idbits, March 4.

Careful what you drink in Russia and not just the water.

Russians are dying from poisioning from polluted vodka. Russian vodka is laced with toxins, such as methyl spirits or wood alchohol, which can cause blindness. 60% are adultarated products. Some sold in fake bottles bearing famous brand names are downright deadly. An estimated 240,000 people have died from poisoning traced to bad liquor in the six years since the state vodka monopoly was lifted. Up to two-thirds of the excise stamps on domestic Russian bottles of vodka are counterfeit -- much like the spirits inside.

Corruption & Bribery

According to the calculations of First Deputy Procurator General Yuriy Chayka, a minimum of 4,000 officials in Russia are taking bribes. And this only counts those with respect to whom materials have been presented to a court. Half a trillion budget rubles are being spent each year on bribetakers.

A quiet voice about reality.

"If we do not implement reforms in 1997, the forecast of a default could be justified," first deputy Duma speaker Alexander Shokhin, a former economy minister.

MENINGITIS

MASTA have received unconfirmed reports of an outbreak of meningitis in Moscow. 100 cases reported but it is not clear if this is bacterial or viral. At least one young girl has apparently died and CSF was positive for meningococci.

Madeleine Albright -Secretary of State Feb 8th.

"Czech-Americans and Polish-Americans and all the other heirs of Yalta are adamant that eastern Europe will never be left out of the West again."

Grigory Yavlinsky, the leader of Russia's Yabloko Party, uses the columns of the Financial Times of London to attack Russia's nomenklatura. He says that Russia's "new ruling elite is neither democratic nor communist, neither conservative nor liberal, neither red nor green. It is merely greedy and rapacious." Yavlinsky concludes that the Russian people and western leaders must understand that the situation has become dangerous. He says complacency about "Russia and its supposed transistion to a market economy" should be abandoned. He writes: "We all need to worry about the common menaces we face and the criminal state that is emerging from the ruins of the Soviet Empire."

The Government's human rights record showed little progress in 1996. Domestic and foreign human rights groups continued to document serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights in the Republic of Chechnya by both Russian military and Chechen separatist forces. Violations committed by Russian forces continued to occur on a much larger scale than those of the Chechen separatists. Russian forces engaged in the indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force, resulting in numerous civilian deaths. They also prevented civilians from evacuating from areas of imminent danger and humanitarian organizations from assisting civilians in need. These actions were in conflict with a number of Russia's international obligations, including those concerning the protection of civilian noncombatants. Security forces were also responsible for disappearances in Chechnya. Chechen forces executed some members of the federal forces and repeatedly seized civilian hostages. Both parties to the conflict at times used torture, mistreated prisoners of war, and executed some of them. Tens of thousands of civilians were killed and over 500,000 persons displaced since the conflict began in December 1994.

According to human rights groups, between 10,000 and 20,000 detainees and prison inmates died in penitentiary facilities, some from beatings, but most as a result of overcrowding, inferior sanitary conditions, disease, and lack of medical care. The Government continues to restrict freedom of movement. Violence against women and abuse of children remain problems, as do discrimination against women, and both religious and ethnic minorities.

Russian nuclear missiles are still trageted upon the U.S. The man with the "football," the signals that unleash Armageddon, still stays 24 hours a day at the heel of the two presidents. By definition an accidental launch cannot be deterred. And you had thought the world was now a safer place.

The total amount of unpaid wages to military people tops $1 billion dollars Russia has 4.5 million men in the military. That means each is owed an average of $200 which in the military represents a long time without wages. As a result of under funding, the Defense Ministry's debts to providers of products and services tops R29 trillion, which includes R2.8 trillion for food, R0.5 trillion for clothing,

Interesting quotes from Kirill Buketov, is a young (27) and very able specialist in the FNPR's research apparatus. He's among the editors of the FNPR's newspaper Solidarnost, and also puts out an independent labour movement journal named Rabochaya Politika." FNPR: Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia.)

"It was through plundering these [Western] credits that the ruling elite was able to enrich itself". "Investments by Russian firms in eastern and western countries during 1996 exceeded foreign investments in the Russian economy." "There is now no investment project that inspires trust even in Russian banking circles."Each year Russian citizens buy more than $20 billion in foreign currency in order to keep it in their homes, neither spending it nor investing it in any financial undertaking. The deposits in commercial banks amount to only half this sum." "The taxation officials erect special obstacles to prevent foreign investors from obtaining [tax] benefits, in order to extract bribes."The ruble is convertible only inside Russia."

On Russian Economic Disintegration.

According even to official Russian Federation statistics and even public ministerial statements, the catastrophe [Russian Economic Disintegration] will arrive before autumn this year. If that is so, then I cannot see how to detour so large and cumbersome an animal as the Russian national economy, and can only envision beginning now to set in place the structures by which the pieces will be picked up... and which may constitute some of the pieces themselves.

The catastrophe. According even to official Russian Federation statistics and even public ministerial statements, the catastrophe will arrive before autumn this year. If that is so, then I cannot see how to detour so large and cumbersome an animal as the Russian national economy, and can only envision beginning now to set in place the structures by which the pieces will be picked up... and which may constitute some of the pieces themselves.

Notable Quote

Segai Chancellor of the Moscow Patriarch Archbishop of Solnechnogorsk of the Russian Orthodox Church at a Morozov conference Dec. 6, 1996. "It is important to understand if the spirituality of the Russian entrepreneur is not revived..most Russians..will not come out of kabala--slavery. We need to relearn the lesson: Give and you will receive."

To Tidbits April 4. ->