GUSINSKY IS UNCOOPERATIVE
Moskovsky Komsomolets, July 11, 2000, p. 2
Vladimir Gusinsky of Media-Most is refusing to cooperate with V. Danilov, investigator of the General Prosecutor’s Office.
Gusinsky is enraged because Danilov is pressing charges of illegal possession of ammunitions against his assistant Mikhail Aleksandrov. The ammunition in question are bullets for Gusinsky’s gun. The media-magnate stated that he himself had asked Aleksandrov to remove the bullets from the office safe so as to take them home afterwards. (Aleksandrov is also charged with illegal transportation of ammunition.) According to Gusinsky, “while pressing charges against Aleksandrov the investigator bullied him into giving a testimony and threatened him with arrest.”
Gusinsky believes that the General Prosecutor’s Office (or Danilov which amounts to one and the same thing) will now press charges against him citing illegal purchase of bullets for the gun he was once given as a gift.
RUSSIAN-POLISH RELATIONS GETTING WARMER
Parlamentskaya Gazeta, July 11, 2000, p. 1
Polish president flew to Moscow for a day-long official visit and a personal meeting with Vladimir Putin.
This was the first personal meeting of the two presidents. Before, they had only talked on phone.
Both Warsaw and Moscow view the summit as a chance to restore neighborly relations between the two states. The relations dwindled almost to nothing earlier this year after the expulsion of a group of Russian diplomats from Poland and the Poznan incident.
An Poland-Russia Economic Forum took place in Moscow at the same time. It certainly attracted the Poles. So many of them applied for attendance that some applications had to be turned down. Only the most eminent businessmen were chosen.
The Polish president decorated a group of officials of Russian law enforcement agencies with medals for participating in the operation which resulted in the liberation of two Polish scientists from Chechen captivity. The ceremony took place on the premises of the Polish embassy.
THE CENTRAL BANK REDUCES INTEREST RATE TO 28 PERCENT
Komsomolskaya Pravda, July 11, 2000, p. 2
This is the fourth such reduction in 2000.
The decision of the Central Bank has both pros and cons. On the one hand, tens of thousands of Russian companies and enterprises are going to find getting credits from the Central Bank easier now. On the other, financial resources for the banks themselves will become cheaper and among other things they will reduce interest rates for private accounts. For the country on the whole this abundance of rubles may result in high inflation rates.
It seems that Viktor Geraschenko of the Central Bank has persuaded President Vladimir Putin that enterprises and companies will digest cheap credits and that Russia will not sink in inflation.
PENSIONS WILL BE RAISED AS OF AUGUST 1
Komsomolskaya Pravda, July 11, 2000, p. 2
President Putin signed a decree yesterday according to which about 70 percent of elderly Russians would be getting an additional chunk of money to their monthly pensions.
Putin says that 18 million Russians will get 125 rubles additionally on the average starting from August 1.
THE RECONCILIATORY COMMISSION BEGINS ITS WORK
Trud, July 11, 2000, p. 2
The first sitting of the reconciliatory commission will take place today. The commission is supposed to work on the draft law on the new order for forming the Federation Council. It includes representatives of the houses of the parliament (sixteen each from the Duma and the Federation Council) and officials of the Legal Directorate of the presidential administration. The commission already had a preliminary sitting on Saturday when the timetable was agreed on.
According to Co-chairman Valery Grebennikov (he represents the Duma), the deputies wanted to begin working on Monday but the senators proposed Tuesday, saying that many of them would be away in their respective regions on Monday.
Grebennikov says that representatives of the upper house of the parliament insist first on defining “the concept of the law “On the new order for forming the Federation Council” and our attitude towards it”. Duma deputies, however, object.
Grebennikov: As a reconciliatory commission, we are supposed to contemplate on specific amendments and proposals put forth by the sides. As for the concept as such, it is clear from the document itself.
Representatives of the Federation Council disagree. They try to convince President Vladimir Putin to amend the concept itself, says Vladimir Platonov, Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council and Chairman of the Moscow municipal legislature.
Chuvash President Nikolai Fedorov says that as members of the reconciliatory commission, senators fully intend to discuss the two other presidential draft laws aimed at fortifying the federal power vertical. The Federation Council has already turned down the law adopted by the Duma, according to which the president may dismiss governors (on the decision of the court, that is) for gross violation of the federal legislation.
Analysts say that this is what is going to happen to the third draft law as well.
