TEN Index

June 16-30, 1996, Vol. 2, No. 12 

Transboundary News

TALLINN-MOSCOW - HOLDERS OF FORMER SOVIET PASSPORTS IN ESTONIA will be allowed to continue to use their "red passports" as an official document after July 12 and until an alien's passport is issued, director general of Citizenship and Immigration Board Andres Kollist announced. Non-citizens in Estonia have been worried as the July 12 deadline approaches because thousands are still waiting to receive residency permits and alien's passports. Many non-citizens had feared that they could not take part in local municipalities elections this autumn without the new alien passports. The "red passports" nevertheless are no longer valid for crossing the Estonian border after July 12. (ETA, 21 June)

RIGA-STOCKHOLM-TALLINN - ESTONIA AND LATVIA HAVE INITIALLED AN AGREEMENT ON THEIR SEA BORDER in Stockholm. The first breakthrough in the sea border row between Estonia and Latvia came on May 12 when prime ministers Tiit Vahi and Andris Skele reached a preliminary agreement. The agreement ends the so- called "herring war" which has been sizzling between the countries which set retaliatory quotas for fish catches. Estonia has claimed that Latvian ships were catching fish in its waters after it unilaterally fixed its sea border at 12 miles from the coast. Border negotiations have lasted for three years. The agreement needs to be ratified in each nation's parliaments before August 1. (ETA, 28 June)

HELSINKI-TALLINN -- ESTONIAN-FINNISH NEGOTIATIONS ON SEA BORDER ISSUES HAVE ENDED in Tallinn with both parties having reached an agreement on the general text of the future border agreement. Yet technicalities remain to be solved and it has yet to be determined on which level the agreement is to be signed. The next step is for Estonia, Finland, and Russia to convene at the negotiation table in order that issues connected with the point where the sea border touches all three states be resolved. The representatives of the three states have started with unofficial meetings on these issues already. Estonia until now has respected earlier sea border agreements between Finland and the Soviet Union. (ETA, 19 June)

RIGA-TALLINN-VILNIUS -- THE BALTIC TRANSIT AGREEMENT HAS BEEN LAUNCHED SUCCESSFULLY, according to Estonian officials. The agreement went into force on June 12. In the first five days, customs officials had discovered only twelve attempts of customs fraud, where goods left a state with one set of documents and arrived at another state with a new set. The Baltic transit agreement states that a customs declaration from any of the other Baltic states is valid in any three of the states. (ETA, June 17)

TALLINN-MOSCOW -- COUNCIL OF EUROPE MEMBERS HAVE DEMANDED THAT RUSSIA meet commitments given on accession to the council, including abandoning Russian visa policy which has deprived several Council of Europe representatives of the Baltic states from obtaining a visa to travel to Russia. Estonian delegate Tunne Kelam said that the refusal of Russia to grant visas "had opened the eyes" of the representatives of several countries. The Parliamentary Assembly has compiled two draft resolutions concerning visa problems. Russia has not given visas to Estonian Council representatives on three occasions. (ETA, 28 June)

BUSKOVSKAIA BORDER STATION, RUSSIA -- THE NEW BORDER STATION HAS BEEN OFFICIALLY PRESENTED to Russian border police by the Finnish construction firm Skanska. Rail travel across this border will begin already on July 25, and not on August 1, as originally planned. The Finnish builders were able to complete the station ahead of time. Rail travel capacity across this border point will increase by forty percent as a result of the new station. (Vecher. Peterburg, 18 June)

Environmental News

MOSCOW -- A NATIONAL LAND CODE WAS STRUCK DOWN by the Federal Assembly even after its acceptance on May 22 by the Russian Duma, Russia's lower legislative assembly. Representatives of the conservative Agrarian Party in the Duma had sought to limit the transfer of kolkhoz land into private property and the Federal Assembly sought to approve a land code with more farther-reaching transfers of land into private property. President Yeltsin in recent months has passed a number of decrees which provide for the transfer of former kolkhoz land into private property. Mr. Yeltsin also disapproved of the Duma's version of the Land Code, which contradicts many points in Yeltsin's decrees. (SPb Vedomosti and Smena, 27 June)

ST. PETERSBURG -- TIMBER CUTTING IN THE TRANSBORDER REGION of Finland and Russia has attracted increased public attention in the city. It was recently discussed by environmental experts once again at the Russian-American Press Center. The "green belt" of old growth forest which lies between Finland and Russia is now under threat of being eliminated by both Finnish and Russian timber firms. A decree from Prime Minister Victor Chernomydrin last fall permitting cutting within the border zone in quantities exceeding accepted amounts. Representatives from Greenpeace Russia, the Social-Ecological Union, and the Biodiversity Center participated in the recent presentation. (Chas Pik, 19 June, and Smena, 20 June)

SEVEROMORSK, RUSSIA -- LAKE OLEN'E HAS BEEN ALMOST ENTIRELY COVERED WITH A LAYER OF KEROSINE about one-centimeter thick. About 16,000 square meters of the lake and twice as large in an adjacent marsh have been covered. The spill came as the result of a leak in a kerosine pipeline which passes through the area. The pipeline belongs to the Northern Navy. The naval officers in the area at first hid the spill from local authorities. (Smena, 22 June)

ST. PETERSBURG -- AN EMERGENCY PLAN FOR THE LIQUIDATION of accidental oil spills on the Neva River has been designed and was recently tested in practice by the firm Spetstrans. A training exercise was held on June 28 on the river. Containment booms were tested and two oil-filtering ships cleaned the imitation oil from the surface of the river. It was the first time in 25 years that such a training exercise has taken place on the Neva River, according to participants in the exercise. (Nevskoe Vremiia, 29 June)

TALLINN -- FINLAND WILL SUPPORT WATER PURIFICATION AND WASTE PROCESSING in Estonia's resort town of Parnu. Finnish Environment Ministry will allocate 5.5 million Finnish marks toward the development of water and sewage systems. The ministry directed the finances to Seinajoen VI-Tekniikka Oy, which already produces water purification equipment for Parnu. The act is a part of a small towns environment project started by the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development. The costs of the entire project will amount to 269 million FIM. (ETA, June 19)

ST. PETERSBURG -- WOODEN SEWAGE PIPES which were underground in the city as late as the 1920s have today been entirely replaced with steel pipe. A number of sewage leaks in the city in the past decades has been a result of the rotting oak pipes. The most recent accident took place in April of this year on Ulitsa Sedova. In June the last kilometer of wooden sewage pipes were replaced. The last wooden water tanks in the city are soon to be eliminated. (Chas Pik, 21 June)

Conferences, Events, and Meetings

ST. PETERSBURG -- ALEXANDER NIKITIN'S TRANSFER TO A MILITARY COURT was explained to city journalists by representatives of the Federal Security Service (FSB) on June 18. Those representatives responded to questions over the case which had arisen on the June 5 press conference at the Russian-American Press Center. Topics discussed included the physical conditions of Mr. Nikitin's confinement, restricted access to his own lawyer, and accusations of the Norwegian environmental organization Bellona's goals in the region. Mr. Nikitin has been accused of treason against Russia for revealing military secrets about the Northern Fleet. His case is now to be tried in the fall by a military court. (Smena, 19 June)

TARTU, ESTONIA -- THE SOUTH ESTONIAN TOWN OF TARTU AND FINNISH TOWN OF TURKU have signed a cooperative agreement on education, culture, supplementary education, sports, and economic relations. Cooperation is also to be developed in health care and social insurance. The agreement was signed by Mayor of Tartu Vaina Kull and Mayor of Turku Armas Lahoniitty at Tartu Town Hall. The cooperation of Tartu and Turku has grown out of previous contacts between the towns. The towns' universities have cooperated extensively in the past. Another cooperative agreement is due this year between Tartu and Pskov (Pihkva). (ETA, 28 June)

ST. PETERSBURG -- THE SEMINAR "ELIMINATION OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE COLD WAR" was held on June 22 in order to discuss solutions to the problem of restoring that land which was polluted by the Soviet military. The seminar was organized by the environmental organization "Green Cross" and funded by the Raduga Bank. Green Cross is also organizing a program to restore historical sites in the city, including about 15 forts on city territory. (Chas Pik, 26 June)

HELSINKI -- THE FESTIVAL "DAYS OF ALAND" OPENED in Helsinki on June 17 in celebration of the traditional Aland people who were fishermen and sailors in the region during the last 6,000 years. The new mayor of Helsinki, Eva-Riitta Siitonen opened the festival. A large number of vistors of the festival were from Russia. (SPb Vedomosti, 18 June)

ST. PETERSBURG -- THE PROJECT "REFORM OF PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION IN THE NORTHWEST REGION OF RUSSIA", an international education initiative, was introduced to city residents at a special presentation. Kareliia and five countries, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, and Belgium, are organizing the project. The sponsor of the program is the European Foundation of Education, created in 1995 in Germany. Telecommunications, tours, transportation, and timber processing are to be the four focuses of the project. (Smena, 26 June)

ST. PETERSBURG -- THE DIRECTOR OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL DEPARTMENT OF VODOKANAL, the city water provider and sewage treatment firm, was awarded the international prize "Global 500" by the United Nations. Tatiana Stepanenko was awarded the prize for her department's "leading achievements in the environmental field". Ms. Stepanenko has been responsible for designing a system of measurement and control of industrial waste water which goes into the city sewage system. (SPb Vedomosti, 18 June)

ST. PETERSBURG -- A COMPETITION FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF SOLID WASTE PROCESSING PLANTS has been announced by the city of St. Petersburg. Two different categories exist: for plants which will process 10,000-50,000 tons of waste per year, and plants which will process 200,000-500,000 tons of waste per year. Environmental requirements must be fully met. Foreign firms are invited to participate in the competition. (Delovoi Peterburg, 18 June)

New Facts and Statistics

TALLINN -- RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY REPRESENTATIVES said that the speed of issuing permanent residence permits to Russians in Estonia was lagging behind hopelessly, as just 1,500 of 335,000 applications have been approved by Estonian authorities. Estonian Citizenship and Immigration Board reported on June 26 that 51,262 aliens' passports have been issued, almost 30 per cent of the predicted total. The board said that it has refused to grant residence permits to just 41 people. (ETA, 28 June)

TALLINN -- RUSSIAN CITIZENS IN ESTONIA WHO CAST THEIR BALLOT in Russian presidential elections on June 16 strongly favored the Communist leader Genadi Zyuganov. Russian President Boris Yeltsin, at head in his homeland, stood on the third place. Zyuganov led with 64.9% of the votes, followed by Alexander Lebed with 14.2% percent, and Boris Yeltsin with 12.34%. 12,047 people cast their ballot in Tallinn, 1,700 in Tartu, and 9,302 in Narva. A total of 23,049 people voted in Estonia, as compared to only 9,000 in Latvia. (ETA, 17 June)

ST. PETERSBURG -- COMPLAINTS OF IMPROPER OR ILLEGAL CONDUCT OF RUSSIAN CUSTOMS OFFICERS at Pulkovo Airport can now be registered at the hotline number +7 (812) 104-34-01. (SPb Vedomosti, 20 June)

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