Source: Houston Chronicle Page: 15A Contact: Pubdate: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 Website: http://www.chron.com/ American plans to give millions to Russians Copyright 1997 Houston Chronicle News Services MOSCOW American financier and philanthropist George Soros announced plans Monday to donate between $300 million and $500 million for health, civic and social programs in Russia over the next three years. In the past several years, Soros has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Russia, other East European countries and nations around the world to build democratic institutions and support educational programs. His new plans for Russia emphasize services to the population that the government of President Boris Yeltsin and local authorities are unable to provide. His announcement came on the heels of a highprofile, $1 billion pledge to the United Nations by U.S. television magnate Ted Turner. With the huge amounts, the pair seem to be setting a pace for a scale of international giving that once came principally from governments. The United States provided less than $100 million in aid to Russia last year. Soros's new plans in Russia will deepen his already complex relationship with the country. Soros's activities here are not only philanthropic but also moneymaking. At a Moscow news conference Monday, many more questions were asked about his business activities than his donations. Soros said he has invested $2 billion in Russia, but he predicted that the return on his investments will never match what he'll donate. "I have a political objective, which is to help foster an open society, and I have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of," Soros said. Soros listed seven targets for his new donations: health care, particularly for mothers and newborns, and to fight tuberculosis and antibioticresistant diseases; education, to shore up mathematics and science teaching and to liberalize instruction in other courses; cultural institutions; books and periodicals for libraries; extension of Internet services to schools, hospitals, museums and libraries; law courses at universities and legal training for local government officials; job training for former military officers and management courses for business people. He pledged to preserve the Russian projects he has already started, which include support for scientific instruction, newspapers and human rights. Soros made waves in Russia this year when he joined a consortium to purchase a 25 percent stake in the staterun Syazinvest telecommunications company. The bidding pitted Russian bankers against one another, and the losers roundly complained, often through newspapers and television networks they control. The row split the ranks of the bankers who, in last year's presidential election, supported Yeltsin with money and positive coverage in their media subsidiaries. The creation of powerful banks, along with the emergence of a few large firms controlling natural resources, has placed the bulk of Russia's economy in relatively few hands. Soros said it is time for the new Russian oligarchy to play by open rules. "I think the consolidation of the oligarchy into legitimate capitalist entities would be a positive step. ... They must make the transition from acting as robber capitalists to acting as legitimate capitalists," he said.