From Volume 37, Issue 17 of EIR Online, Published Apr. 30, 2010
Russia and the CIS News Digest

LaRouche Videos Grab Attention in Russia

April 16 (EIRNS)—The LaRouche PAC video "Obama's Opium War" has been published in Russian on RuTube (larush-tv.rutube.ru). In the clip, Matthew Ogden reports on Russian anti-drug chief Victor Ivanov's offer for Russia-NATO cooperation to end narcotics production and trafficking out of Afghanistan, and the protection of that business by London and Barack Obama. Filmed just days after the March 29 Moscow subway bombing, the report emphasizes the financing of terrorism with drug money.

By the end of its first 24 hours online, the Russian "Obama's Opium War" had the third-highest RuTube viewer ranking among news videos for the day. The clip is currently featured on the front page of the Russian Anti-Drug Front's website.

Russian-language blogger Yuri Tsarik also linked to the "Opium War" video on his "Sovereign Development" site, alongside a photo of the LaRouche Youth Movement banner which greeted President Dmitri Medvedev in Argentina: "We Want Russian Support for the LaRouche Plan: Wipe Out the Afghan Opium and Smash the Bankrupt British Empire." The Argentine banner was also clearly visible in yesterday's RIA Novosti video clip of Medvedev's wreath-laying in Buenos Aires.

Also published with Russian voiceover is Lyndon LaRouche's March 13 "Ides of March" webcast keynote.

Russia: Fight Drugs, Rebuild Afghan Economy

April 14 (EIRNS)—At a press conference today following talks in Brussels with the European Parliament's special envoy on drugs Pino Arlacchi, Russia's anti-drug agency chief Victor Ivanov said that the war on drugs must be waged ruthlessly, but so must be the effort to rebuild the economy of Afghanistan. Russia, Ivanov said, is ready to assist in rebuilding 142 economic facilities, built by Soviet specialists in Afghanistan. Among them is the Jalalabad irrigation system, the Naglu hydroelectric plant, the Mazar-e-Sharif mineral fertilizer plant, and the Salang Tunnel.

"We are ready to invest in rebuilding these objects and, of course, we hope that NATO, which has specifically undertaken to maintain security in Afghanistan, will guarantee this for us," Ivanov said. According to Russian expert estimates, the facilities built with Russian support in 1952-1988 accounted for more than 60% of Afghanistan's GDP in 1970-1980.

Kyrgyzstan's Instability: Potential British Geopolitical Tool

April 14 (EIRNS)—One week after an uprising ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev from this Central Asian nation, Kyrgyzstan remains extremely unstable, with a political stand-off between the former President, and the new government. On April 13, at a speech at the Brookings Institution, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev declared that that nation "is on the verge of civil war," warning that such a war would "immediately attract terrorists and extremists of all kinds because, in the course of such conflicts, the best possible conditions are created for radical movements." (Days later, Bakiyev fled the country to Kazakhstan, then Belarus.)

In pursuit of short-term stabilization, Russia has given $50 million to the small nation; $20 million as a grant, and $30 million as a concessionary loan. Apparently, Bakiyev had left the state cashless.

In fact, failure to resolve the crisis would open the field for Wahhabite-British terrorists centered in the area, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, for one, to move in. This would represent a serious security threat not only to Russia, but to China as well.

Polish Government, Church Leaders Speak on Russian Relations

April 18—"I don't know whether there will be a political breakthrough, because we have many opposing interests with Russia. But we already have an emotional breakthrough. And that is already a great deal," Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on the radio April 12. "I must emphasize that the Russian side is behaving with extraordinary openness. And even more, with Slavic openness and kindness," he was quoted in the New York Times.

Some officials in the Obama Administration are referring to the "genius" of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's comportment after the plane crash in Russia which killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others, as having defused what would otherwise have been a destabilizing crisis.

At Kaczynski's funeral in Krakow on April 18, Archbishop of Krakow Stanislaw Dziwisz, who was the late Pope John Paul II (Woytila)'s closest personal aide for many years, also took up the theme of reconciliation. Turning to President Dmitri Medvedev, one of the few foreign leaders able to attend the funeral, despite the disruption of air travel in Europe, Dziwisz said:

"70 years ago, Katyn [the execution of Polish officers by Soviet police in 1940—ed.] separated our two peoples, and the cover-up of the truth about the blood innocently spilled prevented the wounds from healing. The tragedy of eight days ago set loose manifestations of the goodness, which is inherent in peoples and nations. The sympathy and help we have received from Russian brothers in these days are bringing a rebirth of hope for a rapprochement and reconciliation of our two Slavic peoples. I address these words to the President of Russia."

Chubais To Host American Venture Capitalists

April 25 (EIRNS)—Anatoli Chubais, veteran of the 1990s looting of Russia, and one of the primary British agents whom Lyndon LaRouche has identified as wrecking that country's economic policy, has invited a team of 20 leading venture fund directors from the United States to visit Russia, along with State Department representatives, from May 25 to 27. The announced purpose of the trip is to "provide the delegates with an opportunity to learn about Russia and its growing investment potential in the high technology and nanotechnology fields," according to a press release from Rusnano, the state nanotechnologies corporation that Chubais heads.

Since being appointed by President Medvedev to head Rusnano in 2008, Chubais has used his position to pose nanotech and IT as the top priority for Russian science, rather than the infrastructure and basic science policies advocated by sane members of the Russian government, and promoted by LaRouche as critical for the survival of Russia and mutual benefit of all mankind. Chubais has been committed for over two decades to shifting Russian to a "post-industrial" economy, as he put it in a 1990 paper delivered at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). For him and his allies, "commercialization" of IT inventions is everything.

During a recent meeting to brief Prime Minister Putin on the work of Rosnano, Chubais talked almost exclusively about solar batteries as a technology Russia could develop and find a market niche for. Putin warned Chubais not to forget about technologies which Russia badly needs, including new types of materials and productive machinery.

Chubais ally Arkadi Dvorkovich, the Kremlin economics adviser who was the subject of LaRouche's briefing on "The Case of Arkadi V. Dvorkovich" (see InDepth this week), issued yesterday, told U.S. audiences in Washington and California earlier this month, that his top priority is to attract foreign "venture capital and private equity funds" into Russia to back IT and related start-up companies.

The Rosnano release states: "During the three days of the trip, the delegates will have a unique chance to meet the movers and shakers of the Russian technology markets, including government officials, members of the Russian business elite, famous hi-tech entrepreneurs, major law firms and investment banks, technology executives, and local investors. The delegates will also have a great opportunity to explore the emerging scene of the Russian start-ups and learn about the established technology companies with high-growth potential."

Ukraine Trades Uranium Enrichment for Nuclear Cooperation

April 12 (EIRNS)—In a joint statement today issued with President Obama, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych committed Ukraine to giving up all of its highly enriched uranium by the time of the next nuclear summit in 2012, and to utilize thereafter only low-enriched uranium for its nuclear energy program. While this measure plays into Obama's flaky nuclear summit confab now going on in Washington, the joint statement also commits the two parties to "explore ways to strengthen cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, further nuclear cooperation, including development of Ukrainian nuclear research capabilities, and efforts to diversify Ukraine's nuclear power industry's fuel supply, in accordance with the 123 Agreement between the United States and Ukraine." The 123 Agreement with Ukraine was negotiated under President Clinton and allowed the transfer of nuclear technologies from the U.S. to Ukraine.

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