#15 - JRL 7281
NOVAYA GAZETA DIGEST
No. 57, Thursday, August 7, 2003
Translated by Luba Schwartzman

* ISSUE THEME – We can see the first signs of a secret government coup in
Russia. In “Government Conspiracy More Dangerous than Oligarch Conspiracy,”
Vladimir Ilyushenko, the chairman of the Moscow Tribune political discussion
club for the intelligentsia, cites ten primary signs. Over the last few
years, several political clans with major administrative resources and
property increased their strength. They constructed something of a power
pyramid, which trampled out the tender sprouts of civil society and is now
destroying the institutes of democracy. The information field was
thoroughly “cleansed.” The only private national television channel was
liquidated. Recently accepted amendments to the law on the media and
election promises further infringement of the rights and freedom of
citizens. The most influential democratic leaders – Galina Starovoitova,
Sergei Yushenkov and Yury Shchekochikhin – have been murdered. The best,
the brightest and the bravest are being removed. The power structures,
which are unable to carry out their assignments but successfully stand up
for their own interests, amassed great political influence. The government
is dreadfully afraid of the appearance of alternative political leaders,
especially major political players from the business sector. To combat this
threat, the General Prosecutor’s office was turned into a power structure
carrying out orders “from the very top.” A secret government conspiracy is
being carried out right now. Radical national-patriots are waiting to see
how things turn out, ready to jump in and participate. If the President
does not take corresponding measures right now, he will himself become
dependent on the “liberated” members of the power structures. There are
certainly factors that oppose this pattern. The author would like this
article to be viewed as a warning. The Moscow Bureau for Human Rights
(Director, Alexander Brod) supports Ilyushenko’s position.

* NEWS OF THE DAY – “Closing Levada? Just chopping off the Head.” The
All-Russia Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) was opened
fifteen and a half years ago, in the Gorbachev era. It was conceived as an
analogue to the Gallup Poll – a public opinion research center with a very
high reputation. When our columnist Zoya Yershok asked VTsIOM Director Yury
Alexandrovich Levada: “Is it true that you personally, and not VTsIOM are
being closed?” he answered – “They are simply chopping off the head.”

* ORDER AND THE ORDER KEEPERS – Novaya Gazeta correspondent Orkhan Dzhemal
sums up the results of month-long open season on suspicious Muslim women.
After the terrorist act in Tushino, Minister of Internal Affairs Boris
Gryzlov ordered his subordinates to check “all women in headdresses and
Muslim women in kerchiefs as potential terrorists.” Large-scale checks were
to be completed by August 9, but various structures of the Ministry of
Internal Affairs are already reporting the results of the operation. In
Pskov, 40 firearms were confiscated (primarily hunting and WWII-era
weapons). Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of
Karachaevo-Cherkessia recognized the presence of female suicide bombers on
the territory of his republic. It is alarming that none of the revealed
suicide bombers were arrested. In the Belgorod Oblast, local businessmen
were generally checked. No links with Chechen rebels were discovered, but
the police did determine that 212 Chechens, including 60 women, reside in
the administrative area. Overall, “Operation Fatima” was fruitless. Novaya
Gazeta also summed up “Operation Fatima.” Participants declared the
operation was degrading and ineffective, a new form of apartheid and
segregation. Law enforcement organs drew up a “rating of enemies” on the
basis of newspaper publications. Chechens are in first place, followed by
other natives of the Caucasus, and then Americans, Jews and Arabs.

* SCANDAL – In “Gallup against Gallup,” Orkhan Djemal discusses the
situation around the Gallop Organization. The head of the international
sociologic organization Alec Gallup, came to Moscow at the beginning of the
week. Since 1935, when the company was registered, it correctly predicted
the results of all but one of the presidential elections in the US. These
exact figures are a result not only of the unique and complex computation
system, but also of the fact that the company never conducts investigation
on the request of political parties. On the Russian market, Gallup Media
calculates the rating of television channels, newspapers and information
agencies. Gallup Media is the daughter company of Suomen Gallup Oy, a
Finnish sociological institute that received permission to use the name
Gallup on the territory of Finland. The Finns broke the agreement and set
up branches in Lithuania and Russia. In 1997, a struggle over the right to
use the famous brand name broke out. Another company, Video International,
patronized by Minister of the Press Mikhail Lesin, is active in Russia.
Working closely with Gallup Media, Video International determines the cost
of advertising time on various television channels. Alec Gallup declared
that his company would like to enter the Russian market, but its name is
already taken. The question that remains is: “Who is interested in
preventing alternative research in Russia?” The answer is obvious: the
government, which finds the monopoly of Gallup Media and Video International
a convenient way of controlling the level of the freedom of speech without
technically breaking the law.

* GAS PIPELINES – As part of our “Middleman” project, Novaya Gazeta
journalists along with experts are studying the role of monopolies and
middlemen in the Russian economy. In “Pipes Don’t Burn -- They Burn Out,”
Ruslan Dubov discusses Transneft, a natural monopoly which transports about
95 percent of Russian oil, with Chairman of the Federation Council Committee
for Industrial Policy Valentin Zavadnikov.

* ALSO IN THE ISSUE
- Special correspondents Viktoria Ivleva and Sergei Mikhalych returned from
Africa. Their report about child armies will appear in the next issue of
Novaya Gazeta. The strong have learned the price of their lives, and now
children are being used as cannon fodder.

Contact Information for Novaya Gazeta
(095) 923-9485
www.novayagazeta.ru