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NOVAYA GAZETA DIGEST
No. 82. Monday, 4 November 2002
Translated by Luba Schwartzman (luba_sch@hotmail.com)
Research Analyst, Center for Defense Information, Moscow office
* LEADING ARTICLE. "I can only imagine how horrible things would be if we didn’t get our groups into position ahead of time." Moscow Rescue Service Director Aleksandr Shabalov shares with Novaya Gazeta special correspondent Galina Mursalieva previously unknown details about what happened in the Nord-Ost hall right after the beginning of the storm. At the very start of the crisis, when the theater was just seized, all of the services were in place, but then they were all asked to leave. The vans of the Moscow Rescue Service are always equipped with units with compressed air with face masks and emergency nalaxone -- but no one called the service on the day of the storm or informed the service about the gas attack, even after the storm of the theater. The first impression was that we walked into a hall with dead bodies. No one was moving; everyone was in unnatural positions, with their heads down. If it wasn't for the cries of the special service troops: "Quick! Carry them out! They are all alive!" no one would realized right away what they needed to do. "It wasn't just the gas that was killing them -- it was time, too" -- time that was lost because of poor organization. No one organized us. No one gave us assignments. No one explained who should be where, how to communicate, where to go, who to turn to if… No one said anything to anyone.
* ISSUE THEME. "Of Russia's seven special services, only one protects regular citizens. The other six serve a horde of officials," writes Novaya Gazeta columnist Georgii Rozhnov in "Shield or Sword?" Since the recent tragedy in Moscow, politicians, journalists, deputies, and citizens have become more insistent in asking the special services unpleasant questions: Why were Baraev's terrorists let into Moscow with guns and explosives? Why was the sword of retaliation used during the storm, while the victims were hardly shielded at all? We will better understand the answers to these angry questions if we know what security services exist in Russia today -- who is responsible and whether they are capable of destroying terrorism as the President demands.
* ISSUE INTERVIEW. "I suggest that you jail the identikits, since you won't find the guilty parties…" Mikhail Zadornav tells Novoya Gazeta writer Lilia Gushchina. "I am worried about the government's actions, and about the deception coming out of the president's office. Because of self-censorship we have to praise the storm, the government is reveling in glory and dictating its point of view to the people, brainwashing them. The government is worried about its international prestige -- not about the fate of the hostages. We've seen the same thing after the sinking of the Kursk, the fire at the Ostankino television tower, the explosion at Pushkin Square... We don't see the guilty parties. What do we hear? "An investigation has been initiated." I have a feeling that many prosecutors initiate an investigation before even reaching the crime scene. And make up the identikits. Putin is a marvelous minister of foreign affairs. He travels himself, represents his country. But he's already being called a "jingle bell" by people -- sounds pretty, but completely useless.
* SPECIAL REPORT. "I never write reports from funerals. But now I'm making an exception," writes Novaya Gazeta columnist Anna Politkovskaya in her report "After 57 Hours." The last day passes as if in delirium. Moscow is burying the hostages. Today, yesterday, tomorrow. It's unbearable… The priest is having trouble controlling his hoarse and strained voice. He has a lot of work lately. Burial services follow one after another -- and there is probably no one to replace him… "I was really unhappy with the behavior of most of the Chechens I know during those 57 hours," tells the author. "When everything was hanging by a thread, the words of a Chechen to a Chechen would be the most important ones. At least that's the way it seemed. But there were no WORDS. They didn't come." Read about what happened "After 57 Hours" in the Nord-Ost building in Novaya Gazeta.
* ISSUE DETAILS. Officers of Turkmen special services are protecting drug trafficking from Afghanistan to Europe, reports Novaya Gazeta's Dushanbe-Ashkhabad correspondent Gennady Lebedev in "Turkmen Transit." In Russia, a kilogram of heroin costs up to $70,000. In Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan or Turkmenistan, this same kilogram costs 10-15 times less. In Afghanistan, it only costs $700, which is a hundred times less than in Russia. These are the super-profits for which dealers are so laboriously getting our children hooked. Drugs get to Russia from Afghanistan through Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. The 800-kilometer border between Turkmenistan and Afghanistan is not easy to cross, but there are a few spots that are geared for drug trafficking. According to most international experts, the critical situation with drugs and drug transit in Turkmenistan is largely a result of the actions of President Niyazov himself. And if his Committee for National Security (KNB) protects drug transit and drug trafficking, then the Great One himself is the protector of the KNB.
* PRESSURE POINT. "Why is our agriculture being forced into bankruptcy?" Aleksandr Yagodkin, our correspondent from Voronezh, seeks to answer this question in "How the Oligarchs Ate the Peasants." For the second year in a row, a rich grain harvest has been collected from Voronezh's black-earth region -- and the peasants have gained nothing from this. On the contrary -- it's been a problem. Grain prices have fallen to the lowest of the low -- one ruble per kilogram. At the same time, bread on the store shelves is not getting cheaper. The Moscow capital has been actively appropriating the cheap provinces. And they've taken the right to dictate values for grain quality, its volume, and its stock life. After the bread factories, grain elevators are the second bastion on Voronezh land that Moscow capital has taken by storm. But their taxes go to Luzhkov, as per their place of residence. War is war -- and the power of oligarchs is trading human capital of the village for a currency discount.
* ALSO IN THE ISSUE: The "Neightbor in Time" column carries an article by our Udmurtia correspondent Boris Bronshtein: "Local Time -- Location Temporary." The author describes one day in the life of the mayor of Sarapula -- the birthplace of Russia's first-ever female officer.
Contact Information for Novaya Gazeta
PR office: 923-9485
www.novayagazeta.ru
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