RUSSIAN FAR EAST NEWS

September 2004

Covering the region with news, analysis and insights since 1991
Published by:
American Russian Center, University of Alaska Anchorage
3211 Providence Drive, Anchorage, Alaska 99508
Phone: 907-786-4300, fax: 907-786-4319, email: ayarc@uaa.alaska.edu
Web: www.arc.uaa.alaska.edu

Table of Contents

Features
From the Editor
U.S.-Russian Far East Activities - Portland and Khabarovsk
Classic Book - The Siberians
Far East First-Hand - A Muscovite in Anadyr
Industries
Fishing
Mining
Oil, Gas, and Energy
Transportation and Shipping
International Update
Politics and Legislation
Social Issues
Arts & Culture
Business
Education
Environment
Health
Media
Religion
Did You Know? Facts and Figures at a Glance
Announcements
Business Information
Calendar
Travel

Features

From the Editor - Sarah Hurst

It’s not often that a local mayoral race captures the attention of the nation, but this was the case in July when the Russian media homed in on events in Vladivostok. First, run-off candidate Viktor Cherepkov was hospitalized after a grenade attack (which some suggested might have been set up by Cherepkov himself for nefarious reasons), then, to literally add insult to injury, Cherepkov was removed from the ballot by a court decision. This left former crime boss Vladimir Nikolaev with no serious opponent, after other potential candidates refused to run against him. Mayor Nikolaev is now set on shaking up the municipal administration, eliminating inefficiency and making the buses run on time – with clean interiors. Or so he says. More ominously, a group of unsavory characters celebrated Nikolaev’s victory by getting drunk in a restaurant and sexually harassing the waitresses… allegedly. President Vladimir Putin’s representative in the Far East, Konstantin Pulikovsky, insists that Nikolaev’s reckless youth is behind him, so perhaps he truly will usher in a new era of transparency. Meanwhile, Cherepkov is planning his next appeal against the result.

The other issue consuming Far East residents is the controversial benefits reform which was hastily pushed through the State Duma. Even Pulikovsky and the ordinarily loyal Far East governors are wavering in their support for Putin on this, as they aren’t yet sure how local budgets will find the funds to make cash payments to veterans, pensioners and the disabled. Will the center provide or leave them in the lurch? This problem and the ever-increasing number of terrorist attacks could precipitate a major crisis for Putin as winter approaches.

U.S.-Russian Far East Activities

Portland-Khabarovsk Sister City Association: Activities and projects
by Alan Ellis, PKSCA president

In its 16th year of existence, PKSCA is building on a tradition of cooperative partnerships among academic, political, cultural and business interests in Portland and Khabarovsk, as well as regionally throughout the State of Oregon and Khabarovsk Krai. Additionally, PKSCA strives to provide the citizens of the greater Portland area with an informational link to contemporary life and developments in the Russian Far East.

One of the keys to PKSCA’s longevity as a productive sister city association lies in the way it organizes itself. Over the years an effort has been made to seek out members from a variety of interests and occupations to serve on the Board of Directors. Currently there are 11 directors from diverse professional backgrounds – including education, government, economics, world affairs, law, music and art. This is the group that is primarily responsible for the development and implementation of PKSCA activities and projects.

Every two years, directors choose four from their group to be PKSCA officers (president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer). With the exception of the president, officers may be reelected to successive two-year terms. The president may not serve successive terms and, upon leaving office, becomes a director emeritus for a year with non-voting status. This provision (a result of recent revisions to the PKSCA Bylaws) is designed to share the responsibility of the presidency among the directors, guard against work overload for any one director, and provide fresh leadership for the organization every two years. While organizational continuity may be disrupted somewhat by this periodic changing of the guard, the overall effect has been beneficial – both for the Board and for the director serving as president.

A sister city relationship must be regularly attended to and nurtured if it is to succeed. Above all, the channels of communication need to be open and active. But communicate with whom? When it comes to government and NGOs in Russia, the Soviet model is still alive and well – which means that not much gets done without the blessing of local officials. For most of its years, our counterpart in Russia, the Khabarovsk-Portland Sister City Association (KPSCA) has been an extension of the local municipal “friendship society”.

Russian political protocol requires that any formal communications between our associations pass through the Mayor’s Office first. Over the past two years, however, PKSCA has been working systematically with our sister city colleagues and our contacts in the Mayor’s Office to slowly but surely achieve more independence and community outreach opportunities for KPSCA. This collaboration culminated in a KPSCA-PKSCA-sponsored public forum held in July on organizing, developing and sustaining public service programs in the Russian Far East.

The formal name of the one-day program was “The Increasing Social Role of Non-Profit Organizations” and it featured presentations (followed by question-and-answer sessions) by NGO leaders from PKSCA and KPSCA, a Sakhalin medical organization, Portland’s Wild Salmon Center, and the Khabarovsk Regional Nature Preservation Organization. After the forum, KPSCA’s president told our PKSCA representatives that he now felt “determined to be active” in building up citizen interest in the association and persuading city officials of the need for greater autonomy.

PKSCA is an all-volunteer organization and our budget is totally dependent on contributions from members, donations from businesses and organizations, and fund-raisers. Over the years, PKSCA has rarely operated on a budget of more than $3,000. Funds are used primarily to pay transportation costs for periodic visits to Khabarovsk by PKSCA officers, to assist with joint KPSCA-PKSCA programs, defray hosting expenses (for visiting delegations), pay for refreshments at PKSCA membership activities, pay for mailings, and provide remuneration for website upkeep. Thus, PKSCA is not capable of funding a major project. What PKSCA can do, though, is facilitate the organizing, developing and sustaining of major projects and exchanges.

The most successful recent example of this was PKSCA’s facilitation of the Solid Waste Management Initiative. In partnership with the Association of Oregon Recyclers, PKSCA assisted the Department of Housing and Communal Services of the city of Khabarovsk and the Russian Nature Protection Society in seeking a grant from the Foundation for Russian-American Economic Cooperation. The project was eventually awarded close to $100,000, and a pilot recycling program was initiated in several Khabarovsk communities. Additionally, the grant was used to fund a series of exchanges between Russian and American experts in the areas of solid waste management operation and education (through the public schools). The success of the project has motivated the same partners to apply for a grant to replicate what was achieved in the city of Khabarovsk on a regional (krai) level.

A second major project facilitated by PKSCA is in the area of university education. Dr. Earl Molander, a retired professor from the School of Economics at Portland State University and former PKSCA president has collaborated with PKSCA over the years to sponsor a decade of academic partnerships and exchanges with universities in the Russian Far East. Hundreds of students and professors from both countries have participated in Dr. Molander’s Free Market Business Development Institute. In support of his program, PKSCA has assisted in the procurement of grants, hosting of delegations, and promotion.

Though Dr. Molander’s program in the RFE will soon come to an end, he has been working closely with PKSCA and Portland State University’s Mark Hatfield School of Government in hopes of finding a way to continue building on the bonds that have been established between his partners in Khabarovsk Krai and Portland State University. Last February, Professor George Beard of the Hatfield School of Government traveled with me to Khabarovsk, meeting with local university and city leaders. We were impressed with their warm reception and support.

Aside from these two major project areas, PKSCA will also be working on helping to bring about a youth hockey exchange, an exhibition of art from the Khabarovsk Art Museum, development of a health promotion/disease prevention program in Khabarovsk, and an exchange of expertise in the area of river cleanup. If that weren’t enough, PKSCA representatives returned from the July forum with a lengthy project wish list from KPSCA!

Lastly, the PKSCA Board sponsors a number of local activities each year designed to encourage active participation by our members. This year PKSCA has been conducting a series of monthly forums, each dedicated to a different aspect of Russian culture and/or contemporary life in the Russian Far East. Each forum begins with a presentation by an expert on the topic, with discussion and questions encouraged throughout the evening. The forum sessions are free and open to the public. Our monthly Board meeting in September is an open house for our members to provide input and suggestions, and in May PKSCA sponsors a Russian dinner party at a local Russian restaurant. In terms of dissemination of information about activities and projects, PKSCA has relied increasingly on our website (www.pksca.org) and our talented webmaster, member Barry Peril. Please visit our site!

Classic Book

 Extract from The Siberians by Farley Mowat (Penguin, 1975)

Yakutsk

I was awakened at 9 am the next day by an insistent rapping on my door. In no friendly mood I flung it open, and there stood a pale and distraught Kola in his siren suit.

“Farley, please be brave! We have been invited to be guests of the Presidium during the parade. Do not blame me! They will be crushed if we do not go. We have one hour to get ready… and it is Farenheit minus 22 degrees outside!”

At ten o’clock sharp, Simeon Danielov, president of the Writers’ Union, arrived to lead us to our fate. There was no question of taking a taxi; the entire main street was one milling mob of people. We threaded our way to the civic square and to an impressive marble review stand backed by thirty-foot-high portraits of the local Communist leaders. Several of these, in the flesh, occupied a podium in the center of the stand which was crowded with officials, great and small, stamping their feet, laughing uproariously, and ecstatically embracing old friends. There was none of the grim and paralyzing solemnity which hangs like a pall over Moscow’s Red Square on this date. On the contrary, Yakutsk was vibrant with a feeling of gaiety and warmth which belied the bitterness of the weather yet did not belittle the intense significance Soviet people attach to the birthday of their Revolution and of their nation.

The Moscow celebration has a hollow, ominous, and depressing character, as if it is conceived and executed by automatons. One reason for this was given to me by a Soviet journalist.

“The Moscow parade is really quite dreadful. I won’t watch it myself. There we show our worst face to the world – a hard, unsmiling face. It is our showcase of power, intended to make our real and potential enemies realize they had better leave us alone. We are a little paranoid, you know, although after fifty years of unrelenting hostility from the Western powers, and Japan, perhaps this is understandable. But the face we show in Moscow on November 7 is not the real face of Russia. To know what the Great October Revolution really means to us you must see the celebrations in some out-of-the-way town.”

I think my journalist friend would have accepted Yakutsk as being sufficiently out-of-the-way.

As we stood chatting to some of Simeon Danielov’s friends (he seemed determined to introduce us to every soul on the stand) there came a distant burst of cheering, followed by the dull roar of engines. My memory jumped sharply back to the night before our departure from Moscow and I braced myself in expectation of seeing the obscene gray snouts of tanks and armored carriers appear at the entrance to the square. A brass band began to play a stirring march (why the bandsmen’s lips did not freeze to their instruments was a mystery I never solved) and the voice of the Party Secretary boomed out of the loudspeakers overhead:

“Comrades! Here come the shock troops of our Republic! Let us give them the greeting they deserve!”

The roar of engines grew louder, and around the corner came a column of more than a hundred tractors and farm trucks extravagantly decorated with red bunting, representing the state and collective farms from many miles around the city. The people in the square cheered wildly and threw paper flowers at the grinning tractor drivers, one of whom responded by waving a not-quite-empty bottle which may, conceivably, have contained tea.

Apart from a contingent of militiamen and a company of Red Army soldiers bearing no arms, this was the extent of the military flavor of the parade. It was also the extent of mechanization. Only the farmers rode – everyone else marched by on foot. And almost everyone in Yakutsk, with the exception of the few thousands in the civic square, and we people on the rostrum, must have been in the march. Someone told me later that the population of the city had swelled to one hundred and fifty thousand for the holiday. After three hours on the reviewing stand, I believed it. I suspect I saw every single one of them with my own eyes.

Contingent after contingent marched by carrying banners and placards, sometimes pushing or pulling floats, and usually preceded by a flag-bearer carrying a portrait of Lenin. Each contingent was greeted by the Party Secretary, who must have been chosen for his high office at least partly because of his leather lungs and his apparent imperviousness to physical discomfort.

The fact was that the marchers were the lucky ones. They could at least keep warm. For those of us on the stand the affair soon became a deadly serious exercise in arctic survival. I could understand why the reviewing stand was built of marble and concrete. No wooden structure could have endured the pounding of hundreds of feet as their owners bounced up and down in a desperate battle to keep their blood flowing.

Claire, Kola and I would certainly have lost that battle and, tough as the Yakut people are, I think most of our fellow victims would have too, had not a life-support system existed. I first became aware of it when I noticed a steady drift of people commuting between the stand and the city hall which stood a hundred yards in the rear. At first I supposed these people were simply going off to relieve themselves, but this did not explain the joyous quality of the smiles they bestowed on all and sundry when they returned to duty.

The truth was revealed when Claire’s face began to turn blue and she began to moan softly. Simeon gave her a sharp glance then hustled us off the platform and into the city hall. The first aid station was in the spacious lobby. It was presided over by six extremely busy waitresses who were serving tumblers full of neat cognac. A quick gulp followed by a volcanic moment of instant thaw, then it was back to the Front again.

Permission granted by Farley Mowat Limited.

Far East First-Hand

A long way from home for the first time… in Chukotka
by Sergey Arutyunyan

Sergey Arutyunyan moved to Chukotka from Moscow a few months ago to interpret for one of the construction companies operating there.

If you are slightly older than 18 and you have traveled a little, then you can compare. If you have lived in a big city, Moscow, for example, for more than a year, and then you find yourself in Chukotka, you’ll want to compare. In Russia there are many educated people, but if you ask them where Anadyr is (Anadyr is the capital of Chukotka), the most likely answer will be, “I don’t know exactly… but I know it’s very far away.” And that’s true. Chukotka is at the most northeasterly tip of Russia, across from Alaska, and it’s about twice the size of Germany (720,000 square kilometers and 357,000 square kilometers respectively). And because of the very harsh climate, none of this land is connected to Moscow by road.

When foreigners come to the Russian Far East they often say that there are no roads in Russia, but there are directions. Perhaps in Chukotka they’d say there are no directions here, either. Even if that’s true, in Chukotka it’s no cause for regret. In Chukotka there’s little that can upset people. Miserable people don’t stay in Chukotka. True, Chukotka has no road connection with the rest of Russia. And it’s not only a matter of money. You could build a road that was several thousand kilometers long, but how would you clear such a long road if it snows for eight months a year and there are no villages along the route?

For example, residents of Chukotka say of the rest of Russia: the Petrovs are on vacation on the mainland… or… when Ivanov comes back from the mainland… All food, clothing, furniture and construction material comes here only by sea or air. Moreover, goods only come by sea when the sea is ice-free, from mid-June until October. So if someone wants to drink fresh beer in February, for example, then they have to fly to Moscow. Thank God, planes fly there every other day (Il-62s and Boeing-763s), and the ticket costs $350 one-way. A nine-hour flight and hello Red Square!

By the way, I get the impression that the people of Chukotka don’t feel cut off or unwanted. On the contrary, in Anadyr and other districts new buildings are going up, old ones are being repaired and painted in bright colors, and roads and a new power station are being built. Not to mention that Chukotka experienced the highest birth-rate in Russia last year. So people are not idle. And there is something nice about the fact that it’s harder for you than for other Russians, and you are making this place habitable, and it’s a part of your country... Our neighbors the Alaskans can probably understand us better than others, although they say the wind isn’t as strong in Alaska. Chukotka is jokingly known as the “region of flying dogs”. The wind can be so strong that trucks turn over and 40-foot containers move, and if some dog feels like going for a walk, the wind can quickly lift him up and blow him away.

If there are challenges, there is also a positive side. Why steal cars if it’s impossible to hide them, sell them or drive them? That’s why cars don’t get stolen in Chukotka. Business here also has its peculiarities. For example, a new company appears in Chukotka which has a lot of containers for shipping and some other company from Chukotka that urgently needs containers wants to buy them. The new company agrees and names a price that’s two to three times higher than usual, taking advantage of the extra demand in the spring and, to put it simply, trying to make more money. In response to this quote a number of events occur and a week later the vendor itself begins urgently calling everyone and offering containers at a most reasonable price. Some might think this is to do with the Russian mafia. Nothing of the sort. It’s just that other Chukotka companies hear about this type of behavior very quickly. And when the vendor wants to buy cement or pipes, for example, the next day, it gets a quote that’s much higher than the going rate. One should beat this kind of company at its own game. If you don’t like it, bring your own materials in by plane. In Chukotka people know that if you don’t help someone today, tomorrow no one will help you. And vice versa. That’s the North.

Another difference between Chukotka and Moscow is that here people are more decent. People who want to make money illegally here have nowhere to hide. That’s why there are none of the murders here that often occur in Moscow. In Moscow if you’re over 40 or so, they’ll usually prefer someone younger. In Chukotka age is irrelevant. Here they hire people based on their abilities. If a person is healthy and hard-working, has a good character, and higher education to boot, then welcome to Chukotka. As for the quality of the local administration’s work, I had personal experience with them. We needed to close a road for construction work, and there were only 15 minutes left before the end of the working day. That was enough time to get all the permits from the traffic police, agree on a detour, put up signs and close the road. I don’t think there are many countries or cities where such issues could be resolved so quickly.

What I don’t like about Chukotka is that you see drunk people on the streets more often than in Moscow. Although the price of alcohol is two or three times higher than in Moscow, unfortunately this doesn’t stop people. Perhaps it’s the influence of the cold climate and the isolation. Indigenous peoples of the North suffer from alcoholism more than anyone else. And we, the people who arrived here several centuries ago, bear responsibility for this.

Of course it’s hard to live here, with the very strong winds and frosts. We know that the problems of the people in Chukotka are similar to the problems of our neighbors, the Alaskans. We know that when the sky is full of smoke on a sunny summer’s day, it’s peat burning. And if on this occasion a light wind is blowing in from the east, from the sea, then the peat is burning in Alaska. We know there was a time when Alaska was part of Russia. We are a little sorry that it isn’t any more, true. But we would very much like our neighbors to live well and we want Alaskans to know this.

Not many palm trees or bananas grow in Chukotka or Alaska, as it happens. How can we be useful and interesting to each other? Perhaps tourism? Perhaps projects on marine resources and the environment? Companies from Canada, the former Yugoslavia, Belarus and Turkey are working in Chukotka now. Recently a delegation of Chinese business people visited. Chukotka is rich in gold, tin and coal. There are gas reserves here. What do Alaskans think about Chukotka? How can Chukotka be interesting and what’s stopping this? Tell us truthfully, please. Because we want to make progress, just like you.

Industries

Fishing

Boat sinks off Kamchatka

Six crew members died after their small fishing seiner sank in the Sea of Okhotsk 200 meters from the coast of Kamchatka at a depth of five to six meters, Vesti Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky reported in July. The three others on board, captain Vasily Beletsky and two fishermen, were able to get out before the boat sank; a man who saw the incident from the shore got into his rubber dinghy and helped them out of the water. A rescue helicopter and three boats searched for the lost crew members in vain. Later three bodies were recovered from the vessel by divers and another washed up on shore, Vostok-Media news agency reported in August.

Unpaid fishermen prepare to strike

The Kamchatka Prosecutor’s Office is considering a lawsuit regarding 29 fishermen from the vessel Vaninsk who have not been paid for over a year, Vostok-Media news agency reported in July. Recently a representative of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk company Proliv, which purchased the Vaninsk in July 2003, visited the vessel at the Vladivostok shipyard. He promised to provide information about the unpaid wages. The fishermen, from Kamchatka and Vladivostok, are preparing to go on strike. The company owes them 50,000 rubles ($1,700) each.

North Korean poachers face trial in Vladivostok

The Vladivostok Prosecutor’s Office has sent two criminal cases to court that were opened on poaching charges against North Korean citizens, Interfax news agency reported in July. The captains of two North Korean fishing vessels are also charged with illegally crossing the Russian border and attempting to smuggle their haul into the country. The vessels were spotted by Russian border guards while they were fishing for crab in Peter the Great Bay in the Sea of Japan in May. Russia is estimated to have lost around 1.8 million rubles ($62,000) from their poaching and a lawsuit seeking compensation for the damage is also pending.

Crab poacher to pay hefty fine

The Primorsky Krai court has upheld the verdict of Frunzensky District court against Aleksandr Terekhin, the captain of the Razdan, Yezhednevniye Novosti Vladivostok reported in July. The Razdan was caught in March 2003 in a special economic zone with several thousand illegally-caught crabs on board. Terekhin was given an 18-month suspended sentence and ordered to pay 2 million rubles ($69,000) in damages.

Third time unlucky for Sakhalin trawler

The Sakhalin trawler Kalachevsk has been caught for the third time this year with an illegal cargo on board, RIA Novosti reported in August. Coastguards stopped the vessel in Peter the Great Bay and found around a ton of live crab in its hold. The captain had deliberately avoided contact with coastguards since last March, when it was at the South Korean port of Pusan. The Kalachevsk was convoyed to Vladivostok for further investigation.

Raids by Sakhalin customs officers reel in results

Sakhalin customs officers caught the schooner Red Wings, flying the flag of Belize, with 21 tons of crab in its hold, Vostok-Media news agency reported in July. The vessel was not authorized to be carrying its cargo in Russian waters. It was convoyed to Nevelsk Port for further investigation. During the same investigation 14 Russian citizens were caught on Moneron Island, southwest of Sakhalin Island, apparently trying to illegally catch sea urchins. The refrigerator vessel Nizhneamurets was also stopped in Chuprovo Bay and found to have 12 divers on board, and 15 tons of sea urchins in its nets, RIA Novosti reported. The captain had a permit to visit Moneron Island and engage in underwater tourism. The sea urchins were released and the Nizhneamurets was convoyed to Korsakov Port.

Japanese poachers go home

The Japanese schooner Genei Maru-5, which was caught in June in the Tatar Straits between Sakhalin Island and mainland Russia, has been escorted out of Russian territorial waters, Primorskoye Television & Radio reported in July. The vessel’s owner was fined and 30 tons of illegally-caught salmon were confiscated, along with 10 kg of red caviar.

Mining

Sakha opens diamond-cutting factory with Japanese

Sakha’s second diamond-cutting factory to be set up with foreign partners has opened officially, YASIA news agency reported in August. The factory, Sakhadiamond, was established in Yakutsk together with Japan Auction Systems. The first such factory, Choron Diamond, also in Yakutsk, was set up with investment from Indian citizen Rajesh Gandhi.

Alrosa undergoes multimillion-dollar refinancing

Sakha-based Alrosa, which mines a quarter of the world’s rough diamonds, is taking out a $100 million loan with Citigroup and Societe Generale, Bloomberg news agency reported in August. The three-year facility may be increased to $300 million. The mining company plans to raise diamond prices by an average of 10 percent to match increases by rivals including De Beers. Alrosa also recently borrowed $90 million in a two-year loan arranged by Moscow Narodny Bank.

Chita gold mine reopens

Highland Gold Mining Ltd has poured the first gold from its Darasun operation in Chita, Mining Journal reported in June. The mine is expected to produce 40,000 oz of gold this year, increasing to 120,000 oz next year as it reaches full capacity. Mining at Darasun was suspended about four years ago, and the project brought the mine back into operation on time and within budget.

British company borrows money to construct Kamchatka gold mine

Trans-Siberian Gold, based in Cambridgeshire, England, is taking out a $30 million loan with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Standard Bank Group, Bloomberg news agency reported in August. The loan will be used to finance construction of the Asacha gold mine in Kamchatka, which is scheduled to start production late next year. It is expected to produce 100,000 ounces of gold a year.

Oil, Gas, and Energy

Inspectors give thumbs down to Sakhalin oil and gas projects

Recent inspections at six Sakhalin-1 camps and seven Sakhalin-2 camps uncovered numerous violations of Russian law in connection with the energy projects, The Sakhalin Independent reported in August. The inspectors also checked the offices of Sakhalin-1 operator Exxon Neftegas Limited and Sakhalin-2 operator Sakhalin Energy, the apartments where company employees live and the contractors providing food and utilities to the operators. Sakhalin Energy is a joint venture set up by Shell and Japanese conglomerates Mitsui and Mitsubishi.

Regular medical examinations and immunizations of foreign workers are not being conducted, Sakhalin’s chief doctor Boris Darizhapov said, reporting on the results of the inspections. Violations of construction regulations were also discovered; people are moved into apartments where the ventilation and sewage systems, canteens and laundry facilities have not been completed. Health and safety standards are not being met in the canteens, and project operators are not supervising the canteens closely enough.

A total of 12 officials and two companies were fined over $4,000 for failing to observe sanitary standards and the work at nine sites was halted until violations are remedied. The inspectors requested companies to make 646 improvements. Environmental inspections found that in the past year oil spills, potassium leaks and other violations were registered at the Sakhalin-1 project. The Sakhalin-2 operator does not inform governmental bodies about the violation of environmental laws.

A safety investigation found that the number of industrial industries in the construction companies involved in the project grew 21 percent in 2003 compared with 2002. Last year, 52 workers were injured and five of them died. According to Darizhapov, Sakhalin Energy does not give safety training. A German employee of Sakhalin Energy died in August after falling into the hold of a ship, Interfax reported. He accidentally fell during the loading of pipes, intended for the construction of a pipeline for the Sakhalin-2 project, from one cargo ship to another.

Sibneft reports high profit

Chukotka Governor Roman Abramovich’s oil company Sibneft has reported an unusually high first-half net profit under local accounting standards after putting an end to tax minimization schemes, Reuters reported in August. Sibneft posted a net profit of 20.6 billion rubles ($707 million) for the first six months of 2004 compared to a net loss of 620 million rubles ($21.2 million) in the first half of 2003.

Kamchatka electricity embezzlement hotline hums

In an effort to identify consumers who are not paying their electricity bills, Energosbyt in Kamchatka has set up a hotline for people to inform on their neighbors and local companies, Vesti Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky reported in July. To ensure that the calls are confidential, they are answered by a computer. Only two Energosbyt employees have access to the reports made by telephone.

Around 10-12 calls per day are being made to the hotline. Energosbyt has recovered 683,000 rubles ($23,000) since the system began in March. The company is considering introducing rewards for callers whose reports result in large bills being paid. There are also numerous irrelevant calls. “We get calls from people who have never agreed with anything,” said Energosbyt’s press officer, Olga Neklyudovaya. “These people express their point of view in a negative way about everything from energy to medicine to education to national politics.” Another third of the calls are from old people who just want someone to talk to, and they are disappointed when they discover it isn’t a human being.

Transportation and Shipping

Newly-opened road still unfinished

Despite President Vladimir Putin’s declaration in March, just before the presidential election, that the Chita-Khabarovsk highway was finished, this is not the case, according to an August article in the Russia Regional Report. The construction of this 2,100-km stretch of a highway that will eventually link Moscow and Vladivostok is plagued by corruption. Schemes to siphon off money for the project are particularly rife in areas where the military is responsible for building the road. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development provided a $130 million loan, for the project, but its inspector was killed in an Amur Oblast village earlier this year.

Prime minister’s son takes key post at Far East Shipping Co.

Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov’s 26-year-old son has been appointed deputy managing director of the Far East Shipping Co., FESCO, Russia’s third-largest shipper, The Moscow Times reported in July. Pyotr Fradkov left his post as deputy head of state-owned Vnsehekonombank’s representative office in New York to develop FESCO’s global network. FESCO is based in Vladivostok. It reported 2003 revenues of 10 billion rubles ($343.8 million).

International Update

Japan

Sakhalin business center opens on Hokkaido

A branch of the Sakhalin business center has opened on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, ASTV-Inform reported in July. The center will work with the Japanese business community to buy and sell timber, coal and fish. Sakhalin’s seven biggest industrial companies founded the center. The center’s director is Andrey Kutovovoy from Sakhalin.

People’s Republic of China

The head of the Sakhalin Oblast Duma’s legal committee, Sergey Ponomarev, has sent a letter to the Chinese consul-general in Khabarovsk complaining about erroneous maps distributed by Chinese companies, The Sakhalin Independent reported in August. According to Ponomarev, a Chinese information agency is issuing maps of Japan which depict the disputed Kurile Islands as Japanese territory. Another Chinese company that imports crab chips to Sakhalin publishes a Russian map without the Kuriles on the back of the packets.

Ponomarev asked the consul whether the maps published by the information agency are erroneous or represent the official position of the Chinese government. He also requested a ban on imports of erroneous maps to Russia. Earlier this year Ponomarev visited NATO headquarters in Brussels and pointed out that one of the maps in the visitors’ area depicted the Kurile Islands in a color that was closer to the color of Japan than Russia. NATO replied that the map did not represent an official NATO position.

United States

New U.S. consul general takes helm in Vladivostok

The new U.S. consul general in Vladivostok is to be John Pommersheim, replacing Pamela Spratlen, Vostok-Media news agency reported in August. Pommersheim, a career foreign service officer, was previously working for the U.S. embassy in Beijing’s political section, and before that he was country affairs officer for Russia at the Department of State.

Oh say can you see… Jimmy Carter in Kamchatka?

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, 79, went fishing on Kamchatka’s Zhupanova River in July, Kamchatskoye Vremya reported. During his completely unofficial five-day trip he was accompanied by his wife, bodyguards and angling correspondents. The Zhupanova River watershed is the richest rainbow trout habitat in Kamchatka and also contains five species of Pacific salmon. Carter and his party stayed in comfortable tourist cabins fitted with satellite televisions, pool tables, steam baths and other amenities.

Politics and Legislation

The National Scene

(note: to become federal law, bills usually are approved by the State Duma in three readings, then approved by the Federal Council, and then approved by the Russian president; some regulation, however, is enacted by presidential decree.)

Duma presses on with benefits reform

The State Duma has approved in its third and final reading a controversial government-drafted bill that would convert most in-kind social benefits into cash payments, RIA Novosti reported in August. The vote was 309 in favor and 118 against. The bill had passed in its second reading with 304 votes in favor, 120 against and one abstention. The legislation’s adoption followed weeks of protest in Moscow and other cities. The Federation Council then approved the bill by a vote of 156-5 with one abstention and President Vladimir Putin signed it into law.

Far East senators who voted for the bill in the Federation Council included Lev Boytsov (Kamchatka), Stanislav Vavilov and Igor Glukhovsky (Jewish Autonomous Oblast), Yury Zasko and Vladimir Kulakov (Magadan), Igor Ivanov and Oleg Kozhemyako (Primorye), Aleksandr Karpov (Amur Oblast), Aleksandr Matveyev and Mikhail Nikolaev (Sakha), Viktor Ozerov (Khabarovsk), Viktor Orlov (Koryak Autonomous Okrug), and Boris Tretyak and Vladimir Shapoval (Sakhalin), Vostok-Media news agency reported. Valery Bykov ( Kamchatka) and Aleksandr Suvorov (Koryak Autonomous Okrug) voted against the bill. Galina Buslova (Amur Oblast) and Efim Malkin (Chukotka) abstained.

“When I met with war veterans who, by preliminary forecasts, will lose their benefits in return for cash compensation, I was determined to vote against the compensation,” said Primorye Senator Oleg Kozhemyako. “But people in other categories, who have never seen benefits before, for example, residents of rural districts, were very happy about the new law. The Federation Council had to work very hard to take into account the interests of both groups.”

The bill requires the often cash-poor regions to make payments to war veterans, the disabled, Chernobyl clean-up workers, Siege of Leningrad survivors and victims of Stalinist repression, The Moscow Times reported. The Kremlin has argued that cash payments, which will be divided between the federal and regional governments, will give recipients more money in their pockets and ease the strain on the federal budget. Critics fear that the payments will not be enough to cover costs such as medical care and that regional administrations may not be able to meet their obligations.

From January, when the legislation is due to come into effect, recipients will be entitled to a basic cash payment of 450 rubles ($15) per month, plus other benefits ranging from 650 rubles ($22) to 1,550 rubles ($53). From January 2006, recipients will be asked to choose between taking the 450 rubles in cash or in the form of a basic package of free medicine and free commuter train rides.

Before the bill’s adoption, 10 of the 12 governors who are members of the Far East and Trans Baikal Interregional Association sent a letter to President Putin asking him to suspend the benefits reform process, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. The governors charged that the reform violates the constitution by altering the social character of the state.

“These reforms are quite well understood by leaders and ministers in our government, and people are aware of what’s going on here in Moscow, but, unfortunately, there is not enough propaganda and explaining in the provinces,” President Putin’s representative in the Russian Far East, Konstantin Pulikovsky, told Radio Mayak. He blamed the pro-Kremlin Unity Party for failing to inform people about the law. According to Pulikovsky, the cash compensation will create a budget deficit of 1.4 billion rubles ($47.9 million) in Khabarovsk Krai alone, by preliminary estimates. The budget deficit in other Far East regions will vary from 400 million rubles ($13.7 million) to 1.5 billion rubles ($51.4 million). “Naturally, regional leaders are interested in how this deficit will be covered,” Pulikovsky said. The government has assured Pulikovsky that the money will come from the federal budget if necessary.

New legislation restricts beer ads

The Federation Council has approved a bill restricting beer ads by a vote of 142-9 with six abstentions, the Associated Press reported in August. Under the measure, beer may not be advertised on television or radio from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. At other times, the ads will not be allowed to show humans, animals or animated characters or imply that beer is connected with social or athletic success. Advertisers cannot imply that it quenches thirst. The Brewers’ Union has warned that the new prohibitions will undermine beer companies’ sponsorship of sports events on television.

Communist Party too bourgeois?

Following the Justice Ministry’s rejection of their bid to control the Communist Party, the former Communist Party members who held an alternative party congress in July are planning to form their own party with a new name, RosBalt reported in August. Sergey Potapov, deputy chairman of the splinter group’s Central Committee and a State Duma deputy, said the new party will probably be called the Leninist Communist Party. According to Potapov, there are around 350,000 former members of the Communist Party who are opposed to its leader, Gennady Zyuganov. State Duma Deputy Tatyana Astrakhina said that Zyuganov has turned the party into a bourgeois party.

In the Russian Far East

BURYATIA

Conscientious objectors find alternative to army

Two young men from Buryatia will do alternative civilian service in western Russia instead of serving in the army, Inform Polis reported in July. This is the first year that alternative service has been an option in Russia. The two men belong to recognized religious groups. Gennady Butakov, 20, will work as a hospital orderly at a psychiatric institution in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. Nikolay Petrov, will work at a chemical plant in Tula Oblast. Their civilian service will last for three-and-a-half years, compared to two years for the army.

The draft commission is considering two other applications for alternative civilian service. One of the men says he is a homosexual and is being examined at a psychiatric hospital, where it has to be determined whether or not he is telling the truth or is just trying to avoid the army. The other man, a student, says he can do more good as a civilian than in the military.

CHITA OBLAST

Chita Oblast Duma sets election date

Elections to the Chita Oblast Duma will take place on October 24, Chita.ru reported in August. Deputies agreed on the date at an extraordinary session.

CHUKOTKA AUTONOMOUS OKRUG

President’s representative praises governor

President Putin’s representative in the Far East, Konstantin Pulikovsky, praised Chukotka Governor Roman Abramovich during a recent visit to the okrug, Deyta.ru reported in July. “It is clear that people in Chukotka are working and working with pleasure,” Pulikovsky said at a meeting with local government leaders. “I am extremely grateful to the head of the okrug and his team for the fact that Chukotka is rapidly developing, people here are living well… I think the attacks on Abramovich as governor in the national mass media are unfair. These media outlets are simply fighting for popularity and money.”

The Chukotka administration is paying special attention to the construction of housing, Pulikovsky noted, adding that the quality of health care and education in the okrug has also improved, especially in the villages. For example, 70 million rubles ($2.4 million) were spent from the okrug budget on modern medical equipment and children’s food for Chukotka hospitals. At the meeting Pulikovsky also introduced Valery Prokudin, the new federal inspector for Chukotka. Retired from the military, Prokudin has worked for Pulikovsky in the Far East for several years, but this was his first visit to Chukotka.

Governor rebels against Moscow leadership

Kamchatka Governor Mikhail Mashkovtsev has stepped down as first secretary of the oblast’s Communist Party, Vesti Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky reported in July. Mashkovtsev was severely reprimanded by local communists for violating party discipline and failing to appear at the 10 th official party congress in Moscow, where he attended an alternative party congress. He will remain an ordinary party member. Valery Bykov, Kamchatka’s Federation Council member, was elected first secretary to replace Mashkovtsev.

Yelizovo’s new mayor to resign soon?

The head of Kamchatka’s Yelizovo District, Nikolay Piskun, has been elected mayor of the town of Yelizovo, Vesti Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky reported in July. Piskun defeated the speaker of the district Duma, Andrey Pyatko, in a second round run-off by just over 350 votes. Pyatko was supported by the local branch of the pro-Kremlin party United Russia. Over 8,000 people voted in the second round, a turnout of around 27 percent. Piskun received 3,846 votes, Pyatko 3,481, and another 894 people voted against all candidates. By law Piskun may not be allowed to occupy two posts, in which case he would have to choose between them.

In the first round of the election, Piskun received 2,372 votes and Pyatko 2,310 votes. Out of 30,979 registered voters, a total of 8,500 took part in the poll, a 27.5-percent turnout. The minimum turnout required is 20 percent. None of the other nine candidates received more than the 1,341 votes that went to “against all”. Andrey Shergaldin, the chairman of the district Duma’s budget committee, received 1,017 votes.

Indigenous group opposes district merger

The indigenous Even residents of Kamchatka’s Bystrinsky District have written to national and international bodies to protest a proposed merger with Milkovsky District, Ekho-DV news agency reported in July. They believe the merger will threaten the existence of the Bystrinsky nature park, where they practice subsistence activities. According to the 2002 census, there are 1,018 Evens in Kamchatka, of whom 931 live in Bystrinsky District. Residents think the merger is motivated by the presence of a nearby gold deposit.

KHABAROVSK KRAI

Khabarovsk Duma sets mayoral election date

Khabarovsk’s mayoral election will take place on September 26, Tikhookeanskaya Zvezda reported in July. The term of the current mayor, Aleksandr Sokolov, expires on September 24. He will run again as an independent candidate. Deputies in the Khabarovsk city Duma voted unanimously for the election date, and also voted to extend the mayoral term of office from four years to five years from 2008.

Sokolov’s rivals for the post of mayor will be 32-year-old businessman Mikhail Bunkov and another businessman, Vladimir Sosnin, Priamurskiye Vedomosti reported in August.

Health minister resigns

Khabarovsk Krai Health Minister Valentina Savokova has resigned, Vostok-Media news agency reported in August. The acting health minister will be Andrey Derkach, previously the deputy minister.

KORYAK AUTONOMOUS OKRUG

President’s representative slams authorities

The authorities in Koryakia are not doing enough to improve the economic situation there, President Putin’s representative in the Far East, Konstantin Pulikovsky, said during a visit to the okrug in July, TIA Ostrova reported. The fishing industry, which is the most important part of Koryakia’s economy, is in a slump. In 2003 out of 120 fishing companies, only three finished the season with a profit. The Koryak school system has also been misusing federal funds, Pulikovsky said. Real incomes in Koryakia decreased by 5 percent in 2003 as compared to the previous year. Wage arrears in the public sector increased by 31 percent and totaled 14 million rubles ($482,000). In the past two years the population declined by 3,600 to 24,300 on January 1, 2004.

MAGADAN OBLAST

Officer in frozen conscripts case gets suspended sentence

A military court has given Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Kostryukov a three-year suspended sentence for his role in the death of a conscript and sickening of others who were forced to withstand freezing temperatures while their plane was being refueled in Magadan, the Associated Press reported in August. Kostryukov was found guilty of violating health rules. Ninety conscripts contracted pneumonia and other respiratory illnesses following the incident last December.

Magadan sets mayoral election date

The election for mayor of Magadan will take place on October 10, Zolotoy Rog reported in August. Mayor Nikolay Karpenko resigned in June to work for the federal government in Rostov-on-Don, and the acting mayor is Vladimir Pecheny. Pecheny will run for mayor, Kolyma.ru reported. He will face Magadan Oblast Deputy Governor Konstantin Chalov, Anatoly Chirkin, a specialist in the Magadan Oblast administration’s department for youth affairs, Valery Udovkin, chairman of the board of the Magadan social organization Kolyma Community, Anatoly Polozhiev, a deputy in the Magadan Oblast Duma, Mikhail Sharunov, a manager at the city market, Sergey Shulev, temporarily unemployed, and Andrey Zinchenko, the managing director of Magadan Port.

PRIMORYE (PRIMORSKY KRAI)

Vladivostok will be honey pot for Winnie the Pooh?

In a tumultuous atmosphere the people of Vladivostok have elected Vladimir Nikolaev, 30, mayor of their city. Nikolaev is a member of the Primorsky Krai legislative assembly and an alleged crime figure, nicknamed “Winnie the Pooh”. Nikolaev won with around 53 percent of the vote, Vostok-Media news agency reported in July. Another 37 percent voted against all candidates and 9 percent for fellow legislative assembly member Nikolay Markovtsev. The turnout was 37.4 percent. Markovtsev, who came fifth in the first round of voting, was included on the ballot paper after Nikolaev’s main rival, 62-year-old State Duma Deputy Viktor Cherepkov, was excluded by a court ruling.

Exit polling conducted by Ekho Moskvy indicated that in reality “against all” polled about 10 percent more than Nikolaev, which would have invalidated the election, Gazeta.ru reported. The website also reported numerous violations of electoral law, including the appearance at a polling station of four busloads of residents of a village located more than 300 kilometers from Vladivostok. Some people were allowed to vote more than once.

“We need to solve a very large number of problems,” Nikolaev said after his victory. “The top priorities are to bring order to the housing and utilities sector and the structure of municipal government. I think that as a result of this work our city will become clean, beautiful and comfortable – so we who live in Vladivostok can be proud of it.” Nikolaev was supported in his campaign by the pro-Putin party United Russia.

Nikolaev is one of the richest people in Primorye, according to Izvestiya. He owns the fishing company Turnif, the Vladivostok meat factory and shares in several timber companies. In October 1999 a Vladivostok court convicted him of making death threats and sentenced him to three-and-a-half years in prison, but he was immediately amnestied.

Viktor Cherepkov was injured before the poll when a grenade exploded outside his election headquarters, The Moscow Times reported. The explosion was detonated by a tripwire. Cherepkov was taken to hospital suffering from a concussion, partial loss of speech and temporary deafness. Two days later, a Vladivostok court ruled that he should be excluded from the second round of voting, Vostok-Media reported. Cherepokov could not appear in court as he was in hospital. The case was instigated by the Vladivostok electoral commission, which appealed to the court based on a statement by three voters that accused Cherepkov of using his position as a State Duma deputy, for example his office facilities and letterheads, in the mayoral election campaign. One member of the electoral commission left the hall in protest at the commission’s decision to oppose Cherepkov’s candidacy. Nikolaev said that the court’s decision was incorrect and dishonest.

The incumbent mayor, Yury Kopylov, who came third in the first round of voting, said after the court’s decision that he did not want to be on the ballot paper instead of Cherepkov and called on people to vote against all candidates. In his statement withdrawing his name from contention, Kopylov said, “The entire course of the election campaign and also the current circumstances show that the election for head of the Vladivostok administration will be neither free nor democratic,” Yezhednevniye Novosti Vladivostok reported. “The voters have been denied the opportunity to obtain objective and truthful information about the candidates and how the election campaign is being conducted. In my opinion the dirty politics, the judicial arbitrariness and the lawlessness prevent the voters from choosing an administration head freely and fairly. This forces me to refuse further participation in the election campaign and to announce the withdrawal of my candidacy.”

Meanwhile, fourth-placed candidate Aleksandr Perednya, a businessman, also refused to take Cherepkov’s place on the ballot paper, Vostok-Media reported. Fifth-placed candidate Nikolay Markovtsev agreed to oppose Nikolaev in the second round. Markovtsev received 2.4 percent of the vote in the first round. Markovtsev called on people to vote against all candidates because he considered the election unprecedented. “I didn’t withdraw my candidacy only because someone has to keep an eye on the conduct of the election,” Markovtsev said. “You can make a fool of Vladivostok, but you can’t make a fool of Russia.”

Some deputies from the Primorsky Krai legislative assembly wrote to President Putin to draw his attention to violations of election rules. The legislative assembly had hoped to hold a special session on the emergency situation with the election, but only 16 out of 39 deputies attended, Pravda Vladivostoka reported, and 26 were needed for a quorum. “Deputies came under pressure from the krai administration, which did everything to ensure that the session would not take place,” Markovtsev said. “A certain high-ranking bureaucrat called me and promised that if I went, repressive measures would be taken against me.”

Around 1,000 people rallied in Vladivostok’s central square in support of Viktor Cherepkov. Among them were representatives of his party, Freedom and People’s Power, as well as liberal Yabloko, the far-right Liberal Democratic Party and the Communist Party. Freedom and People’s Power member Sergey Markelov read out an appeal from all those parties to President Putin, calling on him to intervene in the election. State Duma Deputy Vladimir Grishukov called on people to vote against all candidates.

From hospital Cherepkov sent a statement to the rally. “The time has come for all of us to fufill the highest civic duty…” he wrote. “We have reached out to each other not only to stop a criminal at the threshold of Vladivostok, but also to awaken in each of you a desire to fight for your rights. Together we are an unstoppable force!” At the same time as the rally, the Emergency Situations Ministry had a display of its heavy equipment, including fire engines, in the central square.

Several regional administrators, including Primorye Governor Sergey Darkin, argued that a vote “against all” would plunge the leaderless city into a catastrophe, and urged people to vote “for a concrete person”, without actually naming Nikolaev, Vladivostok reported. “Today Vladivostok is practically bankrupt,” said Vladimir Kurbatov, the head of the administrative-territorial office of Sovietsky District. “All the budget funds that were allocated to us by the krai Duma have been just about used up. There’s nothing left now to prepare schools for the new academic year, for healthcare institutions, for housing development. We need to do something. That’s why I’m also convinced that you should think very hard before voting against all.”

Before the vote Russia’s Central Electoral Commission Chairman Aleksandr Veshnyakov said the election “mirrors the power crisis in Vladivostok,” according to Interfax. “The authorities are unable to resolve the crisis in a democratic way,” he added. He called the decision to remove Cherepkov from the ballot paper “an abuse by law”, adding that “the court ruling may insult the voters and thwart the election.” However, Russia’s Deputy Prosecutor-General Konstantin Chayka said the election was taking place in accordance with federal and local law, without any violations, Primorskoye Television & Radio reported. Nearly two weeks after the election, the Primorsky Krai court considered Cherepkov’s appeal against his exclusion from the ballot paper and upheld the decision, newsru.com reported.

After Nikolaev’s inauguration, President Putin’s representative in the Far East, Konstantin Pulikovsky, replied to a journalist’s question about the new mayor’s criminal past, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported. “We have checked Nikolaev’s biography quite thoroughly and we found lots of slander in there,” Pulikovsky said. “Nikolaev had a wild, impetuous time in his youth: he was arrested, he severely injured a rival in a fight, but this was all when he was 21, 22, 23 years old, but I wouldn’t want to exaggerate and accentuate what someone or other did when they were young. The Primorye media is excited and angry because Vladivostok was a closed city for a long time. They’ve broken out into a freedom that allows them to write anything they want, and there’s no way to stop this.”

New Vladivostok mayor auctions off property

Vladivostok Mayor Vladimir Nikolaev has announced public auctions to sell property belonging to the municipal administration, including two pleasure-boats, a small fishing seiner and five Toyota Land Cruiser jeeps, Kommersant reported in August. The proceeds will go towards preparing the housing and utilities sector for winter. Out of 50 million rubles ($1.71 million) in the city budget, 49 million ($1.68 million) is owed to municipal employees, Nikolaev said, adding that the financial crisis would make it difficult to prepare the city for winter. A spokeswoman for former Mayor Yury Kopylov accused Nikolaev of populism, saying that the auction wouldn’t bring in much money and that it was normal for funds to go into and out of the budget on a daily basis.

The Vladivostok city Duma also voted to approve Nikolaev’s proposal to conduct an audit of the city’s finances for 2003 and 2002, Vostok-Media news agency reported.

Governor praises productive parents

Primorye Governor Sergey Darkin has presented awards to people who have lots of children, Yezhednevniye Novosti Vladiovostok reported in July. In the Soviet era the title Heroine-Mother came with various benefits and was equivalent to the awards Hero of the Soviet Union or Hero of Socialist Labor. Today’s medal, “For Services to the Fatherland”, is not quite so prestigious, but it still provides some recognition to busy parents. One of the Primorye recipients was Galina Dodu, a cleaner, who is the mother of 13 children. Another, electrician Gennady Beznogov, has produced six sons who work with him at a shipyard.

SAKHALIN OBLAST

New rules require permit for border zones

The Sakhalin Oblast administration has introduced a less stringent version of the border zone rules that provoked controversy in the last weeks of late Governor Igor Farkhutdinov’s tenure, ASTV-Inform reported in August. Farkhutdinov declared much of Sakhalin to be a border zone requiring special permission for entry, but rescinded the decree in the face of protests by foreign companies. The new compromise version of the rules stipulates that the border zone will be the area within five kilometers of the coast, plus the whole of the Kurile Islands, but not the towns of Korsakov, Kholmsk, Nevelsk, Okha, Nogliki, Aniva, Poronaysk, Makarov, Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky, Uglegorsk, Shakhtersk, Tomari and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The area in the east where the oil and gas exploration is taking place will also not be counted as a border zone. In addition, it will be easier to obtain a permit to enter the border zone: permits should be ready within a day at most towns in the oblast.

Governor joins president’s council

President Vladimir Putin has appointed Sakhalin Governor Ivan Malakhov to the presidium of the State Council, Vostok-Media news agency reported in July. Malakhov will serve for six months along with the administrative heads of St. Petersburg, Ingushetia, Lipetsk Oblast, Khakasia, Chelyabinsk Oblast and Orenburg Oblast.

New deputy governor heads to Moscow

Geologist Sergey Neruchev has been appointed to the post of deputy Sakhalin Oblast governor and first deputy head of Sakhalin’s representative office in Moscow, ASTV-Inform reported in August. Neruchev takes over from Sergey Evgrafov, who resigned.

Sakhalin to vote soon

Elections to the Sakhalin Oblast Duma will take place on October 10, Vostok-Media news agency reported in July. There are 28 deputies in the Duma, of whom 14 are elected by the party list system and the other 14 in constituencies. This is the first time that the proportional representation system will be used in an election to a Far East legislature, RIA Novosti reported in August.

Mayoral elections will be held on the same day in Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky, Tomarinsky and Dolinsky Districts, and possibly also Korsakovsky District if the local mayor is dismissed, The Sakhalin Independent reported.

Women act as mayors

Sakhalin Oblast now has two women as acting district mayors, IA Regnum reported in July. Valentina Baranskaya has taken over as acting mayor of Tomarinsky District, as Mayor Yury Plokhov was invited to work for the Sakhalin Oblast administration. Svetlana Pakhomova is the new acting mayor of Dolinsky District.

Social Issues

Arts & Culture

Expedition locates historic warship

The crew of the yacht Iskra has found a ship at the bottom of the sea which they believe to be the cruiser Rurik, lost in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, Vostok-Media news agency reported in July. The yacht’s expedition was organized by the Far Eastern State Technical University and the Far Eastern branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The crew of six sailed 500 miles in two weeks, from Vladivostok to the north of the Korean Straits. They based the search on information from Russian and Japanese historical documents. The identity of the sunken ship could not be confirmed as no name was found. The Rurik was destroyed in a battle on August 14, 1904, and its crew of 200 were lost. The ship sank to a depth of 140 meters, so it could not be raised to the surface, as the Japanese did with some other ships.

Fire consumes Nivkh culture

A Nivkh cultural archive has been partly destroyed in a fire in the village of Nekrasovka on Sakhalin, ASTV-Inform reported in July. There are fewer than 4,700 indigenous Nivkh people in Russia. The fire at a one-storey wooden cultural center destroyed audio and video recordings of Nivkh ceremonies, as well as costumes and musical instruments belonging to the Pila-Ken folklore ensemble. The cultural center is 35 km from the nearest fire station. The damages caused by the fire were estimated at 185,000 rubles ($6,400).

Sakha villagers crow at cock fights

Lacking alternative forms of entertainment, residents of the Sakha village of Cherkekh have started holding cock fights, Ekho-DV news agency reported in July. The idea came from librarian Tatyana Obudovaya, who read about it in a book. Almost the whole village turned out to watch the first fight, which took place without much prior preparation. In future owners plan to train their unlucky proteges beforehand.

Business

Chukotka villagers can…

A new canning plant in the Chukotka village of Lorino has held a tasting of its first three products, Chukotka.org reported in July. One product is 80 percent meat and 20 percent fat, another is 50 percent meat and 50 percent fat, and the third is 50 percent meat, 20 percent fat and 30 percent spices. The third version was not universally approved by experts. “The spices completely overwhelm the meat flavor, and if you can’t taste the meat, it’s not worth making canned products with this recipe,” said Viktor Podgayny, the head of the okrug’s agriculture office. The meat will be sold in 800-gram cans for approximately eight rubles (28 cents) each.

The plant has a license to process walrus, ringed seal and fish, but its first products are only made from walrus meat. It plans to start processing ringed seal and fish by December. The plant was established with assistance from the Russian Red Cross and the Alaska-Chukotka Development Program, based at the University of Alaska Anchorage, as part of a program called “Developing Chukotka Villages”. Local organizations have also participated in the project to set up the plant in Lorino. It is hoped that the plant will pay for itself within four years. The plant will work for five months a year, in conjunction with the fishing and marine mammal hunting season. Lorino has a population of around 1,200, most of whom are indigenous.

Education

Sakhalin summer school selects special students

A school for gifted children may soon open on Sakhalin, ASTV-Inform reported in July. There is already a successful three-week summer school that has been held since 1994 in the town of Tomari. This year 90 of Sakhalin’s best students attended. The curriculum includes history, mathematics, physics, athletics and chess. After visiting the summer school, Sakhalin Governor Ivan Malakhov promised to support the establishment of a permanent school.

Magadan Oblast teachers repair own school

Teachers in Magadan Oblast’s Srednekansky District, who haven’t been paid for two months, are repairing local schools themselves because the district administration hasn’t allocated any money for this, GTRK Magadan reported in August. Parents are also paying for materials to clean, plaster and paint classrooms in time for the start of the school year on September 1. Children are helping with the work. Only one kindergarten in the village of Seymchan is having a partial repair of its heating system financed by the district budget. Srednekansky District education officials say that all the schools and kindergartens need to have their heating systems repaired as the buildings are very cold.

Environment

Sakhalin energy projects threaten whales?

The International Whaling Commission, a worldwide body dedicated to whale conservation, has accused oil and gas firms of threatening the survival of rare whales around Sakhalin Island, Reuters reported in July. The 57-country organization passed a motion saying energy exploration could kill off the 100 remaining gray whales near the Pacific coast and asked for some surveys to stop. The sonar used during seismic surveys to locate oil and gas reserves interferes with the sounds whales use to communicate and to navigate, and possible oil spills threaten to pollute the whales’ natural habitat.

Sakhalin Energy announced in August that it and other oil and gas companies are financing a $2 million program to study gray whales, Interfax reported. Russian scientific and research institutions and international experts are participating in the program.

Sakhalin prosecutor aims at Exxon for mass killing of fish

The prosecutor of Sakhalin’s Nogliksky District has opened a criminal investigation into the mass death of fish in Bezymyanny Creek, Ekho-DV news agency reported in July. This allegedly occurred during the construction of a road by oil company Exxon Mobil from the bridge over Chayvo Bay to the Yastreb rig, which involved building a tunnel through the creek that disturbed the fish habitat, preventing them from spawning. Around 15,000 fish died.

Sakhalin governor creates new nature reserve

Sakhalin Governor Ivan Malakhov has signed a decree creating the new Tundra nature reserve, Ekho-DV news agency reported in August. The reserve is in Okhinsky District, the most northern district in the oblast, and covers 189,895 hectares (469,250 acres) of forest. Wildlife that will be protected in the reserve include reindeer, sable and brown bear.

Oil spills into Amur River

Around 500 litres of oil from a cistern spilled into the Amur River in the vicinity of Zayachy Island, near Khabarovsk, Tikhookeanskaya Zvezda reported in July. Local customs officials reacted angrily to a suggestion that the spill could have been caused by a wave from two of their boats passing at high speed. They said there were no warning signs in the area and the cistern could not have been well secured if it could be damaged so badly by a wave. According to the Environmental Prosecutor’s Office, the cistern was connected to the shore only by barbed wire. The spill did not affect the supply of drinking water.

Primorye reserves receive vehicles and tires

The World Wildlife Fund has donated a UAZ four-wheel drive vehicle and two Honda ATVs worth around $30,000 to two Primorye leopard reserves, Yezhednevniye Novosti Vladivostok reported in July. Hunting inspectors in the Barsovy and Borisovskoye Plateau reserves will use the vehicles to catch poachers.

Meanwhile, tire manufacturer Vostokshintorg has donated 16 tires for UAZ vehicles to the Lazovsky Reserve, Ekho-DV news agency reported in August. “Our organization has been working confidently for a long time in the Far East market,” Vostokshintorg Managing Director Dmitry Tsarev said. “And we see around us how difficult it is for nature, so we decided that we’ve already reached a level where we can realistically help.”

Health

Buryatia station snack kills teenager

A 17-year-old boy died after eating smoked fish purchased at Ulan-Ude railway station and four other people contracted food poisoning, Inform Polis reported in August. Passengers on trains going from Vladivostok to Moscow and Vladivostok to Kharkov bought the fish on the platform and became ill a few hours later. Medics from the Ministry of Transport administered an antiviral serum to all passengers. The condition of the 17-year-old from Primorye was particularly bad and it was suggested that he get off at the next stop and go to a hospital, but he refused. Further on he was taken off the train at Bogotol in Krasnoyarsk Krai and he died two days later.

The other sick passengers, a mother and daughter from Chita and a married couple from Blagoveshchensk, recovered in a Krasnoyarsk hospital. After the incident Buryatia’s chief doctor tightened controls over food sales at railway stations and on trains. Conductors will now stop passengers buying fish from individual vendors or eating it on the train.

Sakhalin town protests hospital cuts

Residents of the town of Shakhtersk have appealed to the Sakhalin Oblast Duma to prevent drastic cuts at their hospital, ASTV-Inform reported in August. Doctors collected 3,000 signatures on a petition against the cuts in the town of 12,000 people and took the petition to the legislature. Staffing at the hospital is to be reduced by 50 percent and the gynecology department is to be closed altogether. This would leave the hospital with 35 beds. Deputies in the Sakhalin Oblast Duma were surprised to be hearing about the problem for the first time, but said that the decision was up to the mayor of Uglegorsky District, who decided to make the cuts in the first place. They promised to discuss the issue with the mayor and Sakhalin Governor Ivan Malakhov. In the winter it is practically impossible for Shakhtersk residents to get to the district capital, Uglegorsk.

Mood of Blagoveshchensk customs officers should improve

Aromatherapy lamps are to be installed at customs posts in Blagoveshchensk, Amur Oblast, Vostok-Media news agency reported in July. In an effort to improve the mood of customs officers, maintain their psychological well-being and reduce stress, their union has initiated the aromatherapy drive. Customs officers will also be able to take aromatherapy courses.

Media

Environmental whistle-blower receives international passport

Investigative journalist Grigory Pasko, who was sentenced to four years in prison in 2001 by a Primorye court on charges of leaking classified information about the Pacific Fleet to the media, has been issued a passport for international travel, The Moscow Times reported in August. Pasko was released from prison in January 2003. “I am happy with this development even though authorities had no right to keep my application in limbo for that long,” Pasko said.

Sakhalin mayor loses lawsuit against paper

The mayor of Sakhalin’s Nevelsky District, Vasily Rotochev, has lost his lawsuit against the newspaper KTS-Gazeta, ASTV-Inform reported in August. The Sakhalin Oblast court upheld the June decision of Nevelsk city court in favor of the newspaper. Rotochev had asked for compensation of 500,000 rubles ($17,300) for a fairy tale about the mayor of an unspecified district, because he thought the mayor was himself.

Religion

Unholy smoke consumes Kamchatka church

The Orthodox church in the Kamchatka Oblast town of Yelizovo has been destroyed in a fire, Vesti Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky reported in August. The paper described the day of the fire as the most tragic in the town’s history. Three fire engines were unable to suppress the blaze, so they had to be joined by two more from Yelizovo airport and two from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The second floor of the church, made of wood, was completely destroyed and the concrete first floor was seriously damaged. The church had suffered regular attacks by vandals and thieves, according to the local priest. It contained numerous valuables.

Did You Know? Facts and Figures at a Glance

Russian Federation

The ruble

According to the exchange rate set by the Central Bank of Russia, on the following dates $1 US was equal to X rubles: http://www.cbr.ru/eng/currency_base/daily.asp

Inflation

The State Statistics Committee calculated the consumer price index inflation for recent months at:

Economy

Output of goods and services in Russia’s five core economic sectors (industry, agriculture, construction, transport and trade) increased 7.9 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2004, the Federal State Statistics Service announced in July. Output of goods and services in the five core sectors increased 7.1 percent in the first half of 2003.

The profit of Transneft, the state-owned oil pipeline monopoly, fell 36 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2004, the company announced in August. Net income fell to 3.8 billion rubles ($129 million), down from 5.9 billion rubles ($202.1 million) in the first half of last year. Revenue rose 33 percent to 67 billion rubles ($2.3 billion), up from 50.3 billion rubles ($1.7 billion).

The net income of Surgutneftegaz, Russia’s No.4 oil producer, rose 52 percent to 36.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion) in the first half of the year from 23.7 billion rubles ($811.1 million) in the same period of 2003, the company announced in August. Revenue rose 34 percent to 128.7 billion rubles ($4.4 billion), from 95.7 billion rubles ($3.3 billion). Surgut produces about 13 percent of Russia’s oil.

The profit of Tatneft, Russia’s No.6 oil producer, doubled in the first half of the year to 11.5 billion rubles ($394 million), up from 5.4 billion rubles ($184.8 million) in the first half of 2003, the company announced in August. Revenue rose 23 percent to 67 billion rubles ($2.3 billion), up from 54.5 billion rubles ($1.9 billion).

The net income of Gazprom’s biggest petrochemical unit, Sibur, totaled 1.3 billion rubles ($43.5 million) in the first half of 2004, the company announced in August. First-half revenue rose 44 percent to 40.1 billion rubles ($1.4 billion), up from 27.9 billion rubles ($955.5 million) in the first half of last year. Sibur did not give a year-ago net income figure.

DaimlerChrysler sold 2,796 vehicles in Russia in the first half of this year, 42 percent more than in the same period in 2003, the company announced in July. The sales increase was due largely to a new pricing policy, marketing measures and a greater choice of vehicles from the warehouse in Finland. In particular, sales of Mercedes cars – including off-road vehicles – came to 1,944 against 1,361 in the first half of 2003.

Sales by Smolensk-based Kristall, Russia’s largest diamond cutter, rose 11 percent to $141 million in the first half of the year, the state-owned company announced in July. Most of the sales, $134 million, went abroad.

Magnitogorsk Metallurgichesky Kombinat, Russia’s second-largest steel producer, increased profit 56 percent year-on-year to 15.0 billion rubles ($516 million) in the first half of 2004, the company announced in August. Revenue rose 40 percent in the first six months to 59.5 billion rubles ($2.0 billion).

Profits of Novolipetsk, Russia’s fourth-largest steel producer, rose 79 percent in the first half of 2004 as surging demand pushed up metal prices, the company announced in July. Pretax profit climbed to 26.7 billion rubles ($918 million). Sales rose 52 percent year-on-year to 55.4 billion rubles ($1.9 billion).

Profits of Baltika, Russia’s biggest brewery, increased by 1.6 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2004, the company announced in August. Net profit rose to $65.4 million and sales volume rose 11 percent to 880 million liters. Sales increased by about 33 percent to $490.0 million.

Russian airlines flew 14.5 million passengers in the first half of 2004, a 19.6-percent year-on-year increase, a spokesman for the Federal Air Transportation Agency announced in July. Passenger carriage increased 26.3 percent year-on-year on international flights to 6.2 million flyers, and 15.1 percent to 8.3 million on domestic flights.

Production figures

Industrial output in Russia expanded 7.4 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2004, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry’s Gennady Kuranov announced in July.

Sibneft, Russia’s fifth-largest oil producer, raised crude oil output 11 percent year-on-year in the first six months of 2004, the company announced in August. Output rose to 16.6 million tons (669,406 barrels per day).

Russia increased production of ferrous metals by 5.5 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2004, the Federal Statistics Service announced in July. Ferrous metal roll output increased 4.8 percent to 26.2 million tons in this period. Output of steel pipe increased 7.6 percent to 3.1 million tons. Iron ore production increased 3.2 percent to 47 million tons.

RusAl’s output of aluminum and alloys rose by 5.1 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2004 from 1.27 million tons to 1.33 million tons, the company announced in July. RusAl’s first-half revenue was up from $2.1 billion in the same period last year to $2.6 billion, due to a sharp increase in the price of aluminum and continued production growth.

Gold output was 61.8 tons in the first half of 2004, a 6.4-percent increase year-on-year, due to more refining of the metal from scrap and as a byproduct, the Russian Gold Industrialists’ Union announced in July. Gold output in the same period last year was 58.1 tons. Mine output declined to 50.7 tons in the first half of 2004 from 51.1 tons.

Politics

President Putin has signed a decree increasing the salaries of Foreign Ministry personnel, the presidential website announced in July. The monthly salary of a first deputy minister will be 5,061 rubles ($172), a deputy minister will receive 4,895 rubles ($166), and a department director will receive 4,495 rubles ($152). The lowest-ranking officials will receive between 999 rubles ($33) and 1,398 rubles ($47). In addition, Foreign Ministry employees can receive monthly bonuses worth between two and 11 times their regular salary.

International

The United Nations has ranked Russia the 57 th-best country to live in, calling it “remarkable progress” from last year’s ranking of 63 rd, the organization announced in July. Russia is now between Bulgaria and Libya, ranked 56 th and 58 th respectively, while Norway is still at No.1 on the annual human development index compiled by the UN Development Program. The index measures 177 countries in terms of life expectancy, education level and adjusted real income. The key factor holding Russia back is life expectancy, which was 66.7 years in 2002. The countries at the top of the index have life expectancies of around 80 years.

Russia’s foreign trade surplus grew to $42.8 billion in the first half of 2004 from $36.9 billion a year previously, the Federal Customs Service announced in August. Foreign trade grew 24.6 percent year-on-year to $109 billion, including growth of 37.7 percent to $20.4 billion in trade with the CIS and 21.9 percent to $88.6 billion in trade with the rest of the world.

The volume of foreign investment in the Russian economy totaled $19 billion in the first half of 2004, a year-on-year increase of 49.9 percent, the Federal State Statistics Service announced in August.

Nuclear reactors are Russia’s most important industrial export, bringing in some $800 million per year, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref announced in July. Other key exports are jet engines ($600 million), ships ($560 million), and automobiles and other means of transport ($305 million). Finance Minister Aleksey Kudrin added that Russia exports about $4 billion worth of military equipment annually.

Gazprom increased gas exports by 9.6 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2004, the company announced in July. Gazprom is Russia’s only exporter of gas to countries outside the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Russian Railways Co. (RZD) boosted crude oil and oil product exports to 60 million tons (around 2.4 million barrels per day) in the first half of 2004, the company announced in July. It shipped 29.3 million tons to major ports and 30.7 million tons across land borders. The company did not give comparison figures for the first half of 2003.

The value of Russia’s ferrous metal exports in the first half of 2004 increased by 67 percent year-on-year to $8.3 billion, Industry and Energy Ministry official Andrey Deyneko announced in August. Ferrous metal exports to non-CIS countries increased 66 percent to $6.8 billion, exports to CIS countries 70 percent to $1.5 billion. The value of nonferrous metals Russia exported in the first half increased 55 percent year-on-year to $5.6 billion.

Russia increased its iron ore exports 16.5 percent year-on-year to 9.6 million tons in the first half of 2004, the iron ore producers’ association Rudprom announced in July. That included 4.3 million tons of exported concentrate (up 29.7 percent year-on-year), 4.6 million tons of pellets (up 9.4 percent) and 279,000 tons of sintering ore (down 4.1 percent). Exports to countries outside the Commonwealth of Independent States came to 7.7 million tons, 80.2 percent of all the iron ore Russia exported in the reporting period.

Federal Budget

The federal budget surplus almost doubled to 354.1 billion rubles ($12.1 billion) in the first half of the year, the government announced in August. The surplus was 109.5 billion rubles ($3.7 billion) higher than the preliminary number the Finance Ministry reported in July. The ministry didn’t say what share of the GDP the surplus represented.

The Russian Tax Ministry collected 700.7 billion rubles ($24.1 billion) in tax for the federal budget, not including unified social tax, in the first half of 2004, up 8.8 percent year-on-year, the ministry announced in July. VAT provided 47.7 percent of the tax revenues, mineral taxes 27.6 percent and corporate profits tax 13 percent. The federal budget received 211.4 billion rubles ($7.3 billion) in unified social tax, up 24.4 percent year-on-year.

Living Standards

Around 29.8 million people in Russia live below the poverty line, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref announced in August. The poorest part of the total population dropped in the second quarter of the year to 20.8 percent from 23 percent in the same period of 2003.

The top 20 percent of income earners in Russia received 46.6 percent of all income in the first six months of 2004 compared with 5.4 percent for the bottom 20 percent of wage earners, the State Statistics Service announced in August. At the same time, the income gap between these two groups has grown over the past year: the ratio was 8.6 to 1 in the first half of 2004 compared with 8.4 to 1 in the first half of 2003. The ratio in the United States ranges from 8 to 1 to 9 to 1. In Europe, this figure is 6 to 1; in Latin America it is 12 to 1.

The Conflict in Chechnya

Kremlin-endorsed candidate and Chechen Interior Minister Major General Alu Alkhanov won the presidential election in Chechnya with 73.9 percent of the vote, Chechen Central Electoral Commission Chairman Abdul-Kerim Arsakhanov announced in August. Movsur Khamidov came second with 8.7 percent of the vote, followed by Abdula Bugayev with 4.6 percent, Vakha Visayev with 4.5 percent, Umar Abuyev with 3.2 percent, Mukhumd-Khasan Asakov with 3.1 percent and Magomed Aidamirov with 0.7 percent. Another 1 percent voted against all candidates. The turnout was 85.2 percent of the republic’s 584,998 registered voters. Council of Europe rapporteur Andreas Gross, an international observer, said it was “in no way a democratic election”, as none of the conditions for a fair ballot were met and the state-controlled media demonstrated an unfair bias in favor of Alkhanov.

Every family with a member killed in the two simultaneous air crashes will be paid a lump sum of 100,000 rubles ($3,421), the Russian government announced in August. A total of 9 million rubles ($307,900) will be paid. Terrorism by Chechen extremists was seen as the most likely cause of the disasters, in which 90 people were killed. Both planes involved took off from Moscow’s Domodedovo airport.

Trends

The number of Russians who believe that former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his co-defendant Platon Lebedev will receive a fair trial is increasing, according to a poll of 1,600 people conducted by the Yury Levada Analytical Center in July. In response to a question on whether Khodorkovsky and Lebedev will receive a fair, objective and impartial trial, 34 percent of respondents said “definitely yes”, against 28 percent in May, and 29 percent in June. The percentage of respondents who believe Khodorkovsky and Lebedev will not receive a fair trial is decreasing. In July it was 40 percent, against 49 percent in May and 45 percent in June.

Around 70 percent of Russia’s adult population has not banked since before the 1998 financial crisis, according to a poll of 1,600 people conducted by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center in March, May and July. If they had to make a decision, about 38 percent would keep their cash at home (23 percent in foreign currency, 15 percent in rubles), 35 percent would buy real estate, 27 percent would put it in Sberbank (the state bank), 7 percent would buy gold, jewelry and antiques, 6 percent would put it in a foreign bank, 4 percent would buy stocks, and just 2 percent would put it in a private Russian bank.

A total of 7,300 military personnel, including 800 officers, were convicted of various crimes in the first half of 2004, Chief Military Prosecutor Aleksandr Savenkov announced in July. This was roughly the same number as in previous years. “Unfortunately, the main category of convicted officers is senior officers,” Savenkov said. “The number of convicted officers with the rank of colonel is no longer counted in the dozens; we have more than 100.” Embezzlement of federal funds by military officers was found in almost all regions. In the first half of the year, 500 million rubles ($17 million) was misappropriated. In addition, the number of deaths in the Army not related to military action reached 500 in the first half of the year, an increase of almost 10 percent from the same period last year. Most of the deaths were attributed to assaults by senior servicemen or suicide. The suicide rate rose 38 percent to 109 servicemen.

Economic crimes cost Russia nearly 55 billion rubles ($1.8 billion) in the first half of 2004, the Interior Ministry announced in July. The ministry identified 120,000 economic crimes during the period, one-third of which were classified as “grave” or “extremely grave”. More than 13,000 of the crimes involved state officials, bureaucrats or local government officials, including 4,729 cases of bribe-taking. A total of 9,235 tax-evasion cases were filed during the period.

Russian banks issued 28.6 million bank cards in the first half of 2004, almost 20 percent more than in the same period last year.

Russian Far East

In mid-July of this year there were 57 wildfires burning in the Russian Far East, according to the Natural Resources Ministry. Of these 35 were in Amur Oblast, 17 in Sakha and five in Khabarovsk Krai. A total of 638 people were fighting the fires. Since the beginning of the wildfire season there have been 606 fires in the Far East, affecting 22,283 hectares (55,064 acres) of land, of which 15,550 hectares (38,426) was forested.

Amur Oblast

A total of 95 economic crimes were committed in Amur Oblast in the first half of 2004, up from 72 in the same period last year, the oblast’s Interior Ministry announced in July. Of these, 40 went to court and 60 people were brought to justice. Some of the biggest crimes were connected with illegal logging.

Republic of Buryatia

Buryatia’s exports in the first half of 2004 brought in $172 million, which was $5.2 million more than in the same period last year, Buryatia Customs announced in August. The biggest buyers of Buryatia’s products are Pakistan, China, Japan and Mongolia. Buryatia exports mainly helicopters, timber products and nuts.

Chita Oblast

The Chita Oblast administration declared a state of emergency at the end of July because of a drought which destroyed 360,000 hectares (890,000 acres) of farmland, of which 130,000 hectares (321,000 acres) were cereal crops and vegetables, and 230,000 hectares (568,000 acres) were hayfields and pastures. The administration appealed to the federal government for aid to compensate for the estimated 600 million rubles-worth ($20 million) of damage done.

Around 50 people drowned in Chita Oblast reservoirs in the first six months of 2004, the head of the state inspectorate for small vessels, Vitaly Latkovsky, announced in July. More than 20 of the fatalities were drunk young people. Another 11 people were rescued from the water.

Chukotka Autonomous Okrug

The first 50 tons of sockeye salmon have been processed at a floating plant near the village of Meynypilgino in Chukotka’s Beringovsky District, the okrug administration announced in July. The Veley plant was brought to the village from Kamchatka earlier this year. It can process 20 tons of fish per day. A total of 200 tons of frozen fish can be stored at the plant. All of the plant’s 24 employees are indigenous residents of Chukotka.

Jewish Autonomous Oblast

A total of 40 people – 26 men and 14 women - in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast are registered as being HIV positive, and one is suffering from AIDS, the oblast center for fighting AIDS announced in July. Since the beginning of the year there have been six new cases of HIV infection. Out of the 40 people, 52.5 percent are aged between 20 and 29, 22.5 percent are aged between 15 and 19, and 20 percent are over 40.

Khabarovsk Krai

Around 1,500 young men from Khabarovsk Krai were drafted into the Russian army this spring, Tikhookeanskaya Zvezda reported in July. The draft was conducted relatively smoothly in the villages, but it was more difficult in the cities of Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Military police had to raid the homes of draft-dodgers and brought 787 men out of the 840 they were looking for to the draft commission. Only 66 percent of those who appeared before the commission were pronounced fit to serve. This was two percent lower than the Russian average. Some villages had no healthy young men at all. For the first time, civilian service was available as an alternative, and 19 men applied for this. Of these, 13 were accepted and six were refused, as they were unable to convincingly demonstrate their religious convictions.

Magadan Oblast

The average monthly per capita income in Magadan Oblast in 2003 was 3,821 rubles month ($131), up 14 percent on the previous year, GTRK Magadan reported in July. But the amount is only 13 percent more than the official minimum income required for living, as estimated by the local government. More than 90 percent of the population lives in a building with central heating, and over 60 percent have telephones. Significantly fewer Magadan residents own computers, fridges and cars than the Russian average.

Magadan Oblast police solved 69.4 percent of the 2,011 crimes committed in the first half of 2004, the local Interior Ministry announced in July. The police improved their rate of successfully investigating thefts, including burglaries, and also solved more drug-related crimes.

Primorsky Krai

A total of 1,822 traffic accidents were registered in Primorye in the first half of 2004, in which 240 people died and 2,254 were injured, the traffic police announced in July. This was fewer accidents and deaths than in the same period last year, but more injuries.

The minimum wage for government employees in Primorye will go up from 450 rubles ($15) to 600 rubles ($21) per month from January 1, 2005, local legislators and members of the krai administration announced in July.

Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)

Net profit of Sakha-based diamond monopoly Alrosa increased to 6.4 billion rubles ($217.9 million) in 2003 from 2.5 billion rubles ($85.4 million) in 2002, the company announced in August. Alrosa accounts for 99 percent of uncut diamond production in Russia, and produces 20 percent of the world’s diamonds in terms of mass and 26 percent in terms of value. Alrosa extracted rough diamonds worth $1.0 billion dollars in the first half of the year and produced polished diamonds worth $64.5 million in the same period. The company did not give comparative figures.

Sakhalin Oblast

Crime in Sakhalin Oblast declined by 9.7 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2004, the oblast’s senior assistant prosecutor, Tatyana Kutuzova, announced in July. A total of 6,300 crimes were registered in the first half. Six criminal cases related to corruption were brought during the period, as well as four cases related to the non-payment of salaries and 20 for crimes in the heating and energy sector. The number of crimes committed by juveniles increased almost by one-third compared with the same period in 2003.

A total of 387 traffic accidents were registered in Sakhalin Oblast in the first half of 2004, 10 percent fewer than in the same period last year, Vladimir Tsoy, head of the oblast traffic police department, announced in August. A total of 49 people died in the accidents and 484 were injured.

Note: unless otherwise stated, all dollar figures are at current exchange rates.

Sources include:

BISNIS - http://www.bisnis.doc.gov/bisnis/country/fareast.cfm
Chukotka.org - http://www.chukotka.org/index.html
Interfax - http://www.interfax.ru/?lang=EN
Moscow Times - http://www.moscowtimes.ru/indexes/01.html
RFE/RL (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty publications)- http://www.rferl.org/
RosBusinessConsulting - http://top.rbc.ru/english_index.shtml
Russian Regional Report
Sakhalin Independent - http://sakhalinindependent.com/
Sakhalin.ru - http://www.sakhalin.ru/
Vladivostok News - http://vlad.tribnet.com/news.html
Vostok-Media - http://www.vostokmedia.vl.ru/

Announcements

Russian Translation Service

Irina Dubinina and Robbyn Kistler are starting a small translation business for Russian documents. Irina Dubinina is a native Russian speaker, Russian language instructor and former American Russian Center program manager for training programs in the Russian Far East. Robbyn Kistler is a former FRAEC program manager for a variety of development efforts in the Russian Far East and a fluent speaker of Russian. Irina and Robbyn think their combined 20 years of working daily with Russia and Russians in both English and Russian, on top of their formal language training, will be an asset to anyone needing written language translations to or from Russian or counseling on cultural issues.

If you should have need for translation services, or can make any referrals, Irina and Robbyn can be reached at Irina Dubinina, 610-626-2047 or irinadubinina@yahoo.com Robbyn Kistler, 718-965-2179 or robbynk@gmail.com

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Business Information

Calendar

Business Associations

Russian Far East Regional Customs Brokers Association in Vladivostok works on issues related to customs brokerage business development and customs infrastructure development. Contact: Vitaly Basenko, Executive Director; tel.: (7-4232) 515-112, 414-779; e-mail: fecba@roof.ru ; web: www.dvratb.roof.ru

The Far-East Confederation of Business Women in Vladivostok promotes businesses owned and managed by women and improvement of the general business climate through influence on and dialogues with local government. Contact: Irina Tumanova, Director; tel.: (7-4232) 439-955, 436-259; e-mail: vladmmc@stl.ru. (BISNIS)

Rotary Clubs

Vladivostok Central Rotary Club. Meetings: Tuesdays, 6-7 pm at the Conference Hall of the Far Eastern State Academy of Economy and Management. Nikiforova St. 53-A-, apartment 24. President: Vladimir Svitich, email svitich1@yandex.ru. Home tel.4232-299-015, cell phone 4232-733-817, office tel. 4232-463-159. English-speaking contact Evgenia Klokova, eklokova@fastmail.vladivostok.ru.

Vladivostok Eco Rotary Club (VLADECO) is involved in numerous humanitarian, ecological, and exchange programs. Meetings: Thursdays, 6:00pm, location to be arranged. Please contact an organizer for details. One-day notification is required to attend the meeting. Contact: Alexander (Sasha) Gurko, club president, gurko@vld.global-one.ru; or contact Evgenia Terekhova, past president; tel./fax: (7-4232) 320-600; e-mail: evgenia_t@mail.primorye.ru.

Vladivostok Rotary Club. Meetings: Wednesdays, 5-6pm, House of Journalists. Contact: Svetlana Pasternak, past president; tel.: (7-4232) 22-96-98, 22-15-26 (message); e-mail: rotary@mail.primorye.ru. Postal address: Russia, 690091, Vladivostok, Sukhanova str. 1-12. Translator: Natalia Prisekina; tel.: (7-4232) 26-04-65; e-mail: russinvecchi@stl.ru

Yakutsk Rotary Club. A one-day notification is required to attend meetings. Meetings: Wednesdays, 6:00pm, Regional Museum. Contact: Nadezhda Ertyukova, club president; tel.: (7-4112) 425-260 (work), (7-4112) 253-533 (home); or contact Vyacheslav Ipatiev, past president, TourService Center; tel.: (7-4112) 251-144; fax: (7-4112) 250-897; e-mail: info@yakutiatravel.com

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Rotary Club. Meetings: Thursdays, 6:15 pm, Pacific Cafe in SakhinCentr, Kommunisticheskiy prospekt 32. Contact: 1. Alexander Vasilevsky, current president 2003-2004; tel. (7-4242)735-418, e-mail: vasilevski@sakhgu.ru; 2. Svetlana Vasina, past president 1999-2000; tel.: (7-4242) 557-468; e-mail: root@mskcom.sakhalin.su; 3.Tanzilya Ivanova, past president 2000-2001; tel.: (7-4242) 7999-51; e-mail: gestorsakh@yahoo.com

Travel

Aeroflot has ruled out providing direct service between the U.S. West Coast and the Russian Far East. The company does continue service from the U.S. West Coast to Moscow and then from Moscow to the Russian Far East. Aeroflot also says it can write tickets for some Russian air carriers. Contact in Seattle: (206) 464-1005.

Azevedo Travel in California issues tickets for a large number of Russian domestic airlines. The tickets can be delivered to the United States or picked up in Vladivostok, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Magadan or Khabarovsk. Contact in Concord: (1-800) 601-6030 or (925) 602-3333, uniglobect@aol.com, website www.russiantravel.com.

Bering Air continues to fly charters between Nome, Alaska, and Provideniya, Chukotka. It plans to begin direct service to Anadyr, Chukotka, in the future, when the Anadyr airport opens as an international airport. Contact in Nome: (907) 443-5620, Elena@beringair.com or info@beringair.com.

Circumpolar Expeditions (CP) can arrange charter service from Alaska to Russia. CP has been specializing in logistical support to Russia since 1991. CP will handle all air, hotel, visa support etc. to Russia, in addition to services for Russians to travel to the U.S. Contact tel: 907-272-9299, toll-free: 888-567-7165, fax: 907-278-6092, e-mail wallack@arctictravel.net, website www.arctictravel.com.

International Travel Consultants (ITC) can arrange charter service from Anchorage, Alaska, to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Sakhalin. In addition to this charter service, ITC can handle any scheduled carrier's reservations and ticketing, including SAT (Sakhalin Air). Contact in the U.S.: tel.: (907) 561-7722; fax: (907) 561-3600; e-mail: itcinc@alaska.net; contact Sakhalin-Alaska Consulting Group in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk: tel.: (7-4242) 728-335.

Korean Air provides direct Anchorage-Seoul service. The airline also flies Seoul to Vladivostok three times a week. Connections to other Russian Far East destinations on Russian air carriers are available, but Korean Air does not do the ticketing for them, nor do most travel agencies in the U.S. (see notes on Mavial, ITC and Aeroflot). Contact in Anchorage: (907) 243-3329 or 1-800-438-5000.

Mavial [Magadan Airlines] provides service from Anchorage, Alaska, to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Kamchatka Oblast, and to Magadan and return. Mavial has coordinated these Anchorage--Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky--Magadan flights to facilitate connections with Khabarovsk and Vladivostok on other regional carriers Dalavia and Vladavia and can also write tickets for Dalavia and Vladavia. Mavial is also providing charter service between Anchorage and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, and Anchorage and Anadyr. Contact in Anchorage: (907)248-2994, e-mail: magadanair@alaskalife.net

Northwest Airlines provides connections between Anchorage-Seattle-Seoul or Tokyo daily, in conjunction with Alaska Airlines. Connections to Russian Far East destinations on Russian air carriers are available, but Northwest does not do the ticketing for them, nor do most travel agencies in the U.S. (see notes on Mavial, ITC and Aeroflot). International reservations tel.: 1-800-447-4747.

RussiaJetDirect begins weekly flights from Anchorage to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Sakhalin, coming from Houston and Seattle, on October 5. Flight time is just over 18 hours on a Boeing 737-800 and the company offers a 15 percent discount on all pre-purchased seats. Contact tel: 877-787-2449. This information provided by World Trade Center Alaska.