkovsky 3.7 oil 38
127 Roman Abramovich 3.0 oil 35
191 Mikhail Fridman 2.2 oil 37
234 Vladimir Potanin 1.8 metals 40
277 Vladimir Bogdanov 1.6 oil 50
327 Vagit Alekperov 1.4 oil 51
413 Oleg Deripaska 1.1 aluminum 33
Source: Forbes
********
#6
Vek
No. 9
March 1, 2002
THE WEST HAS NOTHING TO FEAR
Russia's citizens seem to agree with Putin's pro-Western stance
Author: Valery Solovei
Source: Vek, No. 9, March 1, 2002, p. 3
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]
AFTER SEPTEMBER 11, PRESIDENT PUTIN TURNED TO THE WEST IN HIS
FOREIGN POLICY. ODDLY ENOUGH, DESPITE ALL THE NATIONALIST SENTIMENTS
IN RUSSIA, THE PUBLIC ISN'T RAISING ANY LOUD PROTESTS AGAINST PUTIN'S
PRO-WESTERN FOREIGN POLICY ORIENTATION.
Oddly enough, Presedent Vladimir Putin's turn to the west in the
wake of September 11 has not aroused any significant debate in Russian
society, apart from among a number of experts whose opinions are
seldom published in the media. But the matter involves a strategy, not
a trivial political initiative. Putin has unambiguously demonstrated
that he views Russia as an inseparable part of the Western community.
According to logic, this could cause another conflict between
supporters of integration with the West and defenders of Russia's
uniqueness. However, nothing of the kind has taken place.
This may be explained by the fact that most of Russian society is
not interested in foreign affairs or does not consider it to be a
priority issue. In this sense Russia is like Western countries, where
no more than 5-6% of people are interested in foreign affairs.
However, Western indifference to foreign affairs is due to their
wealth, whereas Russians are indifferent to this issue because of
their misery. Russians are caught up in problems of survival, so they
do not care aout geopolitical exercises. Even the appearance of
American bases and special troops in former Soviet republics has not
caused any considerable indignation in Russian society. To all
appearances, the defensive consciousness that has traditionally been
part of Russia's identity has been reduced. Although it has not
disappeared altogether, it is unable to mobilize the public, as seen
in the futility of Communist criticism of Putin's foreign policy.
The indifference of Russian society to the US military presence
in Central Asia and NATO's expansion at the expense of the Baltic
states proves that Russians do not even remember the USSR and view
these territories as irretrievably lost. Russians do not even think of
a revenge. Empires die when their inhabitants forget aout their
imperial past, which can be observed in Russia now.
Putin's pro-Western policy does not face any resistance in the
society because his spirits in this sphere coincide with those of the
society in general. All opinion polls show that most Russians are
convinced that Russia is culturally close to the West. Russians'
attitude toward the West is chiefly based on the envy of the standard
of living of Western people rather that on hatred. The aspiration to
the "consumer comfort" is so strong that even Russian nationalists
share it.
It is an open secret that the political elite often chooses
political strategies disregarding public opinion. However, everyone
knows that the Russian ruling class is oriented tot he West. This
class made its choice ten years ago, when its representatives started
to send their children abroad to satudy, deposit money in Western
banks, and spend their holidays at Western health resorts. Therefore,
Russia's financial and political elite cannot be opposed to the
president: this would be suicide for them. Only part of the military
is grumbling about the surrender of political positions.
Despite these obvious things, many Westerns politicians fear that
some strong political opposition may be set up on the basis of
resistance to Putin's foreign policy. However, their fears are not
well-founded. Mikhail Gorbachev's political career came to an end not
because of his foreign policy but because of the complete failure of
his domestic policy. However, even at that time the military-
industrial sector and special services, which were much stronger then,
failed to change the trajectory of the nation's development. So now
they do not have any chance at all.
Meanwhile, the pro-Western foreign policy of the Russian
political elite is combined with typically Russian political methods:
a semblance of democracy, opacity in relations between the government
and business, archaic social relations, etc. The Russian elite is not
worried about the current worsening of the nation's geopolitical and
strategic positions. If the elite were to resist anything at all, that
would be the introduction of Western norms and standards into Russian
business and politics. The Russian elite cannot be anti-Western (and
anti-Putin in this sense), by definition. Paradoxically enough, the
president, political elite, and society find political consensus only
on the basis of the Western direction in Russian foreign policy,
although the public and the political elite have different motives for
their positions.
(Translated by Kirill Frolov )
*******
#7
From: "Ainsley Perrien"
Subject: The Russia Journal US Edition
Date: Sun, 3 Mar 2002
The Russia Journal US Edition which was launched last fall with the best of
our Moscow Edition as well as US/Russia News is now available at some
Washington DC newsstands in addition to mail subscriptions. By April we
hope to get it into Boston and New York as well.
If you are looking at The Russia Journal online, it is important to note
that the site will become subscribers only as of March 30.
A mail subscription to the US Edition costs $99 a year. Reading the
selections online can not compare to feeling the full color Russian
newspaper with unique business, economic stories, interviews and exclusive
features.
Our paper is filled with news and information for professionals that have an
interest in current Russian news and deeper analysis by some of the best
informed experts.
Johnson's Russia List only puts out a fraction of what we produce. If you
are interested in subscribing, go on to our Web site,
http://www.russiajournal.com/misc/subscribe_us.shtml or contact us at
202/797-7911. Our subscribers receive the paper every week through the
mail, usually by Tuesday morning.
The Russia Journal is unique in the depth of information it provide on
Russian subject matter including:
-- Russian Businesses (company profiles)
-- The People behind the story (exclusive interviews)
-- Industry Reports (Metals, Oil and Gas, Automobile, etc.)
-- Politics
-- The Economy
-- Commentary (with a Russian perspective)
-- Russian culture
-- Washington's impact on Russia
-- American companies doing business with Russia
-- Events occurring in the US that have a Russian angle
-- Opinion Polls
-- and much much more.
I am the associate publisher of The Russia Journal in Washington and our DC
bureau phones are 202/ 797-7911.
My e-mail address is ainsleyp@russiajournal.com
I look forward to comments, opinion and suggestions from JRL's readers.
Thank you for putting this on JRL.
Regards,
Ainsley Perrien
*******
#8
From: "David Lucterhand"
Subject: Kazakahstan Corporate Debt.
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2002
Dear David: I read with interest Robert Guldin's article Solving the Great
Russian Investment Puzzle from The Russia Journal that appeared in JRL -
March 3, 2002. The section on Bond Market: A Sign of Life struck a chord in
that many readers may not know of the exceptional growth in domestic
corporate issuance in Kazakhstan, just south of Russia with a population
approximating one tenth of Russia's or 14.7 million people.
In some twenty-eight months, domestic corporate issuance including a
mortgage - backed security has gone from zero to over $457 million. Much of
this has been driven by a corporate need for working capital and the growth
of domestic pension fund money seeking diversification from over
concentration in short-term government debt. In many cases, issuers were
able to borrow at eight per cent below prevailing bank rates. The yield
curve has increased from essentially a dot to 3.9 years today and yields
have been declining. Currently, there are issues with maturities of seven
to eight years denominated in Dollars with a YTM of 11-12%. The net result
has been pressure on banks to reduce lending rates and to do more
short-term lending. This has led the fixed-income market to assume its more
traditional role of lending for longer terms. Additionally, municipalities
have issued $43.5 million in debt. Combined domestic corporate and
municipal issuance now exceeds $500 million and there have been no defaults.
Formerly, debt used to be a state monopoly. In essence, we have
prioritized the privatization of debt over the privatization of industry.
Now that working capital is available, and the banking system sound, we
will concentrate on privatizing Kazakhstan's remaining state industries to
build - up equities trade.
David C.M. Lucterhand
Chief of Party, Financial Protection Initiative
The Pragma Corporation, USAID/Central Asia Republics
*******
#9
Moscow Times
March 4, 2002
Paper: Defense Minister Faces Ax in Army Shuffle
By Lyuba Pronina
Staff Writer
A major reshuffle is looming at the Defense Ministry that will likely cost
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov his job, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported Friday.
Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye, a supplement to the Nezavisimaya Gazeta
daily, carried front- and back-page analyses declaring that Ivanov,
Russia's first civilian defense minister, "does not fully justify his job"
and could be sent back to head the president's consultative Security
Council or appointed to an as-yet unformed organization to oversee the
country's power structures.
Analysts said the reports in the Boris Berezovsky-owned newspaper -- which
is known for its in-depth coverage of the army -- could be a trial balloon
by the Kremlin to gauge public and military sentiment.
A year ago this month, Ivanov was named defense minister and tasked with
the reform of the 1.2 million-strong army. His appointment ended a spat
between former Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev and the chief of the General
Staff, General Anatoly Kvashnin, who had locked horns over the status of
the Strategic Missile Force.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta, however, said in its front-page analysis that Ivanov
had failed to digest the reams of information thrown at him about the state
of the army and that his political line had been "contradictory and largely
ineffective." As an example, the newspaper cited Ivanov's decisions to shut
down military bases in Cuba and Vietnam while largely turning a blind eye
to the deployment of U.S. troops in Central Asia.
The newspaper said much-publicized power cuts to army units in the Far East
this year were a direct result of Ivanov's problems in familiarizing
himself with the military.
"According to experts, the situation in the armed forces is hardly
favorable but, most important, there is no tendency toward improvement,"
the newspaper said.
The analysis concluded that a solution would be to put a general back at
the helm and that Kvashnin was the "sole candidate."
The back-page analysis, however, stated that Kvashnin was far from ideal
for the job, saying he had handed the real decision-making powers to the
General Staff in 1999 and, as such, was himself responsible for the army's
sad state.
The newspaper alleged that Kvashnin has made contradictory decisions that
have cost the army some 6 billion rubles ($207 million).
Kvashnin's first deputy, Yury Baluyevsky, refused to comment on the report
Friday. Other Defense Ministry officials were not immediately available for
comment.
Nikita Tyukov, an expert with the Center for Political Information, said
Ivanov was like a fish out of water at the ministry.
"Ivanov is alien to the army, which is an inert structure, and it is
difficult for him to overcome the resistance of a dozen stubborn generals
at the General Staff," he said.
He said the newspaper reports could be a sign that President Vladimir Putin
is testing the waters in a bid to save Ivanov's political career. "If he
burns out on this reform, it will be difficult to rescue him," Tyukov said.
*******
#10
Russia to Start Dismantling Kursk
March 4, 2002
MOSCOW (AP) - The carcass of the Kursk nuclear submarine will be taken to a
dismantling plant next month and will be scrapped by the end of the year,
shipyard officials said Monday.
Prosecutors had said the Kursk would be sent to the Nerpa plant in the
northern Murmansk region for dismantling only after investigations inside
its hull are complete. Top officials said last month the probe was over,
but that it had not determined for certain what prompted the explosions
that sent the Kursk to the Barents Sea floor in August 2000, killing all
118 men aboard.
Capt. Vadim Churikov, director of the Defense Ministry's 82nd ship repair
plant, was quoted by the Interfax-Military News Agency as saying that the
Kursk would be removed from the floating dock in the northern city of
Roslyakovo in April and moved to the Nerpa plant.
Nerpa director Pavel Steblin said the painstaking processing of taking
apart one of Russia's most modern submarines would be finished by the end
of the year.
He was quoted as saying that the first items of business would be cutting
out the Kursk's nuclear reactor and six Granit cruise missiles that remain
embedded in the wreck.
Experts working in Roslyakovo have removed 16 missiles from the Kursk but
the others were too difficult to extract without disassembling large parts
of the submarine.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov examined the Kursk on a tour of the
region Monday.
Officials have said a practice torpedo set off two explosions on the Kursk,
but what prompted the incident remains unclear. Russia's navy chief has
said it was likely an internal torpedo malfunction, and the country's top
prosecutor ruled out speculation that it was caused by a collision with a
foreign submarine, but both have refused to issue a final conclusion.
The Kursk's fore section, which may contain additional clues to the
disaster, was sawed off and left on the sea bottom when the rest of the
wreck was lifted last October. The navy is planning to raise some of the
bow's fragments in late May.
Russia has 126 other decommissioned nuclear submarines waiting to be
scrapped around the country because of funding shortages, according to the
government. Many still have nuclear fuel in their reactors, which has
alarmed environmental groups.
*******
#11
Los Angeles Times
March 3, 2002
book review
The Lost World
By MICHAEL FRANK
Michael Frank is a contributing writer to Book Review.
BILLANCOURT TALES , By Nina Berberova, Translated from the Russian by
Marian Schwartz, New Directions: 176 pp., $24.95
The story of Nina Berberova's career has all the earmarks of a literary
fable that might have been written by Henry James or her compatriot
Vladimir Nabokov or even by Berberova herself, although it never was. Born
in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1901, Berberova spent all of her writing life
in exile, separated from her family, her point of origin and her principal
audience. She began to write fiction in the early 1920s after she emigrated
to Paris and gave up writing it in the early 1950s, when she moved to the
United States.
In the course of her long life, she was impoverished, productive,
fleetingly popular among a certain limited readership, neglected, forgotten
and, before she died in 1993, rediscovered, first in Paris, then (after
glasnost) in Russia and finally--and still--in America. The moral of the
fable: Good writing should--will, when the stars are in correct
alignment--assume its rightful portion of inches on the world's bookshelf
even if it takes many decades to do so. In such novels and novellas as "The
Ladies of St. Petersburg," "The Tattered Cloak" and "A Book of Happiness,"
the reader finds Berberova's astute fictional eye turned on Russian men and
women whose lives are shaken up by the events of the revolution. Her
narratives tend to sweep widely across time and place. Her characters
experience themselves in a familiar Russo-literary tradition of
introspection and impassioned self-regard. They are often restless,
soulful, troubled and groping; they seek, but seldom find, happiness or
perfect love; they strive for but rarely achieve great professional
success. They are empathically drawn, incisively mulled over and
occasionally rather summarily cast into the hands of fate.
The mystery at the heart of the Berberova fable is this: Why, when she so
clearly had a knack for stories, did she give up writing them when she came
to the United States in the early '50s?
The answer may lie in the issue of displacement that Berberova takes up so
sympathetically in "Billancourt Tales," a collection of 13 stories that, by
any logical chronology, should have been her first book. These stories are
a sampling of the dozens that Berberova wrote between 1928 and 1940 for the
Latest News, one of several emigre newspapers that then appeared in France
and served the substantial population of exiled Russians.
They are the rough equivalent, in Berberova's career, of Anton Chekhov's
early comedic newspaper sketches, but to identify them as the work of
apprenticeship is in no way to call them uninteresting. In "Billancourt
Tales" the reader watches as Berberova's fictional intelligence begins to
take shape and acquire color. She finds her voice (in this case unified by
the generally omniscient male narrator Grisha), her subject matter (the
working-class, largely male Russian emigre community of Billancourt, whose
central employer, the Renault factory, hired them to replace the French
workers destroyed by World War I) and her themes, which perhaps inevitably
center on the tensions and longings of lives led in exile.
In her autobiography Berberova described these Billancourt pieces as a
"lyrico-ironical series of stories about Billancourt-Russian indigents,
drunks, patresfamilias, Renault workers, courtyard singers, [and] declasse
eccentrics" and reported how, as they appeared, shopkeepers would slip jars
of preserves into her bag and shoemakers would resole her shoes gratis and
the local hairdresser refused her tip, explaining, "We read your stories,
we are very grateful to you, you do not scorn our way of life."
Gratitude for a lack of scorn: There is something very moving in the
phenomenon of a writer finding a community of displaced people, drawing
their portraits and giving them a voice--in effect ensuring them a place in
the most powerful container of memory there is, which is to say, literature.
And so here they are: men and women saddened--but, pointedly, not
possessed--by their lost Russia, scrambling to build new Russo-French lives
in French suburbia, questing for success, comfort, pleasure and love, and
naturally finding little of each. There is Ivan Ivanovich Kondurin, a
ballroom pianist in the time of the czar who (in "An Incident With Music")
gives up his work as a bookkeeper to play in a silent movie theater but is
suddenly jobless when the talkies come along and he is "caught by history
once again." There is Anastasia Georgievna Seyantseva, a mysterious
longtime habitue of Billancourt who (in "The Little Stranger") receives an
unexpected legacy: custody of her niece. And there is Grisha's uncle, the
loveless Ivan Pavlovich, a Renault worker who (in "The Argentine") seeks
company for his "empty, orphaned" home and heart but takes too long to
overcome his aversion to his companion's disreputable past (she is pregnant
with another man's baby) and loses her forever.
Loss is at the heart of Berberova's Billancourt world--loss of homeland,
history, love, hope--just as it seems to have been, at times, in her own
life, where a different kind of loss may help explain why she stopped
writing stories when she did. Berberova's coherent community of exiles
unraveled after World War II. Displaced once again, and in more ways than
one, Berberova lost her subject matter, her regular form of publication and
her readership. Determined as ever, though, she moved on--to nonfiction, to
teaching, to her new American life. Sadly for her readers, Berberova's
story-making impulse stayed behind, in France, in her past. But we are
lucky too: We have these "new" stories, and for the lives they commemorate
and the particular time and place they so keenly preserve, we cherish them.
*******
#12
Financial Times (UK)
4 March 2002
Nato to help Ukraine overhaul forces
By Judy Dempsey in Brussels
Nato, struggling with its own internal reforms, unveils ambitious plans to
assist Ukraine in the restructuring of its defence ministry and armed forces.
The plans will be announced on Monday by Lord Robertson, Nato secretary
general, during a conference hosted by the Aspen Institute in Berlin. They
coincide with fresh attempts by Nato to forge a new relationship with
Russia and a debate within the alliance over its future role as it moves
from being a defensive body to a security organisation.
"With enlargement [of Nato] pending and with relations with Russia expected
to be upgraded, we need a post-enlargement policy for Ukraine," said a Nato
military officer. "Ukraine cannot afford to feel left out by enlargement or
Nato's relations with Russia."
Senior Nato diplomats travel to Moscow this week to begin negotiations
aimed at agreeing the terms of a new relationship ahead of a meeting of
Nato foreign ministers in Iceland in May.
The plans are set out in the "security sector reform" - a package designed
to pull Ukraine's forces out of the Soviet era. Nato will advise Ukraine
how to close military bases, reduce the size of its armed forces, destroy
excess equipment and retrain officers.
In his speech, Lord Robertson admits: "The security sector reform has
painful consequences. Military lose their jobs, bases are closed, excess
military equipment needs to be destroyed."
But without reforms Nato and European Union diplomats are concerned Ukraine
will remain unable to deal with fresh threats.
Its borders with Russia and with EU candidate members Poland, Hungary,
Slovakia and Romania are porous. Border guards are badly trained, poorly
paid and open to corruption. Its defence ministry is over- staffed and
ill-equipped from the military and intelligence aspects to deal with new
threats, while its spending priorities lack transparency.
"During the Cold War, Ukraine was one of the most Sovietised armies," said
a Nato military officer. "New structures are needed to deal with new
threats, ranging from terrorism and drugs to human trafficking and the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."
The alliance established a joint working group on defence reform in the
late 1990s to put in place a restructuring programme by 2005. But Nato
diplomats said Ukraine's reforms have been cautious. The defence ministry
lacks a more flexible generation, while the top echelons are suspicious of
their former cold war foes.
*******
#13
New York Times
March 4, 2002
In Siberia, Serious TV News Fights to Survive
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
KRASNOYARSK, Russia — Aleksandr Karpov has come a long way since 1993, when
his television station broadcast the news from a bomb shelter underneath
the city's post office.
He introduced a new, Western style of TV news that no one in this Siberian
city of a million people had ever seen. His staff increased tenfold. He
moved to a bigger studio. His journalists won awards at Russia's TEFI
ceremony, this country's Emmy awards. And perhaps most important, Mr.
Karpov started to show a profit.
But now, nine years later, the station, Afontovo, is fighting to survive.
Its ratings in Krasnoyarsk have fallen to fourth place from second,
overtaken by a scandal-mongering rival station that formerly belonged to
one of Russia's most notorious mobsters.
Mr. Karpov, 40, is something most Russian businessmen are not: an idealist.
He thinks television news should be balanced, and polite, and that
television is as much a public service as a business. His rival is Vadim
Vostrov, a swaggering 29- year-old who manages TV-K, and is above all a
keen-eyed businessman. Mr. Vostrov also enjoys the political influence that
television brings.
"We have classic news, and TV-K is always after someone," Mr. Karpov said.
"We win contests for serious news, but people watch them more than us —
that's the truth."
Afontovo's plight is not unusual. Some 600 local stations across Russia's
provinces are being forced to make tough choices of staying afloat or
staying honest. State takeovers of two countrywide networks that had
supplied many regional stations with hours of free programming have made
survival more difficult. Slick state channels beamed from Moscow receive
millions of dollars in government loans, while devouring more than half the
country's ad revenues. The small regional stations are left with crumbs.
When financing runs dry, stations often strike deals with image-conscious
businesses or bureaucrats. For $3,000 to $10,000 a month — sizable sums for
the small stations — reporting is for sale. Under these agreements,
troubled stations provide positive coverage of factory triumphs, like the
production of the millionth aluminum ingot, or a quiet lack of it for less
flattering events.
"I'd rather sell apples for a living than make dishonest television," said
Mr. Karpov at Afontovo's studio in a yellow-brick building that held
concerts and dances in Soviet times.
Financial dependence has consequences. The media baron Vladimir A. Gusinsky
last year lost his television network, NTV, after falling deeply into debt
to a state-controlled company. Few doubted the takeover was politically
motivated, but his financial vulnerability was the downfall. More
ominously, another network, TV-6, was shut in January on the pretext of
insolvency. The station in fact had greatly improved its finances in recent
months.
In the early days, Afontovo, named for an ancient hill near the city, ran
on sheer enthusiasm. Mr. Karpov set up shop in seven damp basement rooms
that flooded whenever there was a glitch in the city's drainage system. He
doubled as a driver when the office was short-staffed. Eventually Mr.
Karpov smoothed the company into a profitable business, with tips from an
American consultant.
"There's no free press without economic freedom, and he was very clear they
had to be developed at the same time," said Meg Gaydosik, the consultant
who at the time was station manager at KTVF, a CBS affiliate station in
Fairbanks, Alaska.
Difficulties began when a financial crisis crushed the advertising market
in 1998. The television ad market — still tiny at $3 a person compared with
$150 a person in the United States — only late last year climbed back to
the levels of 1997. The regional market has been slow to recover, growing
only 2 percent in 2000, compared with 45 percent in Moscow, according to
the Russian Association of Advertising Agencies.
Mr. Karpov's budget was additionally squeezed when a Moscow advertising
sales house, the exclusive agent for the lucrative state-run national
networks, opened a branch in town, poaching away some of the local market.
New legislation this year canceled tax breaks for media, cutting into his
flagging profits.
Yet another blow came when Mr. Karpov's network partner, TNT, part of Mr.
Gusinsky's empire, was taken over by the state and left to drift without
investment. TNT supplies Mr. Karpov with about eight hours of programming
daily. He blames the network's poorer programming for his falling ratings.
By comparison, Afontovo's rival TV-K is bafflingly well off. Workmen are
refurbishing the manager's office. The station has added approximately
eight hours a day of its own programming, something few stations can afford
to do.
The station manager, Mr. Vostrov, dismisses any suggestion that he is
taking money on the side. His station is prospering with higher ratings
because its tabloid-style broadcasts appeal to a broader audience than do
Afontovo's, which, truth be told, are dull, he says. Besides, a former
investor, the then-owner of a scandal- ridden aluminum plant, Anatoly
Bykov, stopped his financial support when he was driven from the region two
years ago, Mr. Vostrov said.
Life in the region's capital city revolves around the aluminum plant, known
as KRAZ. Traditionally, the plant's owners have bought into local
television stations and pepper the nightly news with positive broadcasts to
ensure a sympathetic local population. The plant's current owner, Russian
Aluminum, recently finished building a transmitting tower on a bluff
overlooking the city, and is going into television on its own.
Mr. Vostrov's station took sides in the 1998 election, using the best of
its mudslinging abilities to support Mr. Bykov's choice for governor,
former general and 1996 presidential contender Aleksandr Lebed. Mr. Bykov
quickly soured on Mr. Lebed, and Mr. Vostrov's station followed suit.
Afontovo's coverage was more balanced.
Still, Mr. Vostrov, heavy-set and dressed in a sweat suit, the trademark
attire of the early 1990's new Russians, argues that his reporting has more
appeal. His journalists, for example, started keeping a running tally of
the number of different fur coats worn by a deputy governor, Lyudmila
Selivanova, to illustrate the corruption they say is rampant in the
administration.
"We're telling people what they want to hear," Mr. Vostrov said. "We're not
afraid of saying what we think. People like to be told that something is
bad if it is."
Afontovo, he added, "hates Selivanova even more than we do — why weren't
they counting her coats?"
Mr. Karpov has made compromises of his own. In 1998, he sold a third of his
station to Mr. Gusinsky. The money went to build his own transmitter tower,
totally independent from the local government and one of a handful in
Russia. Mr. Gusinsky, he said, has never made editorial demands.
But Mr. Karpov still has high hopes that his cautious, earnest approach
will eventually pay off. "If you sell yourself once for money, you can't
stop. It's like pregnancy — you either are, or you aren't," he said.
*******
#14
Wall Street Journal
March 4, 2002
Russia , U.S. Are in a Chicken Fight, The First Round of New Trade War
By GUY CHAZAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
MOSCOW -- Russia and the U.S., already gearing up for a fight over steel,
are now locked in a bitter trade dispute over a Russian decision to suspend
American imports of poultry.
Russia's Agriculture Ministry said it had stopped issuing import licenses
for chicken from the U.S. and could impose an outright ban from March 10
unless U.S. producers provided full replies to inquiries about what
antibiotics and preservatives were used in the production of their meat.
Ukraine banned U.S. poultry-meat imports earlier this year over the same
issue.
"Russia is not a garbage dump for poor-quality food," Russian Agriculture
Minister Alexei Gordeyev told the Interfax news agency. However, in a later
interview, Mr. Gordeyev said no final decision had been made to impose a
full ban.
The move could have a damaging effect on trade between the two countries.
Half of all U.S. poultry export sales world-wide are to the Russian market,
and poultry exports make up 20% of total U.S. exports to Russia . Every
year, U.S. producers send around an estimated one million tons of poultry
to Russia , valued at around $600 million (693.5 million euros).
U.S. chicken is so popular in Russia it has its own nickname -- Nozhki
Busha, or Bush's Legs -- a reference to the chicken legs sent as food aid
to Russia in the early 1990s, when George Bush, the current president's
father, was president.
In Washington, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and Trade Representative
Robert Zoellick issued a joint statement Friday saying they knew of "no
reason whatsoever that would justify a ban on our products." U.S. poultry
exports meet the "highest safety standards in the world," and the U.S.
authorities had met all Russian information requests. The statement said a
team of experts was traveling to Moscow this week to "effect a resumption
of trade."
Russian officials said U.S. companies importing poultry meat had repeatedly
violated the rules by failing to obtain licenses from the agriculture
ministry's veterinary service, marking packaging incorrectly and not
providing safety certificates.
But Russian media speculated that the ban was the opening shot in a new
trade war expected to climax this week when U.S. President George W. Bush
decides whether to impose temporary restrictions on steel imports to the
U.S. -- a move that could hurt Russian steelmakers. Steel producers say the
barriers could cost the industry $1.5 billion over the next two years.
*******
#15
BBC Monitoring
Europeans fear loss of influence in NATO as Russian role increases - paper
Source: Der Spiegel web site, Hamburg, in German 4 Mar 02
Former foe Russia is to become almost a full member of the alliance.
European alliance partners fear for their own influence.
Formerly, when Joschka Fischer was still green and free, NATO appeared to
him as the stronghold of darkest militarism. Today, when the passion of
Realpolitik holds him in its grip, he has the "greatest worries" about the
alliance's existence.
The cause is precisely a gesture of trust: Russia will soon be an
additional member with almost equal rights in the North Atlantic Pact - the
final decision is to be made in mid-May at the NATO foreign ministers
conference in Reykjavik, Iceland. The German, and the majority of the other
European foreign ministers, are not at all enthusiastic.
Not because they have objections against closest cooperation with the
Russians, also within the framework of NATO. However, Fischer and his
colleagues fear that the new constellation might all too easily develop
into a dual dominance by Washington and Moscow in the alliance. The
influence of the European partners, who even now do not have much of a say
in the alliance dominated by the United States, will decline even more, and
the value of the alliance will further deteriorate.
Suspicion in capitals of the old continent was aroused when the United
States' special ally, Tony Blair - as first ordered by Washington and then
greatly welcomed - at the end of last year made the proposal to noticeably
upgrade the Russians' standing in NATO. Now Moscow will soon make
co-decisions in NATO leadership bodies - also about military deployments. ..
According to analyses by the Foreign Ministry, Moscow's strengthened
position in NATO is the principal factor of Russia's strategic opening to
the West. For that, President Vladimir Putin is willing to make many
concessions. While Russia recently had protested still that NATO, with the
decision planned for this fall on membership for the three Baltic states,
would be stretching its reach to the Russian border, that is now being
accepted. And Putin is also not really annoyed that US President Bush
cancelled the ABM treaty of 1972 limiting missile defence and now is
tackling the development of a missile defence umbrella over the United
States and Canada.
The Russian president wants to reestablish his country as a superpower -
not against, but with the United States superpower. According to the
Foreign Ministry assessment, he wants to develop the economy along the
lines of Western methods. Russia is to become the energy giant of the 21st
century.
And the United States is interested - in the Russian military potential for
the global battle against terrorism as well as in close cooperation with
Moscow on safeguarding, in the long term, oil and gas deliveries from
Central Asia. The new strategic partnership is to be sealed at the meeting
between Bush and Putin in the second half of May.
It is said at top Foreign Office levels that "a large suspension bridge
between the lonely superpower and the former superpower" is to be built
over the heads of Europeans. In future, the important decisions will run
across it. From this could soon result the constellation "18 plus 1 plus 1"
in the new Council of 20. The 18 smaller partners would then be confronted
by the two big partners.
Fischer sees a much stronger cooperation among West Europeans as the only
means to retain influence. At the recent meeting of EU foreign ministers in
Caceres, Spain, the German urged a demonstration of the new unity: an EU
rapid reaction force is to be tested for the first time this fall and is to
assume military protection in Macedonia with its own soldiers. Fischer:
that will be "the first big test of what Europeans are capable of."
Last Wednesday, the Berlin cabinet made another important strategic
decision. It approved a first installment of 450 million euros for the EU
project "Galileo," a navigation system supported by 24 satellites, which
had been on ice for many years. "Galileo" is to make the Europeans
independent of the US "global positioning system," also in military
operations.
Protests from the United States have already been voiced. It was said in
Washington that the frequencies desired by the Europeans are needed for its
own military purposes.
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With support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and
the MacArthur Foundation
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