The
Yabloko faction is likely to support in first reading
the draft laws aiming at conducting pension reform
in Russia
RIA Novosti, July
13, 2001
The Yabloko faction in the State Duma is likely to
support in first reading the draft laws aiming at
conducting pension reform in Russia. Such an opinion,
says the RIA Novosti correspondent, was expressed
at the press conference by Sergei Ivanenko, First
Deputy Head of the Yabloko faction, which took place
in the State Duma on Friday.
Irina
Khakamada: the liberals will answer for everything
An interview
with Irina Khakamada of the Union of Right Forces
By Tatiana Kamoza, Liubov Tsukanova, Novoe Vremya,
No. 28, July 15, 2001, pp. 8-13
Parliament
suggests that President form ad hoc group to finalise
pension reform legislation
By Ivan Rodin, RIA "Novosti",
July 14, 2001, 23:59
The State Duma, or the lower Russian parliamentary
house, proposes that President Vladimir Putin form
an ad hoc group to finalise pension reform legislation.
A resolution to this effect has been approved by 263
members of the Duma, against the bottom limit of 226,
with 6 "no" votes and no abstentions.
Nuclear
commission in land of waste
By Denis Shevchenko,
Rossiya, July 12,
2001, p. 2
How can we explain Putin's initiative in the matter
of spent nuclear fuel? It may be Putin's way of shifting
responsibility to Alferov (Ed.Nobel prize winner,
member of the CPRF faction and head of the Duma committee
on the import of nuclear waste), an ardent advocate
of Russia's participation in spent nuclear fuel reprocessing.
The scientist is quite sure that the new law will
"help Russia retain and develop its nuclear energy
sector and other high-tech industries." From
now on, Alferov himself will be responsible forevery
deadly container of spent nuclear fuel that enters
Russia. And if anything should happen - which God
forbid - it will be Alferov's head that rolls. The
president will not be involved.
Looking
for trouble
Economic
growth could provoke a new political crisis
By Georgy Ilyichev, Izvestia, July 11, 2001
Commenting on economic progress over the past six
months, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Ulyukaev told
the nation that economic growth for 2001 may be higher
than expected. He believes that the revival in the
domestic economy by April was so great that additional
budget revenues by the end of the year "may exceed
the planned sum by 100 billion rubles", and that
"inflation could drop to zero in August and September".
Paradoxically, some politicians may take such successful
economic development as a personal offence.
The
Kirsan saga
Why the
Kremlin can't do anything about President Iliumzhinov
of Kalmykia
By Inessa Slavutinskaya, Profil, No. 25, July 2,
2001, pp. 12-15
The Auditing Chamber Chairman Sergei Stepashin suffered
a crushing defeat on June 22. The team of auditors
he had sent to Kalmykia (in part, with the goal of
proving misuse of state funds by President Kirsan
Iliumzhinov) did find some infractions - but these
were so small that they can be handled within standard
procedures. This means that the expected major criminal
charges in Kalmykia are unlikely to materialize.
Welcoming
Nuclear Waste
By Sophia
Kornienko, www.tol.cz, June 11, 2001
ST.PETERSBURG, Russia—Russia’s most recent money-making
scheme could bring 20,000 tons of nuclear waste into
the country over the next two decades. The plan, enabled
by a bill recently passed by the state Duma, the lower
house of parliament, has been vigorously criticized
by economists, ecologists, and doctors. Meanwhile,
even western exporters are questioning their counterpart’s
venture, saying that the spent fuels may never reach
Russia.
Wasting
Away
By Anna Badkhen,
www.tol.cz, June 5, 2001
The
Soviets kept a dirty secret about deadly radiation
from the villagers of Muslyumovo, and now the Russians
want to cover up old waste with new.s
Russia's
Duma Approves Crucial Land Code
Reuters,
July 14, 2001
...Approval
of the second reading of the legislation, fiercely
opposed by the Communist Party and their Agrarian
allies, was the final measure of the State Duma or
lower house's spring session during which many laws
promoted by Putin were passed...
Weary
Duma Signs Off on Land Code
By
Yevgenia Borisova The
Moscow Times, July 16, 2001, p. 1
With
extraordinarily heavy-handed lobbying, the government
succeeded in winning the State Duma's approval Saturday
for a new Land Code that allows Russians and foreigners
to buy and sell commercial and residential land. Duma
deputies passed the controversial code after an exhausting,
11-hour second reading on the final day of their extended
spring session. The code will come up for a third
reading, usually a formality, in the fall.
Yabloko
and the Union of Right-Wing Forces Unite against Spent
Nuclear Fuel
Rossiya, July 9, 2001, p. 3
Collection
of signatures for referendum against the import of
spent nuclear fuel to Russia to begin in autumn
Finmarket agency, July 07, 2001
The
Yabloko Leader Grigory Yavlinsky: sometimes Putin
and I talk on our own for half a day
Interview with
Grigory Yavlinsky, Komsomolskaya Pravda, July 3, 2001
Liberalism
for Everybody
By
Grigory Yavlinsky, Obshaya
Gazeta, June 28, 2001, p. 7
One of the main results of the past Russian reforms
is disillusionment of the people over democratic principles
and liberal values. Russia has covered a lot of ground
over the past ten years. The totalitarian political
system and command-and-distribution economy have been
left in the past.
War-Head
Headache (How can Russia respond to NMD plans?)
Interview with Alexei Arbatov, Obshaya
Gazeta, June 28, 2001
Quite a few foreign mass media publications continue
to voice their bitterness and disappointment as President
Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation has allegedly
dashed the international community's hopes of a new
era in Russian-US relations after the Ljubljana summit.
In other words, Putin has made three statements over
the past seven days, referring to Russian readiness
to beef up its nuclear forces in response to America's
NMD (National Missile Defence) programme. Alexei Arbatov,
deputy chairman of the State Duma's Defence Committee,
had this to say on the issue.
Police
raid Echo of Moscow radio station
Reuters, July 03, 2001
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian security police swooped
on Russia's independent Echo of Moscow radio station
on Monday, a day before French President Jacques Chirac
was to give a live interview on its airwaves.
Interview
with Grigory Yavlinsky
Marianna Maximovskaya, “Segodnya” programme, TV-6,
June 26, 2001
|