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From the Vol.1,No.3 issue of Electronic Intelligence Weekly
RUSSIA AND EASTERN EUROPE NEWS DIGEST

Leading Russian Daily Forecasts Fall of 'American Empire'

In a lengthy article on March 19, the widely read Russian daily Pravda targetted the emerging "Roman Empire" mentality in Washington, with a stress on the conclusion that a new imperial United States would go down the same way as the Roman Empire, or worse. Parallel coverage in the Chinese People's Liberation Army daily paper, which argued that the purpose in the leaking of the Nuclear Posture Review (see UNITED STATES), was to psychologically intimidate the world's nations, led Lyndon LaRouche to note that some circles are beginning to understand aspects of what's going on in Washington, D.C.

After noting that the U.S. government is permitting the physical infrastructure and living standards of the average American to deteriorate, Pravda says: "As America wages World War III agains its 21st-century barbarians--the Taliban and al-Qaeda (the Visigoths and Huns?)--in a war that well could see the use of nuclear weapons, the American Empire seems doomed to duplicate the concluding events of 476 AD."

The article goes on to quote from the CIA's World Fact Book 2001, as warning that "long-term problems [for the United States] include inadequate investment in economic infrastructure, rapidly rising medical costs of an aging population, sizeable trade deficits, and stagnation of family income in the lower economic groups." Widespread poverty is one of the big domestic problems of the United States, and the collapse of infrastructure is another, the article noted, referencing the March 2001 survey by the American Society of Civil Engineers, as saying that "America has been seriously underinvesting in its infrastructure for decades."

"Historians will write that the American Empire, in its final days, experienced many of the phenomena that plagued the Roman Empire," claims Pravda. "Roman senators formed their own wealthy class of landowners who rarely attended Senate meetings but enjoyed the privileges of their office. Consider that most U.S. Senators and Representatives spend most of their time outside of Washington, D.C. soliciting contributions from corporations." The Enron links deep into the Bush Administration exemplify that, according to the Pravda article, which concluded by likening John Ashcroft's fundamentalist madness (shown, according to Pravda, by his morning prayer breakfast sessions), to the state of mind of the mad Roman Emperor Nero, who played his lyre while Rome burned in fires he had set. Nero "would have found comfort and friendship in such a bizarre behavior" as Ashcroft's, Pravda asserts.

The quotes come from the English-language website of Pravda.ru.

More Signs of Russian Resistance to WTO

Speaking on the eve of the latest round of talks in Geneva on Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organization, Maxim Medvedkov, Russia' chief trade negotiator and Deputy Economics Minister, said his country will keep high import duties to protect domestic car and aircraft manufacturers, but will open up its banking and insurance sector, and lower agriculture subsidies.

"We understand that we have to pay a price for [WTO] accession, but our partners understand that we'll never pay a price that would be too high for our people and for our industry," he said.

On March 21, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov went so far as to say, "I do not exclude that we will need to take temporary protectionist measures" to help the auto industry. The Cabinet meeting held that day heard Minister of Industry, Science and Technology Ilya Klebanov present a proposal for new tariffs on foreign car imports, which calls for a 25% tariff, over three years, on foreign cars up to seven years old; followed by a 35% tariff for the next five years, and then a reduction of the tariff by 5% per year.

Putin Turns Attention to Economic and Scientific Policy

On March 15, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Russian Communist Party head Gennadi Zyuganov, together with a group of his political associates who are economists: Dr. Sergei Glazyev, who chairs the State Duma's Committee on Economic Policy; Yuri Maslyukov, who was First Deputy Prime Minister under Yevgeni Primakov and now chairs the Duma's Committee on Industry; and Academicians Nikolai Petrakov and Dmitri Lvov. (The Duma is the lower house of the Russian Parliament.)

According to a report in Novyye Izvestiya of March 21, Putin agreed with the economists that earnings from the exploitation of Russia's natural resources should benefit the nation, not just the companies that control their extraction and export. This was the topic raised by Academician Lvov, during Glazyev's June 29, 2001 hearings on the defense of the national economy during a worldwide economic crash, after Lyndon LaRouche's keynote testimony at those hearings. It was then taken up in depth in LaRouche's essay, "What Is 'Primitive Accumulation'?" (EIR, Aug. 17, 2001). Putin asked the economists to draft legislative initiatives to "enable him to solve this problem."

Sergei Glazyev presented the President with the left political bloc's "alternative socio-economic program," which includes a discussion of the implications of Russia's joining the World Trade Organization. According to a bulletin on his website, Glazyev termed the discussion "constructive," adding that the proposals handed to Putin emphasize a state industrial investment policy, among other development priorities for the Russian economy.

Then, on March 20, Putin spoke to a joint session of the Security Council, the Presidium of the State Council, and his recently commissioned Council on Science and Advanced Technologies, on the question of a national policy for science. The new Council presented a draft "Basic Principles of Scientific and Technological Policy," which Putin welcomed as shifting the discussion of this vital policy area to a higher level than the lip-service it has received in government decrees during the past decade. Putin said, "The choice of a path for the development of our country's science is a choice of the prospects we have as a nation."

Judging by Putin's speech to the meeting, the discussion went into detail on frontier areas of research, the organization of science, and the relationship of science to the economy. Putin complained that "these days, everybody advocates the pathway of innovation, but nothing has actually been done." He also pointed up real constraints, such as the attrition of scientific manpower. Since 1991, Putin said, Russia has lost half its scientific personnel, who have either emigrated, or turned to other work in order to survive.

These discussions occur in the context of the broad recognition of the fact that the revival which the Russian economy began in late 1998, has run its course, and that new measures must be taken to avert new disasters.

Central Asian Republics Hit by Unrest

A protest rally in support of an imprisoned opposition member of the national Parliament, and other factors of dissent, led to violent clashes between a mass of up to 5,000 and police forces in Kerben, in the Ak-Suysky district of Kyrgyzstan, on March 18, according to RIA Novosti. Fifty policemen and 10 protesters were wounded, and five protesters shot dead, in the riot.

The protest rally called for the release of Parliament member Azimbek Beknazarov, whose investigations into embezzlement in government agencies led to his arrest by the government in January. It should be added that the recent American political and financial support for the Kyrgyz leadership has not made the latter more popular among the population--which, even if one takes into account aspects of targetted destabilization of the Kyrgyz government, may explain the explosion of rage and violence, during the rally. The government had to rush in reinforcements from other parts of the country, to regain control in Kerben.

A similarly unstable situation is reported from Uzbekistan, where the food supply for sizeable parts of the population is not guaranteed. In a spectacular move, the U.S. on March 20 okayed $20 million for emergency rice aid to Uzbekistan, doing so with explicit reference to the fact that the Uzbek government is a crucial ally of the Americans in Central Asia these days.

Russian Defense Minister States Some Clear Truths

Sergei Ivanov, the Defense Minister of Russia, successfully navigated Tim Russert's "Meet the Press" television program on March 17, by evading the host's confrontational traps, and telling a few shocking truths. Putting on a good deal of charm, and speaking in English, Ivanov reported that he was optimistic about strategic weapons talks between the U.S. and Russia, and chose not to pick any arguments with Bush Administration policy.

But when asked by Russert about U.S. "progress" in Afghanistan, he was more blunt. First, he indicated that the "successes" there were the result of a coalition effort, including help from the Russians. Second, he stated, contrary to the nonsense coming from many press sources, that, as Soviet experience had shown, it would take years for the networks of the Taliban and al-Qaeda to be cleared up.

On Iraq, Ivanov took the approach that, before talking of confrontation, the international community should determine the facts: i.e., whether Saddam Hussein actually had weapons of mass destruction, or not. Then the course of action could be chosen. On Iran, the Defense Minister stressed that Russia was only participating in one project, the Bushehr nuclear plant, and that this was under International Atomic Energy Agency supervision. There is absolutely no danger of fissile material having been sold, or otherwise smuggled, out of Russia, he insisted.

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