No. 189, 04 October 1991

USSR--ALL-UNION TOPICS AND RSFSR



PROGRESS ON ECONOMIC UNION TREATY. TASS and the Russian Information
Agency reported October 2 that three republics--Byelarus, Kazakhstan,
and Uzbekistan--had signed the new economic union treaty. Russia
was expected to follow suit shortly. Ivan Silaev, the head of
the Committee for the Operational Management of the Economy,
was quoted as urging the other republics to sign the pact quickly,
as it was "the only guarantee against the chaotic disintegration
of the country." Silaev also told TASS that the pact contains
"all the major positions" of the 500-day program co-authored
by Yavlinsky and Shatalin. Moldavian President Mircea Snegur
called on his republic's Supreme Soviet to approve membership
in the economic union, but many deputies voiced their opposition.
(Keith Bush)

RSFSR COUNCIL OF NATIONALITIES DISCUSSES ENTRY ON NATIONALITY.
On October 2 the RSFSR Council of Nationalities discussed the
drafts of RSFSR Supreme Soviet decrees "On the rules for changing
the entry on the nationality affiliation of citizens in passports
and other official documents" and "On the right of citizens to
free determination of their nationality," TASS reported October
2. The drafts evidently ran into opposition from those who fear
free choice could threaten their national group. TASS said that
the drafts were returned to the commissions for reworking "because
of the con-flicting nature of the opinions on them." (Ann Sheehy)


MEETING OF POLITICAL CONSULTATIVE COUNCIL. Gorbachev's new Political
Consultative Council met under his chairmanship on October 2,
TASS reported that day. The council discussed matters connected
with the content and prospects for concluding a new Union treaty.
The latest draft, on which Gorbachev and Yeltsin worked, has
been sent to members of the State Council for review. The council
also discussed the food situation and recommended the removal
of all barriers to radical reforms in the agrarian sector so
as to increase agricultural production. After discussing political
and interethnic conflicts in various parts of the country, it
was decided that two members of the council, Anatolii Sobchak
and Evgenii Velikhov, should go to Tajikistan to acquire objective
information and help normalize the situation. (Ann Sheehy)

SESSION OF USSR SUPREME SOVIET POSTPONED. Gorbachev signed a
decree October 3 postponing the first session of the revamped
USSR Supreme Soviet from October 8 to October 21, TASS reported
on October 3. The decree was adopted on the recommendation of
the Interrepublican Preparatory Committee for the Session which
said that some republics for various reasons had not decided
on who would represent them or in what form they would participate
in the work of the session. The three Slav and six "Muslim" republics
as well as Armenia took part in the meeting on the Interrepublican
Preparatory Committee, while an observer was present from Georgia.
(Ann Sheehy)

OBSTRUCTION OF WORK OF RSFSR CON-STITUTIONAL COMMISSION. Oleg
Rumyantsev, secretary of the RSFSR Constitutional Commission,
told journalists October 3 that three groups of RSFSR deputies--"Communists
of Russia," the national autonomies, and deputies who resented
the fact that they had had no part in drawing up the new RSFSR
constitution--were blocking the work of the commission, TASS
reported October 3. Rumyantsev said that if they continued to
try to prevent the draft being presented to parliament, president
Yeltsin would exercise his right to submit it to a referendum,
bypassing the Russian parliament. (Ann Sheehy)

KHASBULATOV PRESS CONFERENCE. At a press conference on October
3, Ruslan Khasbulatov, acting chairman of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet,
maintained that Yeltsin's was being unfairly attacked for the
imperfect nature of some of the decrees he had adopted, TASS
reported October 3. Khasbulatov said the blame lay with State
Secretary Gennadii Burbulis and RSFSR State Adviser for Legal
Questions Sergei Shakhrai, and argued that they should take responsibility
and even resign. Khasbulatov reiterated that all the autonomous
republics "will exist only as part of Russia." Khasbulatov expressed
concern at the "Balkanization" of Russia, and particularly of
the North Caucasus. (Ann Sheehy)

STANKEVICH ATTACKS YELTSIN. RSFSR State Counselor Sergei Stankevich
was quoted in The Philadelphia Inquirer on October 2 as saying
that he is so frustrated with Boris Yeltsin's failure to organize
a cohesive Russian government that he might consider quitting
and taking the job of Soviet ambassador to the US. "We have a
Russian government that is underdeveloped and a union government
which still exists and doesn't command any republic except Russia,"
he said. Stankevich severely criticized Yeltsin for naming a
former Sverdlovsk Party apparatchik--Yurii Patrov--as head of
the presidential administration and visiting Nagorno-Karabakh
instead of troubled areas inside Russia. (Alexander Rahr)

YAKOVLEV REEMERGES AS IDEOLOGUE OF POST-COMMUNISM. Aleksandr
Yakovlev, often accused of having "wrecked" the Communist ideology
as a member of the Politburo, has emerged as the ideologist of
the post-Communist "democratic" establishment and a harsh critic
of Marxism. This may be seen from Central Television newscasts
of October 2 and 3 and his article in the September 27 issue
of Trud. During the TV interviews, Yakovlev said that
emergence of a new, "democratic" nomenklatura cannot be ruled
out, and that democrats need an opposition. Yakovlev's book,
containing chapters written during the coup, was issued by the
"Novosti" publishing house on October2. (Julia Wishnevsky)

GORBACHEV NUCLEAR CODES REPORTEDLY DISAPPEARED DURING COUP. Russian
philosopher and publicist Andrei Nuikin was quoted in Vechernyaya
Moskva on September 19 as saying that on August 19, the first
day of the putsch, the leaders of the KGB and Army were not as
concerned about tanks on Moscow's streets as they were about
the disappearance of an officer who had Gorbachev's briefcase
containing the launch codes for nuclear weapons. Nuikin said
that two other briefcases with nuclear arms codes remained with
Defense Minister Dmitrii Yazov and Chief of the General Staff
Mikhail Moiseev. Nuikin added that during the coup there was
a confrontation between the KGB and Armybrass over the control
of nuclear weapons. (Alexander Rahr)

USSR ACADEMY OF SCIENCES FOLDS. The presidium of the USSR Academy
of Sciences voted last week to transfer the main all-Union scientific
body to RSFSR government jurisdiction. According to sources within
the academy, the majority of all-Union academicians want to use
the occasion to replace the academy's president, Gurii Marchuk.
The USSR Academy will now be called the Russian (Rossiiskaya)
Academy. In 1989, a group of scientists began advocating the
creation of a Russian academy separate from the all-Union one,
and an organizational committee of the proposed academy was set
up. Now the organizational committee will be absorbed by the
former all-union body. New elections to the Russian Academy of
Sciences are planned. (Vera Tolz)

GRAIN HARVEST PROGRESS. According to the USSR Goskomstat, 90%
of the area sown to grain had been harvested by September 30,
151.7 million tons had been threshed, and 35.4 million tons of
grain had been procured by the state, TASS reported on October
3. Although it was not stipulated, it appears that the harvest
tonnage given was a net figure, i.e., after excessive moisture
and admixtures had been removed. The final outturn may thus be
even lower than the 170 million tons recently forecast, even
if the data are probably understated. Farms do not wish to sell
grain for wooden rubles and will keep as much as possible for
their own consumption and for barter. (Keith Bush)

DEFENSE BUDGET 300 BILLION RUBLES? Pyotr Korotkevich, until recently
the deputy chairman of the scientific and technological coordination
council for the Ministry of the Defense Industry and the USSR
Academy of Sciences, told Literaturnaya gazeta that the Soviet
defense budget was not 96 billion rubles as publicly acknowledged,
but 300 billion rubles. An account of Korotkevich's remarks was
carried in the Western press October 2. It is not clear how Korotkevich
arrived at his figures. He is either including off-budget spending
or is recalculating the defense budget in unofficial prices.
The Institute for Economic Forecasting in Moscow, among others,
has taken the latter approach and has arrived at similar numbers.
(John Tedstrom)

FILSHIN PROMOTED TO RSFSR FOREIGN ECONOMIC MINISTER. Gennadii
Filshin has been promoted to Minister for Foreign Economic Relations
of the RSFSR, Interfax reported October 3. Filshin is already
well-known in the West, and has a reputation as a fairly progressive,
market-oriented economist. Filshin was implicated to some degree
in the great "ruble scam" and was removed from the post of RSFSR
First Deputy Prime Mininster. After that, he served as deputy
minister in the Ministry for Foreign Economic Relations. Filshin
replaces Viktor Yaroshenko. (John Tedstrom)

YAVLINSKY'S GOLD FIGURES FURTHER DISPUTED. On October 3, Izvestia
challenged the gold output figures asserted by Grigorii Yavlinsky
in a September 27 broadcast on Central TV. The newspaper cited
"well-informed sources" in the two Soviet gold-extracting organizations
who "categorically" put the annual production at over 300 tons.
Izvestia concluded: "Putting all the figures together, we come
to the conclusion that over the last three years, the government...with
the approval of Gorbachev, has wasted for some unknown purposes
gold worth $25-30 billion. The Soviet foreign debt, at the same
time, grew by no less than $35 billion. In any normal country,
a parliament or a government commission would be demanding that
the president and his prime ministers account for such fantastic
embezzlement." (Keith Bush)

IMF ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP. The Soviet Union is due to assume special
associate status today with the International Monetary fund and
the World Bank. In this capacity, it will attend the annual meeting
of the IMF in Bangkok, where it is expected to come under pressure
to reduce defense expenditure and deal with its spiralling inflation.
Meanwhile, the Institute of International Finance has recommended
that the Soviet Union be made a full member of the IMF and World
Bank in 1992. (Robert Lyle/Keith Bush)

IIF CALLS FOR SOVIET DISCIPLINE. At a press conference in Washington
on October 3, the managing director of the Institute of International
Finance remarked that so far the Vneshekonombank has met all
its payments obligations. He advised that Soviet government and
banking officials should reassure global creditors on three points:
that all current outstanding debt is binding; that the authorities
give proof that they intend to pay the debts on time; and that
officials accept the fundamental principles of international
law on debts when countries are dissolved or created. (Robert
Lyle/Keith Bush)

SUGAR RIOTS IN PERM'. The "Vesti" news program of Russian TV
reported on October 2 that sugar riots had started in Perm'.
Residents of the city were said to have hijacked public transport
vehicles and to have declared that they would retain them until
sugar appeared in the stores. (Keith Bush)

TUVA CHANGES TITLE, WILL ELECT PRESIDENT. The "Republic of Tuva"
will in future be the name of the former Tuvin ASSR, the republican
Supreme Soviet decided October 3, Moscow Radio reported the same
day. The republic will also shortly elect its own president.
(Ann Sheehy)

STALEMATE IN KARELIA. An extraordinary session of the Karelian
parliament, called to discuss the wait-and-see attitude of the
local leadership during the recent abortive coup, has adjourned
without discussing the matter, "Vesti" and TASS reported October
2 and 3 respectively. A vote of confidence in the presidium of
the Supreme Soviet had been demanded by the city soviets of Petrozavodsk
and Kostomushka, but deputies refused to include the item in
the agenda. In reply 18 deputies blocked the work of the session
by refusing to vote on all other matters. (Ann Sheehy)

SESSION OF NORTH OSSETIAN PARLIAMENT. The RSFSR law "On the rehabilitation
of the repressed peoples" was the main topic on the agenda of
the North Ossetian Supreme Soviet on October 2, TASS and Moscow
radio reported the same day. The North Ossetian parliament made
plain that it did not accept the law's implication that the Prigorodnyi
Raion of North Ossetia should be returned to Checheno-Ingushetia,
reiterating that the republic's territory could only be changed
with the agreement of its people. Ingush deputies walked out
of the session. A delegation from South Ossetia asked the North
Ossetian parliament to raise the question of South Ossetia's
transfer from Georgia to the RSFSR with the RSFSR parliament.
(Ann Sheehy)

NORTH OSSETIAN MOVEMENT APPEALS TO YELTSIN FOR UNIFICATION OF
TWO OSSETIAS. The North Ossetian social and political movement
"Adamon tsadis" has sent an appeal to Yeltsin requesting the
restoration of the territorial and political integrity of Ossetia,
divided in the 1920s into North and South Ossetia "against the
will of the people," TASS and Moscow radio reported October3.
The appeal states that the movement supports the RSFSR law "On
the rehabilitation of the repressed peoples," but the application
of the law to the Ingush is linked with the solution of a whole
series of other problems. The chief of these is the division
of Ossetia into two. The appeal states that whenever Georgia
has problems, South Ossetia turns into a whipping boy. It recognizes
that the present leadership of Georgia will oppose the loss of
South Ossetia, but suggests that its transfer to the RSFSR would
remove a seat of tension. (Ann Sheehy)

CALL FOR UNITY AMONG SOVIET GERMANS ON EVE OF CONGRESS. Academician
Boris Raushenbach, chairman of the organizing committee for the
preparation of the Congress of Soviet Germans, now scheduled
for October 18-20, made a major but unsuccessful attempt October
2 to unite the different trends in the movement of the Soviet
Germans for the restoration of their autonomous territory on
the Volga, TASS reported October 2. TASS said that never before
were the Soviet Germans so close to adopting a common position,
but the representatives of the radical wing headed by Heinrich
Groth walked out after trying to set a number of preliminary
conditions. (Ann Sheehy)

INHABITANTS OF SARATOV DEMONSTRATE AGAINST GERMAN AUTONOMY.
On October 2 inhabitants of Saratov Oblast, where
a future Volga republic would be located, demonstrated
outside the gorispolkom against any such republic being reconstituted,
Radio Rossii reported October 2. The oblast soviet, which was
meeting inside the building, included the question of German
autonomy in its agenda, and sent its decision to the USSR Supreme
Soviet. Opposition in Saratov and Volgograd Oblasts has been
the main stumbling block to the restoration of Soviet Germany
autonomy. (Ann Sheehy)



USSR--OTHER REPUBLICS



FREIGHT TRAIN EXPLODES NEAR TBILISI. One person was killed and
26 injured on October 2 when a freight train exploded at Didube,
8 km from the center of Tbilisi, according to TASS the same day.
TASS says the train may have been carrying explosive powder,
and quotes witnesses as claiming that the explosion was triggered
when an overhead power line broke. A Georgian Interior Ministry
spokesman says the train may have carried artillery shells. The
Georgian Presidential press service suggested that the explosion
could have been a deliberate attempt to destabilize the situation;
rebel National Guard leader Tengiz Kitovani denied any involvement
in the incident. (Liz Fuller)

REBEL NATIONAL GUARD LEADER REDEPLOYS FORCES. Western news agencies
reported on October 2 that rebel National Guard leader Kitovani
had signed an agreement to withdraw his troops from Tbilisi over
a period of two days beginning October 3. TASS on October 3,
however, quoted Kitovani as stating that he would merely redeploy
his men elsewhere in Tbilisi and reserved the right to return
if Georgian President Gamsakhurdia again began reprisals against
the opposition, who reiterated their demands at a press conference
October 2. (Liz Fuller)

AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT MAKES CONCESSIONS TO OPPOSITION. Azerbaijani
President Ayaz Mutalibov agreed October 2 to demands put forward
at rallies in Baku to begin talks with opposition leaders on
the dissolution of parliament, holding new elections and the
restructuring of state bodies, an Azerbaijani journalist told
RL's Azerbaijani Service on October3. (Liz Fuller)

SITUATION IN TAJIKISTAN. In its evening session on October 2,
the Supreme Soviet of Tajikistan voted to ban the activities
of the republican Communist Party until the State Prosecutor's
Office completes an investigation of the Party's role during
the August coup, TASS reported the same day. The decision apparently
had no effect on the demonstrators before the Supreme Soviet
building, who continue to demand that the legislature dissolve
itself, according a Central TV news program of October 3. The
Supreme Soviet put off for its next session a decision on legalization
of the Islamic Renaissance Party, using the excuse that the law
on freedom of conscience prohibits religious-based political
parties. (Bess Brown)

UZBEKISTAN PROHIBITS EXPORT OF COTTON TO RUSSIA. An Interfax
report, quoted on "Vesti" on October 3, states that the Uzbek
cotton-production authority has prohibited the shipping of cotton
to the RSFSR. (Bess Brown)

RASHIDOV'S POPULARITY IN UZBEKISTAN. The September 25 issue of
Izvestia reports that popular esteem for the former Communist
Party chief of Uzbekistan, Sharaf Rashidov, is on the rise in
the republic. Evidence of massive corruption and falsification
of cotton production figures in Uzbekistan emerged after Rashidov's
death in 1983, and he was posthumously accused in the Soviet
press of everything from misrule to employing a ghostwriter to
produce his literary works. As resentment against the Moscow-directed
anti-corruption campaign grew in Uzbekistan, so did Rashidov's
repute; many Central Asian intellectuals praise him for having
protected the interests of Uzbekistan. A Rashidov Fund has been
started in his hometown, Dzhizak, and streets, schools and enterprises
are being given his name. (Bess Brown)

MOROZOV: UKRAINE SHOULD HAVE BLACK SEA FLEET. Ukraine's recently
appointed Minister of Defense, Konstantin Morozov (an ethnic
Russian), told the newspaper Narodnaya armiya that Ukraine needs
its own army and should take command of the Black Sea Fleet.
Quoting from Morozov's interview, TASS said on October 3 that
a defense council and general staff are being formed which will
oversee the transformation of Ukraine-based Soviet military units
into a Ukrainian military force. Morozov also revealed that Ukrainian
military academies would probably be set up in the near future.
(Kathy Mihalisko)

MITTERRAND LISTENS 'CAREFULLY' TO KRAVCHUK. Returning to Kiev
from his visit to North America, Ukrainian Supreme Soviet chairman
Leonid Kravchuk stopped over in Paris on October3 for a meeting
with Francois Mitterrand. Kravchuk, speaking afterwards to reporters,
said the French President had listened "very carefully" to his
analysis of the situation in the USSR and Ukraine. Kravchuk told
Mitterrand that Ukraine would not take part in any political
union with Moscow and would restrict ties with other republics
to the economic and collective security fields. Kravchuk said
he opposes the transfer of nuclear arms from one country to another
except for the purposes of destroying them. (Kathy Mihalisko)


BELORUSSIAN SUPREME SOVIET FAILS TO LIFT BAN ON PARTY. Meeting
in a special session on October 2, the Communist-dominated Belorussian
Supreme Soviet defeated a proposal to lift the temporary ban
on Communist Party activity. According to a report on October
3 by RFE-RL Minsk correspondent Syarhei Navumchyk, the reprieve
was sought in order to allow the Communist Party of Belorussia
to hold a congress at the end of the year to decide the Party's
fate. Opposition deputies failed, however, to muster approval
of another proposal for the Supreme Soviet to dissolve the Party
and take control of its property. (Kathy Mihalisko)

RELIGIOUS UNREST IN THE UKRAINE. Robitnicha gazeta reported in
its September 21 edition that the Orthodox church in the town
of Sambori in Galicia was attacked at night by "young men in
uniforms," who beat up people guarding the building, which had
been the target of two previous assaults, according to the priest.
A witness said that the attackers wore OMON uniforms. The church,
which the newspaper calls "the main stronghold of Orthodoxy in
the Carpathians," is used by both the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. (Oxana Antic)


MOLDAVIAN OFFICIALS IN GERMANY. Interviewed in Die Welt of October
1, Moldavian Deputy Foreign Minister Nicolae Osmochescu and the
chairman of the Moldavian parliament's Foreign Relations Committee,
Vasile Nedelciuc, said that reunification with Romania "is not
on the table even for the long term." They named "lack of democracy,
lack of resolve to privatize the economy...and survival of Communist
methods and structures" in Romania as "the chief obstacles to
reunification in the future." Moldavia "wishes to become an internationally
recognized member of the European home in its own right," they
said. The Moldavian officials were received by German Foreign
Ministry officials and senior parliamentarians. (Vladimir Socor)


MOLDAVIA GETS PARTING SHOT FROM ODESSA OBLAST. The confrontation
arising from the Russian "workers detachments'" siege of the
Moldavian police station in Dubasari was defused, it seems, not
a day too soon. Officials of the Odessa Oblast Soviet told a
Ukrinform correspondent on October 1, just before the lifting
of the siege, that "civilians" in several raion centers adjacent
to Moldavia's Dniester area were "alarmed" and were moving to
join "those close to them" in Russian towns in the Dniester area.
"Extremist-minded Moldavians" and the Moldavian authorities,
however, were preparing to block the road. The Odessa Oblast
officials' remarks sound like a veiled threat to send "volunteers"
to the aid of Russian detachments in the Dniester area. Both
the Odessa Oblast Soviet and the "Dniester SSR" leaders supported
the August coup attempt. (Vladimir Socor)


BALTIC STATES


US REPRESENTATIVES TO BALTIC STATES. The United States has named
Charge d' affaires to head diplomatic missions to the Baltic
states. The State Department announced that Robert Frasure has
been appointed to Tallinn; Ints Silins to Riga; and Darryl Johnson
to Vilnius. Silins, a Latvian-American, previously served in
the US General Consulate in Leningrad. President Bush will appoint
ambassadors in the future, according to an RFE/RL correspondent's
report. (Jan Trapans)

US EMBASSIES START OPERATING IN BALTIC. On October 2, the State
Department announced that the US has officially begun operating
in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, an RFE/RL correspondent reported
that day. Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutweiler says the
embassies are operating from temporary office space at hotels
in the Baltic capitals. According to the State Department, the
US missions are offering limited consular services to American
citizens. Routine visa services will be provided when permanent
offices are operating. (Jan Trapans)

CHINA PROTESTS DALAI LAMA'S LITHUANIAN VISIT. China's Foreign
Ministry has protested the Dalai Lama's visit in Lithuania, the
Latvian newspaper Diena's news service of October 2. The Dalai
Lama visited Vilnius on September 30 and October 1, met leading
members of the government, and held a joint press conference
with Supreme Council Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis. According
Diena, China's foreign ministry "categorically" protested against
the visit. The protest was issued three days before the visit
began. (Jan Trapans)

DALAI LAMA IN BALTIC. The Dalai Lama traveled to Estonia on October
3, having visited Latvia and Lithuania. In Latvia, he suggested
establishing a support group which could raise the issue of Tibet's
independence in the UN. According to the newspaper Diena's news
service of October 2, the Supreme Council's foreign relations
commission considered the suggestion a "complicated matter"--and
Latvia does not want to harm its relations with China. China
has not protested the Dalai Lama's visit to Latvia, according
to the Council's foreign relations commission; possibly because
he was invited by the University and met with government representatives
informally. (Jan Trapans)

BALTIC STATES DO NOT GET EMBASSY BUILDINGS. The Baltic states
are not getting back their former embassies in Paris, now occupied
by Soviet diplomatic offices, according to AFP. The Baltic states
claim their embassies have been illegally occupied by the Soviets
since 1940 and want them expelled. The court of appeals in Paris
ruled that no action could be taken since the Soviet mission
enjoys diplomatic immunity. The building of the former Latvian
legation houses the Soviet consulate and the Lithuanian one holds
the information department of the Soviet embassy. The Estonian
embassy has been torn down and an annex of the Soviet embassy
is now on the site. (Jan Trapans)

LATVIAN POPULAR FRONT DIVIDED OVER CITIZENSHIP. Latvia's Popular
Front is dividing over the questions: who will be granted citizenship
and which body is empowered to decide the question. On September
30, a caucus of Popular Front deputies in the Supreme Council
voted that the Council itself could decide the question. This
move contradicted an earlier decision made by Popular Front's
Third Congress in October 1990, that only a fully-fledged, newly-elected
parliament of an independent Latvia could decide the issue. On
October 1, the Council of the Popular Front forwarded a third
proposal: the matter will be decided in a referendum conducted
according to provisions of Latvia's Constitution of 1920, according
to the Baltic News Service, October 2. The Popular Front will
start a petition drive for the referendum, representatives of
the Front told the RFE/RL Research Institute . (Jan Trapans)


LATVIA: MINISTRY OF DEFENSE ESTABLISHED. Latvia's Supreme Council
issued a law which provides for a Ministry of Defense. The Council
of Ministers is to establish a Ministry of Defense by November
1. According to information issued by the Baltic News Service
on October 2, the new ministry will be in charge of a military
border-guard force. The Council of Ministers also must establish
the organizational structure and staffing of the border-guard
force by November 1. (Jan Trapans)