Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 02:09:24 -0400
Subject: M-NEWS: REVOLT IN VLADIVOSTOK


Forwarding this to lists.

Bob Malecki
>
>World News Review Special Edition WNR 17-5-97b 
>
>REVOLT IN VLADIVOSTOK
>********************************************************
>Contents
>
>Russia: Protests Over Vladivostok Power Dispute at 'Boiling Point'

>***************************************************************
>Russia: Protests Over Vladivostok Power Dispute at 'Boiling Point' 
>
>Moscow Komsomolskaya Pravda in Russian 15 May 97 pp 1-2
>
>Subslug: Report by Natalya Ostrovskaya:  "State of Emergency in Vladivostok:
>'Turn On the Lights, Or We'll Bring Down the Authorities!'"
>
>Vladivostok -- The mass disturbances in Maritime Kray have reached
>boiling point.  The schools are closed, the medics expect epidemics,
>bandits control the paralyzed city by night.
>At a press conference at Vladivostok City Hall, Deputy Mayor Yuriy
>Kopylov explained to journalists the reasons for the imposition of a state
>of emergency in the city -- "in connection with the artificially created
>energy crisis and the criminal actions of the leadership of the Dalenergo
>Joint-Stock Company."  Kopylov believes that in fact Vladivostok has a
>sufficient quantity of fuel for the power stations.  "We will impose the
>most rigorous administrative sanctions against those who are leaving the
>city without heat and light," he stated.
>"Down with the misters!  Bring back the comrades, and electricity at 2
>kopeks!"
>This is the third evening that the people of Vladivostok have taken to
>the city's main highway with this and other revolutionary slogans.  And
>blocked it.  Traffic jams that last for hours, conflicts between rioters
>and enraged motorists....  The free-for- all is at the moment being kept in
>check by reinforced detachments of police and traffic officers.  By 
midnight the
>people disperse, promising to return the next day.... After getting his 
bearings
>operationally, Vice Premier Anatoliy Kulikov, who arrived in Maritime Kray
>yesterday, did not go to the rebel city.  He turned off halfway from the 
airport
>in the direction of the state dachas, where he hid himself, out of the reach of
>outsiders. The people are protesting the endless power cuts, which have 
taken on
>the nature of a disaster.  The city's dermatological and venereal disease 
clinic
>poured untested blood into the sewerage system -- it had gone off in the
>hospital's switched-off refrigerators.  After which the health and epidemiology
>service warned of possible encounters with syphilis pathogens in the waters of
>the Amur Gulf. The kindergartens are closing.  The Vladivostok City Hall
>education administration has called on all adults to keep their children with
>them -- just in case. Economic managers who are losing billions, tired of the
>squabbling between Dalenergo and the local authorities, have turned to the
>prosecutor's office and the FSB [Federal Security Service] for the truth (where
>is the money?  where is the fuel oil?).  The power workers, driven into a
>corner, have promised a brighter life some time around...September. Calls for a
>"dictatorship" are getting louder.  Having forgotten what money looks like, the
>long-suffering collective of the Vladivostok No. 2 Heat and Electric Power
>Station along with their director Boris Ilchuk have proposed that "full 
power be
>concentrated for a 10-day period in the hands of kray Governor Yevgeniy
>Nazdratenko, with all the power and financial structures being placed in
>subordination to his will."  And this in spite of the fact that Vladivostok
>Mayor Viktor Cherepkov is still with us! It would be interesting to know what
>Sasha Ignatyev, a worker at the Nagornaya pit in Partizansk, would have to say
>about that. Three weeks ago, 23 April, he refused to leave the pit, and is
>staging a one-man protest there underground.  Tomorrow his comrades in
>misfortune will take to Vladivostok's central square to try to extract six
>months' wage arrears with their helmets. The Maritime Kray miners are still not
>dispatching coal to the power stations.
>
>***************************************************************
Vladivostok: Kulikov on Inspection Visit 
amid barricades, street protests and violent clashes.

Moscow NTV in Russian 0800 GMT 14 May 97
>From the "Segodnya" program presented by Grigoriy Krichevskiy

In Vladivostok today disturbances and clashes between protesters and
the police caused by the energy crisis are continuing.  Despite the fact
that the mayor declared a state of emergency, Viktor Cherepkov and his
deputy have not yet started talks with the ralliers who have blocked the
town's main roads for the third time this week.
Interior Minister Anatoliy Kulikov is in the Far East on an inspection
visit.  He is checking tax collections for the state budget.  Here is our
own correspondent in Vladivostok Ilya Zimin.
[Zimin, over video of crowds in Vladivostok] The interior minister who
arrived today in Vladivostok was forced to change his route.  The meeting
was held at Conference Building in the countryside, perhaps because the
residents were blocking traffic on one of the busiest thoroughfares of the
town which was to be used by the minister.  For the third day, instead of
taking their ordinary evening rest, people are now taking to the streets,
demanding from the local authorities that they fulfill their duties.  Every time
there are more and more pickets.  This enables them to block not just main roads
but also to stop the cars which are trying to by- pass the pickets through the
back streets.  In fact, most drivers understand and support the pickets.
[passage omitted: women shouting in the crowds and interviews with indignant
public] [Krichevskiy in studio] Today Kulikov is holding a meeting with the
law-enforcement bodies of the Maritime Territory. [Begin recording over video of
unidentified correspondent addressing Kulikov] [Correspondent] To which areas in
the Far East do you attach the most importance.  Which ones need the most of
your attention? [Kulikov] Perhaps where they produce [word indistinct] sea food,
where fishing is important.  That is mainly the Maritime Region, as far as I
know, and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy.  These are two main areas where more
attention needs to be given to the customs committee, the export control
committee and the tax service. [end recording]