Russia Reform Monitor No. 1082, October 5, 2003
American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, DC

Kremlin launches fresh crackdown on Yukos;
Russian military plans new space push

 

 
October 3:

Investigators from the Prosecutor General’s Office, accompanied by armed security agents, have searched an orphanage financed by Yukos and a suburban Moscow business club belonging to the oil company, NEWSru.com reports. The investigators seized company documents and a computer server they claimed had earlier belonged to Menatep, Yukos’ parent company. Menatep’s chief, Platon Lebedev, was arrested and jailed in July. Prosecutors claim the seized documents can establish how much Yukos evaded in taxes in 1997 and how it was done. The investigators also searched the offices of Vladimir Dubov, a key Yukos shareholder and parliamentarian who heads the State Duma budget committee’s tax subcommittee.

The latest searches coincide with an announcement by Yukos that it has completed its merger with rival Sibneft, and amid speculation that the new company, YukosSibneft, will sell a large chunk of its shares to ExxonMobil. Speculation about such a deal was fueled by the appearance of Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky with ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond at the World Economic Forum in Moscow.

The International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) has called the Chechen presidential election set for October 5th a “masquerade,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports. Kidnappings, forced disappearances and other crimes against civilians have increased significantly since the March 23rd constitutional referendum that paved the way for the election, the group said. The main challengers to Akhmad Kadyrov, Chechnya’s Moscow-appointed administrator, have either been disqualified from or dropped out of the race. 


October 4:

In a poll coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the so-called “October events,” 57 percent have said they believe that then President Boris Yeltin was not justified in using military force against his opponents in the Soviet-era parliament, Interfax reports. The poll, taken by VTsIOM-A, the new agency formed by veteran pollster Yuri Levada, found that 20 percent of respondents believe Yeltsin’s use of force was justified. Polls taken just after the October 3-4, 1993 shootout in Moscow found that 51 percent of people nationwide and 78 percent of Muscovites supported Yeltsin’s decision to use force.

Colonel-General Anatoly Perminov, commander of Russia’s Space Troops, has said he hopes Russia will “renovate practically all key elements of its space assets” in the next five to six years, Itar-TASS reports. In a speech marking Space Troops’ Day, Perminov called for “gradually increasing the input of space systems into the efficiency of combat troop and arms operations.” He also said that a Volga radar system at Baranovichi in Belarus had become operational on October 1st, eliminating the “missing link” in Russia’s early warning system. This year, the Space Troops have put 28 spacecraft into orbit and launched a Topol intercontinental ballistic missile for the Strategic Rocket Forces, Perminov said.

[Editor’s Note: In July 2002, Russia and China put forward a joint proposal for a new international treaty to ban weapons in space to a Geneva disarmament conference. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Yakovenko said at that time that Russia disagreed with the United States that the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which banned placing weapons of mass destruction in space, is sufficient, arguing that it presents “no legal obstacles” to deploying “other weapons” in space.]


October 5:

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has said that under its new military doctrine, Russia might carry out preemptive strikes if the country faces a distinct, clear, and inevitable military threat or is denied access to regions of vital economic or financial importance, Interfax reports. Speaking to reporters in Reykjavik while en route to Canada, Ivanov said Russia might also carry out preemptive strikes if there is “instability” or a direct threat to Russian citizens or ethnic Russians in CIS countries and all other measures to protect them, including sanctions, have been exhausted.     

--Jonas Bernstein

 

Copyright (c) 2003, American Foreign Policy Council.
All Rights Reserved.

 

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