HUMAN RIGHTS INFORMATION AGENCY "EXPRESS-CHRONICLE"

ENGLISH WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST

15 June 1997

MOSCOW (E-C) A round-table on 'International relations and the problem of national security of the Russian Federation' was held on 9 June by the State Duma Committee for the Affairs of Nationalities and Federalism, and by the International Foundation for the Spiritual Unity of the Russian People's Centre for Research on National Relations. Participants in the proceedings included Vladimir Zorin (chairman of the State Duma Committee for National Affairs), Makhmud Gareyev (President of the Academy of Military Sciences), Georgi Trapeznikov (president of the Foundation of Spiritual Unity of Russian Peoples) and his vice-president Alfred Gaponenko.

Makhmud Gareyev declared that today one should pay special attention to 'an array of legislative acts for the rehabilitation of repressed and violently deported peoples: the Crimean Tatars, Russian Germans, Turks etc.'

There was also a discussion of the current state of the Russian army. Gaponenko and Trapeznikov contended that at present the church is exerting a pernicious influence upon the army. According to them, 24-26% of Russian conscripts are natives of other republics and that the 'universal Christianisation' [of the army] is intensifying religious discord between them. Gaponenko and Trapeznikov blamed the church for 'dedovshchina' in the army.