Vzglyad

Seven Baltic Fleet sailors sentenced in hazing scandal

On Tuesday, a Russian court sentenced seven Baltic Fleet sailors involved in a 2009 hazing scandal.

On August 3, 2009, sailors from Dagestan forced their colleagues to form the word "KAVKAZ" (Caucasus) with their bodies on the ground and filmed the entire process with a video camera. Most culprits were sentenced to 18 months in prison, but one, Naib Taigibov, who had a previous criminal record, will serve three years.

An investigation of the incident and a subsequent trial established that the culprits had coerced 26 other sailors to take part in the incident at a naval base in Pionersky town in the Kaliningrad Region, Russia's Baltic exclave.

The Baltiisk Garrison Military Court sentenced five of the defendants to 18 months in prison. Another defendant will serve a 12-month term in a minimum-security prison.

The court took account of Naib Taigibov's previous criminal record and sentenced him to three years in a medium-security prison. The maximum sentence for those found guilty of hazing young recruits is five years.

Exposed in November 2009, the incident caused a public outcry. The Baltic Fleet's Military Investigations Department opened five criminal cases on November 19.

Although the military prosecutor's office found enough evidence to qualify the incident as brutal hazing, its report said Russian sailors had also been involved and decided not to seek penalties for inciting inter-ethnic strife.

This spring, Vladimir Khomchik, Chairman of the Russian Supreme Court's Military Board, discussed army crime and said the number of violations remained virtually the same despite troop cuts.

In 2008, 9,310 military personnel were sentenced for committing various crimes. The number of convictions totaled 9,232 in 2009, a 0.8% decline. Although numerous officers and contract soldiers are being discharged under the current military reform, crime levels have not decreased.

Khomchik said the situation with hazing had not improved either. "One cannot but feel alarmed about the high levels of brutal hazing going on," he told the paper.

Vedomosti

Russia drafts new program to attract compatriots

Russian Businessmen who return home will be offered privileges and registration under a compatriot resettlement program in a bid to lure back economically active people who fled the Soviet Union.

The Regional Development Ministry on Tuesday published a draft program of voluntary resettlement for Russians living abroad. Alexei Chernyshev, an aide to the minister, said the draft will be coordinated with other ministries and departments by September and then submitted to the government.

In the draft, compatriots are defined as former citizens of the Soviet Union, emigres and their descendants.

Privileges under the 2006 program were offered only to hired labor. The new program will extend the number of people entitled to assistance. They will be divided into working people, students, businesspeople, agrarians (those who settle in the countryside and take up agribusiness), and persons with merits.

The government is to draft a grade system for selecting compatriots for the program by December 1, 2011. Its participants may lose their status if they fail to take up their proclaimed occupation.

In addition to resettlement funds, which have been paid since 2006, the new program provides businesspeople, agrarians and community members with a three-year deferral from customs duties on imported property necessary for their professional activity, priority border clearance and registration of such property, and tax deduction from the funds spent on its acquisition.

The emigres will be issued an allowance for six months if the chosen occupation does not yield profit at the outset. Until they buy housing, they can register at a legal address provided by an authorized agency, which will allow them to take out loans.

Between 7 and 8 percent of Russian emigres (about 8,000 annually) have used the program in the past, but the Russian authorities expect the number to soar to 50% now, Chernyshev said. The government has allocated 1.2 billion rubles ($39 million) annually for this purpose until 2012.

The number of compatriots lured back into Russia so far is several times lower than planned, said Modest Kolerov, chief editor of the Regnum agency who was in charge of the Kremlin's compatriots project.

He said the regional authorities could be blamed for this, as they did not offer emigres good jobs and paid them only 10,000 rubles ($324) a month. The new privileges could be of interest to the more active emigres, Kolerov said.

Vremya Novostei

Russians not as drunk as you might think

Alcohol abuse is one of Russia's biggest problems and a major threat to national security. Everyone in Russia knows this, and nobody does anything to resolve the problem. However, some people claim the devil is not so black as he is painted.

Vadim Drobiz, director of the Center for Federal and Regional Alcohol Markets Research (TsIFRRA), said there are eight myths about drinking in Russia.

He has recently spent a month in the United States at the invitation of the U.S. Department of State and says young people there drink as much as their Russian peers, and that all other industrialized countries have a drinking problem.

However, in Russia the drinking problem is compounded by poverty. Drobiz said the situation would be improved by the establishment of an "alcohol ministry" and elaboration of a state policy to reduce alcohol consumption and prevent alcoholism by 2020.

He said these two elements could stop the spread of alcoholism in the country. He also dispelled several myths about drinking in Russia.

Myth One: Alcohol is very cheap in Russia and hence easily affordable, which encourages drinking.

This is not true. Alcohol is more expensive in Russia than in many other countries. For example, a bottle of vodka costs 13-14 euros in Scandinavian countries, but this is cheaper in terms of an average salary than the $3 Russians pay. In the United States, spirits (40° or 80 proof) cost $2 per one-liter bottle.

Myth Two: All Russians drink; the nation is degenerating.

Not true either. Only 25% of Russians in the low-income group, who earn less than 5,000 rubles ($162) per capita a month, are heavy drinkers. They consume up to 40 liters of alcohol per capita a year.

The remaining 75% drink 11 liters a year, which is still too much according to the World Health Organization, but they are not drinking themselves into degeneracy. So, it is predominantly poor and socially unprotected people who are heavy drinkers.

Myth Three: The solution lies in the prohibitive and restrictive WHO recommendations.

Several countries follow these recommendations to the letter, for example Sweden and Finland. Yet the sale of alcohol in Sweden has grown 70% in the last ten years. In Finland, which has been honoring WHO recommendations for 30 years, alcoholism has grown 500% among women and 100% among men in the last 40 years. These are official data.

In other words, prohibitive measures are not effective.

Novye Izvestia

Travel bans for defaulters

The number of Russians not permitted to travel abroad may grow to 250,000 by the end of the year, the Federal Bailiff Service (FSSP) said. It was reported on Tuesday that more than 1,600 people were not allowed to cross the border in the Oryol Region alone, four times more than last year. Experts are concerned that the bailiffs are getting carried away with the statistics.

The FSSP believes closing the border is the most effective way to make persistent defaulters repay their debts. The army of people who cannot leave the country is now swiftly growing in all regions. Since the beginning of the year the service has issued 100,000 bans on travel abroad for debtors. Its head, Artur Parfenchikov, predicts the number of such rulings may rise to 250,000 by year end. In 2009, as estimated by the service, 215,000 individuals forbidden to cross the border paid back two billion rubles to claimants and the budget.

Experts believe this explosive growth of bans can be explained by established court practice. Pavel Chikov, head of the Agora human rights body, says there is a real danger that the bailiffs get carried away by statistics. "What are they pressing for: to ban as many Russians as possible from going abroad, or to have them return the money they owe?" the expert wonders.

Meanwhile, the service is considering other ways of shaking down debtors. It finds the idea of revoking driving licenses particularly fascinating. The service plans to discuss it with the Justice Ministry, and if the ministry approves, to submit a bill to the State Duma, the lower house of parliament. Prior to that, the bailiffs voiced the idea of withdrawing the licenses to use small boats owned by debtors or banning the issue of hunting or fishing licenses to them.

Experts are skeptical. "The penalty must fit the crime, which is not the case here," said Viktor Travin, president of the Car Owners Protection Board. Chikov, on the other hand, says ordinary Russians are partly to blame for the service seeking new methods of putting a lid on the practice. They sometimes show great ingenuity in defaulting on their obligations. "I have often seen adverts for seminars on how to take out a loan and secure oneself against claims for repayment," the expert said. "Bailiff activity is understandable."

The human rights activist is concerned about something else. "The bailiff service is claiming ever greater powers and is in fact developing into another strong arm agency, which will not benefit society," he says.

Rossiiskaya Gazeta

Three days in Russia visa-free

The number of tourists in St. Petersburg is growing mainly because of short-stay foreign visitors. On July 13, the city saw a record inflow of tourists aboard cruise ships. In one day, the city welcomed five ocean liners with 10,030 passengers. This navigation season, the Sea Facade port plans to serve 308,000 travelers.

The increased numbers is the outcome of a simplified visa procedure introduced for tourists arriving in Russia by boat. In May 2009, parliament amended the law on entering and exiting the Russian Federation, allowing foreigners arriving at the seven large ports of Russia, including St. Petersburg, to stay in Russia for three days without a visa.

The Transport Ministry found that the number of ferry services had doubled. St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko decided to extend the practice to tourists arriving by air. The Ministry of Sport, Tourism and Youth Policy is now considering her proposal to introduce three-day visa-free stay for foreign tourists arriving at the Pulkovo airport.

"If this pilot project catches on, it could be extended to the whole of Russia," says Nadezhda Nazina, head of the Ministry's tourism and international cooperation department.

Everyone who works with foreign tourists is enthusiastic. Travel agencies are particularly eager for changes in federal legislation as it will make the job of attracting foreign tourists to Russia far easier if they can travel visa-free.

Pulkovo airport is not worried about the expected increase in traffic. In the first five months of this year, 1.3 million people arrived in St. Petersburg on international flights, or 25 percent more than in the same period last year. The airport has ambitious plans for upgrading its facilities and technology.

"Check-in online, which is being widely introduced, substantially cuts the amount of work," comments the Pulkovo press service. "A new service is also being tested: special zones for passengers who have checked-in online to drop off their baggage. More opportunities for self registration will be offered to passengers, increasing the airport's throughput capacity. A new passenger terminal will be opened later."

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MOSCOW, July 14 (RIA Novosti)