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Central Asia / Siberia
NEWSLINE: Central Asia, Transcaucasia and RussiaRadio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Tajikistan completes insurgency investigation
The Tajikistan Prosecutor-General's Office has completed investigation into the role of 64 participants in the November 1998 insurgency in Leninabad Oblast by supporters of rebel Colonel Makhmud Khudoberdiev, ITAR-TASS reported on 25 March. The 64 are charged with treason, creating illegal armed formations, terrorism, and offenses against the state. Hundreds more people remain in pre-trial detention for their involvement in that uprising. (Liz Fuller)
Uzbek authorities arrest Christians
Over the last two months, twelve members of separate Christian communities in the Uzbek cities of Tashkent, Termez, Bukhara, and Nukus have been arrested and either fined or sentenced to short prison sentences, according to a Human Rights Without Frontiers press release dated 25 March. In three of those cases, the communities in question were preparing formal applications to register their Churches legally. The 1998 amended Uzbek law on religion bans all unregistered religious activities. (L.F.)
Armenian president invites Pope
Meeting with Pope John Paul II in the Vatican on 25 March, Robert Kocharian reaffirmed the official invitation to the pontiff to visit Armenia, extended earlier this week by Armen Sarkisian, Armenia's ambassador to the Vatican, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. No date for the papal visit has been set. Kocharian and Armenian Catholicos Karekin I are to attend the formal opening of an exhibition at the Vatican Library devoted to the 1700th anniversary of Armenia's adoption of Christianity as the state religion. Kocharian also met on 25 March with his Italian counterpart, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, to discuss bilateral relations, according to Noyan Tapan. (L.F.)
Former minister charged with embezzlement
Yerevan city prosecutor Ashot Tamazian on 25 March said that a criminal case has been opened against former Education Minister Ashot Bleyan on charges of abuse of power and embezzlement of public funds totaling $120,000 intended for the publication of school textbooks, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Bleyan, who currently heads the small Nor Ughi (New Path) opposition party and placed last of the 12 candidates in the March 1998 presidential election with 0.11 percent of the vote, dismissed the charges as ''fabricated and unfounded.'' (L.F.)
Azerbaijan continues investigation of impounded MiGs
Turan on 25 March quoted an unnamed official source in Baku as saying that the investigation into the impounded Russian freight plane and its cargo of six MiG fighters at Baku's Bin Airport has not yet yielded any evidence that would be sufficient to bring a criminal case (see ''RFE/RL Newsline,'' 24 and 25 March 1999). But ITAR-TASS the same day reported that Azerbaijani intelligence will need at least another two days to complete its examination of the freight plane and its cargo. (L.F.)
Former Russian premier calls for policy shift on Georgia
On a private visit to Tbilisi on 25 March, Sergei Kirienko told Georgian parliamentary chairman Zurab Zhvania that Moscow should revise its current policy toward Georgia since relations between the two countries are pivotal for the situation throughout the Caucasus, according to Caucasus Press. The two men agreed on the need to improve bilateral relations. (L.F.)
Kosovo, IMF uncertainty put ruble under pressure
The street value of the ruble continues to fall, despite the firming of its official rate. Muscovites, according to the ''Moscow Times'' on 26 March, were exchanging rubles for dollars at rates of 28 rubles per dollar - 16 percent above the official rate. In other parts of Russia, the daily reported, workers are turning their ruble salaries into dollars as a matter of course. Part of the ruble's weakness, according to traders, stems from rubles being printed to pay a backlog of wages to state workers. The Central Bank has been intervening in the currency market to try to prop up the flagging ruble. Its hard currency reserves fell $200 million from 19 March to 25 March and by $1 billion from 1 January, Interfax reported. Meanwhile, the stock market's benchmark index, RTS, rose almost 5 percent on 25 March, with oil stocks benefiting from the ruble's weakness. (J.A.C.)
Editor fired for criticizing Primakov
''Kommersant-Daily'' editor Raf Shakirov has lost his job over an article on 24 March that was highly critical of Prime Minister Yevgenii Primakov's decision to return to Moscow in mid-air (see ''RFE/RL Newsline,'' 25 March 1999), Russian Public Television reported on 25 March. According to Interfax, the newspaper apologized for the article. (Julie A Corwin)
Interior ministry faces big staff reduction
The Interior Ministry will cut 129,000 personnel from its staff in 1999, including 66,000 policemen and 63,000 servicemen, ITAR-TASS reported on 25 March. Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin told a conference of personnel chiefs from police departments across the country that 59 of Russia's 89 regions will face a 10 percent personnel reduction on average in their police forces. Current staff in the ministry totals just under 2 million, according to the agency. (J.A.C.)
Luzhkov, Yeltsin to collaborate
President Boris Yeltsin and Moscow Mayor Yurii Luzhkov met on 25 March. Luzhkov, who had not talked with Yeltsin in more than a year, according to ''Vremya MN'' on 26 March, said the conversation focused on the formation of his Otechestvo party. According to the newspaper's sources, the two officials also agreed that the mayor and the presidential administration would collaborate in the future, but what form this collaboration would take was not discussed. ''Izvestiya'' concluded that since Yeltsin met with Luzhkov right before the mayor's upcoming meeting with French President Jacques Chirac, Luzhkov will present the presidential administration's view as well as his own. Luzhkov told reporters on 24 March that Otechestvo is working on a political accord with the Communist Party and Yabloko, ''the three forces in the country that determine its political atmosphere,'' in order to maintain political stability in Russia. (J.A.C.)
First batch of EU food aid arrives
Twenty-four trucks loaded with 18 tons of German beef from the EU arrived in the city of Smolensk on 25 March, Interfax reported. The next shipment of EU food aid, which will contain Irish beef, is due to arrive in St. Petersburg at the end of March. Deliveries were supposed to start in February but were delayed because of high Russian customs duties and Russian officials' criticism of the quality of the meat and grain, dpa reported. (J.A.C.)
Chechen president departs on Hajj
Aslan Maskhadov has left Grozny for Saudi Arabia, where he will visit Mecca and Medina, presidential spokesman Mairbek Vachagaev told Russian agencies on 25 March. Vachagaev said Maskhadov will not visit any other countries en route. Maskhadov previously made the pilgrimage to Mecca in 1997. (L.F.)
Yeltsin briefed on Vladikavkaz bombing
Federal Security Service Director Vladimir Putin informed President Yeltsin on 25 March of progress made in identifying and apprehending the persons responsible for the 19 March bomb in the North Ossetian capital, which killed some 60 people, Interfax reported (see ''RFE/RL Newsline,'' 19 and 22 March 1999). ''Nezavisimaya gazeta'' on 26 March reported that investigators are focusing on several alternative hypotheses, one of which is that the perpetrators were Chechens affiliated with Islamist field commander Khottab. (L.F.)
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March 30, 1999
