Russia and Central Asia News Digest
LaRouche's Abu Dhabi Speech Published in Russia
Lyndon LaRouche's address, "The Middle East as a Strategic Crossroad," delivered June 2 at the conference on "The Role of Oil and Gas in World Politics," held in the United Arab Emirates, was published July 2 in issue No. 27 of the nationalist weekly Zavtra. It is featured there and on the www.zavtra.ru Web site, under the headline, "The Middle East: Oil and Water." The nearly complete translation was provided to Zavtra by NAMAKON, a think tank founded by ex-intelligence service officers a decade ago. The English text appeared in EIW of June 10.
Doubts Over Capital Flight Amnesty
The plan for a partial amnesty on flight capital that is repatriated to Russia, announced in June by President Putin, continues to raise more doubts than answers. (See EIW No. 17, IN DEPTH.) Prominent economist Sergei Glazyev, former Economic Policy Committee chairman in the State Duma and now a gubernatorial candidate in Krasnoyarsk Territory, said June 23 on the "Itogi" talk show, that "The people who spirited their capital out of Russia have no need for a financial amnesty," having made out like bandits. In Krasnoyarsk, Glazyev estimated the level of exported capital at $2.5 billion, as against $1.2 billion that remained in the bank accounts of factories in the region. Glazyev called for tighter currency controls and for "bringing order" to the raw materials export sector in general. On June 26, he introduced a bill in the Duma, to institute a supplementary tax on companies that extract oil and natural gas, which Glazyev defines as part of the national wealth.
In his June 28 column in The Moscow Tribune, Prof. Stanislav Menshikov wrote that "the problem with capital flight is deeply rooted and structural and needs more than presidential admonishment to cure." Absent some mechanism to channel earnings into capital-starved industries in other sectors, Menshikov pointed out that: "In 1999-2001, investment in export oriented industries increased by 86 percent, but only by 6% in machine-building and electric power, while in the food industry it fell by a third."
Khodorskovsky Pumps Up 'Russia as World's Gas Station'
Trumpeted by a section of the Russian media as "Russia's Present to America on Independence Day," and "A Gift from Siberia," the first Russian oil shipment to the U.S. arrived in Houston on July 3. The shipment of 200,000 metric tons from Mikhail Khodorkovsky's Yukos oil company was purchased by ExxonMobil and another, undisclosed buyer. A second tanker is being loaded and will depart for the U.S. in August. The shipment was met by U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Michael Smith, and by Reps. Nicolas Lampson and Ken Bentsen, according to Pravda.ru.
Both the Russian press and U.S. wires touted this as a step toward the U.S. goal of reducing its dependence on Middle East oil. The lunacy of this campaign for "Russia as a gas station" was exposed in Muriel Mirak-Weissbach's article in EIW of June 3 (IN DEPTH), and debunked by Lyndon LaRouche during his visit to the United Arab Emirates. Khodorkovsky has been in the forefront of it, while being puffed in the Wall Street Journal and the Times of London as the up-and-coming, genius young business leader for Russia.
Energy Crisis and Floods Raise Tension in Russia
Andrei Trapeznikov, an executive of Anatoli Chubais's United Energy Systems (UES), called June 18 for the Russian government to impose Federal rule in Ulyanovsk Province, where non-payment of electricity bills has led to cut-offs. The provincial leadership, as well as Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, rejected the idea. A protester against the power cuts was killed on June 17, run over while he tried to join a highway blockade.
In Russia's Southern Federal District, more than 100 people have died in floods throughout the regionthe North Caucasus and the rich agricultural lands of Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories. The Emergency Situations Ministry estimates the damage at 13.58 billion rubles ($430 million), On June 25, the government paper Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported that 360,000 people were without potable water.
Touring Stavropol on June 28, President Vladimir Putin lashed out at Andrei Rappaport, deputy chairman of the national electric company UES, for proposing to raise rates in order to cover the cost of restoring power in the area. Putin pointed out that neither the Ministry of Railways nor Gazprom, which also suffered damage to their grids, have proposed a rate hike.
Putin's G-8 Accession and Weapons Destruction Program Criticized in Russia
Attached to the upgrading of Russia's status within the Group of Seven, now Group of Eight, industrialized nationsstatus in a club that so far exhibits no ability to handle the current systemic world economic crisiswas a $20-billion 10-year plan to destroy nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons from the former Soviet arsenal. The agreement, reached at the Kananaskis G-8 summit on June 27, represents an expansion of the U.S.-Russian program known as "Nunn-Lugar," under which $4 billion was spent since 1992 on dismantling Soviet weapons. Now the United States will spend $1 billion each year on these efforts, matched by the same amount to come from a pool, raised by France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Canada.
In private talks with President George Bush, the Boston Globe reported on June 28, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to allow an unprecedented degree of access to Russia's nuclear, biological and chemical weapons sites. This concession, and the whole G-8 package, brought swift criticism back in Russia. Retired General Leonid Ivashov strongly criticize Putin's agreements with NATO, and now the G-8, at a press conference where Ivashov also blasted the murderous effects of globalization. Interfax reported that Gennadi Zyuganov, the Communist Party leader, said, "It is clear that the billions of dollars to be allocated to Russia by Western countries, are designed to completely annihilate Russia's nuclear missile shield."
Unrest and Warnings Renewed in Kyrgyzstan
Misir Ashyrkulov, chairman of the Security Council of Kyrgyzstan, warned twice during June that the outlawed Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is gathering armed units on the Afghanistan-Tajikistan, in preparation for incursions into Kyrgyzstan like the violent ones in 1999 and 2000. Three hundred-some IMU militants were coming to "commit terrorist acts, take hostages [and] assassinate government officials," Ashyrkulov alleged on June 27. A Kyrgyz general issued a similar warning the next day.
The first secretary of the Chinese embassy in Kyrgyzstan was shot dead, as was his chauffeur, in the capital city of Bishkek on June 29. As of July 2, police spokesmen said they had not confirmed a political motive, though a Interior Ministry official cited in other reports pointed the finger at Uighur militants, who seek to split off parts of western China. Recent demonstrations in opposition to the policies of Kyrgyzstan President Askar Akayev had also taken an anti-China direction, with protests against the cession of territory to China during finalization of the Kyrgyzstan-China border. Those demonstrations resumed in mid-June in the south of Kyrgyzstan.
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