BRAMA, Feb. 27, 2000, 3:00pm EST

A Call to Petition the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee: Chechnya/IMF
– Max Pyziur, BRAMA – Gateway Ukraine

During the week beginning Monday February 29th the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be holding two important meetings with respect to affairs in and relationships with the new independent states of the former Soviet Union.

The first which takes place on Tuesday, February 29, 2000 is titled "The Future of the International Monetary Fund and International Financial Institutions". Both U.S. Secretary of Treasury Larry Summers as well as former U.S. Secretary of Treasury and former Secretary of State George Schultz are scheduled to testify.

The second which takes place on Wednesday, March 1, 2000 is titled "The War in Chechnya: Russia's Conduct, the Humanitarian Crisis and U.S. Policy," panelists still to be announced.

With respect to the first hearing, we at BRAMA are appalled by the bold recklessness and abuse of funds which have been allocated to the Russian Federation (RF) as well as to Ukraine. Without question, few if any IMF funds have gone to the development of infrastructure and market economies in either of these countries.

In the case of the RF the funding is financing capital flight, the drive to the depletion of necessary commodities, impoverishment of its citizenry, and a perverse boy scout adventure of inhumane proportions in Chechnya.

In the case of Ukraine, the offenses are not of as an extreme degree, especially and importantly underscoring the fact that there has been no violent conflict approaching even 1 percent of what is taking place between Chechnya and the RF (and it doesn't appear that there will be in the forseeable future). Nevertheless, anecdotally pointing out that a former Ukraine prime minister and alleged criminal (Pavlo Lazarenko) can easily pay $6 million from allegedly stolen funds for a California villa while the current U.S. President has to borrow a million plus to pay for a retirement home in upstate New York succinctly encapsulates the gross misallocations and mismanagement which have taken place in Ukraine.

With respect to the second hearing: Chechnya is, in many ways, the most obvious, urgent, and violent example of a broader political crisis. Central power in the Russian Federation for all intents and purposes is gone and has been for almost a decade. This has allowed regional leaders to assert their own control over their territories. In the case of Chechnya, they want full independence.

During its period dominated by Russia, the Soviet Union as a state had a national identity of being a multi-ethnic, multi-religious country run by a communist police force. That ideology and reality is now gone. In its place the RF is looking as far back backward as the days of the Russian Empire rather than looking forward. It is developing its national identity by being Russo-centric and religiously Russian Orthodox, ignoring its non-Russian indigineous peoples. Its politics and economy are misshapen by an uneven and unbalanced mix of democracy/kelptocracy/idiocray. Why would/should Chechens want to be a part of that?

Having said that, Chechnya's battle for independence is one of many loose threads that are unraveling the RF. The RF's political cohesiveness and territorial integrity are collapsing. What is tragic is that Russia's feeble government and army feel compelled to resort to killing civilians and attacking urban population centers to avoid this seemingly inevitable break.

In contrast, Ukraine in its national development is moving in the direction of unified civic nationalism working democratically with its various ethnic groups as well as political regions.

We encourage you our readers/viewers to contact the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by phone, fax, email, and/or postal mail (contact information is obtainable at http://www.senate.gov/~foreign/members.html). Unequivocally emphasize that nothing short of vigilant prudence and oversight is necessary for any sort of capital allocations by the IMF. Shepherding development of infrastructure and market economies in fSU countries at this point in time are of vital importance and the IMF must be bound to this now even more so than it has been in the past.

Emphasize that Chechnya independence is an inevitablity in the dissolution of the RF and that Russia should be politically and diplomatically deterred from using the sorts of methods it had used in the conflict of 1994-1996 as well as the ones which it is using now. Also, point to the fact that Ukraine stands as a beacon among the fSU countries both in its internal and external development, not falling into the horrible political malaise which is crippling the RF.

--

Max Pyziur
pyz@brama.com

More Community Press Releases -- Click Here
Comments and observations about this article and other news
may be posted to the Press Comment Board