World

Letter From Moscow

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

August 17, 1999 / 12:30 PM EDT / CBS

Although I've never done it, reporting on politics in the United States seems to me like covering a baseball game. You can discuss whether George W. Bush, the Republican's star rookie, can hit a major league curve. And it is obvious that Hillary Clinton is patiently working the count for a walk into the U.S. Senate. Everyone knows the rules and almost everyone plays by the book. Three strikes are always an out.

Not in Russia. In Moscow, politicians think nothing of running the bases backwards. Kremlin politics is less like an organized sport and more like the weather -- during hurricane season.

Hard News Update

Putin Told To Tow Kremlin Line
Russian President Boris Yeltsin is warning his new prime minister not to stray.
August, 1999

CBS News Correspondent
David Hawkins

From June to November you can be sure that a dozen or so hurricanes will spring up from the Atlantic's warm waters and start making their way menacingly towards the coast. Where they'll hit land is anybody's guess. They might fizzle out altogether.

Russian politics is like that. There's always a new rumor of Kremlin intrigue that may or may not make landfall. Many of them are just as real as those nascent hurricanes a thousand miles offshore. Just because they never flatten Charleston, South Carolina, (or Chechnya) doesn't mean they didn't exist. And it doesn't mean you shouldn't be paying attention.

Right now there's a little storm brewing in Russia's Caucasus region, in Dagestan. A handful of Islamic fundamentalist rebels have taken over a few mountain villages. This storm could build into a whopper and wipe out Russia's fragile democracy.

If the fighting spins out of control and spreads, the Kremlin, it's feared, will cancel elections for parliament and maybe even the presidential elections next summer to keep President Boris Yeltsin in power. Then again, it may fizzle out altogether.

These political storms pop up all the time and most die out quietly. Th problem is you never know which one is going to gather steam and tear up the place.

Some storms just linger. Hurricane Boris has been bouncing off the coast for years. If his damaged heart ever gives out, what damage will it wreak?

CBS News In-Depth

Russia In An Age-Old Battle
Analysis of Moscow's war in Dagestan by CBS Radio Reporter Phil Ittner.
August, 1999

Moscow Maneuvers
CBS News Correspondent David Hawkins examines the latest political shake-up.
August, 1999

So you may be bored with all the storm watches and hurricane warnings coming from Moscow's political meteorologists these days, but remember it's better to board up the windows for the cyclone that turns into a light rain than to get caught unprepared for The Storm of the Century.

The thing about Russia is: it's always hurricane season here.

Written by David Hawkins
©1999, CBS Worldwide Inc., All Rights Reserved