Putin picks off opponents who matter most wages partial war on
corruption

Amelia Gentleman in Moscow
Friday July 14, 2000
The Guardian

It has been an alarming week for Russia's powerful business oligarchy, stunned by an explosion of criminal
investigations instigated by President Vladimir Putin.

In the space of five days, five of the country's biggest businesses have come under the scrutiny of state agencies,
which have begun investigating alleged tax evasion, confiscating documents and examining the legitimacy of lucrative
privatisation deals. These activities have brought allegations of creeping authoritarianism in the Kremlin.

Throughout yesterday a sense of nervous expectation reigned as those leading business magnates not yet picked out
waited to see who would be the next victim of Mr Putin's new war against Russia's tycoons. Heightening this atmosphere
of unease, Vladimir Gusinsky, head of the media group MediaMost who was briefly imprisoned by state prosecutors last
month, said that as investigations into his business dealings continued he lived in fear of his life. "In Russia there
used to be a police regime. It disappeared temporarily and now it is being rebuilt," he told a Spanish newspaper.

As he campaigned for the presidency earlier this year, Mr Putin gained popular support by promising to crack down on
the country's reviled oligarchs: the small group of businessmen who exploited the chaos of Russia's transition to
capitalism to turn themselves into millionaires.

This week appeared to be the point at which he put the promise into practice. But as his spotlight turned on
MediaMost, the natural gas company Gazprom, the nickel producer Norilsk Nickel, Russia's biggest oil company Lukoil,
and its biggest car manufacturing firm Avtovaz, there was growing suspicion that he was acting not against corruption
but against political disloyalty.

Analysts described the campaign as extremely selective and some warned that it was a new example of Mr Putin's
fondness for a "neo-authoritarian" style of governing. "It's an extremely serious state of affairs when criminal
investigations are waged against so many major Russian companies at once," Vyacheslav Nikonov, president of Moscow's
Political Foundation, said. "But these figures have been targeted selectively, on the basis of two criteria - their
loyalty or disloyalty to the president and their political weight."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4040318,00.html

Israel turns away former Cat Stevens

Israel and the Middle East: special report

Suzanne Goldenberg in Jerusalem
Friday July 14, 2000
The Guardian

The 1970s pop star formerly known as Cat Stevens, who converted to Islam in 1977 after his brother brought him a Koran
from Jerusalem, has been denied entry to Israel, a government spokesman confirmed yesterday, accusing him of
supporting the Islamist movement Hamas.

The British musician, who changed his name to Yusuf Ibrahim, was held for several hours at Tel Aviv airport on
Wednesday morning before being returned to Germany.

?He knew before he came here that he would not have permission to come in,? said Moshe Fogel, the government
spokesman. ?His interest in Hamas is not purely verbal and in that sense he is not considered a tourist who comes to
see the sights.

?We do not feel any obligation to allow people into the country who have in the past shown support for the Hamas
terrorist organisation, which is responsible for blowing up buses in the centre of Tel Aviv.?

He would not give details of the alleged support, but said it was ?tangible?.

Yusuf Islam told an Israeli paper that he was held for three hours without water or access to a toilet in a windowless
cell 2 metres square.

He called his expulsion ?a disgrace?.

In recent years he has campaigned for Afghan refugees, Bosnian Muslims, and for funding for Islamist schools in
Britain. He has also endorsed Hamas?s opposition to the Middle East peace process.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4040310,00.html

Beijing chides US for blocking Israeli radar deal

John Gittings in Hong Kong
Friday July 14, 2000
The Guardian

The US defence secretary found his visit to China turning slightly precarious yesterday when his hosts took the
American administration to task for Israel's cancelling the sale of spy-plane equipment to Beijing.

Though William Cohen arrived on Wednesday to an honour guard in Tiananmen Square and smiles from his Chinese
counterpart, Chi Haotian, the press followed up yesterday by branding the US "a threat to world peace".

Members of Congress in Washington had threatened to cut the huge amount of US aid which underwrites Israel if Tel Aviv
went ahead with the sale of a Phalcon advanced airborne radar system to the Chinese army.

The US says that the equipment would enable China to monitor Taiwan's military defences and could be used against
American planes in the Taiwan Strait.

In Beijing yesterday the foreign ministry declared: "No other country has the right to interfere in bilateral
cooperation that China has with other governments."

Mr Cohen's group revealed that President Jiang Zemin had also complained about the cancellation when he met Mr Cohen
later yesterday, although they said Mr Jiang refrained from naming the US as the party responsible for it.

"It certainly was a concern to China that the sale was cancelled," Mr Cohen told reporters after meeting Mr Jiang at
Zhongnanhai, the Communist party leadership's compound.

China is offended not only because it has lost the tech nology, but also because - as Mr Chi, the defence minister,
once again asserted - China believes it has the right to use force in the last resort against Taiwan.

It insists, at the same time, that it would prefer a peaceful solution to what it sees as the problem of Taiwan's
independent status.

Mr Cohen's talks in Beijing have been dominated by what a US official called the "heartburn issue" of Taiwan.

China has also pressed its opposition to America's plans for a national missile defence screen - the so-called star
wars system - which Bejing sees as reducing the power of its own nuclear deterrent.

"In reality," the official People's Daily said, the US "aims to disable the offensive capabilities of its major
strategic rivals, namely Russia and China, and establish its superiority in the world."

In Beijing, Mr Cohen has found himself treated on the one hand to assurances that the Chinese want a constructive
relationship, and on the other to expressions of fear and threat.

The fear is that Washington may be tempted to seek "hegemony" in the world. The threat - as repeated by warnings in
People's Daily - is that unspecified "counter-measures" may be taken by China if the US missile project goes ahead.

Washington refuses to rule out the possibility that a missile defence system it is discussing with Japan might be
extended to Taiwan if the island came under threat.

Mr Chi told Mr Cohen he hoped that the US would not send "the wrong signals" to the Taiwan authorities.

© Copyright Guardian Media Group plc. 2000

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4040362,00.html

kim:
i mailed something to you for the 2nd time this morning...maybe you'll get dupes, i dunno.
but here within everybody's fave, AOL [repeat after me: the access call is local so it's FREE] to 'ignore' a chat group poster is not the same as 'blocking' someone's mail. perhaps it's just semantics. on AOL one can do either. one usually gets their 'blocked' mail returned, tho, from good ol' mailer-daemon.
but only AOL types can speak at an AOL chat. and perhaps thx or someone would be amused to hear that i used to go to those chats and harass racist blacks attacking asians, and racist whites attacking blacks. there was _substantially_ more of the latter.
but creeps like to go and copy down chat group names, the better to send 'em porno-spam.
no more AOL chats pour moi, mostly, but the day after i visit one, here comes the porno-spam.
===
and more sobering material from igor today. oy....
more news that _won't_ hit the states.

http://www.russiatoday.com/poll.php3
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Frankly L'menexe, I'm not sure I want your comments in my mailbox as well.If you have something to say concerning DMS you can post it here.

Our disagreement is nothing to do with personal emails, it is to do with me not backing you up on the banning of Antonio. If you want to turn it into something personal so be it, but I fail to see what I have written here to justify your behaviour towards me.

You claim not to be bringing a personal arguement online, but it is pretty clear that you are doing exactly that. You know very well that you were involved in getting Antonio banned. No you don't run or own DMS, but you do have a hotline to its creator that the rest of us do not have (*or want).
I fail to see what is wrong with my suggestion of an ignore option, apart of course that I am not agreeing with you. Unless of course it is not possible for some reason. If that is the case then we are back to the old dilema.:

Who decides what is abusive/undesirable at DMS?
What decision making process should we follow?
Does everyone have a say in that?
What penalties will be applied?
How do we define freedom of speech? On what basis?
American/British/Russian law?

If you want to rid DMS of its label "Worst Website" perhaps we need to establish some new ground-rules. Other sites manage to express their displeasure with abusive posters without resorting to abusive behaviour or banning, why can't we?

Kim

Comments anyone?

DAILY UPDATE

Several medium-rank Chechen field commanders and their units are prepared to end resistance to federal units if their safety is guaranteed.


Three unspecified commanders have told the Russian military authorities so, sources in the Russian army group headquarters told Interfax on Friday. The men intend to wait and see what will happen to Turpal-ali Atgeriyev, a close associate of rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov who has said he is prepared to surrender on the condition that he is guaranteed personal safety.


Nearly 200 rebel fighters are prepared to lay down arms along with Atgeriyev, first deputy chief of the General Staff Colonel General Valery Manilov said on Thursday.


The situation in the area remains tense with rebels staging acts of sabotage in Chechnya and neighbouring republics, above all Daghestan, an official in the headquarters said.


A depot of arms, ammunition and uniforms for 25 to 30 men was found in Chechnya's Shali district on Thursday.


Fourteen people were detained on suspicion of involvement in rebel bands and eight automatic rifles and nearly 40 kilos of explosives were seized.

The central role in restoring the economy and order in Chechnya must be played by its locals. This is the gist of decisions taken in the last two days by the federal centre on Chechnya.

Making on Wednesday a "lighting march" on Mozdok, Russian President Vladimir Putin outlined the main points at a conference held there. He said that law-and-order bodies "should be more resolutely" formed involving locals. They can better tell a friend from a foe, he added. Akhmad Kadyrov, in charge of the Chechen administration, who attended the conference also said that more trust should be placed on locals in forming the Chechen police. "All people of Chechnya are sick and tired of war and they are ready to oppose bandits and terrorists", he stressed.

It looks like that latest tragic events in Argun and some other parts of Chechnya have ultimately proved this position of the authorities. There, terrorists have put to death and badly wounded several dozen Russian servicemen.

It was also said at the conference that efficient putting things in order in Chechnya is impossible without cardinal improvement of its economic situation. Here, too, people of Chechnya should play a weighty role.

Discussion of law-and-order and economic-rehabilitation problems of Chechnya was continued in Moscow on Thursday, where after Vladimir Putin chief of the Chechen administration Akhmad Kadyrov and plenipotentiary presidential envoy in the Southern Federal District Victor Kazantsev arrived.

At the presidential conference, which was attended also by ministers of the power and economic blocks of the government, it was stressed that the earlier abolished representation of the Russian government in the Chechen Republic should very soon pass all affairs to the new administration of Chechnya. Special attention was drawn to the ensurance of financing of work now being done in Chechnya. For that the abolished governmental representation must pass its powers also in the financial sphere to the new administration.

The decision on the earliest passing of all powers to the Kadyrov administration is, in the opinion of observers, a practical step towards active involvement of Chechens in the socio-economic rehabilitation of their republic.

In this context, experts say, efficient control over proper use of financial resources from the federal budget into the rehabilitation of Chechnya is assuming extreme importance. It looks like such mechanisms are still being worked out. The sooner they are ready, the less the probability of repetition of the gloomy past experience, when Chechnya developed into a "black hole" of the Russian economy, experts say.

Kim, the answers are:

1. DMS;
2. No process available to us, it's a private board (look at the note under posting textarea);
3. Yes, board administrator;
4. Service denial;
5. How we define freedom of speech is up to us. However, the freedom of speech as it is protected by the Constitution does not guarantee access to private media. You can guarantee it yourself by establishing your own.

I see the fight for "board's most suffered" title is on...

Did anyone hear the latest news about Russian strategic nuclear rocket forces? It looks like one of the top officials for conventional forces, Gen. Kvashnin was the one who came up with the proposal to restructure the nuclear forces by eliminating them as a separate branch of the armed forces. And guess who's opposing it the most? Igor Sergeyev, himself (former rocket forces commander, BTW). He was actually quoted as saying, that this would be "absolute madness". His supporters (and there are many of them, amongst the government) say, and I quote again: "Changing the balance of forces, as implied by reforming the rocket forces, could lead to the disruption of negotiations and transform our country into a second-rate nuclear power.." The "daily Kommersant" said the opposition against Sergeyev "can only be described as a coup attempt in the military". And of course supporters of Mr Kvashnin's proposal say it would aid Russian forces in its ongoing offensive against rebels in Chechnya. I personally tend to agree with Sergeyev, simply because the major change w/in Russ. military such as this, could possibly lead to chaos in the command chain and is seen by many as possible disruption of Russia's position in international affairs.

Cat Stevens aka Yusuf Islam is simply superb, his former music unparalled.

Why he would wish to visit the sorry subsidized nation of Israel, a land the Jews stole from the Palestinians is beyond me!

"""Why he would wish to visit the sorry subsidized nation of Israel, a land the Jews stole from the Palestinians is beyond me! """

ms. arx:
i would think if i've mailed 'snail mail' to you, that you did not object to, music i wrote and/or performed, that my 'relationship' w/toi might be considered 'atypical' here, compared to other off-group communications.

oh, but you want to have it out right _here_.
raising the bar a notch or two or three.

i'm _sick_ of talking about the rise and fall of 'st. tony the annihilator'. i couldn't do more than to say "yo, check this out".

did i do so?
doesn't everyone already _assume_ i did?
and will you blame _me_ for administrative actions?

as far as i know, an 'ignore' button to we posters from this board is not technically feasible. _you're_ the one who was able to trace people here, right? you're not cyber-ignorant, right? find someone to correct me. groovy.

i wish the mail that axually got through today, which you apparently read, was better, some kinda better,_any_ kinda better than it was.
even if you hadn't intended to see it.

but now you've made our present interaxions clinical, impersonal...
it _wasnt_ an issue twixt moi and toi;
it was a _DMS_ issue.

you wanted this on the _board_.

on the occasions i expressed displeasure with you,[what? twice?] they involved your blurring of what was personal and what was DMS. _exactly_.

i hadn't realized that to you they were interchangeable. i wish i had known from the start.
==
y'know, there was an unfinished disarray song entitled "she changes with the moon".........

"By haireemary ( - 208.49.238.132) on Friday, July 14, 2000 - 09:28 am:
IGOR
Rather than wanting their safety guaranteed, wonder if what their really saying is they want immunity from any form of prosecution for the atrocities which they may have committed? "

Aniway most of them already pass as civilian. If they lay down theyr arms it means they have other arms somewhere else.
_____________________________________________________

Kim
"But these figures have been targeted selectively, on the basis of two criteria - their
loyalty or disloyalty to the president and their political weight."

Oh! Like on DMS! (lol)

Putin's work is already remarkable. Few president would dare doing half of what he did. I'd bet an assissination atempt against him won't come from a chechen.
He has guts. It doesn't mean he will shot on his foot and arrest his close friends.

14 6:14 AM ET
Crackdown on Russian Oligarchs Targets Chubais

Reuters
...Sergei Stepashin, head of the Audit Chamber watchdog, said the body
would look into whether more than 15 percent of shares of
electricity monopoly Unified Energy System were sold illegally to
foreigners in the early 1990s.
The company's boss is Anatoly Chubais, who created Russia's
privatization program and was the main architect of the country's
economic reform programs throughout the reign of President Boris
Yeltsin...

And it's not finished...

Putin is Russia's premier terrorist and gangster.
A maniac who inflicted terror, pain and suffering upon innocent women and children. Those who will by the sword, die by the sword. Lets see how long this slimy monster has in office.

You're right Dimitri, all the 'smart' people are with MSDW , I'll just have to make do with GS!