Johnson's Russia List #6152 23 March 2002 davidjohnson@erols.com A CDI Project www.cdi.org [Note from David Johnson: 1. BBC: Stephen Dalziel, In search of a Russian smile. 2. Luba Schwartzman: ORT Review. 3. pravda.ru: AMERICAN ARMY EQUALS RUSSIAN ARMY. (re Afghanistan) 4. The Russia Journal: Alexander Kondorsky, Knowledge is power.(re books) 5. The Guardian (UK): Ian Traynor, Kremlin angered by war crimes proposal. (re Chechnya) 6. Itar-Tass: Russia to end Soviet-era system of subsidized public services in 2003. (Gref) 7. Stratfor.com: Crisis Looming Between U.S., Russia. 8. Jamestown Foundation Monitor: BABITSKY SHARES HIS CURRENT VIEWS ON CHECHEN WAR. 9. RIA Novosti: PRESIDENT PUTIN HONOURS MEMORY OF STALIN REPRESSIONS' VICTIMS. 10. RIA Novosti: AVERAGE MUSCOVITE CONSUMES MORE WATER THAN ANY EUROPEAN. 11. Moscow Tribune: Stanislav Menshikov, EXIT GERASCHENKO But no change in policy? 12. Komsomolskaya Pravda: THE UNITED STATES: FRIEND OR FOE? (views of Sergei Markov and Alexei Arbatov) 13. Asia Times: Sergei Blagov, Concern over nuclear waste rises in Russia. 14. New York Times: Sabrina Tavernise, Russia Imposes Flat Tax on Income, and Its Coffers Swell. 15. The Russia Journal: Irina Sandul, Trying to break through the glass ceiling. (status of women)] ******* #1 BBC 23 March 2002 In search of a Russian smile By Stephen Dalziel BBC Russian affairs analyst It is a common misconception among occasional visitors to Russia that Russians are miserable people. In Soviet times, Westerners could point with some justification to the often drab clothing of the average comrade. True, the fashion houses of the West hadn't made a great impact in Moscow before Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of perestroika caused the first tears in the Iron Curtain in the late 1980s. Nowadays, though, the attire of many Muscovites, and the exciting architecture of the Russian capital, give Moscow a vibrant appearance. But the critical Western visitor still complains. "These people never smile!" is a complaint I've heard often over the years. It happened again a few days ago, when I was at Moscow's Sheremetyevo-Two airport, waiting to fly back to London. Miserable Moscovites I was enjoying a quiet pre-flight beer - one of the biggest improvements in the post-Soviet era is the excellent quality of much Russian beer - when I got into conversation with an American businessman who had been on his first visit to Russia. "Why are these people so miserable?" he asked me. I started to explain that in Russia a smile means more than it does in Britain or America. I put to him the rhetorical question that when an American waiter flashes a gleaming smile and says that he hopes you, "have a nice day", does he really mean that, or does he actually mean, "leave a nice tip, please"? At that point, our flight was called. We finished our drinks, and I commented to the barmaid that I was sorry that I didn't have time to try one of the other brews on offer. "Next time!" she replied - and her whole face lit up with a lovely smile. My new American acquaintance was suitably impressed. As we were boarding the plane, he asked me more about Russia. I started learning Russian over 30 years ago, and first went there in 1974. He seemed genuinely keen to know more about the place. But as he was travelling in business class, and I was in economy, we parted, with an invitation from me that, should he wish, he could come back and join me for a chat during the four-hour long flight. Looking out of the aircraft window, it is easy to see why, at this time of the year especially, the first - or, indeed, last - glimpse of Russia can fill the traveller with dread or relief, depending on whether he is arriving or leaving. When the snow is on the ground in December, or the blossoms are on the trees in May, Russia has a certain unspoilt beauty. Bleak winter months But in early March, when the snow is beginning to melt, and the piles of it on the sides of the runway are covered in dirt, it does look drab and depressing. I remember when, as a student, I spent the whole academic year, from September to July, in the Soviet Union. Late February and early March was the most depressing time of the year. You are fed up with the snow, the cold, the "having to wrap up well just to go to the shop and then taking it all off again as soon as you get in because indoors the central heating is so strong". I had seen a good example of it on this trip. I was sitting in my nice warm BBC car outside a scruffy market in southern Moscow when it started to snow. In a short while, the snow was gusting around the market stalls, causing the stall holders to clip tatty bits of plastic sheeting over their wares, and pull their heads even further into the collars of their coats. From my comfortable vantage point, I tried to imagine the lot of the average stall holder. You had grown up in a Soviet system where you may not have had a great deal of material goods, but you knew that your basic needs were catered for: you had a roof over your head; your parents had steady jobs; you had a good education; healthcare was free. The collapse of that system - with its inherent restrictions on freedom - had opened up great opportunities for anyone with a bit of business sense. The 'kiosk economy' In the 1990s, thousands of Russians began to travel abroad, coming back laden with bags and boxes of goods of varying quality to sell. But then you had to deal with racketeering - many owners of Russia's early "kiosk economy" slept in their kiosks to deter racketeers from burning them down. A lot of these kiosks stayed open 24 hours a day as a form of protection. So you may have had your freedom to travel and to trade, but you paid a high price in terms of your time, patience and health. And, on top of all this, you had the Russian winter to cope with - those seemingly endless short days and long nights of cold and snow. No wonder many Russians look miserable to the Western eye. The plane landed at London's Heathrow Airport without a visit from the American I had met as we boarded. As we went to collect our luggage, the reason became clear. He hailed me like a long lost friend, and eagerly introduced me to the person who had been sitting next to him on the flight - a beautiful Russian woman, with an amused smile playing around her lips. I agreed with him that, had I had such a neighbour, I wouldn't have bothered going to chat to a BBC journalist either. Anyway, the experience had taught him a valuable lesson. Suddenly he didn't think that the Russians were so miserable, after all. ******* #2 ORT Review www.ortv.ru Compiled by Luba Schwartzman (luba7@bu.edu) Research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology and Policy at Boston University HEADLINES, Friday, March 22, 2002 - The General Prosecutor's office of Ukraine has demanded the dispersal of the State Committee on Religious Affairs, after it registered the [anti-Russian] Kievan Patriarch of the Orthodox Church. - Several Ukrainian political parties, including former Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine, has supported Prime Minister Anatoly Kinakh's call to recognize the "Banderovtsy" -- members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which fought with the Germans against Russia -- as war heroes. Yushchenko's supporters also accused the Russian Foreign Ministry (which has criticized the initiative) of meddling in Ukraine's domestic affairs. - Another round of Russian-American talks on strategic security was held in Geneva in preparation for US President George W. Bush's upcoming visit to Moscow. - Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov is on a working visit in the Volgograd oblast. He visited wheat fields and met with members of the local administration. - Prime Minister Kasyanov also announced that the US-Russian conflict about poultry imports has been solved. Only the best meat will be allowed into Russia. - Russian Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov told journalists about his meeting with officials from the Armenian Interior Ministry. He said that new procedures have been developed to make the search for suspected terrorists more effective. - A large-scale special operation was conducted in Chechnya's Vedeno region. Federal forces destroyed a rebel camp. At the site of the camp they found a large ammunition dump with rifles, anti-tank and anti-personnel landmines, and a Soviet-time portable Igla air-defense system with an instruction manual in Arabic. FSB spokesman General Aleksandr Zdanovich said that a band of Georgian mercenaries was planning to use the camp, which was large enough for 80 people. - A bridge over the Inguri River has become the unofficial border block-post between Georgia and Abkhazia. - The two Interior Ministry officers implicated in the death of the Serigevo-Posadsky OMON (special-purpose police) have been acquitted. - President Putin visited Krasnoyarsky Krai's Norilsk Nickel mines and metallurgic factory. He also stopped by the memorial complex at the Norillag labor camp, where almost half a million people were sent under Stalin. - A Vietnamese gang that operated illegal telephone stations in Moscow has been exposed. - A congress of "Armenians of Russia" has opened in Moscow. ******* #3 pravda.ru March 23, 2002 AMERICAN ARMY EQUALS RUSSIAN ARMY Anti-terrorist operation in Afghanistan is dragging on and on. It seems that the American army is getting into the same situation, in which the Russian army finds itself in Chechnya. The active resistance of the enemy has been broken, but the military actions have not stopped, with all the consequences coming out, for civilians first and foremost. Suppressing the activity of the guerrillas, the Americans use the same tactics, as the Russian soldiers do in Chechnya, arranging raids, detaining all, who raise suspicion, checking their connection with terrorist groups. The so-called scouring procedures in Chechnya have become the talk of the town in the West. The law-enforcement bodies, the public figures, journalists and politicians are fond of talking about the Russians’ barbarism, about jeering at “poor Chechens.” The US State Department was playing an important role in this respect, they did not think about those “poor Chechens” cutting the heads of the Western specialists off. But in this case we are talking about Afghanistan, not Chechnya. The American soldiers nabbed over 30 Afghan people during one of the latest raids, keeping them in prison for four days. After the Afghans were released, they hurried to tell journalists that they had been insulted and beaten in prison. The Afghan people said that they were not showing any resistance, when they were being detained. Otherwise, the American soldiers could open fire, killing the civilians. A spokesman for the American military department said that the American soldiers had to use force, when they were detaining the people, since the Afghans were trying to defend themselves. A spokesman said that there had not been any confirmation received to prove that violence was used against any of them. The Russian military men in Chechnya come out with the same arguments. The difference is that one is used to brushing aside the arguments of the Russians, and listen to the ones of the Americans. But can anyone explain the difference between a beaten Afghan and a beaten Chechen? The military men risk their lives both in Afghanistan and Chechnya, they are constantly under the stress. One can not either condemn or approve their behavior in a bar, having a beer or two. If you really want to realize what is going on, you have to go to any of the hotspots and see everything with your own eyes. And then you will have the experience, which will allow you to dwell on terrorists’ attacks. And if someone will still be standing for the rights of the civilians after that, then it will mean that this someone is really concerned about them, that it is not another subject for earning a capital, whether it is a political, professional or any other one. So, there is nothing surprising about the behavior of the American soldiers. Everything that has happened to the Afghans was meant to happen sooner or later. No one is insured from making mistakes, the price of which is a human life sometimes. Vasily Bubnov PRAVDA.Ru Translated by Dmitry Sudakov ******** #4 The Russia Journal March 22-28, 2002 Knowledge is power By ALEXANDER KONDORSKY If you believe Soviet propaganda, the "new historical community of peoples," the population of the U.S.S.R., were the best-read people in the world. I don’t know whether it was true or not, but the fact is that people really do love to read in this part of the world. Finding interesting reading was a problem in these good-old-bad-old days, as Soviet bookstores were filled to the brim with nothing else but CPSU programs and congress documents and books by Soviet authors exploring the themes of socialist labor, the Soviet people and communism as the happy and glorious future of mankind. Oddly enough, it was far from easy to buy books by such internationally recognized classics as Alexander Pushkin, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy, not to mention Mikhail Bulgakov, Boris Pasternak or Vladimir Nabokov. "The country is short of paper," the authorities would say in response to public complaints. Nevertheless, Soviet people somehow managed to find and read the Russian and world classical and modern literature. Moreover, though taking risks, many Soviet people read books by dissident writers available in very small quantities as "samizdat" (home-printed books) and "tamizdat" (books printed abroad). With luck, one could buy an interesting book from an old books store, on the black market or in exchange for 20 kilograms of scrap paper (anyone who collected that amount of waste paper received a special coupon). Books were cheap during the Soviet era: school and college textbooks cost around 1.50 rubles (10 loaves of bread) and a complete set of the documents adopted by the 25th CPSU Congress was as cheap as 10 kopeks (two metro rides). These days, people read less. A popular joke has a "New Russian" complaining to his friend: "A fire has robbed me of my precious library. Can you imagine, I’ve lost it all: Both books, and I haven’t even finished coloring the second one." But, after the economic decline of the past decade, interest in reading is increasing, and bookstores now offer a fantastic choice of both domestic and foreign literature, including fiction, history, picture albums, encyclopedias and textbooks. A friend of mine said that if he traveled in time from, say, 1980 to 2002, and suddenly transported himself to a modern bookstore he would faint from shock. "Look, everything is here: Solzhenitsyn and Pasternak, Nabokov and Bulgakov, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche…" The volume of book sales (not including e-commerce) in Russia is currently approximately $500 million a year, which means $10 per Russian family. I hope the share represented by books in the budgets of my compatriots will be increasing. In Russian: The Bible 250 rubles ($8) Classical (Russian and foreign, hardback) 70-100 rubles ($2-$3) Science fiction (Russian and foreign, hardback) 60-100 rubles ($2-$3) Modern romance novels 25 rubles ($0.8) Textbooks (college, university) 60-100 rubles ($2-$3) Album of paintings 250-2,500 rubles ($8-$80) Encyclopedia 250 rubles ($8) Modern and popular philosophers and occultists 150 rubles ($5) Newspapers 2-10 rubles (up to $0.30) Glossy magazines 60-100 rubles ($2-$3) In English: Headway course of English (books 1-5) 350 rubles ($11) Raymond Murphy "English Grammar in Use" 230 rubles ($7) Oxford Dictionary 500 rubles ($16) Webster Dictionary 2,500 ($80) Fiction 300-600 rubles ($10-$20) ******* #5 The Guardian (UK) 23 March 2002 Kremlin angered by war crimes proposal Ian Traynor in Moscow The Russian government has registered anger at foreign suggestions that there should be an international role in the prosecution of those responsible for human rights abuses in Chechnya Responding to comments by the Council of Europe and Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia in The Hague, the Kremlin angrily denounced all notions of bringing those suspected of crimes in Chechnya to account internationally. Almost three years into President Vladimir Putin's war in Chechnya and in the light of persistent reports of gross human rights violations by the Russian forces there, Lord Judd, the Council of Europe's rapporteur on Chechnya, called on the council's parliamentary assembly this week to devise ways of ensuring the prosecution of abusers. He further angered the Russians by pushing for a Chechen consultative body including representatives of the separatist leader, President Aslan Maskhadov, who was freely elected but is regarded by Moscow as illegitimate. Vladimir Kalamanov, the Kremlin's human rights commissioner for Chechnya, said that Lord Judd was deluding himself that he was the head of the Russian government, and advised him to behave more modestly. Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the Kremlin spokesman on Chechnya, told the news agency Interfax: "Chechnya is not Bosnia or Kosovo and Russia is not the former Yugoslavia ... The very idea of an international trial, the same as mediation in Chechnya, is senseless and hopeless." Three weeks ago Human Rights Watch in New York accused the Russian forces of randomly "detaining, torturing, and killing civilians in a climate of lawlessness" in Chechnya, and the Russian human rights group Memorial reported 20 "disappearances" of Chechen civilians in December. Visiting Moscow this week, Lord Judd said that the next session of the council's assembly should consider ways of guaranteeing the prosecution of human rights abuses in Chechnya. Human Rights Watch said the Russian forces enjoyed "carte blanche" for violence against civilians in Chechnya and that Russian conduct was "undermining Russia as a credible partner in the international war against terrorism." ******** #6 Russia to end Soviet-era system of subsidized public services in 2003 ITAR-TASS Moscow, 22 March: Russia plans to stop subsidizing communal services in 2003 and the population will pay for them in full itself, according to Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref. The subsidies comprised R129.1bn in 2001, according to the communal reform draft to be discussed by the State Duma in April. The press service of the lower house said on Thursday [21 March] that Gref had submitted the draft for consideration and the document envisages that compensations will be paid only to low-income families after they pay rent and other communal bills in full. Compensations are envisaged only if communal bills exceed 22 per cent of total family incomes. Gref plans to end the Soviet-era practice when the government was the major party in maintaining communal services. Now the services will deal directly with the population. However, the government plans to earmark R4.11bn to modernize communal services in 2003-2010. ******* #7 Crisis Looming Between U.S., Russia Stratfor.com March 20, 2002 (for personal use only) Summary CIA Director George Tenet recently singled out Russia as a massive contributor to the spread of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Despite the cooperation Moscow has given to Washington's anti-terrorism campaign, the Bush administration is putting the Russian government on notice. A severe crisis between the two sides may now be forming. Analysis While speaking to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee March 19, CIA Director George Tenet singled out Russia as "the first choice of proliferant states seeking the most advanced technology and training" for weapons of mass destruction, Agence France-Presse reported. Tenet added that Russian sales of technology and expertise applicable to chemical, biological and nuclear weapons were "a major source of funds for commercial and defense industries and military research and development." Tenet's statement -- coming in the wake of a recent Pentagon report naming seven countries, including Russia, as potential nuclear targets -- was a bombshell. It places responsibility for the spread of Russian weapons of mass destruction squarely on the shoulders of the government in Moscow and sets the stage for a coming confrontation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. STRATFOR has previously said that a new doctrine is emerging within the Bush administration that is based on the following logic: Al Qaeda is not dead and is dedicated to further attacks on the United States. It has demonstrated the desire to obtain chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, which represent a threat to millions of American citizens. The United States must therefore both destroy al Qaeda and eliminate any stockpiles of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons that could find their way into the group's hands. The fact that most of these stockpiles belong to sovereign nations like Syria, Pakistan and Russia complicates the problem for Washington but does not change the Bush administration's policy. If anything, ending the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) actually takes priority over destroying the al Qaeda network. Terrorist networks can be badly hurt, but it is incredibly difficult to destroy them completely. WMD stockpiles, plus the accompanying facilities and skilled personnel, are finite and are harder to regenerate than a terrorist network. Now the director of the CIA has named Russia as the key source of WMD proliferation. Tenet stopped just short of explicitly placing the blame on the Russian government, but at the same time, he also did not blame rogue elements in the Russian security services or mafia syndicates. This would have given Putin a certain amount of deniability and raised the potential for Russia to work with the United States -- like it did in the early 1990s -- on decommissioning weapons of mass destruction. Instead, Tenet delivered a blunt message to Putin: the United States believes that WMD proliferation is official Russian policy. The government in Moscow must either immediately halt this policy or face the consequences. Gone is any residual U.S. gratitude for Russian cooperation during the early phases of the war in Afghanistan. The Bush administration is maintaining that the threat posed to the United States is so great that any and all other considerations -- including diplomatic niceties -- must take a backseat. This represents the beginning of a severe crisis between the United States and Russia. Putin must weigh his choices very carefully. If he accepts U.S. demands and subordinates Russian foreign policy to Washington again, he acknowledges that his country has effectively become subservient to the United States. This not only would be a bitter pill to swallow but also would feed nationalist political and military elements within Russia that currently challenge Putin's agenda. The president has managed these groups so far, but a gesture of appeasement on this scale would inflame the passions of even the most pro-Western Russians. However, if Putin does not accept U.S. demands, he faces the distinct possibility of attacks on Russian weapons facilities and the potential elimination of his country's nuclear capability. Such an outcome could very easily spark a coup in Russia, which Putin would probably not survive. Even if he did manage to stay in power, Putin's plan to rebuild Russia through economic integration with Europe and closer short-term ties to the United States would be destroyed. And in the worst-case -- but still quite likely -- scenario, Russia would respond by launching a nuclear attack on the United States. We are not yet at the point of crisis. The Bush administration went public in order to put more pressure on Putin, likely after getting few results from private consultations. Putin is in the process of feeling out American resolve. He knows that Washington has the means to carry out its threat; Putin is now trying to figure out if it has the will. ******* #8 Jamestown Foundation Monitor March 22, 2002 BABITSKY SHARES HIS CURRENT VIEWS ON CHECHEN WAR. Radio Liberty correspondent Andrei Babitsky traveled to Paris this week for a presentation of his book, Nezhelatelny Svidetel (Undesirable Witness). During the presentation, Babitsky put forward his views on the war in Chechnya, which he said amounted to ongoing "genocide." He said he had no illusions that the war would end anytime soon, "inasmuch as Putin is in power," adding that the Russian president is certain that the military operation in Chechnya is legal and is defending "the vital interests of the Russian state." Putin is also convinced that a long war will succeed in breaking the Chechen resistance, Babitsky said. Andrei Babitsky is one of the best-known Russian journalists specializing in issues related to Chechnya. He traveled to the breakaway republic several dozen times during both the 1994-1996 war and the current one, which began in 1999. In January 2000 he was arrested by Russian troops and then supposedly handed over to Chechen rebel forces in exchange for Russian POWs. Babitsky himself believes that the Chechens to whom he was handed over were actually agents of Russia's special services. Several weeks after the "exchange," his Chechen captors took him to Dagestan and gave him a false passport, after which he was arrested by local police and charged with using false documents. Many observers were certain that the entire episode was arranged by the Kremlin to punish Babitsky for his reporting from Chechnya. Babitsky remains a kind of a focal point for journalists, both inside and outside Russia, who are critical of the war in the breakaway republic. Babitsky said during his Paris book presentation that it was "theoretically" possible that there are "links between certain radical Chechen groups... and the Taliban or Islamic fundamentalists." He added, however, that while he was in Afghanistan he did not find "a single Chechen fighter, dead or alive." "All the Russian journalists in Afghanistan received instructions to find Chechens, but we inspected all of the jails, asked all of the [Afghan] field commanders--in vain," the Radio Liberty correspondent said. The allegation that Chechens have fought in Afghanistan on the side of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida, which has been put forward by the Russian government and denied by the Chechen rebels, continues to be a source of debate. Interestingly, some media earlier this month quoted local residents in Afghanistan's Shah-i-kot Valley as saying that the Taliban and al-Qaida forces targeted by U.S. and Afghan forces in Operation Anaconda included Chechen fighters (AP, March 4). The U.S. military has said the same thing. While apparently no Chechens were captured or found dead, U.S.-led forces reportedly found notes written in Russian and a Chechen-language Koran among the debris in captured enemy positions. Asked by French philosopher Andrei Glucksman why the Chechens have not, like the Palestinians, resorted to terrorist acts against the civilian population to counter the "organized murder carried out by the Russian army," Babitsky said that even the radical groups within the Chechen resistance were still under the influence of the more moderate wing headed by Aslan Maskhadov, who "has still not lost hope for peace talks with Moscow." According to Babitsky, "the Chechens obey a law that demands revenge against those who committed the crime, and not [against] the state or other abstract entities." He also said that the leaders of the Chechen resistance are from an older generation for whom "Russia is still not absolutely alien" and who, like many of their ethnic Russian counterparts, have "a nostalgia for the Soviet period" as a kind "Golden Age" (Le Figaro, March 21). One could take issue to some degree with both Glucksman and Babitsky concerning the Chechen resistance's attitude toward terrorism. One need only recall how Shamil Basaev and his forces took hostages in the southern Russian city of Budennovsk in June 1995 or the raid on the Dagestani city of Kizlyar by Salman Raduev's forces in January 1996. More than 200 people were killed in these incidents, many of them civilians. In addition, Chechen rebels carried out several large-scale terrorist attacks in the North Caucasus cities of Mineralnye Vody, Pyatigorsk and Nalchik in 1997. Ten members of the 100-man band Basaev led in the Budennovsk raid are currently on trial in Stavropol Krai on a host of charges, including terrorism, banditry and hostage taking. They face prison sentences of fifteen to twenty-five years if found guilty (Lenta.ru, March 21). In any case, Babitsky said he was concerned by the "new generation" of Chechens, aged 15 to 20, "who see nothing besides hate, murder and violence against those close to them." Because of this, the journalist expressed a very pessimistic view about the future, saying that a break between the older and younger generations of the Chechen resistance was inevitable (Le Figaro, March 21). Babitsky's fears in this regard are warranted. Since 1991, when Chechnya's first separatist leader, Djohar Dudaev, came to power, the schools in the republic have to all intents and purposes ceased to function. By the middle of the 1990s, the Monitor's correspondent was already coming across Chechen teenagers who were unable to read and write but handled weapons with expertise. It is noteworthy that those involved in the hostage-taking business in Chechnya are mostly young people. Thus it would seem that Chechnya is following the pattern of Afghanistan, where a "war generation" has already been formed. For these people, who do not possess even an elementary understanding of life beyond Afghanistan's borders, war has become a way of life. ******* #9 PRESIDENT PUTIN HONOURS MEMORY OF STALIN REPRESSIONS' VICTIMS NORILSK, March 22, 2002 /from a RIA Novosti correspondent/-- Vladimir Putin honoured the memory of the Stalin repression's victims. In the course of his working visit to Norilsk (an industrial centre beyond the polar circle) the Russian president laid flowers and honoured with one minute of silence the memory of "Norillag's" /a concentration camp/ victims. Many people had been repressed and sent to this severe land in Stalin's epoch. It was them who gave the origin to Norilsk. Very few of them survived and returned to the "mainland", as the locals call the other Russian territories due to their own geographical "detachment". The decision to unveil a monument to political prisoners in Norilsk was taken in 1988. In 1990, a cross was fixed and shortly after that an Orthodox chapel consecrated on the Schmidt hill, the highest point of the city. In 1991 the three Baltic States' delegations fixed memorial plates in honour of their compatriots who had been sent to "Norillag" and left buried in the frozen land of Norilsk. In 1994 the City Council contributed to the creation of the memorial to victims of political repressions. A three-bell belfry was set up on the Schmidt hill in July 2001. ******* #10 AVERAGE MUSCOVITE CONSUMES MORE WATER THAN ANY EUROPEAN MOSCOW, MARCH 22, 2002. /FROM RIA NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT GRIGORY TEBENIKHIN/ -- March 22 is World Day of Water. It is marked upon the decision of the UN Conference on the Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. At present the water consumption figure in Moscow is the highest in Europe: 320 litres in 24 hours per Muscovite. By way of comparison, the respective figure in Berlin stands at half of it. The reform of the communal economy which is being carried out in the capital necessitated better account of water supplied to apartments. Mosvodokanal elaborated and submitted for approval a procedure for organising account of water consumption and payment for it which sets rules for installation and operation of water-measuring meters in apartments. Search for, and introduction of new technical decisions aimed at improving water quality is the prime task now. It is intended to put the 4th unit for preparing drinking water for consumption on the basis of a technology which is fundamentally new for our country into operation at the Rublyovo water-supply station at the beginning of April. ******* #11 Moscow Tribune March 22, 2002 EXIT GERASCHENKO But no change in policy? By Stanislav Menshikov When big and colourful figures suddenly leave the scene there is a lot of talk about why it happened and what is in store. Viktor Geraschenko was one of those rare types in the top Russian hierarchy that were clearly distinguishable among the otherwise predominantly faceless members of competing clans. The former central banker did not belong to any clan making him de facto independent, as central bankers should be. In addition, he was competent and honest, an equally rare quality in modern Russia. Such figures are a great asset in any country. But they are also a big nuisance to bureaucratic and business power groups who seek to maximise their own interests, not the national one. That is why many people in government and business were long demanding Geraschenko's resignation and hailed it when it happened. Even his worst enemies admit that he was a factor of stability in the post-1998-crisis period, but they also castigate him as a conservative who became a "barrier to reform". Let us see whether that is true. The fallen giant is mainly criticised for three alleged wrongdoings. He supported an overvalued rouble, which is bad for the economy. He opposed liberalising currency controls, which is against free market principles. And he impeded reforming the banking industry and thus prevented the flow of bank loans to the real sector. None of these criticisms is convincing. The story of the overvalued rouble is largely fiction. From September 1998, when Geraschenko returned to the Bank of Russia and today the rouble fell from around 6:1 to the dollar to 31:1, or more than 5 times. In the same period domestic prices rose fourfold. The net result is devaluation by 20 percent. True, most of it happened before 2000. More recently, the rouble was stable or rising which helped increase rouble savings. When the balance of payments of a country is in surplus, as in Russia's case, it is hard to keep the domestic currency from rising. Sergei Ignatiev, Geraschenko's successor, believes that the current exchange rate is just right, neither overvalued or undervalued. He intends to keep it that way. By liberalising currency controls, its proponents mainly mean removing the rule about compulsory selling half of exporters' currency earnings to the central bank. In principle, nobody objects, but both Geraschenko and Ignatiev agree that this should done step by step, exercising necessary caution. The reason is that overall demand for hard currency is too large ($75 billion in 2001). It includes buying by importers, by the government for servicing its foreign debt, and by the population that hedges against domestic inflation. Compulsory selling by exporters ($46 billion) covers 62 percent of total demand and is a reasonable safeguard against undue speculation. Full liberalisation can come only after at least a few years of market stability and after capital flight, which remains a plague, falls to a minimum. As to banking reform, Geraschenko indeed opposed a plan proposed by Big Business to set a prohibitively high minimum capital requirement that would automatically exclude many medium and small-sized commercial banks from operating. He claimed that this measure would disorganise payments in many parts of the country where local enterprises do not have access to the big banks situated mostly in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Geraschenko succeeded in convincing the government, and the plan fell through. Now Big Business believes it is time for revenge. But it is not a fact that an oligopoly of large banks is better than freely competing smaller ones. Neither is it clear that by gobbling up smaller fry big banks will automatically increase loans to the real sector. The main barrier today is not lack of adequate funds but uncertainty about getting one's money back. Neither Geraschenko nor Ignatiev can do much about it. Reduced lending risks will come only with changes in business practices and general economic growth So why were Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Kasyanov so eager to remove Geraschenko at this time? The only reasonable explanation is their desire to increase control over the vast resources of the Bank of Russia together with the Sberbank and Vneshtorgbank, where the central bank is a majority stockholder. Putin is worried about the recent slowdown in economic growth and has made it clear that he would hold Kasyanov responsible. The central bank in Russia does not wield much influence on interest rates. But it can be useful by lending more money to the government, i.e. pump-priming economic activity via expanded government spending. This is contrary to the monetarist religion professed by Messrs. Kasyanov, Kudrin Gref and others but when other magic wands fail, bastard Keynesianism will do. Reaganomics was one successful historical instance. Will Ignatiev oblige? You bet! The only possible danger is that the new central banker is widely rumoured to be a "Chubais man". In the new presidential race that starts pretty soon Anatoly Chubais could well emerge on the other side of the barricades from Vladimir Putin. But perhaps the president knows better who is who in Russian politics. ******* #12 Komsomolskaya Pravda No. 50 March 2002 [translation from RIA Novosti for personal use only] THE UNITED STATES: FRIEND OR FOE? Current Russian-US relations are perceived as a veritable jigsaw puzzle. Both sides keep assuring each other of their "new friendship"; meanwhile some White House decisions prompt the Kremlin to talk about an "adequate response." Russia and the United States, which are no longer rivals, still can't be called partners. So, what can be said about the present-day status of our relations? Besides, does a new Cold War threaten our relationship. Komsomolskaya Pravda asked these questions to Russian politicians and political science experts. MAKE WAY FOR THE UNITED STATES Sergei MARKOV, political science expert Question: Don't you think that Russian-US relations have become deadlocked once again? Answer: One can't say that Russia opposes the United States, and that our relations are deadlocked. One should keep in mind that a uni-polar world continues to emerge nowadays. The concerned parties have been trying to clarify their common interests ever since the Afghan counter-terrorist operation got underway. The list of such common interests includes the struggle against global terrorism that will continue for quite a while, efforts to control the global proliferation of mass-destruction weapons, as well as Russia's integration into the international community and its Europeanization. Question: Do Washington's anti-dumping decisions, which are spear-headed against Russian metallurgists, amount to a purely political move? Or are they motivated by US economic interests? Answer: Any statements implying that the United States opposes Russian economic development because it fears competition on the part of Russian products amount to a myth. On the contrary, Washington wants Russia to create a sufficiently powerful economy, which would absorb US investment; the US side would profit as a result of such investment. The afore-said anti-dumping decisions constitute a purely economic move, which highlights the US desire to facilitate the development of its traditional sectors. On the other hand, though, all this is directly linked with a highly important US-policy trend. Washington prefers to make serious unilateral decisions. By the way, Russia and America's European allies keep accusing the US side of such behaviour. This has something to do with an even more fundamental trend, i.e. the creation of a uni-polar world, a global economy and a global system for adopting political decisions. In other words, a veritable global government continues to emerge. We should not impede this trend; on the contrary, Russia should take an active part in forging a new world order. Mind you, we can impose another world order concept, which meets our own interests. Question: Shouldn't Moscow respond "adequately" to every anti-Russian gesture on the part of Washington? Answer: This would be counter-productive. The former USSR, which had disintegrated in 1991, could have dealt with America differently. Meanwhile Russia resembles a matador, who faces a bull, i.e. the United States. However, we must do our best to avoid clashing with the US bull, which is running loose on the arena. Question: Are we friends, partners or allies today? Answer: Russia and the United States are now semi-allies. At the same time, Russia should pay more attention to a new political centre, which comprises the United States and its allies. Russia's strength is directly proportional to its proximity to this center of power. (Transcript by Maxim CHIZHIKOV.) US POLICIES: THE ARROGANCE OF POWER Alexei ARBATOV, deputy chairman, defence committee, Russian State Duma Question: Does Washington's current Russian policy herald the beginning of yet another Cold War? Answer: No, this would be an exaggeration. However, the United States has a rather disdainful attitude of Russia, as well as its NATO allies, Japan, India and China. The United States, which doesn't want to confront Russia at this stage, would like our country to have a limited influence on international relations. Moreover, Washington doesn't want Moscow to voice a special position, which would hinder US policies. Russia backed US combat operations on Afghan territory, facing Washington's base ingratitude as a result. Question: Another Cold War, therefore, seems unlikely. Nonetheless, our relations seem to have cooled off somewhat. Answer: Yes, that's right. Bilateral relations would cool off a great deal, if the United States doesn't mend its ways. Concessions, silent consent and hopes for long-term cooperation are now history. Russia will be implementing a tough and independent policy with regard to the United States in the near future. Many European countries, as well as Japan and South Korea, would support us, if we don't make any blunders. Question: Does this mean that Russia and America can be called enemies, rather than allies or partners, to some extent? Answer: We are neither political enemies, nor allies. Russia is still being targeted by US nuclear missiles, and vice versa. There are only two options for rectifying this situation. Nuclear weapons should be eliminated completely; however, this is highly unlikely at a time when other countries have gone nuclear. Or we can become full-fledged military-political allies, just like Great Britain or France. Question: Is this possible? Answer: Not yet. The United States, which doesn't want to sign a full-fledged START document with Russia, strives to create an NMD (National Missile Defence) system. Consequently, the deterrence principle still remains a salient feature of our relations. Indicatively enough, but specific information leaks concerning the Pentagon's well-known classified document highlight the mendacious and cynical nature of US statements that a unilateral US withdrawal fro the ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) Treaty won't hinder the START process. Question: Who is our partner in this case? Answer: Europe is our main partner and eventual ally. (Transcript by Olga VANDYSHEVA.) ******** #13 Asia Times March 22, 2002 Concern over nuclear waste rises in Russia By Sergei Blagov MOSCOW - Russia's dangerous radioactive legacy of the Soviet-era nuclear sector has become a matter of domestic and international concern. While the Russian authorities, notably the Nuclear Power Ministry - or Minatom - argue that the country's nuclear facilities sector is safe, some international environmental organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and parliament deputies are far from convinced. The issue of nuclear safety was placed under the spotlight when Sergei Mitrokhin, a State Duma deputy from the liberal Yabloko faction, along with two Greenpeace activists and three NTV cameramen, broke into the Krasnoyarsk-26 plant where the spent nuclear fuel from Bulgaria is being stored. The break-in, broadcast on NTV, was designed to show that the country's system of nuclear safety was "non-existent", Mitrokhin said. Simultaneously, Greenpeace Russia has also filed suit in a Moscow district court saying that the import of some 40 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel in November from the Kozlodui nuclear plant in Bulgaria is illegal. The waste is now being stored at the Krasnoyarsk-26 in western Siberia, said Vladimir Chuprov, energy programs coordinator for Greenpeace Russia. NGOs argue that Russia's largest waste-storage facility, Krasnoyarsk-26, has just 3,000 tonnes of unused capacity, while Minatom wants to allow other nations to pay to send more than 10,000 tonnes of their radioactive waste for reprocessing and storage here. Last month, the Russian Supreme Court handed a victory to environmentalists, striking down a government decision that allowed the import of nuclear waste from the Paks nuclear power plant in Hungary for storage in Russia. Greenpeace and a group of other environmental NGOs filed a suit against the government last year when they learned of the decision to allow nuclear waste from the Paks plant to be sent to Chelyabinsk for storage, said Chuprov. Russia imports spent fuel rods from Ukraine, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Hungary for reprocessing, but is required to return the waste to the countries for permanent storage. Environmentalists contest the deals clinched before a law signed last summer that allows the import of spent nuclear fuel from other countries for reprocessing and storage. The recycling process extracts usable material from the spent rods while reducing their potential to be used in weapons, the Minatom has said. The new law, signed by President Vladimir Putin, allows the import of spent nuclear fuel for reprocessing and storage. When Putin signed the new law last July, he ordered a committee to be formed to make recommendations on nuclear safety procedures but this committee has yet to start working. According to Mitrokhin, the committee cannot start its work because the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, is late in appointing representatives to it. Since late 2000, environmental groups opposed the law that allowed the long-term storage of nuclear waste on Russian soil. In an attempt to block the import of spent nuclear fuel, the environmentalist groups collected 2.5 million signatures to initiate a national referendum to ask whether voters opposed the importation of radioactive materials. However, Russia's Central Elections Commission, citing minor technical inaccuracies, rejected more than a fifth of the signatures, leaving the environmentalists 200,000 short of the 2 million needed to force a referendum. Most of the signatures were rejected on the grounds of abbreviating the word "street" in a signer's address. Environmental activists moved to initiate a regional referendum in Krasnoyarsk region and gathered 100,000 signatures. However, the authorities agreed to look at only 40,000 and then rejected 36,000 as invalid - roughly on the same technical reasons. No big wonder that some Russian environmental activists even argued that the twain of democracy and nuclear energy cannot meet. Nonetheless, the environmentalists continue to contest skipping both referendums in Russian and European courts, Chuprov said. However, the governmental nuclear agency, Minatom, still plans a lucrative business turning Russia into the world's nuclear pay dump. Advocates of nuclear-waste imports argue that Russia could earn US$20 billion over the next decade by importing some 20,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel. Yet critics, led by Greenpeace, have lashed out the plan, saying the environmental fallout could outweigh the benefits. Moreover, even Moscow faces nuclear-waste problems, mainly due to Kurchatov Institute. Over the decades, however, the institute has accumulated a huge quantity of radioactive waste on its territory - located in a residential district just 15 kilometers northwest of the Kremlin. The waste depositories at the institute, which still runs six of its nine nuclear reactors, contain spent nuclear fuel, water used as a cooling agent and worn reactor parts. Another matter of concern is the naval nuclear legacy. Notably, on Tuesday deputies of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, urged the government to approve a federal program on how to deal with decommissioned nuclear submarines and other ships with nuclear reactors. Russia now has 230 such vessels, half of which are near the end of nuclear reactors' lifespan. The deputies urged the government to increase funding so as to decommission these vessels safely. In 2002, no less than 10 trailoads of hazardous waste from nuclear icebreakers and submarines will be transported from Kola Peninsula to "Mayak", says Stanislav Golovinsky, technical director of Murmansk Shipping Co. Apart from Krasniyarsk-26, Russia's Minatom manages Chelyabinsk-65 Reprocessing Plant, or NPO "Mayak", which had been a site of a series of dangerous accidents. Nevertheless, since 1994 a total of 29 trainloads of nuclear waste have been brought from Kola Peninsula to "Mayak" so far. Yet although the operation is getting faster, all the waste is due to be removed from Kola region no earlier than 2007. Only afterward does the Murmansk Shipping Co plan to start removing waste from an emergency storage facility in Andreyev Guba, where waste from some 100 reactors is being temporarily stored. At least five more years will be needed to clear Andreyev Guba, Golovinsky said. Russia's Far Eastern regions have waste problems of their own. The Pacific Fleet's 75 decommissioned nuclear submarines are stranded in harbors, and 45 are waiting for nuclear fuel to be unloaded from their reactors, argues State Duma Deputy Boris Reznik. He says theatest source of danger is from the vessels, used as provisional storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel from other submarines. Reznik claimed that in March 1999 some 160 cubic meters of highly radioactive liquid waste leaked from the rusting tanker vessel Pinega, which is being used for temporary storage. Moreover, this month the Russian TV3 channel alleged that a decommissioned nuclear submarine recently sank in Krasheninnikov Bay, Kamchatka Peninsula, in Russia's Far East. But Russian officials have repeatedly denied such allegations and claimed that the risk of a nuclear accident is extremely slight. "No decommissioned nuclear submarines were sinking recently," navy spokesman Igor Dygalo was quoted as saying by the Russian Information Agency (RIA). However, Dygalo conceded that such incidents had taken place back in 1997 and 1999, but he denied that there had been leaks of liquid nuclear waste. Reznik points out that in 2001 Russia earned $66 billion from oil and gas exports, hence the government has enough money to deal with nuclear-waste problems. "The Russian military officials believe that preventing waste leaks just means avoiding press leaks," Reznik said. It is widely accepted that Russia now faces a longer-term safety problem as its existing nuclear-waste storage facilities are getting closer to being filled to capacity. Russia's scientists, officials, NGOs and environmental activists agree the country urgently needs to monitor and control its post-Soviet nuclear legacy - notably nuclear waste. Environmentalists, however, cast doubts on the effectiveness of the governmental programs to tackle the mess. (Inter Press Service) ******* #14 New York Times March 23, 2002 Russia Imposes Flat Tax on Income, and Its Coffers Swell By SABRINA TAVERNISE MOSCOW, March 19 — The American publishing billionaire Steve Forbes once trumpeted a flat-rate income tax so simple you could fill it out on a postcard. The Russian government recently took his advice about the flat tax to heart. But instead of a postcard, Russians are filling out 12 pages of forms. Still, Russia is reporting stellar first results from a bold experiment, a 13 percent flat-rate income tax. The centerpiece of the government's tax reform program, it is the lowest rate in all of Europe and the envy of American right-wingers. Personal income tax revenues jumped by 47 percent in 2001. Tax collection over all was up by half last year and, despite a small dip in February figures, the Russian Tax Ministry expects it to rise by more than that this year. "The January figures made us happy," said Anna P. Komardina, deputy head of the individual income tax department at the ministry. "We have nothing to be sad about here." The early success is leading economists to wonder if Russians, who rate the taxman one notch below the dentist, have leapt out of the shadows into the government's collection net. Or is the rise simply because traditional payers — oil and gas companies — are getting richer and paying more? Either way, last year's figures are quite an improvement over those of the 1990's, when state tax authorities could not, no matter how they tried, beat taxes out of this stubborn economy. They begged. They pleaded. When all else failed, they sent in men with guns. Finally they abandoned the old system, three different rates running as high as 35 percent, and turned to the flat income tax to offer a carrot. In truth, it was not really that people had refused to pay. The economy, quite simply, was paralyzed. There was no cash. Companies paid one another in pigs, tires and teakettles, making taxes nearly impossible to calculate, never mind collect. An economic explosion in 1998 solved that problem. "The cash came back," said Christof Ruehl, the World Bank's economist in Moscow. Unlike Americans, the vast majority of Russians are not required to file an income tax return because their taxes are deducted from their wages. That makes life easy for most. For those who do not have taxes deducted, the procedure, which is not likely to impress Mr. Forbes, goes like this: First, pick up forms from the tax inspector, since they are not available in post offices. Then read 32 pages of instructions and fill out the 12-page form. Print carefully — a misplaced mark is ground for rejection. Next, hand deliver the forms, which are truly considered filed only after the tax inspector signs them. (Translation: forms lost in Russia's spotty mail system are your fault.) Finally, to pay, go to the state-owned savings bank Sberbank (but not during its lunch break) and fill out the same form twice. Carefully copy the 20-digit number across the top. Exhausting? Russian accountants think so. Some carry gifts to soften surly inspectors, perfume for women and whiskey for men. Others come prepared with tranquilizers. Svetlana, a 45-year-old accountant who takes on private clients in addition to her day job at a store that sells Italian bathroom fixtures, says she drinks a drop of Valerian, a homeopathic sedative, before making her case to the tax inspector. On a recent visit to the social security office, she was told, after waiting in line for over three hours, that she had incorrectly filled out one of her forms. "I asked, `Please show me how to fill it out,' " she said, on the condition her last name not be used. "They told me, `That's not our job.' They told me to come back when I got it right." Income tax is a small piece of the government's pie. Revenues from the tax make up about 13 percent of income, compared with more than 50 percent of all government tax revenues in the United States. The state here takes a much larger chunk in other taxes. The other taxes are the heart of the problem. Long before employers deduct income tax from workers' wages, they must pay the government for pensions, social security and health care. As a result, businesses like to hide the true value of the wages they pay. Take Oleg, 40, whose small Moscow company makes women's coats. He agreed to speak on the condition his last name not be used. Oleg's 36 seamstresses each earned $200 a month last year. But in tax filings, he declared that he paid them only $66. On every dollar he pays his seamstresses, he must pay 35 cents in social taxes to the government. His conclusion? Don't tell the whole story. "It's just not realistic," Oleg said. "Income tax comes after all the other wage taxes. They haven't changed. Why should I?" But government policy makers are working hard to change the system. The new income tax is a sign of that to Vladislav L. Korochkin, the owner of a 450-employee company that grows and sells garden seeds. Mr. Korochkin, 38, thinks that top officials have become more responsive to criticism. He even stated his complaints about the arduous accounting requirements of a new corporate tax to President Vladimir V. Putin at a meeting with a small-business lobby group in December. "It hasn't gotten worse and that's pretty good," said Mr. Korochkin at his company's Moscow headquarters, where the walls are lined with brightly colored seed packets. According to government records, more businesses are standing up to be counted. Finance Minister Aleksei L. Kudrin said recently that 400,000 new businesses were registered in the year and a half that ended last July, a rise of 11 percent. Mr. Ruehl, the economist, advises caution. "There is no evidence that the increased tax collection is a result of people suddenly becoming happy taxpayers," he said. "The happy taxpayer is a person we have never met, which is weird because he should be very public." ******* #15 The Russia Journal March 22-28, 2002 Trying to break through the glass ceiling By IRINA SANDUL Inna Starkova, an assistant brand manager at Gillette’s Moscow office, walks quickly into the building’s lobby. Dressed in a green, rose-patterned suit that matches her hay-colored hair, the businesslike young woman suddenly notices a camera directed at her and smiles bashfully. She is not used to being photographed, she says. At 25, Starkova has already spent five years in business. She does not have her own office, but she already earns more than her father, who has a senior position at a candy factory in Moscow. Asked if she might become the head of Gillette someday, she at first hesitates. "Maybe," she says, adding: "Who knows, though?" Starkova’s story is becoming typical for many highly educated young women in Russia. Raised in a Moscow suburb, she graduated from the city’s Ordghonikidze Management University with a degree in economics and English. As a student, she started working as a receptionist. The job did not last long – she was promoted, setting a pattern for her career so far. Apart from her full-time job at Gillette she studies part time at the Chartered Institute of Marketing in London. According to a report published last year by the UN’s International Labor Organization (ILO), Russian women make up 47 percent of the country’s working-age population. Ninety percent of women aged 35 to 49 either work or are looking for a job. Of those women who do work, 94 percent are salaried employees; the figure for men is 91 percent. Psychologists say women "develop their business more cautiously than men," the ILO report stated. Dealing with business partners, women are more willing than men to compromise and to take morals and ethics into consideration when making a decision, the report said. Recruitment agencies also think highly of women’s potential. "A woman is more active and flexible than a man," said Galina Kosheleva of the Kadrovy Center Stolitsa, a Moscow recruitment agency. "She makes contact with people easier." Women, Kosheleva said, are hired for 80 percent of the 30 to 40 vacancies her agency fills per year. Hiring managers often concur. Margarita Krakovskaya of Bank Russky Standardt said 450 of the bank’s 700 employees are women. She cited diligence and attentiveness as the key traits that differentiate the female workers from their male colleagues. But when it comes to landing the job of deciding who gets hired, women tend to be overlooked. According to the ILO, there are 2.3 times more men than women working as hiring managers or at equivalent positions in companies throughout Russia. "In Russia they still consider a man to be a hunter," said Vyacheslav Losev, a senior consultant for one of Russia’s largest employment agencies, BLM-Consort. "A woman is supposed to look after the nest." He also said that employers usually give women administrative positions, such as office manager, secretary or human-resources official, in which they can perform "housekeeping functions" but "not make important decisions." However, at companies where HR departments have a degree of authority to make strategic decisions, male managers are usually the ones who handle those responsibilities. According to Losev, men fill 80 percent of the top management vacancies his recruitment agency gets. Pyotr Yeltsov, a consultant with Commonwealth Resources in Moscow, said the lack of desire to hire women for managerial positions recalls an old-line approach. "The [Communist] Party bodies influenced the recruitment system of the Soviet Union," he said. "It was a more patriarchal system. The equal attitude toward men and women is part of the business culture of foreign employers." It is something local companies still often miss, Yeltsov added. An average female worker in Russia makes only two-thirds what her male counterpart makes, according to the ILO. Many experts say that the percentage is even lower – perhaps 50 percent – and that the gender gap in salaries has widened during the 11 years of post-Soviet history. BRS’ Krakovskaya agreed with those findings. "Lower salaries satisfy women [even when] they have the same qualifications as men," she said. But Losev, of BLM-Consort, disagreed, saying the 200 vacancies his agency fills each year are split equally between men and women. He said, however, that HR jobs usually were filled by females while positions in IT mainly went to males. Hirees in logistics and legal affairs are roughly half men and half women, Losev said. In marketing, women get 65 percent of jobs, he added. Yelena Fadeyeva, an HR manager at the multinational 3M, said the company’s Moscow office usually hires women for jobs in sales, finance and administration and as department heads. She said the 3M HR department is mostly female "because men just do not want to do this job." The ILO detected a trend of men being favored over women for high-paying managerial jobs, even to the point of pushing them out. For example, the labor body said, Russia’s state-run banking sector prior to the reforms of the 1990s was predominantly run by women, but as soon as the sector opened up and banking jobs became more prestigious and lucrative, it was men who were hired to fill the better positions. That trend was mirrored in other state-dominated sectors throughout the ‘90s and, to some extent, in the private sector as well. Yelena, a middle-level manager in a multinational company who did not want her last name used, said discrimination against women exists both in management and in lower-level office jobs. "Women get routine jobs that offer little room for creativity," she said, speaking of the working environment in her company. There are no women in the company’s Moscow sales department, she explained. In contrast, when the company was launched in the early ‘90s, sales jobs were split evenly between females and males. Yelena said women at the company now work mainly in customer service, which is one of the lowest-paying departments. Those working in the accounting department end up doing routine work that also draws comparatively low pay. "Women are workhorses who create products that are presented by men," Yelena said. BLT’s Losev said that men get 80 percent of sales vacancies because employers think they are better suited for "business trips and intensive labor." Employers, he said, rarely officially announce they are against women in sales. However, some openly admit they prefer a male candidate. Western companies usually say gender does not make any difference to them, but eventually tend to prefer men in sales as well, Losev said adding: "We, however, think women often sell better." KDS’ Kosheleva said that employers often prefer males for sales positions because field sales representatives travel from one office to another in a company car. Men usually get 60 percent of sales job offers her agency receives, she said, adding that women are preferred for telephone sales jobs that involve working from the office. Employers "value a pleasant female voice," said Kosheleva. "Women are more emotional. They can sell products [over the phone] better." BRS’ Krakovskaya agreed with that. She said females in the bank work for the information and customer service departments because "it is more pleasant to hear a female voice over the phone" for men who make a majority of their customers. Some recruiters think men are the ones who get discriminated against. Employers often do not give males jobs that "historically belong to women," BLT’s Losev said. "A woman can make her way into the area of financial analyses," he said. "But for a man to start his carrier as a secretary would be indecent. Nobody would even offer him this job." Sergei, an IT specialist from Moscow who declined to give his last name, said he did was refused a secretarial job at a company selling computer equipment. The potential employer told him customers would just hang up if they hear a male voice over the phone thinking they had called the wrong number. Some employers still think that only a "cute girl" should be a secretary or a receptionist, said KDS’ Kosheleva. Clients do not state that openly but "take it for granted" when making a request, she added. However, BLT’s Losev said that, though employers do consider looks when hiring secretaries and receptionists, they do it for business purposes. "The looks issue is important both for men and women," he said. According to the ILO, the percentage of employed women in Russia with at least partial university-level educations grew up from 19 percent in 1992 to 27.8 percent in 2000. The portion of employed men grew only 5 percent during that period. As of August 2000, 63 of 100 women had attended a university or an institute of higher education, or received technical education. Only 50 of 100 men had received the same level of education. But, the ILO reported, women are given fewer opportunities for professional development by their employers than men are. According to Yelena, the middle manager, currently there are no women working as top managers in the Russian branch of her company, while in the early and mid-’90s nearly half of the management team was female. "This makes moving up [for women] just impossible," she said. Starkova, Gillette’s manager, said her experience has been different. She said her chances are equal with those of men. "The main thing is to believe in yourself," she said. *********