Johnson's Russia List
#6351
12 July 2002
davidjohnson@erols.com
A CDI Project
www.cdi.org
[Contents:
DJ: Advance warning: My wife Lisa and I will be on Nantucket
July 13-20. There may--or may not--be alterations in normal JRL life.
Happy to meet any JRL recipients who may also be on the island.
1. Interfax: Russia suspends purchase of U.S. poultry.
2. Reuters: US analysts in plan to end row with Russia on Iran.
3. RIA Novosti: RUSSIA SHOULD STAKE ON HUMAN CAPITAL, MOSCOW EXPERTS
SAY.
4. Moscow Times: Valeria Korchagina, Military Sends a General to Gref.
(re war-readiness plans)
5. UPI: Russia, US seek Asian military foothold. (Kyrgyzstan)
6. Christian Science Monitor: Ken Stier, Georgia falters on legal
reforms. Established Georgian lawyers are challenging efforts to bring
US-style reforms to the legal system.
7. AP: Russian security chief says peacekeeping mission in separatist
Georgian region to continue.
8. EastWest Institute Russian Regional Report: Robert Orttung.
ST. PETERSBURG DIARY.
9. RFE/RL: Jeremy Bransten, Foreign Minister Ivanov Emphasizes Moscow's
Pro-Western Orientation.
10. AP: Russian police pledge to stem religion-motivated crimes, help
Catholic priests get citizenship.
11. Asia Times: Sergei Blagov, Unquiet flows the Ob.
12. Moscow Times: Andrei Zolotov Jr., Foreigners to Get Their Very Own
Law.
13. pravda.ru: DO NOT WATCH RUSSIAN TELEVISION!
14. Transitions Online: Sergei Avdeyenko, Grand Proceedings. (re court
cases)
15. BBC: Steve Rosenberg, Russians to clone legendary tree.(re Pushkin)
16. AP: Russia Investigates Prominent Writer. (Vladimir Sorokin)]
*******
#1
Russia suspends purchase of U.S. poultry
MOSCOW. July 11 (Interfax) - Russian importers have suspended the purchase of
U.S. poultry.
The office of the U.S. Poultry and Egg Export Council (USAPEEC) in Moscow
told Interfax on Thursday that the licenses, issued to importers by the
Russian Agriculture Ministry's Veterinary Department, expire on July 31.
Suppliers have kept loaded poultry of late so the ships have time to reach
Russia by July 31, a USAPEEC spokesman said.
He also said that the last ship is likely to arrive in Russia no later than
July 27.
Poultry imports were suspended, given Russia's plans to accept U.S. poultry
only with a new veterinary certificate beginning on August 1. Russian and
U.S. veterinary experts agreed on the main provisions of the new certificate
in Moscow this week. However, disagreement still persists and the certificate
has not be signed.
In the estimate of USAPEEC, based on figures provided by traders and the U.S.
Agriculture Department, from January to July Russia imported about 400,000
tonnes of poultry which is 40% less than a year ago. This was the result of a
ban on U.S. poultry imports from March 10 to April 15. U.S. Poultry supplies
from April 15 to August 1 will not exceed 130,000 tonnes, the spokesman said.
*******
#2
US analysts in plan to end row with Russia on Iran
July 11, 2002
By Ron Popeski
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Top U.S. analysts presented a blueprint Thursday to
resolve a deadlock between Moscow and Washington over Russia's cooperation
with Iran and allow the completion of a nuclear power plant on the country's
Gulf coast.
U.S. objections to Russia's role in the $800 million project to build the
Bushehr nuclear power station was a key point of contention at a May summit
between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Bush.
At their talks in Moscow, Putin denied that the project risked increasing
Iran's chances of acquiring nuclear weapons, and Bush said the Kremlin leader
had provided assurances that everything would be done to prevent arms
proliferation.
Two experts said improved Russian-U.S. ties meant the dispute could be
defused, provided safeguards were put in place to confine Iran's nuclear
program to civil energy.
"Russia is too committed to complete the Bushehr project and has a strong
economic and political stake in carrying the project to fruition," Robert
Einhorn of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told a
conference.
"It's time to adopt a new approach. The United States should agree to a full
range of nuclear cooperative activities (with Russia) despite the ... Bushehr
project, provided Iran is ready to accept certain critical restrictions on
its own nuclear activities and to accept stronger means of (verification)."
His proposal called for assurances that Russia confine its activities to
building reactors at Bushehr as well as a commitment both to supply fuel and
take back all spent fuel.
Russia, he said, should persuade Iran to sign an additional International
Atomic Energy Agency protocol on intrusive inspections and to make a
commitment renouncing other nuclear activities, like reprocessing and
enrichment of nuclear fuel.
IRAN TIES THE BIGGEST PROBLEM
A senior U.S. diplomat at the conference acknowledged that the issue "has
emerged as the single biggest problem in (U.S.-Russia) relations, which could
derail significant progress.
"We take as sincere Russia's recognition of the dangers of technology leading
to the acquisition of weapons," the diplomat said. "But there is a gap
between policy and implementation."
Bush has denounced Iran as forming part of an "axis of evil" along with Iraq
and North Korea. A CIA report last year accused Russia of failing to uphold
export controls in restricting the flow of expertise and technology to Iran.
Putin and other officials have acknowledged the threat of nuclear
proliferation and called for renewed efforts to guard against leaks of
sensitive technology.
But they also say that they have no intention of abandoning the Bushehr
project. Iran's president last year toured a Russian plant to discuss the
possible purchase of a second reactor.
Russia is also promoting sales of conventional arms to Iran after abandoning
a 1995 accord with Washington barring them.
Vladimir Orlov, head of the Center for Policy Studies in Russia think tank,
said the two countries' positions were "not really that far apart."
But he said Russia was tired of "double standards," citing as Putin did at
the May summit a mid-1990s deal under which Washington pledged to build
nuclear power plants in North Korea.
He also said it might be difficult to persuade Iran to sign additional
agreements given that Washington had failed to ratify the nuclear test ban
treaty and other U.N.-backed accords.
*******
#3
RUSSIA SHOULD STAKE ON HUMAN CAPITAL, MOSCOW EXPERTS SAY
MOSCOW, JULY 11, RIA NOVOSTI - Globalisation of the world economy urges that
Russia should stake on human capital. This opinion was voiced by participants
in the round-table Transnationalisation of the Russian Economy: Problems and
Prospects. It was held in Moscow on Thursday on the initiative of the Moscow
Higher Economic School.
The following figures were cited: in industrialised countries the share of
human resources in the national wealth constitutes 60 percent, material
assets account for only 20 percent of the national wealth, natural resources
for 16 percent. The position of Russia on the world market today is
characterised precisely by the use of natural resources, said Professor
Yevgeni Yasin of the Higher Economic School. In his view, to have a future in
store Russia should win success on the innovations market. For that the
economy should be made maximally open, which will heighten competition on the
internal market and create development incentives, he believes.
In order to be profitably integrated into the world economy Russia should
take advantage the next ten years for making "massive investments in the
human capital", believes Sergei Karaganov, chairman of the Russian External
and Defense Policy Council.
*******
#4
Moscow Times
July 12, 2002
Military Sends a General to Gref
By Valeria Korchagina
Staff Writer
The man in charge of drafting young men into the army will take up a key
post at the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, military officials
said Thursday.
Vladislav Putilin, the head of General Staff's mobilization department, is
to oversee top secret plans to keep the country permanently prepared for
war, the Defense Ministry said. The plans, among other things, envision
civil industries being able to quickly switch over to military production.
"This program has received little attention over the past 10 years,"
Defense Ministry spokesman Nikolai Deryabin said, according to Strana.ru.
"But _ President [Vladimir Putin] has decided that in planning the
economy's development, serious consideration should be given to the
country's security, the improvement of factories capable of quickly
switching to the production of military equipment."
The Defense Ministry announced Thursday morning that Putilin had been
appointed a deputy economic development and trade minister. The ministry's
head, German Gref, denied the appointment. The Defense Ministry later
insisted that Putilin would join the Economic Development and Trade
Ministry, but in an as-yet undecided post.
The transfer was suggested by Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, Strana.ru
reported.
The war-readiness plans, a brainchild of Josef Stalin, were once a key part
of the Soviet economy and Soviet military doctrine. While details of the
plans have always been considered as top secret, the main thrust was to
prepare industries for short-term conversion into military plants. That
meant farm equipment and car makers might need to be able to roll out tanks
and warplanes, while a tobacco factory might need to make bullets.
Although never verified, a popular urban legend in Soviet times had it that
factories produced long macaroni and never spaghetti because the equipment
needed for the macaroni was suitable for the production of gunpowder.
All heavy industry flagships, including metals and machinery, participated
in the program. Many of their plants still operate -- even in private hands
-- and the old rules and instructions regarding a quick mobilization in
case of war are at least formally still in place.
In reality, however, the program has gaping holes because of the
government's failure to maintain funding and the plants' inability to just
walk way from their assigned roles, said Yury Korgunyuk, an analyst with
the Indem think tank.
"[Under Putilin] the old and messy mobilization plan is likely to be
restructured into a better organized system of state arms procurement,"
Korgunyuk said.
Putilin was probably appointed to deal with the plans as an old hand who
has dealt with similar problems in the Defense Ministry, said Yevgeny
Gavrilenkov, the chief economist at Troika Dialog.
He no doubt knows exactly what industrial capacity remains and what is
needed, he said.
"It is too early to say what is going to happen once the old problems are
resolved," he said. "It will take time, and then a political decision will
need to be made on what the current needs are and where the threat is
coming from. It is not something that can be done quickly."
Gavrilenkov said the non-native presence of the mobilization plans has not
affected the Russian economy, but it certainly has been a major headache
for each of the enterprises involved, including Norilsk Nickel.
"So it's time to do something about it," he said.
Igor Yurgens, the vice president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and
Entrepreneurs, said businessmen have complained that some of the facilities
that are part of mobilization plans are standing unused and thus cannot
contribute to profits.
Yurgens, however, warned that bringing in a military expert with access to
top secret information could deliver mixed results, Strana.ru reported.
Colonel-General Putilin was born in 1947. A career officer, he started his
service in the Strategic Rocket Forces in 1969 and was appointed the head
of its mobilization department in 1992. He was named the head of the
General Staff's mobilization department in 1997.
Lieutenant-General Vasily Smirnov was appointed the acting head of the
mobilization department on Thursday, the Defense Ministry said.
*******
#5
Russia, US seek Asian military foothold
By Marina Kozlova
UPI
July 11, 2002
In an unusual example of military parity, Kyrgyzstan is accepting help from
Russia to restore aging anti-aircraft missile systems and at the same time
planning joint exercises with American troops.
Country officials also are hosting 2,000 international troops from 12
countries taking part in operations in Afghanistan. International troops,
including a significant U.S. military contingent, are located in Manas, the
main Kyrgyz airport, about nine miles from the capital.
Reconstruction of a separate military airport at Kant is expected to cost
$300 million, according to the United States, a high-ranking Kyrgyz
official said this spring. Rapid deployment troops headed by Russia also
are based at the military airport, said Esen Topoyev, the Kyrgyz defense
minister.
Having different military coalitions in the same place doesn't create a
conflict, Topoyev reportedly said.
All the new military developments appear to reflect the political
flexibility of President Askar Akayev and the country's hot geopolitical
location. Kyrgyzstan sits between Russia and Tajikistan, which is just
north of Afghanistan. Uzbekistan, another base for coalition forces working
on the anti-terrorist campaign in Afghanistan, is to the west; China is on
its eastern border.
In June, Russia supplied Kyrgyzstan with spare parts to repair
radio-locating systems. Now defense ministries of the two countries are
negotiating for Russia to supply new rocket anti-aircraft missile systems,
according to media reports.
The Kyrgyzstan National Guard also is expecting parachutes from the U.S.
military, followed by joint training jumps with American troops.
Russian and Kyrgyzstan officials in June signed an agreement allowing
Russia to keep a military presence in the former Soviet republic for at
least the next seven years. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov and his
Kyrgyz counterpart Topoyev also have signed a number of documents to
strengthen military and technical cooperation.
Russian armed forces have three bases around Kyrgyzstan. Another facility
is controlled by Russia's Federal Border Service.
In June, Ivanov said the presence of U.S. troops in Kyrgyzstan would not
change Russia's cooperation with Kyrgyzstan.
*******
#6
Christian Science Monitor
July 12, 2002
Georgia falters on legal reforms
Established Georgian lawyers are challenging efforts to bring US-style
reforms to the legal system.
By Ken Stier | Special to The Christian Science Monitor
TBILISI, GEORGIA -- Among former Soviet republics undergoing Western legal
reform, Georgia has long been a star student, winning extensive financial aid
from the West. But now the star pupil is faltering.
The latest trouble in establishing rule of law comes from an unexpected
source: Georgian lawyers themselves, in particular those who worked during
the Soviet regime.
"This is a fight over who will control the bar association -- it's really
between the old guard, the old psychology, and a new movement," says Gia
Getsadze, an attorney working for a USAID-funded legal reform project.
The conflict is the most recent sign of trouble in the overall reform process
in this strategically important country, recipient of more than a billion
dollars in aid from the US alone since 1992.
Aimed at discarding practices leftover from the Soviet past, judicial reforms
include such basic Western concepts as an independent judiciary and the
protection of the rights of the accused. Under a new law on the bar, all
attorneys are supposed to pass new exams aimed at raising standards in
Georgia, where bribe-taking has traditionally been the most common way of
settling legal disputes.
Last month, reformers managed to defeat a legislative attempt to
"grandfather" current lawyers out of having to take the exam. If successful,
the amendment would have opened the door to domination of the bar by the
Collegium of Advocates, the Soviet-era public defenders organization, to
which most of the country's lawyers belong – an organization widely seen as
corrupt.
"We may have won this battle, but the war is definitely not over yet," says
Carolyn Clark Campbell, the country representative for the American Bar
Association. "The Collegium does not want to lose power, and if they succeed
in hanging on, it will stop the legal reform process," says Mr. Getsadze.
The Collegium's president, Nugzar Birkaia, rejects any notion that his
organization is trying to preserve a corrupt status quo. "Of course that is
not true," he said in an interview in his office in the Ministry of Justice.
In years past Georgia won praise for overhauling its Soviet legal system: A
new constitution was adopted in 1995, followed by eight new codes, including
an administrative code - which lays out rules for relations between the
government and its citizens -- and a freedom of information act more liberal
than its US model.
These achievements were the handiwork of young reformers brought into
government by President Eduard Shevardnadze, after his resounding electoral
victory in 1995 for ending a civil war. But in recent years, most of these
reformers have left government, disillusioned with what they say is
Shevardnadze's tolerance of corruption in his administration.
"I left his office when I saw no understanding of the basic concept of the
rule of law.... He cannot put himself under the law or Constitution," says
Dato Usupashvili, formerly the president's legal adviser, who now works with
a USAID-funded legal reform project.
Observers also point to problems in other areas of the judicial system.
Georgia's human rights record has worsened in several areas in the past year,
according to the latest State Department report, including an increase in
arbitrary arrest and detention. "Neither the President nor other senior
officials took concrete steps to address these problems and impunity remained
a problem," the report, issued in March, said.
Most critics say reforms started to stall in 1998. Changes legislated up
until that time have eroded through presidential decrees and amendments
passed by a parliament in which the president's party has a majority. For
example, the country's criminal procedures code, adopted to meet the
standards required for membership in the Council of Europe, extended a range
of legal protections to those under police investigation, including the right
to complain to a judge about being beaten or tortured while in custody. But
just weeks after Georgia's ascension into the Council of Europe on April 28,
1998, amendments severely weakening these new rights started being passed.
"The Council of Europe was simply fooled by the Georgian government," says
Levan Ramishvili, who tracks legislation for the Liberty Institute, a
prominent NGO based in Tbilisi and funded by the Soros Foundation.
He also points to the law on freedom of speech and the press -- stillborn
since passing a first reading in Parliament in 1999 -- as another example of
reform that is faltering. Ramishvili also criticizes a government effort to
restore harsh Soviet-era criminal punishments for libeling public officials.
The new bar exams are part of a wider effort to replace a practice of
"diplomas for sale" with degrees based on merit. Shaky credentials help
perpetuate a system which favors those with the best political connections or
the most money. "[Within a circle of prosecutors, public defenders, and
police] self-interested state agents make decisions every day that direct
outcomes of cases, often with no consideration of the legal positions of
either the defendant or the victim," says a recent USAID assessment of the
Georgian judicial system.
The reforms once seemed promising. In the past two years there has been a
turnover of more than 80 percent of the country's 340 judges - with a
dramatic drop in median age. There is also the beginning of an adversarial
system, but it isn't clear how deep the changes go.
"From the standpoint of ethics, the [new] judges have not improved, the whole
system still stands on bribery. The new ones might be just more clever in
hiding their corruption," says lawyer Ketti Kvartshava.
One reason Georgia is having trouble making reform stick is money. Ms.
Kvartskhava says the best judge she knew quit after not being paid his full
salary for three years.
*******
#7
Russian security chief says peacekeeping mission in separatist Georgian
region to continue
July 11, 2002
By MISHA DZHINDZHIKHASHVILI, Associated Press Writer
TBILISI, Georgia - Russian peacekeepers will continue their mission in a
separatist region of the former Soviet republic of Georgia to prevent an
escalation of violence, a top Russian security official said Thursday during
a visit here.
Vladimir Rushailo, secretary of Russia's presidential Security Council, said
the peacekeeping operations under the mantle of the Commonwealth of
Independent States would continue "to prevent an aggravation of conditions"
in Abkhazia.
The lush province on the Black Sea that won de facto independence in 1993
after routing Georgian government troops in a two-year war. Russian
peacekeepers have been deployed in Abkhazia since 1994.
Rushailo emphasized that Russia supports a political solution to the conflict
"on the basis of protecting the territorial integrity of Georgia and taking
into account the legal rights and interests of the multinational population
of Abkhazia."
Earlier this week, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze lashed out against
Russia for granting citizenship to more than 50,000 residents of Abkhazia,
calling it akin to an annexation.
But Rushailo defended the action as legal, saying that a new Russian
citizenship law that took effect this month encourages granting Russian
passports to those who have lost their citizenship.
Also Thursday, Rushailo said that a cooperative military deployment between
the countries in the Pankisi Gorge wasn't discussed during his visit. That
lawless region bordering the breakaway Russian province of Chechnya ( news -
web sites) is the target of planned anti-terrorist operations by U.S.-trained
Georgian troops.
But Rushailo did say Moscow was ready to give Georgia technical assistance
for operations in Pankisi if it receives such a request from Tbilisi.
"If the need arises, it's not necessary that it be a bilateral operation, but
possible that it could also involve other powers," he said.
Georgian officials acknowledged last week that they were having problems
getting enough soldiers to sign up for the U.S.-sponsored training program,
with only 100 applicants for 500 spots.
*******
#8
EastWest Institute Russian Regional Report
(Vol. 7, No. 22, 10 July 2002)
ST. PETERSBURG DIARY
by Robert Orttung
ST. PETERSBURG AT 299. This summer I am living with my family in St.
Petersburg. The city today has great significance for Russia and for me
personally. St. Petersburg is President Vladimir Putin's hometown and he has
showered considerable attention on it. He regularly brings foreign leaders
here, including recently President George Bush, German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroder, and the leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
Putin has filled his government with his colleagues from the
Northern Capital and they have become one of the dominant clans in national
politics. Of course, Muscovites, continuing the long rivalry between the two
cities, have already had enough of them.
There is plenty of talk that Petersburg will once again become
Russia's capital, but such plans are hardly likely to be realized. Also
unattainable are the dreams of some Petersburg intellectuals to secede from
Russia. One such organization has even secured official registration,
avoiding a constitutional ban on secession by declaring that its goal is
merely to obtain "the maximum possible autonomy."
The city wins headlines for plenty of other reasons as well,
contrasting the trivial with the tragic. In May Oksana Fedorova, a local
police-woman, won the Miss Universe beauty pageant. During the same month,
one of the city's apartment buildings collapsed unexpectedly, sadly taking
the life of some of its citizens.
St. Petersburg will celebrate its 300th anniversary next year,
providing a chance to look back to 1703, when Peter the Great founded the
city in a northwestern swamp. Putin's federal government has set aside large
sums of money to clean up the city for its birthday and construction
projects are underway all over town.
But even such great events can hardly escape the usual problems that
afflict Russian life. Putin recently came to town to criticize local
officials for improperly using the money he had assigned them in advance of
the birthday bash.
Although Petersburg likes to think of itself as being different from
the rest of Russia, it is also representative of the larger country.
Political consultants from Moscow are already swarming into the city in
advance of its December city council elections. They will try out their
latest strategies before the 2003 national parliamentary elections.
The city also represents an interesting example of the relationship
between business and politics, a topic I am currently researching. As in
many other parts of Russia, Moscow-based firms now control many of the best
properties in the city, including the most visible on Nevskii Prospekt.
St. Petersburg is the place where I researched my doctoral
dissertation from 1989 to 1990, gathering the information for my first book,
From Leningrad to St. Petersburg. I returned to live here for the summer
after more than ten years to see how the city has changed. I hope to examine
my memories and hold them up to today's reality.
*******
#9
Russia: Foreign Minister Ivanov Emphasizes Moscow's Pro-Western Orientation
By Jeremy Bransten
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, in an interview published yesterday,
said that after years of searching for new policies, Moscow has decided its
interests lie firmly with the West. Given President Vladimir Putin's
pro-Western moves since 11 September, Ivanov's declaration was not a
surprise. But the Russian foreign minister went a step further, saying
Russia's principal threats come not from the United States or NATO, but from
Asia. He also indicated Moscow is prepared not to impede possible U.S.
military action against Iraq. RFE/RL speaks to two foreign policy experts --
one in Moscow and one in London -- for an analysis of what lies behind
Ivanov's words.
Prague, 11 July 2002 (RFE/RL) -- Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov's
wide-ranging, front-page interview published yesterday in the Russian
newspaper "Izvestiya" comes ahead of a meeting of all Russia's main foreign
diplomats, which begins in Moscow later today.
Such a convocation of ambassadors has not taken place in 20 years, according
to "Izvestiya," and is meant to confirm Moscow's new Western-oriented foreign
policy, which has been the hallmark of the Kremlin since the terrorist
attacks of 11 September.
In many respects, the points stressed by Ivanov in his interview are already
familiar, having been stressed repeatedly by President Vladimir Putin in the
wake of 11 September, as he attempts to make common cause with the U.S.-led
war on terrorism.
But both the timing of Ivanov's interview and the emphasis Russia's foreign
minister placed on certain Kremlin policies are worth noting, according to
analysts.
In the interview, Ivanov stresses that after a period of uncertainty in the
1990s, Russia has now firmly determined its diplomatic priorities. "In the
early 1990s we were in a state of searching and shakiness, unclear whether to
be with Europe or Asia or someone else," Ivanov said.
Now, says Ivanov, Moscow's priorities are firmly anchored in the West. What's
more, he added, Russia knows it cannot resuscitate the bipolar world of the
Cold War era, nor does it want to. In essence, Russia's foreign minister is
saying Moscow will not try to compete with the world's lone remaining
superpower, the United States, but will instead strive for more realistic
goals that correspond to its interests. These include greater integration
with Western states, primarily as a predictable and reliable trading partner.
Ivanov specifically says that, in his view, neither NATO nor the United
States presents a threat to Russia. Instead, he says, the threat comes from
the Caucasus and what he terms "the Asian frontier."
Ivanov, in the Kremlin's clearest indication yet that Russia will not attempt
to block possible U.S.-led military action against Iraq, told "Izvestiya"
that Moscow's primary goal is to avoid any complications in its ties with the
West over Iraq. Asked what Russia would do if an attack does happen, Ivanov
merely noted that Moscow will "judge that situation as it develops." Given
Moscow's previously strong support for Iraq and its adamant opposition to
U.S. action against Saddam Hussein, what should the West make of Ivanov's
latest statements?
What was the purpose of Ivanov's interview, why was it given to "Izvestiya,"
and why now? According to leading Russian analyst Aleksandr Pikaev, a
director at the Moscow-based Institute of World Economy and International
Relations (IMEMO), Ivanov's statements were primarily aimed at the ministry's
domestic adversaries. "I think that this interview is more aimed at internal
opponents of the Kremlin's pro-Western foreign policy because 'Izvestiya' is
a newspaper that is primarily read within Russia. It's a rather elite
newspaper aimed at the foreign-policy and domestic-policy establishment, and
if the minister wanted to address the West, I think he would have given an
interview to an influential Western newspaper or another influential Western
media outlet," Pikaev said.
Pikaev said Putin has run into opposition for his foreign-policy U-turn since
11 September from many official quarters, and he sees Ivanov's interview as
an attempt to mollify that opposition. Even the manner in which "Izvestiya's"
interviewer phrased his questions -- often in a confrontational style, as if
he, too, stood in the ranks of Ivanov's conservative critics -- indicates
Ivanov is keen to address the concerns of the anti-Western lobby in Russia.
Pikaev said: "I think that there are opponents to this pro-Western stance
present in many institutions of the Russian government, and if you look at
the questions posed by the 'Izvestiya' correspondent -- and 'Izvestiya' is a
rather liberal newspaper -- you will see in these questions that the
correspondent to a certain degree criticizes Russia's current foreign policy.
And most of the critics, it seems to me -- with the exception of extremists
like the Communists -- are not so much unhappy about this rapprochement with
the West. I think most people support such a rapprochement, but they are
unhappy with the fact that this rapprochement has so far failed to bring any
concrete dividends, in their opinion. And [Foreign] Minister Ivanov was
trying to polemicize with this point of view," Pikaev said.
Ivanov was at pains to stress recent gains achieved by the Kremlin's new
foreign policy, including Russia's formal induction into the G-8 group of
industrialized countries. But Pikaev said Ivanov's replies also carried a
message to the West that it will have to work harder to resolve disagreements
with Moscow if it wants to anchor Russia in the West. Among the steps that
could cement the new relationship, he noted, would be Russian membership in
the World Trade Organization or a deal on the Kaliningrad exclave. "Maybe
entry in the WTO, maybe a resolution of the Kaliningrad question, which is
becoming a serious irritant in relations between Russia and the European
Union, maybe some other steps by the United States. Although one has to note
that recently, Moscow and Washington have adapted similar positions on a
whole range of questions. For example, Moscow and Washington exerted joint
pressure on the [Georgian President Eduard] Shevardnadze regime to get him to
make a decision on the mandate of the Russian peacekeepers in Abkhazia. So
Russia's pro-Western policies have, in fact, brought some small dividends so
far," Pikaev said.
As Russia draws closer to the West, strains in Moscow's relations with
Beijing are being exposed. Ivanov acknowledged Russia's frustration with
China's recent decision to restrict the importation of certain Russian goods.
According to Katinka Barysch, a Russia analyst at the Economist Intelligence
Unit in London, this is a natural development. "Relations with China have
always been pretty ambiguous, even at the time when Russia and China were
still going on about building an alliance to counter U.S. influence. There
were more disagreements than agreements and countries that are friends don't
even sign friendship agreements, as Russia and China did at the time. So they
obviously deemed that necessary. There have always been differences. There's
always been ambiguity. Putin's move in favor of the U.S. wasn't necessarily
aimed against China, but China is definitely being left out in the cold, so
the Chinese are getting worried. And that brings the differences that are
already there back to the fore," Barysch said.
Nevertheless, despite Ivanov's negative comments, Pikaev noted that Ivanov
was careful to underline Moscow's desire for good ties with Beijing. "On the
whole, it seems to me that the minister had quite a few positive things to
say about the relationship with China. He said it would be very dangerous to
return to the Soviet policy of the 1970s and 1980s when Moscow tried to
insulate itself from China through barbed wire, artillery, and mines in the
hope that this would resolve the Soviet security problem. The minister
contrasted current Russian policy toward China with those former policies,
and he urged a continuation of the current course. In addition, the minister
spoke a lot about the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. He mentioned it in
the same context with the development of relations between Russia and NATO,
and this was also a rather friendly gesture toward China," Pikaev said.
Barysch noted that the budding trade relationship between Russia and China --
which has become Moscow's largest arms purchaser -- is unlikely to be
affected even if diplomatic ties suffer. "Russia wants to use its arms
industry to give some sort of technology boost to the rest of its industry,
which is rather out-of-date. So the arms trade is important for Russia, and
China is its most important customer. But because the mutual interests here
are very clear -- because [China] cannot simply go and shop for its arms
somewhere else and Russia cannot simply sell its arms somewhere else, because
they're not necessarily fully competitive -- the interests here are clear,
and I don't see how other foreign-policy issues could get in the way of this
kind of business," Barysch said.
One of the questions posed by policymakers in recent months is whether
Russia's new warm relations with the West, especially with Washington, could
survive a U.S.-led attack on Iraq. Russia has long supported Baghdad, not
least because Iraq still owes it some $8 billion in Soviet-era debt, which
Moscow is keen to recuperate. In his interview, Ivanov gives the clearest
indication so far that Moscow would not stand in the way of a new Gulf War
aimed at removing Saddam Hussein.
In Barysch's view, this is a reflection of Moscow's pragmatism. "The whole
Russian foreign policy at the moment is characterized by pragmatism and
realism, and when Russia now goes ahead and implicitly indicates that they
wouldn't do anything in case the U.S. attacks Iraq, that is pure realism --
what could they do?" Barysch said.
But Pikaev sees something deeper in Ivanov's reply, noting that while Moscow
is not likely ever to assist the United States militarily in an Iraqi
campaign, Ivanov could be signaling Moscow's readiness to come to a quid pro
quo arrangement with Washington. "I think Russia is unlikely to take part in
military actions. It is hardly likely to send its armed forces there, but if
it manages to agree with the Americans on guarantees about the repayment of
Iraq's Soviet-era debt after the war, and if the Americans guarantee that oil
contracts which have been promised to Russian firms will be honored by the
new Iraqi regime after the war, then I think -- and this is my expert opinion
-- I think Russia will maintain a neutral stance, a benevolent neutrality,
and it will not make a fuss about any military operation," Pikaev said.
Tomorrow, President Putin is due to address Russia's assembled diplomatic
corps in Moscow. More hints may be dropped at that time on Moscow's approach
to the issue of Iraq.
*******
#10
Russian police pledge to stem religion-motivated crimes, help Catholic
priests get citizenship
July 11, 2002
AP
MOSCOW - A top Russian police official promised the country's religious
leaders Thursday that crimes motivated by religious or ethnic hatred would
not be tolerated, in a meeting prompted by anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim
incidents that are raising alarm nationwide.
Such crimes must be "shut off" and the Interior Ministry will use "the whole
force of the law in the fight against them," Deputy Interior Minister
Vladimir Vasiliev told the meeting, according to the Interfax and ITAR-Tass
news agencies. "No emergency steps will be taken, but criminals should not
expect lenient treatment."
He said that hate crimes remain a very small percentage of overall crime in
Russia, but have become more frequent in recent months.
The meeting in Moscow came hours after a shot was fired into a mosque in the
Siberian city of Irkutsk during an overnight prayer service. No one was
injured in the incident, and it was unclear who was to blame.
Also recently, three people have been injured while removing signs reading
"Death to Jews." On Wednesday, vandals reportedly smashed gravestones in a
Muslim section of a cemetery in the southern city of Volgograd, scrawling
swastikas and the word "skinheads" on graves.
"The spiritual leadership also is concerned about the security of the
country. Why should we be silent when from all sides totalitarian sects and
religious extremism are emerging?" the leader of Russia's 20 million Muslims,
Talgat Tadzhuddin, said angrily at the meeting, in comments carried on NTV
television.
Also at the meeting were Russia's chief rabbi Berel Lazar, the head of the
Catholic Church in Russia, Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, and representatives of the
Russian Orthodox Church, Russian Buddhists, and the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Vasiliev also said Russian officials would help Catholic priests obtain
Russian citizenship, but gave no details.
Two foreign Catholic priests were barred from returning to Russia earlier
this year, amid mounting tensions between Catholics and the dominant Russian
Orthodox Church.
******
#11
Asia Times
July 11, 2002
Unquiet flows the Ob
By Sergei Blagov
MOSCOW - Several Central Asian Republics are trying to revive an ambitious
project to divert water from Siberian rivers to their desert lands.
The project would seek to build a 2,000 kilometer canal to divert waters from
the Ob and Irtysh rivers in Siberia to the Amu Darya and Syr Darya in Central
Asia. The river waters are now becoming the subject of heated political,
environmental and economic debate.
Both Central Asian rivers head to the Aral Sea - the Syr Darya from Kyrgystan
through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and the Amu Darya from Tajikstan through
Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. But irrigation has so depleted the rivers that
no water now reaches the sea. The canal proposal involves diverting about 5
percent of the Siberian rivers' waters. This is estimated to be enough to
irrigate five million hectares of land.
But the proposal is up against an estimated cost of US$4-10 billion.
Environmental experts warn that the project could lead to climate change if
carried out.
The government of Uzbekistan has sponsored several conferences in recent
weeks to support the canal project. One meeting in the Uzbek capital Tashkent
proposed establishment of an international consortium to develop the project
with support from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikstan and Russia.
The meeting proposed supply of water also to regions in Russia such as
Tyumen, Kurgan and Orenburg. The Russian government has offered no official
response to the proposals.
Uzbekistan faces serious water shortage. Agriculture is central to its
economy, and thirsty crops like cotton and rice need intensive irrigation.
About 90 percent of Uzbekistan's water resources go into irrigation. Last
year the rice crop dwindled to half the levels of 2000 due to water shortage.
Competition for water in Central Asia is bringing new tensions into a
volatile region. During the Soviet era, water and energy resources were
exchanged freely across Central Asia, and Moscow provided the funds to build
and maintain infrastructure. Water use has now increased to an unsustainable
level. Irrigation systems have decayed and an estimated half of irrigation
water never reaches crops in the region.
In the absence of a multilateral approach to replace the centralized
management under the Soviet system, disputes over water and energy are second
only to Islamic extremism as a source of tension in Central Asia, according
to a report by the International Crisis Group (ICG), a Brussels-based think
tank. The ICG says Uzbekistan has carried out military exercises that look
suspiciously like maneuvers to capture the Toktogul water reservoir in
Kyrgyzstan.
The Central Asian republics had agreed to maintain the Soviet quota system
earlier but this has now become unworkable. Water facilities have been hit
particularly by the decay of Kyrgyzstan's economy and the civil war in
Tajikstan.
An annual cycle of disputes has developed between the three downstream
countries Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - all of them thirsty
cotton growing countries - and the upstream countries Kyrgyzstan and
Tajikstan, the ICG says. The downstream countries need more water for
agriculture and for their rising populations. The upstream countries want to
use more water for electricity generation.
Uzbekistan has been accusing Turkmenistan of using too much water, and
Kazakhstan accuses Uzbekistan of the same. The upstream countries say the
downstream countries are exceeding quotas. Within Uzbekistan, rival provinces
accuse each other of using too much water.
An agreement between Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan on sharing of the
Syr Darya waters expires next year. The countries are yet to agree a new
deal.
In this situation a Siberia-Central Asia canal could help economic
development and ease political tensions. But serious difficulties lie in the
way of any agreement to build a canal.
Proposals for such a canal came first in the seventies. In the eighties the
water resources ministry of the former Soviet Union almost began
construction. But the project ran into strong opposition by Russian scholars
and environmentalists who said that diverting the river waters would upset
the global environmental balance. The Soviet government also found the plan
not economically feasible. By the mid-eighties it was abandoned.
"Right now neither Russia nor concerned Central Asian states have that kind
of money for water management purposes," said Ivan Blokov, water resource
projects coordinator with Greenpeace Russia. Blagov argues that environmental
concerns and cost are not the only consideration. Unless the canal is built
as an underground tunnel, much of the water would be lost in evaporation or
in theft, he says.
(Inter Press Service)
********
#12
Moscow Times
July 12, 2002
Foreigners to Get Their Very Own Law
By Andrei Zolotov Jr.
Staff Writer
One of the 28 bills that senators pushed through the Federation Council
this week in a rush to go on summer vacation was a controversial bill
bringing together a hodgepodge of regulations on foreigners into a single law.
The bill, which is to replace a 1981 law and numerous bylaws and
instructions, is part of a government program to curb illegal immigration
and regulate the employment of foreigners, mainly from the countries of the
former Soviet Union.
The legislation introduces a federal quota for temporary residence permits,
which the Cabinet will have to determine every year, a federal database to
track foreigners, and a new immigration form, which everybody will have to
fill out when entering Russia and surrender upon departure.
One of the bill's authors, Union of Right Forces Deputy Boris Nadezhdin,
said Thursday that the legislation will do little to change the lives of
visitors who enter the country with a visa.
But he said it was important to put the mishmash of rules on foreigners
into a new law.
"It increases a person's protection from bureaucracy," he said. "Otherwise,
if a government official doesn't like you, he could change the regulations."
Legal experts said they were not prepared to comment on the bill. Ernst &
Young and the nongovernmental Migration agency, which assists migrants,
said they were still reviewing the legislation, which was only passed by
the State Duma on June 21.
Nadezhdin said that the bill was first submitted to parliament in 1999 by
the LDPR-dominated State Duma's geopolitics committee. He said the draft
contained many "paranoid" paragraphs, such as a rule to register every car
at the border and a provision for the Federal Security Service to keep a
file on every foreigner present in the country. The measures were removed
after Nadezhdin took over the project. He said he practically rewrote the
draft for the second Duma reading in May.
The 55-page bill does not mention the issuance of visas and pertains to the
rules for foreigners once they enter Russia. It upholds the current rule
that foreigners must register with the Interior Ministry within three
business days upon entry unless they are visiting heads of state, members
of official government delegations or navy officers coming ashore for a
friendly visit. Foreign diplomats, journalists and officials of accredited
international organizations' representative offices register with the
Foreign Ministry.
The law establishes two types of residence permits: temporary, which are to
be issued for three years, and permanent, which are to be issued for five
years and can be renewed an unlimited number of times.
Much of the bill outlines the issuance of temporary residence permits and
work permits, which appear to be closely tied together and aimed at
regulating immigration from other CIS countries. Both permits are to be
issued by Interior Ministry offices.
Despite Nadezhdin's pride about enshrining government regulations into a
law, much is still left for federal authorities to determine.
The bill envisions a complicated system of quotas for temporary residence
permits. The federal government establishes the quotas after hearing from
the regions how many foreign workers they need. The regions are supposed to
base their decisions on requests from local employers. Moreover, employers
must get permission from the Federal Migration Service to hire foreigners,
and the service only gives the thumbs up after the Labor Ministry
determines that Russian nationals cannot fill the demand.
When applying for an invitation for a foreigner, the employer will have to
deposit a sum that covers the price of the foreigner's ticket home. That
money will be used if the foreigner ends up being deported.
Foreigners with temporary residence permits will not be allowed to live in
any other region than the one in which they are employed and registered.
Those who invest in Russia are not counted in the quota, as are those
married to Russian nationals or those with Russian dependents. The amount
of the needed investment is to be determined by the Cabinet.
Permits can be revoked if a foreigner is a drug addict or has HIV or other
"dangerous" diseases, according to the bill, a copy of which was obtained
by The Moscow Times. The Cabinet decides which diseases are considered
dangerous.
The bill also introduces "migration cards," which appear to be similar to
the immigration forms that foreigners fill out upon entering the United
States. The form is to be stamped at the border and presented to the police
along with a passport when the foreigner applies for registration.
The form is to be surrendered at the border when a foreigner leaves the
country.
The bill instructs the government to create a "centralized database" that
is protected from "unsanctioned access" to track foreigners.
Lidia Grafova, head of an association advocating migrants rights and a
member of a government commission on migration policy, said she had mixed
feelings about the bill.
The legislation is long overdue, she said. But on the other hand, lawmakers
allowed a number of "legal mistakes" to remain in the bill in their rush to
get it approved, she said.
Together with the law on citizenship that went into force July 1, the bill
will lock up the country from former Soviet citizens who have found
themselves foreigners in Russia, Grafova said.
She particularly expressed concern about Article 37, which gives CIS
citizens who have entered Russia without a visa 60 days after the law's
enactment to apply to local police offices for migration cards and only 90
days to get residency permits after that. Those who don't apply for the
card will become illegal aliens 90 days after the law's enactment.
Grafova said thousands upon thousands of CIS citizens living in the regions
have been denied registration for years. "If they have already gone [to the
police], suffered a great deal and couldn't get registered, how are they
going to get it done in 90 days?" she said.
She predicted that chaos will break out and bribe-taking will soar because
the government does not have the cash for mass deportations.
The bill, which was passed Wednesday, now goes to President Vladimir Putin
for his signature and will become law three months after being published in
the official state newspaper.
Also Wednesday, the Federation Council urged the Cabinet to propose in the
fall a bill allowing the regions not only to establish quotas for
immigration but to deport "certain categories of citizens" from conflict
zones, Interfax reported.
********
#13
pravda.ru
July 11, 2002
DO NOT WATCH RUSSIAN TELEVISION!
Millions of people think about this thing every day: if there were no
murders, catastrophes, plundering, acts of terrorism, then what would our
television show? This is like a disease, like never-ending bad luck. TV
producers do this in order not to leave you quiet during their programs.
That’s why there is a saying: one death – this is grief, millions of deaths
– this is statistics.
Negative, negative, and once again negative programs and news are on all
channels all day long. For example, a soldier escaped form his military
unit. Well, this happens in all armies of the world, but they talk so much
about Russian soliders that it makes your head spin. TV hosts will
inevitably say that a solder ran away with a gun and that it was a
Kalashnikov. And if there was someone killed, then they would say that a
person was killed with a Makarov or Stechkin. So, it just so happens that
the designers of Russian weapons somewhat assist in all those crimes.
Every day and every hour you hear the news that there was an act of
terrorism, or an air crash. Planes or helicopters fall and crash as if they
have a schedule for that, while floods and gas explosions happen every now
and then. A couple of short reports about President Putin, a scandal in the
State Duma; that’s seems to be it. No more news for today, thank you for
watching! The life of a huge country, people’s problems, and discoveries;
everything is somewhere in the deep background, as always. It is
provincial, local television companies that report on the fact that it's
harvesting. We know such a small amount of what we should know about our
country.
At first, it was Radio Liberty that was delivering all that negative stuff
to Russia from Munich (needless to mention that this radio is backed up by
the American Congress). Russian fugitive dissidents in Munich would create
jokes; one joke cost $50, and it would be aired on the radio. Now, it is
the Russian "democratic" mass media outlets taking care of business. Their
major information source is the press-service of the Russian EMERCOM.
Sometimes there is nothing good for journalists to dwell on. Then, they
simply make it all up. In other words, they drag on for days and even weeks
taling about something that is not a piece of news anymore. They have such
a passion! The need to savour a piece of news as long as possible. It took
them ten days (!) to talk about the death of the Krasnoyarsk regional
governor Alexander Lebed. To be honest, this is a mediocre thing to happen.
A top regional official decided to have fun on Saturday and to have a look
at the Sayany mountains from above, how they build a ski run. Governors
don’t fly alone; they have a wide range of lower officials and journalists,
of course. The pilots were ordered to fly despite the awful weather.
As we can see, there was nothing heroic about Lebed’s death. Of course, we
are sorry for him, but what's the point of making global sorrow out of it?
It was the major event on the day of the crash, indeed; it was horrible
grief for Alexander Lebed’s relatives. Then, there was the nextday – how
the body was carried from the regional town of Yermakovskoye to Krasnoyarsk
(the center of the region). Then, there were three days of sorrow on the
part of inconsolable Krasnoyarsk residents. Then, TV journalists were
racking their brains on where to bury the body. They said that it would be
good to bury Lebed in the town of Novocherkassk, as this is the place where
the general came from. However, then, they made it Moscow, and then there
were three more days again to report on how the body was carried to Moscow
in a valuable casket. Oh my God, will there be any end to it?
It was over after the tenth day. It was not sorrow, and it was not atribute
to Lebed. This was a show for all of us, the people. This was a show that
did not display a face or eyes filled with real sorrow.
Why is this all for? Why are they fond of horrible news instead of talking
about good news? Why would every television camera turn to film a
demonstration of drunkards in Minsk against Belarussian President Alexander
Lukashenko, but no one would even cares to say anything about huge
demonstrations in Belgrade in support of Milosevic?
This is meant to show us "real" horror: we are supposed to forget about our
miserable living and our meager incomes; this is like a prevention to stop
us from going out in the streets and protesting against the life that they
force us to live.
Andrey Cherkasov
PRAVDA.Ru
Volgograd
Translated by Dmitry Sudakov
********
#14
Transitions Online
www.tol.cz
June 9, 2002
Grand Proceedings
from Ezhenedel'ny
by Sergei Avdeyenko
MOSCOW, 2 July (Ezhenedel'ny Zhurnal)--In the years ahead, a historian will
without fail note that in June 2002 Russian courts were passed a noticeably
larger number of verdicts. Russian newspapers and journals were filled with
headlines from courtrooms: “Sentence on Dmitry Kholodov”, “Oleg Kalugin
handed 15 years”, “Litvinenko gets 3.5 years”, “Pasko pronounced a spy”…
Sounds like Russia back in 1937.
Prosecutors as well as the convicted and their attorneys have violently
protested against the verdicts, while the acquitted intend to sue the
Prosecutor General’s Office for compensation running into the millions of
rubles. Neither those involved in the cases nor independent observers share
the feeling that justice has triumphed. The Union of the Rightist Forces’
leader Boris Nemtsov is far from euphoric either: “After Anatoly Bykov was
set free, the state prosecutor offered to amnesty Colonel Yuri Budanov, and
the Supreme Court upheld the verdict on Grigory Pasko, in the eyes of most
citizens the impartiality of courts--and, consequently, of the law—is
becoming more and more a political fiction.”
All of the cases mentioned above have one thing in common--insufficient
evidence of the defendants’ guilt. The indictment in the case of the Pasko
is notorious for such obscure, yet suspicious statements as “gathered
information of interest to the latter (a Japanese citizen)”, “contacted him
on the phone to discuss out-of-office issues”, “kept a technical map of the
military unit”…
Former FSB Lieutenant-Col. Alexander Litvinenko, who several years ago
revealed his agency’s plot to murder Boris Berezovsky stands accused of
“extorting confessions” from suspects “by beating.” To prove the guilt of
the former officer, prosecutors relied on testimonies of those who had been
slighted and of former colleagues of Litvinenko who recognized the
defendant on video footage “by voice and gestures.” KGB General Oleg
Kalugin has been found guilty for a book in which he allegedly helped
Americans to apprehend a ‘turncoat’ inside the FBI. The book, however, was
never presented in court.
However, not all of these recent notorious trials ended with guilty
verdicts. Pavel Popovskikh, a former commander of a paratroopers’
intelligence unit, and five more defendants charged with plotting the
murder of Dmitry Kholodov, a journalist with the Moscow newspaper
Moskovskiy Komsomolets, were acquitted, as the court ruled that the
prosecution had failed to disprove their alibi and to provide conclusive
proof of their guilt.
But why, when given similarly inadequate evidence in the cases of Pasko,
Litvinenko and Kalugin, did the court bring in a guilty verdict, while in
the Kholodov case the defendants were acquitted? It seems that in the
Kholodov case the state authorities had no personal interest. As a result,
the court acted in accordance with the law.
As for the cases of Kalugin, Litvinenko and Pasko, the interest of the
state--or rather of one of its all-mighty agencies--is obvious. The FSB was
eager at any cost to wreak revenge: on Kalugin, a defector who had divulged
the working practices and tactics of a defunct intelligence agency of a
state that no longer exists; on Litvinenko, who took the side of the wrong
man and dared not only to contest the orders of his superiors, but also to
submit them for public discussion; and, finally on Pasko, who revealed ‘a
state secret’ about the amount of nuclear waste dumped off the Pacific
coast, and was even paid for that.
The Russian security services no longer arouse fear in society, and are
altogether impotent: they hardly can resist Chechen rebels, or neo-Nazis in
Moscow, but then, not a single officer will escape vengeance, if he dares
to lift the veil of secrecy from affairs of the mighty agency. And there
are still means for that.
Translated for the TOL Wire by Oksana Sobkovich.
Additional notes by Oksana Sobkovich:
On 26 June, a Moscow court found former KGB General Oleg Kalugin guilty of
high treason and sentenced him to 15 years in a high-security prison. The
sentence was passed in absentia--for many years now Kalugin has been living
in the United States.
On 25 June, a former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko currently living in
exile in London was convicted of abuse of office at a trial in absentia in
Moscow, and given a suspended sentence of 3.5 years. Litvinenko rose to
prominence in 1998 after he told a news conference that the FSB’s
anti-mafia directorate had been instructed to murder the then-powerful
tycoon and Kremlin insider Boris Berezovsky. After that scandalous news
conference Litvinenko was charged with abuse of office and taken into
custody. He spent eight months in jail before a Moscow military court
acquitted him, whereupon he was immediately charged anew, but managed to
escape to London. After arriving at Heathrow airport the fugitive made a
statement. He said that his family was in danger because he knew who had
blown up several apartments blocks in Moscow in September 1999. Six months
later, Litvinenko was granted political asylum in the United Kingdom. The
last time he appeared in public was on 5 March, when he took part in a news
conference in London where Boris Berezovsky presented a documentary,
''Attack on Russia'', that aimed to prove the FSB’s involvement in the 1999
bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk, as well as Russian President Vladimir
Putin’s knowledge of these operations.
On 25 June, the military journalist Grigory Pasko lost his appeal to have
his conviction for treason overturned. Pasko, a navy officer turned
reporter with the Pacific Ocean Fleet paper Boevaya Vakhta (Battle Watch),
was arrested by the FSB’s Pacific Ocean Fleet department in November 1997.
He was charged with high treason for spying for Japan after the FSB alleged
he had passed documents containing classified information to the Japanese
newspaper Asahi and to Japan’s NHK television network. Pasko denied the
charges and claimed he was being persecuted because of his environmental
activities--in his articles he exposed the Russian navy’s illegal dumping
of nuclear waste off the coast of the Primorye Region. On 25 December 2001,
the court found Pasko guilty of espionage and sentenced him to four years
in prison. On 25 June the military board of judges of the Supreme Court
reviewed both appeals filed by the prosecutor and by Pasko’s defense
attorneys. The examination lasted for five hours, whereupon the military
board of judges rejected both appeals and upheld the sentence passed by the
military court of the Russian Pacific Fleet.
On 26 June, a Moscow court acquitted six men accused of the murder of
Dmitri Kholodov, a journalist killed in 1994 while investigating corruption
in the Russian military. The defendants, including a former chief of the
Russian paratroop intelligence services and other senior military
officials, were cleared of arranging the bomb blast that killed Kholodov in
the offices of the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper. The 27 year-old
reporter was killed by a booby trapped briefcase that was supposed to
contain material for his investigations into corruption in the Russian
military. The circumstances of the case led to widespread media speculation
at the time over the possible involvement of Pavel Grachev, then defense
minister. However, no evidence linking Grachev to the murder was presented
in court.
One 19 June, Anatoly Bykov, a man who was once one of Siberia’s most
powerful metal tycoons and a former head of the Krasnoyarsk Aluminium Plant
(KrAZ), was found guilty of all charges brought against him, but he was
given a 6.5-year suspended sentence and released in the courtroom. Although
the court found Bykov guilty of masterminding an attempt on the life of his
former business associate Pavel Strouganov, (a.k.a. Pasha Tsvetomuzyka) and
of the illegal acquisition and possession of weapons, the court decided to
release him from custody under a travel ban, citing his poor health and the
length of time (20 months) that he had already spent in remand in the
high-security Lefortovo prison.
Sergei Avdeyenko is a journalist with Ezhenedel'ny Zhurnal.
*******
#15
BBC
11 July 2002
Russians to clone legendary tree
By Steve Rosenberg
BBC correspondent in Moscow
Scientists in southern Russia have started work on an unusual project to
clone one of the country's most famous trees.
The old oak of Taganrog is thought to have inspired the 19th Century Russian
poet Aleksandr Pushkin to write verse.
But last month the tree burned down and it was feared a famous piece of
Russian history could have been lost forever.
Legend has it that this was the tree which inspired Pushkin to write one of
his best loved poems - all about an oak with a golden chain.
Not that the old oak of Taganrog is really an oak - it is a mulberry tree.
But then, as the people of Taganrog will tell you, Pushkin wasn't exactly an
expert when it came to biology.
Cultural heritage
Now there could be life in the ancient tree yet after a group of local
businessman vowed to raise it from the ashes, using the very latest
technology.
A team of scientists from the city of Rostov-on-Don has been brought in -
their mission: to clone the tree using living tissue recovered from the
stump.
Leonid Matusevich, head of the Taganrog Union of Businessmen, told the BBC
there was no question of profiting from the project - local businesses simply
felt a duty to protect their country's rich past.
The tree's reappearance, he said, would herald a spiritual revival across the
whole of Russia.
*******
#16
Russia Investigates Prominent Writer
By Steve Gutterman
Associated Press Writer
July 11, 2002
MOSCOW –– A criminal complaint from a youth group that backs President
Vladimir Putin has prompted an inquiry into an iconoclastic author over a
novel that depicts sexual contact between Josef Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev.
Police opened the investigation after prosecutors found that parts of
Vladimir Sorokin's 1999 book "Goluboye Salo" – which can be translated as
"Blue Lard" or "Gay Lard" – are pornographic, Svetlana Petrenko, an aide to
the chief Moscow prosecutor, said Thursday.
The investigation alarmed advocates of freedom of expression, who have long
been concerned about the possibility of a return to censorship under Putin,
a former KGB agent who was elected in part on the strength of promises to
re-establish order in Russia.
Petrenko said prosecutors had an expert examine the book after a pro-Putin
youth group, Walking Together, filed a criminal complaint last month
accusing author Sorokin of disseminating pornography. She said the
investigation also targets Sorokin's Russian publisher, Ad Marginem, and
anyone who sells it.
According to a recent report in the Russian newspaper Kommersant,
authorities took an interest in the novel after someone called police to
complain about a scene of sexual contact between the Soviet dictator Stalin
and Khrushchev, his successor. Many older Russians do not like to see
Stalin and other Soviet leaders criticized or ridiculed.
But the sharpest criticism of Sorokin's brash prose has come from the youth
group. Last month, group members put on rubber gloves, tore up copies of
his books and threw them into a big mock toilet bowl they set up in Moscow.
Alexei Simonov, head of the Glasnost Defense Fund, a Russian group that
monitors freedom of expression, suggested the probe amounted to an attempt
to censor authors.
"The problem is not whether or not Sorokin's books contain foul language,
but that the criminal prosecution of any writer is very dangerous from the
point of view of freedom of the press," Interfax quoted Simonov as saying.
He said the investigation "is not so much a threat of possible censorship
as an admission that such censorship does exist."
Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoi also spoke out against the investigation.
"I am not a fan of Sorokin but I would defend his right to express
himself," he told RTR television.
Sorokin said he did not rule out the possibility that he would face "a show
trial" – a reference to political trials including those of writers and
other artists under Stalin. "This may generate a trend that would signal a
cleansing in literature and culture as a whole," Interfax quoted him as
saying.
Sorokin could be sentenced to up to two years in prison if convicted of
disseminating pornography.
The author also denied the accusation that the book is pornographic, saying
its subject is the death of Russian literature. "Pornography is a specific
genre, and pornographic works contain only pornographic scenes," he said.
He defended his use of obscene words, saying that "in every civilized
country such words have long since become part of the culture."
Alexander Ivanov, director of Ad Marginem publishing house, told NTV
television that sales of Sorokin's books had quadrupled since the recent
controversy.
Some Russian literary critics have complained that the quality of the books
Russians write and read significantly deteriorated after the Soviet
collapse in 1991. Several post-Soviet writers have won readers with works
that mix literary style with profanity or graphic descriptions of sex.
Russia's official human rights ombudsman, Oleg Mironov, criticized foul
language and pornography in the arts but said criminal prosecution would
not solve the problem.
"Writers should speak of the reasonable and the eternal instead of cursing
and describing improper scenes," Interfax quoted Mironov as saying.
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