[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 148 (Wednesday, November 30, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: November 30, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                           WHAT RUSSIAN REFORM

                                 ______


                        HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 29, 1994

  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, the premise of our aid program for Russia 
over the past 2 years has been that the success of Russia's supposed 
transformation to democratic capitalism was in our interest and that 
Western money would help facilitate the process. But even if one 
accepts that democratic capitalism in Russia is in our interests, which 
I do, and the Western money is required, which I don't, recent news 
from Russia leaves no doubt that the premise is still flawed because 
there simply is no more reform effort in Russia.
  Anybody reading the news out of Russia lately can plainly see that 
the main objective, if not obsession, of the Russian Government today 
is not capitalist economic reform, democratic reform, or integration 
into Western institutions, but the re-integration of the former Soviet 
States.
  Given Russia's 500-year imperial legacy, it is doubtful that this re-
integration will be anything but a ruse for renewed Russian domination 
of these States. This is not in our interest, Mr. Speaker, and it is 
something that incoming Members of the 104th Congress should ponder.
  Mr. Speaker, I insert for the record a selection of news clips from 
today's and yesterday's Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty daily reports, 
which attest to Russia's highly disturbing actions of late.

            [RFE/RL Daily Report No. 223, 28 November 1994]

             Segodnya Says Pro-Western Stage of Reform Over

       Mikhail Leontev, an economist and chief editor of Segodnya, 
     believes that reforms aimed at westernizing Russia have ended 
     in defeat. Writing in the liberal newspaper on 24 November, 
     he contended that ``forces through which the West has 
     acquired a stake in Russia have become political outsiders'' 
     and Russia is beginning a new, ``patriotic'' stage of reform. 
     That meant, he continued, that Russia could no longer rely on 
     Western aid, but only on loans and investments from 
     international organizations. The ``patriotic'' stage of 
     reform, he said, implied a strong authoritarian element and 
     state regulation of the economy but it would allow Russia to 
     follow its own path. Russia needs partners, not mentors, 
     Leontev concluded. The Segodnya article is the second anti-
     Western publication to appear recently in prodemocratic mass 
     media. Last week Moskovsky komsomolets accused the architect 
     of privatization, Anatolii Chubais, of helping Western 
     corporations to take over Russian industry. The State Duma 
     has appointed a special commission to investigate the latter 
     charges, agencies reported on 25 November.--Victor Yasmann, 
     RFE/RL, Inc.


                           ONE BORDER FOR ALL

       The customs chiefs' gathering coincided with a meeting, 
     also in Moscow, of the Council of Border Troops Commanders of 
     CIS member states, chaired by the Russian commander, Colonel 
     General Andrei Nikolaev. He told Russian TV on 27 November 
     that a CIS Customs Union ``would simply be impossible without 
     reliable protection of the outer border of the CIS,'' 
     something ``we once had.'' Following recent Russian 
     agreements on ``joint border defense'' with a number of CIS 
     states, Nikolaev said, ``there remain only two windows in the 
     common border of the CIS. These are the outer borders of 
     Moldova and Azerbaijan.'' Both states have recently been 
     asked by Russia to join a common border defense system. 
     Interviewed in Pravda of 24 November, on the subject of ``One 
     Border for All,'' Nikolaev insisted on distinguishing--as 
     Russian civilian officials also often do--between ``internal 
     borders'' in the CIS, which he wanted to be ``transparent,'' 
     and ``external borders of the CIS,'' which he argued should 
     be defended ``jointly.'' Nikolaev has recently been high in 
     Yeltsin's esteem.--Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL, Inc.


                   DISPUTES LOOMING OVER CITIZENSHIP

       Russia's unilateral steps toward instituting dual 
     citizenship with CIS member countries (see Daily Report of 28 
     November) are becoming a source of concern to countries 
     directly affected. Kazakh Foreign Minister Kasymzhumart 
     Tokayev told Interfax on 25 November that dual citizenship 
     would make for divided loyalties and ``may become a serious 
     cause of instability and entail heavy consequences.'' 
     (Kazakhstan has recently faced vocal demands from Russian 
     Cossacks settled there for recognition of dual citizenship 
     with Russia and other integration measures). Multiethnic 
     states in the former USSR should foster loyalty based on 
     common citizenship of common homeland, Tokayev said. Ukraine 
     has also resisted proposals for dual citizenship with Russia. 
     In the Crimea, however, the local Supreme Soviet's deputy 
     chairman, Viktor Mezhak, told Interfax on 27 November that 
     body intended to appeal to Yeltsin shortly to grant Russian 
     citizenship to willing residents of the Crimea. Some 200,000 
     of them have already sent applications, Mezhak said, 
     predicting that some 1.5 million of Crimea's 2.6 million 
     people would want Russian citizenship. The prospect of 
     granting Russian citizenship to residents of such areas as 
     northern Kazakhstan, Ukraine's Crimea, or eastern Moldova 
     (where Russia has already begun the practice) adds to 
     Moscow's leverage over those countries.--Vladimir Socor, RFE/
     RL, Inc.
                                  ____


             RFE/RL Daily Report, No. 225, 29 November 1994


              russia: controversial customs union concept

       Russian officials complained to Interfax on 28 November 
     that some CIS member states had failed to realize that a CIS 
     customs union would entail not only the lifting of trade 
     barriers but also closer economic integration, weighted 
     voting in coordinating bodies in proportion to the member 
     states' economic power (rather than one country-one vote), 
     and decisions binding for all. The officials were speaking in 
     the wake of the 23 November meeting in Moscow of the Council 
     of Heads of Customs Services of CIS states that had discussed 
     a draft agreement on a customs union, uniform customs codes 
     and customs service regulations for member states, and a 
     common tariff regime regarding imports from outside the CIS. 
     The documents will be presented to higher CIS forums for 
     approval. According to Interfax on 24 November, Russian 
     officials expect intra-CIS customs barriers to be lifted 
     ``over the next few years.'' That delay would frustrate the 
     overriding goal of most member states, which is to regain 
     unimpeded access to the Russian market, and would in the 
     meantime increase Russia's leverage over them. Russian 
     officials want the customs union's member states to pursue a 
     coordinated foreign trade policy in relations with third 
     countries and to introduce a common tariff system and common 
     trade controls--ideas that may presage the establishment of a 
     protected eastern market to which non-CIS goods would have 
     limited access.--Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL, Inc.


            russian citizenship for russians in near abroad

       Abdullakh Mikitaev, head of the Directorate for Citizenship 
     Affairs of Russia's presidential administration and chairman 
     of the special Commission on Citizenship Issues set up by 
     Yeltsin, commented in Trud of 23 November on the recent 
     presidential decree on implementing Russia's citizenship law 
     enacted in 1992 and amended in 1993. The decree enables 
     Russians in the ``near abroad,'' their descendants, and, more 
     generally, ``people who consider themselves Russian,'' to 
     acquire Russian citizenship even if they already have the 
     citizenship of their country of residence, Mikitaev said. He 
     confirmed that under Yeltsin's decree, meant to ``explain to 
     officials how to interpret the law,'' Russia was 
     ``unilaterally recognizing dual citizenship'' for those 
     people even though most of the newly independent states do 
     not. The deadline for applying, originally 6 February 1995, 
     will be extended by two to three years. Citizenship 
     legislation will ``become the basis for the gradual 
     unification of countries and peoples'' of the former USSR, 
     Mikitaev said.--Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL, Inc.

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