RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 3, No. 43, Part I, 3 March 1999

________________________________________________________
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 3, No. 43, Part I, 3 March 1999

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

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Headlines, Part I

* MASLYUKOV ORDERS COUNTERPROBE OF NEWSPAPER

* CONSIDERATION OF START-II TREATY DELAYED

* OPPOSITION GROUPS REGISTERED IN KAZAKHSTAN

End Note: RUSSIAN MEDIA LOSING ACCESS TO INFORMATION
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

RUSSIA

MASLYUKOV ORDERS COUNTERPROBE OF NEWSPAPER... First Deputy
Prime Minister Yurii Maslyukov announced on 2 March that he
will ask the Prosecutor-General to investigate "Nezavisimaya
gazeta" over the second in a series of articles implicating
him in criminal wrongdoing, ITAR-TASS reported. Maslyukov's
spokesman clarified the next day that Maslyukov is not
seeking curbs on press freedom but merely wants an
investigation into slanderous media reports about the
government. On 2 March, the newspaper did a follow-up to an
earlier piece, suggesting that Maslyukov and his aides
somehow embezzled $130 million of budget funds. "Nezavisimaya
gazeta" receives financial support from Boris Berezovskii's
LogoVAZ group. JAC

...COMPLAINS ABOUT IMF. Maslyukov also accused IMF Managing
Director Michel Camdessus of "pressuring" Russia during
negotiations in a way that is "simply indecent," Interfax
reported on 2 March. He added that "Mr. Camdessus wants too
much to score an easy victory and make us do something that
we will not accept." Maslyukov's comments follow an
announcement by Camdessus the previous day that Russia's 1999
budget remains unrealistic and unworthy of a new loan in the
near future. JAC

CONSIDERATION OF START-II TREATY DELAYED. The State Duma
Council on 2 March decided not to include the START-II treaty
on the Duma's agenda for 5 March, as the Liberal Democratic
Party had proposed, Interfax reported. Defense Committee
Chairman and member of the Our Home Is Russia faction Roman
Popkovich, who supports ratification of the treaty, said the
proposal to include the treaty on the Duma's agenda was "a
provocation" designed to defeat that document. Popkovich
repeated his earlier conviction that before considering the
START-II treaty, the Duma must pass in the first reading a
bill on financing of the strategic nuclear forces until 2010.
JAC

RUSSIA SPILLING MORE OIL THAN QATAR PRODUCING. Russia lost
almost 20 million tons of oil--more than is annually produced
by Qatar, an OPEC member--during drilling and transport, the
state pipeline company Transneft reported on 2 March.
According to ITAR-TASS, losses amounted to some 6.5 percent
of last year's annual production. JAC

INTERNATIONAL ACCOUNTING FIRM TO AUDIT FIMACO. Three days
after Duma Deputy and Budget Committee member Nikolai Gonchar
made new accusations against the Central Bank for its
involvement with the Channel Islands-based FIMACO investment
firm, the head of the Duma's Audit Chamber, Khachim Karmokov,
told reporters on 2 March that his organization has "not
uncovered any serious, large-scale violations" of Central
Bank procedures. However, he also noted that his chamber has
not tracked the flow of capital outside Russia. Karmokov
disclosed that his agency has filed a report on the Central
Bank but added that the document is not available to either
the public or the press. Central Bank Chairman Viktor
Gerashchenko plans to ask the international accounting firm
PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct an audit of FIMACO,
Interfax reported. Central Bank Deputy Chairman Oleg
Mozhaiskii said, "Our professional and business reputation is
more important than the money that will have to be spent on
an audit. " JAC

STAND-OFF BETWEEN POLICE, RELIGIOUS GROUP IN SAKHA GETS
STRANGER. Members of the evangelical Christian group that
seized a public building in Aldan Raion in the Republic of
Sakha (Yakutia) on 28 February have asked police to shoot
them, Ekho Moskvy reported on 3 March. They promised they
would forgive the police and others for any "injustices"
perpetrated against them. According to Reuters, the group has
rejected offers of money and broken off negotiations with the
police. In a statement released to the press, the group added
that in addition to wanting the police to shoot them, they
also would like the Sakha government to recognize financial
debts owed the group, according to ITAR-TASS. The agency also
reported that the leader of the group, Pastor Yevgenii, has
served a 13-year prison sentence for killing his wife. JAC

RUSSIA HAILS LIBYA, DEMANDS END TO STRIKES AGAINST IRAQ.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Vladimir Rakhmanin told reporters
on 2 March that U.S.-U.K. air strikes against Iraq "must end
immediately" since they "cannot be justified from a legal or
a moral point of view and hinder the settlement of the
problem, which is being sought by the UN Security Council."
Rakhmanin also called for the earliest possible
implementation of the UN Security Council's resolution on
starting a trial in The Netherlands of the suspects in the
downing of the Pan-Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in
1988. Rakhmanin added that Libya "has made noticeable
progress" in implementing the UN Security Council's
resolution on initiating the trial. JAC

NEW DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER, ENVOYS NAMED. Sergei
Ordzhonikidze was appointed deputy foreign minister on 2
March by presidential decree, Interfax reported.
Ordzhonikidze previously headed the International
Organizations Department at the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Also appointed by decree were Vladimir Chistyakov and Leonid
Semergei as presidential envoys to Novgorod and Volgograd
Oblasts, respectively, ITAR-TASS reported. Envoy to the
Republic of Kalmykia Vyacheslav Bembetov and envoy to
Krasnodar Krai Vitalii Spiridonov were relieved of their
duties the same day. JAC

COAL MINERS CALL FOR BROADER PROTEST. Leaders of coal miner
unions in the Donetsk basin called on 1 March for large-scale
protests nine days later, ITAR-TASS reported. At a plenum of
Rostov Oblast unions representing 120,000 miners in the
region, leaders drafted a message to Russian President Boris
Yeltsin and Prime Minister Yevgenii Primakov noting that the
government still owes miners unpaid wages as well as
disability and other benefits amounting to 1.3 billion rubles
($56 million). Meanwhile, dozens of miners in Komi Republic
declared their willingness on 2 March to join 10 of their
colleagues who launched a hunger strike last month over
unpaid wages. The miners work for the Severuglestroi coal
company, in the city of Vorkuta. According to ITAR-TASS,
company officials say that they cannot pay workers wages
because the mine where they work is to be liquidated. JAC

FOUR YEARS LATER, NO BREAKTHROUGHS ON LISTIEV CASE. 1 March
marked the fourth anniversary of the contract slaying of
Vladislav Listiev, famous television journalist and first
director-general of Russian Public Television (ORT). An
anonymous senior official in Russian law-enforcement bodies
told ITAR-TASS that investigators still involved in the case
are now working on a theory that Listiev's murder was
connected with the re-division of ORT's advertising market.
Financial magnate Boris Berezovskii told reporters the same
day that he does not doubt that President Yeltsin's former
security head Aleksandr Korzhakov was invovled in the
killing. The next day, two unidentified men tried to kill a
local military journalist in Rostov na Donu, Aleksandr
Tolmachov. JAC

TATARSTAN REJECTS CONSOLIDATION WITHIN RUSSIAN FEDERATION.
State Council chairman Farit Mukhametshin has categorically
rejected Russian Prime Minister Primakov's recent proposal
that the number of subjects of the Russian Federation be
drastically reduced by means of consolidating the present 89
federation subjects into fewer, larger territorial entities,
RFE/RL's Kazan bureau reported on 2 March. "There can be no
discussions on affiliating the Tatarstan Republic with any of
the other territorial entities of the Russian Federation.
This issue cannot be a topic for discussion by Tatarstan's
government," Mukhametshin said. Also on 2 March, Tatarstan's
enlistment officer Major-General Rim Mustaev, told Tatar-
Inform that Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeev's proposal
to merge the Volga and Urals military districts is premature.
LF

DOUGHNUTS LATEST VICTIM OF ECONOMIC CRISIS? The Dunkin'
Donuts chain, specializing in doughnuts and coffee, has
closed its two shops in Moscow because Russia's economic
crisis negatively impacted sales, AP reported. In October,
another U.S. fast food chain Pizza Hut announced plans to
shut its two Moscow locations. JAC

TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

BEREZOVSKII VISITS TBILISI... CIS Executive Secretary Boris
Berezovskii held talks with Georgian President Eduard
Shevardnadze in Tbilisi on 2 March on the first leg of a tour
that will take him to the capitals of six CIS member states
to discuss CIS reform, Interfax reported. Berezovskii told
journalists after his meeting with the Georgian president
that Georgia's misgivings about extending its participation
in the CIS Security Treaty reflects that pact's inadequacy
and thus constitutes a problem for the CIS as a whole.
Georgian Foreign Minister Irakli Menagharishvili told
Interfax that Georgia is ready to work on revising the treaty
and may extend its membership if those revisions meet its
needs. Menagharishvili implicitly endorsed Berezovskii's
performance as CIS executive secretary. Berezovskii also
discussed with Shevardnadze the repatriation to Abkhazia of
Georgian displaced persons, echoing Shevardnadze's objections
that the security guarantees offered by Abkhazia are
inadequate. LF

...AND YEREVAN. Speaking at a press conference in Yerevan the
same day after talks with President Robert Kocharian,
Berezovskii said he believes individual CIS states support
his proposals for CIS reform, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau
reported. Berezovskii added that his talks with Kocharian
focused on creating a CIS free trade zone--an initiative
first proposed in 1994 and revived by Berezovskii last year
(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 24 November 1998). Berezovskii said
the most acceptable development model for the CIS is the EU
and that the former Soviet Union is totally unsuitable in
that respect. He rejected the argument that the viability of
the CIS depends on CIS states' continued participation in the
Collective Security Treaty. LF

ARMENIAN OPPOSITION CONTINUES TO CRITICIZE ELECTION LAW. The
majority Yerkrapah group within the parliament convened an
emergency debate on 2 March to propose 31 minor amendments in
the controversial election law passed in the final reading
last month, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported (see "RFE/RL
Newsline," 8 February 1999). Those amendments do not address
the opposition's main objection to the bill, which allocates
75 of a total of 131 seats in single-mandate constituencies.
During the debate, Mkrtich Gimshian of the Hayrenik faction
claimed to possess proof that changes in the text of the law
after its passage were made not by the bill's author, as
previously believed, but by the staff of President Kocharian,
Noyan Tapan reported. Aram Manoukian of the former majority
Hanrapetutiun faction claimed that the bill was adopted with
numerous violations of both the parliament's regulations and
the country's constitution. LF

ARMENIAN KURDS END HUNGER STRIKE. Some 30 ethnic Kurds
announced on 2 March that they are abandoning the hunger
strike they began two weeks previously outside the UN
building in Yerevan to protest the arrest of Kurdistan
Workers' Party leader Abdullah Ocalan, ITAR-TASS reported
(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 24 February 1999). In Tbilisi, some
80 members of Georgia's estimated 25,000 Kurdish minority
staged a demonstration on 2 March to demand that Ocalan be
tried not in Turkey but by the International Court in The
Hague, Caucasus Press reported. LF

AZERBAIJAN CLAIMS EX-PARLIAMENT SPEAKER PLANNED EX-
PRESIDENT'S ASSASSINATION. Azerbaijan's National Security
Ministry issued a statement on 1 March saying that former
parliamentary speaker Rasul Guliev hired a contract killer in
Russia to murder former President Abulfaz Elchibey early last
month, ITAR-TASS and Turan reported on 2 March. The statement
added that the ministry had warned Elchibey about the threat
to his life. Guliev, who left Azerbaijan for the U.S. after
being dismissed from his post in September, 1996, dismissed
the claim as "stupid," according to Turan. Almost all other
leading Azerbaijani opposition politicians expressed either
total disbelief or strong skepticism over the allegations.
Elchibey has declined to comment, but Azerbaijan Popular
Front Party deputy chairman Assim Mollazade said he considers
the allegations "unlikely." Guliev and Elchibey were among a
group of five prominent opposition leaders who jointly
boycotted last year's presidential elections. LF

RUSSIA DENIES VIOLATING AZERBAIJANI AIRSPACE. Russian Foreign
Ministry spokesman Vladimir Rakhmanin told Interfax on 2
March that there is no truth to Azerbaijan's 27 February
claim that a Russian fighter aircraft stationed in Armenia
entered Azerbaijan's airspace two days earlier. Rakhmanin
said that the plane had turned back 15-20 kilometers before
the frontier. In Yerevan, Colonel Anatolii Balaev, military
attache at the Russian embassy, said the incident is still
being investigated, according to Noyan Tapan on 2 March. He
conceded that the aircraft in question might inadvertently
have entered Azerbaijani airspace, noting that Russian pilots
have been stationed in Armenia only for a short time and are
not yet familiar with the terrain. LF

GEORGIA PROTESTS SERGEEV STATEMENT ON PEACEKEEPING. The
Georgian Foreign Ministry has sent a note to its Russian
counterpart protesting a statement made by Russian Defense
Minister Igor Sergeev on NTV on 25 February, Caucasus Press
reported on 2 March. Commenting on the possibility that
Russia may contribute troops to a peacekeeping operation in
Kosova, Sergeev said that "Russian peacekeeping forces will
perform their duties as they do in Bosnia, Tajikistan,
Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Adjaria." Tbilisi protested that
the Russian military contingent in Georgia's Black Sea Adjar
Republic is part of the Russian Group of Forces in the
Transcaucasus and that its duties do not include
peacekeeping. The Georgian protest termed Sergeev's statement
a deliberate attempt to misrepresent the situation in
Adjaria. Speaking on Georgian Radio on 1 March, President
Shevardnadze had termed Sergeev's statement offensive, adding
that the Russian minister apparently "doesn't know his
geography," Interfax reported. LF

OPPOSITION GROUPS REGISTERED IN KAZAKHSTAN. Months after
submitting their registration applications, the People's
Republican Party and the Orleu Movement were registered by
the country's Justice Ministry, RFE/RL correspondents in
Almaty reported on 3 March. The People's Republican Party is
headed by former Prime Minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin, who was
barred by a court decision from participating in the
presidential elections held in January. The Orleu Movement is
led by journalist Seydakhmet Kuttykadam. BP

ANOTHER KYRGYZ DEPUTY COMPLAINS ABOUT UZBEK TELEVISION... The
day after deputy Dooronbek Sadyrbayev told the Kyrgyz
parliament that Uzbek Television is broadcasting anti-Kyrgyz
propaganda, his colleague Adakham Madumarov told the
parliament he has received complaints from his constituency
about the same problem, RFE/RL correspondents in Bishkek
reported on 2 March. According to Madumarov, who represents
the Uzgen District of southern Kyrgyzstan, Uzbek President
Islam Karimov appeared in a television interview saying
"5,000 poor citizens of the country led by the scientist come
to Uzbekistan every day to buy 10,000 loaves of bread."
Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev is a physicist by training. In
1990, the Osh riots, which turned into a violent conflict
between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks, began in Uzgen. BP

...WHILE OTHERS RAISE ISSUE OF WATER. Also on 2 March,
Dooronbek Sadyrbayev and deputy Omurbek Tekebayev raised the
question in the parliament of the use of water from
reservoirs straddling the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border in the Fergana
Valley, RFE/RL correspondents reported. Both claimed that
water from these reservoirs flows only to the Uzbek side of
the border. More than 90 percent of Kyrgyz territory is
mountainous, and the area where the reservoirs are located is
also one of the few agricultural regions in Kyrgyzstan. BP

UZBEKISTAN INTRODUCES NEW REGULATIONS ON RESIDENCY, VISAS.
According to a presidential decree signed on 1 March, foreign
citizens, including those of CIS countries, may reside in
Uzbekistan only if they have a permit issued by law
enforcement authorities, ITAR-TASS reported on 3 March.
Citizens of CIS countries visiting Uzbekistan for more than
three days must obtain a visa. Regulations remain the same
for non-CIS citizens. BP

NEW TAJIK POLITICAL PARTY HOLDS CONGRESS. The National
Movement Party held its founding congress in Tajikistan on 27
February, Asia Plus reported three days later. Hokim
Muhabbatov, the editor of the newspaper "Junbish," was
elected chairman of the party. The major goals of the party
are reported to be establishing peace and national accord,
repairing damage caused by the civil war, achieving political
and economic independence, combating factionalism and
regionalism, and integration into the CIS as well as the
Central Asian and world communities. BP

TAJIK PRESIDENT ORDERS INTEGRATION PROCESS EXPEDITED. Imomali
Rakhmonov issued a decree on 2 March ordering all obstacles
to implementing the terms of military protocol removed by 12
March, Interfax and ITAR-TASS reported. The decree calls for
complete integration of soldiers from the United Tajik
Opposition (UTO) into the regular army forces. The decree
also orders opposition leaders amnestied and reinstated to
the post they held before the outbreak of the civil war in
1992. BP

TAJIKISTAN OFFERS UZBEKISTAN COOPERATION IN COMBATING
TERRORISM. Tajikistan has proposed to Uzbekistan establishing
a joint force to inspect remote mountainous areas of
Tajikistan and locate suspected terrorist training areas,
Interfax and ITAR-TASS reported on 2 March. After the 16
February bomb explosions in the Uzbek capital, President
Islam Karimov said some of the terrorists involved had
trained in camps in Tajikistan. BP

END NOTE

RUSSIAN MEDIA LOSING ACCESS TO INFORMATION

by Floriana Fossato

	Relations between Russian authorities and the media have
often been strained since the end of the Soviet-era grip on
information.
	President Boris Yeltsin has repeatedly said he backs
freedom of the press and access to information. But past
governments never sought to push through a Russian version of
the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. The current government
of Prime Minister Yevgenii Primakov has given abundant signs
that it is willing to work with journalists only if it can
establish the rules of the game.
	Russian media specialists, who in recent years had
registered a trend toward relative openness among officials,
are now concerned about what they see as signs of a
tightening of control over information. They say that
indications of reduced information transparency are most
pronounced at the regional level as parliamentary and
presidential elections approach.
	Aleksei Simonov, president of the media watchdog Fund
for the Defense of Glasnost, told RFE/RL's Russian Service
recently that on-going political power struggles and the
collapse of the advertising market make Russian journalists
extremely dependent on authorities for their financial
survival.
	According to Simonov, Russian media increasingly "have
to live with the fact that authorities do not want to deal
with independent journalists". He added that there is
virtually no possibility of independent journalists having an
influence over how they receive information, particularly
since the August financial and political crisis.
	Simonov noted that two years ago "there were some
visible centers of opposition [to control over information]
as there were rather independent media, interested in
defending their freedom. Today, they are just not visible.
The level of self-defense and [the preservation] of standards
was shifted from publishers to individual journalists. We can
have hope only in people who have not lost their integrity,
including journalists. I personally do not have any other
hopes."
	As regards the situation in the regions, Simonov
commented that the authorities are ready to work with the
media "only following old Soviet patterns, when they have
control over journalists and are sure that media are carrying
out tasks that have been imposed on them." He noted that last
year a new trend in the conflict between many authorities and
journalists started in a number of regions and was linked to
local elections. He said that some governors introduced
regional legislation tightening their grip on the media "in
accordance with their wish and in full opposition to the
existing federal media laws." As a result, Simonov said,
suits are being filed in court against journalists accused of
failing to comply with regional rules.
	Russian media have widely reported the worsening of the
situation since last September, when the Primakov cabinet
started taking measures to limit access to information in
Moscow, too. However, the journalistic community appears to
be too fragmented and too weak to respond to the threat. The
precarious financial situation of most journalists in the
regions and --after the August crisis-- also of Moscow's
journalists weakens their willingness to protest. Many
journalists are understandably more concerned about their
salaries, often delayed for months by the state and private
structures that control Russia's media.
	Iosif Dzyalashinskii, professor of journalism at Moscow
University and president of the human rights fund "Commission
on Freedom of Media Access," told RFE/RL that journalists in
Moscow need to pay more attention to what is happening to
their colleagues in the regions, where, he notes, "the right
of journalists to obtain information is frequently violated
by local authorities," with the latter's "grasp increasing
the further one goes away from the capital."
	"We would like the journalistic community to take notice
of the problem in the regions," he commented. "There is what
I would call a certain arrogant attitude [in Moscow] vis-a-
vis the regions. Moscow journalists are in a more privileged
position. The conflict with the authorities has not yet
touched them, at least not to the extent it has affected
regional journalists. We would like the journalistic
community, ranging from the Union of Russian Journalists to
individual professionals, to try to keep the situation under
control."
	Dzyalashinskii said that in Russia's regions, "the
possibility of obtaining information has been curtailed." He
called for greater cooperation among journalists, their
employers, and others interested in the availability of
information.
	He also noted that at present, there are some 70,000
non-governmental organizations that have both the necessary
experience and the desire to pressure the authorities on
access to information. If these groups and the media can find
common ground to cooperate at least on this point, "the trend
[of blocking access to information] that we witness now in
Russia could be resisted," Dzyalashinskii argued.

The author is a Moscow-based RFE/RL correspondent.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
               Copyright (c) 1999 RFE/RL, Inc.
                     All rights reserved.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE
Send an email to newsline-request@list.rferl.org with
the word subscribe as the subject of the message.

HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE
Send an email to newsline-request@list.rferl.org with
the word unsubscribe as the subject of the message.

For subscription problems or inquiries, please email
listmanager@list.rferl.org
________________________________________________
CURRENT AND BACK ISSUES ON THE WEB
Back issues of RFE/RL Newsline and the OMRI Daily Digest
are online at: http://www.rferl.org/newsline/search/
_________________________________________________
LISTEN TO NEWS FOR 23 COUNTRIES
RFE/RL programs are online daily at RFE/RL's 24-Hour
LIVE Broadcast Studio.
http://www.rferl.org/realaudio/index.html
_________________________________________________
REPRINT POLICY
To receive reprint permission, please contact Paul Goble
via email at GobleP@rferl.org or fax at 1-202-457-6992
_________________________________________________
RFE/RL NEWSLINE STAFF
* Paul Goble, Publisher, GobleP@rferl.org
* Liz Fuller, Editor-in-Chief, CarlsonE@rferl.org
* Patrick Moore, Team Leader, MooreP@rferl.org
* Jan Cleave, CleaveJ@rferl.org
* Julie A. Corwin, CorwinJ@rferl.org
* Jan Maksymiuk, MaksymiukJ@rferl.org
* Bruce Pannier, PannierB@rferl.org
* Michael Shafir, ShafirM@rferl.org

FREE-LANCE AND OCCASIONAL CONTRIBUTORS
* Pete Baumgartner, Dan Ionescu, Zsolt-Istvan Mato,
Jolyon Naegele, Fabian Schmidt, Matyas Szabo, Anthony
Wesolowsky

RFE/RL Newsline Fax: (420-2) 2112-3630
_________________________________________________
RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC