No. 21, 02 February 1993

RUSSIA



PARLIAMENT SUGGESTS ADDITIONAL QUESTION FOR REFERENDUM. The presidium
of the Russian parliament proposed on 29 January that the following
question should be added to the 11 April referendum on "the principles
of the new Russian Constitution": "Do you agree that early parliamentary
and presidential elections should be held in the spring of 1994?"
The radio station, Echo of Moscow, said that the question had
been proposed by parliamentary speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov. On
30 January Ostankino TV quoted him as claiming that if early
elections were held, he would not stand as a candidate in any
of them. -Vera Tolz

YELTSIN COMMEMORATES BATTLE OF STALINGRAD. In a speech devoted
to the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad, Russian
President Boris Yeltsin on 1 February paid tribute to the heroism
and perseverance of the Red Army and the Soviet people during
the decisive World War II battle. Yeltsin also used the occasion
to stress several themes relevant to contemporary Russian politics
and international relations. He equated the difficulties faced
by the Soviet people in 1943 with those faced by Russians today,
and called for a similar application of determination and courage
to overcome them. In an obvious reference to tensions between
the former Soviet republics today, he said that the Nazi attack
had brought unity to "Russians, Ukrainians, Belarussians, Uzbeks,
Kazakhs, and people of all nationalities." Finally, Yeltsin said
that the current generation of Germans should not be held accountable
for the war, and praised the current state of relations between
the two countries. ITAR-TASS published a text of the speech on
1 February. -Stephen Foye.

KHASBULATOV WARNS OF NEW COUP ATTEMPT. It has become a fashion
among top Russian politicians to warn about possible coup attempts.
Recently, the head of the Federal Information Center Mikhail
Poltoranin suggested that parliamentary speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov
was behind such attempts. On 1 February, Khasbulatov himself
made a public statement to the effect that he feared a new coup.
Khasbulatov was quoted by Western and Russian agencies as saying
that his fears were caused by "steps taken by some of the leaders"
of Russia. He failed to cite any specific names. The parliamentary
speaker also said: "In the first attempted coup [in August 1991],
we lost the Soviet Union. In a second one we may lose Russia."
Khasbulatov was speaking in Volgograd, where he was attending
ceremonies marking the fiftieth anniversary of the battle of
Stalingrad. -Vera Tolz

KOZYREV DOESN'T RULE OUT "LIMITED INTERVENTION" IN BOSNIA. Russian
Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev said he would not rule out a
military deployment of international forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina
in the form of a "limited intervention." He quickly added, however,
that Moscow would oppose any use of force against Serbia and
Montenegro. Kozyrev's remarks appeared in an interview published
in the French newspaper La Croix on 1-February and were summarized
by the German DPA news agency the same day. -Suzanne Crow

SHARP PRICE RISES IN RUSSIA. On 1 February Russians were hit
by prices rises for natural gas, airline tickets, telephone charges,
and some imported goods, according to a Reuters report of the
same day. The price of natural gas for industrial enterprises
almost tripled, and for households it doubled. The price of airline
tickets had already doubled on 1-January, but doubled again from
1 February. Monthly charges for telephone service and the tariff
for foreign calls also rose, and a 20% duty was imposed on all
imported goods, apart from food, medicines, children's goods,
and some technical equipment. A report distributed at the Russian
parliament claims that prices grew twice as fast as average wages
in 1992, and that Russians spend most of their income on food,
cutting back on clothing purchases, ITAR-TASS reported on 1 February.
The report also claims that price rises have changed the pattern
of food consumption, with the consumption of milk, fish, meat,
fruit and vegetables dropping and that of bread and potatoes
rising. -Sheila Marnie

BATTLES LOOMING OVER PRIVATIZATION. Russian Deputy Prime Minister
Anatolii Chubais expects a tough political struggle with conservative
parliamentarians over the government's 1993 privatization program.
Speaking at a press conference in Davos, Switzerland, on 1 February,
Chubais said: "There are influential forces in parliament who
oppose the privatization process...and will do all they can to
stop it." He also asserted that the goals of the program for
this year were so extensive that "if we win only a part of what
we want...it will be enough to make the process irreversible."
The government's program envisages selling hundreds of large
enterprises and most small and medium-sized enterprises by the
end of the year. -Erik Whitlock

NATIONAL SALVATION FRONT FORMS SHADOW GOVERNMENT. The banned
NSF opposition movement has formed a "shadow patriotic government",
according to a 1 February report on the radio station, Echo of
Moscow. The NSF leadership declined to name the members of the
"shadow government", which had been formed at the first meeting
of the NSF's national council held the previous day, saying only
that the main task of the movement at present was the struggle
against the Russian government. The report also said that the
NSF had voted to boycott the forthcoming referendum on the provisions
of a new Russian Constitution. -Wendy Slater

INTELLECTUALS CALL FOR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. A group of well-known
Russian intellectuals, among them playwrights Aleksandr Gelman,
Stanislav Govorukhin, Oleg Efremov, Mark Zakharov, Elem Klimov,
and Mikhail Ulyanov, and politicians such as Gavriil Popov, Vadim
Bakatin and Aleksandr Yakovlev, published an open letter in Izvestiya
of 2 February calling for the creation of a Constituent Assembly.
In the letter they argue that national elections should be held
to the Constituent Assembly and that the present parliament should
not be entrusted with adopting the new Russian Constitution because
its political interests are too specific. They further state
that because of the political games played with the old Constitution,
it has lost the spirit and authority of a legal document. -Alexander
Rahr

RUSSIANS DO NOT TRUST EXISTING POLITICAL PARTIES. 400 people
were questioned in the Russian cities of Vladimir and Yurev-Polsky
about their attitude towards the fourteen largest political parties
in Russia. The poll was conducted last month by the center for
political studies at Moscow's Academy of Administration. According
to ITAR- TASS on 1-February, 64% of those polled had no information
about any political party, including those that are members of
the influential Civic Union bloc. 56% answered negatively when
asked whether they support any of the parties. Only 9% gave a
positive answer to this question, and the remainder were undecided.
The agency noted that the poll cannot be regarded as representative
for the entire Russian Federation, because Vladimir and Yurev-Polsky
are known as places with very low popular political activity.
However, many Russian provinces seem to be in a similar situation,
the agency argued. -Vera Tolz

RUSSIA SAID TO DROP MILITARY ALLIANCE WITH NORTH KOREA. The Japanese
Kyodo news agency on 1 February, quoting unnamed Russian diplomatic
sources in Pyongyang, reported that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister
Georgii Kunadze, on an official visit to North Korea since 29
January, had told North Korean officials that a military alliance
should no longer be part of the two countries' bilateral treaty.
The present agreement, signed in 1961, is said to contain a clause
guaranteeing Soviet military assistance should North Korea be
attacked. An ITAR-TASS report from Pyongyang said that Kunadze
and his North Korean counterpart had agreed to reconsider the
1961 treaty and bring it into line with "existing realities."
-Doug Clarke

CRACKS IN SUNKEN SUB'S HULL, BUT NO LEAKS. A spokesman for the
Russian Navy announced on 1-February that Russian naval experts
had found two cracks in the hull of the Soviet nuclear submarine
which sank in the Norwegian Sea in 1989, but said that there
was no radiation leaking from the boat. ITAR-TASS quoted Valentin
Lyashenko as saying that the experts, who are believed to have
visited the site during the last week of January, found no change
in the level of radiation in the water since their last inspection
in 1991. -Doug Clarke

TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA



RUSSIA TO MINE MILITARY INSTALLATIONS IN GEORGIA. In a statement
carried by ITAR-TASS on 1 February, the Russian Military Command
in Georgia warned that it will mine military installations there
in order to prevent further thefts of weapons and equipment and
"to defend the honor and dignity" of servicemen and their families.
The statement further accused highly-placed officials within
the Georgian Defense Ministry of orchestrating previous attacks
on Russian military bases "in an attempt to destabilize the situation
in the republic in their own interests" - a clear reference to
maverick Defense Minister Tengiz Kitovani. Meanwhile some 25
parties represented within the Georgian parliament have expressed
opposition to the ongoing Russian-Georgian negotiations which
provide for the continued stationing of Russian troops in Georgia,
Western agencies reported. Georgian parliament chairman Eduard
Shevardnadze has proposed a republic- wide referendum on this
issue. -Liz Fuller

SCHOOLS TO REOPEN, FIGHTING CONTINUES IN TAJIKISTAN. Khovar-TASS
reported on 1 February that educational institutions in Dushanbe
had reopened that day after a three-month interruption caused
by fighting in the city and the need to house refugees in school
buildings. The same day ITAR-TASS reported that anti-government
forces holed up in the Ramit Gorge east of Dushanbe are continuing
to offer strong resistance to government troops trying to dislodge
them. National Security Committee Chairman Saidamir Zukhurov
assured correspondents that the state of emergency declared in
the Tajik-Afghan border region over the weekend was preventing
Afghans from coming to the assistance of the anti-government
forces. Other ITAR-TASS sources, however, said that many Afghans
were already fighting alongside the opposition. -Bess Brown

NAZARBAEV VISITS NATO. Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev
paid a visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels on 1 February,
ITAR-TASS reported. Nazarbaev used the occasion to tell NATO
officials about his project for an Asian counterpart to the CSCE
which he had first proposed before Kazakhstan's independence
and has since patiently repeated to many Asian leaders and other
visitors to Kazakhstan. He also told NATO officials that NATO
can help Kazakhstan to develop its own armed forces, and asked
for help in overcoming the medical and ecological effects of
the nuclear tests carried out in Kazakhstan. -Bess Brown

CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE



BOSNIA PEACE PLAN DISCUSSED. Seeking support for their peace
plan for Bosnia- Herzegovina, international mediators Cyrus Vance
and Lord Owen met on 1-February with UN and US officials in New
York. Vance and Owen moved the talks from Geneva in an attempt
to win formal endorsement of the plan from the UN Security Council.
Owen told CNN on 1-February that he will urge the US to help
persuade Bosnian Muslims to accept the peace accord. US Secretary
of State Warren Christopher has expressed some reservations;
senior US officials have said that the plan rewards Serbian aggression
and that even if all three parties in Bosnia accept the plan
it would be difficult if not impossible to enforce according
to the New York Times on 2 February. EC foreign ministers meeting
in Brussels called on Bosnia's warring parties and the Security
Council to implement the plan and said they will hold off imposing
more sanctions on Serbia-Montenegro for fear of derailing the
negotiations. -Milan Andrejevich

CROATIA UPDATE. Croatian Foreign Minister Zdenko Skrabalo said
on 1 February that Zagreb will not support the renewal of the
UN peacekeeping mandate in Croatia if UN troops do not disarm
the Serbian militia in Croatia's Krajina region. The UN mandate
expires at the end of February. In a letter to the UN Security
Council, Radoje Kontic, deputy prime minister of the rump Yugoslavia,
has requested that the mandate be renewed until a political solution
to the crisis is found. Heavy fighting is reported between Croatian
and Serbian forces in the Serb-controlled Krajina enclave of
Croatia. Each side accuses the other of large-scale attempts
to win ground and both claimed victories in the field of combat.
Radios Croatia and Serbia carried the reports. -Milan Andrejevich


ROMANIA BLOCKS MORE SERB BARGES AT IRON GATE. The Romanian authorities
have halted more Serb oil barges at the Iron Gate Two locks on
the Danube. Rompres said two tugboats sailing under the flag
of rump Yugoslavia and their barges were refused permission to
use the Romanian locks on 1 February. A spokesman for the Ministry
of Transport quoted by Reuters said one of the tugboats abandoned
its barges some 1.5 miles downstream from the locks. The director
of the locks said if any boats try to force their way through
the locks, he will close them again. -Michael Shafir

BULGARIA REQUESTS MONITORING OF UN EMBARGO. On 1 February the
Bulgarian government called on the United Nations to post observer
missions at the lower Danube river to monitor the enforcement
of UN sanctions, Western agencies report. While expressing "deep
concern" with the latest examples of sanction-breaking by tugboats
from rump Yugoslavia, the government declared it had, under the
circumstances, "exhausted the possibilities to enforce Resolution
787 unilaterally and by peaceful means." On the previous day
Prime Minister Lyuben Berov had warned that the use of force
against Serbian vessels might spark a wider Balkan war. Responding
to international pressure on Sofia and Bucharest to take decisive
action, the cabinet also asked the UN to consider "signals that
the embargo violations are occurring before the Bulgarian and
Romanian sections of the river." -Kjell Engelbrekt

ESTONIA CONDEMNS CRISIS IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA. In a statement
issued on 30-January, the Government of Estonia "decries the
continuing violence in Bosnia and Croatia." The statement, released
to RFE/RL, says that Estonia, "being a multiethnic country itself,
where people of differing cultures and religions live peacefully
side-by-side, Estonia cannot accept the Serbian policy of ethnic
cleansing and condemns the attempted genocide resulting from
this policy." Should the violence continue, the statement says,
Estonia will support UN-sponsored military intervention to restore
peace in the region. -Riina Kionka

KOSOVAR WARNS OF ETHNIC CLEANSING. Western news agencies quoted
Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova on 31 January and 2 February
as saying that Serbs are carrying out "silent ethnic cleansing"
against that province's more than 90% Albanian majority. Serbian
police allegedly search for arms in Albanian homes in a three-stage
process that includes beatings and expulsions from town. Rugova
reaffirmed the Kosovo Albanians' commitment to nonviolence to
obtain an independent, demilitarized Kosovo "open to both Serbia
and Albania in a regional framework," but warned that some of
the youth were becoming impatient. The overwhelming majority
of the Kosovars elected Rugova their president in May 1992 in
a clandestine vote that the Serbian authorities called illegal.
-Patrick Moore

CZECHS, SLOVAKS PREPARING FOR CURRENCY SPLIT. The parliaments
of the Czech Republic and Slovakia are scheduled to hold sessions
on 2 February, when they are expected to discuss the question
of establishing separate Czech and Slovak currencies. CTK reported
on 1 February that two committees of the Czech parliament have
expressed support for a draft law on the currency split submitted
by the Czech government. The Slovak government met in a special
closed-door session on 1 February, apparently to discuss the
currency split. Czech National Bank Governor Josef Tosovsky said
on 1 February that both republics have been coordinating their
actions on currency separation and worked together on the relevant
legislation. Czech Finance Minister Ivan Kocarnik was quoted
by CTK on 1 February as saying that neither state can act unilaterally
on the currency question. -Jiri Pehe

WALESA'S FILES REMAIN CLOSED. The Polish president's attempt
to dispel charges of collaboration with the secret police by
proposing an independent review of his files has been thwarted.
On 1 February, Internal Affairs Minister Andrzej Milczanowski
rejected Walesa's request to make an exception to secrecy regulations
and release the president's files to an independent arbiter.
In a letter delivered personally to Belweder and carried by PAP,
Milczanowski said that legal restrictions bound him not to disclose
any materials. Supreme Court Chief Justice Adam Strzembosz likewise
turned down a request to conduct a review of the president's
files. Strzembosz cited both legal impediments and a lack of
practical expertise, and suggested that a lustration procedure
approved by the parliament was the appropriate solution. Acceding
to Walesa's request would violate the principle of equality before
the law, he added. -Louisa Vinton

AGENTS CONTROVERSY DRAGS ON. The president's spokesman revealed
on 1 February that an unnamed former secret police officer had
telephoned Belweder to report that he had supervised the collection
of 44-volumes of documents on every aspect of Walesa's life.
Fourteen of these, collected under the code name "Bolek," were
to be used as evidence in an attempt to put the Solidarity leader
on trial in 1982. No trial was held. These documents were reportedly
destroyed in 1989. The former officer said that he was prepared
to testify in court that there was no evidence of collaboration
on Walesa's part. In the meantime, Center Alliance leader Jaroslaw
Kaczynski called on the president to "resign with honor" and
former Prime Minister Jan Olszewski said Walesa had gone over
to "the other side." Walesa's spokesman called these the attacks
of politicians frustrated by their loss of political support
and influence. The spokesman added that Walesa is in favor of
legislation to complete lustration as quickly as possible. -Louisa
Vinton

POLISH COALITION CLOSES RANKS. Prime Minister Hanna Suchocka
met on 29 January with the leaders of the seven-party governing
coalition. Gazeta Wyborcza reported that the coalition agreed
to defend the government's 1993 budget "with unity and determination."
In view of the threat to the government's budget targets arising
from recent Sejm votes to increase spending and cut taxes, the
coalition agreed to draw the line on the deficit at 81-trillion
zloty ($5.1 billion). This will require revising laws already
adopted by the Sejm, which have boosted the deficit level to
102 trillion zloty ($6.5 billion). Despite speculation that cabinet
changes are imminent, the coalition did not discuss ministerial
posts. Rzeczpospolita says Suchocka made the dramatic statement
that her government could not exist without the budget and, without
her government, Poland's democratic system could collapse. -Louisa
Vinton

POLISH GAINS IN GDP. The Main Statistical Office released economic
results for 1992 at a press conference on 29 January. Industrial
production was up 4.2%; GDP rose for the first time in three
years. The financial condition of firms remained bad, however.
Real wages dropped 3.6% in 1992, PAP reported. Inflation was
44.3%. The budget deficit, at 69.3 trillion zloty ($4.4-billion),
was only 84.7% of the amount planned in the revised 1992 budget.
For the first eleven months of 1992 Poland reported a positive
trade balance of $734-million. Negotiations with the London Club
on Poland's $12 billion commercial debt are to open on 11-February
in Vienna. The World Bank agreed on 29-January to lend Poland
$450 million to fund industrial and bank restructuring. The central
planning office predicted on 31 January that agricultural production
will be 3-7% lower in 1993 than in 1992, as a consequence of
last year's drought. -Louisa Vinton

NEW HUNGARIAN PARTY GEARS UP FOR 1994 ELECTIONS. At its general
assembly held in Budapest on 30-31 January, Hungary's National
Democratic Union reelected Imre Pozsgay as its chairman and Zoltan
Biro as "cochairman," MTI reports. Pozsgay, a former communist
official and one of the main architects of Hungary's 1989 peaceful
transition from dictatorship to democracy, told the media that
his party will gain parliamentary representation in the 1994
general elections. The assembly adopted a centrist program based
on the harmonization and representation of the interests of all
strata of society. -Alfred Reisch

HUNGARIAN ROMAS ORGANIZE. A National Coordinating Center of Roma
Communities was established by nine organizations meeting in
Szeged on 30 January MTI reports. The aim of the center is to
select and prepare individuals for local and national elections
and to enlighten the Romas about their rights. The organizers
accused the leaders of the top Gypsy organizations of being remnants
of the old [i.e., communist] system and of not keeping promises
to the rural Roma population. The chairman of the Czech and Slovak
Roma Congress also attended and urged those present to fight
for their rights. -Alfred Reisch

ROMANIA BANS MINORITY NEWS BROADCASTS. Romanian state television
has banned the broadcast of news in Hungarian or German, Western
agencies reported on 1 February. Broadcasts in the languages
of ethnic groups must be limited to cultural and what were termed
"traditional" themes. The order triggered protests from the directors
of the services and from representatives of the Hungarian minority
in Parliament. -Michael Shafir

ROMANIA SIGNS EC AGREEMENT. On 1 February in Brussels Prime Minister
Nicolae Vacaroiu and Foreign Affairs Minister Theodor Melescanu
signed an association agreement with the European Community.
The agreement grants Romania trade benefits and a regular political
dialogue with the community. The accord is similar to those the
EC has with Hungary and Poland and is negotiating with Bulgaria,
Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. Also on 1 February, a Romanian
parliamentary delegation arrived in Strasbourg for the opening
of the winter session of the Council of Europe's parliamentary
assembly. Radio Bucharest said the delegation will press the
case for Romania to become a full council member. Romania was
given special guest status in February 1991, but its application
for full membership has been repeatedly delayed, apparently because
of doubts about the Romanian authorities' commitment to democracy.
-Michael Shafir

BULGARIA NOT TO TAKE PART IN BLACK SEA MEETING. A parliamentary
foreign policy committee on 29 January voted to decline an invitation
for a Bulgarian delegation to attend a meeting of member states
of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation initiative in Istanbul
scheduled for 4-5 February. According to Bulgarian media, the
decision should be seen as a protest against plans to establish
an organizational framework for the group. A majority in the
committee agreed that the adoption of statutes is premature and
the creation of a formal assembly goes beyond the original cooperation
agreement signed last year. -Kjell Engelbrekt

KUCHMA ON THE UKRAINIAN ECONOMY. Ukrainian Prime Minister Leonid
Kuchma says that Ukraine is for all intents and purposes bankrupt,
Radio Ukraine reported on 1 February. Speaking to miners in the
Donetsk region, he reported that last year's deficit amounted
to 1.325 trillion karbovantsi (in world prices, about $20 billion).
Kuchma, noting that 60% of Russia's deliveries move on Ukraine's
railroads and through its ports, said that thus far Kiev has
not received a single kopeck from Moscow. -Roman Solchanyk

MOLDOVA SEEKING WINE-BOTTLING EQUIPMENT. On his official visit
to Paris, Moldovan President Mircea Snegur told a news conference
on 30-January that Moldova has bottling capacity for only 10%
of its massive output of sparkling and still wines and brandy,
and that it seeks to acquire bottling technology from the West.
Moldova reportedly accounts for one third of the ex-USSR's total
marketable wine output, but its wine has been mostly bottled
in other Soviet republics. Moldova's hopes to earn foreign currency
rest primarily on its wine industry. -Vladimir Socor

CHECHEN PRESIDENT MAKES SURPRISE VISIT TO LITHUANIA. On 29 January
Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev arrived unexpectedly in Vilnius,
saying that he had come at the request of opposition leader Vytautas
Landsbergis, BNS reports. At a press conference on 30-January
after meeting with Dudayev, Landsbergis said that he had not
known about the visit in advance, but viewed it as a "positive
occurrence" prepared by "people engaged in concrete cooperation
between Lithuania and Chechnya." Dudayev also met unofficially
with Seimas chairman Ceslovas Jursenas before flying from Vilnius
that night. Dudayev was interested in the possibility of using
Lithuanian construction workers, presently employed in Armenia,
to help build up the Chechen capital, obtaining Lithuanian help
in training customs workers, and in return sending fuel and using
each other's airports for stopovers in airline flights. -Saulius
Girnius

RUSSIAN TROOPS FROM GERMANY TO USE LITHUANIAN PORTS. Gediminas
Serksnys, the head of the Lithuanian delegation negotiating with
Russia, says that Russian and Lithuanian negotiators have agreed
to allow Russian troops from Germany to be withdrawn on the ferry
from Mukran, Germany, to Klaipeda, and by rail through Vilnius
to Belarus and on to Russia. The report said that the project
will begin as soon as it was signed by both sides. The 29 January
Baltfax account also included a statement from Stasys Knezys,
the Lithuanian commissioner for the Russian military withdrawal,
who said that such transfers were already taking place without
an agreement. -Doug Clarke

RUSSIA'S DIPLOMATS VISIT RUSSIAN MILITARY BASE IN LATVIA. On
29 January Russia's envoys to the Baltic States-Aleksandr Rannikh
in Riga, Nikolai Obertyshev in Tallinn, and Aleksandr Trofimov
in Vilnius-met with the commander of the Northwestern Group of
Forces Leonid Mayorov. On 30 January they all visited the Russian
military base in Adazi to inspect the living conditions of the
Russian military stationed there. The working visit of the Russian
diplomats was coordinated with Latvia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Diena reported on 1 February. -Dzintra Bungs

UPDATE ON CITIZEN AND RESIDENT REGISTRATION IN LATVIA. Diena
reported on 1-February that as per the 1989 census, about 88%
of Latvia's residents have been registered by the Citizenship
and Immigration Department. Of those registered, 75% are citizens,
and of these registered citizens about one-fourth are non-Latvians.
On 30 January Radio Riga reported that about 5,000 citizens living
abroad have been registered. Only about 300 of these are in Russia.
One reason for this low figure, according to Maris Plavnieks,
director of the department, appears to be harassment of the Latvians
by the local authorities. Registration is almost complete in
most parts of Latvia though enrollment of citizens living abroad
is expected to continue longer. -Dzintra Bungs

[As of 1200 CET]

Compiled by Wendy Slater and Charles Trumbull