STALIN BLOC TO RUN INDEPENDENTLY
Izvestia, September 2, 1999, p. 1
On September 1, the Central Election Commission registered the third election bloc formed for the upcoming parliamentary election. Like the Voice of Russia and Russian Communists and Workers for the Soviet Union, the so-called Stalin bloc can begin collection of signatures now. The bloc includes Working Russia, Officers Union, Youth People’s-Patriotic Union, and the Union movement. In other words, the left may find themselves split into even more than three columns. It stands to reason to assume that other left parties and movements will also apply for registration: the Communist Party, Movement in Support of the Party, Spiritual Heritage, and coalition of the socialist forces headed by Andrei Nikolayev.
SERIAL RAPIST IS ASSISTANT OF COMMUNIST FACTION DEPUTY
Izvestia, September 2, 1999, p. 2
Officials of the Proletarsky Directorate of Internal Affairs arrested one Igor Feoktistov, 34, a resident of the city of Tula. Preliminary data shows that during the last twelve months Feoktistov raped at least three girls between 9 and 13 years.
Feoktistov turned out to be an assistant of Tula regional legislature member Yury Butuzkin (Communist faction).
BYELORUSSIAN OPPOSITION MEANS BUSINESS
Izvestia, September 2, 1999, p. 3
Representatives of some political parties and movements in Belarus say they formed a kind of consolidated opposition and worked out a program of actions for the autumn. A large-scale protest action is scheduled for October 17. Organizers expect it to be attended by at least 100,000 protesters. Organization committee of the new formation includes representatives of the Byelorussian Popular Front, United Civic Party, Congress of Democratic Trade Unions, Center Spring-96 (comprising human rights activists), Charter-97 Civilian Initiative, and Byelorussian Social Democratic Party.
Vintsuk Vecherko, Deputy Chairman of the Byelorussian Popular Front, believes that Byelorussian opposition should make use of the experience of the Yugoslavian opposition in its struggle against Slobodan Milosevic’s regime. He claims he will leave for Belgrade soon to gain the necessary experience.
Leaders of the oppositionist center maintain to have worked out a long-term campaign including numerous actions. Information on the latter will be made public at a later date.
In the meantime, Presidium of the Federation of Byelorussian Trade Unions decided to organize a nationwide protest action on September 30.
TAX PRIVILEGES CONTEMPLATED
Rossiiskaya Gazeta, September 2, 1999, p. 1
The government is now contemplating the idea of lifting taxation from investments into construction of energy complex objects as of January, 2000, according to senior deputy premier Nikolai Aksenenko.
INVESTIGATOR VOLKOV IS ON HIS OWN
Trud, September 2, 1999, p. 1
Commenting on the scandal (one of the heads of the team investigating the Mabetex case was not allowed to visit Switzerland), Vladimir Minayev, Director of the Investigation Directorate of the General Prosecutor’s Office, was quoted as saying the following.
Minayev: Nobody relieved Georgy Chuglazov of his duties, much less rendered telephones in his office inoperable. On the contrary, Chuglazov was promoted for the time being. He is now acting director of the directorate handling particularly crucial cases. As for Volkov, he is an experienced man. He will do without Chuglazov…
Perhaps, Volkov will bring some documents on Mabetex from Switzerland. On the other hand, this country has its own procedures of clearing documents, and all these formalities will have to be observed first…
OKHOTNY RYAD OPENS AS USUAL
ORT (Russian Public Television), News program, September 1, 1999, 15:00
The shopping center on the Manezh Square opened at 11 a.m. this morning, as usual, all debris cleared during the night.
The terrorist act only attracted customers to the Okhotny Ryad. Skirmishes and explosions in Russian cities are commonplace occurrences already, and only attract the curious.
Victims of the explosion are still arriving at hospitals. It turns out that many of them went home yesterday night but finally decided to appeal for professional medical assistance. A resident of Lebanon is probably the most serious case (he got badly burnt in the explosion).
The children who were near the site of the explosion feel all right. Fortunately, no casualties occurred in the terrorist act.
UNION OF REVOLUTIONARY WRITERS ASSUMES RESPONSIBILITY
Russian Television (RTR), “Vesti” program, September 1, 1999, 14:00
Law enforcement agencies discovered a leaflet of the so-called Union of Revolutionary Writers at the site of the explosion. The flier states that “the guerilla war in the city – and that includes terrorist acts as well – aims at creation of a revolutionary situation.”
Dmitry Konyakhin of the Federal Security Service told our reporter that secret services worked on several avenues of investigation, but political extremism is what everybody bets on.
RUSHAILO SAYS ACT OF TERRORISM MIGHT BE RELATED TO EVENTS IN DAGESTAN
Russian Television (RTR), “Vesti” program, September 1, 1999, 14:00
Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo does not rule out the possibility that the terrorist act in Moscow may be related to the latest events in Dagestan.
Rushailo: This is but a hypothesis. It is not wholly groundless, you know, but I would not draw any hasty conclusions yet… An operational conference is scheduled for tomorrow, and we will discuss all details there and determine the most promising avenues of investigation.
