SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #788 (53), Tuesday, July 23, 2002
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TITLE: Soviet Dissident Ginzburg Dead at 65
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: PARIS - Alexander Ginzburg, a leading Soviet dissident and human rights campaigner, died Friday in Paris. He was 65.
Ginzburg was an advocate of nonviolent change who sought to embarrass the Soviet authorities by pressing them to respect their own laws. He also sought to increase external pressure on the Soviet Union to show more respect for individual rights by smuggling out information about abuses to the West so that it could be broadcast back to the Soviet people by Western radio stations.
"He had been ill since he left prison, and he had cancer," Ginzburg's son, also named Alexander, said from the family's Paris apartment.
Ginzburg had attracted the attention of the Soviet authorities in 1959, with a typewritten magazine called Syntax, containing bitter poems that reflected his generation's anger and disillusionment with the Soviet Union. It became the first of the so-called samizdat journals of the post-Stalin period.
After three issues, Ginzburg was expelled from Moscow University, arrested by the KGB and put in Lubyanka prison.
In 1967, he was arrested again for compiling what he called a "White Book'' about the trial of the dissident writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky and smuggling it to the West. He was sentenced to five years in a labor camp.
In 1974, he agreed to administer a fund established by the exiled Soviet writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn to aid the families of political prisoners. He was also active in Helsinki Watch, an organization set up to monitor the Soviet Union's compliance with the human-rights commitments in the Helsinki accords, which it signed in 1975.
The upshot of Ginzburg's renewed dissident activities was another trial, in 1978, which resulted in an eight-year term.
But in 1979, under the growing pressure of world public opinion, Ginzburg, together with four other leading dissidents, was released to the West in exchange for two Soviet spies.
"He was the detonator of the democratic movement at the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s," said Boris Zolotukhin, 72, who defended Ginzburg at his trial in 1968.
"His trial was closed and the outcome was, of course, known in advance. ... He held up very courageously throughout," added Zolotukhin, who was barred from practicing law for 20 years after defending Ginzburg.
In Paris, Ginzburg, known as "Alik" to friends, kept up pressure on post-Soviet Russia to improve its human rights record.
"Up until the final days of his life, Alik was one of the most active and responsive participants in Russia's human rights movement," said Yelena Bonner, the wife of Soviet dissident, human rights activist and physicist Andrei Sakharov.
"He ... had a superb sense of humor and irony, which he maintained in even the most difficult conditions - in prison, in the camps and when he was free," Bonner said by telephone from the United States.
Ginzburg's funeral was scheduled for Monday at the Russian memorial cemetery in Sainte-Genevieve des Bois, where many prominent Russians opposed to the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution are buried, Ekho Moskvy radio and TVS television reported.
He is survived by his wife, Arina, and two sons.
- Reuters, NYT, AP
TITLE: Ambassador Lists American Nuclear Concerns
AUTHOR: By Angela Charlton
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - The United States remains concerned about Russia's nuclear cooperation with Iran, U.S. Ambassador to Russia Alexander Vershbow said Monday, warning that those ties and Russian weapons sales to China could still threaten world security.
Vershbow, in a sweeping speech on the second day of a weeklong conference at Golitsyno near Moscow, also issued frank criticism of Russia's military actions in Chechnya and of threats to Russia's post-Soviet freedoms. Such criticism had been muted in recent months amid warmer U.S.-Russian ties prompted by President Vladimir Putin's support of the U.S.-led anti-terrorism campaign.
In addition, he said that the United States wants to step up imports of Russian oil in the coming years as part of a strategy to diversify its sources of fuel.
"We continue to have concerns that technology and know-how for nuclear weapons are flowing to Iran," Vershbow said at the conference, according to the U.S. Embassy.
"Russia has to keep close watch on nearby countries - Iran, Iraq, North Korea - that are actively seeking to acquire nuclear, chemical or biological weapons," Vershbow said. "Russia has to avoid letting its desire for commercial gain end up hastening the day that these countries can pose a threat that could not only destabilize their own region, but undermine the security of the entire world."
Vershbow noted that the United States and other Western nations recently pledged $20 billion in aid to help Russia destroy or secure its weapons of mass destruction.
"We hope that in the wake of this new initiative Russia will do its part by tightening its controls on nuclear cooperation with Iran," he said.
The ambassador also expressed concern about Russia's weapons sales to China.
"Could the massive amounts of weaponry that Russia sells to China - for understandable commercial reasons - add to the instability of Asia?" he asked. "If war broke out in the Taiwan Straits, this would lead to serious instability on Russia's eastern border."
On the economic front, he said he was "not happy" with the relatively low level of U.S.-Russian trade and investment, but said that could change with efforts to bring Russian oil to U.S. markets.
He said that at a summit in May, "our two presidents issued an important joint statement on energy that holds out the prospect for Russia to become a major supplier for the U.S. market."
"We will try to translate this into concrete deals at a U.S.-Russian energy summit in Houston in October," Vershbow said.
"Our investments [in Russia] are likely to get much larger, particularly in the energy sector," he said.
He said the United States hopes to receive more oil from Russia over the next 15 years and that Russia may become one of the main U.S. suppliers, Interfax reported.
Yukos sent its first shipment of crude to the United States earlier this month.
Vershbow also indirectly expressed concern about recent investigations of journalists and researchers by the Federal Security Service (FSB) that have alarmed human-rights groups.
"Will Russians have the right to associate with one another and with those abroad as they wish, or will the state keep track of associations with foreigners and messages sent on the Internet?" he asked.
Regarding the Chechnya war, Vershbow asked: "Will Russia have the courage to seek a political solution to the bloody war in Chechnya, which continues despite the government's claims that the situation is returning to normal? Will the Russian leadership hold to account those members of the security forces who, in the name of fighting terrorism, are committing serious violations of the human rights of the civilian population?"
The Council of Europe's human-rights commissioner, Alvaro Gil-Robles, who attended the same conference, said the authorities weren't doing enough to end violations of civilians' rights.
Both Vershbow and Gil-Robles focused their criticism on so-called "mopping up" operations in which federal forces search towns for suspected rebels.
Gil-Robles also urged action to prevent anti-Semitic attacks and punish those responsible for a spate of such incidents in recent months.
"Society cannot remain passive or indifferent to demonstrations of this sort, including posters, publications, etc.," Gil-Robles said.
Bombs have injured three people in recent months who tried to remove booby-trapped signs reading "Death to Jews." Similar signs, some with fake explosives attached to them, have sprouted up around the country.
"If a bomb is attached to a poster and it causes injury or death, this is not just an expression of xenophobia but a crime that should be punished in keeping with the law," Gil-Robles said.
n According to official figures released by the military headquarters in the North Caucasus on Monday, 4,249 federal service personnel have been killed and 12,285 wounded in fighting in Chechnya since fall 1999. The military also claimed that federal forces have killed 13,517 rebels over the same period, Interfax reported. Neither claim could be independently verified.
TITLE: American Girl Kidnapped in Moscow
AUTHOR: By Steve Gutterman
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - A 6-year-old American girl was kidnapped from a Moscow apartment on Friday in what relatives said was a custody dispute between her American father and her mother, a woman from Russia who is a U.S. citizen.
A duty officer with the Moscow police's central district headquarters confirmed that the girl had been kidnapped from an apartment on Kadashevskaya Embankment in central Moscow.
A group of unidentified men entered the apartment Friday morning and abducted Amelia Garmin after tying up her mother, Lolita Garmin, and grandmother, Lolita Garmin's sister Yekaterina Bocharova said.
Five hours later, Garmin was able to free her hands and call police, Bocharova said. She said that the women were taken to the hospital and that her sister had scratches on her face and a black eye.
The girl's relatives suspect that the kidnapping was staged by her father, Patrick Garmin, who Bocharova said had abducted Amelia once before, about two years ago, after the couple divorced in the United States.
About six months after that incident, U.S. authorities found the girl in Costa Rica with her father, who had assumed a false identity, Bocharova said. Bocharova said that her sister then returned to Moscow with the girl.
"Since he promised her that he would steal the child anyway, she returned here," Bocharova said.
The U.S. State Department said an initial check showed that there was no record of an abduction case having been filed under the names involved, but had no other details.
All police stations and airports in Moscow have been alerted, Itar-Tass reported.
Police said Saturday that no attempt had been made to take the girl across the border but pointed out that the kidnapper had had a head-start of at least five hours, ORT television reported.
On Friday, the kidnappers injected Lolita Garmin and her mother with drugs, Bocharova said. She said that when she got to the apartment the girl's breakfast was on the table.
"She didn't even have time to eat, they dragged her from the table," she said.
TITLE: Pentacostal Churches Face Visa Hassles
AUTHOR: By Andrei Zolotov Jr.
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The Roman Catholic Church is not the only religious organization to have its foreign spiritual leaders blacklisted and barred from Russia without explanation.
Several foreigners long involved with local groups at the other end of the Christian spectrum - in the growing neo-Pentecostal, or charismatic, movement - have also had their visas revoked at the border in recent months, while dozens more have had their visa requests denied, Pentecostal leaders said.
There is no agreement among non-Orthodox religious leaders on how acute the visa problem is for their churches, which are often dependent on foreign pastors, or whether it deserves publicity. But the leader of one of Russia's two Pentecostal umbrella organizations, Bishop Sergei Ryakhovsky, expressed concern and traced the problem either to the government's drive against extremism or to an apparent desire by some officials, most likely in the secret services, to help the Russian Orthodox Church limit its competition.
"It seems to me that someone wants to help the Russian Orthodox Church, so that it is not hindered from the West," Ryakhovsky said in an interview last week.
In the latest case, radical charismatic leader Alexei Ledyayev - the founder of the Riga-based New Generation Church, which has thousands of followers across Russia - had his one-year visa annulled at the border June 7, his church said in a statement.
Ryakhovsky said that two other foreign evangelists, who had traveled frequently to Russia during the past decade and had close ties with Ledyayev's and other charismatic groups, have also been barred from Russia.
Bob Weiner, who heads Florida-based Weiner Ministries International, had his latest visa application denied in March. In an e-mail to Ryakhovksy, Weiner's representatives said they were told by Foreign Ministry officials that he was banned from Russia for five years and could not re-apply until 2007 - a measure usually reserved for spies. Weiner's office in the U.S. did not return a telephone call.
A preacher from the Sweden-based Word of Life church, Karl Gustav Severin, had his visa annulled at Sheremetyevo Airport on Oct. 19, Ryakhovsky said.
"Until recently, I did not think there was any system in the visa denials," said Ryakhovsky, who heads the Russian Union of Christians of the Evangelical Faith [Pentecostals]. The organization was formed in 1997 to create a legal umbrella for hundreds of new churches - often described here as sects - which would otherwise have lost their official status under the protectionist religion law adopted that year.
"I thought it could be retaliation for U.S. visa denials to Russians or something similar," he said."Now it appears to have become a chaotic and inconsistent practice, but nonetheless a practice. As if someone is telling us: You can do here what you are doing, but we are watching from above and can decide what is permissible and what is not."
An official at another union, which comprises more traditional Pentecostal churches dating back to the late 19th and early 20th century, said that its guests have also been barred from Russia. Vera Okara, an official at the Union of Pentecostal Christians of Evangelical Faith in Russia, said that a missionary team that has been active in the Krasnodar region in southern Russia has had trouble returning this year.
Applications for invitations for Salvadoran citizen Pedro Viaud Vides and his wife, Swedish citizen Laila Viaud Vides, have been on hold since April 1, when the Foreign Ministry submitted their files to law enforcement bodies to be checked. Another member of the team, whom she identified only as Gonzales, received a visa in Rome but it was annulled when he tried to enter Russia earlier this year and he was deported from the airport. The fourth member of the team, which is based in Italy, received a visa but has remained at home for fear of being deported.
"We would like to know why they are not being let into the country - it must be something serious," Okara said. "I think some people are being checked. Certain services give information about them and they are not being let in.
"I don't think it is persecution of our faith," Okara said. "Otherwise it would have been a lot more than one or two cases." In total, her organization processes about 500 visas for foreigners per year, she said.
The situation with other Protestant groups remains unclear. Baptist and Seventh-Day Adventist leaders could not be reached for comment last week or Monday.
Human rights and environmental activists also have been denied visas to Russia.
The authorities rarely give a reason for denying a visa. Even in the high-profile expulsions in April of Polish citizen Jerzy Mazur, the Roman Catholic bishop for Eastern Siberia, and Italian citizen Stefano Caprio, a Roman Catholic priest and theology teacher, no explanations have been given, despite Pope John Paul II's official request to President Vladimir Putin, Catholic officials said last week.
"This is not a legal issue - no single court will accept a complaint about the denial of a visa," said prominent religious freedom lawyer Anatoly Pchelintsev. "Under international law, governments have the right to deny a visa without explaining the reasons."
Although the Foreign Ministry issues or refuses visas and the Federal Border Guard Service annulls them at crossing points, both agencies say they only execute decisions. The furthest they go in private conversations is to point to "competent organs" - a widespread euphemism for the Federal Security Service, or FSB.
"Yes, we can suggest banning entry for a certain person, but there have to be grounds for that," said an FSB spokesperson, who would not give her name. She could not say, however, what the grounds would be for a religious figure to constitute a security threat.
Ledyayev is a Kazakhstan-born charismatic preacher who lives in Latvia as a person without citizenship. In Riga he built one of the largest new churches, which has spread throughout the CIS. His New Generation movement claims to have more than 60 churches in Russia with a total membership of about 12,000 people.
If pastors indeed constitute a security threat, Ryakhovsky said he would like to know how. Tired of formal and meaningless responses from law enforcement officials, he said he plans to sign up for an appointment with FSB head Nikolai Patrushev.
"As a former underground Pentecostal, it is hard for me to go to the FSB - my father spent three terms in prison," Ryakhovsky said. "But I may have to do it to protect my flock."
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Mirilashvili Moved
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The case of local businessperson Mikhail Mirilashvili will be handed over to the military court of the Leningrad Military District, a source within the prosecutor's office has told Interfax.
The source said that the decision had been taken because another defendant in the case, Colonel Mark Sidler, serves in the military, working as a doctor at the Military Medical Academy.
The source also said that, as the materials for the investigation already total 28 volumes, "the handing over of the case is taking a very long time."
Nevertheless, the source denied that the case will be dropped as a result of it reaching its investigation deadline.
Stepashin Won't Run
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Sergey Stepashin, chairperson of the State Auditing Chamber, does not intend to be a candidate in the elections for St. Petersburg governor in 2004, Interfax reported Monday.
Speaking to journalists, Stepashin said that he could "help his native city just as well by working at the Auditing Chamber."
Discussing the possibility of current St. Petersburg governor Vladimir Yakovlev running for a third term in the elections, Stepashin said that he did not believe that terms should be the defining factor.
"The important thing is that the vote, whether it be for governor or for the deputies to the [St. Petersburg] Legislative Assembly in December 2003, not be held under anyone's influence in St. Petersburg's difficult economic situation, but objectively," Interfax quoted Stepashin as saying.
"Having been a candidate for the State Duma in 1999 and later for the post of governor, I know for myself that dirty public relations tricks and tricking voters take place in our city," he said.
Boys Charged
ROSTOV-NA-DONU, Southern Russia (AP) - Four teenage boys have been charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of three younger girls, an 11-year-old and two 13-year-olds, Stavropol officials said Monday.
The boys, aged 14 to 17, were detained last Wednesday, two days after the girls were reported missing by their parents, said Dmitry Beketov, spokesperson for the chief prosecutor of the Stavropol region.
The suspects confessed to the killings and led police to the bodies of the girls, found in a forest 25 kilometers from the town of Budyonnovsk, Beketov said.
Preliminary examinations showed that the girls were not sexually assaulted, according to Beketov, who said each of the girls had several wounds. Itar-Tass said they died of head and brain injuries.
TITLE: OPEC President Gives Russians Warning
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - OPEC President Rilwanu Lukman said Friday that Russia would be foolish to think OPEC would continue to sacrifice market share to it and warned Moscow that OPEC exporters would win any price war.
OPEC hopes to see room to increase output toward the end of the year as the world economy recovers, but Lukman said that any future output cuts would be conditional on other countries, including Russia, joining in.
"The Russians would be foolish to expect us to continuously reduce our market share in order to support higher volumes for them. That would not be acceptable, certainly not in the long term, and they know that," Lukman said at a London conference.
Lukman said OPEC had 6 million barrels of spare oil-output capacity and lower production costs than Russia.
"We know what their costs are, and, if it comes to competition, we know who is going to win, but we are not engaging in a price war," Lukman said.
Analysts said Lukman's comments gave indications of infighting among cartel members, who are increasingly concerned about short-term price stability.
"There is growing evidence of a rift within OPEC on a range of issues that include dealing with rising non-OPEC production, the future re-integration of very large Iraqi production and the allocation of quotas within OPEC," Christopher Weafer, head of research at Troika Dialog investment bank and an adviser to OPEC on trends in the Russian economy and oil sector, said by e-mail from London.
Russia, which is not a member of OPEC, has increased output by 15 percent to 7.5 million barrels per day in the last two years, surpassing OPEC's biggest producer, Saudi Arabia.
At the same time, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has slashed its flow rates by 20 percent since early 2001 to keep prices up.
Russia has said it is prepared to adjust output to keep prices in the range of $20 to $25 per barrel, while OPEC has a higher target of $22 to $28.
In Venezuela, on Friday, OPEC Secretary General Alvaro Silva said the cartel may increase production if prices for crude surpass $28 per barrel.
"We have a price-band mechanism under which we increase production if the price exceeds $28 a barrel and cut if prices fall below $22 a barrel," Silva said.
The value of OPEC's basket of seven crude oils averaged $25.85 per barrel Thursday, OPEC's news agency Opecna said Friday. The price has stayed within the band since March 11.
Lukman said, "Russia and others have said that, if prices turn toward the lower levels, they will cooperate. We expect Russia to know what is good for it... They can't expect everybody else to support higher prices for them when they increase production indefinitely. That is not on," he said.
Last December, OPEC got tough with Russia, insisting that any further output cuts would be conditional on Russia's participation.
Moscow eventually caved in to the pressure, agreeing to a 5 percent curb on exports, although it never actually fulfilled its promise and gave up on any pretense of cooperation in May.
Lukman said OPEC would look seriously at raising its production in the fourth quarter, to avoid prices overheating this winter, but any future cuts would again be conditional on meaningful help from other countries.
"We will make it conditional on other people cooperating with us as a whole. Russia is part of the game because it stands to gain from higher prices," Lukman said.
"It doesn't make sense for us to cut production to support higher prices for people to ride on our back. Those days are gone," he added.
"Hitting out at Russia now, when the oil price is exactly where OPEC wants it, is a clear sign of the growing concern about oil-price weakness in the second half of 2002 and in 2003," Weafer said.
"If the U.S. attacks Iraq later this year or early next year, then it can be assumed that a 'rehabilitated' Iraq will be allowed and helped to grow its oil production and exports and will quite quickly be able to reach at least 4 million barrels per day from 1 1/2 million now," Weafer said. "No OPEC member country will want to allow such a large quota inclusion."
- Reuters, SPT
TITLE: World Bank Heads for the Regions for Grass Roots Advice
AUTHOR: By Victoria Lavrentieva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: NOVOSIBIRSK, Western Siberia - After more than a decade of working with the government on programs ranging from stabilizing the nation's financial system to relocating inhabitants of entire towns in the Far North, the World Bank has decided to seek advice from an unusual source - ordinary people.
Forgoing its traditional practice of relying on the government for operational feedback, officials from the bank on Friday wrapped up an ambitious, month-long tour of seven cities to poll non-governmental organizations and small businesses on how to better invest time and money at the regional level.
"We have seen a much broader spectrum of problems than what we see when talking to federal authorities," Julian Schweitzer, World Bank director for Russia, said in an interview Friday.
"We got the perception of what the problems are and heard very interesting ideas about how they could be solved," he said. "We were also pleased at how frank people were in expressing their views."
The World Bank has granted $12.6 billion in loans for Russia since 1992, and last month approved a three-year assistance strategy that envisions dispensing credits totaling $500 million to $600 million per year.
Shifting its focus to the local level, the bank plans to have regions compete for $120 million this year by suggesting reform projects.
"No matter what kind of investment project you do, you just can't do it through the whole country," said Christof Rflhl, the World Bank's chief economist for Russia. "So we need to choose the regions according to their priorities."
World Bank officials visited Murmansk, Khabarovsk, Rostov-na-Donu, Voronezh, Perm and Nizhny Novgorod for discussions attended by social funds, small business associations and local chambers of commerce, among other groups.
"We received real feedback and valuable input on what people think about our strategy in Russia," said Rflhl. "The results far exceeded our expectations."
The three main topics of discussion - coinciding with the government's priorities in cooperation with the World Bank - were the growth of competition and the creation of suitable conditions for new enterprises, public-sector reform and the limiting of the social and economic risks of structural reforms.
"All the regions are very different and pointed out very different problems," said Svetlana Makovetskaya, chairperson of the Agency of Support for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Perm and one of the moderators during the tour.
In the Far East city of Khabarovsk, participants were mainly concerned with migration, customs problems and the inflow of Chinese and Korean workers, Makovetskaya said. In Nizhny Novgorod and Voronezh, she said, participants focused on degenerating municipal services that fail to maintain constant water supplies to residential buildings.
In Novosibirsk, some representatives of small businesses recommended writing a business plan for the whole region as if it were a holding company, Makovetskaya said, while others suggested the bank's regional programs be monitored by representatives of local nongovernmental organizations, as well as the World Bank itself.
The meetings were helpful because they allowed local organizations to work together with the bank on a list of problems, said Yelena Yefimova, a lawyer and head of the Club of Leaders, a business group for women in Novosibirsk.
"We have so many problems that sometimes it is hard for us to see the most important ones and suggest concrete solutions," Yefimova said. "These brainstorming meetings help."
Despite the diverging points of view, the priorities of civil society and the government were the same, Schweitzer said. "What surprised us was more unanimity on views than we would expect, given our experience in other countries."
"I think it is good that the opinions of both society and the government coincide, because it shows that there is consensus on what should be done," Makovetskaya said.
World Bank officials said they intend to do a similar tour before the bank approves its next three-year strategy for Russia.
"Russia does not have too many problems with passing legislation, but rather with implementation, which has to take place on the ground, even if it is a federal program," Schweitzer said.
TITLE: Proposal Suggests Return of Resources
AUTHOR: By Anna Raff
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - A working group has recommended that Russia renationalize natural resources, Interfax reported last week.
The group, composed of Russian Academy of Science members and government representatives, came up with the plan as part of an overall program to revise the federal law on natural resources.
Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov signed off on an order July 9 to have different draft amendments submitted to the government by Oct. 1 so they can be debated in the State Duma's fall session.
One of the main revisions put forth by the group would alter the ownership structure of natural resources. "Extracted natural resources should remain federal property," the proposal said. Exceptions would include abundant resources such as sand, clay, pebbles, chalk and quartz.
The proposed program would also prohibit companies from independently selling natural gas, oil, coal, metals and other resources. As it is now, the actual resources are the state's until they are taken out of the ground; under current licensing agreements, they then become company property.
The group wants to annul all licenses and subsequently replace them with concession agreements, similar to those used in Middle East countries before those governments nationalized their oil industries in the 1970s.
Analysts did not take the proposal seriously, saying these changes cannot be implemented in industries that have already been privatized.
"These people are going to extremes," said Vladislav Metnyov, an analyst at Renaissance Capital. "Anyone can put a plan together and submit it to the government, even a bunch of bitter, retired scientists."
"It's not going to happen," said Alexander Andreyev of UBS Warburg.
While analysts were quick to shrug off the plan, the group's very existence underscores the opinion, held by many ordinary Russians, that the country's oligarchs should begin paying more for what they grabbed during privatization.
In the 1990s, a group of politically well-connected individuals were able to buy up Russia's most lucrative oil, metals and communications companies for rock-bottom prices in the infamous loans-for-shares scheme.
TITLE: Kasyanov Settles Auto Debate
AUTHOR: By Valeria Korchagina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - After months of debate and fierce lobbying, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov rolled out a 10-year master plan for the car industry Thursday that restricts older foreign-built vehicles and provides for special investment zones around car plants.
The plan, which Kasyanov signed off on earlier last week, is to be fine-tuned by the Cabinet and sent to the State Duma as early as this fall.
"The changes are insignificant for the country, but individuals picking between Russian and foreign cars will now be more likely to lean toward Russian cars," said Yelena Sakhnova, an automobile analyst with United Financial Group.
The government's blueprint is a compromise between lobbyists who pushed for protective measures to revive the sagging industry and those who argued that the answer was a level playing field. Protectionists had urged that an import duty of up to 55 percent be slapped on all foreign cars.
The plan, while not spelling out the size of duties, suggests that only foreign models older than seven years will face new restrictions.
Import duties for newer cars will remain unchanged for seven years, Interfax reported.
It was unclear whether current duties will be used as the rate.
Cars currently fall into two categories - new cars, which include those fresh off the assembly line, those three years old, and the rest.
A new car is subject to a 25-percent import duty or a tariff based on the size of its engine, with the amount determined by which fee is higher. The engine tariff is 1 euro per cubic centimeter for engines smaller than 1,000 cc and grows to 2.35 euros for those larger than 3,000 cc.
A car more than three years old is only taxed by its engine size, and the tariff ranges from 0.85 euros to 1.04 euros per cubic centimeter.
Kasyanov's plan states that duties on foreign cars more than seven years old should be the same as duties on new cars. However, it also seeks to cut the number of older Russian and foreign cars on the roads by slapping them with higher insurance premiums. Compulsory car insurance will be introduced July 1, 2003.
The measure to place higher import duties on older cars was prompted by a European Union move to get rid of cars more than seven years old. The step had threatened to flood the Russian market with older cars.
The blueprint lays out a raft of measures to boost local production, including lower taxes on imported equipment, the optimization of duties on imported parts and other tax breaks.
"The creation of special economic zones that would make investment into the automobile industry attractive is a good idea," said Ovanes Oganisian, an automobile analyst at Renaissance Capital. "But mechanisms to make the schemes transparent should be worked out."
The plan states that its reforms should lead to a leap in the number of cars per capita, from 140 cars per 1,000 people to 245, making for a total of more than 30 million cars in 10 years. Russia now has 21.2 million cars, of which 4.6 million are foreign made. The share of foreign cars is expected to remain the same and reach 7 million to 8 million vehicles by 2010.
Oganisian said that although domestic carmakers would be helped by the proposed changes, they were not in for an easy ride.
He said that higher sticker prices on older cars brought on by heavier duties would probably not be enough to keep them from being competitive with new Russian cars.
In addition, a recent hike in metals prices threatened to raise the costs of domestic cars, he said.
A spokesperson at VAZ, maker of the popular Lada cars, said vehicle prices would have to grow in line with the metals market.
The GAZ carmaker intends to halt production from July 26 to Aug. 5 to draw up a strategy in view of the higher metals prices, a spokesperson said.
However, carmakers said that they were heartened by the government's plan, saying that any initiative to breathe life into the industry was welcome.
TITLE: Komi Reaches Deal with EximBank on Financing
AUTHOR: By Angelina Davydova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: On Friday, EximBank Vice President Eduardo Aguirre and the Komi Minister of Economic Development Ivan Stukalov signed a memorandum of understanding under which Eximbank will finance purchases of U.S. equipment by the Komi Republic.
Eximbank, a U.S. government credit agency set up to give financial support to U.S. exports to emerging markets, has already given $2 billion in approved loans in Russia, and is now giving consideration to another $750 million. Worldwide, Eximbank's portfolio is $58 billion in total. In the 2001 financial year, Eximbank approved $12.5 billion in loans to support U.S. exports, with Russia taking $156.7 million. The aircraft, healthcare and mining industries were the most attractive sectors for the bank, Eduardo Aguirre said on Friday at a press conference in St. Petersburg.
Aguirre had previously said, speaking at a press conference in Moscow last week, that Eximbank would be happy to lend another billion dollars to Russia this year, if suitable projects could be found.
In 2000, Eximbank also launched a new regional initiative aimed at establishing projects with regions and cities in Russia. Under the plan, any city or region with a B minus or higher credit rating could get Eximbank credit lines backed up by guarantees provided by subjects of the Russian Federation. Current beneficiaries include Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Samarskaya Oblast and the republics of Bashkortostan, Tatarstan and Komi.
In Moscow, a week ago, the Eximbank vice president signed a memorandum of understanding with the Governor of Krasnodar, Alexander Tkachev, giving support to a joint-leasing company that will supply agricultural machinery to the region.
The Komi republic, however, needs $200 million to $300 million in loans for new investment projects, according to Ivan Stukalin, the Komi Economic Development Minister. Eximbank has said that it is prepared to lend the sums to Komi, on the condition that they be used to purchase U.S. equipment. "For the most part, it will be for technology for the lumber industry and medical equipment," Stukalin said.
In February 2002, Eximbank signed a memorandum of understanding with the St. Petersburg administration. Last Thursday, under that agreement, the city administration signed an $18-million contract with a U.S. firm, Energy Smart. The firm will supply energy-efficient lighting to 450 St. Petersburg schools. Eximbank will act as a guarantor, with HSBC lending the money. The loan is due to be repaid over five years. The interest rate will only be confirmed in a month's time, though it is expected to be just over the LIBOR rate, Eduardo Aguirre said.
Eximbank will launch another new project in Russia in the near future - a bank lending program for small and medium-sized businesses. Under this program, Eximbank will guarantee loans provided by Russian banks to companies that will use the financing to purchase U.S. export goods and services.
"We have already found opportunities to give $300 million in loans in Russia ... and more than a quarter of the potential transactions could involve small and medium-sized companies," Eduardo Aguirre said.
TITLE: Historic Oil Shipment Snagged by Bad Debt
AUTHOR: By Anna Raff
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The highly publicized, first-ever direct shipment of Russian crude to the United States has landed Yukos in U.S. federal court over a seven-year-old debt.
A U.S. federal judge issued a temporary restraining order July 11 that instructs global giant ExxonMobil, the buyer of the crude, to withhold $17 million of its $50-million payment to a subsidiary of the No. 2 Russian oil producer.
The claim was filed by Dardana Ltd., an obscure oil-services company with a roundabout connection to Russia that acted after noticing the publicity generated by the shipment.
When Yukos announced last month that it would send 2 million barrels of Urals crude straight to the United States, the move was hailed as an example of the better economic ties between the two countries after the recent U.S.-Russian presidential summit, where energy issues were high on the agenda.
Although Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky said at the time that the move was designed to test the viability of Russian producers directly entering the huge U.S. market, analysts doubted the profitability of the strategy from the start. Now, with the $17 million in abeyance, Yukos may have to write off the experiment as a financial loss.
Neither Yukos nor Dardana could be reached for comment Friday.
The ruling is the latest in a series of court cases in Europe and the United States that began at the Stockholm International Arbitration Court.
In 1995, the Russian oil-services firm PetroAlliance conducted exploration and modeling work for Yuganskneftegaz, which was later consolidated into Yukos. But due to a financial crisis at Yuganskneftegaz, the company was unable to pay the $6.5 million that it owed under the contract, said PetroAlliance president Alexander Dzhaparidze.
The U.S. company Western Atlas was a shareholder in PetroAlliance at the time, and its management decided to take Yukos to court. The arbitration court ruled in favor of PetroAlliance.
TITLE: Market Moves in Ever-Decreasing Circles
AUTHOR: By Michael Hill
PUBLISHER: the baltimore sun
TEXT: THE U.S. stock market is plummeting and U.S. Democratic candidates are letting American voters know that the rich and greedy businesspeople - the friends of the Republicans - are to blame.
That might sound like today's headline, but it was also the story 70 years ago. The candidate was Franklin D. Roosevelt. The man playing the part of Enron's Kenneth Lay or the Arthur Andersen accountants or the WorldCom executives was Samuel Insull. He had made his millions in electric utilities in Chicago, only to take thousands of stockholders down with him when the stock market crash collapsed his financial house of cards.
Americans have always had a love-hate relationship with wealthy businesspeople, something that's evident in politics and popular culture.
"There is a very strong irony in American culture about the world of business," said Jack Boozer, a professor of communication at Georgia State University, whose book on the depiction of business in Hollywood movies comes out this fall. "On the one hand, it is the world of opportunity, but when someone gets too high on their own horse, they tend to become more and more corrupted."
Though this conflict rises and falls with cyclical regularity, it goes back to the earliest roots of the country when Alexander Hamilton and his New York business friends, who wanted a central bank, were distrusted by Thomas Jefferson and his agrarian colleagues who thought that there was something wrong with making money off of money.
"Americans tend to have ambivalent feelings toward business leaders whether the business cycle is up or down," said David Scilia, who teaches history of business at the University of Maryland. "At the turn of this century, the image of businesspeople was, arguably, the pre-eminent issue of that day. There were extraordinarily powerful robber barons - Carnegie, Rockefeller, those types. It was a new breed. No one had ever commanded so much wealth and corporate power and it made America quite uneasy."
This was the era of the Muckrakers, who took on business practices in books and newspapers; and of the Progressives, who brought in the first wave of business regulation during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, who said he wanted to save business from itself.
The ambivalent pendulum has swung many times through American history. A generation after the Founding Fathers, Andrew Jackson came to Washington on a populist agrarian wave.
"He was seen as a champion of the people, taking back control, fighting against the banking institutions that seemed aristocratic," said Ted Widmer, head of the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland.
Widmer says that Jackson took a dislike to the Bank of Philadelphia, a big, private institution in Philadelphia. "It was quite an important institution and Jackson wanted to destroy it."
This was based, Widmer says, on a distrust of people who made money by moving pieces of paper around. "This struck many in America as immoral."
Widmer says that the issue of whether to renew the bank's charter polarized the country. Jackson killed the bank. And many historians say that this helped lead to the Panic of 1837 and ensured that the next president, Martin Van Buren - who came into office espousing Jacksonian populism - served only one term. Another depression dealt the same fate to Herbert Hoover, the pro-business president defeated by Franklin Roosevelt in 1932.
Business has been on an up cycle for the past two decades, essentially since Ronald Reagan took office. Bill Clinton's resuscitation of the Democratic Party was based in large part on his ability to get rid of its anti-business image, indeed to make it the party of the new economy. It's not unusual for a kid who grew up in this era to have Bill Gates as his hero.
"We went through this before in the '20s," said Mark Blyth, a political scientist at the Johns Hopkins University. "That was the golden era of fetishization of business. We put them on the pedestal, 'the captains of industry' and all that."
It was a time when Reader's Digest was handing out stock tips and Jesus Christ was lauded as the first salesperson. The rhetoric, Blyth says, was eerily similar to that heard in the dot-com boom of the '90s. "It was the same sort of 'new economy' speak," he said. "They didn't call it that then, but [it was] the same sort of talk of entering a new era where the confluence of technology and capital meant that the business cycle was abolished. The same type of hubris."
And, Blyth says, many of the same types of shady business and accounting practices that kept the stock prices high has also been back in fashion.
In times like these - or in the '20s - when more and more Americans have money in the stock market, the public asks few questions about business practices as long as that market is soaring, but goes looking for villains once the market tanks.
In 1932, Insull served that role. A protege of Thomas Edison, Insull decided that there was more money to be made selling electricity than in selling the components of generating stations. He moved to Chicago and ordered the biggest generator ever built. It allowed him to sell electricity at lower prices, bringing this modern convenience to classes of people who had not been able to afford it, including many in rural areas.
Probably all would have been well and good had Insull stuck to selling electricity. But he decided to sell stock as well, soliciting his working-class customers, telling them to get in on this good thing. Which they did, in droves. Meanwhile, Insull concocted a complicated series of trusts and holding companies to shield his company from takeovers. That was fine as long as his Commonwealth Edison was making money. But when his complex structure collapsed in the Depression, taking the life savings of many, Roosevelt and others led the anti-Insull tirade.
"Insull was a great utility executive, but a lousy financier," said Scilia. "In the '30s, business suffered a great deal, and Roosevelt capitalized on that, turning up the anti-business rhetoric. He called Wall Street financiers 'chiselers,' using this as an opportunity to assert public officials as the institutional leaders of the country."
Mark Rozeen, however, who has surveyed the trust of the American public for the Golin/Harris communications firm, says that current opinions are reminiscent of those of the 1970s, with distrust across the board - in business and government, as well as in institutions as diverse as the Catholic Church and Major League Baseball.
But, as in the '70s, he sees the pendulum swinging back as people get numbed by the scandals and go looking for institutions they can believe in. "I think we move into a period of what I would call business classicism," he said, indicating that Americans will seek out competence in business and all areas of life.
"I think you will see the return of the engineer as CEO, the man or woman who is not just innovative with dollars, but with atoms," he said.
The Insull story concludes with a cautionary tale for those who think downturns in the business-and-confidence cycle always have a clear villain. After Roosevelt's election, Insull was indicted on federal mail-fraud charges based on his stock solicitations. He evaded extradition in Europe for months, finally returning in handcuffs. His trial in Chicago lasted several weeks. It took a jury only three hours to acquit him.
Michael Hill is a staff writer for The Baltimore Sun, to which he contributed this comment.
TITLE: Forestry Ripens for a Carve Up
AUTHOR: By Yulia Latynina
TEXT: NOW that the oil and metals industries have been divvied up, the forestry industry is a prime object for carving. In terms of output volume, the sector occupies fifth place in the country's gross domestic product. However, its managers are not among the ranks of the oligarchs and their "administrative resources" do not stretch very far. Furthermore, the sector is highly concentrated, with 10 plants accounting for 85 percent of output. Control of the four largest plants would be sufficient to become a virtual monopolist.
The first person to appreciate the potential of the forestry industry was Lev Chernoi. Energoprom, a group allied to him, controlled 30 percent of Ust-Ilimsk Forestry Plant, and Chernoi decided to buy out the whole business. However, Chernoi only had 30 percent of the shares in Ust-Ilimsk and the owner of the controlling stake, Nikolai Makarov, refused to sell him the rest. Chernoi's group, therefore, chose to deal not with the owner but with the mayor of Ust-Ilim. In August, the plant was seized and the owners of the controlling stake were removed from managing the enterprise.
Makarov desperately cast about for help, which came in the form of Oleg Deripaska, owner of Siberian Aluminum and long-time Chernoi foe. Chernoi's people were sent packing from the plant. Makarov still had to sell his business, but to Deripaska, not Chernoi.
Take note. This was an outrageous attack. And did the state protect the entrepreneur? No - it supplied the instruments for the attack in the form of the courts and the mayor of Ust-Ilim. Thus, in failing to fulfil its basic functions, the state has begun to wither away, and the vacuum is filled by a system based on personal relations. Deripaska saves Makarov, but the quid pro quo is that he becomes a Deripaska vassal.
In this way, SibAl acquired a new resource: managers with a good understanding of the forestry business. Then the group started to cast around for other targets and its gaze alighted on the neighboring Bratsk Forestry Plant. However, there was one small obstacle: The controlling stake in Bratsk belonged not to SibAl but to the Ilim Pulp group, headed by St. Petersburg entrepreneur Zakhar Smushkin. This proved to be just a minor detail and SibAl gained control of the plant by using a minority shareholder suit to bankrupt it.
Now Smushkin had to go looking for a protector, and another oligarch, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, entered the fray. He provided the Ilim Pulp holding with cash for the purchase of the Bratsk Pulp and Paper Plant and Ust-Ilimsk Pulp and Paper Plant. Smushkin paid a total of $200 million.
The main means of economic exchange in this country is war. In these circumstances, it is pointless to blame someone for being a better shot.
What is really worrying is that the state is incapable of defending someone from an oligarch, while another oligarch can. The result is not consolidation of an industry - let us not deceive ourselves with Western phrases. The result is vertically integrated fiefdoms: the only force capable of defending business people from arbitrary actions, whether by a health inspector or another oligarch.
The only thing is that when the victim of arbitrary actions is defended by the law, he preserves his freedom.
Yulia Latynina is a journalist with ORT.
TITLE: Undue Big Oil Diligence Influencing World Bank
AUTHOR: By Matt Bivens
TEXT: WASHINGTON - The mission of the World Bank is reducing poverty and promoting free markets. So how does that track with showering Gosplan-sized subsidies on the oil companies?
The World Bank division that gives money to multinational corporations - yes, there is such a division - is on the verge of lending $500 million to BP Amoco so that it can expand its operations in Azerbaijan and build a pipeline from Baku to Turkey.
"We're actively engaged in due diligence," a World Bank official told the Bloomberg news agency. "There are some real business risks, but we want to do this right."
I'm already amused at the idea of performing "due diligence" on a 1,760-kilometer structure running through, of all places, the Caucasus. One may as well perform due diligence on a 1,760-kilometer stream of floating fish heads and chum. ("There are some real business risks, but we're confident our publicly funded chum-line will never be molested by a one-eyed shark named Shamil.")
Other international financial institutions - pith-helmeted due-diligence experts all - are lining up to kick in, too. Otherwise, there will be no pipeline: As BP Amoco has so helpfully clarified, this $2.9-billion white elephant cannot be built without "free public money." (Free public money?)
So, surprise: Another fat giveaway from the guardians of the public trust to Big Oil. The World Bank has, over the past decade, sunk $25 billion into fossil- fuel projects around the world. This is awkward for the bank, because it's supposed to be dedicated to alleviating poverty, and the evidence is overwhelming that investing in extractive industries - oil, gas, mining and other dig-it-up-and-sell-it projects - actually works against that.
The bank's investments in fossil-fuel projects aren't helping global warming, either. As one internal bank memo warned last year, they collectively represent "a clear and present danger" to planet Earth. Even World Bank President James Wolfensohn has had to acknowledge such criticism, and, at his orders, the bank is conducting a quasi-independent review of all such lending. (You can offer your two cents at www.eireview.org).
Meanwhile, other lenders of "free public money" have no such public fits of conscience. The U.S. government-backed export-credit agencies, such as the Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, don't waste time fretting about the poor or the environment. They just invest.
Together, those two have, over the past decade, approved $28.4 billion in financing for oil, gas and coal corporate projects. For perspective, these international projects will every year emit greenhouse gases equal to about two-thirds of what the entire United States coughs out. "[International financial institutions] are actively undercutting any greenhouse gas-emission reductions that may be gained under the Kyoto Protocol, as these investments lock in the fossil fuel development model for years to come," warns Friends of the Earth - one of several groups arguing, persuasively, that the World Bank and other trustees of "free public money" ought to stop putting money into fossil-fuel projects.
That's important context to the U.S. Eximbank's enthusiasm for spending hundreds of millions of dollars in Russia this year, on orders from oilman-turned-president George W. Bush. "I would love to increase business in Russia by another $1 billion in the next few months if the business were to show up," chairperson Eduardo Aguirre said last week in Moscow.
News accounts of Aguirre's visit talked of $18 million to finance energy-efficient lighting for St. Petersburg schools, and Eximbank officials rarely miss a chance to pat themselves on the back for establishing a Renewable Energy Exports Advisory Committee.
Aguirre says that he and Bush both want the Eximbank to invest in small Russian businesses. But the road to hell is paved with free public money, and I'll wager that, good intentions aside, this is another ode to Big Oil in the making.
Matt Bivens, a former editor of The Moscow Times, is a Washington-based fellow of The Nation Institute [www.thenation.com].
TITLE: The Anti-Extremism Record Doesn't Bode Well
AUTHOR: By Robert Coalson
TEXT: ON June 21, President Vladimir Putin made an important symbolic gesture by awarding the Order of Courage to Tatyana Sapunova, the 28-year-old woman who was severely wounded on May 27 when a booby trap exploded while she attempted to tear down an anti-Semitic sign outside Moscow. Sapunova was as startled as anyone by Putin's move: "The news was entirely surprising," she was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying.
One reason why Sapunova and others were so surprised is that Putin's public track record on the problems of nationalism and extremism - like that of former President Boris Yeltsin - is unimpressive. To take just one example, on April 27, 2000, Putin awarded a medal for "distinguished service to the fatherland" to then Krasnodar region Governor Nikolai Kondratenko, a man noted for his frequent obnoxiously racist and anti-Semitic utterances. The award came less than one year after the Moscow Helsinki Group listed Krasnodar as "the most infamous region [of Russia] when it comes to state-supported extremism."
The region "has become the saddest example of the installation of a regime of extreme xenophobia and ethnic discrimination in a major Russian region. Without a doubt, the major factor is the head of the administration, Nikolai Kondratenko," the report reads.
But instead of being reviled, Kondratenko was quietly removed to the Federation Council. Most recently, he was heard from in February, when he sent an envoy to the founding conference of the openly anti-Semitic People's Patriotic Party, at which one party leader said that Jews "must return what they have looted in Russia and publicly repent to the Russian people for the crimes that Jewish terrorists and extremists have committed."
Now, seemingly, Putin has changed his mind, and since mid-May, when Putin himself suddenly determined that it is an urgent national problem, extremism has become one of the most discussed topics in Russia. Since then, a controversial new bill on extremist crimes has been drafted and pushed through the State Duma and the Federation Council with lightning speed, while the country has been rocked by a number of high-visibility hate crimes from Kaliningrad to the Far East.
The new law has come under sharp and justified criticism from liberals and activists.
Primarily, critics contend that the bill is too vague, making it potentially a weapon against almost any kind of political activity. Given that local prosecutors are notoriously under the thumb of local officials, and that many of those officials have an odious record of abusing their "administrative resources" to further their own political ends, activists are wary of handing them yet another weapon to use against the country's fragile civil society.
Moreover, critics note that Russia already has enough laws to prosecute extremist groups, but that law-enforcement officials have been inexplicably reluctant to use them. Putin and Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov have publicly acknowledged this fact repeatedly. On July 11, Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Vasiliyev likewise admitted that regional officials take extremist and racist crimes far too lightly, "tending to describe them as mere childish naughtiness or hooliganism." As if on cue, a local police official in Irkutsk on the same day told journalists that there was no evidence that an incident in which a gunman fired into a mosque during a prayer service was an extremist crime and, therefore, his department is treating it as "hooliganism."
On July 7, 12 people were hospitalized after a brawl between Armenians and Russians in the Moscow region town of Krasnoarmeisk. When the Armenians called the police for help, they were told that "there was not enough staff to respond," according to Emmanuil Dolbakyan, chairperson of the Ararat Armenian cultural center in Moscow.
It remains to be seen whether symbolic gestures, such as Putin's recent public statements or bestowing the award upon Sapunova, will be able to change these long-entrenched attitudes.
Although no one is certain exactly how many Russians are actively involved in extremist groups, it is evident that solving the problem is much more a matter of education and leadership than of law enforcement. Speaking one day after the rampage in Moscow following Russia's World Cup loss to Japan, during which rioters targeted Asian tourists and businesses, a senior official in the Education Ministry made exactly this point. "The roots of yesterday's events lie in the complex, overall social situation in the country. Spiritually, we have lost an entire generation, and now it is practically impossible to reach their hearts and minds," Valentina Berezina, head of the ministry's Supplementary Education Department, was quoted as saying. "On the state level, we must create and implement complex programs to bring together the strengths of all social institutes, including, first of all, the family."
Notably, the recent parliamentary debate on the new anti-extremism law has not included an examination of the federal program on "forming the conditions of tolerance and preventing extremism in Russian society," which was adopted in August 2001. That four-year plan, although far from perfect, is under the auspices of the Education Ministry, but foresees the involvement of nearly a dozen other agencies. According to the plan, by the end of this year, the program should already have developed experimental educational programs to promote tolerance - programs that should be part of the national educational curriculum by 2004. During the admittedly cursory and facile discussion of the new law on combating extremism, no one in the Duma or the Federation Council considered it useful to check up on the progress of this initiative or to suggest that bolstering it might be more productive than the law being rammed through the legislature.
Another crucial factor that has allowed extremist groups to fester in the regions is the weakness of the local media, a condition that has been cultivated by local and national authorities for their political ends. Local media, ideally, should cast light on such phenomena at the earliest stages, when mere public outrage can be enough to have a decisive effect. In Russia, however, state-controlled local media have shown little interest in covering such groups, and independent media has generally been too weak and vulnerable to be effective.
Throughout the 1990s, Russia's leading extremist group, Russian National Unity, or RNE, waged an unrelenting national campaign of intimidation and lawsuits against local journalists who dared to report on its activities or tag it with the label "fascist." In 2000, the Glasnost Defense Foundation published a book, detailing typical cases from the second half of the 1990s in Voronezh, Stavropol and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, that ranks among some of the most compelling reading to come out of post-Soviet Russia. One is equally impressed by the courage of journalists such as Voronezh's Natalya Novozhilova and aghast at the helplessness of the law to protect them from the intimidations of fascists who, as often as not, seem to be at least tacitly in league with local officials. This book makes a persuasive case for the argument that a real independent press would do far more to combat extremism in Russia than any number of laws or police officers.
Robert Coalson, a former editor of The St Petersburg Times, is an editor and analyst for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Newsline, where a shorter version of this comment appeared.
TITLE: A Simple Case for Building a Civil Society
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev
TEXT: SO here I am in Denver, surrounded by skyscrapers, big cars filled with people rushing to Mile High Stadium to see another game, fireworks, Taco Bell, Star Bucks and - the law.
I don't think that I have heard the word "law" uttered quite so often anywhere else I have been, and I'm starting to appreciate how the system here works and feel a little sorry for its Russian counterpart.
Recently, Mike Harden, a former football player for the Denver Broncos, found himself in court for replacing playing football with playing women. Harden was taken to court by numerous former girlfriends from whom he had taken money. Two of these women alone were bilked by Harden of $64,500 in total.
In convicting Harden and sentencing him to six years at a community corrections facility - which apparently resembles a cross between a jail and some sort of resort - the judge described him as a "predator."
There are so many parts of this story that could never happen in Russia that it is difficult for me to decide where to start.
First of all, Russian women would never be caught making such bad investments, not because they are financially more responsible, but because of the traditional nature of relationships between men and women here, which maintains an almost prehistoric form.
In other words, the man's role is to take his weapons and leave the cave in search of food.
I know a traffic cop who once, discovering that his family had no funds left with which to celebrate New Year's Eve, grabbed his black and white baton and headed out, returning a mere two hours later with abundant food and drink. What's the difference, really, between killing a mammoth in the mountains and shaking out the wallets of poor drivers by Moskovsky Vokzal? He would probably say the risk is about the same.
But, for the sake of argument, let's imagine that a miracle has occured and a Russian woman has discovered that what was once her handsome find now owes her $64,500. The predator would be in line for one of four likely responses: He could be battered to death by a frying pan in his own kitchen; He could be beaten up by some of the woman's friends; The woman or her friends could take close relatives of the man hostage; or the woman or her friends could simply hire a killer to solve the problem once and for all. The last option seems the most likely to me.
If I, as an alternative, were to suggest taking the guy to court, I would be told that I am an idiot. If a woman in such a situation showed up in a Russian court to file a law suit of this type, the reception would be about the same. She would be told to go away and not to make the judge laugh.
But why should this make people laugh? There is one chief reason: Russians are not used to the thought that one of the roles of the courts is to solve disagreements between civil litigants.
In the 11 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian citizens have received nothing but messages that the government itself doesn't expect the courts to run this way. There is no such thing in Russia as an independent court.
If, three years ago, courts were handing down decisions in favor of regional leaders, now they are handing them down in favor of the Kremlin, in the form of banning candidates from participating in regional elections and closing TV companies.
Russian laws exist nowhere but on paper and the people know it very well. It's the government that doesn't provide any indication that it wants to live in a civil society. The Kremlin has to show the population examples of it obeying the law itself.
Reading news from Russia doesn't fill me with hope. If two journalists end up facing legal hassles just for asking the "wrong questions" of President Vladimir Putin at a press conference, what are the chances that Russia's courts will ever have the time, or Russia's people the inclination, to get about the work of a civil society?
Vladimir Kovalev is a journalist for the St. Petersburg Times currently working on a sixth-month exchange program for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado.
TITLE: Global Eye
TEXT: We do not at this time ascribe to the view that the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States were ordered - or allowed to happen-by the unelected regime now in power in Washington. There is no hard evidence as yet that would support this claim in a court of law, and we hope to God that no such evidence exists.
However, we will say this: A regime that would cold-bloodedly launch a murderous, unprovoked attack on another sovereign nation, guaranteeing the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people, is a regime that is capable of anything.
That the United States will shortly launch just such an attack against Iraq is as certain as anything can be in this world of unbuckled and chaotic event. The trumpets of military aggression have taken on a new urgency in Washington in recent days. Various plans for mass murder are openly discussed in the high councils of state. Troops and materiel are being shifted into place at a rapid clip.
Why this sudden, sharp increase in bellicose rhetoric? Why "such daily cast of brazen cannon and foreign mart for implements of war?" The "threat" from Iraq - whatever that may be - is no greater than it was a month ago; in fact, it is appreciably less. The former head of the United Nations mission to disarm Saddam's regime has just visited the two sites claimed by the Americans to be monstrous cradles harboring "weapons of mass destruction." He found nothing there but ruins.
But the casus belli for this conflict is not to be found in Iraq. It lives instead in the fevered, addled, coddled brains of the Bush Regime, which has evidently been demented by its lust to secure the Iraqi oil fields - a store of swag second only to the treasure buried in the Saudi Arabian sands. Saddam has proven to be an unreliable steward of this imperial possession, so the lords of the earth aim to take it away from him and place it in more docile hands. If a dozen innocent people must die - or a hundred, or a thousand, or a hundred thousand - to accomplish this, it is of no real consequence to George W. Bush and his junta.
Only the timing of this crime against humanity is in question. The attack is being carefully calibrated in order to extract the greatest possible political advantage for the Regime. The timetable has been advanced due to the embarrassing headlines now enlivening the mainstream U.S. media. These doughty sentinels of freedom have very belatedly discovered the long-known, well-documented fact that Bush's vaunted corporate career was nothing but a stinking Enronian brew of insider trading, sweetheart deals, book-cooking and political fixing.
There is almost nothing in these "revelations" from The New York Times, The Washington Post and the TV networks that could not have been reported in 1999 or 2000, when Bush was being cast in the media narrative as a man of "honor and integrity," a CEO with real "business savvy." And of course, they were reported, in dozens of venues around the world. But they failed to penetrate the echo chamber of the High Media, whose corporate owners have benefited so greatly from the Regime's encouragement of voracious monopolies.
Now the mountain of sleaze has grown so high that even the media barons in their glass towers cannot completely overlook it. It's true that they try to soft-pedal the scandals as much as they can - The Washington Post's editorial writers have been especially entertaining in this regard, with their hilarious attempts to paint Bush's pitch-black mire as nothing more than a bit of lightly splattered virgin snow. But the mere recitation of the facts is damning enough; they fall like bricks on sheet metal, drowning out the comforting murmurs of the president's protectors.
And thus the quickening of war talk, the detailed "leaks" of invasion plans. The Regime's strategists are poised on a knife's edge, watching the polls, the headlines, the Congressional races. A few more scandals and they may need the "quick-strike" option: a lightning assault in September or perhaps an "October surprise" just before the polls. If things stabilize, they can wait for a full-scale invasion sometime in the coming year and exploit the murder of Iraqi women and children - and the deaths of U.S. soldiers - for the benefit of Bush's own election campaign in 2004.
In either case, the gnashing of teeth and baying for war will continue unabated, at every opportunity. Here the Bush regime takes its cue from Marcus Porcius Cato, the archconservative martinet who ended every debate in the Roman Senate - no matter what the topic: taxes, corn provision, sewage systems - with the bloodthirsty cry: "And furthermore, Carthage must be destroyed!"
And so it was. Rome, poisoned by Cato's martial fever and by an overpowering greed for its rival's material wealth, invaded Carthage on the slimmest of pretexts and razed the ancient city to the ground. The Republic, glutted on the blood of conquest, fell into decades of corruption and conflict, lost its treasured liberties and submitted to tyranny.
But things move faster in these chaotic modern times. Bush - a corrupt and ignorant wastrel along late imperial lines - already claims the tyrant's arbitrary power to imprison any citizen whatsoever, without charges, without evidence, for as long as he likes, simply on his own authority. In his mind, the Republic is already dead.
Now comes the conquest, the glutting. Now comes the feast of blood.
For annotational references, please see Global Eye in the "Opinion" section at www.sptimesrussia.com.
TITLE: Israel Plans West Bank Withdrawl
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: JERUSALEM - Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Monday that the Israeli army was prepared to withdraw from two West Bank towns, occupied for more than a month, as long as Palestinian security forces were ready to take over and prevent attacks against Israel.
The Palestinians had demanded a full withdrawal from all seven cities under Israeli occupation, as well as a full repayment of tax revenues withheld for much of the nearly 22 months of fighting.
On Monday, two Palestinian militants were shot and killed by Israeli soldiers when they tried to attack a Jewish settlement in the southern Gaza Strip, the army said. Two soldiers were lightly injured in a clash, the army said. The militant Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack in announcements at Gaza mosques and in a fax sent to The Associated Press in Beirut.
Also, Israeli police reopened the university offices of the leading Palestinian official in Jerusalem, Sari Nusseibeh.Police had closed his office two weeks ago, alleging that Nusseibeh, the president of Al Quds University, had violated peace accords by engaging in Palestinian political activity in Jerusalem.
The Palestinians want east Jerusalem for the capital of a future state, while Israel claims sovereignty over the city.
Meanwhile, Peres confirmed Palestinian reports that Israel has offered to withdraw from the West Bank towns of Hebron and Bethlehem if Palestinian security takes control.
Asked if he was confirming reports that the army would withdraw from towns, Peres said "Yes, there are towns that are more quiet than others; Hebron, Bethlehem and Jericho.'' He did not say when a withdrawal might take place.
Israeli troops moved into seven of the eight major Palestinian cities and towns in the West Bank after two suicide bomb attacks in Jerusalem more than a month ago. But Jericho is the one West Bank town that has not been occupied.
TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: Bloody Monday
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) - A Catholic man was fatally shot Monday after a night of gun attacks left two others wounded in north Belfast, the most bitterly divided side of Northern Ireland's capital, police and residents said.
The killing was the first related to the Northern Ireland's political conflict since mid-April, when a Catholic cab driver was slain in a rural village.
A group called the Red Hand Defenders claimed responsibility for the killing early Monday. Police say this name is used as a cover for the outlawed anti-Catholic group the Ulster Defense Association.
The victim, caught in an apparent drive-by shooting, wasn't immediately identified, pending notification of his family, police said. He was walking just after midnight toward the Whitewell Road, a contested boundary between rival British-Protestant and Irish-Catholic neighborhoods.
German Earthquake
BERLIN (AP) - A 4.8 magnitude earthquake shook homes on the border between Germany and the Netherlands on Monday morning, but caused little damage, according to the Geological Institute of North Rhine-Westphalia.
The earthquake hit at 7:44 a.m. near the border city of Aachen, said Klaus Lehmann, a geophysicist at the Duesseldorf-based institute, which tracks seismological activity. The institute had one report of a chimney being shaken off a house, but had otherwise heard of little damage, Lehmann said.
"Many people called asking if it was an earthquake or their imagination,'' Lehmann said.
Turkey Apprehensive
ISTANBUL (NYT) - Reiterating Turkey's concerns about military action against Iraq, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit warned the United States on Monday that it faced a long war if toppling Iraqi President Saddam Hussein by force.
Turkey, a NATO ally whose support would be vital for any operation in neighboring Iraq, has made it clear in recent weeks that it publicly opposes American military intervention. But diplomats say that Turkey has been pressing the United States in private for economic support in the event of a strike that is increasingly viewed as inevitable here.
Ecevit said in a television interview that he did not know when an attack on Iraq might come, but he warned that Hussein retained the technological and economic ability to put up a long fight, despite sanctions imposed after the 1991 Persian Gulf war.
"It will not be possible to get out of there that easily," Ecevit said. "President Bush is a friend of Turkey. We do not want to hurt his feelings, but it is our duty to make our concerns known."
Toxic Cargo
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - Two armed cargo ships carrying nuclear fuel evaded a fleet of protest boats Monday that had tried to block the vessels' passage in international waters between Australia and New Zealand.
The environmental group Greenpeace said that two protesters jumped into the water near the ships in a failed attempt to make them stop.
The vessels are carrying 825 kilograms of mixed plutonium and uranium reactor fuel, which has been rejected as faulty by a Japanese power company and is being returned to Britain.
Critics say they are concerned that the shipment is vulnerable to terrorist attack and could be used to make nuclear weapons - claims the Japanese government has denied.
TITLE: Shumacher's Win Ties Rec ord
AUTHOR: By Andrew Dampf
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MAGNY-COURS, France - Michael Schumacher, the most dominant Formula One driver in years, captured the French Grand Prix on Sunday to clinch his fifth title. He and Argentina's Juan Manuel Fangio, who rode in the 1950s, share the record for most championships.
This was Schumacher's third consecutive title and sixth victory of the season. He won titles with Benetton in 1994 and 1995 before moving to Ferrari.
After he crossed the line, Schumacher punched the air and wriggled his red car on the main straightaway, prompting celebrations in the Ferrari portion of pit row.
The 33-year-old German has been virtually unchallenged, and he sees no reason why this should stop.
"We are in such good shape team-wise, performance-wise, we can keep that sort of performance for quite a bit longer and keep having races like we have had today," he said.
"It is simply the pleasure of racing and trying to achieve as many good races as we can," he added. "And ultimately you achieve, hopefully, a further championship."
In his backup Ferrari, Schumacher passed Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren-Mercedes to take the lead when the Finnish driver's brakes locked on an oil patch in the 68th lap of the 72-lap race.
The German made the pass under a yellow flag, but McLaren-Mercedes did not challenge the move.
"The championship is the sort of target you would like to achieve, certainly," Schumacher said. "And after we have achieved this, we can obviously now concentrate race by race and just enjoy it and do the best we can - and that's hopefully getting in some more exciting races and maybe good positions."
Britain's David Coulthard finished third at the French Grand Prix. After the race, while Schumacher was explaining how good it feels to rule Formula One, Coulthard interrupted him.
"If it feels so good," he said. "Why don't you spread it around a little?"
Coulthard is one of only two non-Ferrari drivers to win an F1 race this year. The other is Schumacher's brother, Ralf Schumacher.
Coulthard and Raikkonen put on an impressive display for McLaren-Mercedes, taking two of the top three spots.
"I actually didn't expect us to be in the lead," said Coulthard, who led the race at one point. "We're still a little bit behind (Ferrari), but it's encouraging for the future. It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon from where I was sitting."
Schumacher sealed the title when BMW-Williams driver Juan Montoya of Colombia finished fourth. Montoya started in the pole position but never recovered from a long, 11.6-second pit stop after the 43rd lap.
Schumacher has 96 points in the standings and Montoya has 34, leaving the German with an unbeatable lead.
TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: Rivaldo Moving On
MADRID, Spain (Reuters) - Barcelona agreed to rescind the contract of their World Cup-winning forward Rivaldo on Sunday, leaving the Brazilian free to leave the Catalan club as soon as he can find a new employer.
The move, agreed to by the two parties on Sunday and announced on Barcelona's official Website, brings an end to a five-year spell at Barcelona that saw Rivaldo, now 30, mature into one of the world's best players.
"Both parties believe that this decision comes in their best interests," said the statement, which offered no details on the decision to rescind a contract that had one year left to run.
Speculation has been growing in Spain that Barcelona's arch-rival Real Madrid could step in to sign Rivaldo, a move that would see him reunited with Luis Figo, the Portuguese forward poached by Real two years ago.
Real said in a statement of their own on Sunday they would not make a bid to sign Rivaldo from Barcelona, but now that he is a free agent the club could, in theory, move in.
Big Price Tag
LEEDS, England (Reuters) - Leeds United agreed on Sunday to sell England defender Rio Ferdinand to Manchester United for a British-record transfer fee of 30 million pounds ($47 million).
The 23-year-old Ferdinand will become the most expensive defender in soccer history if he agrees to personal terms with Manchester United, whose chief executive Peter Kenyon finally reached an agreement with Leeds chairperson Peter Ridsdale after days of negotiations.
"I did not want to sell Rio Ferdinand, but he asked for a transfer last week and, when your captain says he does not want to play for your club, there comes a time when you have to make a decision and move on," Ridsdale told Sky Sports.
The fee for Ferdinand, who joined Leeds from West Ham United two years ago for 18 million pounds, will surpass the $35.4 million Juventus paid Italian rivals Parma for France defender Lilian Thuram in 2001.
$5,000 Buck Bail
CHICAGO HEIGHTS, Illinois (AP) - Milwaukee Bucks forward Glenn Robinson was released on $5,000 bail Sunday after he was charged with shoving his former fiancee in her house.
Robinson is expected to appear in court Aug. 19 for a preliminary hearing, said Marcy O'Boyle, a spokesperson for the Cook County state's attorney's office.
The No. 1 pick in the 1994 NBA draft was arrested Saturday on charges of domestic battery, assault and illegal possession of a firearm.
"I'm very sorry for the incident," Robinson said Sunday. "I regret any embarrassment to my family, my friends, the Bucks organization and Bucks fans who have supported me. I will do whatever is necessary to resolve this situation and move forward."
O'Boyle said the 6-foot-7 (201-centimeter) player showed up at his ex-fiancee's house in Chicago Heights on Saturday and demanded to be let in. She refused at first, but Robinson was later let inside, O'Boyle said.
"He pushed and shoved his ex-fiancee," O'Boyle said.
Robinson was charged with illegal possession of a firearm because he did not have a valid Illinois Firearm Owner's Identification card, Chicago Heights Police Department Sergeant David Wierzbicki said.