DOWNSIDE LEGACY AT TWO DEGREES OF PRESIDENT CLINTON
SECTION: RUSSIA
SUBSECTION: GENERAL
Revised 8/20/99

 

Russia-Iran/Strobe Talbot/Wisner-Koptev/AIG

After Viktor Mikhaylov was dismissed as the nuclear energy minister a struggle broke out between tycoons Vladimir Potanin and Boris Berezovskiy for fissile materials. Deputy Chairman of the State Duma's Committee on Conversion of the Defense Industry and High Technology Aleksandr Pomorov is calling to cancel the Russian-US agreement on the use of highly enriched uranium extracted from nuclear weapons. Announced January 1994, the Clinton policy had a US firm which was later privatized for the program and is at the heart of the problem. Vladimir Potanin is the head of Uneximbank and is in a 50-50 deal with Boris Jordan, an American, known as Renaissance Capital. Renaissance and Energiya, a subsidiary of Uneximbank, have a project known as Sea Launch, which is to be the next-door-neighbor of COSCO's new piece of real estate - the naval installation in Long Beach.

Sea launch is premised on the idea, that the closer you launch a rocket to the equator, the more fuel efficient it is because you can take advantage of the earth's rotation, an idea like building a mammoth drilling rig, put a rocket on it, and tow it down to the equator, and then launch it. Boeing is involved in Sea Launch along with Kvaerner, a huge Norwergian shipyard specializing in rigs. Sea Launch is tied to COSCO in the fact that Boris Nemtsov of the Chubais-Potanin-Jordan faction (Sea Launch) has become Boris Yeltsin's principal emissary to China.

StratFor Intelligence Briefing 7/28/98 "Until now, we have withheld comment on the long- running border dispute between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, primarily because it is such a chronic, low-grade problem..However, recent developments in the region suggest there may be more to this story than just an old grudge and the contested ownership of a piece of desert covering a potential oil field. According to a July 22 report in the Russian newspaper "Russkii Telegraf," Russia is preparing to resume arms sales to Yemen. The newspaper reported that a high-ranking Yemeni Defense Ministry delegation visited the Gagarin Aviation Production Association in Komsomolsk-na-Amure on July 21, to discuss the purchase of Su-27 fighter aircraft. The delegation was then scheduled to visit a test range at Kapustin Yar to observe combat applications of the S-300PMU surface-to-air missile system. The delegation were reported to then be traveling to Moscow at the end of last week to sign contracts for the purchase of the weapon systems.

Global Intelligence Update 9/8/98 ".It is time to start discussing what will be on the front page of newspapers in the year 2000 and beyond. Because we regard the collapse of the Russian government as both a given and a definitive event in contemporary history, we would like to devote the next few Weekly Alerts to the more important and less immediate question of what the world will look like in the first part of the twenty-first century..The agent of change here is, of course, Russia. Regardless of personalities, the liberalism of the last six years has played itself out. The Communists and nationalists control the Duma. Yeltsin cannot govern without their support. Their position is that Russia cannot expect meaningful financial help from the West. Indeed, they argue that it was the liberal Westernizers who led Russia to the brink of disaster. In exchange for nothing, Russia has paid with its empire. It has become both impoverished and insecure. This is unacceptable. Therefore, there will be a great rectification. That rectification will take place in stages. The first stage will be the reclamation of the administrative organs of the Russian government and the return of state control to the economy. The second stage will be the reclamation of the former Soviet Union.. The problem is that neither Madeleine Albright nor Strobe Talbot seem to understand that NATO may one day be called on to fight a war. The decisions they have made makes fighting that war impossible.. We expect Russia to return to the borders of the Soviet Union. Therefore, we expect Russian pressure to be exerted on Central Europe. Whatever Russia's intentions might be, the mere presence of Russian power on the Polish plain and in the Carpathians will condition the politics of the adjoining region. This shift will actualize the traditional geopolitics of Europe, driven, once again, by the German question. The first manifestation of this will be the German response to Russian default. Germany has invested far more money in Russia than anyone else. Germany stands far more exposed than anyone else. It will try to organize stabilization programs that the rest of Europe and the U.S. will not be particularly interested in, especially since German banks will be the major beneficiaries. Germany will then face the choice of abandoning its banks to the consequences of Russian default, or of organizing a Russian policy on its own. This will be a defining moment in German and European history. The bailout will fail. The experience of acting alone will redefine German foreign policy and will represent the real end of World War II."

American Spectator 8/98 James Oberg "The scandal of the Star City mansions and NASA's non- response to it perfectly characterize the U.S.-Russian space partnership. From the beginning, the program has stumbled over the issue of money--how much the Russians will get, where (and to whom) it will go, and how much will actually be spent on the promised services. By 1998, the five-year-old partnership had seen the transfer of more than $2 billion of American money (some from NASA but most from commercial enterprises) into the Russian aerospace industry, where most of it vanished utterly without a trace.."

Toronto Sun 9/7/98 Eric Margolis ".While Clinton and Yeltsin were making fools of themselves, outside the Kremlin's walls, Weimar Russia was collapsing. In fact, Clinton arrived in Moscow to find Russia without a government, Yeltsin's nominee for prime minister, the stolid Viktor Chernomyrdin, having just been rejected by the Communist-dominated Duma, or parliament. The ruble hit a new low, banks went insolvent and panicky Russians saw their savings disappear. Though Russia's economy is smaller than Holland's - or Ontario's, for that matter - Moscow's repudiation of its debts has rocked world markets. The West has loaned Russia over US$200 billion since 1991. Half is owed to the U.S. government, IMF, and other institutions, the rest to European and American banks. German banks, the biggest holders of Russian debt, are facing a financial Stalingrad: $52 billion of losses. We have just witnessed the biggest theft in modern history. At least half of the $200 billion poured into Russia to bankroll Yeltsin's regime has been stolen outright, as this column has been reporting for years, and secreted in Switzerland, Monaco, Cyprus and the Bahamas. The thieves were Russia's seven super tycoons, bankers, politicians, and, of course, the Russian mafia, which controls 60% of all business. The West - led by President Clinton - simply closed its eyes to Moscow's Ali Babas and continued the charade that Yeltsin's Russia was a worthy, emerging democracy with a budding middle class and a market system.."

CNN Interactive Reuters 9/4/98 "A group of sailors from Dagestan released 24 school children and teachers they had taken hostage on Saturday at a nuclear base in Russia's Arctic North, Interfax news agency reported. It gave conflicting reports on how the hostage-taking ended.."

The Telegraph UK 10/24/98 Marcus Warren ".A SENIOR Russian Communist has launched a vitriolic anti-Semitic attack, exposing the authorities' inability to deal with Russia's nastier strains of extremism. Gen Albert Makashov, a parliamentary deputy and member of the Communist Party's central committee, already faces criminal charges for vowing "to take at least 10 Yids" with him if threatened with a violent end. Now the retired general has surpassed himself by accusing "Yids" of sucking Russians' blood, destroying the Russian military and spitting on a country that "saved them from the fires and gas chambers of fascism". The rhetoric is extreme even by Russian standards and, by deploying it in the popular nationalist weekly Tomorrow, Gen Makashov is issuing a new challenge to the authorities. In private, senior government figures admit that a failure to prosecute Gen Makashov over his original comments at a rally this month would be a disaster for the state's authority. Now he has trumped those remarks. While claiming that "being a Yid" is "a profession", rather than "a nationality", Gen Makashov stresses that "Zionists" and "Yids" are one and the same and also expresses his contempt for Judaism.."

Global Intelligence Update 10/27/98 ".As unrest continues to grow in the North Caucasus, Russia announced last week that it will not increase its troop presence in the region. Instead, Moscow will rely on local security forces to maintain order in the troubled territory. This announcement follows a report that Russian officials are pulling out of Dagestan, a republic of the Russian Federation bordering on Chechnya, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. After having lost in a war with separatist forces in Chechnya, it appears that Moscow is on the verge of surrendering neighboring Dagestan as well. It is our conclusion that the decision to let Dagestan go is a result of uncertainty in regards to the Russian Army. The uncertainty is less a question of readiness than it is of whether, given discontent over Moscow's failure to adequately fund or even feed Russian troops, Russian Army soldiers will obey Moscow's orders."

12/2/98 AP Tom Raum ".President . Clinton may outline new ideas for reducing nuclear arsenals here and in Russia in next month's State of the Union address, administration and congressional officials say. But the officials stress that much depends on whether Russia's parliament moves first to ratify a long-delayed major disarmament agreement. The Communist-dominated Duma, the lower house, is expected to begin debating the 6-year-old START II measure as early as Friday. The pact, ratified in 1996 by the U.S. Senate, would cut the two nations' arsenals by roughly half, to 3,000 to 3,500 warheads each. Ratification would remove a major obstacle to the Pentagon's desire to consolidate its nuclear inventory -- current Republican- written restrictions that require that at least 6,000 nuclear warheads be maintained and that dictate the mix of missiles, submarines and bombers.."

Washington Times 12/3/98 ". A blue-ribbon Pentagon panel is urging the Clinton administration to improve U.S. nuclear forces for decades to come in the face of Russia's large arsenal and a growing Chinese strategic force. The report by the Defense Science Board Task Force on Nuclear Deterrence warns the direction of nuclear-weapons programs at the Pentagon and Department of Energy is weak and should be strengthened to maintain the balance of power in the years ahead. "While the declarations of senior Department of Defense leaders are very positive, the management attention to planning to sustain the nuclear deterrent does not match the declaratory policy," the task force report concludes. A copy of the report was released Thursday to The Washington Times. It states that U.S. nuclear forces are declining, while those of major strategic adversaries are improving. "There is a near certainty that, wherever arms control efforts take us, Russia will continue to be a nuclear superpower and China will continue to evolve to more capable nuclear forces," the report stated. Russia and China are both building new nuclear missiles. The task force findings represent an unprecedented public review of normally secret U.S. strategic forces and needs. They were presented to Defense Secretary William S. Cohen and Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre in October by the task force chairman, retired Air Force Gen. Larry Welch. The panel's findings challenge many of the arms-control plans and policies of the Clinton administration, such as its ban on nuclear testing, its reliance on arms-reduction agreements, and the effort to monitor nuclear-warhead reliability dubbed the Stockpile Stewardship Program. The report states that nuclear testing "could be a hedge" to maintain deterrence if the non-testing program suffers a "substantial failure." The report is likely to fuel Republican opposition to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, now pending before the Senate."

The Hindu 12/27/98 AP ".The military put 10 new Topol-M nuclear missiles on full combat readiness today, the first time the missile has been deployed. The missile was developed to sustain Russia as a global nuclear power. The single-warhead Topol-M's were commissioned in the Saratov region, about 700 km south-east of here, the Itar-Tass news agency reported. The deployment was a major step for Russia's cash-strapped military.."

The Hindu 12/27/98 UNI ".Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, disenchanted by Washington's bid for ``achieving monopoly of global leadership,'' has flayed both the United States and Britain for ``usurping the functions of prosecutor, judge and bailiff'' by resorting to the use of force against Iraq. Two western powers have struck a blow on the United Nations, hoping for the establishment of a just and effective world order, Mr Gorbachev has said in the local daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta. In a brief but scathing attack on the US, he warned it against ``nurturing illusions of its omnipotence, now widespread among many US politicians. This will pass off one day and it will become clear to all that monopoly of leadership is impossible in today's world.''.."

Global Intelligence Update 12/21/98 ".In the midst of last week's chaos, a single, crucial, clear and historically significant event took place. Russia's geopolitical flirtation with the West finally came to an end. There will undoubtedly be periods of reconciliation, cooperation and even good will in the future. But a sudden and powerful consensus emerged in Russia that held that Russia had been betrayed by the United States over Iraq, and that the only way out of this situation was for Russia to once again reassert itself as a great power. What is most important in this view is that it is the only issue on which all factions appear to agree. Apart from a few, isolated pro-western liberals, the view from the office of Boris Yeltsin to the most extreme nationalists and communists was that the decision by the United States to bomb Iraq was intolerable. It has the potential to be the foundation of a new Russian political consensus, with critical consequences for the international system. The problem was not only that the United States bombed Iraq, but that it did not even consult Russia. Indeed, that is one of the most peculiar aspects of this attack and the one that led us not to expect this attack..."

Fox News 12/21/98 ".The speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament said Monday he believed the chamber would vote next month to launch impeachment proceedings against President Boris Yeltsin, Interfax news agency reported. Gennady Seleznyov, a member of the opposition Communist Party, said he expected impeachment proceedings to start on at least one count. Impeachment is a long and complicated process which even Yeltsin critics say has almost no chance of success.."

AP 12/21/98 George Gedda http://www.newsday.com/ap/rnmpnt0p.htm ".Just a few years ago, many Americans dreamed that from the ashes of the Soviet Union would arise a reformist, democratic Russia determined to overcome the gravitational pull of communism and eager to join hands with its former adversaries. For those who harbored those dreams, these are not good times. Lately, almost everything has gone wrong. ``That euphoria was misplaced,'' said Peter Rodman of the Nixon Center for Peace and Freedom, a private think tank. Russian foreign policy has shifted in a sharply nationalist direction in recent years, the hallmark of which is that American global dominance must be opposed, he said. Some Russians openly concede that objective. Gen. Leonid Ivashov said in Moscow last Friday that ``Russia may become the leader of a part of the world community that disagrees with the (U.S.) dictate.''."

ORLANDO SENTINEL 1/3/99 Charlie Reese ".The Russians are talking to India and China about a new strategic alliance -- the three of them to offset the United States. Got to admit that would be a formidable alliance -- three nuclear powers with 2 billion of the world's 5 billion people and a huge, huge chunk of its natural resources... As one Russian military intelligence official put it, "The U.S. has become unpredictable." And the future has become more so. I strongly suspect America's starring role as the world's only superpower will close soon to bad reviews. Bill Clinton and his baby-boomer gang have swaggered about, neglected important affairs, meddled in trivial ones and given the world an almost comic-opera picture of a sanctimonious, bombastic, ineffective and incompetent superpower... While American politicians boasted about the alleged success of bombing Iraq, the Russian military intelligence noted that a half-billion dollars worth of missiles killed 67 soldiers, blew up some empty buildings and even wandered off into Iran. Apparently, under the Clinton administration, even the smart bombs have been dumbed down. Clinton, his secretary of defense and his secretary of state couldn't scrape up two hours of military experience between them. And they have even less interest in the subject.."

New Republic 1/18/99 ".When the United States and Britain bombed Iraq, the harshest condemnation came from two pro-Iraq Security Council members with whom the Clinton administration has worked overtime to improve relations: Russia and China. Boris Yeltsin left his sickbed to express "the most serious concern, a feeling of dismay and deep alarm." Russia's ambassador to the United Nations huffed about "gross violations of the rule of law." China's U.N. ambassador said the U.S. had "violated the U.N. charter and the norms governing international law." Isn't there something a little odd about the Clinton administration's equanimity toward such abuse from countries it has so solicitously befriended? Consider what the U.S. has done to help bail out the Russian economy."

AP 1/13/99 ".A new MiG fighter jet, conceived as a Russian response to the latest U.S. combat aircraft, was unveiled with much pomp Tuesday even though the plane has yet to carry out its maiden flight. The MAPO-MiG company that produces the MiG aircraf claims it would be able to outperform the most advanced U.S. fighter, the F-22 Raptor...Like the American fighter, the MFI has a "thrust vectoring" system that allows it to make sharper turns than current fighters. It also has similar stealth capabilities, relying on composite materials and a special shape to avoid detection by enemy radar..In March 1997, military officials said they were scrapping plans to manufacture the MFI because it was too expensive. Sergeyev said the Defense Ministry would support the MFI development program, and would decide on production plans following flight tests that could take up to seven years.."

Stratfor 1/24/99 page 48 Global Intelligence Update ".Something odd is going on. The Iraqis are not allowing the latest crisis to die down, but are challenging U.S. aircraft with missiles and are deploying forces southward. Their newspapers are full of threats directed toward Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. At the same time, the Serbs deliberately carried out a massacre that was intended to be detected, and then intentionally exacerbated the crisis by trying to expel a senior diplomat. There is now the real possibility that Baghdad and Belgrade are coordinating their actions to simultaneously pose challenges that strain U.S. military capabilities. At the same time, Russia has taken on a much more assertive role, demanding that the U.S. not attack either Iraq or Serbia. The U.S. Post-Cold War coalition has completely broken down. Russia, France and China are all resisting the U.S. A window of opportunity has opened here for the Iraqis and Serbs. We see signs that they are now taking advantage of it, perhaps in concert..One of the major predictions STRATFOR made in the Annual Forecast was that Russia would become much more assertive in 1999.."

New York Times 1/21/99 ". There is no longer any threat of Russia's deliberately attacking the United States. But Moscow's still-formidable stocks of nuclear bombs, nuclear ingredients and biological and chemical warfare agents pose a different kind of danger. Much of this material is inadequately secured, and the workers guarding it are paid poorly or not at all. That creates an unacceptably high risk that some material could be sold to potential aggressors like Iraq, Libya, North Korea or Serbia. Many Russian weapons scientists are also unemployed or unpaid and vulnerable to foreign recruitment.. It would not take much more than $10 billion to eliminate most of the risks from those weapons today.."

New York Times 1/22/99 Thomas Friedman ".No, no, you say, the President declared that "We must expand our work with Russia to safeguard nuclear materials." But I thought that was a laugh line. After all, for the last five years Mr. Clinton has had a signed treaty on the table with the Russians -- Start 2 - - that would require Moscow to slash the number of its long-range nuclear warheads aimed at us, from around 6,000 to 3,000. But the Clinton team chose to trade Russia's immediate ratification of Start 2 for NATO expansion. That's right, they traded the elimination of 3,000 Russian warheads for the Polish Air Force and the Czech Navy! ."

Reuters 1/31/99 Freeper Sawdring ".President Geidar Aliev has ruled out the establishment of U.S. or other foreign military bases in Azerbaijan, a Russian newspaper reported. Aliev, 75, who returned to Baku on Saturday after being treated for the flu and bronchitis at a hospital in Turkey, said it was premature to consider foreign assistance to counter a buildup of Russian military in neighboring Armenia.."

Hartford Courant 1/30/99 John Macdonald ".In a major shift of U.S. policy, Clinton administration officials said they want to move ahead with a missile defense system designed to stop attacks from small outlaw nations. The problem is that the proposed new system is larger than anything allowed under the 1972 agreement. Arms control experts who worked on the 1972 accord are horrified. They see more than two years of work evaporating for a system they doubt will work against a threat they are not certain exists. The cost, they say, will be that Russia will see the new shield, limited though it may be, as a threat to its security and will refuse to follow through on agreements it has signed with the United States to reduce both nation's long-range nuclear missile arsenals..Cohen said the United States will try to renegotiate the 1972 treaty with Russia to allow the new program to go forward. If Russia objects, the United States will push ahead anyway.."

UPI Focus 2/18/99 ".Russian President Boris Yeltsin says he has warned President Clinton not to order airstrikes against Yugoslavia if a peaceful agreement over Kosovo isn't reached. Yeltsin told reporters today he told Clinton during a recent telephone conversation, "We will not let Kosovo be touched." ."

Insight 2/13/99 J. Michael Waller ".Along a rural Virginia road, a Hartsdale, N.Y., photographer no sooner stops his car and tosses something into the leaves than he is swarmed by a team of FBI agents. In Toronto, Ian and Laurie Lambert apply for passports -- and alerted Canadian authorities haul them off to jail. Sixteen years after receiving asylum in Israel from his native Soviet Union, electrical engineer Anatoly Gendler is arrested and imprisoned in Tel Aviv. In Finland, police grab a British couple at Helsinki's Vantaa airport and deport them -- to their home in Russia. These people had one thing in common: All were deep-cover Russian spies. Even as superpower tensions subsided in the mid-1980s and after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Moscow continued not only to recruit turncoat Americans and other Westerners, but to penetrate Western societies with highly trained, long-term espionage officers and agents.."

Washington Times 2/16/99 Freeper LPH2 ".Comments of Richard Perle, the former assistant secretary of defense about Iraq trying to upgrade his air defenses with help from Russia: ..."The idea that the Russians would take this kind of action is a kick in the face.....It is a scandal.". The Clinton administration is a "cream puff" on foreign policy, he said. "The Russians have come to that conclusion and consider the United States weak and irresolute." .."

Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessment of Russia's strategic bomber exercises which simulated nuclear bombing raids and firings of long range cruise missiles against the U.S. raises the question: "Why aren't they practicing against Chinese targets?"

7/13/98 London Times Michael Evans "President Yeltsin activated his "nuclear briefcase" for a retaliatory attack against the West in 1995 when Russian early warning stations picked up what they thought was an approaching American Trident ballistic missile, according to a television documentary. .Bruce Blair, a former American nuclear forces commander and now a member of the Brookings Institute in Washington, says: "The military actually issued orders to the Strategic Rocket Forces to prepare to receive the next command which would have been the launch order." ."

7/14/98 Worldnetdaily Joseph Farah concerning COSCO and Long Beach "It's a staging ground for the New World Order. When Bill Clinton says he and China share a vision for one big happy planet, this is what he is talking about.. The wacky idea was formulated right in the Oval Office following one of those visits by Chinese arms dealers who dumped money into President Clinton's 1996 election campaign. Long Beach city officials, oblivious to the national security concerns of the plan, saw it as a bonanza for local commerce and jobs. China's interest in Long Beach is as understandable as Beijing's desire to take control of the Panama Canal. But there's even more to the story than meets the eye -- more than most of the opposition to the plan have ever imagined. China also wants COSCO, which serves as an intelligence-gathering operation for the PLA, located near the multinational Sea Launch project, which will use its Long Beach base to launch dozens of satellites into space from equatorial ocean locations. The Russian company RSC-Energia is a partner in Sea Launch along with Boeing. RSC-Energia is as closely tied to Russian military intelligence as COSCO is to Chinese military intelligence.."

8/10/98 AP Michael White "The State Department has suspended work on Boeing's Sea Launch commercial rocket program after learning that the company disclosed possibly sensitive information to its Russian and Ukrainian partners. Boeing officials, anxious to resume work on the $500 million project, which will launch satellites from a floating platform in the Pacific Ocean, were trying Monday to convince the government there will be no further unauthorized disclosures."

The American Spectator 8/11-17/98 Kenneth Timmerman "On July 13, a Norwegian-built cargo ship, the Sea Launch Commander, steamed into the former U.S. Naval Station at Long Beach, California, carrying Russian and Ukrainian-built missiles... If all goes according to plan, the two ships will set sail early next year from Long Beach to the Christmas Islands, which lie on the Equator in the South Pacific, to make their first commercial satellite launch. That is, unless federal prosecutors scuttle the entire deal. TAS has learned from law enforcement sources in Long Beach, Seattle, and Washington that Boeing has admitted to more than 350 violations of U.S. export laws in connection with the Sea Launch venture. "What you have is a U.S. company bringing Russian ICBMs into a U.S. port without a license," one official said. "This is totally unprecedented." The Zenit booster--which forms the first two stages of the Sea Launch rocket--is a larger, commercial version of Russia's ten-warhead SS-18 "Satan" ICBM, the huge city-buster that still threatens the American mainland. Until now, it has been primarily used by Russia to send military spy satellites into space.."

Freeper report on CBS 8/27/98 "A CBS Television Special reports that Boris Yeltsin just signed an official resignation dated to take effect next week. A temporary president will be appointed until elections can be held to select a new president of Russia. On the report, the DJIA fell more than 350 points in minutes, but rebounded fifty points a few minutes later. Both the beleaguered Asian markets and the European markets also fell on the announcement. President Clinton was scheduled for an official visit with Yeltsin next month. Reports say the Russian military is surviving on an official diet of dog food. (Not making it up! That's the report.) The Russian Rubble is depreciating at the rates as high as 15% per day. No word on how much it fell on the news of President Yeltsin's resignation. Presumably, when not defending Clinton's myriad scandals, the state department is studying the developments. Holding tight for possible rough weather on the horizon."

Fox News 8/27/98 Neil Cavuto: Kremlin denying that Yeltsin has stepped down. It is probably just a matter of when; Yeltsin is persona non grata. Yeltsin has blown $40 billion of IMF and other funds. Parliament dominated by Communists saying capitalism has failed; replace Yeltsin with a Communist.

Kanwa Information Center 2/10/99 Kanwa News Freeper Jolly "...On February 2, the Far East Military Tribunal of Russia convicted a number of Russian and Chinese citizens of stealing and illegally selling the navigation system of Russia's SU27 fighter plane to China. Those who were involved in this espionage case included the former major of the Intelligence Bureau of Russia's Far East Military Region and the employees of the Far East Plane Plant that produced the SU27 for China. The above espionage group even extended its activities to the air force base and hired the low-ranking officers of the base to steal the navigation equipment and the other systems of the SU27 planes that now serve the Russian army...."

MOSCOW, (Reuters) 2/24/99 "...Zhu's visit follows a trip by Chinese President Jiang Zemin last November and is part of series of high-level exchanges which began in the early 1990s. Bitter rivalry between Moscow and Beijing during the 1960s after the breakup of their close communist alliance is now almost completely forgotten. Trade and political ties have blossomed since the late 1980s and both sides now describe their relationship as a ``strategic partnership.'' ..."

Reuters 2/24/99 "...The Clinton administration warned Wednesday that legislation on a national missile defense (NMD) would send Russia a message that the United States is not interested in security cooperation. Draft legislation working its way through both the Senate and the House of Representatives would make it U.S. policy to deploy a system to defend against incoming missiles as soon as such a system is technically feasible.... To deploy a large-scale missile defense system, the United States would probably have to either negotiate an amendment of the ABM treaty with Russia or renounce the treaty on the grounds that U.S. supreme interests were at stake. The Russians say they do not want to amend the treaty and the dispute could hold up Russian ratification of START II, the strategic arms reduction treaty signed in 1993...."

Reuters 2/21/99 Adam Tanner "....The United States has offered to set up a missile early-warning center with Russia from December 1999 to reduce the risk of accidental war stemming from the millennium bug, a senior U.S. defense official said Sunday. Edward Warner, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Threat Reduction, outlined the suggestion in two days of military talks that ended Friday on how the millennium computer bug might affect Russia's nuclear arsenal. Experts have expressed fear that the millennium bug, or Y2K problem, caused by outdated computer software that may mistake the year 2000 for 1900 could cause Russian radars to believe mistakenly that an attack was under way...."

Washington Post 3/2/99 John Mintz "...A federal grand jury in Seattle is investigating whether Boeing Co. violated criminal laws by improperly sharing sensitive rocketry data with Russian and Ukrainian technicians working with the company on a sea-launched satellite project, sources said yesterday.... The U.S. attorney's office in Seattle is leading the investigation, which was first reported in yesterday's editions of the Seattle Times. The probe focuses on the company and the foreigners who received the technical data. Investigators are examining, among other things, an allegation that some of the Russian and Ukrainian individuals who received the technical briefings and were given access to controlled areas were intelligence agents for their countries. Electronic recording equipment was found at the home of one of the Russians, sources said...."

Miami Herald 3/4/99 Andres Oppenheimer and Juan Tamayo "...A spate of construction at the Russian spy base in Cuba that included three new satellite dishes, a parking lot and even a swimming pool has sparked a debate in Washington over whether Moscow is upgrading or merely maintaining the facility. Many in the U.S. intelligence community and conservatives in Congress argue that the construction amounts to a dangerous expansion of the Lourdes base near Havana that could endanger U.S. military interventions in foreign trouble spots like Kosovo. In a classified briefing to several members of Congress and aides Feb. 24, CIA and other U.S. intelligence officials said the Russians had ``intensified their activities in Lourdes, according to three people with access to the briefing. The number of satellite dishes has doubled from three to six and workers built new buildings, new parking lots and a swimming pool for the Russian military technicians who run the base, the sources said..."

Electronic Telegraph 3/07/99 Alice Lagnado "...RUSSIAN soldiers in the war-torn Caucasus region are selling their comrades as hostages to Chechen rebels for as little as £10 to supplement their meagre wages, it has been revealed. During the past two years, 46 soldiers and officers in the 136th Motorised Brigade alone, which is based in Buynaksk, Dagestan, have disappeared. Most of them were sold to Chechen rebels, who then sell them for a ransom back to their families...."

Global Intelligence Update 3/8/99 "...Last weekend, the Washington Post broke a story stating that the United States had temporarily halted the sale of aircraft to Greece. The reason was that evidence had come to light that Greece, a U.S. ally and member of NATO, had provided the Russians with extremely sensitive codes that would enable someone to jam NATO aircraft. In exchange, according to the reports, Russia gave Greece a system known as SPN-2, which would interfere with the targeting capabilities of NATO aircraft. Presumably, Greece would have used this system against Turkey. Once the reports surfaced, Washington asserted that weapons sales to Greece would resume, because the reports were inaccurate and the transaction had not taken place...."

Newsmax, Votex 3/11/99 Christopher Ruddy "... Many Americans find it unthinkable that Russia or China would launch an attack on the US knowing that it would mean millions of casualties on their soil. But what Americans fail to take into account is the mindset of the authoritarian communists who still occupy every important military and political office in those countries. These are the same people who gave the world brainwashing, the Secret Police, and the Gulag. Under these communist leaders and their predecessors, China and the Soviet Union became the most murderous regime in the history of the human race, and the primary victims were their own citizens. According to Professor R. J. Rummel, author of Death By Government: "Almost 62 million people, nearly 54,800,000 of them citizens, have been murdered by the Communist Party -- the government -- of the Soviet Union. "Old and young, healthy and sick, men and women, even infants and the infirm, were killed in cold blood. They were not combatants in civil war or rebellions; they were not criminals. Indeed, nearly all were guilty of... nothing." [Death by Government, pp. 79 & 80.] Second only to the Soviet Union in mass murder, is Communist China. At least 35,236,000 people have been killed in Red China. Rummel writes: "These poor souls have experienced every manner of death for every conceivable reason: genocide, politicide, mass murder, massacres, and individual directed assassination. [Death by Government, p. 92] Have Russia and China "reformed," and become peaceful lambs, as President Clinton would have us believe? The evidence is overwhelming to the contrary. THE MYTH OF RUSSIAN DEMOCRACY ...In brief, the centralized apparatus of economic control remains firmly in the hands of "former" communists, both in Russia, China, and throughout the states of the former Soviet Union. And the same people are in charge of the economy..... RUSSIA'S COMMITMENT TO GLOBAL CONQUEST ... When I spoke to Teller at his home, he was very worried about Clinton's military polices, which he called extremely "dangerous." According to Teller, under Clinton the US has ceased the development of virtually all strategic weapons, especially nuclear ones. Teller seemed perplexed that an American president would do such a thing, especially since the Russians and Chinese were building new and more powerful weapons at breakneck speed. If this goes on, Teller said, the US military would witness no real improvement in its weapons systems for a decade -- exposing America to pre-emptive attack.... To put it briefly, the West has been disarming, while the Russians and Chinese have been building their militaries rapidly -- especially their strategic forces, or "superweapons." WAS THE WEST TRICKED? .Since its inception in 1917, the Soviet Union followed the policy of alternating periods of repression with relaxing of authority and opening to the West to attract Western capital and aid. Then, a few years later, revitalized by the infusion of Western money and technology, they would clamp down again, more brutally than ever. China has done the same. Time and again, the West has been taken in by this trick. Indeed, throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the Soviet Union was the darling of myopic intellectuals in America and Europe who praised it for its "noble" ideology, donated funds and urged Western aid -- while ignoring the mind-numbing repression, concentration camps and mass executions. Anatoliy Golitsyn, an important KGB defector, warned the CIA that the USSR would launch a massive "liberalization" movement, as a ruse to get the West to disarm...."

Global Intelligence Update 3/15/99 "... This past week Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic formally became part of NATO. This means that the mutual guarantees of assistance in time of war, that have been the essence of NATO for several generations, have now been extended to these three. If any of them are attacked then it is the legal and moral obligation of all NATO members to come to their assistance.... NATO has become defined in two ways. First, it has been defined, along with the European Union, as an alliance among democratic states. To be a bit more precise, it has been identified as an organization that motivates formerly non-democratic states to become democratic.... The second role that NATO has defined for itself derives from the first. If NATO is a club for democratic capitalist countries, and if its purpose is to motivate countries to be democratic and capitalist, then it follows that NATO should also punish countries that are not democratic and capitalist. One punishment is exclusion.... In extreme cases where the anti-democratic, anti-free market behavior of states goes beyond certain limits, NATO is seen as an instrument of rectification, imposing penalties on the transgressor, including military penalties. Serbia has become the exemplar of this treatment....NATO has, in other words, transformed itself from a defensive alliance against the Soviet Union, into a system of relations designed to regulate the internal political, economic and social relations of not only member countries, but also of non-members on the periphery of the NATO alliance...If the Russian view of the West has become as negative as it appears from what they say, then Russia will assume the worst of the West and act preemptively. In that case, it is a race over who will act first in the Baltics, Ukraine, and Slovakia..."

South China Morning Post 3/12/99 Freeper Copycat "...Beijing confirmed yesterday that it had held talks with Russia on the US plan to create a theatre missile defence (TMD) system to protect its troops and allies in Asia. Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said: "Both China and Russia have expressed their respective stands on the issue of TMD." Mr Zhu did not say where and when the talks were held or who was involved. The Japanese news agency Kyodo, quoting an unnamed Russian government source, said on Wednesday that security experts from the foreign and defence ministries of China and Russia had met every two months to exchange information about the anti-missile system. The talks began late last year at China's request, and the two sides would likely end up deciding on a united approach, possibly jointly asking that the US and Japan terminate development of the programme, the source said...."

NewsMax 3/15/99 Christopher Ruddy "...The perception in much of the West is that Russian conventional and strategic forces are in complete disarray, on the verge of breakdown or worse, like the civilian economy. Fears of a military meltdown in Russia have successfully been exploited by the Russians as a subtle form of blackmail. Either the US and the West hand over billions in aid, or else. The truth is that Russia's military-industrial complex did not collapse as a result of the dissolution of the Soviet Union -- nor was its arsenal of strategic weapons dismantled.

In May of 1997, Reuters reported, citing French intelligence estimates, Russia maintains a stockpile of 18,000 to 20,000 tactical nuclear weapons -- that's in addition to approximately 8,000 big, strategic nuclear weapons. Other estimates put the total number of nuclear weapons at between 30,000 and 50,000. That's the largest nuclear arsenal that Russia has ever had, equaling or exceeding what they possessed at the height of the Cold War. Russia has also been modernizing its strategic weapons. Air Force General Eugene Habiger, commander of the US Strategic Command in Nebraska, told the Washington Times last year that Russia and China have been engaging in a massive weapons modernization program. Habiger told the Times that "Russia has begun producing its new SS-27 strategic missile (the Topol-M) and is building new submarines armed with multiple-warhead missiles and new bomber-launched cruise missiles." Habiger continued, noting that "Russia is the only power with the capacity to destroy the United States. 'The anomaly that we're faced with is that the Cold War ended, and did the loser really lose?' he said. 'Did you see a demobilization? Did you see all those nuclear weapons come down in Russia? No.'" The Air Force's National Intelligence Center concluded in a recent report to Congress that even with the economic and social problems of Russia, that she "probably will retain the largest force of land-based strategic missiles in the world."..."

NewsMax 3/15/99 Christopher Ruddy "...In March of this year, the New York Times carried an article by Ken Alibek, a chief deputy in Biopreparat, the military's biological weapons division. Alibek says Russia continues to develop new biological weapons, from anthrax to various plague strains. Alibek criticized US aid to Russia which does not allow full-scale inspection of the sites where these weapons are being developed. Alibek's claims were substantiated in September of 1998 when the Defense Intelligence Agency reported to Congress that "key components of the former Soviet biological warfare program remain largely intact and may support a possible future mobilization capability for the production of biological agents and delivery systems." ... "

STRATFOR's Global Intelligence Update 3/23/99 "... Russia has been consistent in its opposition to the use of military force against Yugoslavia, particularly by NATO, since the crisis emerged. Primakov argued on March 23 that such an attack would fundamentally change "the nature of international order," as Yugoslavia was not an aggressor against foreign countries. "Maybe someone would like to make an air strike against Turkey because the Kurdish problem hasn't been solved yet," he mused, "Or maybe against Spain because the Basque problem has not been solved." Primakov insisted that all diplomatic options had not been exhausted, while Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vladimir Rakhmanin repeated the argument that, "One cannot use force in international relations without the agreement of the UN Security Council." The Kosovo crisis strikes a deep chord in Moscow, and has been the exceptional case uniting Russia's contentious political factions [http://www.stratfor.com/services/giu/101598.asp]. Moscow not only opposes the use of force against its traditional Slavic ally, but also sees NATO action as a dangerous precedent, furthering the encirclement of and threat to Russia itself. Already incensed at the geographic expansion of NATO, Russia is fiercely opposed to the expansion of NATO's mission....Also on March 23, Vafa Goulizade, senior foreign policy advisor to Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev, announced that a Russian cargo plane carrying six MiG fighters and 30 pilots and technicians had been detained at Baku's Bina airport on March 18. According to Goulizade, the Antonov An-124's crew had admitted that the plane was bound for Yugoslavia. According to Azerbaijani authorities, the crew later repeatedly changed their story, claiming to be bound alternatively for North Korea or the Czech Republic....Whichever proves to be the real story, the implications are the same. It is important not to underestimate Moscow's resentment of the way in which Russia has been marginalized in international affairs. And deeper still is Russia's opposition to what it sees as the tightening noose being drawn around it by the U.S. and NATO..."

Drudge 3/23/99 "... Russia's Defense and Foreign Ministries have been working on options to act, in connection with possible NATO strikes against Yugoslavia... All actions by the Defense Ministry will be aimed at increasing the combat readiness of Russia's armed forces. According to the information available to ITAR-TASS newswire on Wednesday morning, in case the situation takes an unfavorable turn for Russia, the Ministry is preparing proposals on possible deployment of tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Byelorussia. Military officials are seriously considering the possibility of Russia's withdrawal from earlier agreements within the framework of the Russian-US commission as regards Russian arms supplies to Iran. Russia may order its peacekeepers in Bosnia and Herzegovina "not to take orders from NATO generals and only obey instructions from the Russian General Staff"... DEVELOPING HOT..."

AP BREAKING NEWS 3/23/99 "...Azerbaijan has detained a Russian cargo plane carrying six MiG jet fighters that may have been heading to Yugoslavia, news reports said today. The Russian AN-124 cargo plane arrived in Azerbaijan's capital last Thursday for refueling. But customs agents prevented the plane from leaving after finding the jet fighters and other military equipment aboard along with 30 pilots and technicians, the Turan news agency reported. The crew said initially that the plane was heading for Yugoslavia, a Russian ally that is under an international arms embargo. But the crew said later that they were going to North Korea, Turan reported. The crew has refused to provide information on where their flight originated and other details sought by Azeri officials, who suspect the crew members are mercenaries..."

Tass 3/24/99 Freeper lowteksh KIEV (Itar-Tass) "... Ukraine's Supreme Council on Wednesday decided to abolish the country's nuclear-free status in view of "NATO's aggressive plans with regard to countries which are not members of the Alliance", according to a statement explaining reasons for the move...."

Tass 3/24/99 MOSCOW (Itar-Tass) "...If NATO begins military action in Yugoslavia, Russia will respond in accordance with President Boris Yeltsin's decisions and depending on the situation, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said. In a live interview with the ORT television's news programme Vremya on Wednesday evening, Ivanov said that "it would be premature right now to speak about any steps that could lead to the escalation of tension on the European continent." ..."

AFP 3/24/99 Freeper Thanatos "...Russia's President Boris Yeltsin appealed to world leaders Wednesday to keep US President Bill Clinton from making the "terrifying and tragic" mistake of launching air strikes against the Serbs over Kosovo. "I address the whole world, I address people who have survived war, I address those who experienced bombings, I address their children, I address all politicians. "Let us while there are a few moments left convince Clinton not to make this terrifying step," Yeltsin said in a forceful and emotional national television address...."

BBC 3/21/99 Freeper Sakida "...Russia and China have agreed to develop jointly a number of islands on rivers along their border. The agreement came during talks which ended in Beijing on Saturday. Radio Russia quoted the head of the Moscow delegation as saying that a list of ten islands to be developed jointly was compiled during the talks. He said no precedents for the joint development of territories existed anywhere in the world, and he described Russia and China as trailblazers..."

Insight Magazine 4/5-12/99 J Michael Waller Freeper TxTruth "...While GAO was conducting its probe, Vice President Al Gore was hammering out a deal to expand the concept tenfold. His $600 million Nuclear Cities Initiative would fund Russian scientists who produce their weapons of mass destruction and set up commercial projects in the secret "nuclear cities" through 2007. As Gore was working on the details, GAO investigators tried to visit one of those nuclear cities, Sarov, to monitor an IPP project there. The former KGB barred them from even entering the city..."

Kanwa News Andrei Pinkov 3/11/99 "...As the source of the Russian military industry indicated to the KWIC reporter, Russia is in negotiation with China on the transfer of the Russian torpedo technology that was formerly used in the 'KILO' - class submarine. The same torpedoes can also be used in the China-made 'Song' - class submarine. Russian Prime Minister Premakov publicly indicated last month that Russia was willing to transfer its hi-tech products to China at an international market price. The military observers in Moscow generally believe that this is tantamount to a hint that some of the restrictions Moscow has long imposed on the military sales to China have been relaxed...."

Interfax 3/25/99 "...Russia will not use force to settle the Kosovo conflict. "We are not discussing using force in response to force," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told Interfax after a Thursday morning meeting with Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov. On the possibility of Russia's unilaterally dropping sanctions on arms deliveries to Yugoslavia, Ivanov said, "An aggression was launched against a sovereign country that did not start any aggression, and under the U.N. charter other countries U.N. members may offer assistance to such a country." He did not specify what assistance could be given..."

Associated Press 3/25/99 Barry Renfrew "...President Boris Yeltsin said today that Russia has decided not to use force to counter NATO attacks against Yugoslavia and will continue its efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Kosovo conflict. "Russia has a number of extreme measures in store, but we decided not to use them so far," Yeltsin said after meeting with his top ministers at the Kremlin. "Morally we are above America."..... "We would have liked to use grenades, but all we had were eggs," said protester Denis Yasov in St. Petersburg..... But after its initial harsh reaction to the bombings, Moscow appeared to be backing away from confrontation with the United States and its NATO allies. The ITAR-Tass news agency reported today that Russia would keep its mission at NATO headquarters in Brussels open and apparently would continue to take part in other alliance programs. Despite its staunch support for Yugoslavia, Russia's options are limited. It is no longer a major military power, and it desperately wants Western aid to revive its shattered economy..."

Drudge 3/25/99 "... ITAR/TASS, the official state news agency for Russia, reported that Security Council deputy secretary Viktor Navelsky told Byelorussian television on Wednesday evening that the national Security Council has worked out, on the president's instruction, a set of measures in connection with the aggravation of the situation in Yugoslavia, including a possible return of nuclear weapons to Byelorussia. But on Thursday evening, Byelorussia's democratic forces issued a declaration blasting Moscow for the nuke talk. "Kosovo hostilities cannot be nether the pretext nor the cause of unleashed imperial campaign aimed at deploying nuclear arms in Byelorussia," it said.

"We consider all infringements on its sovereignty as gross interference with the home affairs of an independent state... We demand that Russia stop the nuclear blackmail of Byelorussia."..."

Reuters 3/28/99 Martin Wolk "...An international consortium led by Boeing Co. blasted its first rocket into space from a floating Pacific Ocean platform Saturday on a mission to test the novel technology for use in the commercial satellite market. The three-stage rocket, built by Boeing's Russian and Ukrainian partners, lifted off at 5:30 p.m. PST from the Odyssey, a converted oil rig platform near the equator about 1,500 miles southeast of Hawaii..... The project, developed in four years for an estimated $500 million, also was delayed last year by U.S. charges that Boeing had improperly transferred military technology to its Russian and Ukrainian partners. Boeing ultimately agreed to pay $10 million to settle civil charges but remains the subject of a federal grand jury investigation into the technology transfer. ..."

NewsMax 3/30/99 JR Nyquist "...When US and NATO warplanes struck Yugoslavia last week, President Boris Yeltsin warned of a global war. But Western leaders have seemingly scoffed at Yeltsin's statement, and those of other Russian leaders. By ignoring such peril, Western leaders have taken a casual approach to Russia that may be intensifying Russia's growing animus toward the West. To date, no high level meetings between Russian and American officials have been arranged to address Moscow's concerns. The usual anxiety about US-Russian relations is almost non-existent. At the State Department, James Rubin offered the belief that "President Yeltsin, Prime Minister Primakov and Foreign Minister Ivanov see the value of keeping the relationship (between the U.S. and Russia) on track, and not letting someone like Milosevic derail everything that's at stake." Yet the relationship is not on track....An alarm has been sounded throughout Russia. When NATO bombs began falling on Russia's ally, Yugoslavia, the banner headline of Kommersant, a business newspaper, simply said: "The Blow." Segodnya's ominous headline explained: "It's war. The Americans cannot convince the Serbs, and Russia cannot convince the Americans." Vremya's headline stated: "NATO planes have attacked Yugoslavia as well as Moscow's international authority." ...."

WorldNetDaily 3/31/99 Joseph Farah "...Sea Launch is a multinational venture, spearheaded by Boeing, but in partnership with RSC Energia, a Russian company controlled from its formation by Moscow's intelligence agents, as well as companies from Ukraine and Norway...... While the multinationals are seeing dollar signs in the technology that helps our enemies target us with nuclear ballistic missiles, the real cost to U.S. taxpayers, who have long subsidized these aerospace firms, is to national security..... For instance, even the security-unconscious Clinton administration withdrew Sea Launch's license to operate last July 27, following a disclosure that Boeing had transferred technical information to its foreign partners without proper approval. As part of the settlement arranged by the State Department, Boeing agreed to pay a fine, with a portion to be used over the next three years to shore up Sea Launch's export compliance measures. On Sept. 30, 1998, the State Department terminated the suspension of the Boeing Company's export license on Sea Launch as part of that civil settlement. That cleared the way for Saturday's test launch. Yet, as someone who has investigated Sea Launch for the last two years, I can tell you there is no way the project can prevent such transfers of technology in the future. Think about it. If you form a business partnership with an individual or a group of individuals, can you realistically expect that partnership to flourish and prosper by keeping secrets directly related to your business plan? This is the fundamental flaw in all such multinational ventures, but especially those that involve phony front companies for hostile foreign intelligence services and military arms....."

Inside Russia Today 4/2/99 Freeper hope Reuters "...Former Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin on Thursday warned that growing anti-American feeling in Russia could re-draw dividing lines dating back from the Cold War. Some Russian government officials have blamed the United States for leading NATO into what is routinely called "aggression" against Yugoslavia, a fellow Slav Orthodox Christian state. And the U.S. embassy in Moscow has also been the focus for protesters, angry at NATO air strikes. "The anti-Americanism that is gathering speed today is very dangerous," Chernomyrdin, who was prime minister from 1992-98, told reporters. "An image of an enemy is again being formed...It's dangerous to divide ourselves again into blocs." "We'll really never get back on our feet," he said. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said he felt there was distrust on both sides. "I think this is a problem in both Russia and the United States," Gorbachev told Reuters. ...."

Russia's Ivanov Says Balkan Crisis Spreading Reuters Freeper Thanatos 4/1/99 "...Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Thursday the Kosovo crisis was spreading beyond the borders of Yugoslavia and he said Moscow was preparing new unspecified measures to help end the fighting. Ivanov, quoted by Interfax news agency, also said he was worried by NATO's plan to move to a third stage in its military operation, saying this development presented ``new tasks'' for Russia's armed forces. Wednesday, Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev announced Russia was sending a reconnaissance ship to the Mediterranean Sea and might send six more in connection with the Yugoslav crisis..... Sergeyev told Interfax: ``This (situation) is like a whirlpool which is drawing more and more countries into it.'' Ivanov said the fighting could affect Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Hungary and also threatened to destabilize Bosnia...."

LA Times 4/4/99 Michael McFaul "...Like no other international crisis of the last decade, NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia threatens to undermine support for Western-oriented reforms in Russia and isolate Moscow from the West internationally. Siding with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and thwarting liberal reforms at home do not serve the long-term interests of Russia as a world power or Russians as a people. In the passion of the moment, however, Russian leaders may be tempted, or feel compelled to take drastic measures to assist Serbia, which, in turn, could precipitate a passionate anti-Russian response in the West. The resulting strain in U.S.-Russia relations would give new meaning to the term "collateral damage." Well before the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's campaign against Yugoslavia began, Russia was rapidly declining as an economy, a coherent state and an international player. Since 1991, the Russian economy has contracted faster and longer than any previous major power's in modern history. With economic decline has come state weakness. The Russian government struggles to provide the most elementary of public goods, such as a single currency, a common market, security, welfare and education. This domestic feebleness has played havoc with Russia's international clout, turning the once-proud actor into a mere observer with mostly symbolic roles to perform.....To Russians, the bombing of Yugoslavia has brought their country's impotence into painfully sharp focus. In reaction, strident anti-Western sentiment is spreading throughout Russian society. Conveniently forgetting the Soviet invasions of Hungary, in 1956, and of Czechoslovakia, in 1968, Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov has called the NATO bombing the worst aggression in Europe since World War II. No one in Russia is prepared to disagree publicly with him. Nationalists and Communists long have rallied to the anti-American battle cry. Communist Party leader Gennady A. Zyuganov has compared "NATO ideology" to "Hitlerism," while several members of his party are calling for a military response. Although Russian weapons have yet to be delivered to Serbia, Russian warships are moving into the Adriatic Sea reputedly to provide intelligence to the Serbian government. Russian liberal leaders, many of whom privately detest Milosevic, have joined the anti-American chorus....."

Interfax 4/7/99 "...The Russian Black Sea Fleet ship 'Liman' is not tasked with providing intelligence data to Yugoslavia, even though the ship has the technical capacity to do so, a high-ranking naval officer preferring to remain anonymous has told Interfax. He said that the Liman was sent to the Adriatic by a Defense Ministry decision to collect intelligence information and report it to fleet headquarters, and then from there to Moscow. "As to sharing intelligence information with Belgrade, such decisions are made by the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces," he said. The ship entered the Adriatic on Wednesday. Liman captain Anatoly Bartyshev said there had been no incidents on the way from Sevastopol..."

Interfax 4/7/99 "...Four warships from the Black Sea Fleet are being held in a state of alert and are waiting for an order to head to the Balkans, sources in the main headquarters of the Russian Navy told Interfax Wednesday. The large anti-submarine ship Kerch, the patrol boat Pytlivy and the large landing ships Azov and Filchenkov have been assigned additional tasks on the eve of the Black Sea Fleet's large-scale exercises, which are due to begin April 19....."

Reuters 4/7/99 "...Russia's State Duma lower house of parliament voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday for a resolution advising President Boris Yeltsin and his government to send weapons and an unspecified military mission to Yugoslavia...."

STRATFOR's Global Intelligence Update 4/7/99 "...Russian prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Berezovsky on charges of money laundering. The arrest was ordered by Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Skuratov who is involved in a bitter feud with Boris Yeltsin and who submitted his resignation on the same day. Skuratov has been investigating corruption in the Kremlin and has been under intense attack by Yeltsin.....Berezovsky, more than any other individual, symbolizes what has been called the Russian "kleptocracy." Berezovsky emerged after the fall of Communism and used his relationship with Yeltsin and other political contacts to create an empire that includes oil, airlines, and media companies. Berezovsky became the leader of the Russian oligarchs that dominated the Russian economy during the 1990s and who are held responsible by many Russians for what is seen as the looting of the Russian economy. It is not only his fall from power, but the issuance of an arrest warrant for him that we find potentially significant. Indeed, reports circulated that another oligarch, Alexander Smolensky, former head of the SBSAgro bank that collapsed in August, was about to be arrested under corruption charges...The pendulum is clearly swinging away from the Westernizers and toward the Slavophiles. This swing can be seen in areas from the emulation of Western economics to Russia's relations with Serbia. The pendular swing is an old story in Russian history. Intense infatuation with everything Western is replaced by extreme xenophobia and paranoia about all things Western..."

Associated Press 4/7/99 via NewsEdge Corporation "...Russia and Malaysia have agreed to increase defense cooperation, including training and joint production of defense material, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported Wednesday. A memorandum outlining cooperation was signed Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur by Russian First Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Mikhailov and Malaysian Defense Ministry officials, the report said. The agreement calls for creation of a commission to investigate ways to increase military cooperation. Among other things, the agreement calls for exchanges of military personnel on training assignments..."

The Oklahoman Online 4/7/99 Thomas Sowell Freeper Penny "...RUSSIA has gone to war over the Balkans three times within the span of one century. Yet our politicians and media pundits seem to pay little attention to the danger that Russia will escalate its military aid to the Serbs -- even though there have already been rumblings out of Moscow about sending "volunteers" to fight against NATO and about the possibility of equipping the Serbs with tactical nuclear weapons. ...."

 

NewsMax 4/12/99 Edward Lowaneski "...On a visit to Moscow in the first days of April, I have heard many pro-western intellectuals expressing deep concern with the dangerous erosion of America's ideals and principles on which the country was built. Says, Gavriil Popov, first democratically elected Mayor of Moscow: "According to polls American people are reaching a point where they condone perjury and breaking international law and if such a belief becomes widely held, America will be rocked to its foundation which would have dire consequences for the entire world" For those of us who lived under the communist regime and fought it, America was always a symbol and guarantor of freedom and justice. America gave us the strength and courage. In times of despair, we would pass by the US Embassy in Moscow and the star-spangled banner would give us a tremendous boost of morale. Today, the embassy walls are covered by eggs, tomatoes and ink. The American flag is burned, and not only by communists or fascists. I saw a large group of young people who did not throw eggs or burn flags, but what they did was even more troubling. They displayed a poster saying "Goodbye, America, Ideal of Freedom". I asked them why they were there. It turned out that some of them had studied in America on US government grants. One young man said, "We feel betrayed because we thought America sincerely wants Russia to become a free, prosperous and democratic country, part of the West. Now wittingly or unwittingly America helps the red-brown coalition to win the Duma elections and enter the Kremlin. Each day of bombing brings this coalition closer to power". Because of this very fact he suggested that both Clinton and Albright should be nominated as Honorary Members of the Russian Communist Party...."

 

NY Times 4/17/99 AP "...A leading Russian politician warned today that the United States and NATO could spark another Vietnam and possibly World War III if they send ground troops to Yugoslavia. ``In the event that NATO and America start a ground operation in Yugoslavia, they will face a second Vietnam,'' Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said. ``I do not want to forecast what is going to start then. I cannot rule out a third world war.'' ..."

 

www.yu/ 4/18/99 Freeper Ymani Cricket "BRITAIN sent a second Trident nuclear submarine to sea within hours of the Russian threat to re-target Moscow's nuclear missiles on the West. The move almost certainly means that the UK went on a higher level of nuclear alert, indicating that the Russian threat was taken much more seriously than the Government admitted at the time...."

 

UPI (via Drudge Report) 4/16/99 "...A new Russian poll indicates a sharp change in public opinion, with a severe drop in Russians' approval of the United States because of the continuing NATO bombardment of Yugoslavia. The poll of 1,500 people, released today by the respected Foundation of Public Opinion, shows 72 percent dislike the United States, up sharply from 28 percent in a similar poll conducted before the airstrikes began, while only 14 percent approve of the United States, down from 57 percent in the previous survey...."

 

STRATFOR's Global Intelligence Update 4/18/99 "...The war in Kosovo grew out of fundamental miscalculations in Washington, particularly concerning the effect Russian support had on Milosevic's thinking. So long as Milosevic feels he has Russian support, he will act with confidence. If Russia wavers, Milosevic will have to deal. With the air war stalemated and talks of ground attack a pipe dream, diplomacy remains NATO's best option. That option depends on Russian cooperation. However, Russian cooperation will cost a great deal of money. That brings us to the IMF, the Germans, and former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, who is Russia's new negotiator on Serbia, a leading economic reformer and a good friend of the West...."

NewsMax Exclusive 4/19/99 J. R. Nyquist "...With 80,000 Russians volunteering to fight NATO and 30,000 U.S. reservists being called to active duty, Bill Clinton's leadership continues to propel Europe toward war. But Europe may not follow Clinton's lead to the bitter end. European leaders are beginning to realize the depth of Russia's anger and the potential consequences. Consider the following formula: If you want bad relations, insult a government. But if you want war, insult a nation. By assuming that Russia cares more about IMF money than its own national dignity, the Clinton Administration has offered a powerful insult to the Russian people. As Clinton takes blatant advantage of Russia's economic distress to wage war on Russia's ally, dislike for America has gone from 28 percent in Russia to 72 percent. Reflecting this, politicians from the mayor of Moscow on up to the President of the Russian Federation have openly warned of a third world war.....In Clark's view Russian war preparations are mere "atmospherics." In this instance, the disregard equals disrespect. Sadly, it is America that has forgotten its good manners. It is America that does not realize the military weakness into which it has fallen. It was only last October that the Pentagon itself complained about the deplorable state of the nation's military. Now we are to believe something quite the opposite -- that we are the world's only superpower..."

NPR 4/19/99 Freeper Fulbright "...NPR news at 9:30 AM EDT carried a story that three more Yugoslavs were captured by the KLA last week and were turned over to NATO. One is reported to be a Russian officer in a Serb uniform...."

Itar-Tass 4/19/99 "...U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott is seriously mistaken about Russia's position on a union with Byelorussia and Yugoslavia, Duma speaker Gennady Seleznyov said. In an exclusive interview with Itar-Tass on Monday, Seleznyov said the president, the government and the parliament of the country support the idea of such a union. Commenting on Talbott's recommendations that Russia's interests are in maintaining cooperative relations with the United States and NATO, Seleznyov noted that it is extremely hard to speak about cooperation between Russia and the North Atlantic Alliance. Russia has frozen its relations with NATO. However, if it continues the aggression against Yugoslavia, "we will make sure that they (relations) are severed completely," he said...."

4/19/99 UPI Freeper Thanatos "...Russian President Boris Yeltsin has issued a new warning to the West not to start ground operations against Yugoslavia, reiterating earlier statements that Moscow would not tolerate such action. Yeltsin, speaking this morning before a telephone conversation with President Clinton, said: "They want to achieve victory and make Yugoslavia a protectorate. We will not allow this to happen." Yeltsin said Clinton hopes Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic will "capitulate, that he will cede the whole of Yugoslavia." He said Russia would not allow this to happen because "this is a strategic area." ..."

 

IZVESTIA 4/20/99 Navaz Sharif, Eduard Babazadeh Freeper khatch "...IZVESTIA carries an interview by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Navaz Sharif, who granted it before starting his official visit to Russia yesterday [April 19]. Asked to estimate the present state of relations between the two countries, he said they were at a new stage of development. The important thing was to break the inertia of the past and build a new type of relations based on the realities of a new world. His present visit to Russia provided a fine opportunity for both to lay a foundation of firmer and more comprehensive ties. He had a good mind to discuss it with President Boris Yeltsin and Prime Minister Yevgeni Primakov...."

 

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE 4/21/99 "...Russia's seat at the NATO birthday table will be conspicuously empty this weekend when members and associates of the western alliance convene on Washington to mark the bloc's 50th anniversary. And the reasons for spoiling the party, Moscow says, are obvious. "The military action of NATO against a sovereign European nation -- Yugoslavia -- are a blatant violation of the UN Charter," the foreign ministry said on Wednesday in a statement officially revealing the Russian boycott of the event, ordered by President Boris Yeltsin. The Russian absence hardly comes as a surprise. Relations between the old adversaries have plummeted back to Cold War levels over the Kosovo crisis. The bonhomie of May 1997, when Russia formerly concluded its own special partnership with NATO, has rapidly given way to suspicion and accusation..."

New York Times 4/23/99 Judith Miller "...President Clinton's decision to retain samples of smallpox virus in the United States is likely to lead to more scientific cooperation and biological research with Russia at a time of badly strained relations, Administration officials said Thursday. As expected, the White House announced Thursday that Clinton, acting largely on the advice of independent scientific advisers, had decided to delay the planned destruction of the samples of the deadly virus this June because he fears the disease, which is apparently eradicated, might revive naturally or be spread by a terrorist attack..... He added that the Administration hopes that the reversal of its previous support for destruction would open up possibilities for joint research with Russia, the only other nation known to have smallpox stocks and a fervent opponent of their destruction...."

UPI 4/24/99 Sid Balman Jr. "...President Clinton issued Moscow a stern warning about resupply of Belgrade's war machine, refusing to rule out the use of force against Russian ships in the Adriatic Sea if they attempt to breach what is for all intents and purposes a NATO naval blockade of the former Yugoslavia...."

Agence France-Presse 4/23/99 "...Yugoslavia will not accept an international military presence in Kosovo, Yugoslav foreign ministry spokesman Nebojsa Vujovic said Friday. His comment referred to talks here Thursday between Russia's special crisis envoy to Yugoslavia, Viktor Chernomyrdin, and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. "This time, a different modality was discussed, a UN unarmed presence, a UN observer presence in Kosovo," he said, referring to Thursday's discussions...."

 

BBC 4/25/99 "...Russia looks set on a collision course with Nato after saying it will ignore calls by the alliance for an oil embargo against Yugoslavia. The alliance is drawing up plans to "visit and search" ships to try to prevent oil, arms and other vital supplies reaching the Serbian armed forces via ports in Montenegro. US President Bill Clinton defended the sea searches, saying it was unreasonable to ask pilots to risk their lives attacking oil depots when Serbia could get fuel from ships..."

Associated Press 4/26/99 "...The commander of Russia's navy said the Pacific Fleet is at a high state of readiness as extensive exercises continued Monday in the Far East, a news agency reported. Navy chief Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov said the Pacific Fleet was deploying dozens of warships, submarines and support ships and aircraft for the second stage of exercises that started Monday, the ITAR-Tass news agency said. He said the first stage had involved some 20 ships and other units in exercises in the Kamchatka region...."

Stratfor 4/24/99 "...Anatoly Chubais' comments to British and American businessmen and politicians concerning Kosovo now locks into place the strategy Yeltsin initiated when he appointed Viktor Chernomyrdin his representative. What is happening is that Russia's reformers are being rolled out to deliver a simple warning to the West: the prosecution of the war in Kosovo will mean the end of the reform experiment in Russia and the triumph of the hard liners. Now, for all intents and purposes, that experiment is at an end anyway. But Chubais is arguing that this is the final nail in reforms coffin.

If NATO goes ahead with this policy, goes the argument, the Communists and nationalists will be in complete control of Russia, with the reformers completely discredited. If the liberals cannot even deliver a cease-fire in Kosovo, their opponents will argue, then their vaunted influence with the West is non-existent and their value to Russia nil. ...."

The Guardian (UK) 4/30/99 Tom Whitehouse "...Boris Yeltsin flexed Russia's ageing but formidable nuclear muscles yesterday and ordered the development of new tactical nuclear missiles to counter a perceived increased threat from Nato. 'Our nuclear forces were and remain a key element in the country's strategy for ensuring national security and military power,' the Russian president said. At a meeting with the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, at the Kremlin yesterday he also denounced the 'lawlessness and unlimited force' of the United States. According to the secretary of his security council, Vladimir Putin, Mr Yeltsin later signed three decrees covering 'the development of the nuclear weapons complex and a concept for developing and using non-strategic nuclear weapons'. ..."

The Boston Globe 5/1/99 Freeper RR "...Russia's role as a mediator between NATO and Slobodan Milosevic is no longer a matter of speculation. Intensive discussions in Moscow between Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and Viktor Chernomyrdin, the former Russian prime minister whom Boris Yeltsin has appointed a special Balkans envoy, herald the start of a Russian peacemaking mission that suits Moscow's interests as much as it does the interests of NATO...."

Washington Post 5/2/99 Roy Medvedev "....No single event in the past 50 years has provoked such elemental and fierce emotions in Russia as NATO's bombing of Serbia. Polls here show that 95 percent of Russian citizens condemn the Western alliance's actions in the Balkans. Last weekend's NATO summit, at which leaders spoke of their intent to embrace military missions beyond its members borders, received a uniformly negative response: Was NATO suggesting it might intervene in Georgia, Chechnya or other hot spots in the former Soviet Union? The national indignation here is so strong that it is becoming an important factor in Russia's foreign and domestic policy and may even influence the outcome of the conflict. University students and schoolchildren, members of football clubs and sports associations are drawn into daily protests. People who used to be apolitical now participate in demonstrations and, until the Russian government prevented it, threw eggs and bottles at the U.S. Embassy. ...Nobody here believes talk about the determination to prevent a "humanitarian catastrophe." The bombs and missiles have simply hastened and deepened the humanitarian tragedy and strengthened doubts about the advantages of Western civilization.....* The strong strike the weak. Many strike one. Nineteen powerful countries--of which three, the United States, Great Britain and France, are great military powers--are striking targets in Serbia and even in Montenegro, which is not in conflict with anyone.... * The armed strike the unarmed. Without modern aviation or new forms of antiaircraft weapons, the Serbs are practically defenseless against NATO's missiles and bombs. NATO pilots and sailors risk little; they are beyond danger; they go unpunished...* A Slav, Orthodox country is being destroyed. It was Russia that helped Serbia attain its independence from the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century....* Serbia is being beaten to humiliate and teach Russia a lesson.... * The West deceived and robbed Russia. Our people were told over and over again about the benefits of democracy and the market economy that the rich Western countries would help Russia construct. That illusion has long since disappeared...."

MSNBC Jonathan Broder 5/3/99 "...Against a backdrop of growing U.S. concern, Israel and Russia have signed a deal to cooperate on the production of sophisticated AWACS-style early-warning aircraft for sale to the Chinese Air Force, MSNBC has learned. The Clinton administration is becoming increasingly convinced that Israel is building a disturbing new strategic relationship with Moscow. THE DEAL AND several others that are in the works represent the ripening fruits of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's controversial new policy, which seeks to forge closer ties with Russia by offering its military manufacturers lucrative co-production agreements with Israel's state-of-the-art defense industries. Israel already has similar agreements China. U.S. intelligence sources, citing classified documents, said Jerusalem and Moscow also are close to agreement on another deal under which Israel will upgrade aging MiG-21 warplanes for Russia's Third World clients...."

MSNBC 5/6/99 Dana Lewis Freeper Brian Mosely "...Russian President Boris Yeltsin, denouncing President Bill Clinton as "impudent" and warning of quick retaliation if Russia were ever attacked, caught his audience of Moscow business leaders, western diplomats and his own diplomats by surprise and sparked a Kremlin campaign to quash the statements...."

Wall Street Journal Europe 5/6/99 Andrei Kozyrev, a member of the Russian Duma Freeper Stand Watch Listen "...Russia's strong official condemnation of NATO's action against Yugoslavia as "flagrant aggression" and its early threats to take military countermeasures have dramatically revealed the anti-American, anti-Western sentiments prevailing in Russian foreign policy. The Russian government explains the need to meet NATO with an iron fist not by reference to the idea of "Slavic brotherhood" but in terms of opposition to the American policy of "world domination." There is something rotten in the kingdom of Russian-Western relations...."

WorldNet Daily 5/7/99 Col David Hackworth "...In the past few weeks, Russian politicians have begun rattling their nuclear warheads in protest against the NATO demolition job on their pals in Yugoslavia. Since we're the main NATO bomber, we could soon find ourselves in the center of ground zero with the Cold War nuclear clock back to only a few ticks before midnight. Sure, these Russian threats are probably just venting after too much vodka while watching "The Crisis in Serbia" on cable television. Yet there's always the chance that a couple of silo comrades may get the yen to do things their way. During the Cold War, my biggest fear was not a world leader pushing the button, but an accident, a miscalculation, a few extremists taking their shot at turning the globe into a radiated golf ball. The Cold War brass developed safety nets: shrinks to check out the nuke operators, fail-safe systems, red telephones and the "nuclear football" -- twin briefcases containing nuclear launch codes carried by soldiers virtually handcuffed to the American and Soviet leaders...."

 

Washington Post 5/8/99 Michael McFaul "....Only a few weeks ago, Russia was one of the most downtrodden and detested countries in the eyes of Washington's elite. One could not utter the word "Russia" without adding adjectives such as "crime-ridden," "collapsing" or "corrupt." Russia was considered a basket case of a country that had failed at capitalism and democracy and was soon to fail as a state....Russia's failure also was President Clinton's failure. A giant witch hunt was on to identify and punish those who had "lost Russia." Critics of the Clinton administration berated the strategies of constructive engagement and strategic partnership as empty slogans that achieved little for U.S. national interests. They charged that the Clinton administration was complicit in underwriting a rogue state that threatened U.S. strategic interests and squandered American aid..... Although the initial Russian reaction to the NATO bombing campaign served to reaffirm Russia's enemy status in the United States, subsequent Russian diplomacy has turned the war into a major public relations coup for Russia in the West. After signing a G-8 joint resolution on ending the conflict in Yugoslavia, Russia is once again our partner on the international stage....."

 

http://www.newsday.com/ap/rnmpin0c.htm 5/7/99 AP Freeper Thanatos "...Yeltsin, while deploring both NATO airstrikes and Serb ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, has focused on finding a diplomatic solution and insisted that Moscow will not be drawn in to the military conflict. Russia's Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev has been more hawkish. On Friday, he reiterated calls for keeping Russia's nuclear weapons at ``maximum combat readiness.'' ``The nuclear component of the armed forces plays a tremendous role in the maintenance of international stability and sobering up hot heads,'' he was quoted as saying by the ITAR-Tass news agency...."

 

AFP 5/8/99 "...Russian president Boris Eltsine stated Saturday " made indignant by the barbarian and inhuman act " of the bombardment by NATO of the embassy from China in Belgrade. According to the Itar-Tass agency, Eltsine made these statements by telephone with the assistant head of its administration, Sergueï Prikhodko, which is in Peking and must transmit the Russian judgment of the bombardment to the Chinese authorities...."

Fox News Wire 5/8/99 AP "...Iran has proposed boosting nuclear cooperation with Russia and wants to enlarge a nuclear power plant being built with Moscow's help, Russia's atomic energy minister said Saturday. Yevgeny Adamov told the Interfax news agency that Iran's vice president had written him to propose adding a second reactor to the power plant currently under construction in Bushehr in southern Iran....."

Miami Herald 5/7/99 Boris Kagarlitsky Freeper Stand Watch Listen "...Milosevic acts brutally, but his behavior usually can be predicted, and consequently he can be restrained and controlled. But the Clinton administration is thoroughly unpredictable. It does not take into account the possible consequences of its own actions. It makes moves that harm not only its enemies but also its friends (for example, the Kosovo Albanians and the pro-American regimes in the Balkans), and even the United States itself. .....Here in Russia, the Clinton administration's actions in the Balkans look like an effort to deprive us of any participation in solving international problems. Why were the NATO military attacks begun without the approval of the United Nations? The answer is clear: The Clinton team was unwilling to coordinate its position with Russia and China. ...We discovered that even limited military aid can be highly effective if it falls into reliable hands. Russia has learned these lessons. America, it seems, has not...."

Drudge 5/10/99 Freeper DonMorgan "...In Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese Vice-Premier Qian Qichen told the Russian President's special envoy for Yugoslavia Viktor Chernomyrdin that China and Russia share identical views on many issues including Kosovo, according to Chinese news reports. Views that were shared during a telephone call between the Chinese and Russian presidents. During his talks with Chernomyrdin, Qian said that Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Russian President Boris Yeltsin consulted each other on the Kosovo crisis on Monday during an "important telephone conversation". The telephone conversation between Zemin and Yeltsin showed "mutual trust, mutual understanding and mutual support" by the two countries in the Yugoslav crisis, the Chinese newswire XINUA reported overnight. Chernomyrdin called the telephone conversation between Yeltsin and Jiang "very important"...."

5/19/99 Washington Times Bill Gertz "...Russia is stepping up electronic spying operations against U.S. and NATO forces in the Balkans with the addition of a second intelligence-gathering ship in the region, Pentagon officials said yesterday. The Russian spy ship Kilden, which left the Black Sea port of Sevastopol on Friday, arrived in the Ionian Sea over the weekend to begin electronic eavesdropping and other surveillance of the war in the Balkans. The Kilden joined a second ship, the Limen, which has been in the Ionian since early April, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity..."

Reuters 5/12/99 "....Russian President Boris Yeltsin was quoted as saying Wednesday that Russia could quit Kosovo talks if NATO did not heed its position. Three leading Russian news agencies said Yeltsin made his remarks during a meeting of his Security Council held hours after he launched a government crisis by sacking Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov. Yeltsin, quoted by Interfax, said: "Our calls, repeated recommendations, clearly have not reached somebody.'' ..."

BBC NEWS 5/12/99 "...Russian President Boris Yeltsin has sacked his Prime Minister, Yevgeny Primakov, plunging Russia into a new political crisis. The BBC's Rob Parsons: "Mr Yeltsin is undoubtedly angry with Primakov's failure to stop impeachment proceedings" Interfax is also reporting that Mr Yeltsin has dismissed the entire Russian government. The move comes as parliament confirmed plans to press on with impeachment proceedings against the president...."

The Hindu 5/13/99 UNI Freeper Jai "...Gennadi Selzenev, Speaker of Russian Duma, describing President Boris Yeltsin's action of sacking Prime Minister Yevgeni Primakov as ''a big mistake'' has predicted that it could result in a ''dramatic swing of votes'' against the President at the impeachment debate. . . ."

Wall St. Journal 5/13/99 Dimitri K. Simes "...The dismissal of Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov by President Boris Yeltsin, and Mr. Primakov's replacement by Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin (only recently promoted to first deputy prime minister) is a blow to Russia's political stability and may trigger a major constitutional crisis in an impoverished, embittered nation with 30,000 nuclear weapons. While Mr. Yeltsin attributed the change to the lack of improvement in the economy and a need "to bring to the cabinet's work the necessary dynamism and energy," neither Mr. Stepashin nor his new first deputy, Railroad Minister Nikolay Aksenenko, has a record as an economic reformer.

Mr. Stepashin, 47, spent most of his career in the Soviet police and the Russian Federal Security Service (successor to the KGB). After a short stint as justice minister, he headed the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where he had almost one million police and internal troops under his command. He is known primarily as a Yeltsin loyalist who is prepared to use force to protect his president....."

The Times of India 5/15/99 M D Nalapat Freeper Jai "...Ousted Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov paid with his job for two ``crimes'' : A refusal to accept NATO dictation in foreign policy, and efforts to clean up the Mafia-controlled administration. President Boris Yeltsin is backed by both the Western powers as well as the Russian mafia. This twin attack sealed Primakov's his fate. The new Prime Minister, Sergei Stepashin, is known to be close to both NATO as well as to the Yeltsin family...."

United Press International 5/14/99 Freeper Jai "...Russia's mediation efforts in the Yugoslav crisis are intensifying despite warnings from Moscow earlier this week that a pullout from the negotiating process could not be excluded. In a new initiative extending Moscow's diplomatic offensive, President Boris Yeltsin ordered his deputy chief of staff Sergei Prikhodko to travel to New Delhi to discuss the Yugoslav situation with Indian officials . . ."

Washington Times 5/14/99 Bill Gertz "...Russia's government has ordered high-ranking military officers to sever all ties to Western military officials in Moscow, prompting what a senior defense official called a "return to the Cold War." Army Brig. Gen. Keith Dayton, the top U.S. defense attache in Moscow, stated in an April 29 intelligence report that the Russian anti-spying measure was partly due to NATO's military bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, which Russia opposes. Details of the report come from high-ranking Pentagon officials who have seen the document and Thursday revealed its contents to The Washington Times. An aide to Gen. Dayton, who was reached by phone in Moscow, said the one-star general was not available to comment on his report...However, one ranking U.S. official who saw the report said, "The feeling [among Russians] is that if NATO bombs Serbia to help the Kosovars, it might bomb Russia to help the Chechens." Russian military forces invaded the southern Muslim enclave of Chechnya in 1994....Rep. Curt Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican who has frequent contacts with Russian parliamentarians, called Gen. Dayton's report disturbing and "very scary." In an interview, he said, "It's not a good sign and is an indication things are getting worse." Russian sentiment against the United States is growing as a result of the NATO bombing, and many in the Russian government who favor democratic reforms are being pushed aside by anti-U.S. communists and nationalists, the representative said...."

5/14/99 Interfax Freeper Thanatos "...An IL-38 aircraft attached to the Russian Pacific Fleet anti-submarine aviation forces detected at 6:30 a.m. on Friday a foreign submarine on combat patrol off the coast of Kamchatka in the Russian Far East...."

5/14/99 Interfax Freeper Thanatos "...Russia "is greatly worried about an actual division of countries into categories, with one group of select nations that loves to describe itself as 'the world community' imposing its conditions on the others," acting Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Gusarov said in Moscow on Friday as he was opening a roundtable discussion of 'The NATO Operations in Yugoslavia and the International Security System'. The recent notion of "clubs of countries" has been transformed into "groupings," Gusarov said. This is inconsistent with the construction of a Euro-Atlantic security system without division lines, Gusarov said. "What is going on in Yugoslavia is leading to consolidation of division lines and the erection of new barriers," he said...."

The Hindu 5/16/99 "...India and Russia today decided to enhance their cooperation to defuse the Kosovo crisis as part of an effort to create a "multipolar world." Both sides decided to jointly push an international effort to resolve the Yugoslav question during interaction between the Russian President's special envoy, Mr. Sergei E. Prikhodko, and top Indian leaders today..... Both sides declared that an end to the "unjustified" military action by NATO on Yugoslavia was necessary so that a congenial atmosphere for the negotiated settlement of the crisis could be created. Mr. Prikhodko's visit saw the two countries reviewing the entire gamut of bilateral relations....."

Reuters 5/15/99 Freeper HAL9000 "....A missile that hit Bulgarian territory near the border with Yugoslavia was made with Russian technology but was not in use in the Bulgarian Air Force, an Air Force official said on Saturday. "This is a guided, solid-fuel missile with a diameter of 330 millimetres," Ivan Dochev, head of the Aviation Department at Air Force General Staff, told reporters, adding that both Bulgaria and Yugoslavia had similar types of missiles...."

WorldNetDaily 5/17/99 J R Nyquist "... On Dec. 15, in a Washington Times op-ed piece, J. Michael Waller broke a mainstream media taboo. He noted that Russia's new hard-line leaders had been "spending their time and money preparing for ... nuclear war against the United States and its allies." Waller's statement, of course, is correct. As crazy as it sounds, the Russians have been preparing for a Third World War, even as Russia's leaders have warned that such a war may be imminent. In recent years, the Russians have built huge underground shelters, bunkers, and nuclear-proof cities. Under Yamantau Mountain in the Urals, the Russians have built an underground city the size of metropolitan Washington. But that is not all the Russians have done. According to Bill Lee, a former official with the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Russians have 10,000 to 12,000 ABMs defending their country. These ABMs have been deceptively described to the outside world as Surface to Air Missiles (SAMs), but as Lee told me in Washington last February, many of these so-called SAMs can carry one-megaton warheads far above the earth's atmosphere. Lee also explained how a special type of nuclear warhead, which puts out x-ray radiation, could be used in these "SAMs" to kill American nuclear warheads as they travel towards Russia, along flight-paths outside the earth's atmosphere. Inside the earth's atmosphere, explained Lee, "the Russians would use interceptor missiles with neutron bombs. The peculiar characteristics of this warhead give it a better kill radius against warhead electronics." Another peculiar move in recent months, the Russians have been upgrading 180 MiG-29s to what they call the MiG-29 SMT. The upgrade involves the addition of a fuel tank and in-flight refueling capabilities that would give the MiG-29 intercontinental range. Why the Russian Federation would need a jet fighter that could fly to Chicago is something curious. If you put this together with the stockpiling of strategic metals, food, and fuel, a more ominous picture begins to unfold...."

http://www.russiatoday.com/rtoday/news/10.html 5/18/99 AFP "...Russia is finalizing tests on an advanced missile air defense system which experts say will have ballistic missiles and the US-built AWACS early warning aircraft in its sights, Interfax reported Monday. The S-400 system, due for delivery to the Moscow district air defense forces by year's end, can "effectively destroy all existing and future air attack systems," the agency cited military experts as saying. With a range of some 400 kilometers (250 miles) the missile system will be more than two and a half times more effective than the existing S-300 system, the agency said. Some US senators rate the Russian technology so highly that they have urged the Pentagon to buy the S-300 to replace the United State's own Patriot anti-missile system...."

Stratfor 5/15/99 "...Russian President Boris Yeltsin today survived an attempt by the lower house of Russia's Duma to impeach him on five charges. While the feud between Yeltsin and the communist-dominated Duma is far from over, the crisis of the moment has passed. This is the second recent victory for Russia's moderates and, by extension, for the West. Yeltsin survived the pre-impeachment votes despite sacking Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov - who was popular with the Duma's communists and nationalists - immediately prior to the proceedings. Yeltsin sacked Primakov in large part due to the uncompromising and confrontational path he had taken with the West over NATO actions in Yugoslavia. With special envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin taking over Moscow's diplomatic effort, Russia quickly narrowed the gap between its position and that of NATO, thereby facilitating the G-8 framework peace plan for Yugoslavia. Not only did this effort keep Russia at the center of diplomatic efforts, but it did so while keeping open the pipeline for Western economic aid...."

Manchester Union Leader 5/11/99 Richard Lessner Freeper prometheus "...NATO's gang-attack on Yugoslavia - in which hundreds of Serbs have perished - has rekindled nationalism and pan-Slavic ideology in Russia. Populist anti-Western sentiment is raging in Russia, where thousands of volunteer soldiers and officers already have poured into Serbia to defend their "little brother Slavs" against the NATO onslaught. Not even NATO's mistaken destruction of Communist China's embassy in Belgrade has moved Bill Clinton and his NATO henchmen to re-think this misguided war. The bombing of the embassy was an idiotic mistake. ..."

STRATFOR, Inc. 5/17/99 "...Over the past few weeks, Russia and China have engaged in intense, manic-depressive foreign policy, shifting between sullen quiet, to near war-frenzy, to friendly cooperation. Before one prescribes medications, this behavior should be seen as the natural, terminal maneuvers of powers that are trying to get the West's attention and are not quite sure what to do with that attention once they get it. It is not that the behavior is not ominous. It represents the process of great powers going into opposition to a super-power. But the behavior is the symptom, not the problem itself. The problem is that the structure of the international system dictates an anti-American Russo-Chinese alliance, and very little can stop that. ...The real danger here is that during these periodic, ritual chest- thumping episodes, the situation might genuinely get out of hand. Yeltsin skillfully reigned in the anti-Western forces he helped unleash. The old fox never ceases to amaze us. However, he will go to the well one time too many, and unleash forces that even he can't control. The same is true in China. The leadership can whip up anti-American frenzy on demand. It is not clear that they will always be able to control it. In the end, it won't matter. The tendency toward anti-Americanism and therefore to some form of alliance is, we believe, irreversible. The path toward that end, however, is twisted and quite noisy. The noise, whether from Moscow or Beijing, is not the real issue. There is lightning behind the thunder...."

Washington Times 5/17/99 Bill Gertz BETRAYAL: Part 2 of 3 "...It was 3:30 a.m. April 4, 1997. The mission would change Lt. Daly's life -- and his opinion of the U.S. government and the Navy he loved.... Chief Tabor handed him a photo. It showed a red dot of light on the bridge of the Kapitan Man. "I think you may have caught a laser beam in this picture," Chief Tabor said. "I know this is supposed to be the running-light area, but the signature of the light in this picture just doesn't look right to me." ..... The next morning, he awoke with a sharp pain in his right eye. Looking in a bathroom mirror, he saw a large blob of blood in the white of the eye. An eye doctor in Victoria found the eyeball was swollen. ..... the public knew nothing about it for more than a month. Until a top-secret Joint Staff report was leaked to this reporter and The Washington Times published a Page One story on May 14, 1997...... "A total of 30 frames were taken with frame number 16 showing definitive evidence of an emanation coming from the bridge area of the merchant vessel," the Joint Staff report said of Lt. Daly's photos. "Initial medical exams indicated some eye damage to both the pilot and the U.S. lieutenant, but none that is considered permanent." (Lt. Daly would wonder later where that medical assessment came from. More than two years later, he suffers from severe eye pain and headaches. And Capt. Barnes not only has eye pain but had his flying career cut short.) ....Lt. Daly and Capt. Barnes were examined and tested for several days at the Army Medical Detachment in San Antonio. Bruce Stuck, head of the medical group, told Lt. Daly there was interest in his case "at the highest levels" and that Mr. Clinton was briefed daily on his health. Doctors discovered four or five faint lesions on the retina of Lt. Daly's right eye; they believed the cause was a "repetitive pulsed laser." ...... After lunch, Cmdr. Joseph Hoeing, an analyst, confided: "You do not know the pressure I am under to sweep this under the rug." "As soon as I heard those words," Lt. Daly recalled, "I knew I was in trouble. The first thought that came to my mind was that this was a cover-up." .....The formal Pentagon report issued to the public concluded: "The Department believes that the eye injury suffered by the American naval officer is consistent with injuries that would result from exposure to a repetitive pulsed laser. Available evidence does not indicate, however, what the source of such an exposure might have been. Specifically, there is no physical evidence tying the eye injury of the American officer to a laser located on the Russian merchant vessel." The cover-up was complete....... Why the cover-up? "I firmly believe it was seen as jeopardizing our relations with Russia," he said. "Bill Clinton has said he doesn't want to be the guy who blew the opportunity for everlasting peace with Russia." A real threat to national security -- Russian spying -- is ongoing and ignored, Lt. Daly said. "Why should the government lie to its own people when our national security has been compromised?" he asked...."Secretary of Defense William Cohen not long ago stated to the press, during the Monica Lewinsky debacle, that he didn't believe that President Clinton would ever take risks with our national security. However, I am living proof that he has." ..."

5/24/99 Interfax Freeper Thanatos "...NATO's position on Yugoslavia and Kosovo has not significantly changed, Russian special envoy Boris Maiorsky, who is involved in talks in the search for a political settlement of the Kosovo crisis, said on Russian RTR television on Sunday. "Now everybody, notably the Americans who initiated the NATO operation against Yugoslavia, is aware of the need to stop the airstrikes," he said. On the other hand, the United States "needs a victory and cannot afford to allow Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to say that he has prevailed," Maiorsky said. The NATO strikes are "dictated by the future U.S. elections, by the personality of President Bill Clinton and some partisan interests, but not by care for the Yugoslav people, for the population of Kosovo," he said...."

Strategic Intelligence/THE WASHINGTON TIMES 5/24/99 Bill Gertz "...Russia is stepping up electronic spying operations against U.S. and NATO forces in the Balkans with the addition of a second intelligence-gathering ship in the region, Pentagon officials said yesterday. The Russian spy ship Kilden, which left the Black Sea port of Sevastopol on Friday, arrived in the Ionian sea over the weekend to begin electronic eavesdropping and other surveillance of the war in the Balkans. The Kilden joined a second ship, the Limen, which has been in the Ionian since early April, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The ships are close to the Adriatic, where U.S. and NATO warships are engaged in military operations against Serbia. "The Kilden's presence there will mark the first time since 1991 that two Russian intelligence ships have operated in the same area," said one Pentagon intelligence official. ....The ships have the capability of intercepting high-frequency, very-high frequency, ultrahigh frequency and other channels of communications...."

World Net Daily 5/24/99 J.R. Nyquist "...The air war against Yugoslavia is accelerating. On Sunday, NATO warplanes flew 652 sorties after flying a record 684 sorties the previous day.... But British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said the bombing is hardly enough. He wants NATO to deploy ground troops into Kosovo. Secretary of State Albright has noted that 50,000 NATO troops are in position and could be used to invade the ravaged Serbian province.....Over the weekend a huge stream of refugees came pouring across the Yugoslav border into Albania and Macedonia. Saturday, 10,000 refugees fled Kosovo in the biggest single-day exodus in nearly three weeks. Despite the magnitude of the catastrophe, President Clinton continues to push Yugoslavia to the wall. He continues to ignore Russia's pleas for peace, claiming that any letup in the bombing would bring a widened war -- a notion at variance with common sense. The Russian people are furious with NATO. Many concede that Yugoslav President Milosevic is bad. But that does not excuse NATO breaking its promises to Russia, promises of non-aggression and non-interference in Eastern Europe. Whatever the wrongs of Milosevic, brother Serbs are being relentlessly bombed, maimed, and killed. Representative Curt Weldon, R-PA, who recently met Russian State Duma members, has publicly expressed concerns that nuclear war may occur due to "the instabilities this war has caused." In Weldon's presence, the chairman of the Russian State Duma Foreign Policy Committee, Vladimir Lukin, openly threatened America with an EMP attack that would wipe out most computers and electronics in North America, crippling the USA. The Russian Federation possesses nuclear bombs of high yield, specifically engineered to create a strong Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP). If such a bomb were detonated in outer space, far above North America, it would knock out the continental power grid and fry most all electronics from New York to Los Angeles....."

The Washington Times/via Drudge 5/21/99 Bill Gertz "...A Russian intelligence officer working undercover at the United Nations was caught spying on the United States and was allowed to leave the country quietly this month, The Washington Times has learned. Senior U.S. officials were particularly upset by what they called Russia's "aggressive" spying. It was the second time in six months that FBI agents caught an SVR officer spying in the United States, a sign that Moscow is intensifying intelligence activities here. The officer for Russia's foreign intelligence service, SVR, was arrested by FBI agents late last month during a secret counterintelligence operation after he obtained a classified U.S. government document from an informant, said administration officials familiar with the case. The officer was not declared "persona non grata" and forced to leave the country, the procedure normally used to expel spies posing as diplomats and who are immune from prosecution, the officials said. Instead, the matter was handled by the U.S. and Russian governments without notifying the United Nations. Because the officer, whose identity was not revealed, was working at the Russian Mission to the United Nations in New York, the State Department allowed him to leave the country quietly on May 1, the officials said. "He was caught with conclusive evidence," said one law enforcement official...... "These activities show that the Russians are continuing aggressive intelligence activities against the United States," said one official close to the case. The last time the Clinton administration publicly expelled a Russian intelligence officer was February 1994. Alexander Iosifovich Lysenko, Russia's senior spy in the United States was ordered out of the country after the arrest of Aldrich Hazen Ames, a CIA officer who worked secretly for Moscow. The secrecy surrounding the State Department handling of the two recent spy cases contrasts sharply with another recent spy case. A former Australian intelligence official was indicted Wednesday on a charge of attempted espionage after an FBI sting. Jean-Philippe Wispelaere was an Australian military intelligence official from July 1998 until his resignation Jan. 13. He is accused with selling secret and top-secret U.S. defense documents to undercover FBI agents during the past two months...."

5/28/99 Itar-Tass via Drudge Freeper Thanatos "...The Russian Defence Ministry has recalled all its servicemen from American military colleges in protest against the continuation of bombing raids on Yugoslavia, Itar-Tass was told at the office of the Russian military attache here on Friday. ..."

5/28/99 UPI Freeper Thanatos "...The United States and the former Soviet republic of Georgia have signed two agreements that call for the United States to hand over 10 Iroquois helicopter gunships to Georgia's military forces free of charge, and provide $3 million to pay for costs of training Georgian pilots and technical personnel in the United States. The two countries also agreed on a schedule for delivery of technical supplies for a team of Georgian military communications engineers, as part of a joint U.S.-Georgian military cooperation program...."

5/28/99 UPI Freeper Thanatos "...Russian President Boris Yeltsin and visiting South Korean President Kim Dae-jung have held talks in Moscow, discussing a range of issues, including the situation on the divided Korean peninsula. A joint statement issued after the summit called for the creation of a six-nation negotiating team to ensure security in northeast Asia, which would include both North and South Korea, as well as Russia, China, Japan and the United States. The statement called for the nations to hold a forum "that could function parallel to the current four-sided Korean peace talks (consisting of North and South Korea, the United States and China)." ..."

5/29/99 Itar-Tass Freeper Thanatos "... Urge for world domination and violation of human rights this is what the military actions against Yugoslavia, unleashed by the U.S.-led North Atlantic Alliance, actually boil down to. According to official reports, this was stated by China's Defence Minister Chi Haotian during his meeting with Viktor Sheiman, Secretary of the Belarus Security Council and Security Adviser to the Belarus President, who is currently visiting here at the inviation of the Chinese Defence Ministry...."

Fox News 5/28/99John Moody "...I warned in a previous column that one of the little-noticed byproducts of the Clinton Administration's ill thought-out policy on Kosovo has been a distinct worsening of U.S. relations with Russia. Many of you sent me e-mail to express your concern about how the Big Red Bear might react to our pummeling of Serbia, and to urge caution. Now we know the depths of Russian anger. Viktor Chernomyrdin, the former prime minister whom President Boris Yeltsin appointed as Russia's envoy to end the Balkan war, wrote a scathing critique of American policy in the Washington Post. Not even the filtration of translating it from Russian to English could conceal Chernomyrdin's disdain for Bill Clinton's amateur handling of a war. U.S. Russian relations, he wrote, had been set back several decades. And among regular Russians - not the elite that roams the Kremlin - the perception of America as a friend and proponent of democratic values has been decimated....Finally, the White House's embrace of the indictment of Milosovic as a war criminal must have left the Russians apoplectic. Does that mean that anyone who disagrees with the U.S. should be similarly designated? What if a Russian leader disagrees? Should he too, be sent to The Hague for trial?..."

 

Reuters 6/19/99 "...The Kremlin said on Saturday it regarded talks between presidents Boris Yeltsin and Bill Clinton on Sunday as vital for lifting Russian-U.S. relations from their lowest ebb since the Cold War.

Clinton and Yeltsin are due to meet in the German city of Cologne for the first time in 10 months -- during which relations have been soured by the Kosovo crisis. ``The meeting with Mr Clinton could be absolutely crucial,'' presidential press secretary Dmitry Yakuskhkin told reporters in Cologne, where the United States and Russia are both taking part in a meeting of the Group of Eight countries. Acknowledging that relations with the West were as bad as at any time since the Cold War, he said: ``This is a thing we have to deal with.'' Officials on both sides are hoping to build on the progress made in Helsinki, where the two sides signed an agreement on Friday for Russia to take part in a Kosovo peacekeeping force. Kosovo will again be on the agenda in Cologne...."

 

Itar-Tass 6/18/99 starlu "...The talks now underway here between the Russian and U.S. defence and foreign ministers "have firmly established that the Russian peacekeeping force activities in Kosovo will be fully under political and military control of Russia," Russian Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev told here reporters on Friday...."

 

Reuters 6/18/99 "...U.S. and Russian negotiators in Helsinki reached a deal in Helsinki on Friday on Moscow's participation in Kosovo peacekeeping, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said. ``According to the information I have just received, they have agreed. That wouldn't surprise me as they had been going well,'' he told reporters in Cologne during a summit of the Group of Seven world leaders. He said he could give no details of the deal but said Russia should not have a separate sector...."

 

AP via canoe.com 6/18/99 "...U.S. and Russian negotiators signed an agreement Friday on Kosovo peacekeeping arrangements, ending an impasse that began a week ago when 200 Russian troops surprised NATO by rolling into the Pristina airport ahead of the alliance. U.S. Defence Secretary William Cohen said Russia and Washington had reached an agreement "on terms that meet the requirements of both NATO and Russia." "It preserves the unity of (NATO) command ... and it gives Russia a unique role by providing for operations of Russian forces" within sectors controlled by NATO members. Russian troops will serve under Russian command and control and will work with NATO commanders in each of the sectors overseen by NATO allies within Kosovo. The Pristina airport, currently under Russian command, will be opened to all nations, Cohen said....."

 

Centre for Defence and International Security Studies 6/13/99 "....On 12 June 1999, a high-ranking Chinese military delegation visited a Russian Topol (SS-25) Intercontinental-range Ballistic Missile (ICBM) unit in Novosibirsk in central Russia. Moscow's ITAR-TASS, the main government information agency, commented on the significance of the visit by noting: For the first time in the history of Russian-Chinese military cooperation, a delegation of top representatives of the People's Liberation Army [PLA] of China has visited a unit of Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces in the last years....The Chinese delegation reportedly was shown the Topol missile "and explained its possibilities in overcoming the air defense of a 'potential foe,'" according to ITAR-TASS. The Topol (SS-25) is the world's only operational road mobile ICBM... We recently reported that Russia had flight tested the Topol-M (a follow-on system to the Topol) that is currently deployed in small numbers in a silo-based configuration, but which also may be deployed in the future in a road mobile configuration. During this recent flight test, Russian commentators praised the system's maneuvering reentry vehicle (MARV), stating it could help overcome ballistic missile defense (BMD) systems (see Russia Tests Topol-M ICBM)....A ballistic missile with a MIRV can place nuclear warheads on multiple enemy targets in different locations. A ballistic missile with a MARV enables the warhead to perform preplanned maneuvers during reentry in an attempt to evade missile defenses. Both systems represent high levels of technology currently only mastered by the United States and Russia....."

 

UPI Spotlight 6/18/99 "...Four Russian border guards have been killed by Chechen rebels, and a fifth man has been kidnapped in an overnight attack on a checkpoint on the border between Russia's southern Stavropol ("STAHV-roh-pol") region and the rebellious republic of Chechnya, Interior Ministry officials say (Friday). ...."

The New York Times 6/20/99 Jane Perlez "...The decision-making process in Russia, never crystal clear, has also become even murkier of late. "There are deep questions in Russia, now penetrating the Administration, about Yeltsin's mental as well as physical health," said Thomas Graham, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former American diplomat who served in Moscow until 10 months ago. "He is more unreliable and erratic than he was three or four months ago. There are a lot of doubts about whether he can make the flight and then function effectively for three to four hours." ....A stark example of the anti-NATO sentiment from usually pro-Western quarters came from Boris Fyodorov, the former chief of the Federal Tax Service. Fyodorov, who helped organize a petition to stop NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia, said of the alliance, "Nobody can assume the role of a policeman to the universe, to murder people in the name of human rights."...."

The Associated Press 6/20/99 About 100 ultranationalists rallied Sunday in central Moscow to demand the annulment of a law that imposes heavy fines on those who incite ethnic hatred, claiming such laws restrict freedom of speech..... Several members of neo-Nazi and extreme rightist and nationalist groups have been hit by such fines in recent months. The popularity of the groups has been bolstered by Russia's economic crisis. They have been accused of beating members of racial minorities, desecrating Jewish cemeteries and bombing synagogues, although few have ever been convicted...."

The New York Times 6/21/99 JANE PERLEZ "....The reasonable face of Russia, President Boris N. Yeltsin, walked stiffly, but his presence here Sunday was enough to reassure President Clinton and other Western leaders that dialogue with Moscow was possible in the aftermath of the Kosovo war. After weeks of tensions since the start of the war, culminating in an unnerving standoff between Russian and NATO troops at the main airport in Kosovo, the Russian and American leaders met Sunday and decided to let bygones be bygones, according to Clinton's aides. "I think we're actually in a position to have a stronger relationship with Russia in the future than before the conflict started," Clinton said after their hourlong session....The leaders were relieved and grateful Sunday after having watched the roller coaster behavior of Russia over Kosovo -- helpful, then obstinate, over the peacekeeping role of its troops, and then helpful again in arriving at a solution two days ago....In the interview with CNN's Late Edition, Clinton expanded on his thinking at the start of NATO's air campaign and on his foreign policy generally. Asked if he thought the bombing of Serbia would last 78 days before Milosevic agreed to NATO's terms, he said, "I thought that there was maybe a 50 percent chance it would be over in a week." ...."

Reuters 6/21/99 "...Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that events had vindicated its strong opposition to NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. In a statement, the ministry said the alliance's ``armed adventure'' in the Balkans had caused devastation which surpassed even that of World War Two. ``Yugoslavia has been completely devastated, the damage to its national economy and infrastructure exceed all the destruction seen during World War Two. All the peoples of Yugoslavia have been subjected to terrible deprivations and sufferings,'' the statement said. Recent visitors to Yugoslavia say that although industrial infrastructure, power stations and bridges were wrecked by NATO, most areas where civilians live and circulate looked untouched. No widespread devastation was seen, they say....."

The Associated Press Karen Gullo 6/21/99 "...Documents given by Boris Yeltsin to President Clinton on Sunday could shed light on whether Lee Harvey Oswald schemed to kill President Kennedy while he was an American defector living in the Soviet Union, assassination researchers said. Yeltsin's surprise gift to Clinton - declassified papers containing information gathered by Russian intelligence agencies about Oswald - are a ``monumental breakthrough,'' said historian Kermit Hall, a former member of the Assassination Records Review Board. That federal panel, which went out of business last September, was created to gather all known records regarding the assassination. Hall said the Russian records - which the board was unable to obtain when it sent Hall and two other board members to Russia in 1996 - could show what Oswald was thinking and doing in the years leading up to the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas.....In Moscow, the Interfax news agency said Yeltsin gave Clinton 80 documents, which also detailed the Soviet government's reaction to Kennedy's assassination..... "

Chinatimes 6/22/99 "...Moscow has decided to sell 72 of its front-line Sukhoi-30 jet fighter-bombers to Beijing, which will certainly strengthen the mainland's air combat capacity and boost its ties with Russia. According to a report appearing Monday in The Hong Kong Standard, following years of negotiations, Russian President Boris Yeltsin has given the green light to sell three squadrons of the state-of-art combat aircraft to the mainland. The report quoted Russian-based diplomats as saying that Moscow and Beijing had agreed in principle to negotiations on the sale during mainland Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji's visit to Russia early this year. It is understood that negotiations for Moscow to grant a license for the production of another 250 Sukhoi-30 fighters in mainland China have begun as well...."

Stratfor.com 6/22/99 "...1740 GMT, 990622 - Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said that Russian relations with NATO were "inflicted a heavy damage" by the Yugoslav conflict, and that NATO bombing "ran against the spirit and the letter of the Russia-NATO Founding Act." Ivanov said that the Russian government had worked to improve NATO's negative image in the eyes of the Russian people and that the future of the Founding Act was being "seriously considered." ...1505 GMT, 990622 - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said that "the world was indebted" to Russian President Boris Yeltsin and other Russian representatives who "played a key role" in ending the fighting in the Balkans. Annan said that he hoped to see Kosovo benefit from autonomy and self-rule, and that the conflict could now be resolved "by the only way acceptable to the international community." Annan made the remarks while on a two-day visit to St. Petersburg....1208 GMT, 990622 - Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, said June 22 that he hoped Russian peacekeepers entering Kosovo would protect Serbs from the Kosovo Liberation Army and save Orthodox holy areas from destruction. Alexy II said that he had evidence that a number of 13th and 14th century orthodox sites had already been destroyed, and feared that more would be desecrated by returning ethnic Albanians...."

The Washington Times 6/24/99 Bill Gertz "...Russia's military had a detailed plan to seize Kosovo's main airport days before 200 Russians drove there from Bosnia ahead of the NATO peacekeeping operation, according to Pentagon intelligence officials. "There was no confusion at all about this," said one official familiar with a recent report based on intercepted Russian communications. "The operational orders were worked out well in advance." The intelligence reports, according to officials familiar with them, further undermine both U.S. government and Moscow claims that the deployment ahead of NATO peacekeepers was the result of miscommunications among Russian civilian and military leaders...."

stratfor.com 6/24/99 "...0500 GMT, 990614 President Bill Clinton had a sign taped to his desk at the beginning of his first term in office that read, "It's the Economy, Stupid." He should have taped one on his desk at the beginning of the Kosovo affair that said, "It's the Russians, Stupid." From the beginning to the end of this crisis, it has been the Russians, not the Serbs, who were the real issue facing NATO. The Kosovo crisis began in December 1998 in Iraq. When the United States decided to bomb Iraq for four days in December, in spite of Russian opposition and without consulting them, the Russians became furious. In their view, the United States completely ignored them and had now reduced them to a third-world power - discounting completely Russia's ability to respond. The senior military was particularly disgruntled. It was this Russian mood, carefully read by Slobodan Milosevic, which led him to conclude that it was the appropriate time to challenge the West in Kosovo. It was clear to Milosevic that the Russians would not permit themselves to be humiliated a second time. He was right. When the war broke out, the Russians were not only furious again, but provided open political support to Serbia....."

South China Morning Post 6/23/99 Rueters "...China is happy with the constant improvement in Sino-Russian ties, China's second ranking leader said on Tuesday. ''China is pleased to see Sino-Russian exchange and cooperation in politics, economy, culture and other areas have been growing constantly,'' the China Daily quoted parliament chief Li Peng as saying. ....Russian analysts say the two countries are working overtime to use the relationship to build strategic clout and chip away at the US's role as the world's only superpower...."

Russia Today 6/25/99 AFP "...Russia's surprise capture of the Pristina airport was the first step ahead of airlifting at least 1,000 Russian soldiers to Kosovo, US media reported here. Western intelligence analysts disagree over whether the move was designed for Russia to carve out its own sector of Kosovo, or to reinforce the 200 troops who took the airport June 12 and strengthen their bargaining position, the Washington Post reported Friday. The plan failed when Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania -- urged by the United States -- refused to grant the Russians overflight rights to send in the reinforcements...."

WorldNetDaily.com 6/25/99 John Dougherty "... According to Joel M. Skousen, a political scientist and avid Russia analyst, "The most savvy Soviet-watchers can point to a host of evidence indicating that the so-called 'collapse' was engineered to disarm the West and garner billions in direct aid to assist Russia while inducing the West to take over the economic burden of the former satellite states. But the most ominous evidence is found in defectors from Russia who tell the same story: Russia is cheating on all aspects of disarmament, and is siphoning off billions in Western aid money to modernize and deploy top-of-the-line new weapons systems aimed at taking down the U.S. military in one huge, decapitating nuclear strike."..."

South China Morning Post 6/26/99 Willy Wo-Lap Lam "...Beijing and Moscow have agreed to pool resources in the development of military-related high technology. The unpublicised accord was finalised while the Vice-Chairman of the Central Military Commission, General Zhang Wannian, was in Moscow this month. Diplomatic sources in Beijing said yesterday that while the leadership had turned down Moscow's invitation for forming a military alliance, the joint development of weapons technology was a big step forward in defence ties. "Both countries will co-ordinate development of a number of weapons systems," a source said. "Beijing will provide most of the funds and Moscow the bulk of the expertise, including personnel."...A PLA expert said priority would be given to development of hardware including missiles and submarines. The expert said that before the Kosovo crisis, the leadership of President Jiang Zemin had been reluctant to significantly upgrade military ties with Moscow. "After the air strikes against Serbia began, [Russian President] Boris Yeltsin told Beijing that unless China and Russia joined forces, the American military machine could not be stopped...."

International Herald Tribune 6/19/99 Masashi Nishihara "...The Kosovo conflict has sharpened tensions between major powers in Asia and the Pacific. There is now a risk of another Cold War emerging in the region. Such a development would be destabilizing and must be averted. When NATO began bombing Yugoslavia, China and Russia once again became close political allies. High-level contacts between the two countries have increased significantly. Russia's chief naval commander, Vladimir Kuroyedov, visited Beijing in late May, followed by Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov in early June. China's top military leader, General Chang Wan-Nien, went to Vladivostok in mid-June. Among other things, General Chang's visit produced an agreement to expand the two countries' military contacts. Both China and Russia suspect that the eastward expansion of NATO and the recently strengthened alliance between Japan and the United States are linked as part of a pincer movement to squeeze their countries from both east and west...."

AP 6/28/99 "...Long-range Russian bombers flew over the North Pole and test fired strategic missiles during recent military exercises, a defense official said Monday. The exercises involving Tu-95 and Tu-160 bombers were conducted last week as part of military exercises code named ``West 99,'' air force spokesman Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky was quoted as saying by the ITAR-Tass news agency...."

Itar-Tass 6/30/99 "... US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright may be dismissed already this summer for mistakes in the US policy regarding Yugoslavia, a Russian influential newspaper reported on Wednesday citing its sources in Washington. "In Washington they are talking that a certain reshuffle will take place in the State Department leadership before this autumn. /President Bill/ Clinton has reportedly found a worthy replacement to current Secretary of State Madeleine Albright", the Nezavisimaya Gazeta wrote...."

Russia Today 6/29/99 Itar-Tass Reuters "...Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Monday Russia was cooperating with NATO over a peacekeeping force in Kosovo but that otherwise ties with the military alliance remained frozen.

Ivanov said a visit by a group of Russian officers to Brussels Monday could ease tensions created by NATO's 11-week bombing campaign against Russia's fellow Slav and Orthodox Christian brethren in Yugoslavia. The officers, headed by a vice admiral, are due to discuss peacekeeping in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo...."

Associated Press 6/29/99 "...Russia's prime minister urged security forces on Tuesday to stem extremism and prevent ``criminals, bandits and swindlers'' from overrunning this year's parliamentary elections. Corruption is rife in Russia, and criminals are widely expected to support parliamentary candidates they believe will advance their interests in the State Duma. The next election is scheduled for December. ``The chief task of law enforcement bodies and the government ... is to erect an effective and reliable barrier in the path of those political parties, associations, and persons that destabilize society and stir up ethnic strife,'' Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin told a meeting of the Federal Security Service, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB....``Our chief task now is to prevent criminals, bandits and swindlers from getting into the bodies of power,'' he said....."

Drudge 6/30/99 "... The WASHINGTON POST'S Dana Priest is preparing a post-Cold War shock story for Thursday's editions: Strategic bombers from Russia flew within striking distance of the U.S. last week. The POST reports that Russia is in the middle of the largest war exercises since the end of the Cold war and that U.S. and western leaders are increasingly concerned about the current military leadership in Moscow...."

Russia Today 6/29/99 Reuters "...Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin gave the go-ahead on Monday for discussions with Iran on building three nuclear power plants in that country, Interfax news agency said. It said the Atomic Energy Ministry had made the proposal but did not say when the talks might start. Officials were not immediately available for comment. Russia is already building a nuclear reactor for Iran in the Gulf port of Bushehr in a deal worth $800 million...."

stratfor.com 7/2/99 "...2050 GMT, 990702 The June 29 edition of Russia's Nezavisimaya Gazeta, a newspaper controlled by close Yeltsin ally Boris Berezovsky, offered a detailed account of the flight of two Russian strategic bombers down the Norwegian coast which differed somewhat in perspective from the version of events being carried in the Western press. The Los Angeles Times reported that the two Tu-160 "Blackjack" bombers "flew down the coastline of Norway, also a NATO member." The report continued, "The move set Norwegian fighter planes scrambling. But the Blackjacks headed east before they could be intercepted." Nezavisimaya Gazeta's version of events is that "A pair of supersonic Tu-160 aircraft followed the entire Norwegian coastline, simulated the launch of Kh-55 cruise missiles, turned round, and took the same route back to their base area. The Norwegian F-16's were too late to intercept - in the space of a few years, it appears that NATO pilots have lost the ability to deal with eastern visitors." .... To add a final exclamation point to that call, the Russian newspaper cited 37th Air Army commander Lt. Gen. Mikhail Oparin as reporting that Boris Yeltsin signed documents approving the return of 10 unwanted Tu-160s from Ukraine "in the very near future," increasing the Russian arsenal of the aircraft by 150 percent. As NATO was hoping to dial back from the Kosovo action - to give its pilots a rest and do long-term maintenance on equipment - Russia made complacency impossible...."

Associated Press 7/1/99 Robert Burns "...Russia is flexing its post-Cold War muscles sending strategic bombers to probe allied air defenses and pushing for a bigger and more independent role in NATO-led peacekeeping in Kosovo. Two TU-95 Bear bombers flew so close to the coastline of Iceland last Friday that a pair of U.S. Air Force F-15 fighters were scrambled from a NATO air base to escort the Russian planes around the island. And NATO member Norway sent up fighter jets when two other Russian bombers flew down its coastline. The Clinton administration on Thursday dismissed the incidents as militarily insignificant but acknowledged that it was the first time in years that the Russian air force had flown so near to a NATO member's airspace..."

Itar-Tass 7/1/99 "...Georgia has sent a request asking for admission into NATO, Deputy Foreign Minister Giga Burduli said on Thursday. Relations between Georgia and NATO are at present regulated by the Partnership for Peace programme and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), Burduli told the newspaper, Free Georgia...."

The Straits Times 6/30/99 "...Once sworn enemies, both countries have found common cause in challenging what they perceive as growing US hegemony. In Europe, Russia sees the eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as an encroachment on its sphere of influence; and in Asia, China sees the strengthening of the US-Japan military alliance, as well as US plans to install theatre missile defence systems in the region, as evidence of an anti-China containment policy. On the principle that unless they stick together, they might well hang separately, both countries have decided to upgrade their security and political links. What does this mean for the world in general, and for Asia in particular? For the moment, perhaps not much. The partnership is still a secondary relationship for both, and calling it "strategic" will not change the global balance of power overnight. To begin with, their strategic interests do not always coincide. For example, unlike China, Russia is cooperating with Nato in peacekeeping efforts in the Balkans; and its relationship with Japan, unlike China's, is growing closer. In addition, both nations are well aware that neither can prosper economically by sticking solely to the other....Still, it would be a mistake to assume that the "strategic partnership" is just smoke and mirrors. As it is, the relationship has already borne significant fruit. The presidents of the two countries have met seven times in seven years; they have successfully resolved their long-standing border disputes; and the two countries have developed close military links. To date, China has acquired from Russia Su-27 attack jets, Kilo-636 attack submarines and Sovremenny-class destroyers equipped with SS-N-22 anti-ship missiles. Reports indicate that both countries agreed earlier this month to develop missiles, submarines and other high-tech weapon systems jointly, and that Russia has agreed in principle to sell China its state-of-the-art Su-30s, an aircraft superior to the Su-27. Reports indicate, too, that Russia proposed a military alliance between the two countries, but that China turned it down...."

Itar-Tass 7/6/99 "...The United States is considering the possibility of deploying NATO troops in five Arab countries. The possibility of drawing Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and Mauritania into the alliance's sphere of interests was discussing during President Hosni Mubarak's recent visit to the United States. The Jordanian newspaper "Al-Madj" reports that President Clinton asked Hosni Mubarak to discuss with his Arab colleagues the possibility of deploying large NATO contingents in five Arab countries to "strengthen strategic ties" with the nations of the Arab world. The newspaper notes that Washington had recently held consultations on this problem also with Algeria. The NATO troops that are to be deployed in the region will reportedly be used only in critical situations....."

The Limbaugh Letter 7/99 Rush Limbaugh "...RUSH: And yor are. You open Betrayal with four chapters on Russian expionage, terrorism, and the danger that the former Soviet Union's military represents for America. But America thinks that's over with, that the Russians are our buddies, that we've neutralized their threat. Would you say the Russian threat as comprised today is more dire than that of China? GERTZ: Yes, just in terms of sheer TNT power or megatonnage. The Russian nuclear arsenal represents the real strategic threat to the United States, although I wouldn't minimize the Chinese threat in any way. I highlight this in the chapter on nuclear nightmare, which goes into the crumbling control over the Russian nuclear arsenal. This is a real untold story under the Clinton Administration. I first learned about it years ago from a senior official in the Energy Department, who explained that politically motivated officials basically killed off his entire program -- an intelligence program that focused completely on how the Russians were not controlling their nuclear arsenal. This was definitely bad news for a people like Strobe Talbot and others who wanted to adopt a conciliatory approach to Moscow and to Boris Yeltsin. So they immediately disbanded this entire program, and put in officials who were more pliable and would go along with the ploitical leanings of their intelligence assessment. I was fortunate enough to get a number of classified CIA reports which revealed how dangerous the situation is. Even those reports appeared to me and to other outside observers to play down the danger of an unauthorized Russian nuclear missile launch. They kept saying that even though there are problems, the prospect of an unsanctioned use is low. Well, as they say, one nuclear missile can ruin your whole day. Even if there's a remote possibility that some rogue general could get hold of a nuclear command post and press the button, it's truly alarming. But the Administration publicly adopted the exact opposite approach. They had almost a mantra: "There's no problem with the Russian nuclear control over its missiles. Everything's fine. Don't worry about it."..."

Russia Today 7/16/99 Reuters "...For the last 15 years Russia has been operating a secret plant for producing and storing deadly chemical weapons just east of Murmansk on the Kola peninsula, the Norwegian daily Verdens Gang said on Thursday..... The paper quoted unnamed "international experts" who had studied the pictures as saying that "without doubt" chemicals were being produced at the plant.... Bellona researcher Thomas Nilsen said Russia had about 40,000 metric tons of chemical weapons in 7 stores around the country, none of which were in northwest. VG's article was logical because the site was close to the ammunition storage facilities for the Northern Fleet, he said...."

Russia Today 7/16/99 AFP "...The agency quoted Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov as saying that Russia wanted to receive all relevant information from China about its neutron bomb capabilities before formulating a more concrete position on the issue. "Russia's principal position is to strengthen nuclear non-proliferation on the one hand and the strategic stability in the world on the other," Ivanov said...."

Russia Today 7/17/99 AFP "...Residents of a south Russian village were fleeing their homes in droves Friday after a mystery infection killed three people and sent 72 others to hospital within days, the NTV television channel said..... Doctors are still at a loss as to the cause of the infection, but said it could be meningitis or a previously unknown form of encephalitis, possibly caused by ticks, said Vladimir Usatkin of Rostov's central hospital...."

Russia Today 7/14/99 AFP "...A leading Russian scientist's offices here have been searched by police amid an investigation into espionage for exposing nuclear pollution, officials said Tuesday. Vladimir Soyfer, 69, who works in affiliation with Moscow's Kurchatov nuclear institute, was searched by the Federal Security Service on July 3. He was researching pollution in Russia's Pacific Ocean coastline, a scene of nuclear waste dumping by the locally-based Pacific Fleet...."

Agence France Press 7/3/99 "... Russia has declared a US military attaché in Moscow "persona non grata" and ordered him to leave the country this week, the Washington Times reported Friday, citing US military sources. Lieutenant Colonel Pete Hoffman, the assistant army attaché, was notified last week by the Russian Foreign Ministry of the expulsion order, the report said. ....The Times cited a source as saying Hoffman may have been singled out because he was part of the US team in Helsinki that negotiated an agreement on the role of Russian forces in the peacekeeping operations in Kosovo....."

Russia Today AFP "...President Boris Yeltsin singled out regional conflicts Friday as a threat to Russia in an address to senior defense officials. Yeltsin also called for ratification of the START II strategic arms reduction treaty and negotiations on START III, which would provide for further cuts in the strategic arsenals of Russia and the United States, according to deputy....."

Anchorage Daily News 7/1/99 Barry Renfrew "...A conspiracy to snatch Lenin's body from his Red Square tomb and bury it in the middle of the night so Boris Yeltsin can stay in power? It sounds like the plot of a cheap thriller. But such is the feverish scenario sweeping Russia's media and political circles, amid speculation that Yeltsin is looking for ways to outlaw the Communist Party - his biggest rival. Ordinary Russians are worried that their country is edging toward yet another crisis. "Moscow ... is filled with alarming rumors and expectations about an unconstitutional course of events," said Andrei Piontkovsky, a political analyst. Exactly how Lenin's burial would lead to banning the Communists or help Yeltsin stay in power isn't clear, but nobody seems to be worrying about that. The Communists and others agree a burial would signal the start of an offensive to outlaw what is still the largest political party in Russia....."

New York Times 7/3/99 Eric Schmitt "...The United States and its NATO allies have blocked Russia from flying hundreds of troops into Kovoso this weekend, before details of Russia's role in the NATO peacekeeping force could be worked out, Administration officials said Friday. In the last 48 hours, Russia asked Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria for use of their airspace to fly 10 planeloads of peacekeepers on Sunday into Pristina, the provincial capital, the officials said. ..."

AP 7/4/99 "...The appearance of Russian bombers over the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in years coincides with new efforts by Moscow to stop its once enormous military from disintegrating. .... The government, alarmed about the state of the military, has promised to boost spending on security to 28.5 percent of the budget - $6.7 billion - compared to a proposed U.S. defense budget of $280 billion. Originally, the government had called for spending $5.1 billion on security. However, it is not clear that even the higher amount can stem the deterioration of the once-feared Russian military. While the appearance of two bombers near Iceland during exercises last week alarmed some Western governments, the planes reflected Russia's military decline. They were TU-95 Bears, a 40-year-old propeller plane based on 1950s technology...."

Russia Today 7/13/99 Reuters "...The Post, in a front-page story on Monday, quoted experts as saying the package that was originally intended to help Russians through the winter came too late and really was not needed in the first place. It also said that the U.S. food is now undercutting the Russian commodities markets. But the USDA backed the package, saying the food is reaching Russia at a perfect time after grain bins were getting low and that the country did in fact need food after an extremely poor harvest depleted supplies and the devaluation of the ruble made imports too expensive.... "

Conservative News Service 7/13/99 Patrick Goodenough "...Vaccines for smallpox, one of the most contagious killer diseases known to mankind, are in short supply worldwide, yet stocks of the live virus still exist, and smallpox could potentially one day be used as a lethal biological weapon. But the World Health Organization says there is "no evidence" any unauthorized party has access to the virus, and that resources should not be diverted from countering existing health threats to making more vaccine which will probably never be needed..... While 60 million doses of vaccine against a disease officially stamped out two decades ago may seem reasonable, smallpox is no ordinary virus. Uncontrolled, exponential spread of the disease could affect 100 million people in an outbreak originally triggered by 100 cases, experts have warned. The former head of the largest biological warfare production centers in the then Soviet Union described to a British newspaper last March the ramifications of an inoculated terrorist unleashing smallpox into the cabin of an airliner about to land at JFK Airport. "By the time the aircraft landed in New York, each passenger would have become a biological weapon," said Ken Alibeck, who fled to the West in the early 1990s. "From there, they might leave to travel all over the United States, to Detroit, to Florida, each one a new focus for the disease." "The incubation period of smallpox is two to 14 days, so before people realized they had been infected, they would be infecting other people. The hospitals would be overwhelmed." ..."

Washington Times 7/12/99 James Hackett "...On June 18, The Washington Times ran an item in its "Inside the Ring" section quoting Pentagon intelligence sources as saying that Russia had tested in April a high-altitude weapon that fires an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP. It added that the Pentagon is concerned about this Russian EMP weapon, which may be part of Moscow's anti-satellite (ASAT) development program. Electromagnetic pulses are high-intensity energy generated by nuclear explosions or special EMP generators. An EMP is similar to a bolt of lightning - a brief but intense surge of electric energy that can cause damaging overloads in solid-state electronics. An EMP burst caused by a nuclear explosion in space could instantly disable all satellites in sight, and ground stations as well. A generated EMP pulse would have less power and shorter range, but still could burn out the electronics of a satellite or anything else at which it is directed..... Russia's military leaders have made their top priority the production and deployment of the new Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile. In space, the military has asked the Duma to deorbit the Mir space station and use the money to help pay for a new fleet of military satellites. Even with 130 satellites still in orbit, most performing military missions, Russia's generals want new and improved spacecraft, especially spy satellites...."

American Spectator 7/99 Kenneth Timmerman "...When he unveiled the $600 million Nuclear Cities Initiative last September in Vienna at a joint press conference with Russian Minister of Atomic Energy Yevgeni Adamov, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson praised the Russians for their willingness to open ten previously closed nuclear cities. "This is a Russian-led effort to 'rightsize' their nuclear complex and use the valuable skills of their scientists and engineers to promote economic development and new enterprises--to turn the scientific and technological expertise that resides in their premier weapons facilities toward peaceful uses," Richardson said. "I can not emphasize enough how important it is to us all that economic hardship not drive Russian nuclear weapons scientists into employment in places like Iran and North Korea." But that was not what the Russians promised at all, according to a GAO audit. The GAO's own investigators were denied entry to Sarov (formerly known as Azarmas-16, one of Russia's two nuclear weapons design institutes) earlier this year. In a meeting with the auditors outside the closed city, Sarov officials acknowledged that "it will be difficult to attract commercial partners to a city located behind a fence." Meanwhile, the collapse of the Russian banking system has ruled out any support from Russian private companies to defense conversion, the original goal of the U.S. programs. U.S. officials in Moscow warned the auditors that "care should be taken in transferring funds to any project in Russia lest the money be swallowed up in a bankrupt financial institution."...."

www.stratfor.com 7/17/99 "...1655 GMT, 990717 - Are Russian Security Forces Again Acting Without Presidential Approval? Chechen Security Minister Turpal-Ali Atgeriyev was released from Moscow's Matrosskaya Tishina prison on the afternoon of July 17, a day after his surprise arrest at Moscow's Vnukovo airport. Atgeriyev, who was in Moscow to prepare for upcoming talks between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his Chechen counterpart Aslan Maskhadov, was arrested by Russian Interior Ministry troops for his alleged role in the January 1996 attack by Chechen rebels on the Dagestani town of Kizlyar, which left some 13 Chechens and 20 Russian troops dead. ....Atgeriyev's arrest will certainly put a damper on negotiations between Chechnya and Russia, as he must have traveled to Moscow with at least a tacit guarantee of safe passage. From the Chechen point of view, Atgeriyev had diplomatic immunity. Maskhadov must now think twice about leaving Chechnya, particularly to venture to Moscow. As for Russia, it has placed the 17,000 interior ministry troops surrounding Chechnya on high alert against possible retaliatory strikes by Chechen forces...."

Russia Today 7/20/99 Reuters "...Russia should work to overcome the anti-Western public sentiment that burst out after NATO began bombing Yugoslavia, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said in an interview to be published on Tuesday. But in the interview, with the popular tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda, he made clear his country is still angry at NATO and suspicious of the motives behind the bombings. In a sign nerves are still raw in Moscow more than a month after the air campaign's end, Ivanov said NATO had created a false image of humanitarian crisis in Kosovo as a ploy to subvert the United Nations and extend its military reach...."

Russia Today 7/21/99 Jane's, RFE/RL "...The report by British security experts appears in the latest edition of Jane's Sentinel, issued by the respected Jane's publishing group. The report says members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), created in 1991, have shown a determination to come to terms with the Soviet legacy and reshape their national destinies. But it says Russia has tried to assume the mantle of the former Soviet Union in terms of economic, political, and military power and seems set to try to reassert its influence again over the entire CIS region. The report finds that Russia has sought to retain "regional hegemony," or at least to exclude other powers -- such as the U.S. and Turkey -- and has also sought to elevate its own national interests over those of the CIS...."The crux of it is around the Caspian Sea. We've already seen the reaction Kazakhstan has had to the fact the Russians are still trying to use the Baikonur (space facility), as if it belonged to them, refusing to pay rent for it. We are seeing it in the way they are trying to exert influence over Azerbaijan, particularly by backing Armenia. We are seeing it in the way they are dealing with Ossetia, Ingushetia and also Dagestan. They are clamping down on anything that sniffs at all of being any independence movement whatsoever." ..."

Evans-Novak Political Report 7/20/99 Rowland Evans and Robert Novak "...Russian movement in Kosovo is worrying the White House far more than the Pentagon admits: 1) Key officials both in Kosovo and the U.S. fear that the Russians will concoct a liaison with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic that could put NATO in the position of choosing between military confrontation or backing down.... 4) The appearance of Russian military independence from President Boris Yeltsin and the foreign office further aggravates possible crises ahead. Moscow knows that faced with crisis, Clinton would pull all the stops to prevent an altercation between NATO and Russia...."

Sunday Times of London 7/25/99 Matthew Campbell "...AMERICAN officials believe Russia may have stolen some of the nation's most sensitive military secrets, including weapons guidance systems and naval intelligence codes, in a concerted espionage offensive that investigators have called operation Moonlight Maze. The intelligence heist, that could cause damage to America in excess of that caused by Chinese espionage in nuclear laboratories, involved computer hacking over the past six months. This was so sophisticated and well co-ordinated that security experts trying to build ramparts against further incursions believe America may be losing the world's first "cyber war". Investigators suspect Russia is behind the series of "hits" against American computer systems since January. In one case, a technician trying to track a computer intruder watched in amazement as a secret document from a naval facility was "hijacked" to Moscow from under his nose..... Besides military computer systems, private research and development institutes have been plundered in the same operation. Such institutes are reluctant to discuss losses, which experts claim may amount to hundreds of millions of dollars..... Dozens of infiltrations ensued at other military facilities and even at the Pentagon in Washington. When research laboratories also reported incursions using the internet technique, officials realised that a "cyber invasion" was under way..... Even top secret military installations whose expertise is intelligence security have been breached. At the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (Spawar), a unit in San Diego, California, that specialises in safeguarding naval intelligence codes, Ron Broersma, an engineer, was alerted to the problem when a computer print job took an unusually long time...."

http://www.softwar.net/ss27.html 7/26/99 "...Russia is deploying a new series of nuclear tipped missiles with warheads designed with the aid of US supercomputers. The new Russian SS-X-27 missile is being moved directly into deployment with an advanced 550 kiloton nuclear warhead made by the Arzamas-16 nuclear design bureau. Russian Atomic energy officials (MINATOM) admitted in early 1997 that an IBM super-computer was purchased from Europe by MINATOM in late 1996 for $7 million. The IBM super-computer was transferred directly to the nuclear weapons center in Arzamas-16. In addition, MINATOM official admitted that that Silicon Graphics, Inc., sold four computers to Chelyabinsk-70, another Russian weapons facility in the fall of 1996 for $650,000 each

Los Angeles Times 7/25/99 Helga Graham "...Relations between Russia and the West have dissipated dangerously since the end of the Cold War. Kosovo is largely symptom, not cause. This matters. A democratic, reasonably cooperative Russia is Europe's single most important security issue. Yet Russia--with its Weimar Republic socioeconomic collapse, its powerful mafia and its deteriorating nuclear and nuclear-alert systems--remains singularly suspended from the new European security structure, embodied by an expanding NATO. This semi-detached, inferior status is likely to make Russia act bearishly, say Moscow watchers. The dangers are obvious. Like the Versailles Treaty after World War I, the post-Cold War NATO expansion, anathematized by Russians of all classes, could all too easily become a scapegoat for Russia's ills and a catalyst for the resurgence of a neo-fascism-communism....Russia officially backs the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe--including Russia, the U.S., Canada and all European countries--as the main frame for European security. "But with Duma and presidential elections pending, nothing will happen," said a senior Russian diplomat. Time is running out, as the relatively accommodating Yeltsin stumbles slowly into the sunset....."

Chicago Tribune 7/29/99 Michael McGuire "...If Russia's generals begin to see an inflow of cash to modernize the nation's impoverished armed forces, some will toss an ironic salute to President Clinton and thank the bombing campaign in Yugoslavia. "Generals have told me that we must build a monument to Clinton because the campaign over Kosovo drastically changed political attitudes here," said Alexander Zhylin, one of Russia's top military analysts. "Now there is no more opposition to the idea that Russia should restore its military potential."..."

Russia Today AFP 8/2/99 "...US Defense Secretary William Cohen on Sunday promised Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze six helicopters to help patrol the former Soviet republic's borders. Georgia has had to see to its own security since the recent withdrawal of Russian border guards...."

Russia Today 8/2/99 Reuters "...Russian security chiefs met on Saturday to discuss a new civil defense doctrine, which will be presented to President Boris Yeltsin in a month, news agencies said. RIA news agency quoted Security Council Secretary Vladimir Putin as saying Russia was not likely to face a direct military attack, but recent war in the Balkans showed Moscow should be prepared for the possibility of getting caught up in a conflict...."

Fox News 8/3/99 AP "...Twenty people have been infected with anthrax in the Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan, and more than 250 others have been exposed to the disease, a news agency reported Tuesday. Earlier, Kyrgyz authorities had said that 700 workers were involved in butchering cattle that were sick with anthrax. But Health Ministry officials now say 270 people had contact with the infected meat, Interfax reported. ..."

Washington Post 8/8/99 Daniel Williams "...Helicopter gunships fired rockets into mountainous rebel redoubts. Refugees streamed from remote villages. Bearded Islamic guerrillas crept along steep ridges, rocket-propelled grenades at the ready. The scenes were reminiscent of Russia's unhappy war in Chechnya, a rebellious province that has been independent in all but name since Russian troops pulled out three years ago. But they took place over the weekend in Dagestan, another troubled Russian province that borders Chechnya...."

Reuters/AFP 8/3/99 "... Russian President Boris Yeltsin told Colombia's government Monday his government is ready to supply helicopters to Colombia's army and air force under a agreement the two countries signedin 1996, a statement here said. In a letter to President Andres Pastrana, Yeltsin said Russian state agencies would guarantee the aircrafts' maintenance and provide training for Colombian pilots and mechanics. Russia already has provided 10 transport helicopters under the bilateral agreement, the letter said...."

Reuters 8/6/99 "...Russia's former prime minister Yevgeny Primakov, sacked by President Boris Yeltsin in May, holds the key to the coming parliamentary election, an opinion survey showed on Thursday. The findings came as Moscow's powerful mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, tried to persuade Primakov to join a newly formed coalition uniting Luzhkov's centrist Fatherland party and the All Russia group of regional leaders. The survey, conducted by the VTSIOM polling organization, showed support for Fatherland in December's poll would jump from 16 percent to 28 percent if Primakov joined the party. If Primakov threw in his lot with the Communist Party, the largest party in the current State Duma lower house of parliament, support for Luzhkov's party would slip to 12 percent. Backing for the Communists would rise from 34 percent to 40 percent....."

Washington Post 8/6/99 Daniel Williams "...Primakov remains Russia's most popular politician almost three months after President Boris Yeltsin ousted him from the prime minister's post on the grounds that he had failed to get the economy moving. Observers noted at the time that Yeltsin was probably also reacting to Primakov's increasing popularity and independence. Now Primakov is being avidly courted by a new electoral coalition sponsored by Moscow's powerful mayor, Yuri Luzhkov. Polls show that Primakov would lead the coalition to parliamentary victory should he choose to head it in the December balloting...."

Reuters / RussiaToday 8/6/99 "...Russia has awarded medals to all the officers and men who took part in the surprise dash for Kosovo's Pristina airport in June, the military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda reported on Friday. About 200 Russian paratroopers based in Bosnia caught NATO napping and lifted the spirits of Russia's demoralized armed forces by crossing into Serbia in a convoy and then racing to the main airport in Kosovo ahead of alliance peacekeepers...."

Stratfor.com 8/5/99 "...0145 GMT, 990803 - At a joint press conference in Tbilisi, U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen announced that the U.S. will give six Bell UH-1 "Iroquois" helicopters to Georgia for use in protecting Georgia's borders. The helicopters are provided under a $3 million dollar "Helicopter Contract" signed between the U.S. and Georgia, in which the U.S. agrees to provide training to Georgian pilots in the U.S. and extends funds to Georgia to pay for the helicopters. Additionally, the U.S. is supplying four non-functional helicopters to be used for spare parts. These weapons are far from front line NATO standard...."

Reuters 8/7/99 "...The U.S. Coast Guard said Friday that one of its ships had been involved in an incident with a Russian trawler accused of fishing for pollock in U.S. waters....On board the Gissar were between 32 and 37 metric tons of pollock, Coast Guard officials said. But instead of being allowed to escort the Gissar to the nearest Alaska port, standard procedure in such cases, the Hamilton was surrounded by more than a dozen Russian fishing vessels preventing further enforcement action, Wetherell said. Up to 19 fishing vessels blockaded the Hamilton, he said...."

Defense Daily 8/5/99 Vago Muradian "...Despite Pentagon invitations that British Aerospace and Germany's DaimlerChrysler Aerospace [DCX] consider unions with leading U.S. firms, executives on both sides of the Atlantic are growing increasingly convinced that the prospects of a successful deal are dim in the face of political, diplomatic and export control hurdles, according to senior government and industry sources.... Defense globalization, and shaping policies that balance security concerns with economic necessity, has been a focus of the Pentagon leadership for more than a year, since DoD disclosed its opposition to the planned $11.6 billion merger between Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Northrop Grumman [NOC]. Soon after the Pentagon and Justice Department concerns with the deal became public on March 9, 1998, Lord Simpson, the chief executive of Britain's GEC, expressed interest in buying Northrop Grumman should the deal fail.....Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre and Pentagon acquisition chief Jacques Gansler initially were cool toward the notion of defense globalization, over security questions. But over the year, both have expressed growing support for major transnational deals involving U.S. contractors. The Pentagon leadership also has commissioned several studies on globalization, and a Defense Science Board panel on the topic last week submitted a draft version of its recommendations to Gansler....The recent DSB study on globalization recommends that the U.S. government focus its attention on protecting systems, with less attention on the parts that go into them. The ability to move U.S. technologies across worldwide operations remains a key issue that has been raised by both DASA Chief Executive Manfred Bischoff and Weston during their meetings with Hamre..."

Russia Today 8/10/99 Reuters "... Islamist guerrillas declared Russia's Dagestan province an independent state on Tuesday and called for a holy war of liberation amid Russia's worst security crisis since the war with breakaway Chechnya. Chechen-backed Islamist guerrillas took control of another village overnight, bringing them within two km (one mile) of Botlikh, the main town in the mountain valley where fighting has raged since they seized several villages over the weekend. Russian security officials gathered in Moscow and made optimistic noises..."

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel 8/8/99 John Hall "...Serbian people feel its sting as Albanians return Now comes ethnic cleansing in reverse. Human Rights Watch reports that more than 164,000 Serbs have fled Kosovo, along with "significant" numbers of Gypsies, to escape the revenge of Kosovar Albanians. Since there were only 180,000 Serbs in Kosovo before this all began, it looks as if the cleansing has been fairly complete. The Kosovo Liberation Army, defenders of the Albanian majority, have now occupied most civil offices and have become a de facto government under the semi-approving gaze of NATO..."

UPI 8/10/99 Two unidentified jets, reportedly a Su-25 and a MiG fighter, entered Georgian airspace from Russia and bombed a village in the former Soviet republic, wounding at least three people. The Georgian government said (Tuesday) it was outraged by Monday's attack and sent a strong note of protest to Russia, demanding an investigation of the incident, which Moscow claims it has no knowledge of. ..."

UPI 8/10/99 Martin Sieff "...The Islamic nationalist rising in Dagestan in the Russian Caucasus confronts President Boris Yeltsin and his new Prime Minister Vladimir Putin with a crisis that threatens to dwarf the Chechnya war, leading analysts warn. "The Russian government has predicted that it will close down the revolt in Dagestan in two weeks," said Paul Goble, former chief State Department analyst on Soviet nationalities in the Bush administration. "But it made the same prediction about the 1994 Chechnya war and that assessment will prove as erroneous now as it did then." Goble is now deputy director of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. He spoke in a private capacity. More than 100,000 people were killed in Chechnya during 11/2 years of fighting from December 1994 to the summer of 1996 before Russia recognized its inability to crush that fierce Muslim mountain people. But the Dagestan uprising threatens to be even worse because it is deeply religious as well as nationalistic and could engulf many other Muslim peoples within the sprawling Russian federation. "The Dagestan explosion is going to tap into Islamic passions as well as nationalist ones," Goble said. "That will make it far more difficult for the Russians to contain it." The Shura of Dagestan, an Islamic council, declared independence at a meeting last weekend in a mountain town and declared an Islamic state. They also declared a jihad, or holy war, and called on the neighboring Chechens to support their struggle for independence...."

Russia Today 8/11/99 AFP "...Acting premier Vladimir Putin on Tuesday warned he would restore "order and discipline" to the tiny republic of Dagestan, where Islamists declared independence after an incursion by fighters from the neighboring breakaway republic of Chechnya. Putin, plucked to head the government on Monday, told his first cabinet meeting he would give top priority to resolving the latest crisis in Russia's troubled Caucasus. "We are facing the emergence of mass terror on Russia's southern border," he said, after meeting President Boris Yeltsin. Putin -- former head of the Russian security services -- vowed to restore "order and discipline" in the region. "The situation in Dagestan will return to normal within a week and a half to two weeks," he said...."

AP FoxNews 8/10/99 "...A group of Tajik militants has taken hostages in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, leading Kyrgyz authorities to evacuate nearly 1,000 civilians and send elite police units to block the militants, Kyrgyz officials said Tuesday. About 20 gunmen from neighboring Tajikistan infiltrated the former Soviet Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan earlier this month. Last week, they seized the district administration chief, the regional security chief and two Defense Ministry officials who went to the northern Batken region to negotiate with them, Kyrgyz authorities said.

About 200 police officers have been sent to the region, said Bolot Dzhanuzakov, head of the presidential administration's defense department. Intercepted radio messages between the militants showed that the four seized officials were alive and were being held hostage, Dzhanuzakov said. ..."

Agence France Presse 8/12/99 "...Former Russian premier Yevgeny Primakov has agreed to lead a new political party formed by powerful Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov and senior regional governors, Interfax reported on Thursday.

The news agency cited Saint Petersburg governor Vladimir Yakovlev, who is a member of the new election bloc, as saying that Primakov would make the formal announcement on Thursday. Primakov has been courted by Luzhkov and his allies to head the new bloc, called All Russia-Fatherland. The centrist group whose formation has been opposed by the Kremlin hopes to win a majority in Decembers parliamentary polls. Primakov remains one of the most popular politicians in Russia despite being sacked from the government in May...."

Investor's Business Daily 8/11/99 Brian Mitchell and David Sanders "...Peter Grinenko knew how to play the game. He was in business in Russia before the fall of the Soviet Union. Before that, he was a cop in New York City and an investigator for the FBI, specializing in crimes by Russian nationals. In 1996, Grinenko met Paul Tatum at the luxury hotel Tatum had built in Moscow. He told Tatum, ''I suggest you leave because you're not playing the game right. They're going to hurt you.'' Months later, Tatum was dead -machine- gunned outside a subway stop near his hotel, the suspected victim of a dispute with a Russian partner. Tatum was a fearless, flamboyant businessman from Oklahoma. He once called Russia ''an entrepreneur's heaven.'' That dream died with him, as the West was forced to face the problem of widespread corruption in many ex-communist states in Eastern Europe. Many Westerners expected that when the Soviet system fell apart in Russia, a democratic capitalist system would fall neatly into place - with a little funding from Russia's new Western friends. That didn't happen, and some analysts say the funding has actually hurt. Billions of dollars in loans have propped up an unproductive socialist monetary system in Russia....The hope is that democratic and economic progress will keep Russian nuclear know-how at home and prevent the return of communism. But has U.S. aid helped democratic and economic progress? No, critics say. ....''There really still is very much an embedded culture of corruption,'' said Lucinda Low of Transparency International USA. ''The attitudes are evident. You see them in employees. You see them in partners. You see the attitudes in government officials.'' .....To combat corruption abroad, the Clinton administration is pushing enforcement of the Antibribery Convention ratified last year by the Senate. Others doubt the treaty will make much difference. The culture in the former Soviet bloc has to change first. ''For 70 years you had enforced atheism on the people, and all the basis for personal morality and thus honesty and integrity was forcefully extracted from that society,'' Rohrabacher said. ''When that happens, it takes a while to re-establish that moral basis for the success of any society,'' he said...."

Boston Herald 8/10/99 "...Boris Yeltsin has appointed a new prime minister for the fifth time in 17 months, a clear sign that Russia has not found a road to either political stability or economic progress. This Kremlin instability provides new evidence that further economic aid to Russia will be money down a rathole. The new prime minister is Vladimir Putin, head of Russia's spy agency. He has no experience in economics and little in politics. Already in Moscow the free-wheeling press is speculating about a possible coup when Yeltsin's term as president expires next year. ..."

Washington Times 8/13/99 Bill Gertz Rowan Scarborough "...Pentagon officials say the White House National Security Council staff is seeking to let the Russian government off the hook for violating the Biological Weapons Convention. Gary Samore, the NSC staff proliferation specialist, last month tried to water down a sentence in the annual U.S. government arms control compliance report. This year's secret compliance report will repeat the judgment from last year that ``certain elements of the former Soviet biological weapons program continue'' in violation of the 1972 convention... Elisa Harris, another pro-Moscow proliferation official on the NSC staff, then tried to add a sentence that said there is no intelligence to confirm the judgment - language that critics opposed as undermining the compliance process nailing Moscow's illegal biological warfare program. The Pentagon also learned some startling information as the result of a recent inspection in Russia that revealed how Moscow is violating another agreement: the Chemical Weapons Convention. Inspectors working for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons found a cache of high-technology poison gas arms that were not declared by Russia as required under the treaty. They included a bunker-penetrating guided bomb that spreads a semipersisent nerve gas and a ``flechette'' cluster bomb containing chemical agents spread by metal shards designed to penetrate chemical protective gear...."

Wall Street Journal 8/13/99 Richard Pipes "...How one longs for some good news from Russia. Alas, the news that comes our way from there conveys nothing but a picture of deepening political and economic crisis, of still more pervasive corruption and more vicious intrigues. Of course, "news" does not cover all that is happening for it concentrates on events rather than processes. And there are processes under way that offer hope: The habits of freedom and enterprise are steadily gaining ground, especially among the young. But they have not yet found proper institutional expression and hence their future is uncertain. To make matters worse, two new crises--one in the Caucasus, the other in the Kremlin--dim the country's prospects even more....."

The Edinburgh Scotsman 8/15/99 Alice Lagnado in Moscow and Alastair Jamieson "...RUSSIA launched all-out war against Islamic separatists in the Caucasus yesterday, prompting fears that President Yeltsin could declare a state of emergency to postpone forthcoming presidential elections. A huge military offensive began in Dagestan, three days after rebel fighters declared the disputed territory an independent Islamic state. The United States expressed concern about events and NATO said it was monitoring military developments closely. But there was growing concern that Mr Yeltsin may seek to alter his powers to declare an indefinite state of emergency and extend his grip on power by delaying crucial elections later this year and next. Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister designate, said yesterday that troops could bomb Chechnya in their efforts to defeat Islamic rebels in neighbouring Dagestan. The announcement, which signals Moscow's preparation for major conflict, came as federal forces began an offensive to drive the rebels out of the southern republic....Russian officials said that the rebels had seized seven of the 32 districts in Dagestan. They also claimed that the rebels had lost 200 men and suffered more than 300 wounded...."

 

The Associated Press 8/15/99 Arsen Malayev "...- Russian warplanes and paratroopers attacked rebel positions Sunday, trying to dislodge Islamic militants holding villages in the Caucasus Mountains. Russia's offensive is concentrated just a few miles from the republic of Dagestan's rugged border with Chechnya, and the Interior Ministry said it bombed guerrilla points just inside Chechnya on Saturday. Russian officials have said the standoff could spread to Chechnya and ignite a wider war. Chechnya, which denies any connection to the rebels, responded Sunday by declaring a state of emergency, beefing up border posts, putting troops on combat alert and imposing a partial curfew. ..."

 

Associated Press 2/14/98 "...U.S. scientists want a sample of a new form of anthrax developed in Russia that may be able to elude the vaccine shots American troops soon will get. The organism - the first known genetically engineered potential biological warfare threat - is an altered form of anthrax, a disease that normally afflicts animals such as cattle and sheep, but can cause severe illness and death in humans who inhale large doses. "This is a Trojan horse," said Col. Arthur Friedlander, chief of the Bacteriology Division at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick, Md. "This is coming in as anthrax, but it's got other bullets in it - different bullets." ....."

MSNBC Web Site 8/16/99 Brett Davis "...Could the first lengthy stay on board the International Space Station be made by an all-Russian crew? NASA officials and outside advisers are concerned about the training reportedly being given to a Russian contingency crew that may make an emergency mission to dock the next station component to the parts already in orbit. THE SERVICE MODULE, scheduled to be launched late this year, is supposed to be attached by an automated docking system. In case that doesn't work, Russia is training a two-person contingency crew and a backup crew to go into orbit and dock it manually. It is supposed to be a limited mission, but according to NASA officials the contingency crews seem to be getting training that should be reserved for the first long-term station crew, which isn't scheduled to fly to the station until next March at the earliest The contingency crews are apparently taking up the long-term crew's time in the Hydrolab, the Russian water-filled tank that simulates space conditions....."

Christian Science Monitor 8/18/99 Fred Weir "...Out of Russia's fractured political scene a Dream Team has emerged, an election coalition of leaders with the charisma, ideas, and organizational clout to unite the foundering country and lead it into the next century. Or so they're saying. Russia's most popular politician, former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, declared Aug. 17 that he is joining forces with the Fatherland movement of ambitious Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and All Russia, an alliance of powerful governors...."

AFP 8/18/99 "...Islamic insurgents beat back a fierce Russian assault on one of their strongholds in Dagestan on Wednesday as Moscow's defense ministers toured the strife-torn republic to assess damage from the 12-day guerrilla war. After the failed raid on Tando, one of several villages in Dagestan now under the gunmen's command, Russian defense sources conceded in private that fighting in the southern Russian province may drag on for months -- and not days as had been promised. Interior ministry officials in the Dagestani capital said eight Russian soldiers were killed and 20 injured ..."

Bbc 8/19/99 "...Russian warplanes pounded the Dagestan village of Tando on Thursday as they tried to root out Muslim rebels who have declared independence in the republic. A Russian military spokesman said two guerrilla bases had been destroyed and 50 fighters killed. The heavy raids came after Moscow announced it was stepping up its campaign to root out the rebels. The guerrillas, said to have come from neighbouring Chechnya, declared independence in Dagestan 12 days ago...."

The American Spectator Online 8/20/99 R Emmett Tyrell Jr. "....[Russia] Its strategic arms are still very dangerous. Its army is unhappy. Since the Clinton Administration's glorious conquest of Kosovo the Russian population has moved from friendliness toward America to sullen hostility and a growing sense that its problems issue from Washington.... The eastern European countries that Russia held as satellites until the late 1980's now prosper. They are democratic and progressive. Russia's economy is threadbare and its prospects for a democratic future are in doubt..... Since the collapse of Communism, the Russian gross domestic product has declined annually, except for a brief and paltry resurgence in 1997. Its unemployment rate reaches towards 25 percent. As many as 40 million Russians earn less that $30 a month. The average life expectancy of a Russian male does not extend beyond his fifties. Corruption and violence dominate society. Surely one explanation for this decline could be the horrifying loss of life experienced in war and under Communism, when anyone suffering a flicker of independent intelligence might find himself shipped off to hard labor or death in the Gulag. Another explanation for Russia's failure is that the same class that dominated Russia under Communism stayed in power. These men were not merely socialists; they were socialists in the purest form. They were thieves. When there was nothing left for them to steal from ordinary Russians they began to steal from the state. By the late 1970's they were stealing from their own bureaucracies. When Communism collapsed in the 1980's these kleptocrats stayed in power. When privatization took over, the former Communists took over the privatized assets and continued to steal.....The West bears an onerous responsibility for this condition, particularly the Clinton Administration. It has continued to extend loans to corrupt leaders despite the evidence that those loans were being pilfered by the kleptocrats. Clintonites such as Strobe Talbot at State and Lawrence Summers at Treasury have refused to adjust their aid policies to corrupt Russians despite wide knowledge that the aid was merely enriching the Russian kleptocracy...."

Chicago Tribune 8/19/99 "...Imagine this. Russians will have a real political choice that is neither Boris Yeltsin nor the Communists in their coming elections. What a refreshing change for the citizens of this fledgling democracy. Former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov has made this possible by casting his lot with the formidable coalition forged by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and a group of powerful regional governors. With the popular Primakov on board, overnight the Fatherland-All Russia coalition becomes the dominant political power as the nation gears up for parliamentary elections in December and a presidential race next summer...."

http://www.chinatimes.com/english/epolitic/88082007.htm 8/21/99 "...Mainland China and Russia are moving closer to forming a political and military alliance to challenge the United States and the West, a Russian defector to the United States said on Thursday. The West should be alarmed by such an alliance, which will likely be realized in the next few months and have dramatic consequences for world civilization that cannot be overestimated, claimed Col. Stanislav Lunev, the highest ranking Russian military officer ever to defect to the United States. He wrote in an analysis on the internet that one of the military ramifications of intelligence cooperation between Russia and Red China may have been mainland China's provocation against Taiwan in 1996 when it fired missiles across the Taiwan Straits precisely at a time when the U.S. Navy had no ships nearby. Reports are that Communist Chinese intelligence did not have its own information on global U.S. ship deployments but had received this information from Moscow. Similarly, Lunev said, Communist Chinese development of the warhead known as the W-88, reportedly stolen from the United States by Chinese operatives, may actually have been given to Beijing by the Russians, who had acquired this technology some years ago...."

Stratfor.com 8/20/99 "...Swiss authorities had frozen approximately US $66.6 million of accounts belonging to Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, the Swiss weekly Facts reported August 19. Dominique Reymond, a spokesman for the Swiss public prosecutor's office, confirmed that some accounts have been frozen at the request of Russian prosecutors, but refused to comment on who held the accounts and the amounts in them...."

Russia Today AFP 8/17/99 "....Islamic radicals may "execute" Russian Premier Vladimir Putin in retaliation for the Russian offensive against rebel insurgents in the Russian republic of Dagestan, a spokesman told AFP Monday. Magomed Tagayev, spokesman for the commander-in-chief of the rebel insurgents, Shamil Basayev, made the threat from Grozny, the capital of the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya. "An inquiry has been opened on the activities of the Prime Minister in Dagestan and if the Sharia court condemns Putin, he will be executed in any part of the world by the Khalif Unit," he said....."

NewsMax.com 8/18/99 Col. Stanislav Lunev "... when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, ideological differences became less important. As a result, Russia and China began to restore their military-intelligence ties. The Russians moved quickly to strengthen these ties in the late summer of 1992 and sent Yivgeni Primakov, special envoy of Russian intelligence (and former director of the SVR--the successor agency to the KGB) to Beijing to sign a top-secret intelligence agreement with China. The purpose of the agreement was to officially reaffirm the cooperation that had been interrupted during the Cultural Revolution. According to a Washington Times report (10/21/92), this secret treaty involved the Russian Military Strategic Intelligence (GRU) and the Foreign Intelligence (SVR). These two agencies are coordinating operations with the Military Intelligence Directorate of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Concerning the treaty, the Times report noted the "anxiety of unnamed American officials" who were troubled by "Russia's and China's efforts in conducting intelligence activities against the U.S. and other Western countries, first of all, in collecting information about modern advanced technologies." Russian and Chinese intelligence have, then, been combining their efforts again to penetrate America's military industrial complex, especially to gather information on advanced weaponry, and are pooling their best available intelligence. For example, since the Chinese have a shortage of information on spy satellites and electronic intelligence, the Russian GRU and SVR help provide them with this information. In return, the Russians receive Chinese intelligence gathered from Chinese "agents-of-influence" contacts in the U.S. and other Western countries. One of the military ramifications of this cooperation may have been China's provocation against Taiwan in 1996 when it fired missiles across the Taiwan Straight precisely at a time when the U.S. Navy had no ships nearby. Reports are that Chinese intelligence did not have its own information on global U.S. ship deployments but had received this information from Moscow. Similarly, Chinese development of the warhead known as the W-88, reportedly stolen from the U.S. by Chinese operatives, may actually have been given to the Chinese by the Russians, who had acquired this technology some years before...."

Stratfor.com 8/20/99 "….2328 GMT, 990820 Russian May Be Seeking to Change Status Quo in Kosovo Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently affirmed that Russian forces "will cooperate with NATO," but added the caveat that, "We have our geopolitical interests and we will stand up for them." Statements made on August 20 by Russian defense and foreign ministries suggest that Russian participation in K-FOR may no longer match Putin s vision of Russia s "geopolitical interests." At a press conference today, Russia s Foreign Ministry envoy to the former Yugoslavia Boris Mayorsky warned that Russia could pull out of KFOR if its exercises "take such a character that it would become unacceptable for Russia to be associated with such activities." Defense Ministry chief of international cooperation Leonid Ivashoy said, "NATO s scenario" for the development of peacekeeping operations is a "dangerous prospect." Ivashoy believes the "dangerous prospect" is NATO s continued ambivalence to Russia s terms for the peacekeeping operation the same terms established for Kosovo by UN Security Council Resolution 1244. Russia has demanded an authentic peacekeeping operation and believes that NATO has implemented a grisly occupation…."

Washington Times 8/20/99 Philip Smucker "…U.N. administrators in Kosovo say a deal worked out with the Kosovo Liberation Army in June by State Department spokesman James P. Rubin is not binding and will undermine U.N. efforts to police the province. KLA leaders are pressing for enforcement of the agreement, struck in the closing days of NATO's bombing campaign over Yugoslavia, which would give members of the ethnic Albanian guerrilla force favorable consideration in recruitment of a civil police force. But NATO and U.N. officials are reluctant to engage the ex-guerrillas because of evidence of KLA participation in a revenge campaign to drive Serbs and Gypsies from their homes and turn over the properties to ethnic Albanians…."


The News Channel 8/19/99 AFP "…Israel has offered Russia assistance from its secret services to help Moscow fight Muslim rebels in Dagestan who have been joined by Jordanian and Palestinian extremists, the daily Vremya reported Thursday. Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy told Russian ambassador Mikhail Bogdanov in Jerusalem that the Mossad was ready to provide information on the rebels, the newspaper said…."