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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: George Papadopoulos who wrote (15673)	1/3/2000 8:03:00 PM
From: Tom Clarke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

Why Yeltsin resigned, posted on another thread: Gates: Yeltsin decision prompted by deal from Putin Friday, 31 December 1999 22:53 (GMT) Subject: Gates: Yeltsin decision prompted by deal from Putin Date: Friday, December 31, 1999 10:54:28 PM EST Message-ID: Gates: Yeltsin decision prompted by deal from Putin By LEE MICHAEL KATZ, UPI International Editor WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Russian president Boris Yeltsin's decision to step down on Friday was prompted at least in part by a deal with his hand-picked successor Vladimir Putin that protects him against prosecution for corruption, according to ex-CIA Director Robert Gates. Gates told United Press International that a significant factor in Yeltsin's surprise decision to leave office six months before his term ends is a belief that his former Prime Minister Putin would provide political "protection" for both Yeltsin and his family from any legal prosecution on corruption charges. Putin on Friday issued a decree that appears to grant Yeltsin blanket immunity against "criminal" and "administrative" charges. Although Yeltsin has long been plagued by health problems and declining political popularity, Gates cited the Russian president's fear that "somebody could send him to jail" as a reason for his resignation. Yeltsin's decision to give up the presidency leaves the politically popular Putin as the favorite candidate to win the presidency in an election that has now been moved up to just 90 days away. "One of the factors is clearly wanting protection from Putin against prosecution and not just for him," Gates said in the interview. That would include not only Yeltsin, Gates pointed out, but "his family" as well. Yeltsin's family has reportedly been linked to probes into allegations of malfeasance in the Bank of New York money-laundering scandal. The ongoing investigation involves charges that up to billions of dollars may have been illegally spirited out of Russia and laundered through Western banks. "I think he has been very worried...of possible persecution of himself and members of his family for corruption," Gates said. There has been no legal action that conclusively links Yeltsin to the scandal. Both Russian officials and the U.S. Justice Department and F.B.I. are investigating the Russian money-laundering scandal. Yeltsin's wife, daughters and a son-in-law have all been cited as persons are receiving scrutiny in the probe. And Swiss officials also reportedly have been investigating charges that Yeltsin and his family could be linked to the money-laundering scandal. At least in Russia, Putin's decree was clearly designed to absolve Yeltsin of any possible prosecution. The announcement evoked reminiscences of Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon after Nixon resigned in the face of the Watergate scandal, even though Yeltsin was not in any seeming immediate political danger. But the specificity of Putin's decree suggests how worried Yeltsin might have been about the possibility of prosecution. It also may shed light on the guarantees that Yeltsin sought before deciding to leave office. According to the Itar-Tass news agency, buried in the midst of Putin's decree that offered Yeltsin a pension, country house and car for service to Russia, the ex-president was given other "guarantees" that would protect him from prosecution. "The former president enjoys the immunity and cannot be brought to criminal or administrative responsibility, detained, arrested, searched or interrogated," Putin's decree said. The decree even went into legalistic detail about Yeltsin's protection from the law. "The immunity shall be valid for his apartment, office, vehicles, communication means, documents, baggage and correspondence." But given the uncertain political atmosphere in Russia, Putin's decree could be overturned "in a heartbeat" by his successors, Gates said. "Easy come, easy go," said Gates, who capped a long Central Intelligence Agency career by serving as the spy agency's director during the Bush administration that ended in 1993. "The law is flexible in Russia," Gates noted, adding that the Russians "have certainly a history of going after" deposed leaders. Russia has only been a formal democracy since the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union and the road to democracy has been tinged with allegations of financial corruption involving government and major Russian businesses and financial tycoons. Until Friday, Yeltsin had been Russia's only president under eight years of a democratic system. In his farewell address on Friday, he asked Russians for "forgiveness" for the economic hardships endured in the jarring attempt to turn Russia from a communist to a capitalist system. "Many of our hopes have not come true, because what we thought would be easy has turned out to be painfully difficult," Yeltsin declared. "I ask to forgive me for not fulfilling some hopes of those people who believed that we would be able to jump from the gray, stagnating, totalitarian past into a bright, rich and civilized future in one go." The pervasiveness of financial corruption in Russia has complicated the staunch U.S. support of Yeltsin's administration in recent years. Clinton administration officials have long cited the fact that Yeltsin was Russia's first and only democratically elected president. But for President Clinton, the money-laundering issue clearly has clouded a U.S.-Russia relationship already strained by foreign policy differences in recent months. In fact, during his Clinton's first meeting with Russia's then-Prime Minister Putin in September, Clinton stressed the dangers posed by the money-laundering scandal. In that initial meeting, Clinton warned Putin that financial corruption "could eat the heart out of Russian society." vny.com

To: George Papadopoulos who wrote (15673)	1/3/2000 9:18:00 PM
From: cody andre	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

The British Army is so short of volunteers that it has started recruiting young convicts in prison...

To: George Papadopoulos who wrote (15673)	1/5/2000 10:55:00 AM
From: John Lacelle	Respond to of 17770

George, I am surprised that it took so long for everyone to figure out that this Balkan situation was a fiasco. We either baby-sit these morons for the next 50 years or pull out and let em slaughter each other... There was a great article in the New York Times Magazine a few weeks back. The author wanted to find the answers behind the blood feuds that occur daily in the Balkans. The author went to Albania to study the situation. Basically it is clan warfare with no end in sight for these different ethic groups in Albania. He said there are constant unsolved murders all over Albania that result from clan warfare dating back centuries. It will never end. This whole Balkan intervention will end in disaster. I just hope that Clinton takes the blame for once with his pathetic foreign policy. -John