Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency transcription is dated 27 September 1991 and marked approved for release in May 2000. It is part 2 of an 8-part translation of a Sovetskaya Rossiya interview in which Abalkin criticizes the "500 Days" economic program. He argues for preserving the Union state and warns that the Russian republic's plan would dissolve the USSR. In passing, he likens the program's "mystery effect" to the mass belief in aliens, UFOs and extrasensory perception that arises in times of crisis.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
*** BEGIN MESSAGE 1 *** SERIAL=PM2709094590 UDN=U(31041) CLASS=UNCLAS 3M/FAX UNCLAS 3M/FAX SERIAL: PM2709094590 PASS: COPY TO COUNTRY: USSR SUBJ: TAKE 2 OF 8 -- ABALKIN CONDEMNS '500 DAYS' RECOVERY PROGRAM REF: PM2709094390 MOSCOW SOVETSKAYA ROSSIYA RUSSIAN 23 SEP///VERY NEAR FUTURE. TEXT: ((TEXT)) THE NEXT DIFFERENCE CONCERNS THE VIEW OF THE FATE OF THE UNION. YES, OF COURSE, THE DEFORMATIONS WHICH HAVE ACCUMULATED IN INTERETHNIC RELATIONS OVER THE DECADES AND THE INFRINGEMENT OF THE RIGHTS OF NATIONS, ETHNIC GROUPS, REPUBLICS, AND REGIONS ARE REALITIES WHICH HAVE BEEN PERPETRATED, BUT IT IS NECESSARY TO OVERCOME THEM AND PRESERVE THE UNION STATE. IT IS A SUBJECT IN INTERNATIONAL LAW, A GREAT POWER, A PERMANENT MEMBER OF THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL, A POWER WHICH HAS SIGNED MANY POSTWAR AGREEMENTS. AND, ACCORDINGLY, IT IS A STATE WHICH MUST POSSESS ALL THE NECESSARY ATTRIBUTES IN THE ECONOMIC SPHERE TOO, HAVE A UNIFIED BORDER, A UNIFIED CUSTOM HOUSE AND TERRITORY, AND A UNIFIED MONETARY SYSTEM, AND HAVE AT ITS DISPOSAL THE USSR CENTRAL STATE BANK FULFILLING FUNCTIONS APPROXIMATING TO THOSE FULFILLED IN SIMILAR STATES BY THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM, AS IN THE UNITED STATES, OR BY THE DEUTSCHE BUNDESBANK IN THE FRG. ACCORDINGLY, NOT ONLY DOES EACH REPUBLIC POSSESS SOVEREIGNTY BUT THE USSR ALSO HAS ITS OWN SOVEREIGNTY AS A STATE. YES, THE POWERS AND THE BORDERS OF SOVEREIGNTY ARE DETERMINED BY TREATY, BUT THIS IS ALL TO COME AND DOES NOT YET EXIST, AND WE ARE ACCUSTOMING OURSELVES TO LIVING IN A RULE-OF-LAW STATE AND WE RESPECT AND OBSERVE THE LAWS. THE CONSTITUTIONAL NORMS OF THE UNION EXTEND THROUGHOUT THE TERRITORY. THE RUSSIAN SOVIET FEDERATED SOCIALIST REPUBLIC SUPREME SOVIET HAS ADOPTED A CONCEPT AND A PROGRAM WHICH ESSENTIALLY PROCEEDS FROM RECOGNITION OF THE ELIMINATION OF THE USSR AS A STATE. THIS UNION IS ALSO SUPPLANTED BY A UNION, BUT AN ECONOMIC ONE, BY SOME INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT WHICH IS SAID EVEN TO BE CLOSE TO THE EC. IT IS POSSIBLE TO FIND A MORE ACCURATE DEFINITION -- THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS, FOR EXAMPLE, OR MAYBE AN EVEN MORE ACCURATE ONE: THE OLD CEMA WITH ALL ITS FLAWS. AS REGARDS THE NEW UNION TREATY, IN MY VIEW SUBSEQUENT POLITICAL AGREEMENTS WILL MERELY MAKE THE ECONOMIC UNION OFFICIAL, AND THE STATE'S DISINTEGRATION WILL BE A FAIT ACCOMPLI. AND IT IS PROPOSED TO DO THIS WITHOUT BROAD DISCUSSION, IN SECRET... ((GARIFULLINA)) MAYBE THIS IS WHY .THERE IS SUCH HASTE?... ((ABALKIN)) THE HASTE IS UNDERSTANDABLE TOO. THE THING IS THAT AT FIRST THE "500 DAYS" PROGRAM CONTAINED A KIND OF MYSTERY EFFECT. YOU UNDERSTAND, THEY SUGGEST TO PEOPLE: THERE IS SOME MIRACULOUS MEANS, AND OUR PEOPLE BELIEVE IN MIRACLES OR, AT LEAST, THEY WANT TO BELIEVE THAT THERE IS A PAINLESS PATH, WITHOUT SACRIFICES AND UPHEAVALS, WITHOUT A DROP IN LIVING STANDARDS, WITHOUT A RISE IN PRICES... YOU MIGHT HAVE NOTICED THAT IN SUCH CRISIS SITUATIONS THERE UNCLAS 3M/FAX Approved for Release Date MAY 2000 (6)(3) (e1)
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 2 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.