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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 5, No. 165, 01-08-30Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 5, No. 165, 30 August 2001CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT TO ADDRESS PENSION ARREARS PROBLEMAfter a demonstration by invalids demanding that the government pay up on their pensions, Prime Minister Andranik Markarian said on 29 August that Yerevan will seek to pay off the 81 million drams ($146,000) it owes those who became invalids as a result of fighting with Azerbaijan, Noyan Tapan reported. PG[02] BRIGITTE BARDOT, GERMAN GROUPS, AND ARMENIAN CHURCH OPPOSE BULLFIGHT IN YEREVANFrench actress and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot, German animal rights groups, and the leadership of the Armenian Orthodox Church issued statements on 29 August in opposition to plans to stage bullfights in the Armenian capital 7-9 September, Noyan Tapan, Mediamax, and Interfax reported. PG[03] HIGH PERCENTAGE OF ARMENIAN WOMEN SUFFER FROM SECONDARY STERILITYThe Armenian association "For Family and Health" on 28 August told Noyan Tapan that the average Armenian woman has 2.7 abortions over the course of her lifetime and that because of that and because of other environmental factors the level of secondary sterility among women of reproductive age is high. According to the findings of one study, the association said, 28.5 percent of 1,400 women of reproductive age surveyed suffer from secondary sterility. PG[04] AZERBAIJAN COOPERATED WITH CIA AGAINST BIN LADENA source in the Azerbaijani National Security Ministry said that Azerbaijani officials had cooperated with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to prevent accused terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden from sending assistance to the Chechen independence movement, Baku's "Ekho" newspaper reported on 29 August. The cooperation took place in 1996-98, the source said. The paper said that a former senior official of the Azerbaijani presidential administration has confirmed the story. PG[05] ALIEV TO GO TO TEHRAN AT LASTPresident Heidar Aliev will make an official visit to Iran on 17 September, Iranian officials said in Baku on 29 August, according to ITAR-TASS. Aliev on 28 August had complained to visiting Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Ahani about the fact that his visit has been delayed several times. But he said he looks forward to discussing all issues with Iranian leaders. PG[06] 2,000 AZERBAIJANI SOLDIERS SAID TO HAVE DIED FROM NONCOMBAT DEATHS IN 1995-2000An article in "Zerkalo" on 25 August said that a retired officer has told the paper that more than 2,000 Azerbaijani soldiers and officers have died while in service as a result of disease, accidents, and bullying during the 1995-2000 period and that more than 3,000 others ended up disabled. Noncombat deaths in the Azerbaijani army have become an increasingly worrisome issue in Baku recently following claims that 19 Azerbaijani soldiers died during a 23-day period earlier this month, the paper said. PG[07] SHEVARDNADZE TO MEET U.S. PRESIDENT BUSH IN OCTOBERThe White House announced on 29 August that President George W. Bush will meet with visiting Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze on 5 October, Caucasus Press reported. PG[08] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT SAYS HE'S READY TO ANSWER FOR HIS DEEDS BEFORE GOD AND THE PEOPLEOn the sixth anniversary of the first assassination attempt against him, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze on 29 August told the Georgian government that "all I have been doing has been prompted from above and that I will answer for it before the Lord and the people," Caucasus Press reported. Shevardnadze's comments came the day after parliament speaker Zurab Zhvania released an open letter sharply criticizing conditions in the country. Caucasus Press said that presidential aides said that Zhvania discussed the letter with Shevardnadze prior to releasing it. Meanwhile, the agency said, opposition groups said that Shevardnadze may be attempting to exploit the tensions in the country and that more conflicts with Abkhazia are likely. The groups said that they do not exclude an attack of some kind on Ajaria as well. Ajar President Aslan Abashidze said he is worried about that possibility, the agency said. PG[09] GEORGIA SAID THREATENED BY DEMOGRAPHIC CATASTROPHEToma Gugushvili, a Georgian expert on migration, told Interfax on 29 August that Georgia has entered into a new phase of demographic catastrophe. Over the last decade, he said, the population of his country had declined by 20 percent. Most of the decline reflects the departure of working-age people, Gugushvili said. He said that emigration is increasing this year and that the population, which now stands at 4.6 million, will decline by another 300,000. PG[10] KAZAKHSTAN SAYS IT NEEDS $1 BILLION TO CLEAN UP NUCLEAR CONTAMINATIONPresident Nursultan Nazarbaev said on 29 August that his country needs more than $1 billion to clean up from the nuclear tests conducted by Soviet officials on the territory of Kazakhstan, ITAR-TASS reported. But Kazakh Commercial TV reported the same day that the U.S. government will not provide Astana with funds for this effort. Meanwhile, Nazarbaev awarded a group of anti-nuclear testing activists, including writer and diplomat Olzhas Suleymenov, who formed the Nevada-Semipalatinsk anti-nuclear testing group in the 1980s, Interfax reported. And Kazakhstan officials have erected a statue called "Stronger than Death" at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test range, Interfax-Kazakhstan reported. PG[11] OKIOC BECOMES AGIPKCOThe Offshore Kazakhstan International Operating Company, or OKIOC, announced on 29 August that it has renamed itself AgipKCO for the Agip Kazakhstan North Caspian Operating Company, the Megalopolis agency reported. The company said that this change of name reflects the fact that Agip is now the sole operator of the project. PG[12] KYRGYZSTAN'S AKAEV SAYS THERE IS NO 'UNIVERSAL' FORM OF DEMOCRACYOn the 10th anniversary of Kyrgyzstan's declaration of independence on 29 August, "Nezavisimaya gazeta" carried an article on Kyrgyzstan President Askar Akaev who said that he is convinced that "no universal formula of democracy exists." Also on the anniversary date, Akaev issued a decree simplifying procedures for ethnic Kyrgyz who want to return to Kyrgyzstan, Interfax reported. PG[13] 'THE BIGGEST BRIBE IN TAJIK HISTORY?'A Tajik banker was arrested on 28 August for trying to bribe officials in the Office of the Tajikistan Military Prosecutor with as much as $1 million, Asia-Plus reported the next day. The agency said that this might well be the biggest bribe in the history of the country. Meanwhile, Tajik officials arrested four Uzbekistan citizens for alleged participation in the November 1998 mutiny, the news agency reported. PG[14] TURKMENISTAN, UKRAINE AGREE ON RESTRUCTURING KYIV'S GAS DEBTTurkmenistan President Saparmurat Niyazov spoke by telephone with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma on 28 August and agreed on restructuring Kyiv's outstanding $282 million energy debt to Turkmenistan, Interfax reported. A Ukrainian delegation will arrive in Ashgabat on 30 August to finalize the deal. PG[15] UZBEKISTAN'S KARIMOV SAYS HIS COURTS NOT AS REPRESSIVE AS SOVIET ONESUzbekistan's President Islam Karimov on 29 August told the country's parliament that Uzbek courts today are not as repressive as those that existed in Soviet times, Uzbek radio reported. He said that he will continue to push for the liberalization of the judicial system and asked the deputies to reduce the number of crimes -- there are now eight -- for which those convicted are subject to the death penalty. PG[16] ETHNIC KAZAKHS WANT TO LEAVE UZBEKISTANKazakhstan's ambassador in Tashkent, Umarzak Uzbekov, told Interfax on 29 August that 3,000 families of ethnic Kazakhs living near the Aral Sea want to leave Uzbekistan and resettle in Kazakhstan, and that they are seeking financial help to do so. There are approximately 1.2 million ethnic Kazakhs in Uzbekistan at present, he said, and recently the desire to emigrate to Kazakhstan has "somewhat increased." PG[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[17] NATO COMMANDER IN MACEDONIA: ONE-THIRD OF EXPECTED WEAPONS COLLECTEDSpeaking in Skopje on 30 August, Danish General Gunnar Lange, the commander of NATO's Operation Essential Harvest, said that he has given a letter to Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski "informing him that during the [just completed] first phase of the Task Force Harvest Mission, more than one- third of the weapons...that the so-called NLA (National Liberation Army [UCK]) are voluntarily going to hand over now have been collected," AP reported. "And I really hope that this will contribute to the parliament process," he added. The legislature is slated to begin debate on a comprehensive peace plan on 31 August and vote on it once Operation Essential Harvest is completed. Dpa reported on 30 August that NATO has collected 1,400 weapons, having originally planned to secure 1,100 weapons before the debate begins. PM[18] NATO'S ROBERTSON CALLS ON MACEDONIA FOR WISE APPROACHSpeaking in Skopje on 29 August, NATO Secretary-General Lord George Robertson said: "Members of parliament will hold the future of this country in their hands when they vote in the next few weeks. I don't think that there is much of an alternative to what is being put forward now," AP reported. He added, "This country has the chance to show that it is possible to deal with an internal conflict before the blood starts to pour down the streets." PM[19] ROBERTSON LEAVES DOOR OPEN ON FOREIGN ROLE IN MACEDONIAIn an article in the "Financial Times" on 30 August, Robertson argued that "the mission of Essential Harvest remains clear and precise: the collection and destruction of weapons. When that job is completed, so too will be the job of this NATO mission." Robertson noted that "this mission is not intended to provide the ultimate solution to the crisis. The collection of weapons is only one element of a broader package, enshrined in the agreement signed in Skopje by Macedonia's main political parties." However, AP quoted him in Skopje on 29 August as saying that "I don't think the international community could stand back if the people of Macedonia cry for help." He noted that NATO is not the only international organization carefully monitoring developments in Macedonia. PM[20] MACEDONIAN ALBANIAN GUERRILLAS GIVE UP 'MISSILES'Among the weapons surrendered "by the hundreds" are surface-to-air missiles and antitank weapons, Reuters reported from London on 29 August (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 August 2001). Government spokesman Antonio Milosovski recently referred to the operation as "Museum Harvest," implying that the Albanians are surrendering only old weapons. An unnamed Macedonian museum asked NATO to allow it to have some of the weapons, Deutsche Welle's Bosnian Service reported on 30 August. PM[21] GERMAN CONTINGENT ARRIVES IN MACEDONIAAfter weeks of political infighting in Berlin, the German parliament voted on 29 August to approve participation in Operation Essential Harvest, the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 24 August 2001). German law requires a legislative vote on each deployment of German forces abroad. German units moved from Kosova to Macedonia immediately after the 29 August vote but were delayed by anti-NATO Macedonian nationalists blocking the border crossing at Blace and elsewhere north of Skopje, AP reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 21 and 28 August 2001). PM[22] MACEDONIAN MINISTER WANTS TO 'CLEAN UP TERRORISTS'Defense Minister Ljube Boskovski said in Skopje on 29 August that Essential Harvest is purely "symbolic," "The Guardian" reported. He added, "I believe that NATO, by this symbolic collection of weapons, will open the way for us to clean up the terrorists," by which the government means armed Albanians. Boskovski argued that "we have to clear the field of weapons according to our [own] laws." Elections are slated for January 2002, and Boskovski's party, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (VMRO-DPMNE) of Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski, is slipping badly in the polls (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 24 August 2001). Elsewhere, Boskovski denied a recent report by Human Rights Watch linking him to an atrocity against ethnic Albanian civilians, Deutsche Welle's "Monitor" reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 28 August 2001). PM[23] CAN MACEDONIA'S MILITARY CRUSH THE UCK?Reuters on 29 August quoted several British defense experts who do not share Boskovski's confidence in the quality of the Macedonian security forces. One noted that "no part of the Macedonian armed forces displayed any kind of military professionalism in this conflict." Another one argued that "after NATO leaves, there will be a lower level of incidents across the Albanian part of Macedonia. The problem is that the Macedonian army is very ill-equipped for that. The doctrine is still that of the days of the Yugoslav army, with people unwilling to get out of armored personnel carriers, and preferring to shell the enemy from a distance" (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 15 June 2001). One of the experts stressed that the Macedonian authorities must "play their cards right" after NATO leaves and not alienate the bulk of the Albanian population. PM[24] MACEDONIAN 'MOB' HAMPERED EFFORTS TO SAVE BRITISH SOLDIER"The Independent" reported on 30 August that the latest evidence shows that "a mob" tried to prevent U.S. medical staff from saving sapper Ian Collins' life on 26 August. The daily added that the "new details suggested the incident was clearly an attack on a NATO soldier." It is not clear whether Boskovski's police are any closer to finding or catching the Macedonian teenagers who killed Collins (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 27 and 28 August 2001). PM[25] HAGUE COURT RULES ON FURLOUGH FOR BOSNIAN SERB LEADERSThe international war crimes tribunal ruled in The Hague on 29 August that former Republika Srpska President Biljana Plavsic may stay in Belgrade until her trial comes up, Deutsche Welle's Bosnian Service reported. The court noted that Plavsic has been cooperative, and that the tribunal has "credible assurances" from the Serbian authorities that she will come back to The Hague when asked. She will be restricted to the city of Belgrade, placed under a 24-hour guard, and may not talks to witnesses in her case. The tribunal turned down a request by former Bosnian Serb leader Momcilo Krajisnik to go back to Pale to attend a memorial service for his recently deceased father. The court said that he had been uncooperative and that the tribunal could not count on the Bosnian Serb authorities to ensure his return to Holland. Plavsic is the only woman in The Hague prison. She turned herself in to the court, but Krajisnik was seized by NATO troops in his home. PM[26] FORMER SERBIAN LEADER TO BE TRIED FOR GENOCIDE IN BOSNIAIn his second appearance before The Hague tribunal since his arrival there in late June, Slobodan Milosevic told a pretrial hearing on 30 August that he found himself "in front of a false tribunal for false indictments," Reuters reported. Presiding Judge Richard May cut off his microphone, telling Milosevic that "we are not going to listen to these political arguments." May adjourned the court after a session lasting about 30 minutes. Afterward, chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte told CNN that charges against him will be expanded to include genocide in Bosnia. "Croatia is still open," she added. He is currently charged with war crimes in Kosova. PM[27] ROMANIAN LOWER HOUSE HEEDS SENATE ON PROPERTY RESTITUTIONHeeding a decision by the Senate earlier this week, the Chamber of Deputies on 29 August approved the extension by three months of the deadline for claims of communist-confiscated real estate, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. The vote was unanimous, because the Greater Romania Party (PRM) parliamentary group walked out in protest before the voting took place. Speaking in Sibiu the same day, President Ion Iliescu said he does not believe it is possible to return to Romania's former royal family properties such as the Peles castle in Sinaia or the Bran castle near Brasov. Iliescu said "huge investments" were made to refurbish and upkeep those castles and the claimants simply do not have the money to cover those costs. He also said it is "naive" to believe that the costs of maintaining such "state patrimony" museums can be covered by an entry tax from visitors. Iliescu also said former King Michael did not inform him beforehand about his intention to reclaim the Peles castle and other properties and added that the former monarch "should have done so." MS[28] ROMANIAN SENATE COMMISSION CLEARS ROAD FOR DECRIMINALIZING HOMOSEXUAL RELATIONSHIPSThe Senate's Judicial Commission on 29 August approved the abrogation of Article 200 in the Penal Code, which criminalizes same-sex relationships, RFE/RL's Bucharest Bureau reported. The plenum must still vote on the law, which was passed earlier this year as a government ordinance. PRM Senator Aron Belascu opposed the law and said his party will demand that a plebiscite be called on the nullification of Article 200. MS[29] ROMANIAN PREMIER WARNS AGAINST TRANSYLVANIAN PARTYPrime Minister Adrian Nastase on 29 August said that the government has all institutional and judicial instruments it needs to safeguard the provisions of the Romanian Constitution, and should the statutes of the envisaged new Pro Transylvania Party announced by Sabin Gherman the previous day infringe on those provisions "be it only by a comma," it will not hesitate to demand that party's outlawing (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 August 2001). Nastase said Gherman cannot call his party Pro Transylvania, because the constitution divides the country "into counties, not into regions." He reminded his listeners in Snagov, near Bucharest, that the Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PSDR) acted against a Gherman initiative to set up a Pro Transylvania Foundation in 1998. That foundation was outlawed by a Cluj court, following appeals by then-PSDR Chairman Ion Iliescu, as well as by the anti-Hungarian Vatra Romaneasca (Romanian Cradle) organization, and that of its honorary chairman, the extreme nationalist Iosif Constantin Dragan. Iliescu himself said in Sibiu on 29 August that Gherman's initiative is "inconceivable, bearing in mind that the Romanian nation has fought for national unity throughout its history." MS[30] GERMAN CHANCELLOR TO VISIT FATHER'S GRAVE IN ROMANIAGerman Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will pay a private visit to the village of Ceanu Mare, near Cluj, where his father's grave was discovered in April this year, Romanian Radio reported. Corporal Fritz Schroeder was killed in action on Romanian territory in October 1944 and the future chancellor, born in April 1944, never saw his father. Romania in August 1944 switched sides and joined the Allies. Historians say Fritz Schroeder died during an offensive launched by the Romanians to liberate German- and Hungarian- occupied Transylvania. The Romanian authorities said that if the Schroeder family so wishes, the body, which is buried in a common grave, can be exhumed, AFP reported. A report on Romanian television said more than 30 kilometers of roads in the vicinity of the village are being repaired in preparation for the chancellor's visit. MS[31] ROMANIAN EXTREME NATIONALIST IN CHISINAUPRM leader Corneliu Vadim Tudor, paying an unofficial visit to Chisinau on 29 August, told journalists that former Moldovan President Mircea Snegur and President Ion Iliescu share the blame of not having pursued the unification of the two Romanian countries in 1991. "Who prevented them from calling on their [respective] parliaments to vote for reunification, as the Germans did?" Tudor asked. He said he is "optimistic" that the reunification will come, as it is in his words, "an inevitable process." Tudor also said he "does not feel abroad" when visiting Moldova, feeling rather "at home" and "happy to be with my brothers." MS[32] PROTESTING TRANSDNIESTER WOMEN BLOCK OSCE MISSION CHIEF...A group of Russian women protesting against the dismantling of the Russian contingent's military equipment on 25 August blocked the car in which OSCE mission chief William Hill was traveling to Tiraspol to meet with the breakaway region's "foreign minister," Valerii Litskay, Flux reported on 29 August. The incident took place near Parcani. Hill said on 29 August that he was not hurt in the incident but was "scandalized" by the fact that Tiraspol police stood by and "did nothing to temper the zeal of the protesters." He also said the incident was an infringement of the agreement reached with the Tiraspol authorities, according to which OSCE mission officials can travel freely on the left bank of the Dniester River. The OSCE mission chief said he is confident that the protests "do not reflect the opinion of the majority of the region's inhabitants" and are "organized by certain forces in the Transdniester." He added that the scrapping of the Russian equipment will continue. MS[33] ...AND TIRASPOL OFFICIAL DISAGREES WITH RUSSIAN GUESTMilitary affairs counselor Vladimir Atamanyuk on 29 August met in Tiraspol with General Nikolai Popov, the head of the Russian military commission overseeing the dismantling of the Russian contingent's armament, and told him that Tiraspol "has a different perception" on the ongoing scrapping process than Moscow does, Flux reported. Atamanyuk said the process is causing economic damage to Transdniester and that the separatists demand compensation. Popov expressed "concern" over the "large-scale involvement of public organizations" in the attempt to block the process, saying the protests could hinder his country from fulfilling its obligations to the OSCE. According to Infotag, before the beginning of the talks protesters ended a demonstration at the gates of a Russian military base. MS[34] MOLDOVAN INTELLECTUALS PROTEST AGAINST POLITICAL MANIPULATION OF OFFICIAL LANGUAGEA congress of Moldovan philologists on 29 August approved an open protest letter addressed to President Vladimir Voronin, Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev, and parliamentary speaker Eugenia Ostapciuc, RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported. The signatories protested against the authorities' alleged intention to grant the Russian language the status of official language in Moldova and said such action would "deepen the process of denationalization and raise political and social tensions." The congress was held on the day that used to be marked as the "Day of Our Romanian Language," but the Moldovan authorities changed it this year to "Language Day." The philologists also wrote that the state language must be called "Romanian" rather than "Moldovan," reflecting "the scientific truth acknowledged everywhere in the world." The gathering also approved a resolution that said, "no state that respects itself makes thoughtless concessions to an ethnic minority if those concessions negatively affect the ethnic majority and the country's other ethnic minorities" MS[35] BULGARIAN PREMIER MAKES CONTROVERSIAL APPOINTMENTSimeon Saxecoburggotski has appointed his former bodyguard, Boiko Borisov, to be the next Interior Ministry secretary-general, BTA reported on 29 August, citing various Bulgarian newspapers. The new secretary-general was also communist leader Todor Zhivkov's bodyguard, according to the daily "Trud," which ran a photo of Zhivkov and Borisov. The appointment follows the resignation from that position of the ministry's former secretary- general, Slavcho Bosilkov, on 28 August. BTA also reported that Alexander Tomov, the acting chairman of the national Council for Radio and Television, has also resigned. Tomov told BTA that his decision was taken due to his conviction that the new cabinet must be allowed to make its own appointments to the council, and that he believes other council members should follow his example. Tomov is largely considered to be responsible for the crisis at Bulgarian national radio in the spring of 2001. MS[C] END NOTE[36] AN END TO RUSSIA'S ETHNIC FEDERALISM?By Paul GobleThe Russian minister responsible for federation affairs said this week that ethnic groups that do not form a majority within a particular territory should be given extraterritorial cultural autonomy rather than the current territorially based federal units. The move is viewed as the latest indication that some in Moscow may be preparing to do away with one of the last-surviving fundamental principles of the Soviet state. Speaking at a Moscow meeting of Russia's ethnic Germans on 27 August, Aleksandr Blokhin, the Russian minister for federation affairs, nationalities, and migration policy, said that the Russian government has no plans to restore the German Autonomous Republic that was suppressed in August 1941 when Stalin deported that area's German residents to Kazakhstan and Siberia. But Blokhin also used the occasion to say that from his perspective, no ethnic group that does not form a majority in a compact territory should have territorial autonomy. Instead, he said, these groups should enjoy extraterritorial cultural autonomy. Such arrangements, Blokhin continued, are the most appropriate form of administration for the many peoples in the North Caucasus. On the one hand, Blokhin's comments represent the logical extension of Russian state policies over much of the last decade. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union -- which many Russians and others blame on the existence of territorially based ethnic federalism -- the Russian government has sought to prevent the extension of existing ethnic-based political units to any group that did not have one in the past Moscow has adopted and begun to implement a system of national cultural autonomy for the country's smaller and most dispersed groups that lack their own political territories, and for members of groups that do have such territories but who live outside those territories. Thus, some of the very smallest ethnic communities have formed groups to defend their culture as have larger more dispersed groups like the Tatars. But on the other hand, Blokhin's remarks point to the possibility that Moscow may be planning a new offensive against existing federal units both in the North Caucasus and more generally. In most of the ethnically based republics in the North Caucasus, the titular nationality does not form a majority. And consequently, under Blokhin's system, they would be candidates for dissolution and inclusion in larger, nonethically based federal units. Many in that region are likely to view Blokhin's remarks as a direct threat, particularly because "Obshchaya gazeta" recently ran an article calling for the creation of a new eighth federal district in the North Caucasus that would be responsible for managing the ethnic republics in that region. The existing Southern federal district, under this plan, would continue to supervise the Russian regions there. More generally, Blokhin's plan could lead to the suppression of the majority of ethnically based units elsewhere as well. Of the 22 ethnic republics, oblasts, and regions that exist in the Russian Federation today, only six have non-Russian pluralities. And using Blokhin's logic, the other 16 would appear to be slated for extinction. Not surprisingly, officials and residents in non-Russian regions far from the North Caucasus are increasingly nervous that President Vladimir Putin's oft-stated wish to reestablish central control over the country and to create a common legal space represents a direct threat to their interests. And some of them are beginning to organize to defend their prerogatives against any such challenge. In recent days, for example, Bashkir nationalist groups have called for an alliance with Tatarstan to defend the rights of their two republics against a reassertion of Moscow's control. And officials in other non-Russian regions have indicated that they too will seek to defend the interests of their regions even if they are quite willing to harmonize their laws with Russian legislation as Moscow has demanded. But the leaders of the non-Russian territorial units of the Russian Federation have a vested interest in the current division of power and authority, and they naturally are likely to actively resist any effort to suppress the political units they now head. The danger that such resistance could get out of hand is something that many Russian officials appear to recognize. These officials have good reason for such an understanding: Many of them now acknowledge that the Soviet Union came apart not only and perhaps not so much because former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev loosened the center's control over the union republics, but rather because having yielded power to the regions, Moscow tried to take that power back and then watched as those republic leaders who had come to enjoy wielding power refused to give it up. Because of the possibility that such history might repeat itself, Blokhin's proposals are unlikely to be implemented anytime soon. But the fact that he has put them forward suggests that tensions between Moscow and the non-Russian units of the Russian Federation are likely to grow in the immediate future, a trend that may further complicate the lives of the Russian policy makers in the Kremlin. 30-08-01 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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