Russia and Central Asia News Digest
More Attacks Were Planned for Moscow, Says Minister
Russian Minister of Internal Affairs (MVD) Boris Gryzlov said at a Nov. 8 press conference that the Oct. 19 bombing outside a McDonalds restaurant in Moscow and the hostage-taking at the Nord-Ost musical the following week, were "links in a single chain." At least two other attacks had been planned, he said without giving details, but they were foiled by MVD investigations and raids in the city.
'Broad-Scale, Tough and Targetted Special Operations' in Chechnya
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov announced Nov. 3 that military forces had launched "broad-scale, tough and targetted special operations" throughout Chechnya's regions, based on reports that guerrilla fighters "are preparing to carry out new acts of terror" there and elsewhere. These would be suicide attacks, carried out by "zombies" being recruited by Chechnya for this purpose, he added. Ivanov also said that previously announced plans to scale back Russian military forces in Chechnya had been suspended.
Visiting Adygeya in the Russian North Caucasus, near Chechnya, President Putin two days later repeated this formulation. The recent hostage-taking in Moscow points to the need for "new approaches" to the Chechen insurgency, but the military side of the operations "must be of a well-directed, targetted nature. There must be no large-scale massive measures. This would be harmful and impermissible."
Primakov Exposes Austrian Newspaper for Disinformation on His Advice on Chechnya
Former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeni Primakov said Nov. 6 in an interview with Ekho Moskvy radio, that the Chechnya problems cannot be solved by military means alone. "Negotiations are needed, to supplement the military actions necessary to neutralize those guerrillas, who are now capable of carrying out large-scale acts of terrorism," like the Oct. 23-26 hostage-taking in Moscow.
The situation is complicated, Primakov added, because "it would be simply impossible at the moment to try to find negotiation partners on the Chechen side." There has to be "a pause," together with "attempts to find negotiation partners"people "who would be able to distance themselves, publicly and beforehand, from terrorist methods of achieving goals, and break with the international terrorist centers, which continue to finance, arm, train, and provide medical care."
Primakov was one of the last people to enter the Melnikova Street theater and speak with the hostage-takers, the night of Oct. 25-26. In a previous broadcast interview, he described them as persons in a desperado frame of mind, and as acting on orders from higher-ups and evidently being unprepared to change their plans for more violence and destruction. Primakov then reported to President Putin at the Kremlin, just a few hours before a go-ahead was given for the raid on the theater.
Another purpose of Primakov's Ekho Moskvy interview was to refute an article published Oct. 31 under his byline in the Austrian paper Der Standard. Headlined "Advice to President Putin," this text had Primakov allegedly telling the Russian President to summon Chechen guerrilla field commanders to talks on organizing self-rule in Chechnya. Speaking to Ekho Moskvy, Primakov vigorously denied that these words, or the accompanying appeal to Putin to reopen talks with Chechen General Aslan Maskhadov, are his. He said he is considering a lawsuit against Der Standard. Primakov said he thought negotiations with Maskhadov have become impossible, since the attack in Moscow could not have escaped his attention, as "President of Ichkeria" (Chechnya).
Primakov Against 'War of Civilizations'; Stresses Islamic Renaissance
In an article in Izvestia of Nov. 5, former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeni Primakov echoed, in effect, some of the ideas contained in Helga Zepp LaRouche's call for an ecumenical Dialogue of Civilizations, based on the best elements of each culture. Under the title, "A war against Islam could lead to the disintegration of Russia," Primakov warned that a "new division of the world" along religious lines, which has emerged as a growing danger due to the thrust of U.S. policy following Sept. 11, could lead not only to a global confrontation, but also to the destruction of many nations, and "the loss of the most positive accomplishments of civilization". He denounced attempts, by some circles in the U.S. and Europe, to portray Islam as a "threat," and to insinuate that "the roots of terrorism are in the Quran."
Islam has made great contributions to world civilization, as typified, for example, by the work of Ibn Sina and other thinkers of the Islamic Renaissance. A global confrontation around Islam would mean a deadly blow to Russia itself, which has interacted with Islamic culture for many centuries.
Iraq Not a Terrorist State, Says Sergei Ivanov
In an interview published Nov. 5 in Izvestia, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov commented that he could foresee Russia's bilateral relations increasingly come to depend "on how this or that country approaches the problem of terrorism." Should Russia not, therefore, immediately back the U.S.-drafted resolution on Iraq at the UN Security Council? "I disagree," Ivanov responded. "If my memory doesn't fail me, among the terrorists killed or captured in Chechnya in the last three years, there were representatives of 30-40 states. But none of them were Iraqi citizens. There are no data attesting to complicity of Iraqi citizens in organizing and financing the Sept. 11 terrorist act. Nor are there any data to prove the participation of official Iraqi structures in the international terrorist network. So, Iraq does not belong in that category."
Glazyev on Russian TV: Political Fight Needed Over Economic Policies
Economist and member of the State Duma Sergei Glazyev continues to be seen as a figure of national importance, after his strong showing in the Krasnoyarsk gubernatorial election in September. On Nov. 5, Glazyev was interviewed on TV Channel 3 (RTR), the only state-owned national TV network in Russia. Among the highlights of the interview, he discussed the role of scientists in politics, and the importance of telling the truth.
The Glazyev interview carries weight especially in view of the ever more evident failures of current economic policyas evidenced, for example, at last week's Moscow Cabinet meeting, where Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov admitted that the economy was nearly stagnant, and was experiencing regression in several areassuch as the reemergence of barter in place of cash transactions.
On RTR, answering a question about the combination of scientific and political activity, Glazyev said he never broke his ties with the Academy of Sciences, but "landed in politics basically because our recommendations were being ignored by our government, and what the scientists proposed, those in power had no use for. It is sad to see ... how the proposals of our economic scientists have been implemented in China with brilliant results over the past two decades, and are implemented in Europe, but there is no demand for them in our own country."
He said that the "horrible barrier" between the government and the people has never been surmounted, since the shooting of the Parliament in 1993. At the same time, the 1993 Constitution makes Cabinet ministers accountable to neither the Duma nor the population, but only to the Presidentand it is more than the President can handle, to monitor the behavior of each of 50 ministers. The burden of responsibility on the Russian President today, he said, is tremendous: "He is responsible for street children, for idle factories, for capital flight, for the enormous level of crime, for the war in Chechnya, and so on. He is responsible for everything."
Asked what he would do, if he were in power, about the pressure to tell the truth and make deals, simultaneously, Glazyev said: "That's simpleone must always tell the truth.... I recall what Alexander Nevsky said, that 'God is not in force, but in the truth.' " He gave an example of how, as Minister of Foreign Trade in 1992, he achieved at least some protection of Russian resources, by stating openly that the country was being robbed blind by the wholesale looting of raw materials under the initial radical deregulation of foreign trade.
Saudi-Russian Companies Establish Partnership
Saudi Arabia is showing interest in Russian expertise in oil, gas, science and space technology, according to a report in the Saudi publication Arab News, following the arrival of a Russian delegation in Saudi Arabia on Oct. 29. A high-level delegation from Stroytransgaz, a Russian company that builds pipelines, visited the Kingdom for three days, led by the company's First Vice President Leonid Bokhanovsky.
The visit follows Saudi Minister of Finance Ibrahim Al-Assaf's official trip to Russia in early October with a delegation representing various public- and private-sector institutions from Saudi Arabia. Assaf signed a memorandum of understanding between Stroytransgaz and Saudi Oger Ltd, a Riyadh-based construction company founded in 1978.
The Russian delegation met officials at Saudi Aramco, the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) and the Ministry of Finance. They also held talks with Saudi Oger General Manager Saad Hariri, and both parties committed themselves to concluding a future partnership deal.
"The delegation found the governor of the SWCC greatly encouraging. He explained to them its future projects," Gahssan Taher, Saudi Oger's assistant general manager of investment, told Arab News. "This collaboration falls in line with the general guidelines to enhance economic ties between the Kingdom and Russia, with the emphasis on the private sector level."
In statements to the Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat, Hariri said that two companies were in the process of establishing a "strategic partnership" and a "joint Russian-Saudi company" working in the fields of construction, gas exploration and transportation, water and pipeline building. Ahsarq Al-Awsat reports that this company will be active in the Middle East and expand its activities into Africa.
The paper states that this quick announcement of the partnership between Stroytransgaz and Saudi Oger enhances the ambitions of the first Saudi-Russian Joint Commission, which resulted in the signing of a protocol outlining the directions of cooperation between Riyadh and Moscow. This includes the establishing of a "Saudi-Russian council" to follow up and implement the recommendations of the Joint Commission. As reported earlier, the two sides will sign an agreement on protection of investments and prevention of double taxation in January 2003.
Asharq Al-Awsat cited a Saudi Finance Ministry official who said that Saudi Arabia was looking forward to increase the currently meager trade volume and joint investments, and also that Saudi Arabia was "keen on benefiting from Russian expertise in oil and gas and Russia science and space technology."
Army War College Pays Attention to New Silk Road, Strategic Triangle
Stephen Blank, a professor at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., penned a lengthy article for the Oct. 18 Asia Times, headlined "Missing: A Modern-Day Silk Road." He identified the buildup of the New Silk Road, linking Russia with Central Asia, North Asia, the Indian Subcontinent and Iran, as the cornerstone of a new development perspective that can bring longterm peace and stability to all of Asia. "We have long known," Blank began, "that the development of long-range transportation projects, including energy pipelines, brings together markets and peoples and provides a major impetus to long-term economic growth. Similarly, we have also long known that a fundamental cause of Central Asia's backwardness was its remoteness from major shipping and transportation lanes.... Therefore a basic precondition of Central Asia's economic growth is its linkage to such lanes and the completion of major infrastructural projects in energy, rail, air, sea and land transport that connect it to foreign markets."
Blank cited Moscow's promotion of three rail projects to buttress economic links to Central Asia, North Asia (the Korean peninsula and Japan links) and India-Iran. "Russia's geographic position," he said, "enables its policymakers and planners to think of it as a hub, if not the hub of a revived Asiatic transportation network that links together all the different parts of Asia through Russia and connects Europe to Asia as well. Ultimately, all these projected lines, if they materialize, could form part of a giant network of transportation lines linking together all of Asia and Russia."
Blank at points reflected typical geopolitical spin, by characterizing Russia's plans as an attempt to counter European Union "Silk Road" initiatives that bypass Russia and outflank the U.S.-backed Baku-Ceyhan pipeline, But, the fact that such discussion about Eurasian land-bridge prospects is being debated at the leading U.S. Army thinktank is noteworthy, as one more indication of the growing power of ideas such as the Eurasian land-bridge, originated and promoted by Lyndon LaRouche and his collaborators in recent years.
McCain and Chickenhawks' Next Target: Belarus
The New Atlantic Initiative, the American Enterprise Institute-housed Thatcher-Buckley-Kissinger front group for a new imperium, is flagrantly demanding that Belarus (and, by implication, Russia) be added to the list of "rogue states" targetted for extermination.
NAI sent out advertisements for an event on Thursday, Nov. 14, to be held at AEI, under the title, "Axis of Evil: BelarusThe Missing Link." The keynote speaker is none other than Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Other speakers advertised include Tom Dine, the former head of AIPAC, who now is president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; Mark Palmer, the former Ambassador to Hungary and a longtime crony/asset of Kissinger and Soros; and Barbara Haig, vice president of the National Endowment for Democracy. The proceedings are to be also greeted by Michael Kozak, the current U.S. Ambassador to Belarus! To give an idea of the psychotic fervor of the NAI crowd, here are a few excerpts from the invitation: "The world is an unwelcome place for Saddam Hussein's cronies. Yet they are always welcome in Minskcapital of Belarus.... In a land where the KGB (yes, still the KGB) runs roughshod over rights, no one is safe, and nothing is sacred.... Can the West work together to eliminate this shame of Europe?"
The event is cosponsored by the NAI, AEI, Freedom House, the International Republican Institute, the NED, RFE/Radio Liberty, and the Pattis Family Foundation.
|