No. 185, 25 September 1992

SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR

RUSSIA REFUSES TO SELL WEAPONS TO TAJIKISTAN. In order to end
the fighting between supporters and opponents of deposed President
Rakhmon Nabiev, the government of Tajikistan asked to buy heavy
weaponry from Russia, but Moscow turned the request down, the
deputy chairman of Tajikistan's National Security Committee told
ITAR-TASS on 24-September. The same day inhabitants of Dushanbe
gathered in front of the Supreme Soviet building to protest the
government's inability to stop the fighting. Volunteers from
Dushanbe and mountain raions that support the opposition have
joined a self-defense force organized by inhabitants of Kofirnihon
(formerly Ordzhonikidzeabad) Raion on the Kulyab-Dushanbe road
to stop an armed group from Kulyab that is trying to reach Dushanbe.
The Nurek power station remains in the hands of fighters from
Kulyab. (Bess Brown)

RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT TO DISCUSS FIGHTING IN ABKHAZIA. On 25 September
the Russian parliament will debate a draft proposal to deploy
Russian peacekeeping troops in Abkhazia in order to safeguard
the civilian population and the normal functioning of industry
and transport, ITAR-TASS reported. Abkhaz parliament Chairman
Vladislav Ardzinba is quoted as arguing that Russia cannot remain
indifferent to the situation in Abkhazia as some 90,000 Russians
live there; he also accused Georgia of violating virtually all
the provisions of the 3 September ceasefire agreement. A Georgian
State Council spokesman threatened on 24 September to begin "a
real war" in Abkhazia if all North Caucasian armed groups fail
to comply with the ultimatum to leave the area by 25 September,
Reuters reported. (Liz Fuller)

CONFUSION OVER RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN TRADE QUARREL. Details concerning
the dispute over trade payments between Russia and Ukraine remain
unclear. At issue is the reversal of an agreement between Russian
Central Bank chief Viktor Gerashchenko and the Ukrainian government
to pay unsettled trade accounts. When the story first emerged,
Russian sources reported that the Gaidar government had only
suspended credits issued to Ukraine as part of the agreement.
On 23 and 24 September, Western sources suggested that Russia
had halted all financial transactions between the two countries,
thus effectively freezing trade. Who owes whom what is also unclear.
Ukrainian Central Bank chief Vadim Hetman, according to Western
sources, claims that Russian enterprises owe Ukraine 360 billion
rubles, whereas Ukrainian enterprises owe Russia only 60 billion
rubles. Russian observers have given significantly different
figures for outstanding payments. (Erik Whitlock)

RUSSIAN POLITICIANS QUESTION RESULTS OF WESTERN AID. The Boston
Globe quoted the leader of the Industrial Union, Arkadii Volsky,
as saying on 24 September that the Russian government was "slavishly
following the advice of people from abroad, especially those
who are not taken seriously in their own countries." The first
deputy parliamentary speaker, Sergei Filatov, stated that "the
great value placed on foreign aid, which is not making itself
felt, is in fact the worst mistake [which the government is making],"
according to Interfax on 23 September. Other criticism of Western
assistance recently came from the speaker of the parliament,
Ruslan Khasbulatov, the first deputy prime minister, Vladimir
Shumeiko, and many other conservative deputies. (Alexander Rahr)


GAIDAR WILL NOT RETREAT. Acting Prime Minister Egor Gaidar told
The Financial Times on 24-September that he will not retreat
from his market reforms approach. He said, however, that he may
reach a compromise with the Civic Union on the issue of military
conversion. He stated that those CIS states which do not want
to remain in the ruble zone will not receive any more credits
from the Russian central bank. He expressed his intention to
cooperate closely with the head of the central bank, Viktor Gerashchenko,
emphasizing that he does not think that the latter wanted to
undermine the government's financial policy. He also told ITAR-TASS
also on 24-September that government structures will be altered
due to new requirements. (Alexander Rahr)

POPOV SAYS REFORM IS HALTED. The leader of the Russian Movement
for Democratic Reforms, Gavriil Popov, told Interfax on 24 September
that Russia will try to divide Western countries against each
other by choosing one Western partner, to whom Moscow will open
its markets and resources rather than cooperating with the entire
European community. Popov stated that the IMF reform program
turned out to be unacceptable to Russia and that one must now
think of implementing a different transition concept which takes
into account Russia's unique situation. Popov asserted that acting
Prime Minister Egor Gaidar has already given up on pursuing his
own initial reform program and now is adopting ideas supported
by the leader of the "industrial lobby," Arkadii Volsky. (Alexander
Rahr)

NEW WAGE REGULATIONS FOR RUSSIAN STATE EMPLOYEES. The wages and
salaries of most employees paid directly out of the state budget
will be raised and set under new, simplified regulations, Russian
news agencies reported on 24 September. According to ITAR-TASS,
the new regulations provide for wage indexation, adjusting wages
upwards quarterly to offset inflation to some degree. Interfax
reported that the regulations will be introduced starting in
the fourth quarter of this year and will initially double wages
and salaries from their June 1992 levels. The new regulations,
which Labor Minister Gennadii Melikyan proposed, may affect the
earnings of as many as 15 million Russians. (Erik Whitlock)

ADJUSTMENTS IN RUSSIAN VOUCHER PROGRAM EXPECTED. With only a
week left until the start of the distribution of privatization-vouchers,
the Russian parliament is considering important changes in the
program. Parliament's Supreme Economic Council will suggest such
modifications as allowing citizens to use their vouchers not
only as claims on state enterprise assets, but also to purchase
land and municipal property, according to Interfax on 24-September.
Other changes under consideration are a ban on the resale of
vouchers and an extension of their expiration date, currently
set at 31 December 1993, to the end of 1994. According to "Novosti"
on 18-September, Gosznak began printing the vouchers last week,
and it is reportedly producing 4 million daily. (Erik Whitlock)


CANDIDATES FOR MOSCOW MAYORAL POST. The names of four politicians
have so far been mentioned as confirmed or possible candidates
in the forthcoming mayoral election, Ekho Moskvy reported on
23 September. Two of them-the liberal economist, Larisa Pyasheva,
and the chairman of the Krasnopresnenski Raion Soviet, Aleksandr
Krasnov-have already declared their candidacies. The other two
candidates are Svyatoslav Fedorov, the distinguished eye surgeon
from the Party of Economic Freedom, and Ilya Konstantinov, the
Secretary of the Christian-Democratic Movement. The latter has
announced that if elected, he will cut foreign aid and establish
order in the city. The present Moscow mayor, Yurii Lushkov, told
Interfax on 24 September that the candidates' announcements about
running for his office were "not serious because neither the
President nor the parliament have yet approved a new mayoral
election. (Alexander Rahr)

KHASBULATOV REINSTATES PARLIAMENTARY OVERSIGHT OF THE MBRF. On
22 September, the opening day of the Russian parliament's new
session, the parliamentary speaker, Ruslan Khasbulatov, reestablished
a parliamentary commission to monitor the activities of the Ministry
of Security of the Russian Federation (the MBRF or MB, formerly
the KGB). Khasbulatov himself closed the commission down a few
months ago. However, the speaker has changed his mind due to
a personal clash with Russian Security Minister Viktor Barannikov,
who had written an message to his employees in the margins of
a manuscript of Khasbulatov's book, Reforming the Reforms: The
Speaker's Thoughts. Barannikov asked his assistant how Khasbulatov
had spent the royalties for the book, citing information that
Khasbulatov had donated the money to the Russian Assembly and
other ultranationalist opposition organizations, Russian TV reported
on 23 September. (Julia Wishnevsky)

MAJORITY OF RUSSIAN CITIZENS NOSTALGIC ABOUT THE OLD DAYS. 80
percent of the citizens in the Russian Federation questioned
in an opinion poll conducted by the well-known sociologist, Professor
Grushin, say that life before perestroika was better than it
is now. The results of the poll were published in Moskovskaya
pravda on 24 September. According to the poll, 67 percent of
the respondents still favour socialism. 50 percent of the respondents-the
majority of whom are members of the older generation-have favorable
thoughts about Stalin. 72 percent of those supporting Stalin
are Muslims. (Alexander Rahr)

SUPREME SOVIET PASSES REVISED LAW ON DEFENSE. The Russian Supreme
Soviet on 24 September passed a version of the Law on Defense
that incorporated some revisions requested by President Boris
Yeltsin. According to ITAR-TASS, the new law allows the President
to appoint the Defense Minister, Chief of the General Staff,
and their deputies without the formal approval of the Supreme
Soviet. However, the president will not gain the exclusive right
to make appointments until a new constitution is adopted, leaving
some uncertainty in the appointment process. The law also specifies
that the Supreme Soviet will approve the structure and composition
of the armed forces as recommended by the President, rather than
the Prime Minister. (John Lepingwell)

US OBJECTS TO RUSSIAN SUBMARINE SALE TO IRAN. On 24 September
acting Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger expressed US concern
over Russia's planned sale of three diesel-powered submarines
to Iran, according to Western news agencies. Russian Foreign
Minister Andrei Kozyrev defended the sale as enhancing communications
with Iran as well as benefitting the Russian economy. Baltfax
and the BBC on 24 September reported that the first of the Kilo-class
submarines had set sail from a Russian naval base in Latvia where
it was undergoing an overhaul and crew training. The Latvian
government has protested the deal and the presence of Iranian
crews several times during the past year. (John Lepingwell)

LANGUAGE QUESTION IN THE DONBASS. A group of political parties
in the Donbass has issued an appeal to the oblast council recommending
that a local referendum be held on the language question, Radio
Ukraine reported on 23 September. The appeal states that the
people themselves should decide which language they speak, read,
and think in and in which language their children should be taught.
The referendum would decide whether Russian should become the
second state language in the region. (Roman Solchanyk)

BELARUS TO SPEED NUCLEAR WEAPONS REMOVAL? Interfax on 24 September
reported that President Stanislav Shushkevich has requested the
acceleration of research on the removal of nuclear weapons from
Belarus. Although Belarus is committed to eliminating all nuclear
weapons on its soil within seven years, the instructions reportedly
call for investigating scenarios in which the weapons could be
removed in two to five years. (John Lepingwell)

BELORUSSIAN FILM DIRECTOR SHOT IN TAJIKISTAN. The noted Belorussian
filmmaker, Arkadii Ruderman, has become a victim of the civil
war in Tajikistan, "Novosti" reported on 23 September. Ruderman
gained fame in 1988 for his documentary exposure of the attempt
by Belorussian communist authorities to play down the centennial
celebration of the Jewish painter Marc Chagall, who was born
in Vitebsk but whose achievements the regime refused to recognize.
For his daring documentaries exposing the ills of the communist
regime, Ruderman won the highest awards at prestigious Soviet
film festivals in 1988 and 1989. In November 1988, Ruderman was
the first Russian TV journalist to interview the then dissident
Czechoslovak politician Aleksandr Dubcek. Ruderman and his crew
visited Tajikistan to make a film investigating the "artist's
role in politics" for the Ostankino TV company, "Novosti" said.
(Julia Wishnevsky)

NAZARBAEV IN FRANCE. On 24 September, the first full day of his
state visit to France, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev
met with state officials and businessmen, and thanked France
for taking in thousands of Kazakhs and Russians who had fled
Russia and Kazakhstan after the 1917 October Revolution, ITAR-TASS
reported. Nazarbaev and French Prime Minister Pierre Beregovoy
signed an agreement on the protection of investments similar
to that signed by Nazarbaev in Germany earlier in the week. Seeking
to persuade businesses to invest in Kazakhstan, Nazarbaev pointed
out his country's rich natural resources-France's ELF-Aquitaine
already has made a deal to develop oil fields in Kazakhstan-and
also its stable political situation and commitment to developing
a market economy. (Bess Brown) CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

CAMPAIGNING ENDS IN ROMANIA. The presidential and parliamentary
election campaign ended on 24 September with a televised debate
among the six presidential candidates. During the three-hour
live program, Ion Iliescu defended his political career under
former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. He stressed that he had broken
with Ceausescu in 1971 because of the latter's attempt to introduce
a Chinese-style cultural revolution in Romania. Recent polls
seem to indicate that Iliescu is regaining ground as the date
for presidential and general elections, 27 September, approaches.
Iliescu's main challenger is Emil Constantinescu of the Democratic
Convention. The other candidates for president are Gheorghe Funar
of the nationalist Party of Romanian National Unity; Caius Traian
Dragomir of the center-left National Salvation Front; Mircea
Druc, former premier of Moldova, running as an independent; and
Ion Manzatu, candidate of the fringe Republican Party. In a separate
development, the US House of Representatives decided on 24 September
to postpone a vote on whether to restore Romania's most-favored-nation
status until after the elections. (Dan Ionescu)

BULGARIAN PARLIAMENTARY PRESIDENT RESIGNS. Stefan Savov, president
of the National Assembly resigned at 17:00 on 24 September, Radio
Sofia reports. A replacement must be elected within 14 days.
The action headed off a no-confidence vote called for the same
day and, at least for the moment lessens tension between the
governing Union of Democratic Forces and its informal coalition
partner, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. The leader of
the latter party, Ahmed Dogan, has pledged not to press forward
with a call for a no-confidence vote on the government in order
to give the UDF time in which to reorganize its cabinet. The
MRF continues to insist on a change in certain cabinet positions,
apparently including the ministries of finance, defense, trade,
and interior. UDF leaders so far appear unwilling to give in.
(Duncan Perry)

GERMANY, ROMANIA AGREE TO EXPEL ILLEGAL MIGRANTS. Western agencies
reported on 24-September that in Bucharest German Interior Minister
Rudolf Seiters and his Romanian counterpart Victor Babiuc signed
an agreement on returning illegal migrants. The accord, which
allows Germany to repatriate rejected asylum-seekers to Romania
even if they do not have identity documents, was described by
Seiters as "an important step forward" in Germany's struggle
to control the flood of illegal immigrants from Eastern Europe.
More than 57,000 Romanian citizens, of whom some 60% are Gypsies,
applied for asylum in Germany from January to August this year.
Germany hopes to sign similar agreements with other East European
countries. In Czechoslovakia, for instance, CSTK reported on
23-September that more than 21,000 refugees-most from Eastern
Europe and the former Soviet Union-have been caught this year
on the German border. Czechoslovakia is a major transit point
for economic refugees heading to Western Europe. (Dan Ionescu
& Jiri Pehe)

SERB STEP UP BOMBING RAIDS ON JAJCE. Reuters on 24 September
reported that Serb warplanes again attacked Jajce in central
Bosnia, which they first bombed on 12 August. This picturesque
town set in the mountains constitutes an important gap, together
with Gradacac and Brcko, in attempts to link up Serbia with Serbian-held
territories in Bosnia and Croatia. Muslim and Croatian forces
are defending all three towns against recently intensified Serbian
pressure. Jajce dates back to at least the 14th century, and
was a symbol of Tito's Yugoslavia because he effectively launched
his federalist program there at a conference in 1943. Elsewhere,
the Serbs subjected Sarajevo to heavy shelling at a time when
the UN peacekeepers are considering leaving the city for safer
ground, Western Agencies report. (Patrick Moore)

PANIC DISCUSSES SITUATION. Milan Panic, Prime Minister of the
rump Yugoslavia, told a group of Yugoslav journalists in Washington
on 24 September that his recent activities at the UN "achieved
more than we expected." He described his meeting with the foreign
ministers of the five permanent UN Security Council members as
"a fantastic turnabout," because the ministers openly expressed
support for his peace plan. On the home front, Panic said "I
will never surrender Kosovo," and went on to criticize his detractors
by saying "those who have been accusing me of wanting to give
up Kosovo have, in fact, given everything away, and caused human
losses without saving or changing anything." According to Radio
Serbia, Panic said he finds the world's reactions to Serbian
President Slobodan Milosevic "inexplicable and intolerable" and
that "never before has the world talked about or judged a man
in this way." Nonetheless, the New York Times of 25 September
says Panic is losing patience in Milosevic: "I think I am through
with him.-.-.-. We are on a collision course." Western agencies
report that Panic has sharply criticized past Serbian leaders
for what he calls years of tragic mistakes and decisions. (Milan
Andrejevich)

PATRIARCH AND CARDINAL CALL FOR PEACE TALKS. Western news agencies
on 24 September said that Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Pavle and
Croatia's Cardinal Franjo Kuharic issued a joint statement in
Geneva calling for immediate negotiations between Croats and
Serbs. They condemned all ethnic cleansing and called for refugees
to return home, as well as for the release of all prisoners and
the closing of all camps. Muslim leader Jakub Selimoski, who
had previously called for a meeting of all three religious leaders,
did not attend; Pavle and Kuharic expressed regret at his absence.
(Patrick Moore)

CANDIDATES FOR LITHUANIAN SEIMAS. On 25-September Lietuvos aidas
published the list of 448 candidates in the 71 single-mandate
districts for parliamentary elections on 25 October. The number
of candidates varies from 3 to 11. In 5 districts three current
parliament members, and in 25 districts, two members will be
competing against each other. The most notable race is in Kaisiadorys
District, where former prime minister Gediminas Vagnorius of
Sajudis will run against Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party chairman
Algirdas Brazauskas. Both will undoubtedly be elected since they
are the third and first candidates, respectively, on their parties'
lists. In the 70 multiple-mandate districts, 743 candidates from
26 political parties and movements are registered. There will
clearly be new deputies since in 11 single-mandate districts
no incumbent deputies are competing. (Saulius Girnius)

CZECHOSLOVAK PARLIAMENT FAILS TO ELECT PRESIDENT. In its fifth
attempt since the beginning of July, the Czechoslovak Federal
Assembly failed to elect a new federal president on 24 September,
CSTK reports. Jiri Kotas, chairman of the tiny Free Bloc-Conservative
party, won only 40 votes in the 300-member assembly. Since Czechoslovakia
is to split into two states on 1 January 1993, the vote was treated
as an empty formality by many deputies after Kotas had been officially
nominated by one of the deputies. (Jiri Pehe)

CZECHOSLOVAK PREMIER WRITES ANTALL ABOUT GABCIKOVO DAM. In a
letter to Hungarian Prime Minister Jozsef Antall on 23 September,
Czechoslovak Prime Minister Jan Strasky argues that the Czechoslovak-Hungarian
dispute over the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros hydroelectric dam project
should be solved with the help of a European Community commission
of experts. Strasky says that submitting the matter to the International
Court of Justice in the Hague, as proposed by Antall in his letter
to Strasky on 18-August, would be "a step backwards." Published
by CSTK, the letter further says that the so-called variant C
of the dam project, pursued by Czechoslovakia after Hungary unilaterally
withdrew from the project, will not, as claimed by Hungary, lead
to the diversion of the Danube on the current Czechoslovak-Hungarian
border, but only to the diversion of some of the river's water.
(Jiri Pehe)

DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST EXTREME RIGHT IN HUNGARY. MTI and wire
services reported that an estimated 50,000 people demonstrated
in central Budapest on the evening of 24 September against the
recent resurgence of the extreme right-wing nationalism. The
rally was staged by the Democratic Charter, a civil rights group
organized mainly by opposition party members in September 1991,
and endorsed at the last moment by the Association of the Free
Democrats, the leading opposition party. The demonstrators were
addressed by the writer Gyorgy Konrad, one of the leaders of
the Association of Free Democrats, who called on the crowd to
defend democracy. Other speakers said that Hungary cannot be
diverted from the path of peaceful change and called on Prime
Minister Antall to make a clean break with his party's extreme
nationalist wing. A similar rally took place in Miskolc. (Karoly
Okolicsanyi)

EAST-CENTRAL EUROPEAN DEFENSE MINISTERS CONFER. The Czechoslovak,
Hungarian, and Polish ministers of defense meet today in Slovakia
to discuss prospects for cooperation in view of the impending
split of Czechoslovakia into two separate states and the consequent
division of its armed forces into Czech and the Slovak units.
(Jan de Weydenthal)

POLAND WANTS TO INCREASE ARMS SALES. Jan Straus, an official
in the Polish Trade Ministry who issues arms export licenses,
said at a 24 September Warsaw news conference that Poland hopes
to increase its exports of arms to developing countries. In a
UPI account of his comments, Straus said that he knows of no
case in which a Polish firm violated the UN arms embargo on sales
to regions where there are conflicts. He said that a total of
51 firms have been licensed to sell arms. Straus revealed that
in years past Poland was ordered by Moscow to export arms to
various countries without receiving payment. He said that Poland
plans to develop its exports to "so-called Third World countries."
(Doug Clarke)

US SENATE PANEL VOTES RESTRICTION ON RUSSIA AID. On 23 September
the US Senate Appropriations Committee approved an amendment
by its chairman, Sen. Robert Byrd, to restrict nonhumanitarian
aid to Russia until all Russian troops are withdrawn from the
Baltic States or a negotiated timetable for their withdrawal
is approved, Reuters reports. Humanitarian aid was defined as
food, clothing, and medicine in order to restrict most of the
aid to Russia. Sen. Patrick Leahy said that he has been told
the Administration strongly opposes the amendment. (Saulius Girnius)


TALKS ON TROOP WITHDRAWAL FROM LATVIA STALEMATED. The latest
round of talks on the withdrawal of Russian troops from Latvia,
held in Jurmala on 22 and 23 September, ended in a stalemate,
Radio Riga reports. The Russian side says Latvia was not sufficiently
forthcoming over its offer to withdraw its troops by the end
of 1994-earlier Moscow had proposed 1999-while maintaining some
strategic installations in Latvia. Russia also wants Latvia to
assume greater responsibility for the welfare of the active and
retired Russian military in Latvia. The Latvian side simply wants
all troops out by fall of 1993. Sergei Zotov, leader of the Russian
delegation, expressed dismay over Latvia's desire to internationalize
the troop withdrawal process and to bring up the issue at the
UN, while Latvia felt offended that the Russian delegation continues
to act as if Latvia joined the USSR voluntarily. (Dzintra Bungs)


RIGHTS OF ESTONIA'S RUSSIANS ON AGENDA. Vasilii Svirin, Russia's
chief negotiator for talks with Estonia, told reporters that
the next round of talks between the two states would focus on
the rights of ethnic Russians in Estonia. Svirin called that
particular sphere of problems "one of the most difficult" in
the talks. The next round of talks is set for October. BNS reported
Svirin's remarks. (Riina Kionka)

UKRAINE ENDORSES BALTIC STANCE. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Anatolii
Zlenko has confirmed his country's support for Baltic efforts
to achieve a speedy withdrawal of Russian troops from their territories.
Zlenko also told Janis Lovniks, the newly appointed Latvian charge
d'affaires in Ukraine, that his country considers the presence
of former USSR troops in the Baltic States to be a violation
of international norms, BNS reported on 23 September. (Dzintra
Bungs)

EC TO HELP FIGHT BALTIC SEA POLLUTION . On 24 September in Helsinki
the European Community signed a new convention to fight pollution
in the Baltic Sea, Western agencies report. In order to give
the document more weight the Baltic littoral countries -Finland,
Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, and Denmark-asked
the EC to endorse the new convention drawn up in April to replace
a 1974 treaty. The new convention will go into effect as soon
as all the signatory states ratify it. Meanwhile, these states
are already monitoring and trying to curb pollution, especially
with regard to the dumping and incineration of waste materials.
(Dzintra Bungs)

LATVIA NEEDS MONEY TO MAINTAIN PRISONS. Latvia's minister of
internal affairs, Ziedonis Cevers, appealed to businessmen for
funds to be used to maintain various law enforcement facilities,
including prisons. He said that his ministry has not received
an expected 500 million rubles from the state budget, and if
the deficit cannot be covered, certain detention facilities will
have to be closed and some law enforcement activities will have
to stop, Radio Riga reported on 22 September. The reason the
ministry has not yet received its allocation is that payments
into the state budget are coming in more slowly than anticipated.
(Dzintra Bungs)

JEWISH GENOCIDE DAY COMMEMORATED IN LITHUANIA. On 24 September
Lithuania joined Israel in commemorating "Jewish Genocide Day,"
the RFE/RL Lithuanian Service reports. In official ceremonies,
presided over by Supreme Council Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis,
20 crosses-12 posthumously-were presented to people who at great
risk had rescued Jews from certain death during World War-II.
It is planned to award more medals in the future. (Saulius Girnius)


[As of 1200 CET] Compiled by Hal Kosiba & Charles Trumbull