Canada and the World Backgrounder articles from October 1997

Canada and the World Backgrounder archives from October 1997

A work in progress.(democracy in Russia)
October 1, 1997... The cheers that greeted the collapse of the Soviet Union have long ago died down. Those who expected a rapid transformation to a free and open society have been disappointed. Some of the old parts of the Soviet Union remain as repressed and...

A long road ahead.(movement toward democracy in Russia)
October 1, 1997... From 1917 to 1991, politics in Russia started and finished with the Communist Party; it was the only game in town. What passed for elections were a contest between members of the same political party -- no candidates other than communists were...

Power to the president.(new Russian constitution concentrates power in the office of the president)
October 1, 1997... In 1993, Russians approved a new constitution. It was written by Boris Yeltsin for Boris Yeltsin. The constitution gives the president the power to appoint a prime minister and cabinet. If parliament refuses to ratify the president's...

Waiting in the wings.(possible successors to Boris Yeltsin as Russian president)
October 1, 1997... Boris Yeltsin, if he remains healthy, steps down from Russia's presidency in 2000. There is no lack of candidates eager to succeed him. VIKTOR CHERNOMYRDIN. Currently, Prime Minister and Boris Yeltsin's closest ally. He's in favour of...

Transition turmoil.(economic reform in Russia)
October 1, 1997... In 1991, Russia and the Soviet Union was run under communism. All production of food, goods, and services was controlled by bureaucrats in central offices. Factories were told what quantities of door knobs or piston rings to make. People were...

Unlucky landlord equals happy tenant.(decline of ruble cuts annual rent of U.S. embassy in Russia)
October 1, 1997... In 1985, American and Soviet officials struck a 20-year deal for the rental of the U.S. Ambassador's Moscow residence. The annual rent was set at 120,000 rubles, which worked out to the equivalent of $170,000. However, since the collapse of...

Revenue shortfall.(undercollection of taxes in Russia)
October 1, 1997... In the old days of communism, the Russian government's income came from the industry it owned. Now that most businesses have been privatized, government revenue comes from income taxes. Or, it would if the taxation system wasn't a mess. Most...

Anthropology meets economics.(peasant society beliefs hinder growth of capitalism in Russia)
October 1, 1997... People who study social groupings can tell us a lot about human behaviour. For example, anthropologists find common elements in peasant societies all over the world. Such people live closer to Nature than city dwellers and see assets such as...

The wild East.(political and economic corruption in Russia)
October 1, 1997... When looking at the way capitalism is being implemented, an old Russian saying that "A fish rots from the head," comes to mind; to this presidential candidate Alexander Lebed adds, "No one doubts that our leaders and our criminals are one and the...

Shoot-out at the Radisson Slavyanskaya.(gangland-style shooting of Paul Tatum follows dispute over building Radisson hotel in Moscow)
October 1, 1997... In August 1991, a group of senior officials tried to seize control of the Soviet Union. Yeltsin defied the coup leaders by climbing onto a tank and daring the soldiers to shoot him. One of the supporters in those exciting days was Yuri...

Cultivating debt.(Russian farms are unprofitable)
October 1, 1997... Agriculture remains the least reformed part of the Russian economy. The people who work the farms are now called shareholders, but their lives are little changed from the days of collective farming. Only five percent of Russia's farmland is...

Land without law: while democracy is on the rise in Russia, so are poverty and crime.
October 1, 1997... Gone are the days of order and predictable living in Russia. One of the things that people fear most is crime. Mafia-like gangs have transformed Moscow from one of the safest cities in the world into one that has been compared to Chicago...

Life from inside.(poor conditions in Russian prisons)
October 1, 1997... Conditions in Russia have become a lot worse for the country's prisoners too, according to a Toronto Star report. In overcrowded prisons, inmates are said "to sleep in shifts on lice-infested cots, stand for hours of the day because lack of...

The vodka connection.(alcohol abuse and crime in Russia)
October 1, 1997... In 1992, the Russian government's department for drink-related crimes, said the problems associated with too much vodka-drinking -- crime, absenteeism, lost production, sickness -- were worse than ever. Crimes committed by drunken people in...

The turmoil of change.(economic and social upheavals in Russia)
October 1, 1997... For Russia, the journey to freedom started in 1991 with the fall of the Soviet Union. While many see it as an exciting beginning to a new future, others despair at the turmoil of the present. As one Museovite said, "Before, life in Moscow was...

The luxury of food.(poor service on Russian airlines)
October 1, 1997... In September 1990, Alexander Pleshakov, a graduate of Moscow's aviation institute, started his own airline. Called Transeero, the airline offers what locals consider welcome frills: a business class; cabin crew who smile; pilots who apologize...

A darker time for women and minorities.(social problems in Russia)
October 1, 1997... Russian women have been thrown into a separate nightmare. Unemployment and poverty have made them victims of more domestic violence and sexual harassment, according to a 1995 report by Human Rights Watch. The hUman-rights group says Russian...

Read it! Read it!(popularity of book-buying in Russia)
October 1, 1997... According to an article in the Washington Post, despite their hardships, Russians are on a book-buying spree. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, few books of interest were available. Now, the selection is vast. Every month...

The malnourished military: Russia's military is short of everything - food, finance, and fire-power.
October 1, 1997... The military is just one more of Russia's institutions that is operating in a climate of chaos. Once one of the most feared military machines in the history of the world, Russia's armed forces today are destitute and demoralized. ...

The Iron Curtain falls.(fall of the Soviet Union leads to expansion of NATO)
October 1, 1997... For 45 years, troops from the Western allies and the Soviet bloc glared at each other across Central Europe. Both sides were armed to the teeth and both worried about being attacked by the other. This was the Cold War, and the line that...

Superpower status.(change in Russian military policy since the fall of the Soviet Union)
October 1, 1997... During the Cold War (1945-90), the Soviet Union was acknowledged by just about everyone to be a superpower. It did not earn that status because of its economic, humanitarian, cultural, or technological contributions to the world. It was...

Split personality.(Russia's foreign policy)
October 1, 1997... Russia sits astride two continents. From the Ural Mountains to its Western boundaries Russia is part of Europe. Most Russians live in this Western third of the country. Russia East of the Urals is in Asia. Since the reign of Peter the...

Cast adrift.(Russia ends its support of Cuba and other communist countries)
October 1, 1997... The Soviet Union was famous for its foreign adventures. It funded many rogUe regimes around the world so long as they were enemies of the United States. The U.S. did the same; propping up several corrupt and brutal dictators who were hostile...

Black gold.(petroleum resources of the Central Asian Republics)
October 1, 1997... Why should the Western world be bothered aboUt whether Russia meddles in the affairs of distant Asian republics or not? One reason is oil. Since 1991, Western oil companies have been spending millions of dollars exploring for oil in the...

Back to the USSR.(Russian dominance of Commonwealth of Independent States)
October 1, 1997... There are those who predict that Russia will try to cobble together the old Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, some of its former members set up the Commonwealth of Independent States. It was supposed to be a framework...

Will the centre hold?(relationship between central government and Russian republics)
October 1, 1997... Chechnya has shown the way (see sidebar); Moscow is no longer the all-powerful control centre of Russia. Other regions in the Russian Federation want to loosen the ties they have with the central government. Some, like Chechnya, want complete...

A country waiting to happen.(Chechnya)
October 1, 1997... For 200 years, Russia tried to subdue the Chechen people. In their most recent defiance of Russian colonization, the Chechen leader, Dzhokar Dudayev, declared their homeland to be an independent sovereign state in 1 9g1. At the end of 1994,...

Constitutional clashes.(complex government of Russian Federation)
October 1, 1997... The government of the Russian Federation is complex enough to provide well-paid employment for many constitutional lawyers for generations to come. The federation includes 21 ethnically based republics, six krays (territories), ten okrugs...

Caucasian tangle.(politics and ethnicity in Caucasia)
October 1, 1997... Caucasia is the region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea; it is divided into two parts I by the Caucasus Mountains. The portion to the north, known as the Caucasus, has gently sloping plains ending in low, marsh y steppes. Lying within...

A sea of trouble.(mismanaged irrigation project devastates Aral Sea and surrounding area)
October 1, 1997... The government of the former Soviet Union wanted to expand the country's cotton production. To do that, it decided to irrigate vast areas of arid and semi-arid territory by diverting two rivers, the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya. But these...

Environmental arms.(ecological problems in Russia)
October 1, 1997... The Russian government reported in 1995 that "The ecological situation in Russia is truly alarming." The report outlined a number of environmental threats to the country, including its deteriorating stockpiles of chemical weapons, the...