From: nev@renews.relcom.msk.su (Shliemin Vladimir/renews administration)
Subject: RUSSIAN NETWORK MAGAZINE -- RENEWS
Keywords: Information about Computer Market in Russia
Reply-To: nev@renews.relcom.msk.su
Organization: Joint-Stock Company RELCOM
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 92 00:52:13 +0300


                                  RUSSIA
                                    **
                                R E N E W S

                       network newsletter of RELCOM

                    ******************************************
                                 ReNews N 4
                                 ----------

            CONTENTS
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
* COMMUNICATING WITH THE PRESIDENT
* RELARN -- RUSSIAN NETWORK FOR SCHOLARS
* IBM: EXPANSION TO THE EAST?
* WTL-BLC: HUMANISTS WITH COMPUTERS
* RENEWS -- FIRST ORIGINAL NETWORK MAGAZINE IN THE COUNTRY
* HONG KONG BUYS BRAINS IN RUSSIA AND OFFERS EXCHANGE
* SHERIFF WILL PROTECT YOU
------------------------------------


COMMUNICATING WITH THE PRESIDENT
                News from the President's Administration

        The goverment of Russia passed a resolution outlining the
principles of the future automation of information exchange
between local organs of government of the Russian Federation,
the Administration of the President and the government apparatus.


The Information Bureau  in the Administration of the President
will act as the chief customer of these systems.

The Bureau headed by Vasily Kupriyanovsky is entrusted
to represent the interests of the Administration in the field
of creating like systems for the purpose of information
exchange with foreign countries and governments.

The Bureau is responsible for all payments for purchases
of technical facilities and payments for data exchange services
between local executives, the Administration and the goverment
apparatus.

According to the same resolution the Russian Ministry of
Finance is instructed to subsidize the operation
and  development of these automated information exchange systems.




RELARN -- NETWORK FOR SCHOLARS

        The Ministry of Science, Higher Education and Technical
Policy of the Russian Federation, The Russian Academy of Sciences
and the Russian Scientific Centre "Kurchatov Institute" have made
a joint decision to create a Russian non-commercial scientific
research network RELARN (Russian Electronic Academic and Research
Network) with the RELCOM transport infrastructure as the
technical base.

Recently -- in connection with the soaring of tariffs for
the communication lines the use of the Relcom network
has become a financial burden for
state-financed organizations especially those conducting
fundamental and applied scientific research.

The high cost of e-mail services is becoming a serious obstacle
in the way of mutually beneficial international information
exchange.

However RELCOM as an electronic data network has been succesfully
operating on the territory of the former USSR for a long time.
It embraces over 2500 organizations-subscribers, among them about
300 Russian academic institutions, higher education
establishments, state scientific organizations and centres of
scientific and technical information. The RELCOM network is
operated by a corporation under the same name.

RELCOM is officially registered as part of the international
computer communications system and thus efficiently sends
messages back and forth inside the CIS and abroad to subscribers
of EUnet, Internet, BITNet, MCI-mail, Compuserve and other
networks.

The non-commercial status of RELARN allows to consider lowering
tariffs for data exchange and introducing possible tax privileges
for the network participants. It also gives an opportunity
to simplify considerably contacts with a number of networks which
according to their charters are able to cooperate only with
non-commercial organizations. Proposed network structure will
allow to render it state and international assistance.

                        ***
We asked Alexei Platonov, head of the Russian Institute for
Development of Social Networks, to comment on this report.

"We realize that the price raise is yet unavoidable. But we must
take notice that some scientific and education establishments
cannot afford RELCOM services even with its modest prices.

We believe that breaking the principles of international
cooperation poses the most dangerous threat to science today.
That means we have to find a way to help the institutes get out
of this situation. What can and must be done?

We discussed this idea with the Ministry of Science and the
Russian Academy of Sciences. As a result we got their consent to
support our undertaking. The Ministry together with the Academy
decided to create a non-commercial  scientific network with
the state paying for the work of scientific and
several other non-commercial organizations.

In the nearest future we plan to work out and approve the RELARN
Charter, to list all organizations-participants in this pool.

By the way, it was RELCOM which was the first organization to
respond to the appeal to support scientific establishments in
complex financail conditions. Almost 50 institutes and scientific
organizations have received discounts within the network.


IBM: EXPANSION TO THE EAST?


International Business Machines has completed a grandiose raid
through the CIS cities. In 3 weeks its
representatives have managed to visit the 6 largest centres of
the Commonwealth: Kiev, Ekaterinburg (former Sverdlovsk),
Novosibirsk, Alma-Ata, St. Petersburg, Moscow -- demonstrating
the latest in IBM technology: the IBM AS/400, a middle-class
computer system for business and industry.

***

Ilya Kucherenko, information service coordinator of the Russian
IBM branch, said:
"We coudn't even imagine that, for example, there are so many
banks in Novosibirsk. The pavilion where our IBM AS/400 system
was on display was full. People were standing in the aisles.
Altogether our equipment is of great interest in Siberia and the
Urals. People here understand that the future of the whole region
depends upon the kind of machines that will be used in industry.
And the future is closely tied to the fate of heavy and war
industry plants -- and there are a lot of them here.

We included Kiev in our tour because it is a city of
industry and banking, the capital of sovereign state.
Moreover, in the nearest future IBM plans to open a Ukranian
IBM branch there. By the way, its future director took part
in the presentation and conducted several business meetings
within its framework.

The trip to Kazahstan's capital Alma-Ata was a tribute to
its President's new approach to state development and economy.
N.Nazarbaev has enough weight for us to have made corrections
for Kazahstan while outlining our policy in the CIS.

The systems were presented by specialists directly from the US,
Italy (ABS -- Application Business Systems -- were created in
the European IBM Centre specializing in software). Our
specialists from France and England were at work at the
presentations."

Ph. +7 095 235-6602, -6612, -4844


WTL-BLC: HUMANISTS WITH COMPUTERS
(,       !   
 !)

After more than 70 years there is at last an understanding in
this country that a person needs more than declarations of
supremacy of interests, that he needs clothes and shoes, decent
working conditions and food. All of a sudden we found out that
even "our" Soviet citizen can be taken ill and that means that
someone should cure him with something. But "the most humane
society" just couldn't afford this lacking the same old
despicable money. Hence the many problems became more and more
painful each year.

Boris Chate, a businessman from the USA, said:

"I have been living in the States for almost 15 years. I have my
own business which gives me a chance to buy a new "Mercedes"
every 3 or 4 years.

But no matter how well a person is off he still cannot forget his
Motherland. There comes a time when you have to help it.

Our company WTL BLC was created on the basis of 2 independent
firms. One deals with transport operations, the other works in
the field of computer equipment. We have interesting projects
about creating complex computerized systems, networks, means of
database access. And we have decided to carry our experiment and
knowledge over to Russia.

I am not inclined to believe  that the best kind of help for a
person is charity or dole. That's why I didn't take the path of
giving alms or delivering food parcels. Today the country is
most of all in need of a normal, civilized organization of its
labour resources and production process. That's why we have
decided to deliver high-quality and easy-to-use computers and
office equipment.

For example, we are conducting large-scale projects in
Magnitogorsk. In the field of economics we are creating automated
control systems for metallurgy. Right now we are working on an
inner-city system of credit payments based on magnetic credit
cards -- there is a great shortage of cash in the city.

But the problems people have here are much bigger than pure
implementation of modern information technologies. And
having learned about their concerns and needs we began
delivering first-rate medical equipment. And not only
delivering...

Right now we have Bob Rigers working on it. He used to work in
one of the largest hospitals in New York City and he came to us
after having heard that we were hiring specialists in medical
equipment installation to work in Russia. Now we do things the
way they are done in America.

Being an emigrant from Russia I know very well that there are
many talented and energetic people in this country. They only
need a little push at the start. And then their business will
start rolling."


THE FIRST NETWORK MAGAZINE IN THE COUNTRY IS OURS

The Relcom Corp. has began publishing the first original network
magazine in the country -- RENEWS. Today RENEWS is a regular
publication, its monthly volume is equal to 200 Kbytes.

Right from the very beginning of its publication and distribution
within the RELCOM network RENEWS has been able to prove its
informativeness and competence. You can find on its computer
"pages" information coming from goverment circles, state
establishments, private firms and prosperous foreign
corporations.

Today RENEWS informs only about computer science and technology,
programming, service equipment. It also touches upon the results
and perspectives of the activities of foreign firms in the CIS
and Russian markets.

We expect RENEWS to include information on atomic physics
and energetics, high technology and investment beginning
this fall.

Information placed in RENEWS is accessible to all RELCOM
users. And they are professionals in business and science.


RUSSIANS WANTED

"We know so little about each other", says head of the Hong Kong
Polytechnic University, professor Chang U Chung."We couldn't even
imagine how interesting and meaningful the potential of your
specialists in the field of information technology could be until
several representatives from the Institute of Information
Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences visited us. Even this
brief acquantaince has demonstrated that mutual contacts in this
sphere might be extremely interesting for us. "

Professot Chang U Chung headed the delegation of the University
specialists which has recently visited Moscow. Our guests were
hoping to find channels of cooperation with Russian scientists.
And they were especially interested in specialists in computer
science: programmers, computer and network developers.

"Of course we would like to invite your scholars, researchers to
come to work here or at least appear with lectures", says
Benjamin K. Tsoi, deputy director of the University in charge of
scientific research and development. "But we know that your
scholars use their own method in research work often because
there is a lack of information about the accepted in other
countries methods of solving applied problems. And that's why we
are planning to establish a two-way exchange. So that way your
scholars will begin working in Hong Kong and our programmers will
came to Russia and help to master the methods of creating modern
applied programs which can become a ready product in the world
market."


SHERIFF AGAINST TECHNORATS

"We are ready to put up a barrier against any most complex
computer viruses", says Yuri Fomin, creator of an original
combined anti-virus system SHERIFF." At least check-ups and
testing of the system so far have demonstrated that SHERIFF can
locate and clear out practically all known viruses."

While fighting the viruses Fomin noticed that systems based on
hardware didn't possess the flexibility necessary for defining
and preventing virus activity. Software, on the other hand,
sometimes mixes up the actions of the operator with the reaction
of the machine to the penetration of the virus.

A specialist in microelectronics, Fomin understood and was able
to design a chip of any profile. And for a man who spent a
considerable amount of time working in programming systems
software was also comprehensible and accesible.

"As a result I managed to create a most interesting combinations.
The controller card which easily inserts into the PC board,
functions in linkage with the detecting program. Together they
can detect any change,any unauthorized attempt to influence in
any way the contents of computer memory, to penetrate its
operating system, setup, to influence the functioning of any
software. While testing the SHERIFF system we were able to
detect such influence with 100 percent reliability."

... Not so long ago we came across a news report from the
American newsletter The Teleputing Hotline saying that the
anti-virus struggle marks a new stage. Alllegedly, somewhere in
States someone thought of a "smart card" able to locate and stop
viruses successfully. What about SHERIFF then? It has been
working for more than one day. And it looks like it is as
efficient as its younger brother across the ocean.

So beware, technorats!  SHERIFF is rising against you!



            ------------------------------------------
           Contacts: . +7 095 361 7211
                          +7 095 731 0330
  -----------------------------------------------------------------

         Vladimir Shliemin
      Head of Information department,  RELCOM Corp.
      Editor of RENEWS
    !-----------------------------------------------------------------!
    !       E'mail: nev@renews.relcom.msk.su                          !
    !-----------------------------------------------------------------!



Newsgroups: misc.invest