Russia Relief

Fearing food shortages this winter, Russia secured tentative approval Friday for its largest food-aid package in nearly six years--one that will deliver 3.1 million tons of surplus American grain, meat, soybeans and powdered milk to Russians and earn $625 million for U.S. producers. The aid is supposed to benefit the neediest Russians, especially retired people and inhabitants of remote northern and Far East settlements that are running out of food and the money to buy more.

The dump at Ulyanovsk, with its population of stray dogs and crows and its shacks for the homeless, is a surreal locale for the final chapter in a frustrating tale of how some American doctors tried to help some Russian doctors. In a pit at the dump, customs officials recently burned a load of precious aid that Oklahoma City doctors had sent to Russia--desperately needed medical instruments and supplies worth up to $800,000. People who could have been saved will die as a result.

Under prodding from Moscow, the Bush Administration announced Monday a $1.15-billion expansion of U.S. agricultural aid to help Russia endure another food crisis expected this winter. Faced with forecasts of a shortfall again in the Russian harvest, as well as continuing signs of severe disruptions in the Russian food distribution system, the Bush Administration responded to requests two weeks ago from Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin for quick action on food aid before the onset of winter. U.

Cranes hoisted the year's first American food aid to Russia onto a wharf in St. Petersburg on Friday after months of delays caused by U.S. concerns that the aid would be stolen or misused. Last fall, officials said the food would help Russia's poor through the winter months, but it arrived with spring only a week away. The aid will instead stabilize the market and make food more affordable, U.S. officials said. "It's not a matter of helping through the winter.

When Buena Vista Care Center administrator Anne Zimmer was given the task of finding a charity for the nursing home's 100 old hospital beds, she considered homeless groups, AIDS hospices and other nearby needy. But the agents at United Way suggested a more exotic destination--a Russian city in the Arctic Circle called Nar'yan-Mar. About 20 of the beds went to some care facilities and individuals who asked for them.

The Clinton Administration, scrambling to help Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin keep his job, has decided to shift the focus of U.S. aid to Moscow toward short-term projects that will yield immediate, tangible benefits to ordinary Russians, senior officials said Wednesday. The goal of the new approach is as much political as economic: to convince the Russians that capitalist economic reform is a good thing--and that Yeltsin is still preferable to his conservative opponents.

A lottery winner donated $100,000 to send food and medicine to Russia, saying he wanted to set an example for other baby boomers who grew up hating the Soviet Union. "I was a baby boomer born in 1947, raised with Roy Rogers, Howdy Doody, and air raid drills," said Ken Wayne. "They told us not to trust the Russians, that they were bad and we were good. "But all that's changed, and now all the baby boomers who went through this have a chance to help Russia get back on its feet."

Soviet and American military transport planes left the United States on Sunday carrying emergency stores of medicine and other relief supplies to three Soviet republics, the State Department announced as Secretary of State James A. Baker III began meetings in Moscow with leaders of the Kremlin and the republics. Among his missions there is the coordination of American aid efforts. The first two U.S.

A huge military-style cargo plane that delivered a Russian entry here for the America's Cup sailing regatta has gone back to Moscow laden with more than 97 tons of dehydrated soup, medicine, baby food and toys, relief workers said Monday. The Aeroflot Antonov 124, one of the world's largest airplanes, left Sunday night, according to officials at California-based relief organizations that had coordinated the huge shipment of food, medicine and toys.

With little official encouragement and virtually no guarantee that their contributions will arrive where intended, thousands of individual and corporate donors across America are digging into their wallets to help the destitute in the former Soviet Union.

Fearing food shortages this winter, Russia secured tentative approval Friday for its largest food-aid package in nearly six years--one that will deliver 3.1 million tons of surplus American grain, meat, soybeans and powdered milk to Russians and earn $625 million for U.S. producers. The aid is supposed to benefit the neediest Russians, especially retired people and inhabitants of remote northern and Far East settlements that are running out of food and the money to buy more.

When Buena Vista Care Center administrator Anne Zimmer was given the task of finding a charity for the nursing home's 100 old hospital beds, she considered homeless groups, AIDS hospices and other nearby needy. But the agents at United Way suggested a more exotic destination--a Russian city in the Arctic Circle called Nar'yan-Mar. About 20 of the beds went to some care facilities and individuals who asked for them.

The Clinton Administration, scrambling to help Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin keep his job, has decided to shift the focus of U.S. aid to Moscow toward short-term projects that will yield immediate, tangible benefits to ordinary Russians, senior officials said Wednesday. The goal of the new approach is as much political as economic: to convince the Russians that capitalist economic reform is a good thing--and that Yeltsin is still preferable to his conservative opponents.

Under prodding from Moscow, the Bush Administration announced Monday a $1.15-billion expansion of U.S. agricultural aid to help Russia endure another food crisis expected this winter. Faced with forecasts of a shortfall again in the Russian harvest, as well as continuing signs of severe disruptions in the Russian food distribution system, the Bush Administration responded to requests two weeks ago from Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin for quick action on food aid before the onset of winter. U.

The year was 1918, and in the thin, blue diary he was keeping, Otto Ljungholm recorded the suffering and turmoil of the city he was sent to save. With the Russian Revolution still in ferment and World War I just ended, thousands of people were dying of cholera. Food was scarce, and people were starving. Horses lay dead in the streets, and dogs tore at the carcasses.

A senior Russian official on Wednesday described "formidable problems" in distributing tons of humanitarian aid pouring into the former Soviet Union this week but dismissed as "nonsense" reports that the charitable goods are being stolen.

Jim Garrison knew it wouldn't be easy when he took his first planeload of medical relief supplies to the former Soviet Union last December. But the difficulties came quicker than he had expected. "As soon as we landed in Moscow, the Russians took us into an airport lounge for a press conference," recalled Garrison, who runs a San Francisco-based relief effort called Russian Winter Campaign.

The dump at Ulyanovsk, with its population of stray dogs and crows and its shacks for the homeless, is a surreal locale for the final chapter in a frustrating tale of how some American doctors tried to help some Russian doctors. In a pit at the dump, customs officials recently burned a load of precious aid that Oklahoma City doctors had sent to Russia--desperately needed medical instruments and supplies worth up to $800,000. People who could have been saved will die as a result.

Jim Garrison knew it wouldn't be easy when he took his first planeload of medical relief supplies to the former Soviet Union last December. But the difficulties came quicker than he had expected. "As soon as we landed in Moscow, the Russians took us into an airport lounge for a press conference," recalled Garrison, who runs a San Francisco-based relief effort called Russian Winter Campaign.

With little official encouragement and virtually no guarantee that their contributions will arrive where intended, thousands of individual and corporate donors across America are digging into their wallets to help the destitute in the former Soviet Union.