-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- Russian Follies Russia Is Sinking into the Void of a "Failed State" We better work fast to restore the Soviet Union to its prior glory "We need more authority now!" MOSCOW - When President Boris Yeltsin arrives at the Kremlin, a Russian tricolor is hoisted over the citadel of government authority to show that he is there - at work. But the flag has not flown much lately. Mr. Yeltsin, suffering from a bleeding ulcer, has come to the Kremlin only sporadically. Although he was back in the office Friday, his prolonged absences are contributing to what some prominent analysts maintain is a long slide toward the collapse of central authority in Russia and, perhaps, the crumbling of Russia as a federation. Russians have long feared that the country would shatter in a violent crack-up, ignited by secessionist movements in its diverse regions. But a different model is now gaining currency among political and economic analysts, who say Russia is in imminent danger of becoming a ''failed state,'' not breaking into pieces as the Soviet Union did in December 1991, but simply ceasing to function as a cohesive federal government. Many Russian politicians and political analysts say the debasement of Moscow's authority - possibly leading to a long stagnation and drift in which no one rules - threatens to bring its own special dangers, opening the doors to even more corruption and lawlessness, weapons proliferation, health hazards and environmental pollution. If Russia becomes a failed state, the risks are that individual regions and parts of Russian society will go their own way - making it difficult, for example, for Russia to control factories making missile parts or to cope with such problems as a spread of disease or massive piracy of intellectual property. Prime Minister Yevgeni Primakov has become so concerned about the ebbing power of the central government that he suggested recently that Russia should scrap the election of regional governors, seen by many as one of the major gains of the country as it seeks to democratize. Instead, Mr. Primakov proposed that regional chieftains answer directly to the Kremlin, as they did in Soviet days - which would require rewriting the constitution. Mr. Primakov lamented that the Kremlin's chain of command over the country was ''not a solid line'' but rather ''a vertical broken line - broken.'' Moscow's once all-powerful authority had been eroding for years, even before the disintegration of the Soviet Union. But in recent months, several factors seemed to add to the disarray. Hobbled by economic decline, the government has become dysfunctional in some of its core responsibilities, including such pillars of central authority as the military, the courts and tax collection. Also, a political vacuum at the top - the president ill, his prime minister struggling to hold together an unwieldy coalition cabinet - has left Russia rudderless and thrust problems on the often-unprepared regional bosses. The deterioration of Kremlin power could be difficult if not impossible to reverse. Russia has become an anything-goes, chaotically libertarian society. [Sure it has.] Meanwhile, the central government has crumbled from within. In everything from law enforcement to the military, from public health to scientific research, Russia's national institutions and agencies are a bare shadow of earlier years. Some of Mr. Yeltsin's lieutenants have tried in vain to reassert the might of the center, such as an attempt two years ago by Deputy Prime Minister Anatoli Chubais to use police tactics to force major companies to pay taxes. It flopped. As a result of government weakness, many analysts say they expect that Mr. Yeltsin will be succeeded by a leader more inclined to resort to authoritarian methods. The Kremlin's troubles have set off fresh alarms. Sergei Karaganov, deputy director of the Institute of Europe and chairman of the Council on Defense and Foreign Policy, a group of Russian business and political leaders, said the ebb of central authority was becoming so acute that the Kremlin might as well not worry about setting economic policy. Mr. Karaganov said that Mr. Yeltsin no longer projected any meaningful authority from above and that Russians no longer trusted their government from below, following the devaluation of the ruble last year that brought on the country's most serious economic crisis since Soviet rule fell apart seven years earlier. ''I don't think there can be any economic policy,'' he said in an interview. ''It's useless to have any economic policy in a situation where there is political paralysis spreading through the whole body. There are two sicknesses. One is the president, which paralyzes greatly the whole body, and the second is the fact that the population mistrusts the government greatly. ''We are experiencing a rapid deterioration of the government,'' he added. ''You see it in hundreds of small episodes. The military is unable to pay at all, so the local governments pay the soldiers. Until recently, there was a complete stoppage of payment of funds to the courts. Imagine what that means.'' Thomas Graham, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former U.S. diplomat here, suggested recently that Russia might turn into a failed state because of the weakness in Moscow. ''For the first extended period in modern Russian history,'' he said, ''the center is neither feared nor respected.'' Moscow ''no longer controls the political and economic situation,'' he added. ''It no longer reliably wields power and authority, as it has traditionally, through the control of the institutions of coercion, the regulation of economic activity and the ability to command the loyalty of, or instill fear in, the people.'' Sergei Alexashenko, former first deputy head of the central bank, said Russian institutions under democracy were ''obviously weak'' and had ''never managed to function properly.'' ''This applies to the institutions of power, the Parliament and the government, to the 'power ministries' - the army and law enforcement bodies, to economic structures,'' he said. The economic crisis, he said, is largely rooted in the ''inability of the state to perform one of its prime functions: tax collection.'' The deterioration of Kremlin power was a chief topic at the meeting last week of Mr. Karaganov's defense and foreign policy council. A report prepared by a panel he headed warned that Russia was falling apart - a familiar theme, but the report struck an urgent tone, calling on the ailing Mr. Yeltsin to step down to make way for Mr. Primakov as successor. ''The president demonstrates such an obvious inability to control things that it raises doubt about the expediency of the institution of the presidency in its present form,'' the report said. ''Mere bursts of activity do not count.'' But the council was divided on whether Mr. Yeltsin should quit. Some questioned whether his premature resignation would help or hurt, and Mr. Primakov has pointedly insisted that Mr. Yeltsin must complete his term. Within the council, few disagreed with the report's diagnosis that Russian power was rotting from within. ''Actually, the process of slow disintegration is already under way,'' the report said, adding that such decay might not wreck Russia as a sovereign state - just corrode central authority. International Herald Tribune, Feb. 27, 1999 Prowling in Prague Czechs Seek to Tax Prostitution Vacation now before prices go up "We need more authority now!" PRAGUE, Feb. 26, 1999 -- (Reuters) The Czech Interior Ministry, irritated by a recent surge in uncontrolled prostitution and related crime, said on Thursday it hoped to bring order to the world's oldest profession by taxing and regulating it. Deputy Interior Minister Jaroslav Kopriva told a news conference that the Cabinet would soon consider a plan to recognize prostitution -- currently in a legal gray area -- as a legitimate, open and taxable enterprise. He said that full regulation was the only way to get some control over the booming post-communist trade which accounts for an estimated Kc 10 billion annually -- equal to 0.6 percent of the country's gross domestic product. The ministry estimates that up to 20,000 prostitutes work in the country, a number that has risen exponentially since the hard-line communist system fell in 1989. Prostitution is heavily concentrated on the borders with Germany and Austria and parts of Prague. Current laws ban trade in women by pimps but do not regulate prostitution either as a crime nor or a business. Under the new plan, the state would license women who would have periodic health checks, pay health and social insurance, and taxes Kopriva said. Local authorities would regulate areas and the time when sex services would be allowed, but trafficking in women, or pimping, would still be illegal. Proponents of the new laws -- similar to regulations adopted in Austria and the Netherlands -- say they would serve to help stem related crimes, such as abuse of the women, turf battles, illicit drugs and money laundering, which are often connected to the organized gangs which manage prostitutes. "The impact of the extreme spread -- or total eruption -- of prostitution on public morale is devastating," Kopriva said. "We propose to adopt a law which would set out the rules and conditions of prostitution." The ministry's plan was co-authored by officials from Dubi, a town of 8,000 just 5 miles (8 kilometers) from an important crossing to Germany, which became notorious for its sex clubs. The town had 37 brothels and hundreds of prostitutes at a recent count. The deputy minister said he would send the proposal to the Cabinet by the end of March, but added that any legal change would likely take one or two years. Central Europe Online, Feb. 26, 1999 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! 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