Center for Civil Society International ([email protected])
Fri, 14 Mar 1997 10:38:49 -0800 (PST)
CCSI presents excerpts from the Agency for Social Information (ASI) e-mail
information bulletin. Translated from Russian by CCSI volunteer Tom
Sorenson, J.D., Ph.D., Edmonds, Washington, USA. For more information on
how to receive ASI's bulletin regularly, contact:
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AGENTSTVO SOTSIALNOI INFORMATSII
Kutuzovskyi pr. 22 pod. 14a,
Moscow, 121151
Tel./fax: (095) 249-3989
E-mail: [email protected]
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N 8 (117)
21-27 February 1997
In this issue:
I. On February 27 Suit was Filed in the Supreme Court to Have Government
Documents Concerning the Construction of the Moscow-St. Petersburg
High Speed Railway Declared Void
II. In 1997 Nongovernmental Organizations in St. Petersburg Will Receive
More Than One Million Dollars from the City Budget
III. Work Has Begun on a New Master Plan for St. Petersburg
IV. An Affiliate of the Moscow Center "Compassion" is Created in Ekaterinburg
I
On February 27 Suit was Filed in the Supreme Court to Have
Government Documents Concerning the Construction of
the Moscow-St. Petersburg High Speed Railway Declared Void
350 citizens from several regions of the country and more than 30
organizations filed the suit to have two Presidential decrees and two
governmental resolutions concerning the construction and financing of the
Moscow-St. Petersburg high speed railway declared void. They included
the All-Russian Nature Preservation Society, the Valdaiskii national park,
the Russian Green Party, the Union for the Preservation of the Birds of
Russia, the Socio-Ecological Union, the Women's Environmental Assembly,
the Botanical Garden of Moscow State University, the Environmental
Politics Center of Russia, and many others. One of the plaintiffs is
Tamara Zlotnikova, the chairperson of the environment committee of the
State Duma. This time, however, she is acting as a private citizen of
the Russian Federation because her official position would not help her in
the struggle against this project.
"Ecojuris" initiated this unusual legal action. Its staff will represent
society's interests in the judicial process. In their opinion, filing
this suit is "an unprecedented, mass attempt by the citizens of Russia to
defend their rights in the Supreme Court. Further developments will be
reported in future editions of ASI.
Telephone: 921-5174
II
In 1997 Nongovernmental Organizations in St. Petersburg
Will Receive More Than One Million Dollars from the City Budget
On December 25, information was published on the use of that portion of
the reserve fund of the city budget that is distributed by the deputies of
the Legislative Assembly. The reserve fund amounts to three percent of
the total city budget. Of this three percent, one percent is distributed
by the Governor, and the 49 deputies of the Legislative Assembly
distribute two percent. Thus, each of them can dispose of an imposing sum
equal to approximately $800,000 (US).
The deputies direct a significant portion of these resources toward social
needs (repair of schools, guaranteeing social security, support of medical
institutions, and the acquisition of medications for socially vulnerable
portions of the population). It is a remarkable fact that $1,128,000 from
the reserve fund will be given to social organizations. Nongovernmental
organizations dating back to the Soviet period received the greatest sums
(the All-Russian Society of the Deaf, the Russian Children's Fund, and
others).
The telephone number of the press center of the Legislative Assembly of
St. Petersburg is (812) 314-9360.
III
Work Has Begun on a New Master Plan for St. Petersburg
Since November, 1996, an office for the development of a St. Petersburg
Master Plan has been working at the International Socio-Economic Research
Center.
It was noted at a city-wide conference, in which representatives of the
St. Petersburg administration, of the government of Leningradskii oblast,
deputies from the city's Legislative Assembly and the State Duma as well
as representatives of business, scientific, and social organizations took
part, that the master plan will permit governmental, commercial, and
social institutions, through their common efforts, to create a single plan
for the development of the city and to receive a $330,000,000 loan from
the World Bank for the reconstruction of the center of the city.
Residents of the city will participate in the development of the plan. In
early March special questionnaires will be published in the city
newspapers.
Telephone: (812) 316-6246, 311-5454.
IV
An Affiliate of the Moscow Center "Compassion"
is Created in Ekaterinburg
Eduard Kraiukhin, the director of the Moscow center "Compassion" went to
Ekaterinburg for discussions on organizing work on a program of medical
and sanitarium assistance to aged victims of the Gulag.
The idea of developing such a program in Sverdlovsk oblast did not arise
by coincidence. In the Urals, and in Ekaterinburg in particular, there
are a large number of victims of repression. They include many sick and
isolated people, for whom the state social security departments cannot
provide the necessary help due to a lack of resources. Therefore, the
Ekaterinburg society "Memorial" together with the leadership of the World
War II [Great Patriotic War] veterans' hospital proposed developing a
program of providing these people with supplemental assistance.
The proposal is to open an affiliate of the Moscow center "Compassion" and
to model its work on that done in the capital. In particular, the
creation of a group of medical specialists to assist solitary veterans by
offering necessary medical consultation, and a group of visiting nurses
to provide basic home help to the sick people is planned. It is
anticipated that all of the center's work will be coordinated through a
dispatcher.
Agreement in principle to carry out the project has already been reached.
In the first stage the residents of Ekaterinburg will be helped by workers
from the capital's Compassion center. Similar affiliates are planned for
the future in Perm, Tomsk, and other cities with the participation of
local human rights and charitable organizations.
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