   
|
|
VGTRK
I. Signal
from top to discredit Russian prosecutor on tv denied.
The First Deputy Chief of the Russian
president’s administration Oleg Sysuyev has refuted
charges that it was, allegedly, he who cued the RTR
television and radio channel to air footage discrediting
General Prosecutor Yuri Skuratov. "No one in
the presidential administration has given or could give
instructions to show on RTR the casette containing
compromising material on the Prosecutor General,”
Sysuyev said in an interview with Interfax.
According to him, “the decision was adopted by the
management of the All-Russia State Television and Radio
Company VGTRK, and the reasons for the decisions were
made quite clear by VGTRK leader Mikhail Shvydkoi
himself.” “I, personally, abhor the show
of this super-frank footage that should not have been
televised,” Sysuyev said. “But as a
person elected many times by the people, I have learned
well that state officials of such rank have no personal
lives.”
Interfax news agency,
Moscow, March 19, 1999
II. Russian
state tv company bosses likely to be prosecuted.
The chief executives of the All-Russia State
Television and Radio Company (VGTRK) are likely to be
prosecuted soon. A division of the Prosecutor
General’s Office has received orders to check some
of VGTRK’s financial operations, law enforcement
sources said on Thursday. The sources said the
possible reason for the orders was a video shown on the
VGTRK television channel late on Wednesday that
jeopardized Prosecutor General Yuri Skuratov. The
prosecution service also identified authors of reports
that appeared on the Internet early this year and were
qualified as interferences into Skuratov’s private
life, the sources said. They said chances that
these people will be prosecuted has risen considerably
after VGTRK showed the video.
Interfax news agency,
Moscow, March 18, 1999
III. VGTRK
gets enough funds to cover wage bill.
The VGTRK [All-Russia State TV and Radio Company]
has granted budget allocations for 1999 along with all of
the other state structures in the country. The
unified technological-production complex set up on the
basis of VGTRK, the Media-Holding Company, is expected to
live on R1,715,638,600 from the state. The portion
earmarked for a subsidiary of the holding
company—its news base, RIA Vesti (formerly, RIA
Novosti and APN)—is R22,682,700. Despite this
obviously inadequate budget funding, the agency not only
supplies all of the holding company’s television and
radio broadcasting companies with news, but has also
launched its own programme, “Official
Newsweek,” on the RTR channel [Russian Radio and
TV]. The presenter is RIA Vesti CEO [chief
executive officer] Aleksey Volin, the first deputy
chairman of VGTRK. He was interviewed by
‘Izvestiya’ correspondent Anton Charkin.
[Charkin]
Are you satisfied with your authorized budget?
[Volin]
Authorized budgets have one characteristic
feature: They never satisfy anyone. I am
fully aware, however, that they could not be any
larger. They will cover the meagre wages of our
personnel. That is all. I know that people
cannot produce a competitive product for R1,000 a
month. That is why I believe that the agency should
make its own money by selling subscriptions and
information services and by leasing some of its
facilities. I am completely satisfied with this
arrangement.
[Charkin]
There was also some talk about [Prime Minister
Yevgeniy] Primakov’s affection for the agency.
[Volin]
He has never spoken about this publicly, but I think
he has some feelings of nostalgia. In the 1980s,
when the agency was still called APN [Press and News
Agency], Primakov was one of the regular contributing
authors. I even edited several of his articles that
were published abroad.
[Charkin]
The prime minister’s name comes up frequently
in discussions of attempts to censor the state media.
[Volin]
During the six months that I have headed the agency,
I have not heard a single complaint about our reports
from the White House, the Duma, or the Kremlin . . . .
[Charkin]
The programmes “Parliament News Hour” and
“Federation” are shown on RTR.
[Volin]
“Parliament News Hour” is a parliamentary
TV show.
“Federation”
is sponsored by the Federation Council . . . . The
VGTRK board decided it needed a programme to cover the
week’s events in the country with the direct
participation of government agencies . . . .
[Charkin] Nevertheless, the show looks
like the VGTRK board’s response to Prime Minister
Primakov’s criticism of state television for
ignoring the “positive activities of the
government.”
[Volin]
The prime minister was also speaking as a
viewer. The programme’s 15-per cent share of
the Moscow audience proves that the public is interested
in what the government is doing. It is not, I
repeat, a mere record of the proceedings of official
meetings. We want to show the thinking and planning
behind government actions.
‘Izvestiya’
web site, Moscow, February 26, 1999
IV.
VGTRK’s Anti-Crisis Plan.
Last week, VGTRK sent the presidential administration its
plan of anti-crisis measures for 1999-2000.
Teleskop was able to obtain the text of the anti-crisis
program as well as a possible presidential decree on this
topic.
The main part
of VGTRK’s proposal focuses on granting the company
several loans, as well as tax exemptions and other
benefits; voiding the tax arrears of the unified
production-technical complex (EPTK) accrued through
December 31 1998; establishing a federal fund for support
of state electronic mass media, etc.
The
presidential administration has confirmed that documents
concerning the extrication of VGTRK from the crisis and a
draft of the presidential decree have been received.
The
presidential department for public relations and culture
will be reviewing VGTRK’s proposal. It is not
yet known how long it will take for them to prepare their
response.
Duma hearings
on the fate of VGTRK are planned for April 6. Many
deputies are dissatisfied with the process of forming a
holding company for state electronic mass media. In
their opinion, in fulfilling presidential decree
No. 511, the system of state mass media did not
stop, but rather accelerated its decline.
The Duma
Committee on Information Policy and Communications is
handling preparations for the April hearing.
Following are
excerpts from the text of the plan of anti-crisis
measures proposed by VGTRK (EPTK):
Evaluation of the situation, causes and possible
consequences of the crisis
The
preconditions for the systemic crisis in the industry
were set as early as the beginning of the 1990s, when
after the collapse of Gosteleradio, the gradual reduction
of the role of state management in the sphere of
television and radio broadcasting began. A great
number of different types of state organizations and
institutions, all independent from one another, were
created from the fragments of the Gosteleradio
system. The unified management system was
destroyed, and local and departmental interests began to
take prevalence over those of the state. The budget
was splintered into various smaller fragments, and
control over its purposefulness and the validity of its
use were weakened.
Despite
the fact that television and radio broadcasting was long
ago transformed de-facto into an independent economic
sector comparable in size to the fuel and energy complex
and exclusive in its sociopolitical influence, the
function of state management of the sector remained
completely unfulfilled. This created favorable
conditions for the development of negative economic
processes, especially in the regions, and permitted an
enormous number of commercial organizations to enrich
themselves using state property. Chronic
under-financing from the federal budget for both state
television and radio companies and communications
enterprises distributing state television and radio
programs aggravated the situation.
In
addition, by virtue of its historical position, the
unified technological chain of production and
distribution of television and radio programs was
artificially broken. Arterial radio-relay lines and
a portion of the tributaries were privatized via the
creation of Rostelekom, Elektrosvyaz, and Svyazinvest,
and the most profitable and effectively functioning
portion of the federal communications network was
transferred to those enterprises. For the most
part, state communications enterprises retained only
aging technical equipment (for which they had to make
discounted rental payments) and the social
infrastructure, both of which weighed heavily on the
operating budget of the enterprises.
By
spring of 1998, the situation in the industry had reached
an almost absurd position. The absence of budget
financing for state tele-radio companies and the
companies’ resulting inability to settle their debts
to the state enterprises distributing their signal led to
demands to cut broadcasting of federal state television
programs to four hours per day.
In an
attempt to break the crisis situation in the industry,
the President (Decree No. 511 “On the
improvement of the work of state electronic mass
media,” May 8, 1998) and the Government (Resolution
No. 800 “On the formation of a unified
production-technological complex of state electronic mass
media,” July 27, 1998) decided to create a state
electronic mass media holding on the base of VGTRK that
would include both broadcasting organizations and
enterprises distributing state television and radio
programs. At present, a large portion of the
reorganization procedures has been completed.
However, due to problems accumulated even before the
reorganization began and the financial crisis that has
developed in the country, the question of creating an
effectively functioning structure was transformed into a
problem of the elementary survival of the system of state
tele-radio broadcasting in Russia.
From
1996-1998, the amount of budget financing of expenditures
in the industry stipulated by legislation was only 30-40%
fulfilled on average, and this was the case even with the
consistent year-to-year reduction of the overall
resources (even in ruble terms) allocated to television
and radio broadcasting. During this time, the
crisis of non-payments in the industry actively
developed. As of January 1, 1999, the total
indebtedness of communications enterprises alone was
1,084.4 million rubles, and most alarming this sum
includes payroll debts to the staff of communications
enterprises which amount to 171.2 million rubles as of
February 1, 1999. Of the payroll debts, 89.3
million rubles are owed as pure wage arrears; 32.3
million are owed to non-budget funds; 55 million are owed
in penalties and fines for late payment into the
non-budget funds, and 15 million are owed for loans drawn
to pay wages. Due to non-payment of wages in the
summer of 1998, pre-strike social tension arose in the
workers’ collectives, and strikes were held in
several regions. Despite the fact that the
situation has stabilized, at many enterprises, due to
account seizure and the burden of outstanding debts,
salaries continue to be paid only after court orders have
been issued.
The
debts of communications enterprises to energy providing
organizations reached 336.7 million rubles, and the brunt
of this problem is that in the 1999 budget, such
resources are practically unforeseen. Many
enterprises have been warned by energy suppliers that
their electricity will be shut off and set limits on the
amount they can use. Penalties and fines are
accumulating which are also not covered by the budget.
Debts
to budgets at all levels comprise 319.5 million
rubles. Announcements are made weekly that the tax
services and legal executives are seizing and auctioning
property.
Of
course, all this time enterprises in the industry were
not only waiting for aid from the state, but were
actively developing commercial activity. Frankly
speaking, the industry survived only thanks to commercial
revenues. However, the events of August 1998
brought a colossal collapse of the advertising market
(for example, VGTRK’s monthly revenues in the
pre-August period were $4-5 million, but now do not
exceed $300-500,000). Considering all of the above,
it’s necessary to take into account that television
and radio broadcasting have a large hard-currency
component in the cost of their production and
distribution of programs (i.e., imported technology,
parts and equipment, including simple videocassettes,
acquisition of television and radio productions, films,
etc.). In addition, the industry is extremely
energy-intensive, and electricity costs, as is well
known, are constantly rising. The situation
sometimes becomes paradoxical: the cost of the
electricity used for a transmitter exceeds the fixed
state tariff for the service provided by the transmitter.
If
decisive extraordinary measures are not undertaken,
it’s not difficult to predict the further unfolding
of events. The crisis “critical mass” has
already accumulated, and in the near future the process
will be moving to the “unmanageable”
stage. By the end of 1999, daily broadcasting by
federal mass media will drop to 2-3 hours, audience reach
will decrease from 98% to 40-50%, time-zone broadcasting
(repeat broadcasts in different time zones) will be cut,
and many tele-radio companies and communications
enterprises will go bankrupt and their property will be
seized. The activity of the industry seems
completely paralyzed, and processes of forced bankruptcy
and privatization are underway. The process is
becoming irreversible; the state is completely losing its
position on the electronic mass media market (along with
the absence of any serious state print media on the
national level), and the function of social-ideological
dialogue with society is moving into the hands of private
structures that are deciding the fate of the Russian
state at the end of 1999 and in mid-2000.
Main tasks of the anti-crisis program, measures
for overcoming the crisis
The
main tasks of the proposed program are:
- To stop the
development of crisis phenomena in the sector,
and to move all the processes in a manageable
direction
- To restructure assets
with the goal of avoiding loss-making and
ineffective production cycles and blocks of
social infrastructure
- To consolidate
financial inflows, take inventory of existing
revenue sources, and identify new potential
sources of financing (on the federal and regional
levels)
- To optimize expenses
and reduce non-production (overhead) costs
- To achieve real
manageability of the industry with the goal of
securing a regime of legality and observance of
citizens’ rights during the election
campaigns of 1999-2000
- To fulfil the
objectives of the anti-crisis program, it’s
necessary to carefully set up cooperation with
state power. This must be implemented in
two main ways: in laying out and agreeing
on the tasks and in garnering state support of
enterprises in the unified production-technical
complex (EPTK) of state electronic mass media.
- To implement
cooperation in the sphere of laying out and
agreeing on the primary tasks, first and foremost
those of a political and ideological character,
state powers should create a precise and
effective mechanism for direct and two-way
cooperation with VGTRK (EPTK), which will be able
to actively develop model and actual political
tasks.
The function of state support targets three main
categories:
1)
Strategic political support, including in the regions,
through both the levers of political influence and the
executive bodies subordinate to the federal government
2)
Support on a legislative and normative level, and the
publication of the corresponding decrees and resolutions
It’s
important to note that at the time the decision was made
to create EPTK (May 1998), macroeconomic indicators and
the dynamics of the advertising market allowed confident
confirmation of the possibility of reduction of state
expenditures on the industry in the next year to
year-and-a-half and of the industry’s perspective
move to self-sufficiency. However, the events of
August 1998 changed the situation at its roots; the
advertising market collapsed, and the cost of television
and radio production rose sharply (inasmuch as, as was
already noted, almost the entire production-technical
base and most expenditure items are imported). In
the situation that has arisen, the construction of EPTK
is impossible without state economic support. The
state must decide carefully: either provide active
support to the industry, or decline the idea of creation
of a capable state instrument for a dialogue with
society.
3)
Economic support. For the industry to survive, for
reorganization, and to achieve the stated goal, it’s
necessary to implement the following concrete
measures. (It’s important to note that the
proposed measures do not require serious financial
expenditures from the state budget but are aimed
primarily at the stabilization of the current situation
and creation of normal working conditions in the industry
for the coming few years with the goal of the
industry’s independent move to self-sufficiency.):
Since
by decision of the president and the government
reorganization of the cultural institutions into a
unified state enterprise is underway, the tax base of all
enterprises will be fundamentally altered. Tax
payments are rising sharply, mostly property taxes, which
are used primarily for distribution of state television
and radio programs. So, enterprises must pay the
state for distribution of state programs, which is an
unsound situation. The majority of enterprises
already have large debts to budgets of various levels,
which arose due to under-financing from the state budget
and the fact that the cost of the transmission services
they provide to the state is higher than the state-fixed
payment they receive for these services. So that
the state does not end up playing the role of the
“strangler” of its own state enterprises and
finally acts as an effective owner and manager, it is
necessary to grant the EPTK enterprises the status of
budget organizations and write off their debts to the
budget accrued up until December 31 1998. Here, it
is necessary to take into account that in many regions,
property seizures have become more common on the part of
the tax authorities, which often are used by local
administrations as instruments to put political pressure
on regional television and radio broadcasting.
Despite
the fact that the majority of state tele-radio companies
have already been functioning for quite a long time, the
conditions of ownership, which changed sharply after
August 1998, are leaving their mark on these
stations’ activity. Not having the opportunity
to take advantage of the benefits of the two-year tax
exemption under the Law “On Mass Media” as
newly created commercial tele-radio companies, state
broadcasters find themselves on an uneven playing
field. To resolve this problem, it’s necessary
to grant tax credits to the EPTK enterprises for the next
two years and a special investment tax credit for five
years.
Since
in the process of reorganization in compliance with the
decisions of the president and the government EPTK
enterprises are changing their status, it is necessary to
carry out re-registration of all licenses and permissions
that they had. In compliance with the procedure set
forth by the bodies responsible for the issuance of such
licenses and permissions, such re-registration takes
place on a paid basis. However, such a procedure
incurs additional expense to the federal budget, and the
revenues received by the authorized bodies from
re-registration are used, as a rule, to support
themselves and their departments. In addition, the
absence of financing for these objectives leads to a
delay in the completion of legal registration of EPTK
enterprises, and their activity becomes illegal
de-facto. We consider it necessary to establish
that re-registration and issuing of licenses and
permissions to EPTK enterprises take place
free-of-charge.
Many
EPTK enterprises are practically
“city-creating” enterprises. They are
simply not in a position to support the enormous number
of social infrastructure buildings on their balances,
from little settlements set up like cities to clubs and
medical-convalescent centers, which leads to their
dilapidation and collapse and increases social
unrest. It’s necessary to speed up the process
of transferring these buildings to local self-management
bodies.
As
has already been stated, the state-fixed prices for
transmission services do not allow EPTK enterprises to
cover even their production costs, especially for
electricity and fuel. At the same time, all
broadcasters that have the status of “national”
channels, including ORTV and the fully commercial company
NTV, are allowed to pay transmission companies at state
prices. To prevent the activity of EPTK enterprises
from being inherently unprofitable, it’s necessary
to return to the granting of 50% benefits on payment of
fuel and electrical energy (this system existed until
January 1, 1998).
Previously,
all communications enterprises, in accordance with the
State Communications Commission Resolution “On the
procedure for granting electric communication service on
the general use network in the Russian Federation,”
had the right to free-of-charge electric communication
services. Despite the fact that all the enterprises
that entered the EPTK still retain responsibilities of
state importance, including state security tasks,
broadcasting of state programs, fulfillment of
mobilization tasks, organization of notification in
emergency situations, and provision of communications in
a particular period (for example “Uzor” and
“Volna”), the State Communications Commission,
after these enterprises are no longer subordinate to it,
intends to introduce a paid procedure for granting of
communications services. We consider it necessary
to preserve the previous procedure of free-of-charge
provision of communications services.
Article
426 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation provides
a definition of public contract, which means a contract
concluded by an organization and establishing its
responsibility in sale of a product, fulfillment of work,
or provision of services, and that such an organization,
due to its type of activity, must perform the service for
anyone who asks. This includes services of state
television and radio broadcasting provided to the
populace by EPTK enterprises. It has been proposed
to the EPTK enterprises providing such services that they
conclude the appropriate public contracts, but subject
the prices for these services to state regulation.
It’s important to note that subscription payment is
not a variety of tax or tariff required by law. It
is payment by the populace actually using the service,
and the decision to levy payment is in the competence of
the organization providing said public services.
With
the goal of consolidating financial resources and seeking
out new revenue sources, it is proposed to create a
non-commercial organization—a federal fund for
support of state electronic mass media, financed by both
budget allotments and non-budget revenues. It is
proposed that this would include instructing the
appropriate executive organs to transfer to the fund
equipment and other property, previously considered
federal property for legal reasons (confiscated as
contraband, etc.), that could be used in the process of
production and distribution of television and radio
programs.
In
addition, it is necessary for EPTK enterprises to have
concrete financial support for stabilization of the
economic situation and dealing with the crisis of
non-payments in the form of a credit in the amount of 500
million rubles guaranteed by one of the state
companies. It’s also necessary for the state
to provide guarantees for attraction of external loans in
the amount of $290 million to update the industry’s
material-technical base and acquire imported television
and radio programs.
It’s
necessary to return once more to the question of
inclusion of the state enterprise Kosmicheskaya Svayz
(GPKS) in the EPTK, which was postponed and as such not
resolved by the government in July of 1998. Today,
the entire technological chain of distribution of
television and radio programs looks as follows:
distribution in the regions and the placement of programs
on the air is performed by state EPTK enterprises, but
provision of signal from the center to the regions is
either handled by joint stock companies (Rostelekom,
Electrosvyaz), or by GPKS, an enterprise under the
auspices of the State Communications Commission.
Taking into account that the Commission, aside from GPKS,
does not have a single subordinate state enterprise (all
the others were privatized), to preserve state interests
in the sphere of distribution of television and radio
programs it is necessary to implement the rational
transfer of GPKS into the EPTK. In addition, it is
worth taking into account that GPKS is a profitable
enterprise with good prerequisites for organization of
investment projects, and its participation in EPTK could
favorably influence the overall financial position of the
industry.
Predicted results and conclusions
In
this way, the undertaking of the above-described measures
will allow stabilization of the industry, will prevent
its collapse, and will allow the state to act as a leader
in the market of influence over social consciousness.
Implementation of economic measures together with
political support will allow the industry to reach the
break-even point in the next 2-3 years. The
necessary structuring will be achieved, allowing on one
hand the security of state control, and on the other the
highest economic efficiency.
An
additional advantage of the EPTK, in comparison with
analogous commercial “informational holdings”
built by various financial groups, will be the presence
of its own distribution network that will without doubt
sharply raise the efficiency of its activity and provide
the state with a total instrumentation of sociopolitical
influence on a qualitatively new level, with which none
of the commercial structures will be able to compete.
In
addition, expenditures on functioning of state mass media
will be cut, and the efficiency of investment will and,
most importantly, the returns from activity in the
“ideological sector” will be raised. Most
importantly, double expenses will be eliminated: on
distribution of programs by local TV companies and VGTRK,
on maintenance of field offices and the processing of
information from VGTRK and RIA Vesti, on the production
of programs, and use of the material-technical base and
communications. The revenues received by
subsidiaries and affiliates of VGTRK will remain within
the industry, which will allow a rise in the target
use. The goal of modernization of the distribution
network will become realizable.
Presidential Decree (Draft)
On primary measures for support of the EPTK enterprises
of state electronic mass media
In
the interests of stabilizing the economic position of
EPTK enterprises, guaranteeing the constitutional rights
of citizens to receipt of full and objective information,
and developing national, interregional, and international
informational exchange, I resolve:
1.
To establish that EPTK enterprises: Federal state
enterprise VGTRK; its affiliates and subsidiaries shown
in appendices No. 1-4 to Government Resolution
No.844 of July 27, 1998; and also the enterprises
included in the EPTK in accordance with point 10 of this
Decree, enjoy full tax and other benefits, including
benefits on customs payments and payments into state
non-budget funds, set for budget organizations created by
the state organs of the Russian Federation for the
performance of managerial and social-cultural functions.
2.
Due to current economic circumstances, to annul the
federal tax and duty debts of EPTK enterprises accrued
through December 31, 1998.
That
the government of the Russian Federation shall compile a
list of said debts in the required form.
That
the tax and customs organs of the Russian Federation, tax
police organs, and state non-budget fund organs halt
recovery of debts from EPTK enterprises for the given
period and release their arrested property.
3.
To grant to EPTK enterprises, under guarantee of the
government of the Russian Federation, the following:
A tax
credit on all forms of taxes, customs duties, and fees
and other required payments paid to the budget of the
Russian Federation and state non-budget funds, in the
amount of 1.8 billion rubles, within the active period
from January 1 through December 31, 1999, with no accrual
of interest on the amount of the debt.
A tax
credit [covering the same payments] in the amount of 2.9
billion rubles for the period from January 1 through
December 31, 2000 with no accrual of interest on the
amount of the debt.
An
investment tax credit on profit tax paid into the budget
of the Russian Federation, in the amount of 4 billion
rubles for the period from January 1, 1999 through
December 31, 2004, with interest calculated on the debt
at the rate of one half of the refinancing rate of the
Central Bank of the Russian Federation.
That
the Finance Ministry, the Customs Committee, and the
organs of the corresponding state non-budget funds shall
sign the appropriate agreements with VGTRK within one
month.
To
recommend to state organs of the various
administrative-geographical subjects of the Russian
Federation and to organs of local management to grant
EPTK enterprises the applicable tax credits on taxes and
duties paid to the budgets at the applicable levels.
To
establish that the sums of the tax credits granted to
EPTK enterprises by organs at local and other levels of
power can be taken into account in the settling of
accounts between budgets at various levels.
That
the Finance Ministry, upon granting of said tax credits
to EPTK enterprises by local managerial bodies and
administrative bodies at other levels, grant said bodies
equivalent tax credits in their payments to the federal
budget.
4.
Establish that processing, reprocessing, and prolongation
of licenses and permissions necessary for EPTK
enterprises to perform their core activity, including
licenses for transmission, broadcasting, design of
technological equipment, for construction and production
of works, for permission to use means of communication,
is performed free-of-charge, including payments of
services under control of licensing activity and usage
fees.
5.
That, in the first half of 1999, the organs of executive
power of the administrative entities of the Russian
Federation shall provide the transfer of objects of
social infrastructure under the direction of the EPTK
enterprises to local management organs.
6.
That the federal energy commission and regional energy
commissions shall establish a 50% discounted tariff for
electric and fuel energy for EPTK enterprises for the
period from January 1, 1999 through December 31, 2002.
7.
That the State Committee on Communications and
Information guarantee the provision of electrical
services on the general use electric communications
network.
8.
That EPTK enterprises broadcasting on electronic mass
media shall conclude free-of-charge public contracts for
provision of state television and radio broadcasting to
the populace.
To
establish that the system of time-based payments by which
payment for state television and radio broadcasting
services to the populace is made is subject to state
regulation that is implemented by the FSTR.
That
the FSTR will within one month develop and approve a
price list of time-based prices for state television and
radio broadcasting services, taking into account the
possible differentiation of prices depending on the
amount of services granted and on the actual economic
conditions of the concrete region, including a
calculation of the actual cost of the services granted
and the ability of the purchasing power of the
population.
To
establish that the minimum and maximum rates are equal to
.1 to .5 minimum monthly wages from each subscriber.
9.
That the FSTR and VGTRK shall establish a noncommercial
organization—The Federal Fund for Support of State
Electronic Mass Media (The Fund). To establish that
the chairperson of the Fund is appointed and dismissed by
the head of the FSTR upon presentation of a claim by the
chairman of the VGTRK.
That
the sources of compilation of the means of the Fund are:
Allocations
from the federal budget and by decision of the organs of
state power of individual administrative-geographical
entities and local management organs—allocations
from budgets at the applicable levels.
Funds
attracted via issue and distribution of bonds and other
securities of the Fund by procedures established by
acting legislation.
Voluntary
donations, charitable contributions, and other sources
not prohibited by acting legislation.
That
the Finance Ministry and the Ministry of Taxes and
Duties, and the State Customs Committee establish a
procedure for transfer, by decision of a court or decree
of a customs organ, of federally-owned property that can
be used in the process of production and distribution of
television and radio programs to the Fund for subsequent
transfer to EPTK enterprises.
To
establish that the means of the Fund are to be used for
support and development of EPTK enterprises.
10.
That the Government of the Russian Federation shall:
- Grant VGTRK a target
loan for stabilization of its economic situation
in the amount of 500 million rubles for a period
of three years, under guarantee of one of the
state companies.
- Provide government
guarantees for the attraction by VGTRK of
external financing in the amount of $290 million,
with the goals of modernizing the
production-technical base and wholesale purchase
of imported television and radio productions.
- Establish a procedure
for use of portions of the funds received through
the paying back of debts by developing countries
for additional financing of EPTK enterprises in
an amount not less than $30 million per year.
- Add to the list
of EPTK enterprises approved by Government
Resolution No. 844 with the following
organizations:
Kosmicheskaya Svyaz RIA Vesti
Within three months, bring legal acts into agreement
with this Decree.
11.
That the State-Legal Directorate of the Presidential
Administration shall present a proposal for introduction
of changes to the decisions of the President in
connection with this Decree coming into effect.
12.
That this Decree will come into affect from the moment of
its publication.
President of the Russian
Federation B. Yeltsin
Teleskop, February 24, 1999, available at <http://www.internews.ru/crisis/anticrisis.html>.
|
