Periscope No. 37

human rights activists

WHERE HAVE YOU GONE?

Russian and international human rights activists are sure that many more people are kidnapped in Chechnya than the authorities of the republic say. "According to the statistics that our representatives have kept in Chechnya since 2000, between 3,000 and 5,000 people have gone missing in the republic over the past five years," Alexander Cherkasov, a spokesman for the Memorial human rights center, told Newsweek. And at the beginning of the week, at a meeting with Joan Margaret Killerby, head of the Crime Department of the Legal Directorate of the Council of Europe, Chechen President Alu Alkhanov gave other figures: 2,500 people. According to Alexander Cherkasov, these figures are based on data from the prosecutor's office, but the republic's law enforcement agencies "do not always accept" reports of disappearances. On Friday, Memorial's colleagues were supported by Amnesty International: at a press conference in Moscow, Victoria Webb, Amnesty International's researcher for Russia, said that the Russian authorities "are not making enough efforts" to ascertain the extent of kidnappings.

Scouts

AND THE BOARDS KNEW

US Army Private Lindy England was sentenced last week to three years in prison, the latest of nine US servicemen convicted of abusing inmates at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. Seven sergeants received terms of 6 to 12 months last year, Corporal Charles Grainer, recognized as the head of a criminal group, sat down for 10 years. In all cases, the court decided that the lower ranks acted on their own initiative and the authorities did not know anything about it. However, the human rights organization HumanRightsWatch has discovered new cases of abuse of prisoners: captured Iraqis were tortured in the military intelligence of the 82nd Air Division stationed in Fallujah. They were beaten almost daily, held in "torturous positions" and made into "living pyramids" - just like in Abu Ghraib. Moreover, as Newsweek learned, this time the violence was sanctioned by a senior officer, according to two sources of the magazine in military intelligence involved in the investigation (both declined to be named). “We now know that their commanders gave detailed orders for such treatment in order to extract evidence from those under investigation,” Tom Malinowski, head of HumanRightsWatch in Washington, told Newsweek. The intelligence officers themselves—Captain Ian Fishbeck and two sergeants—reported the torture to the military police. The reason: they felt "increasing disappointment in the authority of the command, seeing that it knows everything, but does nothing about it."

Diplomacy

TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THE REACTION OF RUSSIA

Boris Berezovsky is a real threat to the Latvian state and therefore should be included in the list of undesirable persons, Latvian Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis said last week. The Minister was publicly supported by President Vaira Vike-Freiberga.

Berezovsky was in Latvia on September 21: together with the younger brother of US President Neil Bush, he held a presentation of educational programs developed by the latter's firm. But in Riga they believe that all this is just a cover for Berezovsky's "anti-Latvian activities." “We have reason to think that Mr. Berezovsky was associated with the Russian authorities and certain media during the most prominent anti-Latvian campaigns in the early 90s and so on,” said Jurgis Letmeks, chief of the bureau of the Latvian Prime Minister. statements about how interested he is in the development of Latvia do not seem too convincing to us.”

"Each state has the right to make decisions about who to declare persona non grata," Boris Berezovsky himself responded in an interview with Newsweek. "And the fact that this is happening shows that Latvia is a completely democratic country." And he added: from his personal point of view, the statements of Latvian politicians demonstrate "that the reaction of Russia is taken into account." This was indirectly confirmed by Letmeks: “Berezovsky's trips to Riga put Latvia in a very difficult position, because there is a point of view that he is wanted. And he should have been detained—at least until his identity was ascertained.” Berezovsky was already in Latvia after he received refugee status in the UK, but now, Jurgis Letmeks explained, "this issue has been updated in a different light."

Forecast

ON THE WINGS OF ZARAH

A new flu pandemic could kill more than 150 million people. “The chance of the avian influenza virus mutating into a human-to-human form is very high. It would be a big mistake to underestimate the threat,” said Dr. David Nabarro, immediately after UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed him as special coordinator for the fight against the avian influenza epidemic last week. Oleg Kiselev, director of the Research Institute of Influenza of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, shares the fears of his colleague. Over the past hundred years, man has learned to effectively deal with a deadly virus, but he also did not sit idle. “Modern forms of influenza mutate much faster than before, and each time the flu becomes more dangerous for humans,” explains Oleg Kiselev. According to him, humanity can only be saved by further combining the efforts of different countries, in particular, the creation of a single bank of vaccines, which makes it possible to quickly and effectively suppress local epidemics before the virus spreads around the world. Scattered in the literal sense: infected birds are an excellent transport for intercontinental travel.

A comment

sworn friendship

Iskander Khisamov (editor-in-chief of the Expert-Ukraine magazine)

The September political crisis in Ukraine, which dispersed the orange team of Viktor Yushchenko, raised the question of the November-December 2004 revolution itself. Was it really an elegant (by Yushchenko's definition) bourgeois-democratic revolution, or was there a banal top-level coup using the resource of the street?

"Maidan" is, as you know, a shopping area. Speaking in terms of the market, the Kiev Maidan has become an example of unscrupulous advertising. The Oranges promised everyone and everything: to dramatically increase social benefits, quickly implement a dozen reforms, defeat corruption—just to stand with high ratings until the March 2006 parliamentary elections, which were supposed to seal their victory. They made a mistake in the calculations, the resources were not enough. Of all the promises, one, the most disastrous one, has been realized: salaries for state employees, pensions and social benefits have been sharply raised. The budget immediately cracked at the seams, and prices jumped. In search of money, the government tried to dispossess the large proprietors and immediately reached a dead end: it was impossible to carry out legal re-privatization. On the other hand, attacks on big business managed to sharply bring down investments and, in general, the activity of capital. Yushchenko's team, which castigated the former regime for administrative arbitrariness and voluntarism, fell into these sins itself. Duties and tariffs changed every minute, the government tried to control the prices of gasoline, sugar, grain—as a result, every time there was a crisis. All this resulted in a large-scale political crisis. And this is good, because the crisis gives a chance, and the rule of the orange team did not leave any chances.

The main reason for the September crisis in Ukraine was the Orange's refusal to fulfill its political obligations. When in December Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych, with the participation of foreign mediators, agreed to hold a third additional round of presidential elections, the main condition was the transformation of Ukraine into a parliamentary republic, where the government is appointed by deputies.

Viktor Yushchenko really did not want to fulfill these agreements, but life forced him to. Moreover, the constitutional reform actually started even before the scheduled date (January 1, 2006). The President of Ukraine has already eliminated the positions of Secretary of State and First Assistant to the President, and it was through them that his power was transmitted. It also became clear that the orange authorities and the blue opposition would have to cooperate after the elections to the Verkhovna Rada. Neither side will be able to form a ruling majority. Yushchenko's Our Ukraine bloc, against which all the passion of Yulia Tymoshenko and all the resources of her Batkivshchyna bloc will now be directed, is unlikely to gain even a quarter of the votes in parliament on its own. But the Timoshenko bloc will also lose a lot in this struggle and will not be able to claim leadership in any broad coalition.

It is also obvious that the country could not reorient itself to the West. Yulia Timoshenko went to Moscow to make peace with the Prosecutor General's Office and the Kremlin. On Friday, Prime Minister Yury Yekhanurov came on behalf of Yushchenko. In October, Vladimir Putin is expected in Kyiv, and this visit promises to be a triumph—that is, the most pathetic words about brotherhood, friendship and cooperation in the style of the former leadership of Ukraine will be said. Meanwhile, the Kremlin has not yet made its bets. That is, now he, apparently, will put chips on many different numbers—and this is logical, if we recall the catastrophe of Russian politics in the presidential elections in Ukraine.