|
Central Asia / Siberia
NEWSLINE: Central Asia, Transcaucasia and RussiaRadio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Defeated Kazakhstan candidates complain
The Communist Party's candidate in Kazakhstan's presidential elections, Serikbolsyn Abdildin, said on 11 January that the election results were falsified and numerous violations of the election regulations committed, RFE/RL correspondents in Almaty reported. Another candidate, Customs Committee Chairman Gani Kasymov, said he plans to appeal the results to the country's Constitutional Court. (Bruce Pannier)
Kidnappings on Tajik-Afghan border
Three Tajik border guards in the Kalaikhum region, close to the Afghan border, were taken hostage on 10 January by a group of Afghans who had crossed the frontier, ITAR -TASS reported. The three men are reportedly in good condition. Their captors are demanding explosives to clear away debris from a mountain path used by Afghan villagers. The path was blocked in December when Tajik road workers used explosives to clear a road on the Tajik side of the border. (BP)
Tajikistan changes customs regulations
The Tajik government on 9 January ordered the Ministry of Economics and the Customs Committee to alter tariffs and import duties in order to facilitate the country's entry into the CIS Customs Union, ITAR-TASS reported. Tajikistan is expected to join the four-country Customs Union (whose members are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Belarus) when the union holds its next summit. Once Tajikistan is admitted to the union, the new customs regulations will go into effect. (BP)
Turkmen mark anniversary of resistance to Russians
Turkmenistan on 12 January marked the 118th anniversary of the fall of the Geoktepe fortress to the Russian army, ITAR-TASS reported. That battle was the last major resistance the Turkmen mounted against Tsarist armies and, according to ITAR-TASS, ''the deciding moment in the annexing of Turkmen land to Imperial Russia.'' (BP)
Kyrgyz to build monument to Soviet victims
A group of people in the southern city of Osh have formed a committee and are raising funds to build a monument to ''red terror victims,'' Interfax reported on 11 January. The monument will be dedicated to the ''Basmachi,'' guerrillas who fought against the Red Army until the 1930s. The committee has requested a site for the monument that is located near a statue of Felix Dzerzhinskii, the founder of the Soviet secret police, the Cheka. (BP)
President decrees tighter controls on loans
Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev has signed a decree ''on urgent measures to ensure timely return of budget loans and foreign credits received under Kyrgyz government guarantees,'' Interfax reported on 11 January. An aide to Akayev said the decree gives the government one month to draw up ''austerity measures'' that will ensure that such loans and credits are repaid on time. Enterprises in Bishkek alone owe 780 million som (about U.S.$26 million). Akayev said at a cabinet meeting on 10 January that from now on, foreign loans and investments will be extended only for the implementation of specific industrial projects. Akayev said a priority for the government in 1999 is to achieve 100 percent of budget revenues, which he said, can be achieved only by collecting taxes in full. (BP)
Armenia's Republican Party affirms support for P.M.
Andranik Markarian, a leading member of the Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), said on 11 January that the party will not seek to replace Armen Darpinian as premier if it wins the May 1999 parliamentary elections, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Markarian added, however, that the party might demand other cabinet changes, but he did not elaborate. His comments were in response to widespread speculation that Darpinian will be sacked whatever the outcome of the elections. The Republican Party recently merged with the Yerkrapah union of Karabakh war veterans, which is currently the majority group in the Armenian parliament. (Liz Fuller)
Legal expert criticizes new civil code
Interviewed on 11 January by RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau, former Armenian Supreme Court chairman Tariel Barseghian described the authors of the new civil code that went into effect on 1 January as ''incompetents.'' Barseghian said the authors of the new code, which contains some 1,300 articles, have no knowledge of commercial law and that its introduction could have ''dangerous consequences.'' Law professors at Yerevan State University appealed to the Armenian authorities last month to suspend the introduction of the new code, which is intended to underpin a market economy and is part of a sweeping reform of Armenia's legal system. Under that reform, the Supreme Court was replaced in 1998 by a Court of Appeals and the Soviet-era ''People's Courts'' by ''Courts of First Instance.'' (LF)
Abkhazia to allow Georgian refugees to return . . .
Meeting in Sukhumi on 11 January with U.N. special envoy to Georgia Liviu Bota, Abkhaz President Vladislav Ardzinba said Abkhazia will permit ethnic Georgians who fled Abkhazia's southernmost Gali Raion either during the 1992-1993 war or during the renewed fighting in May 1998 to return to their homes beginning on 1 March, Russian agencies reported. Ardzinba said that Abkhazia will create a special government commission to oversee the repatriation process and to ensure adequate social and economic conditions in Gali. He asked the UN and the UN High Commission for Refugees to help with the repatriation process, promising that Abkhazia will guarantee the repatriates' ''full security.'' Abkhazia previously pegged the beginning of repatriation to economic aid from Tbilisi. (LF)
. . . but tensions persist
The administrative head of Gali Raion, Ruslan Kishmaria, told journalists that Georgian media reports that Abkhaz and Georgian detachments have begun jointly patrolling the security zone along the border between Gali and the rest of Georgia are incorrect (see ''RFE/RL Newsline,'' 11 January 1999), ITAR-TASS reported. Kishmaria also accused the Georgians of failing to comply with an agreement reached in December to withdraw its police patrols from the border village of Khurcha. (LF)
Georgian premier, South Ossetian president meet
Meeting in Tskhinvali on 9 January, Vazha Lortkipanidze and Lyudvig Chibirov discussed resuming economic cooperation between the central Georgian government and the Republic of South Ossetia, which in the early 1990s was forcibly prevented from seceding from Georgia and uniting with the Republic of North Ossetia within the Russian Federation.
Further talks that included Russian, North Ossetian, and OSCE representatives focused on cooperation in various sectors and culminated in agreement on creating a working group to draft a program for economic cooperation, ''Nezavisimaya gazeta'' reported on 11 January.
The repatriation of Georgian displaced persons to South Ossetia was apparently not discussed. Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze characterized the talks as ''useful'' and ''businesslike,'' but a spokesman for the Georgian displaced persons criticized them as an unwarranted concession to the South Ossetian leadership. According to Caucasus Press, South Ossetia demanded financial compensation from Tbilisi for damage inflicted during the fighting. (LF)
Russia increases pressure on UNSCOM
The Russian Foreign Ministry on 11 January called for the U.N. to investigate media reports that U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq leaked confidential information to the U.S. government's intelligence services. Foreign Ministry spokesman Vladimir Rakhmanin also repeated the Russian demand that U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler resign.
Foreign Intelligence Services (SVR) spokesperson Tatyana Samolis told Interfax that the SVR ''warned several months ago that U.S. intelligence officers had penetrated the special commission.'' (Julie A. Corwin)
Meanwhile, air force commander Anatolii Kornukov repeated assertions by the Russian military that U.S. and British strikes in Iraq were less efficient than had been expected or reported. According to Kornukov, missiles hit their targets with a success rate of only 50 percent. He added that foreign interest in Russian defense systems has increased since ''the S- 300 missile is no worse than the American Patriot.'' (Julie A. Corwin)
Regions to get more Budget cash
The State Duma Council has set the legislative calendar for the 1999 budget, Budget Committee Chairman Aleksandr Zhukov (Russian Regions) told reporters on 12 January. A second reading will be held on 19 January, a third on 29 January, and a fourth and final one on 4 February.
When the budget reaches the Federation Council, it will ''be passed only after it has been reasonably amended,'' Federation Council Chairman Yegor Stroev told Interfax. According to Stroev, the council sent more than 300 budget amendments to the conciliatory commission.
Agreement on the issue of distributing revenues between the regions and Moscow has already been reached, Deputy Finance Minister Viktor Khristenko told reporters. Budget revenues were originally set to be split into 50.3 percent and 49.7 percent shares, with the federal government receiving the larger amount. Under the current arrangement, Moscow will get only 49.5 percent and the regions 50.5 percent. (JAC)
Duma recommends more defense, social spending
A Duma subcommittee has recommended that spending on defense in the 1999 budget be increased by 1.5 billion rubles (U.S.$58 million) before the budget is debated in its second reading, Interfax reported. At the same time, the chairman of the labor and social policy committee, Vladimir Lisichkin, said that social spending in the budget should be increased by 111.7 billion rubles, according to ITAR-TASS.
With regard to the ruble's recent fall to levels below that envisioned by the budget, First Deputy Prime Minister Yurii Maslyukov told reporters on 12 January that the government will keep the ruble within the exchange rate set by the budget (see ''RFE/RL Newsline,'' 7 January 1999). The same day, the ruble rose more than 2 percent against the dollar. It was its first increase against the U.S. dollar this month, according to AFP. (JAC)
Lebed remains unpersuaded on nuclear waste . . .
Minister of Atomic Energy Yevgenii Adamov has failed to persuade Krasnoyarsk Krai Governor Aleksandr Lebed to abandon his opposition to shipments of nuclear waste from Ukraine, ''Nezavisimaya gazeta'' reported on 11 January (see ''RFE/RL Newsline,'' 7 January 1999).
According to the newspaper, Adamov needed a victory in Krasnoyarsk in order to bolster his own weakening position in Moscow, where ''in the opinion of many people, Adamov has not proved to be tough enough in upholding his ministry's interests.'' The newspaper concluded that Lebed is ''trying to score badly needed political points in the 'ecological patriotism' sphere.'' ''Nezavisimaya gazeta'' receives financial backing from Boris Berezovskii's LogoVAZ group. (JAC)
. . . As local support recedes
Meanwhile, a Lebed protege did not perform well in mayoral elections in Achinsk, the ''Moscow Times'' reported on 12 January. Entrepeneur Nikolai Ashlapov, whom Lebed publicly backed, captured only 36 percent of the vote in the 10 January elections, compared with the 44.5 percent of the vote cast for a Communist Party candidate Mikhail Achkasov.
The newspaper cited Yevgenii Volk of the Heritage Foundation as saying that Ashlapov's failure to beat Achkasov during the first round showed that Lebed's popularity among both the elite and the rank and file of Krasnoyarsk Krai has already weakened.
He added, however, that the city of Achinsk is too remote and provincial to be a reliable bellwether for Lebed's chances in a presidential election. Last month, chairman of the Krasnoyarsk Aluminum factory, Anatolii Bykov, called his earlier support for Lebed a ''mistake'' (see ''RFE/RL Newsline,'' 10 December 1998). (JAC)
Top Central Bank official to join private sector
Central Bank First Deputy Chairman Andrei Kozlov announced that he will leave the bank effective 25 January in order to start his own new commercial bank, the ''Moscow Times'' reported on 12 January.
Kozlov was one of the chief architects of the government's ill- fated treasury bill program as well as the subsequent treasury bill restructuring program. He also oversaw the transfer of savings accounts from private banks to Sberbank. That step was intended to safeguard individuals' deposits. However, the Russian Consumer Rights Advocacy Group warned on 22 December that depositors in Rossiiskii Kredit and Inkombank were unlikely ever to see their money because of pending bankruptcy proceedings. (JAC)
Baburin calls for new Russian federation
In an interview with ''Delovye lyudi'' in January, Duma Deputy Chairman and member of the People's Power faction Sergei Baburin voiced concern about expansionist designs on Russian territory among neighboring countries. According to Baburin, Latvia ''is demanding a return of part of the Pskov region'' and ''Lithuania has a similar opinion on a number of regions as well.'' Noting that ''when a state is weak, there are lots of scavengers out to get their slice,'' Baburin concluded that Russia ''ought to resolve the border issue by way of another process of integration of former Soviet republics.'' He added ''I don't mean that we need another Soviet Union - we need a new federative state.'' (JAC)
© 1998 RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.
________________________________________________
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/
To receive reprint permission, please contact Paul Goble via email at GobleP@rferl.org or fax at 1-202-457-6992
_________________________________________________
RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
|
January 14, 1999
