Gorbachev spokesman goes

Hawaiian at East-West Center

By Ed Rampell

GENNADI Gerasimov, the official spokesman of USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev during fhe heady days of Glasnost, has come a long way. It is east meets west at Honolulu’s East-West Center, where Gerasimov has been a Visiting Fellow since November 1.

He was seen on Nightline, Larry King’s CNN show, This Week with David Brinkley, and many other TV news programs. “I was everywhere,” he declared. He’s, met newsmakers such as the Pope, President Reagan, and Margaret Thatcher. When the suave, well-dressed Soviet journalist met Britain’s Prime Minister at London, she reportedly said: “No matter how he looks - he is still a Communist!”

In an interview at his Burns Hall office, the debonair Mucovite described himself as the “Russia watcher” at the

Ewc.

The Kremlinologist is also observing Hawaii, his home until around May Day, when he’ll be back in the ex-USSR and resume his career as a free-lance journal ist.

The former Communist Party member discussed the charge sometimes voiced in the Isles that Hawaii has features of a socialist state, such as bureaucratic over

regulation. “Are they running the hotels

here?” Gerasimov asked, referring to the fact that the top industry - tourism - is

owned and operated by private enter

prise, not big government.

However, the former editor of “World Marxist Review” disputed the notion that “the invisible hand of Adam Smith will put everything right, if we have just mar ket and free prices... There must be some public intervention, governmental... I

understand that the American economy is very well-regulated... It’s not a free market [free] for all.”

Regarding the example of state regu lation of motorized tour boats, the E-WC Visiting Fellow said government is act

ing in the public interest, protecting the environment.

Gerasimov said Hawaii “is dependent on the global economy, on the situation over there.” He suggested a five year plan of sorts to boost the aiding Island

Gennadi Gerasimov, the officiant spokesman of USSR President Mikhai Gorbathev during the heady days of Glasnost in his office at the East-West Center

economy. Hawaii “needs to develop elec tronics, all this computer stuff... You have a very good establishment at Maui.

I visited it... Another answer to Hawaii’s economic problems is to organize sani tariums, according to the Russian-type.”

These health retreats that, Gerasimov said, “combine relaxation with medical treatment,” tie into the much-touted “health tourism” spoken of in Hawaii.

Gerasimov, a world traveler himself, said: “I want to see advertisements for Hawaii in Moscow, St. Petersburg,” and other Russian cities, to lure the nouveau riche of the former “workers paradise” to a Polynesian paradise.

Gerasimov pointed out that many rich Russians already travel to tropical desti nations such as Thailand, and that Russian can already be heard being spo ken on Waikiki Beach - but by Russian emigres to the US West Coast.

Although Gerasimov said he is inde pendent, and not affiliated with any polit ical party now, the ex-Red is still appar ently trying to promote Russia’s interests.

Gerasimov said he is “trying to persuade people in the Center that Russia also belongs to the Pacific Rim.”

Regarding the Russian Far East, the 68-year old said “look at the map” to see how places in the 89-member Russian Federation - such as the Maritime Province, Vladivostok, Siberia, and Sakhalin Island - are part of the Pacific Rim.

“Russia has two faces, actually - one faces Europe, another faces the Pacific.

Maybe that’s one of the reasons why we have double-headed eagle as our national bird,” the ex-diplomat said.

He pointed out that 19th century Russia was a Pacific power, from Alaska (Russian territory until the 1860 s) to a fort at Kauai.

The developing Russian Far East is rich in potential, with vodka, fish, timber, coal, oil, nickel, gold, and half of the world’s diamonds, Gerasimov told PBN.

The South African diamond company Deßeers does business in the region.

Japan and Russia are jointly developing the Kirile Islands, which stretch from the Kamchatka Peninsula to Hokkaido, and may become a tax free zone, Gerasimov said. Despite this (and other) embarrass ment of riches, Gerasimov admitted,

“Russia now is in a deep crisis,” which he fears may get worse.

“Unfortunately, it is not on the priori ty list of this country. Russia needs help, and it is in the American interest, too, because a destabilized Russia is very dangerous. We still have nuclear weapons, right?” said Gerasimov, who warned against a return to the bad “old days of the Cold War” and of the Communists to power.

The former Gorby mouthpiece pointed

out that after World War I, the victors did not assist the vanquished, which led to the rise of fascism.

But, Gerasimov said, the historical lesson was learned, and after the Second World War, triumphant America assisted the losers with the Marshall Plan and more. “The victors must help the van quished,” he asserted.

Is the average Ivan better off today than he was under socialism? “No,”

Gerasimov confessed. But he qualified his answer: politically, things have improved, with a multi-party democracy, and freedom of the press and to travel abroad.

Economically, he said, about “five percent” of Russians “are very rich,” and benefit from capitalism. But up to “two thirds of the people live be[low] the poverty level.”

And the masses no longer fully enjoy the “cradle to grave” security of the “socialist achievements” of jobs, free medical care, and free education through university for all, Gerasimov said.

Does socialism have any relevancy to the post-Soviet world? “Ideas are here to stay. If you look close enough, Marxism is very close to Christianity, in many ways... But not many people follow [these ideas] to the letter. I think Karl Marx underestimated human nature.”

Gerasimov said his former chief Gorbachev “will be one of the most important historic figures of this centu ry.”

The onetime spokesman is still in touch with his old tovarisch Gorby, who is now visiting that neon lit symbol of Western decadence. Las Vegas. The for mer Soviet leader is in sin city to speak at a conference - “not to gamble. He has already lost,” Gerasimov said, with his trademark wry smile. ■