I. The Russian-American Press and Information Center (RAPIC) Begins the Implementation of a New Program "Internet for Journalists"

Since 1992 RAPIC has conducted programs for Russian journalists on how to use new informational technology. Among these is a yearly international conference "New Media for a New World." The goals of the project are to assist the establishment in Russia of an informational network and a system to prepare journalists by providing them with a command of modern telecommunications and informational technology.

With the assistance of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a computer center is being established in Moscow where the media from the capital and other areas of the country will be instructed in various forms of computer journalism. The workers at the RAPIC instructional center, along with guest specialists, will teach the fundamentals of computer and telecommunications technology in journalism, including, in particular, issues associated with using the Internet for the collection of news and the preparation of analytical publications, the conduct of journalistic investigations, and other topics.

The Internet media service established at RAPIC gives the regional mass media located outside the capital the opportunity to participate in the programs at a distance. The Internet service provides informational resources for journalists, including: bulletins on issues of freedom of access to information, the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, materials on problems of the profession (newspaper-magazine management, journalistic etiquette, legislation on mass media, telecommunications-computer technology). Regional newspapers will have the opportunity to reach a wide audience with electronic versions of their papers via the virtual newspaper kiosk on the RAPIC server.

In 1997 RAPIC, with the support of the US Information Agency (USIA), will hold a competition among regional media to participate in a project to establish an association of Russian journalists on the Internet. Also among the tasks of the center is to assist in the introduction into the curriculum of Russian journalism departments of regular courses on telecommunications information technology in the mass media, and on the design and management of electronic network publications and advertisements.

The program is starting a series of seminars for teachers in journalism departments and faculties in Russian institutes of higher learning on the theme "Telecommunications Computer Technology in Journalism," which is conducted with support from the "Open Society" Institute. A channel to the Internet (128 Kbps) is provided by the company "Golden Line," owners of a network of digital access to Moscow using fiber-optic lines and, at the time of the first seminar, by the Internet provider company "Relline." The learning center uses the equipment of the Russian computer company "Stel."

Address of the center: Moscow, Prechistenka St., 10, room 3. Telephone: 203-4187.

II. In Tolyatii, The Education Summer School on Women's and Gender Studies has Finished its Work

The school was organized by the Moscow Center for Gender Research and the Samarskii State University Department of Foreign History, with financial support from the Ford Foundation (USA). Over 60 scholars and graduate students from 26 cities in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Central Europe, and USA took part in the 1997 summer school. The participants were selected by competition.

Those present had the opportunity to hear lectures and participate in the work of over 100 seminars, training sessions, round tables, informal meetings, and a discussion club. According to the participants, the lectures, presentations, and seminars enabled Russian scholars to look at issues in the areas of sociology, history, cultural studies, and other sciences in a new light. As the school's guests of honor, prominent Russian and foreign scholars, including the academics N. M. Rimashevskaya and E. F. Molevich, professors Mary Makoli and S. I. Golod, gave lectures to the participants. They praised highly the professional level of the instructional programs and agreed to become members of the scientific council for the planning of the gender research summer school.

As the results of the school's work indicate, a new scientific community of scholars and teachers interested in the development of gender studies in our country is taking shape in Russia. The general approach in the social and humanitarian sciences is fundamentally a new theory based on the ideology of the equality of men and women... In the words of the summer school's director Zoya Khotkina, "gender studies in Russia today is a net of scientific centers and departments in about 20 regions that are constantly widening on the basis of an influx of new scholars and the active interest of youth."

Telephone for the Moscow Center for Gender Research: 125-6419, 133-0719.

III. "Keepers of the Rainbow" Protest the Construction in Volgodonsk of the First Block of the Rostovskii Atomic Power Stations

On June 16, in the region of the station, an international ecological protest camp was established by the radical environmental movement "Keepers of the Rainbow." To support the legal demands of the local population, participants have arrived from various cities in Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine, Tadzhikistan, Germany, and Finland.

Since June 19, in Volgodonsk, an anti-nuclear information point established by the participants of the movement has been continually open. Every day a detail of militia arrives at the information point and the camp to compile a list of all those taking part in the camp. The administration of the nuclear power station has begun to conduct an "alternative picket" next to the "Keepers of the Rainbow" information point.

In April, the ecological society found out that, in accordance with the decree of the Russian government, "On the completion of work has also displayed the works of artists from St. Petersburg.

"Movement F" regularly has club days, at which moral, ethical, confessional, and social problems are discussed. Thus, on June 26, minors from DF took part in the proceedings of a round table "Problems of preventing teenage crime," which was organized by a group of non-governmental and informal youth organizations from Moscow.

Telephone: 152-4658 (Svetlana Solomonovna Levitina)

IV. The Saratov Branch of the Union for the Protection of the Birds of Russia Asks for Support of the Protest Against the Activities by Lukoil on the Territory of a Federal Game Reserve in Semenovskii (Saratovskii)

The company LukOil is in the process of erecting towers, although they have not received permission from the regional and local ecological committees and the project has not gone through an ecological examination on the federal level. This work breaks numerous statutes of the laws "On the protection of the environment" and "On specially protected territories," the Legal Code of the Russian Federation, as well as numerous international conventions and regulations.

The game reserve was established to protect two types of rare birds which are listed in the Russian Red Book (a book which lists the officially recognized endangered species of Russia - trans.)

Address for the Saratov branch of the Union for the Protection of the Birds of Russia: 410601 Saratov, P.O. Box 3321. Fax: (8452) 24-28-64.

V. The Armenian Community of Nizhny Novgorod Will Have Its Own Church

Members of Nizhny Novgorod's Armenian community are waiting for a decision from the city's head architect regarding the location of the church. City authorities are considering two spots: on Gryzinskii Street or next to the Seventh Day Adventist church on Yamskii Street. The church was first built in 1826 on Yarmarochnii Square. After the 1917 revolution it was completely destroyed. "Now the construction will have to start from zero," said Lidiya Samkovich to ASI's correspondent. "We have no funds, but we hope to receive land and place a cross on it." . . . Telephone: (8312) 23-64-16 (Lidiya Levonovna Samkovich)

VI. The Founding Congress of the Anti-Narcotics Youth Federation of Russia Will Run from August 13 - 15 in Nizhny Novgorod

Participants are expected to include representatives of the government commission for the war against drug addiction, the state committee on problems of the youth of the Russian Federation, and education ministries, as well as the leaders of international and all-Russian anti-drug organizations and sobriety societies. Contact telephone: (8312) 37-13-21.

VII. The Eurasia Foundation Begins a New Project in Novgorod

The socio-psychological center "Trust" (Novgorod) with the support of the Eurasia Foundation is beginning a project to establish a public center for non-governmental, non-commercial organizations. The project envisions a program to disburse small grants. Telephone: (81622) 3-47-95 (Nadezhda Lisitsina)

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