#1
Russia/Ukraine: U.S. Senator Pleased With Disarmament Progress
By Julie Moffett

Washington, 25 November 1998 (RFE/RL) -- A senior U.S. senator said he is
pleased with the progress Russia and Ukraine are making on getting rid of
nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

  Senator Richard Lugar (R-Indiana) spoke to reporters yesterday after a nine-
day trip to Russia and Ukraine. He and a team of American experts reviewed
work on the destruction and dismantling of the former Soviet arsenals.

  Lugar is a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and co-
author of the Nunn-Lugar program that provides about $.4 billion a year for
dismantling weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union. 

  To date, Lugar said 339 ballistic missiles, 286 ballistic missile launchers,
37 bombers, 96 submarine missile launchers and 30 submarine-launch ballistic
missiles in the former USSR have been destroyed. He said Russia has also
sealed 191 nuclear test tunnels and deactivated 4,838 warheads that were aimed
at the U.S.

  Lugar said his team visited several important sites during the trip. The first
stop was the former Soviet air base of Priluki in Ukraine. Priluki is the home
of a fleet of Blackjack bombers and 615 air launched cruise missiles. The
Blackjack is similar to the American B-1 bomber and, according to Ukrainian
sources, capable of delivering 24 nuclear-armed cruise missiles. Lugar said
those nuclear warheads were deactivated in 1996. Lugar said he also met with
employees of Raytheon, the American firm dismantling the bombers and cruise
missiles, while in Priluki.

  The team later visited a storage facility under construction in Mayak, Russia,
located more than 1,300 kilometers and two time zones east of Moscow in
western Siberia. He said when the facility is completed, it will be the
world's safest and most secure spot for storing various delicate materials
removed from nuclear weapons.

  Lugar said other stops included visits to the city of Ozersk, one of the ten
closed nuclear cities in Russia whose location the Soviet Union never formally
acknowledged; Severodvinsk, one of three strategic missile submarine
dismantlement sites located near the Arctic Circle; and the SevMash submarine
base.

  Lugar said the trip to SevMash was particularly important because during the
Cold War, the base gained prominence as the birthplace and home of the
production and maintenance facilities for the Soviet Typhoon missile
submarines. Lugar said the Typhoon was "one of the most feared weapons of the
Cold War."

  According to Lugar, his trip to SevMash marks the first trip to this top-
secret base by a senior American delegation. He also said that while there,
Russian officials informed him that Moscow has finally approved plans to begin
a cooperative dismantlement of the first Typhoon nuclear submarine in 1999.

  Lugar explained, "This is a major step forward. When these submarines are
dismantled, 1,200 nuclear weapons will be removed from operational systems
that could be used against the U.S... as we speak, the program is reviewing
destruction plans to eliminate the world's largest submarines and the
workhorses of the Soviet and Russian strategic missile submarine force."

  Lugar said another important issue that needs to be quickly resolved is the
current and "desperate conditions" of many Russian and Ukrainian nuclear
scientists and engineers. He said the U.S., Russia and Ukraine need to focus
even more attention on easing the conditions for the scientists in order to
prevent a critical "brain drain" to rogue nations that would use the expertise
to construct weapons of mass destruction.

  Said Lugar, "We must remain vigilant. These are not the random foot soldiers
about which we have heard countless tales of derangement and desperation. The
men and women of the nuclear, chemical and biological institutes don't carry
automatic weapons in their hands, they possess the knowledge and ability to
develop weapons that could kill millions."

  Lugar said he realizes Russian institutions are experiencing "severe strain,"
primarily economic. He added that for the moment, Prime Minister Yevgeny
Primakov has the majority support in the Russian Duma for prompt ratification
of the START II Treaty and accelerated reductions of nuclear warhead levels in
a START III Treaty. But he acknowledged that Russia's ability to meet
expensive requirements of the weapons destruction schedule of START II could
be "very difficult" given current Russian budget conditions.

  Lugar was decidedly optimistic about his visit and the progress Russia has
made on nuclear disarmament.

  He concluded, "This is a very important time in Russia. The Nunn-Lugar program
has, over the last seven years, established a bridge of communication and
cooperation for mutual U.S.-Russian advantage. Both countries understand the
awesome consequences of failure to cooperate. I believe we have strengthened
this important relationship with our visits." 

#2
Washington Post
November 27, 1998
Letter
Russia's Nuclear Waste: How the West Can Help

   As David Hoffman points out in his Nov. 16 news story, rotting nuclear subs
pose a threat in Russia. But if a worst-case scenario becomes reality, the
threat could be global.

  The West, led by the United States, the European Union and Norway, has begun
to extend a hand to Russia to assist in cleaning up the spent nuclear fuel.
Unfortunately, Russia and its Western partners have policy disagreements.

  Mr. Hoffman's story concentrated on one cleanup solution -- transportation to
the Mayak Chemical Compound for reprocessing. He said at the present rate,
removal of all the spent fuel will take 15 years. But a number of other
problems exist:

  U.S. policy forbids taxpayer money from being spent on supporting reprocessing
of nuclear materials. During the process, weapons-grade plutonium could be
diverted. Mayak is a closed facility where international observers have no
access.

  Every trainload of fuel sent to Mayak costs about $2 million, for a total of
as much as $600 million for all the spent fuel and the fuel from submarines
awaiting decommissioning. Since Mayak is unable to reprocess the fuel because
of technical problems, interim storage facilities would have to be built in
Mayak and at the naval bases where the fuel is stored now. Once Russia is in
the financial position to decide what to do with the nuclear waste, the fuel
could be removed from interim storage and shipped to Mayak or dealt with
otherwise, but at Russia's expense, not that of the Western partners.

  The Russian special train needs to travel 2,000 miles across the Ural
Mountains and through the Arctic winter. Safety would be a major concern.

  Local governments in Chelyabinsk district, where Mayak is situated, have ruled
twice that no additional fuel can be shipped to the region, already among the
most contaminated areas in the world. If the West were to ignore this
expression of local democracy, what example would that set for the Russian
people?

  Damaged nuclear fuel cannot be reprocessed. Because much of the stored fuel
has not been inspected for years, it is unclear how much of the total could be
treated in this way. My organization, Bellona, estimates that as much as 50
percent of the fuel on the Kola Peninsula is damaged.

  Bellona has proposed a plan for local storage that takes into account these
challenges and ensures that Western aid does not amount to a hidden subsidy
for Russia's active submarine fleet.

  To overcome the political differences that stand in the way of a meaningful
cleanup project, the leadership on both sides must become involved and make
the issue a priority whose progress is discussed at every summit meeting.
Contrary to common belief, it is not the technical details that pose the
greatest problems in this issue, but differences in opinion.

THOMAS JANDL
Washington
The writer is director of Bellona USA, a Norwegian environmental group. 

#3
THE JAMESTOWN FOUNDATION
PRISM
A BI-WEEKLY ON THE POST-SOVIET STATES
11/27/98 No.23 Part 2

THE KREMLIN CREATES A NEW IMAGE FOR THE PRESIDENT
By Elena Dikun 
Elena Dikun is a political columnist for the Obshchaya gazeta.

In early November the Russian Constitutional Court effectively forbade Boris
Yeltsin from running in the elections in 2000, ruling that the term he is
currently serving is his second, not his first. The constitution does not
allow a president to serve for more than two terms in succession. However,
the court's verdict was irrelevant. In the summer Yeltsin had still been
seriously entertaining the thought of running for a third time, but by the
autumn he was forced to relinquish the idea on medical grounds. Even the
president's closest advisers no longer conceal the fact that their boss is
only capable of working for three to four hours per week at most, and even
then mainly at his country residence. Now the Kremlin's task is to do
everything possible and more to ensure that the head of state remains in
office to the end of his term.

According to our sources, the president's administration, forced to admit
Yeltsin's limited capacity for work, is now working flat out on two
large-scale political projects--which can be loosely termed "creating a new
set of functions for the head of state" and "developing a new image for the
president." These projects consist of a detailed plan to smoothly move the
head of state away from state affairs, and a program of his new duties and
responsibilities. The president's chief of staff, Valentin Yumashev--who is
considered in the Kremlin the only person who can tell the president the
truth without losing his job--recently ventured to enlighten Yeltsin of his
team's plan. Yumashev prepared for the meeting very carefully: He placed on
Yeltsin's desk a sheaf of newspaper cuttings containing merciless appraisals
of his physical condition and sociological findings showing that 90 percent
of the public are critical of the president's performance. This was an
extremely unpleasant revelation for Yeltsin, who became very upset and
shouted at Yumashev. Eventually, however, Yeltsin accepted that he would
have to restrict his role in the running of the country. He did make one
more attempt to show the world that the rumors that he was sick were nothing
but gossip: He insisted, until the last minute, that he would go to Vienna
for talks with European Union leaders. A team of doctors summoned especially
for the purpose, however, concluded that a three-hour flight and four hours
of public appearances were absolutely out of the question. After this
Yeltsin finally gave in and approved the plan drawn up by his administration.

THE PRESIDENT'S NEW ROLE
In private, senior officials in the president's administration say that it
would be absurd to carry on using the usual images of the "whirlwind
president" or the "tank president" to portray Yeltsin to the public. One
interviewee remembered how Boris Nemtsov, as first vice premier, would
report to the president bearing a file with the word "Tsar" printed on it in
gold. Nemtsov would always put it down in a conspicuous place, so that
Yeltsin would see it. Yeltsin was clearly flattered by the comparison. Back
then the image of the omnipotent monarch sent to the people by God still had
some life in it for propaganda purposes. Now it is pointless.

Today, as one high-ranking official put it, the task is to portray Yeltsin
as "a man who is not in charge of absolutely everything." The president's
team faces a difficult job--to imbue the public consciousness with the image
not of a fading power-obsessive, surrounded by yesterday's favorites in
Gorky, but of a patriarch who has relinquished his aspirations to reign
without time-limit and who has distanced himself from routine matters in
order to devote himself to carrying out a number of highly important tasks
which only he is capable of handling.

This "new" Yeltsin does not need to instruct the government, or to demand
its reports on the payment of pensions and salaries: He will not be signing
any more economic decrees. And if he seems really intent on doing so, his
administration knows how to dissuade him. Their new spiel has it that
Primakov's cabinet is a government for which the Duma is responsible.
Parliament, having been given the chance to delegate its own representatives
to the cabinet, should answer for them to the people.

In principle, Yeltsin agrees with this division of responsibility, though he
is not planning to abandon his part in the selection and appointment of
members of the government, and will not hear of the power ministers and
foreign minister reporting to the prime minister. In the draft plan drawn up
by the administration, such a reorganization was proposed, but this
provision was then carefully edited out. "If anybody broaches an idea like
that to Yeltsin he'll get such an earful that he won't try to interfere
again," explained one of Prism's sources.

Having relieved the president of the day-to-day running of the country, his
administration has assigned him two main tasks for the remainder of his
term: to ensure the transfer of power to a loyal, safe pair of hands, and to
refine the Russian constitution. In rewriting the constitution, Yeltsin will
be advised by a group of specialists chosen mainly for their loyalty to the
current authorities. But in finding and training a presidential successor,
he will be able to rely only on his administration. This raises a host of
problems.

SUCCESSORS
In the Kremlin, where until recently Chernomyrdin was the only heir they
wanted for Yeltsin, hopes are now pinned on Yevgeny Primakov. According to
Prism sources, the president's chief of staff, Valentin Yumashev, has had
several conversations on this subject with Primakov. Primakov himself,
however, is firmly opposed to the idea of running for president. However,
the administration thinks that he will come round to the idea by 2000.
Meanwhile, Yumashev has told his staff to give every support to the current
prime minister--even to "place him slightly above Yeltsin." Explaining the
choice of successor, one Kremlin analyst candidly said: "Yevgeny Maksimovich
[Primakov] has an innate respect for authority; he is always loyal to those
above him. In this respect, Luzhkov is more of a loose cannon."

Nevertheless, it is planned to find a replacement for Primakov just in case.
According to Prism sources, the hunt "isn't very well organized," but the
Kremlin hopes that the alignment of political forces may change completely
in the next six months, and that events will throw up the new hero. This can
be anybody, as long as they are totally unlike Krasnoyarsk governor
Aleksandr Lebed or Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. These two figures evoke
genuine fear among the president's staff. Tales are anxiously told in the
Kremlin of people who have journeyed from the Far East to "warn that Lebed
is riding high there, and has every chance of victory, but Moscow doesn't
realize it." As for Yuri Luzhkov, who has entered the race without the
Kremlin's blessing, his behavior is seen as nothing less than "treachery and
treason." "Yuri Mikhailovich [Luzhkov] has been corrupted by Moscow's wealth
and by money he did not earn. He is not undergoing any inner development, he
doesn't understand economics and there are no bright stars in his circle. He
is sowing the seeds of a personality cult in Moscow. If Luzhkov had become
prime minister, he would have forced Yeltsin out of the Kremlin,"
responsible Kremlin observers explained eagerly. And then they mourn that
they themselves are contributing to the Moscow mayor's rise: "We are not
offering the governors and mayors any alternative, so even those who can't
stand Luzhkov are trying to touch his cap."

SCULPTORS
The Kremlin administration is well aware that the public will find it rather
difficult to come to terms with the head of state's new image. Uncommon
skill is therefore required of the sculptors of the new Yeltsin. The old
tricks (for example: "if the president hasn't been seen for a while it means
he's working on his papers") have not worked for a long time. Nothing better
has been thought up.

The hopes surrounding the president's new press secretary Dmitry Yakushkin
have not been fulfilled. He is trying very hard, but he has not been able to
show with any plausibility that the absent head of state is actively
working. It has been agreed with Yeltsin that particularly important
announcements about the president's activities will be made by the first
deputy chief of staff, Oleg Sysuev. Sysuev has a suitably doleful expression
and a moving speaking voice.

The public will continue to see the president "at first hand" in small
doses, but the number of these appearances has not yet been regulated.
Meanwhile, the head of state's new image is being cobbled together pretty
badly. The Kremlin hasn't even been able to ensure that Yeltsin looks
dignified on television. This autumn, when the president's health
deteriorated sharply, an information blockade was once again set up around
him: "Outside" journalists were not allowed near the Kremlin, and all
meetings with Russia's head of state were filmed by the president's own
cameramen and photographers. The president's press office then gave the film
to any television companies that wanted it free of charge. However, since
the sacking of former Press Secretary Sergei Yastrzhembsky, who always
studied the material meticulously and decided what could be shown and what
could not, there are no professionals in the Kremlin who know how to handle
the television pictures. This important job has been left unsupervised, and
everything is done in a haphazard fashion. For example, the producers in the
Kremlin handed out unedited film of the president's meeting with the new
vice premiers. The television audience was delighted--this was better than a
circus act.

The president's image advisor Tatyana Dyachenko tried and failed to stop one
of these films being shown on national television. Having found out from the
president's press secretary Dmitry Yakushkin what material he had given the
TV companies, Dyachenko asked for the film to be returned for "examination."
The press secretary rushed off to telephone the TV companies, but they told
him where to go: "Who do you think you are to tell us what we can show?!"

After this the president's press office took to the path of least
resistance. To avoid broadcasting any more of Yeltsin's blunders, they have
taken to removing the soundtrack from his speeches. Thus, viewers were
treated to a dumb show of the president's meeting with Defense Minister Igor
Sergeev. It looked odd to say the least. It is as though the president has
been stripped of his right to free speech: The guarantor of the constitution
is the first person in Russia to have his freedom of expression curtailed.

#4
Excerpt
From: "Alexander Samoiloff" (tolmach@usa.net)
Subject: Hello Russia #14
Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1998 
HELLO RUSSIA
"PRIVET ROSSIYA"
FREE RUSSIAN WEEKLY NEWSLETTER # 14
November 29 1998 

==========================================
Regional political events, business, culture, crime, way of life and another
issues, coming to you from Khabarovsk, Russia's Pacific Rim.
==========================================
- To subscribe send mailto: mailto: hello_russia@usa.net with Subscribe in subject
line.
http://www.angelfire.com/biz2/HelloRussia/index.html

I. SIBERIAN STATES OF AMERICA
(Yuri Ephimenko, the Advisor of the Association "Far East - Zabaikalye")

  Recently  the  American press seriously discussed the project of Walter Mead
"to save Russia by buying for USD 2-3 trillion the Russian Far Eastern and
Siberian territories". This question was raised in  the "Boston Globe" and
discussed in  a few central Russian newspapers. But nobody asks the opinion
of Siberian and Far Eastern residents.

  I think that we must seriously consider this question. Moreover, exactly 150
years ago Russia and USA had started to compete in the Pacific Region. And I
want to stress that they "had started", as the competition continues today
and it will determine many regional political events in the 21-st Century.

  Let's take a look at the roots and history of this competition.

  The two major events happed in 1848. That was a beginning of the first
Russian naval expedition of Gennady Nevelskoi, who investigated the Low
Amur-River coastal area and established port settlements. At the same time
the member of the Supreme Court of USA Palmer submitted the famous "Siberian
Note" to the President of USA. Palmer offered to colonize Amur-River area
for arrangement of shipping, shipbuilding industries, farming and trade.
That was not the first meeting of the two colonization waves, one  was  the
Russians coming from the West, and the second one  was  the Americans coming
from the East.

  In 1846 after winning Texas and California from Mexico, the Americans
suddenly found the Russian America.

  Russia colonized Aulet Islands, Alaska and the vast area of California in
the beginning of the 19-th Century. The Russian Czar Alexander- I had
declined a proposal  from the King of Hawaii  to join Russia " .

  So, Americans used help from the Russian government to force the Russians
from the West Coast. The major role in this deal was played by Foreign
Minister of Russia Karl Nesselrode, who during 40 years of  his being at
high post did a lot of harm to Russia.

  In 1848 the expedition of Gennady Nevelskoy overran the Palmer Note plan by
establishing  the Russian flag in the Amur-River area. When the USA naval
expedition headed by Captain Ridgold later came to the Prymorye coast, they
found it was  already a Russian territory.

  Another colonization attempt was made by USA in 1958, when an American
entrepreneur ,  Defreeze ,  offered  to the Governor-General
Muravyov-Amurky a deal to settle American colonists for farming, shipyards,
and trade and  providing with property rights of the land. Muravyev said
that he remembers the destiny of Mexico: "Farmers came the  first and then
troops joined  them" and declined the proposal.

  But Americans are brilliant politicians. In 1859 they started talks about
the sale of Alaska and 8 years later completed the Alaska deal.

  At that time Alaska was governed by  a Russian-American Company, which at
the end of 1850-th provided 142 thousand of Silver Rubles profits to the
shareholders. But the Company fast went broke because an American lobby in
the Russian government canceled all its benefits. In this way the sale of
Alaska looked as a "reasonable deal".

  The key figure in this deal was the Great Prince Konstantin who was the
lobbyist of USA interests in the Russian government.

  Today we see a similar American lobby in Russian government regarding
Russian Far Eastern policies, when the federal government doesn't allow
local industries to develop,   but when Americans come here they are
provided with a "red carpet".

  In 1904 USA offered  to the Russian government a famous project of
Alaskan-Siberian Railway with  a tunnel under the  Bering Straight.
Just do you think that Russia was  only offered a railroad from Alaska along
the Russian Pacific Rim and deep into Siberia ?  Instead , Americans
requested a 25 mile  free trade zone  around the railways line of detachment
customs free zone with a right of independent business and other activities.

  It is interesting to note, that Russian Czar confirmed this project, and
only traditional bureaucratic red tape and then the World
War did not allow it to come true.

  Today we can say that USA revives its Great Pacific Politics and  first of
all  the same old projects of gradual colonization of the Far East and
Siberia. In 1991 the  office of "Transcontinental Railway and Bering
Straight Tunnel" was registered . They considered  the same old projects .

  When  the Association "Far East-Zabaikalye" was struggling for confirmation
of the long-term federal program for development of the Far East-Zabaikalye,
than the Russian Economic Ministry silently included that project into
the program. We never requested or offered that project to the government.

  It is like in 19-th Century, somebody at the "Czar suite" silently lobbies
American  interests. We also see some other signs of this lobby.

  For example, in 1990 Gorbachyov signed an agreement about  the transfer of
our big Pacific Ocean economic zone area to the USA, which was not ratified
by the Supreme Soviet and de-jure is an illegal act. But USA Coast Guards
took that area under its protection.

  It is a dangerous sign of "Alaskan Syndrome".

  Any way it's not so easy to take the Russian Far East and Siberia. But
American interests are already present here. We see a strong lobby of IMF
and USA interests in Russian federal government. Everything is like 150
years ago.  The American Institute of World Politics initiated the project
of Siberian Sates of America. It considers  the division of the  Russian
Pacific Rim and Siberia into 7 states within USA. It may be a long term
lease or purchase for USD 2-3 trillion ,  But the main trick is that this
money will never cross the US border. I mean that the money will be used to
purchase of new technologies for Russia in USA  and  paid as salaries to
American specialists and workers and will provide its economic growth.

   Why  is this project is very popular in USA? Because it may guarantee raise
of the growth of the American economy for the future  300-400 of years. I
respect  the  American industrious persistence as they are continuing their
expansionist programs of the past 150 years.

  But what  can I  say about us? We must reconsider what was done during the
last 9 years. If we will  use an example of USA and will work hard to
accomplish our goals , then we can enter the 21-st Century as equal partners
of the Asian Pacific region, but not as a colony.
 
  Thank you

#5
Moscow Times: WHAT THE PAPERS SAY: Will Russia Be a Criminal State or a 
Police State? 

Kultura, Nov. 26-Dec. 2 

  For many years we were taught not to "stand out." This was ensured by the
state security structures, tormenting and murdering millions of innocent
people. Officially they were called the "organs of state order" and they
ensured control over the police state, although formally they fought crime.
Now it is the criminal world itself that ensures that no one stands out. It
does the punishing, it does the killing. Quite right - who runs the order of
things, ensures that particular order. ... 

  The murder of Galina Starovoitova means that clean politics is now going the
same [criminal] way . ... She stood out constantly and fearlessly. ... 

  The left has reacted to her death by calling for extreme measures. That is to
say, either a bandit state or a police state and there is no third way open to
us. This is a lie. There is. When we named the culprits, perpetrators and
instigators of the past repressions, we ceased to be a police state. And when
the perpetrators and instigators of Starovoitova's murder are found and
punished, the criminal state too will suffer its first cracks. 

Moskovskie Novosti, Nov. 22-29 
Overly Optimistic 

  Galina Starovoitova was not an overly popular politician, and voiced not
overly popular views. But this is not a question of views and not even about
politics. Starovoitova died because she knew how to discuss things and did not
hide this ability. The television media, which was so engrossed in stamping on
the anti-national regime, and basically the things that Starovoitova stood up
for, now dedicate entire news broadcasts to the murder in St. Petersburg. For
the first time in a long while it is reacting appropriately, finding reserves
of exceptional health [in its approach]. It seems everyone is normal, after
all. How come, all of a sudden? It is not some conscious struggle against
communism, but merely the instinct of self-preservation that has at last begun
to work. The death of [murdered television journalist Vladislav] Listyev
mobilized the professional community [in 1995], while Starovoitova's death has
mobilized the whole of society as such, as it shakes inwardly. The left-
centrists, the right-centrists, the Potanins, Gusinskys and Beresovskys, the
intelligentsia and intellectuals - everyone who scrapped like dogs with one
another are reflexively working jointly, because they have risen to their own
defense ... 


Zavtra, No. 47, November 
Six-Sided Conspiracy 

  They'll do it like this: for two weeks they'll show footage of Starovoitova's
funeral, spliced together with shots of the storming of the Ostankino tower,
and of [General Albert] Makashov. ... 

  And then later they will show a beetroot-red, pickled Yeltsin and his decree
banning the Communist Party, banning patriotic publications and any symbol
devoid of a six-sided star. ... 

  The murder of Starovoitova is priceless for those who are planning a "liberal
revanche," to crush the opposition and to try to escape a historic and
criminal retribution. 

  Galina Starovoitova took with her to St. Petersburg a bag crammed with
unaccounted-for money, intended for the "honest democratic" elections. Just as
Lisovsky carried out a box full of unaccounted-for money [from the White House
in 1996] to Chubais. 

  [Starovoitova's killers] took away this sack of money after firing a bullet
into the deputy from a NATO-made weapon, available to personnel of the special
services and professional bandits. Let's hear the story of this money from
six-sided [Yegor] Gaidar, and the story of the millions he took in 1993 from
the treasury and used to pay off the mercenary tank crews whose tanks shelled
parliament. ... Russian patriots, don't bow before the face of yellow-brown
fascism. Do not surrender to the "democratic gestapo" with ropes round your
necks! Do not attend remembrance ceremonies for those who in the years of
"reform" reduced the Russian population by eight million people. ... 

  A great Russian patriot, General Lev Rokhlin, lost brigades of soldiers in
places where the fires of ethnic conflict flared after being stirred up by
Galina Starovoitova. His murder was not accompanied by state mourning. And if
at Starovoitova's funeral Chubais and Gaidar had blasphemously tried to impose
state mourning on the country, we would have put on white suits, colorful silk
dresses and waltzed on the squares, toasting love with glasses of champagne. 

#6
Voice of America
DATE=11/29/98
TITLE=RUSSIA INVESTIGATION  (L ONLY)
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=MOSCOW 

  INTRO:  POLICE IN RUSSIA'S SECOND CITY, ST. PETERSBURG, HAVE 
RAIDED THOUSANDS OF CRIMINAL HIDEOUTS AND HANGOUTS IN SEARCH OF 
THE KILLERS OF A PROMINENT LAWMAKER AND PRO-DEMOCRACY ACTIVIST.  
BUT AS MOSCOW CORRESPONDENT PETER HEINLEIN REPORTS, THE 
INVESTIGATION HAS TURNED UP LITTLE HARD EVIDENCE AND  NO SUSPECTS.

  TEXT:  MORE THAN A WEEK AFTER LAWMAKER GALINA STAROVOITOVA WAS 
GUNNED DOWN OUTSIDE HER APARTMENT, ST. PETERSBURG IS BEING 
THOROUGHLY SEARCHED.  ON A SINGLE NIGHT, POLICE CARRIED OUT 
25-HUNDRED RAIDS ON HOMES, OFFICES, NIGHT CLUBS, AND CASINOS. 
THEY ALSO STOPPED AND INSPECTED 50-THOUSAND CARS ON THE CITY'S STREETS. 

  IN ALL, OFFICERS RECOVERED 20 STOLEN CARS, 55 ILLEGAL WEAPONS, 
500 GRAMS OF NARCOTICS.  THEY ALSO DETAINED 324 SUSPECTS FOR 
QUESTIONING, AND FOUND ABOUT 50 OF THEM WERE WANTED BY POLICE.

  BUT IN A TELEVISION INTERVIEW, RUSSIA'S CHIEF PROSECUTOR ADMITS 
THERE ARE  NO  BREAKTHROUGHS IN THE STAROVOITOVA CASE.  
PROSECUTOR GENERAL YURI SKURATOV SAYS DETECTIVES ARE RE-EXAMINING
EVERY POSSIBLE CLUE AT THE CRIME SCENE, AND ARE MAKING SLOW BUT STEADY
PROGRESS.

  IN A SEPARATE INTERVIEW, PRIME MINISTER YEVGENY PRIMAKOV CALLED 
FOR TOUGHER MEASURES TO FIGHT CRIME, HINTING IT MIGHT BE TIME TO 
REVOKE RUSSIA'S BAN ON THE DEATH PENALTY.

  PRESIDENT BORIS YELTSIN IMPOSED A MORATORIUM ON CAPITAL 
PUNISHMENT IN 1996, WHEN RUSSIA JOINED THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE. 
BUT SPEAKING TO REPORTERS SATURDAY, MR. PRIMAKOV SAID THE COUNTRY
MUST CONSIDER WHAT HE CALLED -- PHYSICAL ELIMINATION OF THOSE WHO
RAISE THEIR HANDS AGAINST SOCIETY.

  MS. STAROVOITOVA'S MURDER HAS SPARKED WIDESPREAD EXPRESSIONS OF 
OUTRAGE, AND AN OFFER FROM A MOSCOW BANKER OF A 
100-THOUSAND-DOLLAR REWARD FOR INFORMATION LEADING TO THE ARREST OF HER
KILLERS.

  AT THE TIME OF HER DEATH, MS. STAROVOITOVA WAS ATTEMPTING TO 
UNITE VARIOUS LIBERAL POLITICAL FACTIONS TO FACE OFF AGAINST  
CRIMINAL-BACKED CANDIDATES IN ST. PETERSBURG'S MUNICIPAL 
ELECTIONS.  HER ALLIES SAY THE MOTIVE FOR THE KILLING WAS PURELY POLITICAL.
ST. PETERSBURG HAS A REPUTATION AS ONE OF RUSSIA'S MOST 
CRIME-INFESTED CITIES.  ANALYSTS SAY CRIMINAL GANGS HAVE 
WIDESPREAD INFLUENCE IN THE CITY'S ADMINISTRATION. 

  OTHERS WHO HAVE PUBLICLY ATTEMPTED TO ROOT OUT CRIME FROM THE 
LOCAL GOVERNMENT HAVE EITHER FOUND THEMSELVES UNDER INVESTIGA- 
TION BY POLICE, OR HAVE MET THE SAME FATE AS MS. STAROVOITOVA.  

  LAST YEAR, VICE-GOVERNOR MIKHAIL MANEVICH WAS KILLED BY A SNIPER 
AS HE RODE ALONG THE CITY'S MAIN STREET.

  MS. STAROVOITOVA HAD BEEN ESPECIALLY CRITICAL OF THE CURRENT 
GOVERNOR, VLADIMIR YAKOVLEV.  HE WAS AMONG A LARGE GROUP OF LOCAL
AND NATIONAL POLITICIANS WHO POINTEDLY STAYED AWAY FROM THE 
LAWMAKER'S FUNERAL.

#7
Irish Times
November 28, 1998 
[for personal use only]
   
Rare honest politician killed for her beliefs 
Russia has lost a champion of democracy and decency with the murder of Galina
Starovoitova. Seamus Martin recalls the life of one woman who stood for right
and paid with her life. 

 Galina Starovoitova was not the first Russian politician to be gunned down
since the Soviet Union was dismantled. She was not even the first to die by
the gun this year. Neither was she the first democrat to lose her life, nor by
any means the most prominent member of the Duma to be killed. 

  Yet her death caught the public imagination in a way others did not. She was
the first woman victim and, more importantly, an honest woman in a land in
which political honesty is a commodity on the verge of extinction.

  In its editorial condemning her death the Moscow Times was at pains, in its
very first paragraph, to use the following words: "She had no significant
known business dealings, just a powerful and admirable dedication to the
politics of appealing to people's better natures."

  People speak in shorthand in today's Russia. In plain English, no significant
known business dealings means that she was not a crook, for the words business
and crime are interchangeable these days.

  She fought strenuously for her own vision of democracy from the days when
Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost first permitted such a fight, until the night
last week an assassin pumped three bullets into her head on the stairwell of
her apartment building on the Griboyedov Canal in St Petersburg.

  There is some evidence that the assassin was another woman, according to
agents who examined the murder weapon. Neighbours say they saw a woman fleeing
from the scene.

  Several possible motives have been put forward. At her funeral on Tuesday
Anatoly Chubais, a former privatisation minister, grasped Starovoitova's
martyrdom to his breast and declared that sinister forces were out to destroy
"us" and that "we" would not allow them to do so.

  It cannot be said of Chubais that he had "no significant known business
dealings", nor can it be said he was "dedicated to the politics of appealing
to people's better natures". His attempts to claim some of Starovoitova's
posthumous honour have been one of the more distasteful after-effects of the
murder.

  Chubais and the former prime minister, Yegor Gaidar, became involved in
instant condemnation of "the communists" as responsible for the murder of
Starovoitova. In return the communist speaker of the parliament, Gennady
Seleznyov, offered a theory, almost Byzantine in its complexity, that
Starovoitova's friends from the democratic movement had arranged her murder in
order to attract sympathy for their cause.

  NO EVIDENCE was offered in either instance, but emotions are running high.
Chubais and Gaidar have, understandably, been distressed by Starovoitova's
death. The reasons for Seleznyov's emotional behaviour have been less well
chronicled. In the run-up to local elections in St Petersburg in the past
weeks a number of his own supporters have been shot. However, unlike
Starovoitova, they have survived.

  President Yeltsin's statement that he would personally take charge of the
investigation into Starovoitova's murder rings hollow at a time when the man
seems incapable of personally taking charge of anything. But at least he did
not, unlike Chubais, Gaidar and Seleznyov, attempt to make political capital
out of the murder.

  Neither did the Prime Minister, Yevgeny Primakov, who is charged with holding
a vast disintegrating state together at a time when few others have had the
courage to take on the job.

  There are few clues to the identity of the murderers or to those who may have
paid them to kill Galina Starovoitova. Members of the Federal Security
Service, the successor to the KGB, have recently admitted that in the
straitened circumstances of today's Russia, contract killings are being
carried out by those who have been so trained by the State.

  Many of those who claimed Starovoitova as their political comrade in the days
after her death were excoriated by her at one time or another. Although she
was associated with Chubais and Gaidar and the former mayor of St Petersburg,
Anatoly Sobchak, in the early days of the democratic movement, her
relationship with all three became stormy in later times.

  The war in Chechnya put paid to her previously unconditional support for
President Yeltsin, and in 1996 she made the principled decision to stand
against him in the presidential elections. She failed, however, to have her
candidature accepted due to what was officially described as "technical
reasons".

  Galina Starovoitova had, therefore, political opponents across the spectrum.
She simply opposed those whom her honest beliefs did not allow her to support.

  But at the time of her death she was merely a deputy of the tiny Democratic
Russia party in the Duma. Her moral strength was no longer matched by a
political importance which could have posed a threat to anyone on the national
scene.

  It is at local level in St Petersburg, therefore, that the reason for her
murder is more likely to be found. The election campaign there has been
vicious even by Russian standards.

  The city, whose mayor, Vladimir Yakovlev, or governor as he prefers to be
called, has been a bitter opponent of Starovoitova, has become the centre of
political mayhem. 

  The campaign for the local elections has been marked by the large numbers of
mafiosi standing for office. Mafiosi, it should be noted, were strenuously
opposed by Starovoitova. Ordinary citizens who happen to be namesakes of
important candidates have been paid large sums to put their names forward in
order to confuse voters. In some local constituencies up to five people with
the same first and family names will be on the ballot papers.

  It is both an irony and a tragedy that a woman who embodied the last vestiges
of decency and honesty in Russian politics may have lost her life due to
sordid provincial machinations in a city that once prided itself as being the
centre of sophistication and culture of all Russia.

#8 
Enfeebled Kremlin forced into opposition corner

MOSCOW, Nov 29 (AFP) - It is not every day that the Kremlin fights the
opposition corner.

  But with President Boris Yeltsin isolated in hospital and Prime Minister
Yevgeny Primakov a de facto viceroy, analysts say the shadowy Kremlin power-
brokers have finally roused themselves to aim a few broadsides at the new
leftist government in a bid to dent Primakov's surging popularity.

  Yeltsin's aides are even helping to launch a new opposition movement that
still bares no name but hopes to unite Russia's quarrelsome liberals into a
force ready to challenge the left in elections.

  These are curious moves for the once-mighty Kremlin, say the analysts, and
signal that its stealthy insiders are keen on wresting back the authority
which the ailing Yeltsin has in practice ceded to Primakov's government White
House.

  The ultimate aim could be to harness outrage fuelled by the assassination of
pro-democracy lawmaker Galina Starovoytova to restore a measure of credibility
and electability to the market reformers humbled by this autumn's financial
crisis.

  "The president supports any political bloc which speaks out in favour of
market reforms," chief Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Yakushkin told reporters on
Friday after it emerged that senior Yeltsin aide Oleg Sysuyev was helping
fellow reformers to try and put together a new, united liberal bloc.

  But the smart money however is not backing a resurgent, pro-reform Kremlin.
Not yet at least.

  "Today's Kremlin is not what it used to be," observed Moscow's Heritage
Foundation president Yevgeny Volk.

  "It does not oversee the economy, or much of anything else for that matter,"
he said. "The administration is hoping to change this since Primakov is not
one of their cronies. He will certainly not keep them should he become
president."

  A weak and isolated Yeltsin ceded almost all of Russia's control levers save
for the nuclear button to Primakov after naming the former spymaster as
cabinet chief in September.

  The premier promptly turned into the nation's most popular politician. One
Russian in two approves of his work and many think he should succeed Yeltsin
as president -- the sooner the better.

  So aides suddenly began intimating that Yeltsin -- hospitalised a week ago
with pneumonia -- was less satisfied with Primakov than some might have
thought. In particular, Yeltsin wanted Primakov to get on with fixing the
economy and not revert to excessive state control and intervention in the
process.

  Aides also indicated that Primakov would soon be held to account by the new
opposition rightist movement packed full of the reformist totems such as Yegor
Gaidar, Anatoly Chubais and Sergei Kiriyenko, all of whom know what it is to
fail in government.

  But noticeably missing from the cast is the only liberal party with any
Russian public appeal -- Grigory Yavlinsky's Yabloko.

  "Yabloko has nothing to do with this," explained the party's Vladimir Lukin.
"We do not intend to sign on to anything."

  Another factor working strongly against the Kremlin is Russia's August
financial crisis, which has wiped out many of the financiers and so-called
'oligarchs' who once rallied around the administration to make it into a power
base.

  Oligarchs with anything left to spend are keeping their appointment books open
for dates with Primakov, Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov and Krasnoyarsk Governor
Alexander Lebed.

  Analysts say the Kremlin's only remaining hope is for small and middle sized
businesses to rally around the pro-market team the Kremlin is now trying to
assemble.

  "Everything depends on whether smaller businesses merge into a political
class," said Yury Korgunyuk of the INDEM research institute.

  Kiriyenko for one does not seem to think they will. The short-lived premier,
sacked in August after barely five months in office, told the Kommersant
business daily on Saturday he just might join a different team in the end.

  "This coalition is falling apart even before it had the time to form,"
Kommersant said in an editorial.

  The Kremlin's efforts to organize against Primakov or any other presidential
front-runner did not appear to frazzle the prime minister.

  "I have to stay neutral," he shrugged. "I cannot make any other judgement
since I occupy the seat of government leader." 

#9
THE JAMESTOWN FOUNDATION
PRISM
A BI-WEEKLY ON THE POST-SOVIET STATES
11/27/98 No.23 Part 1

LURCHING FORWARD ON START II?
Despite the Kremlin's woes, the Russian Duma appeared to signal its
readiness this past fortnight to move forward at long last on ratification
of the START II strategic arms treaty. If so, the move would end several
years of obstinacy by Russian lawmakers, who have based their opposition to
the treaty on a wide and seemingly ever changing array of complaints. Those
objections have included concerns over NATO's enlargement plans and possible
noncompliance by the United States with the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM)
treaty. Lawmakers have also linked treaty ratification to threatened Western
strikes on Iraq and Yugoslavia, as well as to professed concerns over the
state of Russia's hard-pressed nuclear forces.

Although Russia's Foreign and Defense Ministries have long urged
ratification of START II, the lawmakers' recent change of heart appears to
be in large part the result of recommendations sent to the Duma by Russian
First Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Maslyukov. The long-time communist and
former Soviet defense official carries considerable clout with the Duma's
communist and nationalist majority. Maslyukov reportedly based his call for
START II ratification on analysis indicating that Russia's rapidly
deteriorating nuclear forces will be able to field only 800-900 nuclear
warheads in seven years' time--a level well below that stipulated in START II. 

In order to address their various objections to the START II treaty,
however, lawmakers have drafted their own version of a ratification bill.
That may in itself have created new problems. The Duma bill reportedly
attaches a number of conditions to the START II treaty, several of which
would be strongly opposed by the United States. The Russian government will
presumably try to ensure that these treaty modifications are presented in a
form palatable to Washington. Government leaders have reportedly intensified
their calls for START II ratification on the grounds that it will help
Moscow to secure desperately financial assistance from the West.