Russia and the CIS News Digest
Glazyev: Russia Should Take Initiative for New Financial Architecture
At a press conference in Moscow on Feb. 5, Russian Presidential pre-candidate Sergei Glazyev said that Russia should seize the initiative to create a new monetary system to replace the collapsing post-1971 dollar system. His remarks came in reply to a question about how Russia's foreign policy could become more influential. Glazyev replied in terms that bear out Russia's identity as one of the few nations in the world whose elite thinks as the leadership of a world power. He said that, in order to have "increased influence on the world economic-political process," Russia must have, inside the country, a model of society that is attractive to other countries. Such a model must correspond to "Russia's historical mission."
This should mean, according to Glazyev, Russia as a "just, humanist model of state organization," which is not so much feared because it has the nuclear bomb, as it is attractive because of its qualities. "If we lose the moral ideal," he said, "then we shall have no influence."
Concretely, Glazyev continued, "The top priority in world politics today, where Russia could play a leading role, is the creation of a new architecture of world finance. Under pressure of the excessive printing of dollars over the past 30 years, the world financial system is collapsing. It is very close to a crash." He pointed out, "I have been warning for a long time," of the dangers of a policy of hanging everything on the U.S. dollar. Now, what is needed is a new financial architecture, using national currencies.
For various reasons, Glazyev noted, China will not take the initiative to create such a system. But, "Russian can and should take this initiative." The world financial system should not depend on one national currency. Glazyev said this approach had been discussed with EU official Romano Prodi, when the latter was in Moscow. The Europeans would support this, the Chinese want it, the Indians want it. Glazyev said that taking such an initiative was "the most important thing Russia could do in world politics," which pivots on economic and financial questions.
Putin Discusses Dollar Crisis with Central Bank Chief
On Feb. 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Central Bank governor Sergei Ignatyev, who briefed him on Russia's macroeconomic situation. He said the 2003 targets for monetary and credit policy had been met, and that inflation stood at 12%, down from 15.1% in 2002.
According to Itar-TASS, "Putin and Ignatyev discussed the recent conference of national banks' chiefs in [Davos] Switzerland. Among other things, Putin asked Ignatyev about how top foreign bankers saw the world economic development outlook. Ignatyev said that, "concern was voiced at the meeting over the situation in the world currency markets, in particular, the sharp fluctuations in the exchange rates of such currencies as the euro and the dollar."
Putin then brought up the national exchange-rate situation, to which Ignatyev commented: "exchange-rate policies pursue a dual objectivethat of ensuring a smooth decline of the inflation rate and preventing a quick firming of the ruble." This, he said, was done "in order to ensure there be no worsening of the situation for the real sector of the economy, and to bring about prerequisites for economic growth."
Glazyev: I Am Running To Change the Policy of the Nation
FLASH: Feb. 9Russian leader Sergei Glazyev's petitions have been approved to place him on Russia's Presidential ballot for the election next month.
Asked at his Feb. 5 press conference why he was campaigning for the Presidency, given the overwhelming popularity of President Putin, Sergei Glazyev said, "I am running to change the policy of the country." He cited a statement handed out at his press conference, in which Glazyev laid out his belief that the state must act in the interest of its citizens, first and foremost.
Glazyev said he takes far less pleasure from politics than from scientific work on the nature of growth in a modern economy. But, "I am forced to engage in politics," he said, for moral, patriotic reasons. He said that Russian voters must be given a choice between "the inertial policy of serving the balance of power among various interests, which was established under Yeltsin," or an active policy of change in the interest of Russia. He said, "If we are heard, I believe that public opinion can change very quickly. I trust people to act in their own interest, and vote for me."
On economic policy, Glazyev stressed not only the highly publicized "natural rent" policy for raising budget revenues by greater taxation of raw materials exploitation, and spending them on social needs. He said that Russia must also "return property to the people" in other ways. For example: "Restore property rights to people whose savings were stolen" by the devaluation of the ruble in 1992 (the year of 2,600% inflation). "If we don't do this, forget about property rights for a long time." Glazyev said he has a five-year program for restoring these savings, adjusted for the 1991 purchasing power of the ruble, on condition that those funds be spent on, or invested in, Russian-produced goods.
In his opening remarks, Glazyev attacked the "dirty tricks" launched against his campaign. He denounced TV stories that have attempted to portray fraud in petitioning for his candidacy. (Those stories set the stage for a raid on Glazyev's campaign office in the industrial town of Izhevsk by the local branch of the FSB security agency last week. They seized files and a computer.) State TV, said Glazyev, has become a tool used against those not liked by the authorities. He said that the 2.2 million signatures submitted for his Presidential candidacy were gathered by supporters of the Rodina electoral bloc. Each signer, he said, was invited to join the new Rodina political organization and was given Glazyev's policy pledge to voters. His campaign has copies of all the signatures.
Gerashchenko's Presidential Bid Ends
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on Feb. 6 upheld the Central Electoral Commission's ruling against the candidacy of former Central Bank chief Victor Gerashchenko, nominated for President by the Party of Russia's Regions, a constituent organization of the Rodina electoral bloc. The CEC had ruled that because Gerashchenko was not nominated by Rodina as a whole (impossible due to filing deadlines), he would have had to gather 2 million petition signatures to get onto the Presidential ballot, despite the fact that Rodina entered the Duma with 9% of the vote in Parliamentary electionsabove the qualifying threshold for naming a Presidential candidate without petitioning.
Gerashchenko announced he would not appeal to the Constitutional Court, but will support Rodina leader Sergei Glazyev's independent candidacy, if Glazyev does win ballot status. According to Strana.ru, Glazyev has been preliminarily notified by the CEC that the 2.25 million signatures he submitted are showing an 86% validity rate, well over the 75% requirement.
Russian Expert: Bush's Independent Commission a 'P.R. Stunt'
Alexei Arbatov, former deputy head of the Russian State Duma Commission on Military Policy, spoke at a press conference in Moscow on Feb. 3, and reported on the Jan. 28-29 meeting of the "Blix Commission." Formally called the Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction, it was created by a Swedish government initiative, and financed by them (and private institutions), after the U.S. drove Hans Blix out of his job heading the UN weapons inspection commission. Arbatov blasted President George Bush's Independent Commission as a public relations stunt, saying:
"All this seems to me to be quite strange.... It is a public relations stunt that relies on the United States finding itself in a dire plight in Iraq. After scoring a brilliant military victory, the U.S. has lost or is losing the peace.... The fact that a commission will be appointed to look for intelligence information, which attests to the existence of WMD in Iraqis something that to me sounds as an absurdity." Contrasting the Bush Commission to the Blix Commission, which he said was genuinely international and independent, Arbatov added that "the commission to be appointed by President Bush will, judging by everything, look for some intelligence information which would confirm, with the benefit of hindsight, that the decision to start the war was not completely groundless and to some extent it somehow correlated with the threat of the WMD and international terrorism....
"The U.S. operation in Iraq is the largest military operation since the Vietnam War.... That is why if the decision was taken without the existence of this kind of information, then serious doubts arise about the way President Bush and his closest aides and advisers are working. If the information did exist but somehow got lost, and now it has to be looked for, then of course one can only say 'Words fail me.'"
Arbatov warned that "bureaucracies of large states begin to use the slogan of combatting international terrorism and WMD [as] popular cover that guarantees the support of the public," but for objectives that have "nothing to do with either the WMD or international terrorism. This is a very dangerous tendency...." He also criticized the U.S. development of mini-nukes, while trying to grandstand about the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. He stressed that the Americans are represented on the Blix Commission at "a very high level," by former Secretary of Defense (under Clinton) Bill Perry.
Moscow Mayor Warns Against U.S. Unilateralism
Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov spoke at a reception in his honor at the U.S. Library of Congress Feb. 3, on the occasion of publication of an English edition of his book, The Renewal of History. Luzhkov lambasted U.S. policy in Iraq: "After 9/11, the United States immediately started a manhunt for the perpetrators, instead of trying to analyze some of the underlying causes responsible for this surge in terrorism," he said. He noted how after the Cold War, the thesis was put forward in Francis Fukuyama's End of History, that all countries would follow the same path, towards democracy, free markets, etc.
"But 9/11 proved that thesis wrong," said Luzhkov. He went on to say how the gap between the rich countries and the poor countries continued to increase. "Therefore globalization has sparked a protest against the rich nations," Luzhkov said, and terrorism (he said) is an example of this. "At the end of World War II, there was talk of the equality of rights between nations," he continued. "But this has been replaced by the right of some to punish those countries which have 'gone astray.' The collegiality of the United Nations has been usurped by the right of a single nation. We are presently drifting away from a set of principles which have served us well in the postwar period," he said. "Unless we can get back to them, it could have catastrophic consequences."
Vice Premier Lays Out Plan for Eurasian Railways
The Neue Zuercher Zeitung of Feb. 5 reported on Russian Vice Premier Vladimir Yakovlev's speech to the European Business Club meeting in Moscow at the end of January, on the "high-flying plans" of the Russian government: "New railway branching lines are to tap copper, coal, and oil reserves in East Siberia, in the coming years; their transfer to Asia and to Europe would improve the capacity-utilization of the BAM (Baikal-Amur Magistrale) and Transsib.
"In addition to the West-East Axis, a new North-South Corridor is to be built, which would connect the ports of St. Petersburg and of Scandinavia with Astrakhan on the oil-rich Caspian Sea, via Moscow. In Astrakhan, a new container terminal has been built; railway ferries are to begin regular service with Iran, thereby establishing a fast trade route that could lead on to India, via sea." Yakovlev also laid out other projects, including a number of new highways across Russia from the west to the east, and the north to the south.
Moscow Subway Bombing Blamed on Chechens
At least 39 people were killed, and over 100 injured, in a rush-hour bombing on the Moscow Metro on Feb. 6. The explosion occurred on the second car of a train between stations. Survivors hiked a mile through the subway tunnel. President Putin promptly laid the blame at the door of Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, although a spokesman for the latter denied involvement and called the attack "a provocation."
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