Post Soviet reform

Johnson's Russia List 13 February 2002 davidjohnson@erols.com A CDI Project www.cdi.org [Note from David Johnson: 1. AFP: Russians prefer shopping to free speech after post-Soviet reforms: poll. 2. Interfax: Russians think ample supply of goods and earning opportunities main results of reform. 3. Interfax: Russian research shows Putin's popularity high, agenda unclear. 4. Reuters: Russia says will talk to Chechens on its terms. 5. Luba Schwartzman: ORT Review. 6. AP: Official: U.S. Should Leave Asia. 7. Peter Reddaway: re Anders Aslund. 8. Bruce Marks: re Alvin Rubinstein. 9. Reuters: Russian energy crisis possible if no reforms -OECD. 10. AP: Russia Court Annuls Military Decree. (re Pasko) 11. Richard Swann: re 6069/Lagnado. 12. RFE/RL: Michael Lelyveld, Moscow Gaining Power Over Oil Market. 13. Moscow Times: Paul Saunders, Doing for, Not Doing To. 14. Interfax: Duma MP critical of Russian General Staff stance on strategic nuclear forces. (Arbatov) 15. strana.ru: Wall Street Journal Wins Ground-Breaking Interview with Putin - Or So It Seems. 16. RIA: Russian PM sums up privatization, says more to be done. 17. US Department of State: Excerpt: Powell Tells Senate U.S.-Russia Relationship is Strong. 18. The Independent (UK): Tam Dalyell, Professor John Erickson.] ******* #1 Russians prefer shopping to free speech after post-Soviet reforms: poll AFP February 12, 2002 MOSCOW -- More than 50 percent of Russians regard the main benefit of a decade of post-Soviet reform to be the introduction of a Western-style shopping culture, while less than a third value free speech more highly, according to a poll published Tuesday. Only 27.7 percent of those polled by sociologists from the Russian Academy of Sciences felt that free speech was the most important outcome of the end of Communism a decade ago, the academy's Mikhail Gorshkov was quoted as saying by Interfax. Meanwhile 53.3 percent nominated the ample supply of goods in Russian stores, whose shelves were proverbially empty during the Soviet era, with 21.9 percent preferring the freedom to travel abroad. On the down side, 53.6 percent of Russians mentioned the decline of living standards as the worst development since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, with 35.1 percent citing "moral decline" and 30.4 percent the decline of Russia's authority in the world, Gorshkov said. ******* #2 Russians think ample supply of goods and earning opportunities main results of reform MOSCOW. Feb 12 (Interfax) - 53.5% of the Russians polled by sociologists think that the most important achievement of the reforms for Russian society is the ample supply of goods on the market, Mikhail Gorshkov, director of the Institute of Complex Social Research with the Russian Academy of Sciences, has said. The second most popular result of the reforms is freedom of speech (27.7% of the respondents), the freedom to travel abroad (21.9%), and the possibility of unlimited earnings (29.4%), he said. In terms of their personal life, Russians said that the most important result of the reforms is the possibility of unlimited earnings (42.1%), the ample supply of goods on the market (37.1%), career opportunities (22%), the freedom to travel abroad (20.1%), and strengthening of private property (14.5%). ******* #3 Russian research shows Putin's popularity high, agenda unclear Interfax Moscow, 12 February: Despite predictions by numerous experts that President Vladimir Putin's rating would fall, the percentage of people who trust him has increased by 17.4 per cent lately, says a report on 10 years of reforms as viewed by Russians that has been filed by the Institute of Comprehensive Social Research and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. The youngest and the oldest age groups tend to view Putin in an especially positive light, the report says. "Even apprehensions on the part of the intellectual community, especially those oriented to liberal values and protection of human rights, do not change the role he plays as a consensual figure in the power hierarchy," it says. The percentage of those having a positive view of Putin's activities does not differ much between residents of large urban centres, 68.9 per cent; large industrial centres, 68.8 per cent; towns and district seats, 69.1 per cent; and rural areas, 68.8 per cent. Putin has adjusted Boris Yeltsin's reforms and intends to phase them out eventually, 12 per cent think, while 37.5 per cent believe that Putin's course bears little resemblance to them. On the other hand, society is unaware of what Putin's agenda really is, especially because he has managed to avoid any specific self-identification during his two years in power, the report says. Rather, a new kind of relationship is emerging between society and the authorities, the report says. The popular enchantment with the Yeltsin of the late 1980s and early 1990s gave way not only to universal disappointment in him, but also to alienation from the authorities as such. Following the August 1998 monetary crisis, the popular rejection of Yeltsin took on the dimensions of an upheaval, the report says. Public opinion, frightened by what looked like anarchy, felt a growing need for an alternative to Yeltsin within the then "party of power," the report argues. Hopes that the state would become manageable again were pinned successively on [former Prime Minister] Yevgeniy Primakov, [Moscow mayor] Yuriy Luzhkov, [former Prime Minister] Sergey Stepashin and, at the end of 1999 and in early 2000, on Putin. There is no surprise in the fact that even among the supporters of the opposition Communist Party and Yabloko over 50 per cent trust Putin, the report says. *******
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