Russian Food Gifts Being ‘Held Hostage’

Nearly 33 tons of food flown from San Diego two weeks to feed hungry Russians was last seen by U.S. charity workers in a warehouse on a military airfield near Moscow, stripped of its labels and held hostage to an apparent extortion plot, relief workers said Monday.

When a military-style cargo plane took off Dec. 29 from San Diego with the huge shipment, 97 tons in all, charity organizers hailed the flight as a humanitarian triumph over bureaucracy and confusion. But upon the plane’s arrival in Russia, the workers said, the effort became a sharp lesson in opportunism and international intrigue.

“It’s so unfortunate, because a lot of people are trying to help other people in the ex-Soviet Union,” said Neil Frame, executive director of Operation U.S.A., the Los Angeles-based relief agency that coordinated the flight. “You hear about stuff like this, and it’s just going to sour people and make them leery.”

Food shortages plague the 11-nation Commonwealth of Independent States, which this month succeeded the former Soviet Union.

It was with the best of intentions that relief workers loaded the foodstuffs and medicine onto an Aeroflot Antonov 124, one of the world’s largest airplanes, as it sat at Lindbergh Field.

The enormous jet, chartered by a Russian company called VEK, had flown to San Diego to drop off the Age of Russia yacht for the America’s Cup races--although that boat is not the official Russian challenger, since it does not come from a recognized yacht club, America’s Cup officials have said repeatedly.

After unloading the boat, VEK made the plane available to U.S. charities for the return flight.

Park West Children’s Fund of San Pedro piled on 64 tons, made up of dehydrated noodle soup and an over-the-counter stomach remedy. Children as the Peacemakers Foundation, a San Francisco-based group, donated the other 33 tons, which included baby food, pasta, flour and canned meats. Representatives of both groups also flew to Russia to oversee distribution.

Since the San Francisco group lacked proper documents for international shipments, the 33-ton donation was listed with the Park West goods on the shipping bill, said Sondra Tipton, Park West’s president.

The 64-ton Park West shipment was always intended for the families of Russian troops who had not been paid regularly, and that’s where Tipton said she believes it ended up, since it was controlled by military authorities. But the 33-ton donation was intended for hospitals and orphanages.

When the plane arrived in Russia, at a military airfield near Moscow, authorities would not release the 33-ton shipment to Children as Peacemakers officials, said staff member Elaine Bellezza, who had flown to the site. Instead, she was told, the food would go to the families of troops.

Vladimir Kulbida, the businessman who heads VEK, announced that because of the mix-up in the shipping bill, the cargo was commercial, not humanitarian. And in a Jan. 7 letter to Park West officials, Kulbida said his company would be forced to demand $250,000, which he labeled freight charges, to free the 33 tons of food.

“I looked at this letter and was incredulous,” said Operation U.S.A.’s Neil Frame. “To me it looked like they were blatantly holding the cargo hostage for payment.”

He added, “How all of a sudden does paying this commercial freight bill have anything to do with getting it released from the military?”

The bill was not paid. Patricia Montandon, who heads Children as the Peacemakers, said Monday from San Francisco that she was still waiting to hear from Russian officials about the shipment.

Montandon, a San Francisco society figure, said news of the shipment was picked up by the Russian media and drove her into hiding at a Moscow hotel--after she held a news conference in the Russian capital.

She also said, “The major part of the story is something I’m not even going to tell you yet,” but she declined to provide details.

Marina Kopel, a Soviet-born executive with a North Hollywood firm who had been acting in recent months as a VEK spokeswoman, did not return a phone call Monday to her San Diego hotel.

Natasha Gracheva, who reportedly has replaced Kopel in the past few days as VEK’s authorized spokeswoman, also did not return calls to her office and hotel in San Diego.

In an undated letter to “Whom it may concern,” Yuri Solonnikov, who identified himself as VEK’s lawyer, said it would have been impossible “on both legal grounds and humanitarian considerations” to deliver the goods to anyone but the families of Russian troops.

Only the Russian Defense Ministry and VEK had the right to distribute the shipment, Solonnikov said. If it went elsewhere, he said, it might ultimately end up on store shelves in Russia. That’s why, if it didn’t go to the troops, the food had to be considered commercial cargo, he said.

Amid the confusion, America’s Cup organizers waited Monday to learn whether the official Russian challenger would arrive in town.

If the Red Star ’92 yacht makes it to San Diego, another Antonov 124 may again go back to Russia with donations from U.S. charities. Anita Scheff, who heads an Oakland group called To Russia With Love, said Monday that she has collected 4 tons of food, split it into 40-pound packages for Moscow schoolchildren, and hopes to get it aboard a Moscow-bound flight.

The yacht, called White Nights, had been due to arrive last Saturday in San Diego. It is sponsored by a duly recognized yacht club in St. Petersburg, the city that used to be known as Leningrad.

But the yacht did not show, and America’s Cup officials are not certain when--or if--it will appear at Lindbergh Field, regatta spokeswoman Jane Eagleson said.

Under Cup rules, the yacht must be in San Diego by Jan. 15 for measurement, though that’s a technicality that might be waived if the boat appears before the challenger trials begin Jan. 25 off Point Loma, she said.

America’s Cup officials have asked the two Russian syndicates to work out the dispute between themselves, possibly by combining camps, Eagleson said.