MOSCOW, Aug 18 (Interfax) -- Duma Defense Committee Chairman Lev Rokhlin told a news conference in Moscow Monday [18 August] the prospects for Russian-Chechen relations are unfavorable.

He said the Russian political leadership "will inevitably resort to pressure on Chechnya to prevent its separation from Russia." "Chechnya's separation from the Russian Federation will lead to the federation's breakup," he said.

Rokhlin, a retired general, said attempts of economic pressure on Chechnya will result in a Chechen attempt to organize "a major act of sabotage in a neighboring republic." All this will inevitably spread hostilities to the neighboring areas.

Rokhlin said the Russian leadership should adopt the same policy as the U.S. president, who imposes economic embargos on certain countries, such as Iraq and Cuba.

He said attempts are being made in circumvention of the Duma and to the detriment of Russian interests to destroy means of nuclear deterrence.

Rokhlin said some 150 submarines are slated to be cut for scrap in the near future, some of them with titanium hulls which have a potential service life of up to 150 years.

He said in the future China may pose a threat to Russia. He forecast that due to its high population growth rate that country will "explode" in about 20 years.

Former Defense Minister Igor Rodionov told the same news conference that the Russian armed forces do not exist as a single government institution. He claimed there is no concrete plan for army reform at the moment. He said the commission for army reform led by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoliy Chubays is not professionally competent to make reform plans.

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Johnson's Russia List

#1141

24 August 1997

djohnson@cdi.org