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From the Vol.1,No.8 issue of Electronic Intelligence Weekly
RUSSIA AND EASTERN EUROPE NEWS DIGEST

LaRouche Interviewed in Russian Military Paper

Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star), the official daily of the Russian Defense Ministry, featured an interview with Lyndon LaRouche in its April 20 issue. Headlined "The Crash of Immoral Economics," it was an abridgement of economist Andrei Kobyakov's interview with LaRouche, from last October's inaugural issue of the journal Russky Predprinimatel (Russian Entrepreneur).

Red Star's selections highlighted a question on what must be done "to avoid a general catastrophe," to which LaRouche replied: "The only solution is to put the entire international financial and monetary system into bankruptcy-reorganization: to simply eradicate most of the mass of accumulated financial debt of the world, and resume building the real economy under a new system with many of the leading features of the 1945-1963, gold-reserve-based international monetary and financial system. If that reform is not made, then a planetary new dark age is inevitable for the medium-term ahead." (The original interview appeared in EIR of Nov. 9, 2001.)

Excerpting from Kobyakov's introductory article, Red Star added a new lead: "Clinton, the Bush family, Gore, Kissinger, Brzezinski, Albright—these members of the American political elite are well known. At the same time, several gifted figures in the U.S. Establishment, who have dared to swim against the current, remain in the shadows. One of them is Lyndon LaRouche." The paper added that LaRouche had run for U.S. President several times, stressing that this requires substantial popular support.

Other questions and answers, used in Red Star, concerned the true nature of liberal economics; the conflict between Russia's Christian heritage, and liberalism; the causes of the financial crisis; what has happened to America's role as a superpower; and what is the special role of Russia today. Thus, readers of the Russian military daily heard LaRouche discuss the history of the Venetian oligarchial model in which "liberalism" is rooted, and the worldwide cultural collapse since the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

—Jonathan Tennenbaum and Rachel Douglas

U.S.-Russian Disarmament Talks Ended Early

No agreement was reached in U.S.-Russian disarmament talks, and U.S. Under Secretary of State John Bolton, one of the Wolfowitz cabal's operatives, left Moscow early on April 24, even though talks had been expected to continue through the day. The U.S. embassy gave no reason for his departure, insisting he had "not precipitately cut short talks in any way." They did acknowledge that talks were at a "sensitive" stage. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Valery Loshchinin commented that talks were "not proceeding very easily," and "several fundamentally important problems still need to be overcome." A Foreign Ministry statement merely said that the talks "were a constructive and meaningful exchange of opinions aimed at resolving the remaining disagreements." It is believed that the sticking point continues to be the Pentagon's plan to stockpile the nuclear warheads they are decommissioning, rather than destroying them.

Further indicating the talks are going badly in the context of global tensions, such as the new U.S. nuclear posture document, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgi Mamedov, who has been negotiating with Bolton, said on ORT-TV that, "Contrary to the statements of certain experts, we are not expecting to sign any comprehensive agreement in May," meaning at the Bush-Putin summit. Mamedov emphasized that the agreement under negotiation is just a supplement to START, covering procedures for arms limitation.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, another Wolfowitz skunk, arrived in Moscow on April 26 for talks on the global anti-terror campaign.

Authors of GKO Pyramid Scheme Elevated to Top Jobs in Russian Central Bank

Andrei Kozlov and Oleg Vyugin, co-authors of the GKO (government bond) pyramid, which played a key role in triggering Russia's 1998 financial crisis, were appointed first deputy chairmen of the Central Bank on April 24. In 1997-98, Vyugin served as Deputy Finance Minister, while Kozlov was the first deputy of then-Central Bank Chairman Sergey Dubinin. The appointments passed the State Duma, despite objections from left opposition members, who tried to remind their colleagues of the role Kozlov and Vyugin played in 1998. These two have been chosen by incoming Central Bank chief Sergei Ignatyev, as his deputies.

Interviewed by RTR-TV, Oleg Vyugin expressed his commitment to "further liberalization of the currency market." Asked about the reportedly planned elimination of mandatory conversion to rubles of oil export earnings received in dollars, Vyugin carelessly declared that the further policy will depend on this policy's first results: "In case we see that the liberalization measures increase capital flight, we'll correct our policy."

In his turn, Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin confirmed the intention of the government to pull out from ownership of such major state-owned banks as Vneshtorgbank, Vnesheconombank, and the half-privatized (Nuclear Ministry's) Konversbank.

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