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Central Asia / Siberia
NEWSLINE: Central Asia, Transcaucasia and RussiaRadio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Azerbaijan suggests hosting U.S. military base
In an interview with Turan on 18 January, Azerbaijani presidential adviser Vafa Guluzade reasoned that since Armenia allows Russian military bases on its territory, Azerbaijan should strengthen its military cooperation with the West.
He suggested that the first step should be to relocate the U.S. military base at Incirlik, in southern Turkey, to the Apsheron Peninsula. That base, he said, would serve U.S. strategic interests in the Caucasus. Guluzade added that Baku ''would take any actions'' to liberate its territories currently occupied by Armenian forces. (Liz Fuller)
Top Kyrgyz official implicated in murder, fraud
President Askar Akayev has dismissed Shalkar Jaisanbayev from his post as director-general of the Kyrgyzgazmunaizat state joint-stock oil and gas company, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported on 18 January.
A criminal case has been brought against Jaisanbayev for serious financial crimes. According to Bolot Januzakov, a department head in the presidential administration, Kyrgyzgazmunaizat owes the state 163 million som (some $5.5 million) for state and foreign loans as well as 132 million som in customs duties.
In addition, Jaisanbayev owes $18 million to various commercial banks. Also on 18 January, Chinara Kolbaeva, widow of prominent businessman Yusup Kolbaev, told RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau that Jaisanbayev was involved in her husband's murder in March 1997. Jaisanbayev's present whereabouts are unknown. (L.F)
Public holiday to mark Nazarbayev inauguration
Kazakhstan has declared 20 January, the day of Nursultan Nazarbayev's inauguration as president, a national holiday, Reuters reported on 19 January. However, the 18 and 19 January, the first two days of the three-day Oraza-Aiyt religious festival, which marks the end of the month of Ramadan, were normal working days, RFE/RL's Almaty bureau noted. In neighboring Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, the Islamic holiday is being marked officially. (L.F.)
Kazakhstan seeks loan to upgrade power grid
Kazakhstan's Electricity Supply Agency president Aset Nauryzbayev told journalists in Almaty on 18 January that the agency is negotiating a $266 million loan from the World Bank in order to upgrade the country's power supply network, Interfax and RFE/RL 's Almaty bureau reported.
Nauryzbayev said that Kazakhstan's electricity network is almost totally self-sufficient and that only Aqtobe Oblast, in the northwest of the country, still receives electricity from Russia. Nauryzbayev failed to mention that the agency owes its employees more than 34 million tenges ($400,000) in wage arrears. (L.F)
Tajik president, opposition leader meet
During talks on16 January, Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov and United Tajik Opposition leader Said Abdullo Nuri, who heads the National Reconciliation Commission, reaffirmed their commitment to the ongoing peace process, Interfax reported.
The talks focused on the allocation to the opposition of 30 percent of posts in both the cabinet and local government, the possibility of an amnesty of imprisoned opposition politicians, and the proposed referendum on changes to the country's constitution. (L.F)
More civilian deaths in Abkhazia
Three Abkhaz civilians were killed and four injured when their horse-drawn cart hit a landmine in Abkhazia's Gali Raion on the night of 17- 18 January, Caucasus Press and Interfax reported. On 18 January, the bodies of three more Abkhaz who had been abducted in Gali in December were discovered, according to ITAR-TASS.
In his weekly radio broadcast on 18 January, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze commented on Abkhaz President Vladidslav Ardzinba's proposal that Georgian displaced persons start returning to Gali as of 1 March. Shevardnadze said that Georgia must participate in organizing the repatriation process and that international guarantees of the repatriates' security are essential. (L.F)
Primakov urged to seize power
''Nezavisimaya gazeta'' on 19 January suggested that unless Prime Minister Primakov ''takes all power into his hands, the question of power will be resolved by the West.'' According to the newspaper, the IMF recently ''made what were in fact political demands on Russia,'' because the West, particularly the US, rejects Primakov's alliance with the Communist Party.
The daily also asserted that the U.S. has been trying to increase Russia's economic isolation by imposing sanctions on institutes that allegedly cooperated with Iran and a ''barrier on the path of Russian steel imports to the U.S."
In addition, the West's intentions to increase Iraqi oil exports will hurt the Russian oil industry. The newspaper also argued that if no new IMF credit is forthcoming, ''a full-scale default on foreign debts'' is inevitable and will put Russia back behind the ''iron curtain that separated it from international markets.'' ''Nezavisimaya gazeta'' receives financial backing from Boris Berezovskii's LogoVAZ group. (Julie A. Corwin)
Ill Yeltsin grounded for months
Several planned foreign visits by Russian President Boris Yeltsin will be postponed, ''diplomatic sources'' told Interfax on 19 January. Kremlin doctor Sergei Mironov told NTV that Yeltsin will not be permitted to fly again for at least ''two-and-a-half to three months."
According to Mironov,Yeltsin's condition has stabilized and his temperature and blood pressure are normal. Meanwhile, some State Duma members have responded to news of Yeltsin's latest illness by announcing plans to send an inquiry about Yeltsin's health to the Constitutional Court in February.
According to Article 92 of the constitution, the president is to surrender his powers in case of a sustained inability to work. Yabloko leader Grigorii Yavlinskii called on Prime Minister Yevgenii Primakov to address the nation and clarify the situation regarding Yeltsin's illness, since ''there are indirect signs that the situation surrounding the president's health is more serious than usual.'' (J.A.C.)
Russia collects more taxes . . .
Russia collected 7 percent or 1 billion rubles ($44 million) more taxes in December 1998 than in the previous month, Federal Tax Service head Georgii Boos reported on 16 January. While noting that the tax service increased collection by 1 billion rubles each month during the fourth quarter of 1999, he said that the annual target for tax collection was not met. (J.A.C.)
. . . As big spenders get a year's reprieve
Earlier this month, Boos admitted that a new law requiring official registration of all purchases exceeding 126,000 rubles ($5,633) could not be enforced because of insufficient tax service personnel (see ''RFE/RL Newsline,'' 7 January 1999). The State Duma responded by postponing the date of implementation of the law until 24 January 2000.
Duma deputy and member of the Russian Regions faction Pavel Bunich noted on 13 January that the law was drafted before 17 August when a purchase totaling 126,000 rubles was equal to more than $12,000.
''Izvestiya'' reported the same day that the Duma has reduced the minimum taxable amount for individuals' income to 30,000 rubles from 60,000 rubles in a package of pending tax legislation. (J.A.C.)
Alternative mooted to joint command of nuclear forces
Relations between Defense Minister Igor Sergeev and Chief of the General Staff Anatolii Kvashnin ''remain tense'' over Kvashnin's continuing opposition to the formation of a Joint Command for Strategic Nuclear Forces (JCSNF), ''Nezavisimaya gazeta'' reported on 15 January.
The newspaper suggested that army General Makhmut Gareev's proposal to introduce the post of deputy to the Chief of the General Staff with responsibility for nuclear security, as an alternative to the formation of JCSNF, would be cheaper and would avoid ''the necessity of upsetting the higher echelons of military power."
The newspaper maintained that the plan for joint command is flawed because ''responsibility for using Russia's nuclear shield would be split.'' Both the joint command and the forces with nuclear components would have analogous control organs, because ''according to the plan, nuclear components will be transferred to JCSNF only for the period of fulfillment of strategic tasks.'' (J.A.C.)
Former Vladivostok mayor to head city Duma?
Former Vladivostok Mayor Viktor Cherepkov was elected a deputy to the city's legislature on 17 January, Interfax reported. His supporters won 15 out of 16 electoral districts, where voting had taken place in sufficient numbers to be valid (see ''RFE/RL Newsline,'' 18 January 1998). Local observers believe that Cherepkov will be elected chairman of the legislature, which will then draft the city's charters as well as rules for electing the mayor, according to Interfax. (J.A.C.)
©1998 RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.
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January 21, 1999
