COULD YAVLINSKY LOSE YABLOKO?
Sobesednik, August 6, 2003, p. 3
A group of Yabloko supporters gathered at the Internetmediakom center in Moscow last week to launch a public movement called Yabloko Without Yavlinsky.
Sergei Ivanenko, deputy chairman of the Yabloko party, told us that Grigori Yavlinsky had paid no attention to this move by the so-called “supporters.”
Igor Morozov, member of the St. Petersburg municipal legislature and leader of Yabloko without Yavlinsky, is standing his ground.
Morozov: “Sometimes Grigori Yavlinsky is more left-wing than the leftists. And sometimes he supports the president’s team enough to make United Russia envious.”
The new movement’s organizers haven’t yet decided who might replace the current Yabloko leader. Neither is the time-frame of their plans known. Still, they are completely undeterred by Sergei Ivanenko’s comment to the effect that “the more Yabloko is watered, the faster it grows.”
MOSCOW RUMORS: COMMUNISTS WORKING ON PROJECT ANTI-OLIGARCH
Versiya, August 4, 2003, p. 12
According to the sources of the “Argumenty i Fakty” newspaper, Communist Party analysts are doing some serious work on a new project. The scenario provisionally entitled “Anti-Oligarch” looks as follows: in the first stage, it will be necessary to exacerbate anti-business attitudes among the public (polls show up to 80% of ordinary citizens already dislike the super-rich). After that, it will be a matter of “riding the wave raised by the security and law enforcement agencies” to stir up the situation as much as possible by the time of the elections. Then there would be an appeal to President Putin to declare whose side he is on: is he with the “blood-sucking oligarchs” or with the people? If the president agrees to redistribute property and revise the results of 1990s privatization, the doors to the respectable establishments of Europe and America would automatically be closed to him. If he doesn’t agree, then the Communists and patriots would win the elections in Russia.
MOSCOW RUMORS: RUSSIAN CITIZENS WILLING TO BECOME INFORMERS
Versiya, August 4, 2003, p. 12
A nationwide poll by the Public Opinion Foundation has found that most respondents (71%) approve of the idea of cooperating with the police; 20% are opposed to it. Respondents were asked their opinion of the fact that following the recent bombings in Moscow, the authorities have decided to recruit paid informers.
MORE BOMBINGS PREDICTED
Zavtra, August 7, 2003, p. 1
According to our sources in circles close to the government, the Mozdok truck-bombing has had a devastating psychological impact on the Kremlin: it has wrecked the entire pre-election strategy of United Russia. Security agency specialists link the bombing to the situation in Chechnya, where Akhmad Kadyrov has permitted the police force to recruit former separatist guerrillas – who have thus gained access to everything they need to prepare and carry out more terrorist attacks. Security specialists predict there will be a series of explosions in major Russian cities just before the parliamentary and presidential elections – enabling a number of structures to effectively blackmail Putin’s “hierarchy of governance” via Chechnya.
HOW WILL THE YUKOS AFFAIR DEVELOP?
Zavtra, August 7, 2003, p. 1
According to reports from financial structures in New York, a preliminary agreement has been reached on Chevron Texaco buying a 20% stake in YUKSI (the company to be formed by the merger of YUKOS and Sibneft) for the sum of $5-6 billion; following this, the share price of Chevron itself has risen. Under the circumstances, US analysts predict that the “case of the oligarchs” will soon be over.
However, the St. Petersburg security people in Moscow have no intention of stopping. According to inside sources, they are prepared to support the plan proposed by Sergei Glaziev – aimed at taking “rent for the use of natural resources” out of the oligarchs’ mega-profits and redirecting it to the treasury. This could lead to some unexpected changes in the pre-election landscape, as soon as late August or early September.
