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Siberian miners have been on strike since last week. Many of them are still working at their jobs - in this context, "strike" means they blockade railroads in their free time. A commission, headed by Deputy Fuel and Energy Minister Igor Kozhukovsky, came to the Kemorovo region to talk with the strikers, but they refused to see the delegation. Trains along the Trans-Siberian railroad are being blocked while the strike continues. They can use alternative lines, but that still results in delays.
Guess why these people are on strike? They haven't been paid. Some of the utility workers haven't been paid at all in 1998. Deja Vu, or Crisis As Usual... Lev Rokhlin, chair of the Duma Defense Committee, outspoken opponent of President Boris Yeltsin's proposals to downsize and professionalize the military and leader of the Movement to Support the Army, was shot dead in his dacha (country house) on July 3. His wife, Tamara, has - according to authorities - admitted killing him, presumably in the heat of passion. It may not be irrelevant that Tamara may have had drinking problems and clinical depression. Phil Hartman in Moscow? Not if you believe Rokhlin's daughter Elena, her husband Sergei and certain high-ranking politicians. Elena and Sergei are simply saying that Tamara is innocent and that she was pressured by authorities to confess. However, Communist deputy Victor Ilyukhin - who has since succeeded Rokhlin as leader of the above-mentioned movement - has accused "certain forces" in Yeltsin's administration of killing Rokhlin for his opposition to Yeltsin's reforms, and warned that political violence would lead to civil war. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, conspiracy theorist extraordinaire, alleged that Rokhlin was killed because he "knew too much about Chechnya". (Rokhlin had been part of the leadership in the Russian Army in Chechnya during the Chechen War.) Yeltsin, to deflect these accusations, has promised a complete and open investigation. Meanwhile, the Defense Ministry's central forensics laboratory has performed an autopsy on Rokhlin, but the results have not (yet?) been publicly disclosed. The (US) White House has announced that US President Bill Clinton will meet with Yeltsin in Moscow sometime in September, despite the fact that START-2 has not been ratified by the Duma and is unlikely to be by then. The original plan was for a summit to be held once START-2 had been ratified, to make plans for START-3. However, the White House has now said that they can discuss START-3 while START-2 is still in the pipeline.
The copyright of the article News From Everywhere in Russian Politics is owned by Jeffrey Deutsch. Permission to republish News From Everywhere in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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