RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 2, No. 84 Part I, 4 May 1998

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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 2, No. 84 Part I, 4 May 1998

A daily report of developments in Eastern and Southeastern 
Europe, Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia prepared by 
the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

This is Part I, a compilation of news concerning Russia, 
Transcaucasia and Central Asia. Part II covers Central, 
Eastern, and Southeastern Europe and is distributed 
simultaneously as a second document. Back issues of RFE/RL 
NewsLine and the OMRI Daily Digest are online at RFE/RL's 
Web site: http://www.rferl.org/newsline

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Headlines, Part I

* YELTSIN COMPLETES SENIOR CABINET APPOINTMENTS

* RUSSIAN PRESIDENTIAL ENVOY TO CHECHNYA KIDNAPPED

* MEDIATION EFFORTS QUELL FIGHTING OUTSIDE TAJIK CAPITAL

End Note: RUBIK'S CUBE IN OSSETIA
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RUSSIA

YELTSIN COMPLETES SENIOR CABINET APPOINTMENTS. President 
Boris Yeltsin on 30 April signed decrees appointing 11 more 
government ministers, thereby filling most of the senior 
posts in the cabinet. Following a lengthy meeting with Prime 
Minister Sergei Kirienko, Yeltsin named Oleg Sysuev as the 
third deputy prime minister (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 and 
30 April 1998). Sysuev has been deputy prime minister since 
March 1997, but his new position is in effect a promotion 
since Kirienko has no first deputies and only three 
deputies. (Sysuev was one of eight deputy prime ministers in 
Viktor Chernomyrdin's government.) He will be tasked with 
coordinating the government's social policies. Yeltsin also 
kept on Economics Minister Yakov Urinson, who, like Sysuev, 
is considered ideologically close to Deputy Prime Minister 
Boris Nemtsov and Unified Energy System chief executive 
Anatolii Chubais. The president is expected to name the rest 
of the new cabinet on 5 May. LB 

SEVERAL OLD HANDS STAY ON... Six of the 11 ministers 
appointed on 30 April served in the cabinet Yeltsin sacked 
in late March. Besides Sysuev and Urinson, Yeltsin kept on 
Farit Gazizullin as state property minister, a job he has 
held since last December. Natalya Dementeva will also stay 
on as culture minister, the post to which she was appointed 
last August. The president reappointed Vladimir Bulgak as 
minister for science and technology, although Bulgak, 
considered a close ally of former Prime Minister Viktor 
Chernomyrdin, lost the post of deputy prime minister and 
will no longer supervise matters related to the 
Communications Ministry. Sergei Frank, who became 
transportation minister in early March, will remain in that 
job. In another nod to continuity, Yeltsin named Pavel 
Krasheninnikov as justice minister. He had served as first 
deputy head of the Justice Ministry since last August and 
became acting justice minister in March, when Yeltsin picked 
Sergei Stepashin to head the Interior Ministry. LB 

...WHILE SOME NEW BLOOD IN EVIDENCE. Sergei Generalov, whom 
Yeltsin appointed fuel and energy minister on 30 April, is 
the new cabinet's most senior official tapped from the 
business community. He was previously the deputy head of the 
Menatep bank, founded by Mikhail Khodorkovskii. 
(Khodorkovskii now heads the Yuksi oil company, the product 
of a merger between Yukos and Sibneft, which is part of CIS 
Executive Secretary Boris Berezovskii's business empire.) In 
appointing Generalov, Yeltsin passed over Viktor Ott, who 
was first deputy fuel and energy minister when Kirienko 
headed that ministry (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 26 March 1998). 
Yeltsin appointed Viktor Nekrutenko, an official from the 
government apparatus, to head the Natural Resources 
Ministry. Viktor Orlov had held that post since the ministry 
was created last August. Viktor Semonov, the former manager 
of a farm in Moscow Oblast and first deputy chairman of the 
Agroindustrial Union of Russia, became agriculture minister. 
Viktor Khlystun headed that ministry since May 1996. LB

YABLOKO FACTION RECEIVES LABOR PORTFOLIO. Also on 30 April, 
Yeltsin appointed Duma deputy Oksana Dmitrieva as labor 
minister. Like Finance Minister Mikhail Zadornov, she 
suspended her membership in Yabloko upon joining the 
government. The Yabloko faction, the Duma's most consistent 
opponents of government policies, immediately released a 
statement saying Dmitrieva's decision to accept the post was 
"mistaken," ITAR-TASS reported. Political commentator Andrei 
Piontkovskii told RFE/RL's Moscow bureau that Dmitrieva's 
appointment appears to be part of a government strategy to 
undermine Yabloko. Faction leader Grigorii Yavlinskii told 
NTV on 30 April that six or seven members of his faction 
were approached and that officials turned to Dmitrieva only 
after Tatyana Yarygina, a specialist on social issues, 
refused the labor portfolio. (Until now, Dmitrieva has 
headed a Duma subcommittee on the budget.) Yabloko member 
Aleksei Mikhailov was reportedly offered the job of fuel and 
energy minister. LB

DECREE ABOLISHES FOREIGN TRADE, CIS MINISTRIES. Also on 30 
April, Yeltsin signed a decree restructuring the executive 
branch, which liquidates the Foreign Trade Ministry, the 
Ministry for Cooperation with CIS States and several state 
committees and federal agencies, ITAR-TASS reported. A newly 
created Trade and Industry Ministry will take over some 
functions of the Foreign Trade and CIS Ministries, along 
with some responsibilities of the Economics Ministry. The 
Foreign Ministry will take over the rest of the functions 
previously handled by the Ministry on the CIS. The same 
decree creates a Ministry on Land Policy, Construction and 
the Housing and Utilities Sector, which will take care of 
matters previously handled by the State Land Committee, the 
State Committee on Housing and Construction Policy, and the 
Federal Service on Surveying and Cartography. The Ministry 
for Nationalities Affairs and Federative Relations has been 
renamed the Ministry for Regional and Nationalities Policy. 
LB

RYBKIN LEFT OUT IN THE COLD. The latest government 
appointments suggest that Yeltsin will not name Ivan Rybkin 
to the new cabinet. Rybkin was Security Council Secretary 
from October 1996 until March 1998, when Yeltsin appointed 
him deputy prime minister in charge of CIS issues--a post 
that no longer exists. Rybkin is considered close to Boris 
Berezovskii, who reportedly worked behind the scenes to 
persuade Yeltsin to appoint Rybkin as prime minister. 
Meanwhile, the Socialist Party headed by Rybkin held its 
second congress in Moscow on 3 May, ITAR-TASS reported. The 
party is likely to compete in the parliamentary elections 
scheduled for 1999, but its prospects are poor. An electoral 
bloc headed by Rybkin gained just 1.1 percent of the vote in 
the 1995 elections to the State Duma. LB

COMMUNIST REPORTEDLY TURNS DOWN CABINET POST. Duma Economic 
Policy Committee Chairman Yurii Maslyukov of the Communist 
faction has rejected an offer to serve as minister in charge 
of the government's council of experts, an unnamed 
government source told Interfax on 1 May. Maslyukov headed 
the Soviet state planning agency, Gosplan, during the 
Gorbachev period. One of only two Communist Duma deputies 
who supported Kirienko's confirmation in the second ballot 
(which was held by open vote), he was considered among the 
Communists most likely to be offered a cabinet post. Some 
media speculated that Yeltsin would appoint Maslyukov as 
economics minister. The source quoted by Interfax did not 
say why Maslyukov turned down the post offered to him, which 
would have involved little authority. LB

REACTION TO CHUBAIS'S APPOINTMENT. Duma deputy Valentin 
Kuptsov, a senior Communist Party official, told Interfax on 
30 April that the appointment of Chubais as chief executive 
of Unified Energy System is "further confirmation that the 
regime of Boris Yeltsin is authoritarian." Duma Geopolitics 
Committee Chairman Aleksei Mitrofanov of the Liberal 
Democratic Party of Russia argued that in his new job, 
Chubais will wield more power than he had in the government 
and may use that authority to help finance a candidate in 
the next presidential election. Meanwhile, Prime Minister 
Kirienko announced on 30 April that Chubais has six months 
to prove himself and will be fired this fall if he does not 
handle his new duties well. Former Prime Minister Viktor 
Chernomyrdin and Duma Speaker Gennadii Seleznev were among 
the influential politicians who recently spoke out against 
putting Chubais in charge of the electricity giant (see 
"RFE/RL Newsline," 22 and 30 April 1998). LB

LUZHKOV WARNS CHUBAIS NOT TO HARM MOSCOW'S INTERESTS. Moscow 
Mayor Yurii Luzhkov on 30 April predicted that Chubais will 
a "good administrator" in the energy sector and said his 
latest appointment may be "useful," ITAR-TASS reported. But 
while saying the Moscow city government is ready to 
cooperate with the electricity giant, Luzhkov warned that 
"the situation will change radically" if the company's 
policies harm the interests of Muscovites. For years, 
Luzhkov has been a vocal critic of economic policies 
endorsed by Chubais, especially the government's 
privatization program. Last fall, the mayor and then First 
Deputy Prime Minister Chubais sparred over whether the 
federal government should continue to compensate the city of 
Moscow for the costs of maintaining federal facilities in 
the capital (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10 October 1997). 
Compensation payments were eventually included in the 1998 
budget. LB

RUSSIAN PRESIDENTIAL ENVOY TO CHECHNYA KIDNAPPED. The 
whereabouts of Valentin Vlasov are still unknown three days 
after armed men intercepted his car near the Ingush village 
of Assinovskaya on 1 May and abducted him. Chechen law 
enforcement agencies arrested Vlasov's Chechen driver and 
bodyguard the following day on suspicion of complicity in 
the kidnapping. Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov, CIS 
executive secretary Boris Berezovskii, and former Russian 
Security Council secretary Ivan Rybkin all condemned the 
kidnapping as a political act intended to sabotage peace 
talks between Russia and Chechnya and to destabilize the 
North Caucasus. Maskhadov imposed additional security 
measures throughout Chechnya and appointed a special 
commission to locate Vlasov, but a senior Chechen official 
denied Russian media reports that Maskhadov has offered a 
$100,000 reward for information on the abductors. On 3 May, 
a joint Russian-Chechen headquarters was established in 
Ingushetia to coordinate the search for Vlasov. LF

FINANCE MINISTRY SEEKS DEEP SPENDING CUTS. The Finance 
Ministry has proposed cutting federal budget spending by 
62.4 billion rubles ($10.2 billion) this year, Russian news 
agencies reported on 30 April. The proposed cuts amount to 
12.5 percent of all spending mapped out in the 1998 budget. 
The ministry has predicted that 1998 revenues will fall 63.9 
billion rubles short of budget targets and will total 303.6 
billion rubles for the year. Poor tax collection and the 
slump in world oil prices have cut into projected revenues. 
Speaking in the Federation Council before he was confirmed 
as prime minister, Kirienko said the government was drafting 
proposals on some 35-40 billion rubles in spending cuts. The 
Finance Ministry's announcement came during a Moscow visit 
by a team of IMF experts, who are checking Russia's 
compliance with the terms for continued disbursement of a 
four-year, $10 billion IMF loan. LB

COMMUNISTS, TRADE UNIONS DEMONSTRATE ON MAY DAY. Some 
173,000 people participated in more than 330 rallies held 
across the Russian Federation to mark 1 May, a traditional 
labor holiday, ITAR-TASS reported, citing Interior Ministry 
estimates. The Communist Party and allied political groups, 
including Duma Defense Committee Chairman Lev Rokhlin's 
Movement to Support the Army, drew a crowd of some 30,000 on 
Moscow's Teatralnaya Square. Addressing that rally, 
Communist Party leader Gennadii Zyuganov lambasted Yeltsin 
and the new government. The Federation of Independent Trade 
Unions (FNPR) organized a separate demonstration in Moscow, 
during which FNPR leader Mikhail Shmakov warned that the new 
cabinet "won't last a hundred days" if it tries to get by on 
promises alone, Reuters reported. Speaking to Interfax 
during that demonstration, Shmakov remarked that new Labor 
Minister Oksana Dmitrieva is not an expert on labor 
relations and was "not the best choice" to head the Labor 
Ministry. LB

ANOTHER SUSPECT CHARGED IN KHOLODOV CASE. The Prosecutor-
General's Office has filed criminal charges against a third 
suspect in the October 1994 murder of investigative 
journalist Dmitrii Kholodov, Interfax reported on 30 April. 
The authorities have not named the suspect but say he is a 
civilian. Two officers have already been charged with 
premeditated murder in connection with the case (see "RFE/RL 
Newsline," 27 April 1998). LB 

TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

MEDIATION EFFORTS QUELL FIGHTING OUTSIDE TAJIK CAPITAL. 
Fighting that broke out just east of Dushanbe on 29 April 
between government forces and a group nominally associated 
with the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) has ceased following 
intensive mediation efforts. President Imomali Rakhmonov on 
2 May held talks with the deputy leader of the UTO, Khoja 
Akbar Turajonzoda, to mediate the dispute. The same day, UN 
observers and government and opposition representatives met 
with the rebel group in the village of Teppoi-Samarkandi, 12 
kilometers east of the Dushanbe, and reached an agreement on 
a cease-fire. Road check-points were established on the 
highway from Dushanbe to Kofarnikhon with the help of both 
government and UTO troops. The situation in Dushanbe was 
calm on 4 May, RFE/RL correspondents in the Tajik capital 
reported. BP

BACKGROUND TO FIGHTING. The conflict began on 29 April after 
the Tajik government had issued an ultimatum to the UTO-
affiliated group to withdraw to an area 12-15 kilometers 
outside Dushanbe by 16:00 local time. The deadline was 
extended by 90 minutes, but the group failed to comply with 
it. The government responded by ordering a military 
operation, with tanks and artillery, to clear the group from 
the capital's outskirts. Some members of the rebel group 
took up positions on hilltops in the capital and fired on 
the presidential palace and the Pakistani Embassy. No one 
was hurt at either location, though the embassy sustained 
some structural damage. Some 20 government soldiers, five 
rebel fighters, and 26 civilians are reported killed in the 
fighting. Those figures, however, are expected to rise as 
aid workers search for missing persons. BP

UZBEKISTAN TIGHTENS CONTROLS OVER RELIGIOUS GROUPS. The 
parliament on 1 May passed a law imposing new restrictions 
on religious groups, Reuters and Interfax reported. The law 
requires all mosques and all religious groups with more than 
100 members to register. Attending the parliamentary 
session, President Islam Karimov spoke out harshly against 
one such group, the Wahhabis, whom he accused of seeking to 
turn Uzbekistan into a second Tajikistan by "killing 
officials [and destroying] food factories, powers stations, 
and other strategic installations." Karimov added that "such 
people must be shot in the head. If necessary, I'll shoot 
them myself, if you lack the resolve." Wahhabis were blamed 
for violence that broke out in the city of Namangan last 
December in which several police officials were killed. BP

KYRGYZSTAN ARRESTS UYGHUR SEPARATISTS. ITAR-TASS on 1 May 
reported that Kyrgyz authorities have arrested 20 Uyghurs 
who were allegedly involved in terrorist activities. 
According to Kyrgyz press reports cited by the Russian 
agency, those arrested belong to the organization "For Free 
Eastern Turkestan" and were in possession of weapons and 
Wahhabi training videos at the time of their arrest. 
"Vecherny Bishkek" reported the same day that many of the 
arrests took place in early April and began with an Uyghur 
citizen of China identified only as "Kasarli," who is 
alleged to have helped Kyrgyz youth travel abroad for 
Wahhabi training, mainly to Pakistan. The article claims 
Wahhabis have mosques not only in the Fergana Valley near 
Osh but also around Bishkek and in Kyrgyzstan's northern Chu 
Valley. It concludes by saying that the Kyrgyz Commission on 
Religious Affairs is unable "to resist the religious 
fundamentalist invasion." BP

ARMENIA CLARIFIES POSITION ON BEREZOVSKII... President 
Robert Kocharian on 30 April said he does not oppose the 
appointment of Boris Berezovskii as CIS executive secretary 
but added that he has certain reservations about Berezovskii 
because of the constant "tension" surrounding him, ITAR-TASS 
reported. But Kocharian also said he had insisted that in 
compliance with the regulations on appointing CIS 
executives, Berezovskii's appointment should be reconfirmed 
within three months, Noyan Tapan reported. Russian 
presidential spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembskii had told 
Interfax the previous day that Berezovskii's appointment had 
been supported by all summit participants except Kocharian 
(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 30 April 1998). LF

...AND CIS SUMMIT. Kocharian positively assessed the 29 April 
summit, which he said "opened the possibility for new 
development" of the CIS. He advocated rotating the 
chairmanship of the various CIS bodies, arguing that this 
would provide an incentive for member states to put forward 
specific problems and seek a solution to them within a given 
period. Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Arsen Gasparian 
told "RFE/RL Newsline" on 1 May that the draft Declaration 
on Further Equal Partnership and Cooperation within the CIS 
was not "put for signature" but that a decision on its 
adoption was postponed at the suggestion of Kazakh President 
Nursultan Nazarbaev. Interfax had reported on 29 April that 
several summit participants had refused to sign that draft. 
LF

GEORGIAN PRESIDENT OUTLINES MILITARY PRIORITIES. Eduard 
Shevardnadze on 30 April awarded newly appointed Defense 
Minister David Tevzadze the rank of major-general, calling 
the military leader "a brilliant specialist and a good 
warrior," Caucasus Press reported. Presenting Tevzadze to 
ministry staff the same day, the president argued that 
Georgia's national army must be "mobile, compact, and 
capable," according to Interfax. Shevardnadze said that 
Tevzadze's top priorities should be to improve living 
conditions for servicemen and to make military service "as 
safe as possible." Nodar Epremidze, president of the Society 
for the Rights of Soldiers, had told a 27 April news 
conference in Tbilisi that servicemen live in "elementary" 
conditions, exist on food that is extremely low in calories, 
and have ammunition and uniforms that do not meet required 
standards. LF

AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION SLAMS ELECTION LEGISLATION. Several 
Azerbaijani opposition figures have harshly criticized the 
draft laws on the Central Electoral Commission and on 
presidential elections, Turan reported on 30 April. The bill 
on the commission stipulates that 12 of the body's 24 
members are appointed by the president and the remaining 12 
by the parliament. The bill on presidential elections, which 
was passed in the first reading on 30 April, restricts the 
right to propose presidential candidates to political 
parties that are legally registered with the Ministry of 
Justice six months before elections, according to ITAR-TASS. 
Azerbaijan Popular Front Deputy Chairman Ali Kerimov said 
the requirement that would-be presidential candidates 
collect 50,000 signatures in order to register, including a 
minimum of 400 from each raion, is "unfair." Musavat party 
chairman Isa Gambar said the draft laws deal not with 
electing but appointing the president. LF

END NOTE

RUBIK'S CUBE IN OSSETIA

by Liz Fuller

	It is unclear whether the draft document adopted at 
last week's CIS summit on resolving the conflict in Abkhazia 
will have the desired effect. But the January 1998 election 
of Aleksandr Dzasokhov as president of North Ossetia has 
given new impetus to the search for solutions to two other 
Caucasian conflicts--between North Ossetia and Ingushetia 
and between Georgia and South Ossetia.
	Dzasokhov immediately established a cordial working 
relationship with his Ingushetian counterpart, Ruslan 
Aushev, who had had strained relations with Dzasokhov's 
predecessor, Akhsarbek Galazov. Dzasokhov also assumed the 
task of mediating between the leadership of the unrecognized 
Republic of South Ossetia and the Georgian government to 
reach a framework agreement for restoring formal relations 
between the two. (In late 1990, the nationalist Georgian 
leadership of Zviad Gamsakhurdia responded to South 
Ossetia's demands to secede from Georgia by abolishing the 
region's autonomous status within that country. The move 
triggered intensive fighting in South Ossetia between 
Georgian Interior Ministry forces and local Ossetian 
paramilitaries as well as a violent backlash against 
Ossetians living elsewhere in Georgia. In all, some 100,000 
Ossetians fled north from Georgia to escape the threat of 
ethnic cleansing. )
 	It is unclear whether Dzasokhov can claim some of the 
credit for the recent rapprochement between Tbilisi and 
Tskhinvali. A planned meeting of Georgian and South Ossetian 
leaders in December 1997 was canceled, allegedly because of 
what the former considered to be the latter's unacceptable 
demands: a Georgian spokesman said at the time that Chibirov 
continued to insist on his unrecognized republic's 
independence from Georgia and unification with North 
Ossetia. In his annual address to the parliament in March of 
this year, however, Chibirov called for renewed talks with 
Tbilisi on establishing "equal and mutually beneficial 
relations" on condition that such relations do not infringe 
on South Ossetia's "sovereignty." He also listed as a 
priority "greater integration" with North Ossetia," 
including the creation of a "common economic space." The 
Georgian leadership, for its part, has signaled its 
readiness to begin contributing to the South Ossetian budget 
(since 1992 the region has been funded entirely by Moscow), 
and a working group has been set up to discuss restoring 
transportation links.
	The one issue crucial to resolving both the Georgian-
South Ossetia and the Ossetian-Ingush conflicts is the 
repatriation of those forced to flee their homes during the 
fighting. More than 40,000 Ossetians who fled Georgia from 
1990-1992 settled in North Ossetia. Of those, some 16,000 
occupied houses in North Ossetia's Prigorodnyi Raion after 
they were abandoned by ethnic Ingush during the fighting 
there in November 1992. Prigorodnyi Raion had originally 
been part of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR but was incorporated 
into North Ossetia following the deportation of both the 
Chechens and Ingush to Central Asia in 1944 and the ensuing 
abolition of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR as a territorial 
administrative unit. Following Secretary-General Nikita 
Khrushchev's 1956 "secret speech" to the 20th congress of 
the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the deportees were 
allowed to return. 
	But latent tensions between Ossetians and Ingush 
repatriates rose to the surface in 1991-1992 when the Ingush 
demanded the return of Prigorodnyi Raion. In late October 
1992, those tensions erupted into fighting between Ingush 
informal militias and North Ossetian security forces backed 
by Russian Interior Ministry and army troops. In six days of 
violence, up to 700 people were killed and thousands of 
homes, mostly belonging to Ingush, destroyed. Almost the 
entire Ingush population of the district--estimates range 
from 34,000 to 64,000 people--fled to Ingushetia. 
	Failure to expedite the return of those Ingush to 
North Ossetia was one of the factors that bedeviled 
relations between Galazov and Aushev. Vladimir Kalamanov, 
Russian President Boris Yeltsin's envoy to North Ossetia and 
Ingushetia, recently reasoned that the return of the Ingush 
to North Ossetia can neither be planned nor implemented in 
isolation but should be part of a broader effort that 
includes the repatriation to Georgia of the Ossetian 
refugees, some of whom are currently living in Ingush homes. 
	That undertaking, however, is likely to prove 
problematic, given that the majority of Ossetian refugees 
currently domiciled in Prigorodnyi Raion are not from South 
Ossetia but from elsewhere in Georgia and are convinced that 
their lives would be in danger if they returned there. (In 
contrast, 52 Ossetian families returned last year from 
Ingushetia to South Ossetia.) Over the past five years, the 
Ossetian refugees from Georgia have put down firm roots in 
Prigorodnyi Raion, taking over the role in trade (and, 
according to one commentator, in crime) that was once played 
by the Ingush. 
	While agreement has been reached on providing funds to 
enable Ingush who wish to return to Prigorodnyi Raion to 
build new homes there, the returnees' prospects of finding 
employment are dismal in view of North Ossetia's 50 percent 
unemployment rate. 
	All the factors outlined above suggest that the large-
scale, Rubik's Cube-type repatriation proposed by Kalamanov 
is utopian. Even the return of smaller numbers of Ingush to 
Prigorodnyi Raion might spark new tensions and rivalries 
with the recent Ossetian settlers, thereby undermining the 
chances for a lasting reconciliation between the two ethnic 
groups.

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