VZCZCXRO4304
RR RUEHAST RUEHDH RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHPB RUEHPOD RUEHSL RUEHTM
RUEHTRO
DE RUEHMO #2538/01 2801308
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 071308Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5016
INFO RUEHLN/AMCONSUL ST PETERSBURG 5492
RUEHVK/AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK 3368
RUEHYG/AMCONSUL YEKATERINBURG 3722
RUEHC/DEPT OF INTERIOR WASHDC
RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
RUEAEPA/HQ EPA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUCPDC/NOAA WASHDC
RHFJBRQ/NSF POLAR WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 MOSCOW 002538 
 
STATE FOR EUR/RUS, OES/PCI, EUR/PGI, L/CA 
AIDAC STATE FOR USAID/E&E 
INTERIOR FOR KIM MAGRAW 
INTERIOR PLEASE PASS TO NPS, FWS, AND USGS 
FWS FOR STEVE KOHL, JANET HOHN, GEOFF HASKETT 
NPS FOR SUE MASICA 
NOAA FOR RENEE TATUSKO 
OSTP FOR JOAN ROLF 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL SENV CVIS ECON TSPL SOCI RS
SUBJECT: RUSSIA'S CHUKOTKA REGION YEARNS FOR A BERINGIA PARK AND AN 
ECONOMIC BOOST FROM ALASKA 
 
REF: A. MOSCOW 1281 
     ¶B. VLADIVOSTOK 32 
 
MOSCOW 00002538  001.2 OF 004 
 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED -- PLEASE HANDLE ACCORDINGLY. 
 
¶1. (U) SUMMARY: The Russian government is advocating for stronger 
economic, scientific, and cultural ties between its easternmost 
province of Chukotka and Alaska (ref A).  The poster child for these 
aspirations, a "shared heritage area" -- in effect, a bilateral 
national parks partnership -- spanning the Bering Strait region, was 
among the topics of discussion at this year's sparsely attended 
"Beringia Days" conference in Chukotka's capital, Anadyr.  The 
Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology optimistically predicts it 
will be ready to negotiate a bilateral agreement on the protected 
territory by March 2010, but the Russian government must leap 
several bureaucratic hurdles to establish federal park lands to 
contribute to the project.  In addition, some Alaska native groups 
oppose the plan, fearing a loss of land use rights. 
 
¶2. (U) SUMMARY, continued: Although underpinned by strong shared 
indigenous ethnic ties, wildlife, environment, and even history, 
Chukotka-Alaska links are currently tenuous and fraught with 
logistical, linguistic, and bureaucratic obstacles.  Among the most 
difficult impediments are barriers to travel.  A limited visa-free 
regime for certain Bering Strait native groups has never functioned 
smoothly, and traveling to a U.S. consular office is often 
prohibitively expensive for Chukotkans requiring U.S. visas. 
Chukotka's Deputy Governor downplayed the bureaucratic difficulties 
in resolving these issues.  He echoed the Foreign Ministry's call 
for improved transportation links and infrastructure, as well as 
expanding the existing visa-free regime to all permanent residents 
of Alaska and Chukotka.  As an alternative to expanded visa-free 
travel, he suggested establishing a U.S. consular presence in 
Chukotka.  END SUMMARY. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
"BERINGIA DAYS" PROMISE WAITING TO BE FULFILLED 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶3. (U) On September 17-21, Embassy representatives visited Russia's 
easternmost province of Chukotka to attend the annual Beringia Days 
conference in the regional capital, Anadyr.  First held in 1996, the 
conference gives government officials, scientists, NGOs, and native 
groups a forum to share information and develop projects of regional 
interest.  Many projects discussed at the conference are funded by 
the National Park Service's Shared Beringian Heritage Program. 
Anchorage hosted the conference until 2003; since that time, the 
venue has alternated annually between Chukotka and Alaska.  In 
Anadyr, a city of only 11,000 residents, Beringia Days qualifies as 
a major event.  However, the conference made only a small splash. 
We saw no public advertising for it, and attendance was sparse, with 
barely 50 observers in the conference auditorium at any one time. 
 
¶4. (U) This year's U.S. delegation of approximately 25 included 
students, academic researchers, and officials of the National Park 
Service and Fish and Wildlife Service.  Presentations highlighted 
diverse research on native cultures, geology, history, and ecology. 
Some speakers presented oral histories of cross-border indigenous 
families; another reported on traditional native dress.  There was 
even a presentation on the cultural significance of mushrooms.  But 
ironically, for a conference designed to highlight and promote 
cross-border connections, very few presentations touched on 
U.S.-Russian cooperation.  An Alaska-based geologist concluded his 
report on the evolution of Arctic landforms with an appeal for 
Russian collaboration.  He later told ESTOff that in his many years 
of research, he has never worked with Russian counterparts on this 
regional topic.  The director of Chukotka's Department of Culture, 
Sport, Tourism, and Public Affairs told us that while the territory 
has regular sports exchanges with Canada, there is no such exchange 
with the United States to speak of, and several attempts by Chukotka 
officials to reach out to American counterparts on proposed 
exchanges have had no results. 
 
MOSCOW 00002538  002.2 OF 004 
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
VISAS AND OTHER TRAVEL HURDLES LIMIT COOPERATION 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶5. (U) Several conference participants and regional officials cited 
visa difficulties as barriers to closer contact.  To obtain a U.S. 
visa, most Chukotka residents must fly to either Vladivostok or 
Moscow for an interview.  Flights to Vladivostok run only every two 
weeks, or more rarely, depending on weather.  The cost of the 
nine-hour flight to Moscow, currently around $1800, is prohibitively 
expensive for most Russian students, scientists, and local 
officials. 
 
¶6. (U) Dora Poluksht, the director of Chukotka's regional education 
department, told us that high school exchanges have a bleak future 
if travel between Chukotka and Alaska is not simplified.  An 
Anchorage high school recently invited Chukotka students to visit 
Alaska as part of a school partnership program, and students even 
raised money to cover airfare.  But the Russian students were forced 
to cancel their trip because of the expense of obtaining a visa. 
 
¶7. (U) Some travelers can cross the Alaska-Chukotka border without 
visas, at least in theory.  The 1989 U.S.-USSR Agreement on Mutual 
Visits by Inhabitants of the Bering Straits Region provided a means 
for members of specific ethnic groups residing in designated 
districts of Alaska and Chukotka to travel visa-free to qualifying 
districts across the border.  The agreement was intended to 
facilitate family and cultural links among Beringia's indigenous 
peoples.  However, according to several conference participants and 
as earlier reported by Consulate General Vladivostok (ref B), the 
travel procedures have never operated smoothly. 
 
¶8. (U) The original Bering Straits Agreement requires eligible 
travelers from both the United States and Russia to provide at least 
ten days' advance notice of visa-free travel and to carry an insert 
in their passports certifying permanent residence in one of the 
qualifying districts.  In 1991, the two sides amended the agreement 
so that qualifying Alaska residents could travel to Chukotka with 
passport stamps instead of inserts.  However, Russian border guards 
have not accepted passport stamps, thereby shutting down visa-free 
travel to the designated Russian areas by eligible Alaska natives. 
One Alaska native at the Beringia Days conference recounted a visit 
to Chukotka earlier this year in which border guards detained her 
delegation for five hours due to alleged problems with their travel 
documents.  She did not say whether the dispute concerned the 
passport stamp mentioned above.  Many Chukotka residents, on the 
other hand, have followed these procedures and visited Alaska 
without incident, according to conference participants.  Our MFA 
contacts and Chukotka's deputy governor have told us that problems 
have arisen for U.S. travelers because the USG has never fully 
complied with the procedures under the Bering Straits Agreement (see 
para. 16). 
 
¶9. (U) Aside from the problem of travel documents, logistics also 
present obstacles.  There are no regularly scheduled commercial 
flights between Chukotka and Alaska, although the Alaska-based 
carrier Bering Air provides charter flights from Nome.  In addition, 
Chukotka remains a restricted territory.  American visitors, as well 
as Russians not permanently resident in Chukotka, must obtain a 
special permit from the Russian federal government in order to 
visit.  The permit -- which requires an invitation from a 
Chukotka-based entity at least 30 days in advance of travel, or 40 
days for non-Russians -- introduces further delay and complication 
into an already complicated process. 
 
¶10. (U) The Foreign Ministry has urged the USG to help establish 
direct mail links between Chukotka and Alaska (ref A).  Prominent 
Chukotkan dogsled racer Nikolai Ettyne told us in Anadyr that this 
is necessary, because even something as simple as sending a letter 
between Chukotka and Alaska is a risky undertaking.  Ettyne told us 
that he missed an important deadline recently when sending an 
 
MOSCOW 00002538  003.2 OF 004 
 
 
express mail package through the Russian mail system from Chukotka 
to Alaska, because the package was delayed several days, being 
routed first through Moscow and Western Europe before reaching the 
United States. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
BERINGIA PARK NOT READY FOR PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶11. (U) The poster child for closer Alaska-Chukotka ties is a 
"Beringia Shared Heritage Area" -- in effect, a bilateral national 
parks partnership, consisting of pre-existing protected nature 
territories on either side of the Bering Strait.  The United States 
and the Soviet Union first jointly resolved to create a "U.S.-Soviet 
International Park" at a presidential summit in 1990, but the idea 
ran into snags on both the U.S. and Russian sides.  One of the chief 
impediments on the Russian side has been the absence of a federally 
protected territory to contribute to the project. 
 
¶12. (SBU) On September 14, Aleksey Troitskiy of the Ministry of 
Natural Resources and Ecology (MNRE) told us that plans are 
proceeding apace to transfer Russia's existing Beringia 
Nature-Ethnic Park, located in Chukotka, from regional to federal 
jurisdiction.  Troitskiy said that feasibility studies on the 
proposal should be completed by year's end, and interagency approval 
of a federal management structure for the park will likely take an 
additional three months.  He estimated that by the end of March 
2010, Russia would be ready to negotiate a bilateral agreement 
establishing the Shared Heritage Area. 
 
¶13. (SBU) In Anadyr, the director of the regional Beringia 
Nature-Ethnic Park, Natalya Kalyuzhina, explained the park's 
background and preparations for the transfer to federal authority. 
Russia established the park in 1993 as its contribution to a future 
international territory.  But the park remained under regional 
jurisdiction due to the intervention of local authorities, which at 
that time were much more powerful and independent than today. 
Because the park was always intended to be temporary, it has few of 
the trappings of a full-fledged park.  It has no visitor center and 
no regular scientific activity aside from staffers' daily diaries of 
observations of flora, fauna, and weather patterns.  Authorities are 
reluctant to add to its budget.  The park employs 22 staffers, 
including 15 inspectors who have no authority to enforce park 
protection regulations.  If they discover violations, they must 
contact regional authorities, who in turn dispatch enforcement 
agents. 
 
¶14. (SBU) The regional park covers 135,000 contiguous square miles. 
But the federal government's current plan calls for contributing 
less than one-tenth of that land to the Shared Heritage Area. 
MNRE's notional map shows 15 disconnected plots, totaling 11,600 
square miles, scattered along the Bering Strait and Bering Sea 
coastline.  MNRE told us that this plan remains under discussion and 
could change before the government completes its feasibility 
studies.  Natalya Kalyuzhina said that the notion of fragmenting the 
territory makes no sense, given the logistical difficulty of 
traveling among the separate areas. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
DEPUTY GOVERNOR PUSHES "TOTAL DEVELOPMENT PACKAGE" 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶15. (SBU) On September 19, Chukotka's recently appointed Deputy 
Governor, Leonid Gorenshteyn, told us that the regional government 
is working with Moscow on a broad set of economic priorities under 
Chukotka's strategic development plan, which President Medvedev 
approved in 2008.  As Gorenshteyn described them to us, the 
priorities substantially parallel the Bering Strait cooperation 
proposals that MFA's U.S. bilateral affairs director, Alexander 
Zakharov, presented to the Embassy on April 17 (ref A).  The 
proposals include expanding the existing Bering Strait visa-free 
travel regime to all permanent residents of Alaska and Chukotka, 
 
MOSCOW 00002538  004.2 OF 004 
 
 
creating the Beringia Shared Heritage Area, and boosting economic 
ties through improved travel and postal infrastructure.  Gorenshteyn 
also suggested that the United States and Russia conclude new Bering 
Straits Agreements to reflect new realities.  However, he did not 
indicate what elements of the two original 1989 agreements should be 
changed. 
 
¶16. (SBU) ESToff asked Gorenshteyn how it is possible to implement, 
let alone expand, visa-free travel between Alaska and Chukotka when 
even Russian citizens still require special permission to enter 
Chukotka, and when visiting Alaskan delegations are detained while 
trying to take advantage of visa-free travel.  Gorenshteyn 
downplayed the problems, saying that the procedures are workable as 
long as travelers follow them.  He alleged that the United States 
has never fully complied with the established procedure under the 
Bering Straits Agreement.  He suggested, as an alternative, that the 
United States establish a consular presence in Chukotka.  He noted 
that local residents who need to travel to the United States with a 
visa find it exceedingly difficult to do so because of the time and 
expense of traveling to Vladivostok or Moscow for an interview. 
 
¶17. (SBU) ESToff remarked that proposals for improved transportation 
infrastructure, including regular commercial flights between 
Chukotka and Alaska, would not be workable without a stronger 
economic basis.  (Note: Bering Air canceled its regularly scheduled 
service between Alaska and Chukotka some years ago, reportedly 
because of poor profitability.  A State of Alaska official told us 
that requests for bribes by Chukotka transportation officials also 
played a role in the decision.  END NOTE.) 
 
------- 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶18. (SBU) Chukotka's 50,000 residents have very limited 
transportation links with the rest of Russia.  They are virtually 
salivating at the prospect of receiving an economic boost from their 
proximity to Alaska to attract investment and tourism, as well as to 
cross the Bering Strait themselves for exchange visits, educational 
and scientific cooperation, and tourism.  The key, most say, is to 
simplify travel across the Bering Strait.  The reality, however, is 
that Chukotka is a sparsely populated region whose economic 
circumstances, although improving, are still poor.  It is difficult 
to imagine that Russia's Federal Security Service would accept the 
idea of dropping the visa requirement for all Alaska residents, 
although the MFA has assured us it will happen if the U.S. agrees. 
 
BEYRLE