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TT Business Intelligence Report Vol. 1, No. 25, 7 July 2002 Business Intelligence, Crime, Corruption and Debt in Europe and the former Soviet Union  BOSNIA NATO RAIDS KARADIC'S HOUSE An unspecified number of NATO-led peacekeepers entered the home of Radovan Karadzic in Pale in the early hours of 2 July, AP reported. SFOR said in a statement that the house "is suspected of being associated with an illegal smuggling network in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The house is also associated with Radovan Karadzic." His wife, Ljiljana Zelen-Karadzic, said that the raid "is part of constant pressure against the Karadzic family." The family's housekeeper told reporters that about 30 peacekeepers arrived by helicopter shortly before dawn. (RFE/RL 03.vii.02) CROATIA CROATIA AND BULGARIA TO INTENSITFY BILATERAL RELATIONS Co-operation between Croatia and Bulgaria should be strengthened in the economic area and the construction of a road linking Zagreb and Sofia is an idea that the two countries could present jointly to European partners, the presidents of the two countries, Stjepan Mesic and Georgi Prvanov, said in Zagreb on Thursday. President Prvanov arrived in Zagreb on Thursday at the head of a Bulgarian state delegation on an official return visit at the invitation of President Mesic. During the visit President Prvanov will meet Croatian officials to discuss the intensifying of bilateral relations, particularly in the economy, aswell as the situation in the region and rapprochement with the European Union. "We have agreed that there is not a single open question between our two countries. In fact, on the contrary, there is a close co-operation," Mesic told journalists following his talks with Prvanov. "Unfortunately, our co-operation is not sufficient in the economy," Mesic said. Political relations between the two countries "are exceptionally good and dynamic", the Bulgarian president said, adding that there were objective reasons for the mutual dissatisfaction with the level of economic co-operation, primarily underdeveloped infrastructure. Prvanov said it was therefore necessary to enable navigation along the Danube, as well as develop other thoroughfares. (NewsBase 08.vii.02) CZECH REPUBLIC SUPREME COURT REJECTS COMPLAINTS OF JUNE ELECTION IRREGULARITIES The Supreme Court has rejected all 18 complaints about irregularities in the mid-June elections to the Chamber of Deputies or the illegitimacy of the election of some deputies, Judge Karel Hasch said on Thursday. The court did not find any of the complaints justified, he said, adding that it refused to deal with five complaints which were sent to it by the Right Bloc party after the 10-day deadline. One of the last complaints rejected by the Supreme Court was from the Campaign for the Abolition of the Senate and against Embezzlement of Pension Funds, which complained that some regional courts refused to register it before the elections as it failed to pay a 15,000-crown election deposit. The National Democratic Party (NDS) and the Republicans of Miroslav Sladek, on the contrary, complained about the approach of some regional courts which registered the party without election deposits. The Supreme Court said, however, that that was not in contradiction with the election law either. Three parties and 15 citizens lodged complaints with the Supreme Court about the elections. Apart from the five parties that exceeded the 5% threshold of votes required to gain seats in the chamber, the 1.5% barrier entitling parties to state election subsidies was only crossed by two parties, the Association of Independents and the Greens Party. (NewsBase 08.vii.02) POLICE INVESTIGATE BUGGING, HIDDEN CAMERAS AT CZECH TELEVISION Police are investigating the discovery of hidden cameras and microphones at Czech Television studios, CTK reported on 26 June. Czech Television General Director Jiri Balvin admitted he ordered the surveillance, saying the move was necessary in order to investigate suspicion that private work is being done by journalists using the company's equipment. The Czech Television Independent Trade Union protested Balvin's conduct at a 26 June meeting of the Television Council. The unions' chairman, Antonin Dekoj, said the investigation by police was launched after the unions were advised by the Office for Data Protection and by the Prosecutor-General's Office to complain to police. (RFE/RL 28.vi.02) HUNGARY LEADER OF MAIN OPPOSITION PARTY RESIGNS OVER ALLEGATION Following the furore surrounding Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy over his past as counter intelligence officer, Zoltan Pokorni, leader of the main opposition party in parliament Fidesz-Hungarian Civic Party, resigned on Wednesday, two days after a TV programme claimed his father was an informer for the communist secret police for more than 30 years. Pokorni, who said his father confirmed the report Tuesday night admitting that he had worked as an informer from 1956 to 1989, said the first he learned of his father's past was when a Budapest TV station reported on Monday that a high-ranking party official's father had served the communist regime as an informer. Pokorni said he was under no obligation to resign but was doing so to because he needed "time to deal with the emotional strain of learning about his father's past." Pokorni had demanded that Medgyessy step down because he had worked for the communist counter-espionage service in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Pokorni said on Wednesday he believed those who tipped off the television station about his father were trying to blackmail him to withdrawing his demand for Medgyessy's resignation. Medgyessy told reporters that Pokorni had not lost his right to a place in Hungarian political life. "We should concentrate on the future and close the past," Medgyessy said. "We need peace in Hungary, not the proliferation of family tragedies." (NewsBase 05.vii.02) PREMIER THREATENS TO SUE 'MAGYAR NEMZET' OVER NEW ALLEGATION Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy said on 19 June that he intends to sue the daily "Magyar Nemzet" over yet another document it published on 19 June, which he claimed is "a forgery," Hungarian media and Reuters reported. The document was published on the front page, and "Magyar Hirlap" presented it as a 1976 list compiled by Medgyessy of people employed by the Finance Ministry and two other state-finance institutions suspected of being likely to engage in counterrevolutionary activities. Medgyessy said he received a copy of the document by fax a few months ago, adding that it was sent to him by a FIDESZ deputy who also asserted it was a forgery. "Those to whom nothing is dear, who forged the document and spread libels, should be ashamed of themselves," Medgyessy told the parliament. (RFE/RL 28.vi.02) KAZAKHSTAN KAZAKH OPPOSITION JOURNALIST'S DAUGHTER MURDERED? The daughter of Lira Baysetova, an editor with the Kazakh opposition newspaper "Respublika," has died in suspicious circumstances after disappearing on 23 May, according to a Reporters Sans Frontieres press release of 2 July. Baysetova, who in May published an interview with Geneva prosecutor Bernard Bertossa about rumored secret Swiss bank accounts belonging to President Nursultan Nazarbaev and members of his family, was informed on 16 June that her daughter had been arrested for possession of drugs and hospitalized. She was not allowed to visit her daughter, of whose death she was informed on 21 June. Her daughter's body reportedly bore marks of torture. (RFE/RL 03.vii.02) KAZAKH, GREEK PRESIDENTS DISCUSS ECONOMIC TIES, OIL-EXPORT PIPELINE Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev met with his visiting Greek counterpart Konstantinos Stephanopoulos in Almaty on 26 June to discuss the potential for expanding trade and economic ties between the two countries, Russian news agencies reported. Stephanopoulos expressed support for Kazakhstan's bid to join the World Trade Organization. The two presidents paid particular attention to the possibility of Kazakhstan joining the Russian-Bulgarian-Greek consortium formed to build an oil-export pipeline from the Black Sea port of Burgas in Bulgaria to the Greek port of Aleksandropoulis. That pipeline will have an annual throughput capacity of 35-45 million tons. Nazarbaev said his country will need additional export-pipeline capacity in the near future, but would join that consortium only as an equal member, and only if the tariffs for using that pipeline proved "competitive," Interfax reported. The two sides signed several intergovernmental agreements, including on mutual protection of investments, tourism, transportation and cargos, and trade and cultural relations. (RFE/RL 27.vi.02) LATVIA BALTIC PRESIDENTS MEET US SENITORS TO DISCUSS NATO MEMBERSHIP The three Baltic Presidents Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Arnold Rüütel, Valdas Adamkus met with US Senators Trent Lott, Benjamin Nelson, Craig Thomas, Jim Bunning, and Robert Bennett and the USA Permanent Representative to NATO, R.Nicholas Burns, and Presidential Assistant for Legislative Affairs Nicholas, E. Calio, ahead of Friday's two-day conference of nations aspiring to NATO membership. Since its creation in May 2000 the Vilnius group of NATO candidate countries; Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, joined in May 2001 by Croatia, has successfully co-operated by organising high-level meetings on a regular basis. The Vilnius group Summit will see leaders of the Vilnius group and NATO countries gather to discuss and initiate the last stage of the NATO enlargement process before the NATO 2002 Prague Summit. (NewsBase 08.vii.02) RUSSIA INGEOKOM KRK ACCUSED OF EMBEZZLING FUNDS A criminal case has been opened against the management team of the INGEOKOM KRK company, which was building a mall on the Kursk railway terminal square in Moscow, on charges of embezzling funds. The case was instigated after a probe revealed that the French BOUYGUES BATIMENT company, a contractor for the construction project, overstated the cost of construction work. This led to the overspending of budgetary funds by $43.2 million. (NewsBase 08.vii.02) CIVIL WAR TOPS LIST OF FEARS Unlikely as it may seem, fear of civil war was the greatest among the nation's threats, cited by 57.4 percent Russian citizens, in a poll conducted by the Institute of Complex Social Studies in Moscow, reports the "Jamestown Foundation Russia and Eurasia Review." They also feared a reduction in quality of personal life (47.1 percent, despite the growth of the economy), and the mafia (33.3 percent). Relative stabilization and even some improvement in the social and economic environment have apparently not given the citizens of Russia any greater feeling of safety or assurance. Andrei Kolganov, senior research at Moscow State University, said that after civil war and crime, public concerns, expressed as percentages, were as follows: polarization of society (30.4), the potential break-up of Russia (23.1), environmental problems (17.9), growing foreign influence in Russia (16.7), long-drawn-out reforms (14.0), cultural deterioration (13.0), transition to a dictatorship (12.7), and increasing numbers of refugees and homeless people (6.8). Putin's top priorities, the polls say, are ending the war in Chechnya (56.9 percent) and dealing with poverty (53.6 percent). Apart from these, they also list: stamping out corruption among authorities (41.9), imposing order on the authorities (29.5), and limiting the influence of the oligarchs (22.7). When asked what type of government best serves the country, Russians answered differently in polls from 1994 and 2001: fully centralized management of the economy and price control (15.5 in 1994 and 18.2 in 2001), minimum interference in the economy and maximum freedom for the private sector (12.5 and 8.0), a state economic sector and increased private economic and political opportunities (39.5 and 37.2)0, a leader with total responsibility who conducts a decisive economic policy (20.8 and 23.2), and don't know (11.7 and 13.4). (RFE/RL 03.vii.02) YUKOS HEAD ACKNOWLEDGES WEALTH Mikhail Khodorkovskii, head of Yukos oil company, has acknowledged that he is the owner of a 36.3 percent stake in the company worth approximately $7 billion, "The Times" of London reported on 23 June. Khodorkovskii made the information public in order to comply with U.S. disclosure requirements, a prerequisite for listing Yukos on the New York Stock Exchange. Khodorkovskii's decision may encourage other business members to come forward with similar revelations. If such information is made public on a more regular basis, Russia's attractiveness as a destination of foreign investment could increase. In the past, members of the Russian business community have kept their financial information quiet for a variety of reasons, including to avoid oversight, taxes, kidnappings, and other forms of violence. (RFE/RL 02.vii.02) RUSSIA LOSES MILLIONS FROM COPYRIGHT PIRACY Russia's efforts to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) are in part being hampered by the country's growing copyright violations. In 2001, Russia lost an estimated $849 million due to piracy of films, music, and video games, Reuters reported on 28 June. The pirated goods, which are sold in stores, metro stations, and markets throughout Russia, are often the products of organized crime. Following a visit to Moscow, Universal Music International President and Chief Operating Officer John Kennedy commented, "I can't think of any other crime [whose product] is available openly at a market in the city center without the authorities doing anything about it," Reuters reported. Laws to protect against piracy in Russia are weak and rarely enforced. According to Microsoft representative Yevgenii Danilov, "Active steps have to be taken by the state to draw up laws and make these laws work," Reuters reported. Jason Berman, chairman and CEO of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) agreed. According to Berman, if Russia is serious about joining the WTO "it will have to make changes to its laws and to the way its laws are enforced." (RFE/RL 02.vii.02) STATE DUMA PASSES LAW ON STATUS OF FOREIGNERS Deputies on 21 June adopted in its third reading a law governing the status of foreigners in Russia, RosBalt reported the same day. The lawregulates the status of all foreigners living and conducting business within the Russian Federation. It forbids foreigners from moving or traveling outside the regions they have permission to visit without first receiving state permission. It permits the government to establish a list of places that foreigners must obtain special permission to visit, and it authorizes the government to create and maintain a database of foreigners living in the country. (RFE/RL 27.vi.02) COURT ACQUITS SUSPECTS IN JOURNALIST'S MURDER A Moscow district military court on 26 June completely exonerated Colonel Pavel Popovskikh, a unit commander in the Russian Airborne Troops, and five of his comrades who had been accused of the 1994 murder of "Moskovskii komsomolets" journalist Dmitrii Kholodov, Russian and Western news agencies reported. Kholodov died on 17 November 1994 after opening a booby-trapped briefcase that he believed contained documents relating to malfeasance in the Defense Ministry. According to the prosecution, Popovskikh and the other defendants prepared the booby trap with the encouragement of former Defense Minister Pavel Grachev. The court ruled that prosecutor Irina Aleshina failed "to present proof of the defendants' guilt or to assemble such proof during the court hearings." Aleshina and Kholodov's relatives have said that they will appeal the verdict. (RFE/RL 27.vi.02) YUGOSLAVIA MAJORITY OF SERBS SUPPORT EU ACCESSION A poll released by research firm Strategic Marketing showed that a majority of the Serbian public supports accession to the EU, Belgrade's radio B92 reported. Sixty-seven percent of those polled would vote yes if a referendum on the issue were held today. The research showed a dramatic lack of understanding of the EU among citizens, who cited the most important rights of EU citizens as the right to work, travel and quality education. The Serbian public also showed expectations of a rapid accession process, and gave the most credit for progress in the process to PM Zoran Djindjic,closely followed by Yugoslav Deputy PM and potential presidential candidate Miroljub Labus. (NewsBase 08.vii.02) INFORMATION PROVIDERS NEWSBASE NewsBase is a leading provider of business and economic news and intelligence from Russia, Central Europe and the FSU. Daily bulletins and industry specific weekly reports backed by an archive containing over 10 million words combine to provide a comprehensive service to a global blue chip client base. Contact: Duncan Cunningham T: +44 (0)131 478 8535 F: +44 (0)131 478 7001 E: [email protected] W: www.newsbase.com, www.newsbaseworldmonitoring.com NEW WORLD PUBLISHING New World Publishing is a primary source of business-related information for Central Europe, through its publications the Prague, Budapest andWarsaw Business Journals. Contact: Mark Child T: +420 2 4608 6524 F: +420 2 4608 6501 E: [email protected] W: www.ceebiz.com, www.pbj.cz, www.wbj.pl, www.bbj.hu RADIO FREE EUROPE / RADIO LIBERTY Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a private, international communications service to Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe; theCaucasus; and Central and Southwestern Asia funded by the U.S. Congress through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. Contact: Peter Baumgartner T: +420 (0)2 2112 2039 F: +420 (0)2 2112 2012 E: [email protected] W: www.rferl.org EVENTS NEW WORLD PUBLISHING - Prague Business Journal Business Breakfast with Esther Dyson Date: Thursday, August 22, 2002 Location: Hotel Andel's, Stroupeznického 21, Prague 5, Czech Republic This is a special invitation to interact with the world's foremost Information Technology guru, and to discuss Central Europe's IT industry and how its needs are being met by local venture and human capital providers, entrepreneurs, corporate investors and the government. Further details about this event can be found at: www.pbj.cz/events/edbb.htm TEMPLETON THORP T +44 (0)20 7520 9380 F +44 (0)20 7504 8180 E [email protected] W www.templetonthorp.com |
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