"Unlawful" activities behind Peace Corps visa denial - Russian paper
Read and comment on this story from Russian newspaper Izvestiya that one volunteer on her last trip to Russia was fined for drunkenness by the police, that another volunteer met a large number of people whose activities are very closely connected with manufacturing and the economy and is thus gaining access to information about the state not only of individual enterprises but also whole regions, and that Valerie Ibaan, who used to be head of the Far East branch of the Peace Corps, violated the border regime at:
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"Unlawful" activities behind Peace Corps visa denial - Russian paper
Aug 13, 2002 - BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union - Political
Excerpt from report by Russian newspaper Izvestiya on 13 August
Russia has refused to extend the entry documents of 30 US Peace Corps personnel... Izvestiya has tried to find out why the Russian authorities decided to refuse the services of three dozen US volunteers, who were officially involved in "teaching English to Russian citizens"...
Izvestiya's "informal" sources within law-enforcement structures and ministries spoke in an extremely detailed way about the work of the Peace Corps in Russia.
"The US volunteers seem to be pursuing noble aims in Russia. But just look: Can former cooks, cyclists and Mormon clergymen really teach our children English?" Izvestiya was told by a law- enforcement agency staffer. "They do not even know Russian. Not to mention the fact that former US special service personnel join the organization. And that is the kind of people who are working for the Peace Corps! I do not understand why Americans from the corps are gathering information about the so-called 'consumer basket' in Russia, for instance."
This year, the Peace Corps's Far East office asked the Russian authorities for 27 visas. They were given only eight. The Moscow office asked for 36 and was given 24. Why? Law-enforcement agency sources gave Izvestiya the following explanation: "Some of these people are involved in activities that are unlawful and inappropriate to their function." (?Noulan Dzhin) [name as transliterated], for instance, on her last trip to Russia was fined for drunkenness by the police. In addition, it has been noted that, while working as a business consultant, a Peace Corps volunteer met a large number of people whose activities are very closely connected with manufacturing and the economy and is thus gaining access to information about the state not only of individual enterprises but also whole regions.
Valerie Ibaan, who used to be head of the Far East branch of the Peace Corps, violated the border regime. The Russian Foreign Ministry reported this in an official note to the US embassy in Moscow. This woman infiltrated a closed area on the border with China without permission.
Whole regions are already refusing the services of the Peace Corps organization. In 2002, five regions did so - Khabarovsk Territory, Amur Region, Nizhniy Novgorod Region, Udmurtia and, last Friday [9 August], Novosibirsk Region administration.
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