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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 127, 00-06-30

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>

RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 127, 30 June 2000


CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

  • [01] ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER OPTIMISTIC ON KARABAKH PEACE
  • [02] ABKHAZ PRESIDENT CALLS FOR SIGNING OF PEACE AGREEMENT WITH
  • [03] GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT DEPUTIES FROM ABKHAZIA DEPOSE FACTION
  • [04] GEORGIAN APPEALS COURT OVERTURNS RULING IN FAVOR OF JEHOVAH'S
  • [05] GEORGIA TO ADOPT NEW BUDGET
  • [06] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT ABOLISHES TELEPHONE HOTLINE
  • [07] KAZAKHSTAN'S PARLIAMENT POSTPONES DEBATE ON LAND LAW
  • [08] KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENT UPBEAT ON CUSTOMS UNION, EU
  • [09] KYRGYZ PARLIAMENT DEPUTY REFUSES TO TESTIFY IN KULOV TRIAL
  • [10] FOUR CANDIDATES NOMINATED FOR KYRGYZ PRESIDENTIAL POLL

  • [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

  • [11] SPLIT GROWING IN SERBIAN RULING COALITION?
  • [12] 'ANTI-TERROR LAW' PUT ON ICE
  • [13] SERBIAN STUDENT MOVEMENT DEFIANT
  • [14] SERBIAN LAWYERS: 'EVERYONE POTENTIALLY A TERRORIST'
  • [15] IRAQ INTERESTED IN ZASTAVA?
  • [16] GENERAL PAVKOVIC SUPERVISES EXERCISES
  • [17] KOUCHNER, ARTEMIJE SIGN EIGHT-POINT KOSOVA PACT
  • [18] PATTEN WANTS RESULTS IN KOSOVA
  • [19] TRADE UP BETWEEN MONTENEGRO, CROATIA
  • [20] FOREIGN JOURNALIST GROUP WARNS SLOVENIAN GOVERNMENT
  • [21] PRIESTS ORDANED IN ALBANIA FOR FIRST TIME IN DECADE
  • [22] NEW-OLD RIGHTIST ALLIANCE RE-EMERGING IN ROMANIA
  • [23] FORMER ROMANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER, DISSIDENT BURIED
  • [24] BULGARIAN PRESIDENT INTERVENES IN BULGARBANK DISPUTE

  • [C] END NOTE

  • [25] KGB VETERANS HEAD HAS HIGH HOPES OF PUTIN

  • [A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

    [01] ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER OPTIMISTIC ON KARABAKH PEACE

    Vartan Oskanian, who is accompanying President Robert

    Kocharian on his official visit to the U.S., told a

    correspondent for RFE/RL 's Armenian Service in Washington on

    29 June that he believes the accession to the Council of

    Europe of both Armenia and Azerbaijan will have a positive

    impact on regional stability in the South Caucasus and on the

    prospects for resolving the Karabakh conflict. Oskanian also

    said that Kocharian's talks with U.S. leaders were likewise

    "very important" for the peace process in that they provided

    an opportunity for the Armenian side to clarify its

    negotiating position. He said he believes that consequently

    the U.S. now understands more clearly which proposed

    solutions could expedite a settlement. The U.S., French, and

    Russian co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group that is trying to

    mediate a settlement of the conflict are to travel to Armenia

    and Azerbaijan in the next few days. LF

    [02] ABKHAZ PRESIDENT CALLS FOR SIGNING OF PEACE AGREEMENT WITH

    GEORGIA

    Vladislav Ardzinba told journalists in Sukhum on 29

    June that the agreement guaranteeing the non-resumption of

    hostilities between Georgia and Abkhazia, which was drafted

    in the fall of 1998 (see "RFE/RL Caucasus Report," Vol. 1,

    No. 37,10 November 1998), should be signed as soon as

    possible, Caucasus Press reported. Ardzinba complained that

    Tbilisi constantly finds pretexts to postpone signing that

    commitment, insisting instead on negotiations with the Abkhaz

    leadership on Abkhazia's status within Georgia. The Abkhaz

    say their proclaimed, but unrecognized, independent status is

    non-negotiable. Ardzinba also endorsed the recent Russian

    proposal that the Russian military base in Abkhazia should be

    transformed into a support base for the CIS peacekeeping

    forces deployed in Abkhazia (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 26 June

    2000). He said the closure of that base would jeopardize the

    peacekeeping operation. LF

    [03] GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT DEPUTIES FROM ABKHAZIA DEPOSE FACTION

    LEADER

    The 12 members of the Abkhazeti Georgian parliament

    faction have voted in a secret ballot to replace faction

    leader Givi Lominadze and his deputy, Djanri Ezugbaya,

    Caucasus Press reported on 30 June. The report did not give

    the motive for that action. Abkhazeti last month quit the

    majority faction, within which it was aligned with the Union

    of Citizens of Georgia, to protest the parliament's neglect

    of the unresolved Abkhaz conflict. A faction member said, on

    condition of anonymity, that Abkhaz parliament in exile

    chairman Tamaz Nadareishvili, who advocates a new war to

    bring Abkhazia back under the control of the central Georgian

    authorities, will be elected faction leader in September. LF

    [04] GEORGIAN APPEALS COURT OVERTURNS RULING IN FAVOR OF JEHOVAH'S

    WITNESSES

    The appeals chamber of the Tbilisi district court

    on 26 June overturned a ruling handed down four months

    earlier by Tbilisi's Isani district court that there are no

    grounds to revoke the legal registration of the Jehovah's

    Witnesses, Caucasus Press reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 1

    March 2000). The Jehovah's Witnesses issued a press release

    the following day saying they will protest the court ruling.

    Georgian parliamentary deputy Guram Sharadze had argued that

    the sect's registration is illegal as Georgia has no law on

    religion. LF

    [05] GEORGIA TO ADOPT NEW BUDGET

    A new budget for the current

    year will shortly be submitted to the Georgian parliament,

    Caucasus Press reported on 30 June, quoting the chairman of

    the parliamentary Committee for Tax Incomes, Vitali

    Khazaradze. He termed that course of action preferable to a

    budget sequester. The new budget is predicated on revenues of

    976 million lari ($4.98 million) and expenditures of 1.25

    billion lari. The original figures were 883 million lari in

    revenues and 1.255 billion lari in expenditures (see "RFE/RL

    Caucasus Report," Vol. 3, No. 8, 25 February 2000). The IMF

    mission that visited Georgia earlier this month made further

    credits contingent on a sequester of budget expenditures (see

    "RFE/RL Newsline," 22 June 2000). LF

    [06] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT ABOLISHES TELEPHONE HOTLINE

    The telephone

    connection established by President Eduard Shevardnadze in

    March during his campaign for re-election to receive

    complaints and suggestions from the population has been

    abolished, Caucasus Press reported on 29 June citing "Dilis

    gazeti." The members of the presidential apparatus who manned

    that hotline have been transferred to the Ministry for Tax

    Incomes. Some 20,000 people called the hotline during the

    three months it existed. LF

    [07] KAZAKHSTAN'S PARLIAMENT POSTPONES DEBATE ON LAND LAW

    The

    lower chamber of Kazakhstan's parliament decided late on 29

    June after a lengthy discussion to postpone debate of the

    controversial law on land ownership until 20 October,

    Interfax reported. The cabinet originally submitted the draft

    bill to the parliament last year, but it was withdrawn after

    widespread public protests. An amended version was

    resubmitted for debate this spring; that version stipulates

    that only land adjacent to rural dwellings, but not all the

    country's agricultural land, may be privately owned. The

    amended draft also triggered public protests, including a

    hunger strike by Alash party activists in Almaty (see "RFE/RL

    Newsline," 29 June 2000). LF

    [08] KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENT UPBEAT ON CUSTOMS UNION, EU

    Addressing French businessmen in Paris on 29 June, Nursultan

    Nazarbaev predicted that the CIS Customs Union, which

    comprises Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and

    Tajikistan, will become increasingly efficient, leading to an

    increase in trade turnover among its members, Interfax

    reported. He also predicted that Russia's future foreign

    policy "will be pragmatic, predictable, and oriented toward

    both Europe and Central Asia." Also on 29 June, Nazarbaev

    termed "very useful" his meetings both with French leaders

    and with EU and NATO officials in Brussels earlier this week

    (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 June 2000). He said that all EU

    member states have ratified a cooperation agreement with

    Kazakhstan that will allow that country to begin exporting

    steel, ferrous metals, and other goods to the European

    market. Nazarbaev met on 28 June with French President

    Jacques Chirac to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, Iran,

    Russia, and China and the prospects for cooperation in the

    energy and transport sectors. LF

    [09] KYRGYZ PARLIAMENT DEPUTY REFUSES TO TESTIFY IN KULOV TRIAL

    Film director and parliamentary deputy Dooronbek Sadyrbaev on

    29 June refused to appear as a witness for the prosecution in

    the ongoing trial in Bishkek of opposition Ar-Namys Party

    chairman Feliks Kulov, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported.

    Sadyrbaev rejected prosecution claims that Kulov subjected

    him to harassment during the latter's tenure as minister for

    national security. Also on 29 June, some 300 Kulov supporters

    continued their picket of the Military Court in Bishkek to

    demand Kulov's acquittal. LF

    [10] FOUR CANDIDATES NOMINATED FOR KYRGYZ PRESIDENTIAL POLL

    Also

    on 29 June, Kulov's supporters formally proposed his

    candidacy for the presidential elections scheduled for 29

    October and resolved to begin collecting the required

    signatures for his formal registration, RFE/RL's Bishkek

    bureau reported. Sadyrbaev has also been nominated as a

    presidential candidate, as has Social-Democratic Party

    chairman Almaz Atambaev and former parliamentary deputy

    Dosbol Nur Uulu, who is acting chairman of the Agrarian-Labor

    Party. But Democratic Movement of Kyrgyzstan leader Zhypar

    Zheksheev told Interfax the same day that he believes that

    the country's five main opposition parties may ultimately

    agree on a single, joint presidential candidate. LF


    [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

    [11] SPLIT GROWING IN SERBIAN RULING COALITION?

    Serbian Deputy

    Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj said in Belgrade on 29 June

    that his Radicals will not support the government's proposed

    "anti-terrorism law" in its present form (see "RFE/RL

    Newsline," 28 June 2000). Seselj stressed that his party's

    deputies "will not vote for an incomplete law," AP reported.

    He did not elaborate. The is at least the second time within

    a month that divisions within the governing coalition have

    become public. The "leftist" forces in the government led by

    Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and his wife, Mira

    Markovic, represent one major traditional current in Serbian

    politics, while the "rightist" elements around Seselj

    represent another, very different one (see "RFE/RL Newsline,"

    16 June 2000). PM

    [12] 'ANTI-TERROR LAW' PUT ON ICE

    Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister

    Vladan Kutlesic told the parliament on 30 June that the

    proposed law has been temporarily removed from the

    legislative agenda so that "useful suggestions" might be made

    and considered, Reuters reported. He did not say when the law

    will come up for debate again. PM

    [13] SERBIAN STUDENT MOVEMENT DEFIANT

    Vukasin Petrovic, who is a

    spokesman for the Otpor (Resistance) student movement, said

    in Belgrade on 29 June that the proposed anti-terrorism law

    "will not stop our struggle.... The whole of Serbia cannot be

    arrested," London's "The Independent" reported. Elsewhere,

    Serbian Interior Minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic repeated the

    regime's charge that Otpor is a "terrorist-fascist

    organization...financed by the West," Reuters reported. PM

    [14] SERBIAN LAWYERS: 'EVERYONE POTENTIALLY A TERRORIST'

    Branislav Tapuskovic, who heads an organization representing

    lawyers in Serbia, said in Belgrade on 29 June that "everyone

    is potentially a terrorist" under the proposed law, RFE/RL's

    South Slavic Service reported. Indicted war criminal and

    Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic said, however,

    that "nobody has anything to fear if they are not a

    terrorist." In Montenegro, reaction to the proposed law could

    be generally broken down along party lines, as was

    predictable, "Danas" reported. The pro-Milosevic Socialist

    People's Party was the most outspoken in its support for the

    law. PM

    [15] IRAQ INTERESTED IN ZASTAVA?

    Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammed

    Mehdi Saleh discussed improving economic links between

    Belgrade and Baghdad with Sainovic in the Serbian capital on

    29 June. They "exchanged information on reconstruction and

    development...and on their struggle against the hegemony and

    domination of the United States in the Middle East and

    Southeast Europe," Tanjug reported. Saleh later went with a

    Serbian delegation to the Zastava automobile plant in

    Kragujevac. He said that Iraq is interested in cooperation

    with Zastava to produce passenger cars and unspecified light

    vehicles, Reuters reported. Zastava's products include the

    Yugo car, which has been widely sold abroad. PM

    [16] GENERAL PAVKOVIC SUPERVISES EXERCISES

    General Nebojsa

    Pavkovic, who heads the Yugoslav army's General Staff,

    supervised exercises using live ammunition at an unspecified

    place in the "Third Army's zone of responsibility," Tanjug

    reported on 29 June. He visited Vranje and Nis, which is the

    headquarters of the Third Army. The army's zone of

    responsibility includes all of southern Serbia, including

    Kosova and the volatile Presevo valley that borders it.

    Pavkovic commanded the Third Army during the 1999 conflict

    and is considered a staunch Milosevic loyalist. The most

    recent exercises "by part of the Prishtina corps [included

    simulating] the engagement of [large] forces in securing the

    state border and closing tactical routes, including several

    exercises with live ammunition," the state-run news agency

    added. PM

    [17] KOUCHNER, ARTEMIJE SIGN EIGHT-POINT KOSOVA PACT

    Bernard

    Kouchner, who heads the UN's civilian administration in

    Kosova, and Serbian Orthodox Archbishop Artemije, who is a

    leader of moderate Serbs, signed an agreement in Prishtina on

    29 June. According to the terms of the pact, the Serbs agree

    to return to Kouchner's advisory council in return for

    specific pledges aimed at improving the lot of the Serbian

    minority (see "RFE/RL Newsline, 26 June 2000). The promises

    include a neighborhood watch program to improve security for

    ordinary Serbs, more ethnic Serbs in the police, a foreign

    prosecutor and two foreign judges in each district to deal

    with inter-ethnic crimes, increased return of Serbian

    refugees, stepped-up efforts to find missing persons and free

    prisoners, measures to ensure essential supplies to all

    communities, measures to promote self-government, and a

    committee to help protect Serbian historical and religious

    monuments in the province, Reuters reported. PM

    [18] PATTEN WANTS RESULTS IN KOSOVA

    EU Foreign Affairs

    Commissioner Chris Patten said in Prishtina on 29 June that

    continuation of EU aid will depend on whether "a tolerant,

    harmonious, and stable community" emerges in Kosova, Reuters

    reported. Patten told local people that Kosova "is for

    us...much the biggest project that we're implementing

    anywhere.... In order to spend money on this scale, I have to

    be able to justify to Europe's taxpayers that the money is

    going to some purpose. I am not making threats...but people

    want to see not just physical reconstruction but stability as

    well." He added: "I will hope that local politicians rise

    above the level of events here--but I wasn't born yesterday."

    PM

    [19] TRADE UP BETWEEN MONTENEGRO, CROATIA

    Vladimir Vukmirovic,

    who heads the Montenegrin Chamber of Commerce, said in Budva

    on 29 June that the volume of trade between his republic and

    Croatia in the first five months of 2000 totaled $7.5

    million. This, he added, is more than the corresponding

    figure for all of 1999, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service

    reported. Before the end of 2000, Montenegro's Jugopetrol

    expects additional deliveries of petroleum products from

    Croatia's INA worth more than $50 million. PM

    [20] FOREIGN JOURNALIST GROUP WARNS SLOVENIAN GOVERNMENT

    A

    spokesman for the International Federation of Journalists

    said in Ljubljana that the new government of Prime Minister

    Andrej Bajuk should not make changes for political reasons in

    the management of state-run media. The spokesman stressed

    that the credibility and image of Slovenia as a democratic

    country could be jeopardized if the government made such a

    move. The Bajuk government is the first once since

    independence in 1991 that is not led by former members of the

    Communist-era nomenklatura. PM

    [21] PRIESTS ORDANED IN ALBANIA FOR FIRST TIME IN DECADE

    Archbishop Angelo Massafra ordained five priests in the

    Shkodra cathedral on 29 June. He said: "This is an historic

    day, especially for the younger generation in Albania....

    [The ordinations are] a sign of hope that shows how the

    Albanian church is growing rapidly after so many years of

    state atheism and martyrdom," AP reported. The last time

    Roman Catholic priests were ordained in Albania was 1991.

    All religions were ruthlessly persecuted under the

    Communists, who in 1967 declared Albania to be the "world's

    first atheistic state." Places of worship were destroyed or

    desecrated after that date, and the Shkodra cathedral

    became a sports center. Islam, Orthodoxy, Roman

    Catholicism, and the Bektashi sect have re-emerged with new

    vigor in the past decade but still require financial and

    other forms of help from abroad. Of those religions, Islam

    has the most adherents, but there are no accurate figures

    for practitioners of any faith. The four religions coexist

    reasonably well in Albania. PM

    [22] NEW-OLD RIGHTIST ALLIANCE RE-EMERGING IN ROMANIA

    National

    Peasant Party Christian Democratic (PNTCD) First Deputy

    Chairman Ioan Muresan and Union of Rightist Forces (UFD)

    Co-Chairman Varujan Vosganian on 29 June agreed to begin

    setting up an electoral alliance whose members would run on

    joint lists in the 2000 parliamentary elections, RFE/RL's

    Bucharest Bureau reported. The UFD left the Democratic

    Convention of Romania (CDR) in 1998, and Vosganian said the

    new alliance will not be a "revived CDR" because its

    political message must "promote rightist ideology."

    Vosganian and Muresan appealed to all rightist forces, "and

    primarily to the National Liberal Party (PNL)," to join the

    new alliance. Muresan said the formation of a PNTCD-UFD

    alliance comes against the background of "the PNL's slide

    toward social-liberalism," as demonstrated by the envisaged

    PNL-Alliance for Romania electoral pact. MS

    [23] FORMER ROMANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER, DISSIDENT BURIED

    Cornel

    Manescu, who died on 26 June aged 84, was buried in

    Bucharest on 29 June, Romanian Radio reported. Manescu was

    foreign minister from 1961-1972. He later fell from grace

    with communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. In 1989 he was

    one of the six former high-ranking communist officials to

    sign a letter of protest addressed to Ceausescu and the

    Communist Party. MS

    [24] BULGARIAN PRESIDENT INTERVENES IN BULGARBANK DISPUTE

    Petar

    Stoyanov said on 29 June that he wants to hear the opinions

    of all sides involved in the dispute over the privatization

    of the country's largest commercial bank before the deal for

    the sale of Bulgarbank is closed, dpa and AP reported.

    Stoyanov talked to journalists before departing for a

    conference in Switzerland. He is returning on 3 July and

    observers say this means that the deal for selling the bank

    to an Italian-German consortium will probably not be

    concluded on 30 June, as earlier announced by Deputy Premier

    Petar Zhotev. The opposition Socialist Party called the

    planned sale of Bulgarbank an act of "national betrayal." On

    29 June, Bulgarbank Chairman Chavdar Kanchev said the agreed

    terms of the deal--350 million euros ($330 million)--mean the

    bank is being sold for 100 million euros below the value of

    the bank's assets. MS


    [C] END NOTE

    [25] KGB VETERANS HEAD HAS HIGH HOPES OF PUTIN

    By Sophie Lambroschini

    Former KGB officers want to see the statue of their

    founding father, Felix Dzerzhinsky, standing again in

    Lubyanka Square.

    Dzerzhinsky founded the KGB's predecessor, the Cheka,

    and is credited with launching 70 years of fear and purges as

    well as founding the gulag camps in which millions died. When

    his statue outside the KGB headquarters was torn down

    following the failed August putsch in 1991, its collapse

    symbolized the end of the Soviet Union and of the repressive

    KGB system.

    The State Security Veterans Association, a club for

    former KGB officers, has made an official request to another

    former KGB officer, President Vladimir Putin, to resurrect

    the statue. Valerii Velichko, the association's president,

    says that Putin may be receptive to the idea. "The thing is

    that the figure of Dzerzhinsky is not a simple one. You can't

    paint him just one color--all black, white, red, green, as

    you like," he argues.

    Velichko worked for the KGB's economic

    counterintelligence unit, tracking down alleged saboteurs. He

    is especially proud of the five years he spent from 1980 to

    1985 hunting down Soviet citizens who fled the country. Using

    language not often heard in Russia these days, Velichko says

    the defectors were "traitors to the Fatherland." He speaks

    with obvious disgust of people like the cellist Mstislav

    Rostropovich and the ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, who he

    says wanted money more than freedom.

    Among current and former secret police officers,

    Velichko says, the mood since Putin's election is one of

    cautious optimism. "Today, a majority of veterans are in the

    process of observing [Putin]," he commented. "We are watching

    what his next steps will be. And if in the next three to four

    months or half a year we are convinced that what he does

    serves the state, then he will have many supporters among the

    veterans. Yes, we did help him during a first stage, during

    the election campaign. But now, it's time to wait. Putin can

    go one way and continue working for the Family [the

    influential entourage of former President Boris Yeltsin]....

    Or he can work for the state. Or he can work for himself. For

    the moment, he hasn't shown anything yet."

    One sign that Velichko interprets as encouraging is

    Putin's appointment of officers of the KGB successor service,

    the Federal Security Service (FSB), to top posts. For many

    years under Yeltsin, the secret police were politically

    sidelined, although they have slowly regained influence in

    the past three years. For example, Putin has appointed Viktor

    Cherkesov, his FSB colleague from Saint Petersburg who used

    to track dissidents, as governor-general for the Northwest

    region. Velichko praised Putin for "not letting himself be

    bothered by the fact that, for obvious reasons, this

    appointment won't please the city's intelligentsia."

    Velichko hopes that Putin's reliance on secret police

    officers will lead him to call back to service many of those

    who left their posts--or were fired--after the Soviet Union

    broke up. "The authorities are now considering the question

    of bringing back the veterans.... If a year ago, someone had

    suggested I become an adviser to Yeltsin, the idea wouldn't

    have crossed my mind. But now I and many of my comrades say

    that we would be ready to put on our uniforms again, if we

    see that it would be good for the state. The thing is that,

    for me, going back to serving [the state security organs]

    would mean losing a lot financially. Nevertheless, if I see

    that it's in the state's interest, I am ready to give up my

    businesses and receive whatever a FSB general gets paid

    nowadays."

    Velichko says he is not talking about the restoration of

    the Soviet system. While some communist KGB officers are

    nostalgic for the Soviet era, his generation of KGB officers

    has seen the benefits of the market economy, Velichko notes.

    And he adds that the annual revenues of his companies total

    millions of dollars.

    According to Velichko, the security service was the

    first to understand--under the brief tenure of Yurii

    Andropov, a former KGB head--that the regime was doomed and

    had to be changed. But then, he argues, things got out of

    hand.

    "Believe me, the KGB had enough power to crush any

    opposition movement at the time," he said. "But we, the

    officers, were Chekists who adhered to the Andropov school.

    We understood perfectly well...that serious changes were

    necessary, but we didn't expect the changes to take such a

    sharp turn. The ideal scenario is China's evolutionary

    course. It is slowly developing a market economy, while at

    the same time maintaining the state regime."

    Velichko also argues that the FSB has an important role

    to play in Putin's attempts to re-establish central authority

    over the regions, where local leaders have frequently gained

    the upper hand over police, courts, and other federal bodies.

    The FSB, Velichko says, is the only federal institution that

    has resisted the governors' influence and is therefore the

    perfect engine to establish top-down authority.

    The author is an RFE/RL correspondent based in Moscow.

    30-06-00


    Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
    URL: http://www.rferl.org


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