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HEADLINE: Events
 
 

Accidents

Jan 1, 1997
SNOWBOUND TRAVELERS RESCUED.
Russian rescue teams airlifted some 148 people from a high mountain tunnel road in the Caucasus after avalanches had left them trapped for almost a week. Some 60 people opted to stay in the tunnel to guard their cars. The tunnel is known as the Roksky Tunnel and connects the Russian province of North Ossetia with its Georgian breakaway counterpart, South Ossetia.

Aug 29, 1996
RUSSIAN PLANE CRASH KILLS 143.
A Russian airliner crashed into a mountain on Spitsbergen, a Norwegian island in the Arctic Circle, killing 143 people, mostly Russian and Ukrainian coal miners and their families. The jet had departed from Moscow and was landing on the island to pick up an equal number of coal miners who were to take the plane back to Russia. The three-engine Tu-154 was operated by Vnukovo Airlines, a so-called "baby flot" created from the breakup of the Soviet airline Aeroflot, and apparently lost its way on its landing descent, crashing into the 3,000-foot Mount Opera near Longyearbyen, the island's main town. It was the third major crash involving a Tu-154 since 1993. The Soviet Union acquired mining rights to the Svalbard archipelago, of which Spitsbergen is the biggest island, in 1935. Two-thirds of the Svalbard's population of some 2,500 are citizens from former Soviet republics. Two mines in the archipelago extract some 600,000 tons of coal a year, twice the output of Norwegian mines.

Aug 16, 1996
FLOODS IN FAR EAST CAUSE MUCH DAMAGE.
Flooding in Russia's Far East caused an estimated $140 million in damage to roads, bridges, and homes, according to civil defense estimates. Two weeks of torrential rains caused rivers to overflow their banks, ruining hundreds of miles of roads, some 84 bridges, and 3,444 homes. At least 10,000 square miles of territory were declared a disaster zone.

Jul 29, 1996
HUGE OIL FIRE RAGES IN SOUTH RUSSIA.
A major fire at a southern Russian oil refinery was reported burning out of control. The Itar- Tass news agency said the blaze at an oil storage area at a Volgorad refinery that is a subsidiary of Lukoil, Russia's largest oil company, started five days ago because of a "breach of security" and was not likely to be put out for at least the next three days. The fire threatened a nearby thermal power station.

May 31, 1996
TRAIN CRASH KILLS DOZENS.
As many as 50 Russians were reported killed in western Siberia when runaway freight cars collided with a passenger train near the city of Kemerovo.

Apr 8, 1996
PLANE CRASH KILLS 21.
The wreckage of a Russian civilian cargo plane was found on the slope of a volcano in the Russian Far East. The IL-76 plane carrying 21 people was reported missing four days ago on a flight from Siberia to the Kamchatka Peninsula.

Dec 18, 1995
DEBRIS FROM PLANE FOUND.
Debris from a plane carrying 97 people that went missing in the Russian Far East on Dec 6 was found by accident in a remote region northeast of the city of Khabarovsk. A large crater and evidence of an explosion indicated to searchers that the plane crashed almost vertically at high speed.

Dec 14, 1995
SEARCH ON FOR LOST RUSSIAN PLANE.
Rescue officials widened their hunt for a three-engine jet with 97 people aboard that disappeared Dec 6 on its way from Sakhalin Island to the mainland in Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East. Roving planes, warships, helicopters, and ski and foot patrols have so far failed to find any wreckage. The disappearance came on the heels of two fatal airline crashes in Azerbaijan in which 50 lives were lost. Officials speculated that poor maintenance may be to blame for the jet's downing, reviving concerns about air safety in the former Soviet Union.

Dec 9, 1995
RUSSIAN SEARCHERS FIND EVIDENCE OF PLANE CRASH.
Russian searchers looking for a plane carrying 97 people said they may have found evidence of a crash in the Tatar Strait. The Tupolev-154 airliner was flying from Sakhalin Island to the Russian mainland when it disappeared from radar screens. The plane was reported to be carrying 5 tons of caviar, a substantial overload that may have contributed to its downing.

Apr 27, 1995
GAS RUPTURE SPOTTED BY AIRPLANE.
A gas pipeline in northern Russia exploded in the early morning, sending a fireball sky high and scorching acres of surrounding forest before it was put out. There were no injuries reported. The blast occurred in Ukhta, an oil-refining center 800 miles northeast of Moscow. The crew of a passing Japanese airliner reported seeing flames reaching thousands of feet into the atmosphere. A chief engineer with the gas company said gas traffic will resume by tonight.

Oct 14, 1994
RUSSIAN AIRLINE SAFETY QUESTIONED.
A joint U.S.-Russian report on Russian civil aviation concluded that safety standards will soon fall below minimum international guidelines unless Moscow intervenes to overhaul the system. A panel of experts estimated the cost of such an overhaul at $2 billion. To meet the minimum standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency, Moscow needs to ensure that Russian airlines are properly monitored and certified, and to centralize the country's air traffic control systems.

May 14, 1994
BOMB DEPOT EXPLODES.
A bomb storage complex housing ordnance for Russia's Pacific Fleet exploded in the far east of the nation, injuring several people and forcing the evacuation of 3,000 residents of the nearby town of Novonezhino. Authorities said no chemical or nuclear bombs were part of the blast.

Apr 5, 1994
CHILDREN RESPONSIBLE FOR PLANE CRASH IN SIBERIA.
Russian aviation officials revealed that a crew member of the Aeroflot passenger plane that crashed on Mar 22 in Siberia and killed all 75 people aboard had let his children inside the cockpit to teach them to fly. The findings were announced after study of the plane's black box, or flight recorder. Officials speculate that one or more of the children accidentally disengaged the plane's automatic pilot and sent it on an unrecoverable dive that caused it to slam into a mountain four minutes later.

Mar 23, 1994
PLANE CRASH IN SIBERIA KILLS 75.
An Aeroflot passenger plane en route from Moscow to Hong Kong crashed in the Siberian wilderness, killing all 75 people aboard. In 1993, there were a total of 11 air crashes in which 221 people died.

Afghanistan Civil War

Nov 28, 1992
HEKMATYAR REBELS THREATEN PRISONER EXECUTION.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's fundamentalist Hezb-i-Islami rebel group threatened to start executing around 300 ex-Soviet prisoners of war if the Russian government does not stop printing money for Afghanistan as it has always done. Hekmatyar is trying to force the collapse of the Kabul economy so his group can oust the current government.

Aug 28, 1992
VIOLATING TRUCE, REBELS ATTACK RUSSIAN PLANE.
Ignoring a temporary cease-fire to permit evacuation of diplomatic personnel, rebels of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-i-Islami fired on a Russian plane attempting to evacuate the Russian ambassador to Afghanistan as well as other diplomats and family members. Moscow closed its embassy in Kabul yesterday after more than a dozen rebel rockets hit the compound and injured two staff members.
 
 

Russian military plane after rocket attack by Afghan rebels in Kabul [Reuters/Bettmann]

May 13, 1992
RUSSIAN OFFICIAL ARRIVES FOR TRY AT PEACE.
Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev arrived in Kabul to help work out the continuing difficulties there in settling on a permanent government to lead Afghanistan out of its worst political crisis ever. Kozyrev congratulated the nation's mujaheddin on eliminating " communist totalitarianism" and succeeded in securing the release of one former Soviet prisoner of war, who will leave with him for Moscow today.

Jan 1, 1992
UNITED STATES, MOSCOW MEET AFGHAN ARMS DEADLINE.
Finalizing a Sep 13, 1991 agreement, Moscow and the United States met today's deadline for halting the supply of weapons and other military aid to Afghanistan, ending their 12-year-long covert war over control of the country. Both had long supported their respective allies in the region President Mohammad Najibullah's government and an informal confederation of Pakistan-based Islamic rebel groups.

Corruption and Scandal

Jul 15, 1997
ACCUSED MINISTER RETURNS, DENIES ALLEGATIONS OF CORRUPTION.
Former Deputy Finance Minister Andrei Vavilov returned to Russia to face charges alleging that he misappropriated $237 million in promissory notes that were supposed to be used to finance an order of MiG jets. Vavilov is also accused of being responsible for the disappearance of additional money, bringing the total amount of government funds unaccounted for to more than half a billion dollars. Vavilov denied any involvement, saying that "all accusations against me are groundless." An article in Izvestia, a newspaper that is partially owned by Oneximbank, the parent company of a financial institution involved in the alleged dishonesty, claimed that the charges are retaliation on the part of the Gazprom gas company for a June attempt by Oneximbank to obtain seats on the utility's board of directors. Vladimir Potanin, the president of Oneximbank who was also briefly the deputy prime minister in charge of privatization, is also scheduled for questioning regarding the matter.

Jul 12, 1997
ARMS SALES CORRUPTION PROBED.
Reports said that prosecutors plan to interview Vladimir Potanin on allegations of corruption. Potanin was formerly the Cabinet's point man on privatization and currently serves as president of one of the leading Russian financial institutions, Oneximbank. Andrei Vavilov is also scheduled to be questioned. Vavilov was dismissed as deputy finance minister on Apr 15, and then was appointed president of an Oneximbank subsidiary called MFK. In his finance post, Vavilov allegedly authorized the purchase of $237 million in promissory notes from MFK, professedly to pay for MiG jets that were being sold to India. However, the notes were never passed on to the MiG factory. Vavilov is believed to be out of the country, with the reasons for his absence unclear.

Jun 18, 1997
FIRED ADMIRAL IS CHARGED.
Press reports said the former head of the navy, Adm. Igor Khmelnov, who was fired by President Boris Yeltsin in April, has now been charged with siphoning off funds intended for the fleet. The charges represent the latest of a number of cases brought against senior officials as part of the president's continuing campaign against corruption.

May 21, 1997
KOBETS ARRESTED.
Gen. Konstantin Kobets was arrested on charges that he received a house worth $241,000 in return for steering military contracts to the Lyukon company. Yesterday, President Boris Yeltsin dismissed Kobets from his post as deputy defense minister.

Nov 15, 1996
SECRET TAPE SCANDALIZES TOP AIDE.
Anatoly Chubais, the president's chief of staff, conspired with other Kremlin officials to cover up a campaign financing scandal last summer during the reelection of Boris Yeltsin. These and other sensational revelations were contained in the purported transcript of a secretly recorded meeting published in a popular Moscow daily, the Moskovsky Komsomolets. The Kremlin quickly denied that the conversations ever took place and said the tape was a fake made "to discredit presidential power after the successful operation on Boris Yeltsin." The mostly hard-line State Duma spent the day arguing about the tape and how Chubais should be sacked if the tape is able to be authenticated. In the meeting, which supposedly took place on Jun 22 at Yeltsin campaign headquarters, Chubais admits that two campaign aides were caught transporting the equivalent of half a million dollars from the Russian White House in an incident that at the time was fiercely denied by Chubais and Kremlin insiders. The meeting took place several days after Yeltsin's former bodyguard Aleksandr Korzhakov was dismissed from the Kremlin. The newspaper suggested that the tape was released by members of the presidential security service who remain faithful to their former chief. Korzhakov has publicly called for the dismissal of Chubais since his ouster from the Kremlin.

Jul 5, 1996
GRACHEV AND OTHERS ACCUSED OF GRAFT.
The head of Russia's State Duma defense committee accused ex-Defense Minister Pavel Grachev, his key aides, and other high-ranking officers of graft and ordered a legal investigation that was approved in a unanimous 301-0 Duma vote. The committee chairperson, Lev Rokhlin, a retired general and ally of Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, said top military officers are "mired in corruption."Rokhlin added, "While soldiers are on a hunger ration, while officers wait to get a flat for more than 10 years and get no salaries for months, those close to the defense minister are literally living it up." Reports of corruption among the top ranks of Russia's military are widespread and include tales of secret bank accounts and luxury dachas and cars bought with profits from the illegal sale of weapons for private gain. The corruption charges came as a replacement is sought for the ousted defense minister. Rokhlin has said he favors Gen. Igor Rodionov, who is also backed by Aleksandr Lebed, the new national security adviser who campaigned in June first-round presidential elections on an anticorruption platform. Grachev denied the charges against him. Two years ago, Dmitri Kholodov, a reporter for a Moscow daily, was assassinated while investigating graft by Russian troops while they were stationed in East Germany under Grachev's command. Kholodov had asserted that Grachev bought two Mercedes sedans by selling army equipment.

Nov 16, 1995
2,000 POLICE UNDER ARREST FOR GRAFT.
As many as 2,000 Russian police officers nationwide are under arrest for corruption or abusing their office, Interior Ministry chief Anatoly Kulikov announced. Kulikov said a major push is under way to purge all departments of crooked officers. In Moscow alone, 960 officers were dismissed this year for misconduct. Russian police are notoriously underpaid and easily tempted by organized criminals.

Dec 23, 1994
VLADIVOSTOCK MAYOR FIRED.
President Boris Yeltsin fired by decree Viktor Cherepkov, the democratically elected mayor of Vladivostock. Cherepkov was ousted from his post by federal police last Mar 17 on corruption charges. Criminal charges against Cherepkov were recently dropped and the formal firing was to prevent him from returning to his former post.

Nov 1, 1994
DEPUTY DEFENSE MINISTER SACKED.
President Boris Yeltsin fired Gen. Matvei Burlakov, a deputy defense minister, over allegations of corruption during his command of Russian forces in Germany. According to the presidential decree, Burlakov was dismissed "to preserve the honor of the Russian armed forces and its leaders . . . in connection with investigations which are currently in progress." A newspaper journalist was murdered two weeks ago while investigating allegations that military leaders profited from arms sales in Germany before the evacuation of Russian forces. The dismissal puts into question the future of Defense Minster Pavel Grachev, who was a staunch supporter of Burlakov and denied any wrongdoing was ever committed.

Jan 17, 1994
RUTSKOY ACQUITTED OF CORRUPTION CHARGES.
Former Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoy was cleared of corruption charges when documents implicating him in shady business dealings, including a sizable Swiss bank account of uncertain origin, were found to be faked. Officials of the anticorruption committee that indicted Rutskoy may be targeted for investigation. (Rutskoy was a rival of President Boris Yeltsin. He remains jailed while awaiting trial on charges relating to his role in an effort to depose Yeltsin last October.)

Crime

Sep 29, 1997
RUSSIA AND KAZAKHSTAN TO CRACK DOWN ON SMUGGLING.
Russian and Kazakh officials announced that they plan to reinforce their shared 4,350-mile-long border to halt the ongoing "massive smuggling" of arms and drugs. Contraband from Afghanistan and Tajikistan is smuggled easily through Kazakhstan, making its way into Russian and other Eastern European markets. The director of Russia's Federal Border Guard Service, Andrei Nikolayev, declared that "the conditions to provide calm in our states must be established on the border." Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said border guards from both countries must strengthen cooperation to address the situation.

Aug 18, 1997
ST. PETERSBURG OFFICIAL SHOT DEAD.
Mikhail Manevich, the deputy governor of St. Petersburg and the head of the municipal government's property commission, was killed by a rooftop sniper as he was driving to work. The gangland-style assassination fueled further suspicions about the connections between organized crime and the city government.

Nov 10, 1996
GRAVESIDE BOMB KILLS 14.
In a grisly bomb blast tied to the Russian mob, 14 people were killed and dozens injured at a graveside memorial service in Moscow. Some 150 people had gathered at the cemetery to pay their respects to Mikhail Likhodei, the leader of a group of Afghan war veterans who was himself assassinated two years ago in a gangland slaying. The powerful bomb, which was detonated by remote control, sent the bodies of mourners hurling into the trees and killed Likhodei's widow, mother, uncle, and his successor. Police said the contract murder probably stemmed from "some old score" between rival factions of the veteran's organization. Veterans of the Soviet Union's war against Islamic guerrillas in Afghanistan were granted special tax incentives and exemptions after the war in 1989, a status that organized criminals used to launder money by "investing" in the legitimate businesses of the veterans. The Russian press claimed the veteran's group that was targeted pulled in about $200 million a year, mostly from duty-free imports of cigarettes and alcohol. The Russian Fund for Invalids of the War in Afghanistan, whose members were gathered at the cemetery, split apart in 1993, one faction headed by Likhodei and the other by Valery Radchikov, who was arrested after the 1994 killing of Likhodei but was released for lack of evidence. Late last year Radchikov's car was sprayed with gunfire but he survived despite seven bullet wounds.
 
 

Plainclothes police officer taking notes on Nov 10, 1996 as he examines the scene of a graveside bomb blast linked to the Russian mafia [Reuters/Archive]

Nov 4, 1996
AMERICAN ENTREPRENEUR GUNNED DOWN IN MOSCOW.
A U.S. hotel executive involved in a drawn-out dispute over control of one of Moscow's top hotels was shot dead by an unknown assailant armed with a machine gun. Paul Tatum was killed outside a downtown subway station next to the Raddison-Slavanskaya hotel, where Tatum had his office and where since 1994 he had fought with the management of the joint venture that runs the riverfront hotel. The dispute was being investigated by U.S. and Russian courts and a decision was expected soon in the case, which Tatum, a founding partner of the hotel, had predicted would be in his favor. The killing of a foreign businessperson is rare in Moscow, although contract slayings of Russian entrepreneurs are on the rise.

Jul 19, 1996
BOMB AT RUSSIAN TRAIN STATION IS A DUD.
A home-made bomb left at a Russian train station failed to explode when its detonator went off at 6:00 A.M., Russian officials said. Two shopping bags containing about seven pounds of dynamite and packed with metal shrapnel were found in the main railway station in Voronezh, about 300 miles south of Moscow. Witnesses said a man and two women left the device and then fled in a car.

May 6, 1996
CRIME ON THE RISE.
Russia's prosecutor general predicted that the crime rate in Russia will more than double by 2000. Citing an increase in offenses by organized crime and minors, Yuri Skuratov said that the number of crimes reported last year was 2.7 million but that the actual number was as much as three times higher. According to Russian reports, crimes have doubled since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. In the United States by comparison, 14 million major crimes were reported in 1994, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Mar 14, 1996
FEWER PARDONS GRANTED.
Last year 86 Russian prisoners sentenced to death were shot and the number of stays of execution granted decreased, according to a member of the commission that oversees pardons. President Boris Yeltsin rejected some 30 appeals for mercy during the month of February 1996.

Jan 3, 1996
INTERIOR MINISTRY ANNOUNCES PRISON STATISTICS.
More than 1 million Russians of a population of about 150 million are in detention, according to Interior Ministry statistics. The number of prisoners in 1995 increased by 100,000 over the year before.

Nov 26, 1995
LAWMAKER SHOT BY BODYGUARD.
A young liberal member of the State Duma campaigning for reelection in his home district of Siberia was shot dead by his bodyguard in a drunken argument, according to press reports. Sergei Markidonov of the Stability Party became the fourth member of the lower house to be killed in the last two years. Police said the shooting was unpremeditated and that the bodyguard attempted unsuccessfully to take his own life after riddling the lawmaker's body with bullets.

Oct 17, 1995
RUSSIAN BANKER SLAIN.
In the latest contract murder to plague Russia's wealthy businessmen, the president of a commercial bank was shot in the head and killed as he walked to work. Mikhail Zhuravylov was president of Mostroibank, rated the 65th biggest bank in Russia. The murders are motivated by organized crime's interst in seizing control of the banking sphere.

Oct 15, 1995
BUS HIJACKER KILLED, HOSTAGES UNHARMED.
Police killed the armed attacker who took 24 South Korean tourists hostage on a bus in Moscow's Red Square yesterday. None of the hostages, who said they will continue their trip, were harmed. The hijacker remains unidentified.

Oct 14, 1995
SOUTH KOREAN TOURISTS TAKEN HOSTAGE IN MOSCOW.
An unidentified gunman took a busload of South Korean tourists hostage in Moscow's Red Square, demanding $1 million for their release. Preliminary, unconfirmed reports said the attacker is North Korean. The incident was the most shocking of its type since 1987, when a German teenager flew his light aircraft into the heavily guarded Red Square. The South Korean ambassador to Russia was dispatched to the scene, but he and others achived no results in brief talks with the gunman.

Aug 19, 1995
CHARGES BROUGHT AGAINST SATIRICAL PUPPET SHOW.
The producer of a televised puppet show that pokes fun at President Boris Yeltsin and his inner circle has been charged by the Moscow prosecutor's office with tax evasion and illegal currency dealings, according to the Itar- Tass news agency. The show, "Kukly," features puppet caricatures of such unpopular public figures as Yeltsin, Defense Minister Pavel Grachev, and Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. "Kukly" had been under investigation for insulting top officials in a Jul 8 episode that depicted Yeltsin and his premier as flophouse bums boozily singing patriotic songs of the Soviet era. The financial fraud charges carry much stiffer penalties (up to 15 years in prison combined, plus fines) than the offense of insulting officials, which is punished by up to two years of "corrective" labor, typically a pay cut or banishment from certain jobs. The show is aired on the NTV television station, which pioneered aggressive coverage of the Chechen war. The producer of NTV told reporters that the investigation is part of a government push to "rein in" the airwaves before upcoming presidential and legislative elections.

Aug 16, 1995
RUSSIAN BANKERS DECRY CONTRACT KILLINGS.
Members of the Roundtable, a group of the 200 largest businesses in Russia, staged a protest in front of the former KGB headquarters in Moscow demanding greater protection from contract slayings. Dozens of businessmen have been killed in such murders over the past year. The demonstration was sparked by the death of Ivan Kiveldi, a banker who was fatally poisoned earlier in the month. The protesters, surrounded by their burly bodyguards, demanded a government crackdown on crime, then lit candles and observed a moment of silence for their murdered colleagues. They said 90 attacks over the last year have resulted in 46 deaths. Nine senior members of the Roundtable were part of the death tally.

Aug 1, 1995
RUSSIAN HEAD OF AUM SECT CHARGED.
A Moscow court leveled criminal charges against Toshiyasu Ouchi, the leader of the Russian branch of the Japanese Aum Shinrikyo religious cult. "He is charged with threatening public security and citizens' health, as well as illegal appropriation of property," the prosecutor's office said. The sect's Moscow branch was formed in 1993 and ran as many as six centers in the city with a total membership of 30,000 followers, three times more than in Japan. The centers were all closed following the March 1995 poison gas attacks in Tokyo that were allegedly masterminded by Aum leader Shoko Asahara.

Jul 20, 1995
BANK CHIEF MURDERED.
Oleg Kantor, the chairperson of the large Yugorsky bank, was found murdered at his country house along with his bodyguard. Authorities said the killings had the markings of a contract slaying.

Jun 8, 1995
TOP MOBSTER ARRESTED IN UNITED STATES.
Vyacheslav Ivankov, a reputed top gangster, was arrested in Brooklyn, New York, on U.S. federal extortion charges. Ivankov is a member of the so-called "thieves in law," a codified elite of Russian criminal society, consisting of not more than 200 members who forswear all trappings of a law-abiding existence. Ivankov is accused of running an organized crime ring in Russia from his home in Brooklyn, to where he emigrated from Russia in 1993 using fraudulent documents. He was imprisoned in Russia from 1981 to 1991 for theft. In the United States, Ivankov and his thugs allegedly extorted millions of dollars from a New York-based investment advisory firm, Summit International, using threats and violence and killing the father of a principal in the firm.

Mar 7, 1995
MOSCOW MAYOR SAYS HE'LL QUIT.
Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov abruptly threatened to quit his post unless President Boris Yeltsin reinstated two police officials he fired after the mob killing of television executive Vladislav Listyev. Luzhkov, a vastly popular mayor with a scrappy reputation, said the firings of the chief of police and prosecutor constituted an indirect attack on his authority and claimed that their dismissals will only benefit the criminal gangs so vilified by Yeltsin. Many view Luzhkov as a potential rival for president in 1996, especially Yeltsin's controversial bodyguard Gen. Aleksandr Korzhakov, and rumors have circulated in the city over the last month that a hidden power struggle between the Kremlin and Moscow is being conducted. One Moscow columnist alluded to the schism when he wrote, "if previously the president could firmly depend on Moscow in critical times, now he intends to rely exclusively on his security service."

Mar 6, 1995
YELTSIN FIRES MOSCOW POLICE.
True to the promise he made last week, President Boris Yeltsin today dismissed the Moscow chief of police, Vladimir Pankratov, and the city prosecutor, Gennadi Ponomaryov. The two were dismissed amid growing public outrage at contract killings and the growth of organized crime after the gangland-style murder of television personality Vladislav Listyev on Mar 1. Yeltsin's continual talk of a crackdown on crime and his condemnation and impulsive dismissal of subordinates has spread concern in democratic groups that Russia's hard-won gains in civil liberties will be erased. These groups point to the fact that laws to prosecute organized criminals, such as racketeering and conspiracy statutes, do not yet exist on the books and that police are poorly paid and easily bribed. Nevertheless, Yeltsin is also reported to be working on decrees aimed at shutting down fascist and hate groups that preach violence against Jews and dark-complexioned Caucasians.

Mar 3, 1995
THOUSANDS MOURN JOURNALIST'S DEATH.
At least 10,000 people in Moscow lined up to mourn the killing of prominent television journalist Vladislav Listyev and to pass before his open casket inside the Ostankino television headquarters in a practice reminiscent of Soviet-era goodbyes to Kremlin leaders. Just as deceased Soviet leaders were memorialized in the past, newspapers blackened the borders of their front pages and devoted every inch of the page to Listyev's death. The Interior Ministry released sketches of two men suspected in Listyev's contract killing, the motive for which is still the subject of paranoid speculation. Most seem to think the killing was linked to financial conflicts. Listyev had supported a controversial ban on lucrative advertising on the state-run television station that was opposed by shady business interests. Advertising executives have countered that the killing may have been political: "He represented for everyone the new democracy and that is why he was murdered," one ad man said. The vast turnout for Listyev's funeral and the shock expressed at his killing have underscored the powerful influence of television and its stars in the former Soviet Union.
 
 

Russian citizens paying their last respects to slain television personality Vladislav Listyev on Mar 9, 1995 [Reuters/Bettmann]

Mar 2, 1995
RUSSIANS DECRY DEATH OF JOURNALIST.
Crowds gathered outside the Ostankino television station to mourn and question the brutal murder yesterday of Vladislav Listyev, the well-liked celebrity who was recently appointed to head the public television station. Inside the network building, President Boris Yeltsin made a televised appearance before a solemn crowd of employees in which he condemned Listyev's gangland killing and pinned the blame for the city's increased lawlessness on Moscow's popular mayor, Yuri Luzhkov. Yeltsin also said he will fire the city's chief of police and chief prosecutor. All major television stations cancelled their evening programming, including the news, to broadcast a special memorial program about Listyev. On radio talk shows, journalists and intellectuals voiced suspicions that the killing was a prelude to a government crackdown on mass media and independent politicians, saying that the police "want to have the right to bug, spy, and compile dossiers on citizens." Police officials countered that the killers of Listyev were professionals hired by business interests that targeted Listyev because he planned to ban commercial advertising on Ostankino, revenues from which can reach $8 million a month. Others fingered the powers that be, seeing in Yeltsin's somber televised scoldings a deliberate campaign to discredit potential political rivals for upcoming 1996 presidential elections. Mayor Luzhkov, a former democratic ally alienated by the increasingly secretive Yeltsin, is considered a possible candidate for those elections.

Mar 1, 1995
POPULAR RUSSIAN JOURNALIST SLAIN.
A celebrated Russian journalist and executive, Vladislav Listyev, was killed in a gangland shooting outside his apartment, according to Moscow police. Listyev rose to stardom during the glasnost period for his hardnosed television interviews with former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and before his death was the host of "Chas Pik" (Rush Hour), an interview show patterned after CNN's "Larry King Live." Listyev had recently been named the top executive at the reorganized Ostankino public television network and supported a proposed ban on commercial advertising at the station that was to have begun on Apr 1. The station had recently installed an in-house agency that increased ad revenues from about $1 million a month to almost $8 million after it was reported that unscrupulous entrepreneurs, employees, and clients were siphoning off much of the ad money. There was widespread speculation in the Moscow press that Listyev's death was a mafia hit by enemies of the ad ban. The formerly state-owned Ostankino was privatized last November among corporate shareholders but the state kept a controlling 51% share. It is a politically influential station that reaches across the entire former Soviet Union. According to a government member on the board of shareholders at Ostankino, the ban on advertising was intended "to determine the proper correlation between advertising on the one hand and the interests of economic development and moral criteria on the other." Losses in ad revenue were to be made up by private shareholders.

Feb 2, 1995
LAWMAKER SLAIN.
A businessman and member of the State Duma was kidnapped and executed with a gunshot to the head, according to Russian police. Sergei Skorochkin's body was found in a wooded area south of Moscow after he was kidnapped Feb 1 from a restaurant by a group of four armed men posing as police. Skorochkin made headlines in May 1994 when he shot and killed on the Moscow streets a Georgian man he said was threatening him. He was acquitted of that killing and the death of a woman passer-by who was shot in the crossfire on grounds of self-defense: he had claimed he was the target of the local mafia for refusing to pay protection money. Skorochkin had spent the time since then in Britain, where he had business interests, and had just returned to Russia. He was the third lawmaker to be killed since the State Duma was formed in December 1993.

Nov 5, 1994
LAWMAKER DIES FROM INJURIES.
A State Duma deputy from the Communist Party, Valentin Martemyanov, died from injuries he received when he was robbed and beaten several days ago. The death brought some calls for the resignation of Interior Minister Viktor Yerin, who has been criticized lately because of rising crime and lawlessness.

Oct 17, 1994
BOMB KILLS JOURNALIST.
A bomb blast killed a reporter who had written several stories exposing corruption in the military. Dmitry Kholodov covered the military beat for the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper and was scheduled to give testimony in the State Duma on illegal arms trading. The bomb was planted in a package that Kholodov picked up from a locker in a railroad station. Kholodov was told in an anonymous telephone tip that the box contained documents confirming that Russian military officials sold arms to Germany. According to a freedom of the press watchdog group in Russia, 25 journalists were killed and six disappeared in 1993 in the former Soviet Union.

Oct 13, 1994
HEAD OF MMM FUND RELEASED.
The jailed head of the failed MMM investment company was released on bail after serving two months in prison on charges of tax evasion and obstructing a federal investigation. Sergei Mavrodi swore not to leave Moscow until the question of his guilt is settled. He has registered to run for Oct 30 elections to the State Duma. If he wins, he will be immune from prosecution.

Aug 22, 1994
RUSSIA, GERMANY AGREE TO FIGHT NUCLEAR SMUGGLING.
High-level Moscow talks between Russian and German intelligence officials resulted in agreements to cooperate in the prevention of nuclear smuggling, including the tightening of border controls and improving the exchange of information between the two countries' security agencies.

Aug 18, 1994
THREE ARRESTED WITH NUCLEAR MATERIAL.
Russian police in Kaliningrad said they apprehended three men on Aug 12 who were trying to sell a container of unspecified radioactive material. The men told police they were asking for $1 million for the 132-pound container, which was leaking powerful radiation.

Aug 17, 1994
U.S. ENERGY CHIEF SAYS RUSSIA NEEDS ATOMIC SECURITY HELP.
U.S. Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary said Moscow needs to strengthen security at Russia's nuclear research and production complexes to staunch the black-market flow of weapons-grade fissionable material, calling it an international issue that requires vast sums of financial aid. Nuclear experts said several nuclear plants in Russia are in urgent need of attention: the Mayak, Chelyabinsk-65, or Kyshtym production complex in the Urals; the Bochvar Institute of Inorganic Materials in Moscow; and the Institute of Atomic Reactors, located 450 miles east of Moscow in Dimitrovgrad. At these places workers are generally poor and security is sometimes nonexistent. The type of nuclear material recovered after being smuggled into Munich over the last week is thought to be an experimental Russian nuclear mix called Mox (mixed oxide fuel), a combination of uranium and plutonium oxides used to fuel nuclear reactors.

Aug 15, 1994
MMM CHIEF CHARGED WITH TAX EVASION.
News reports said the chief of the failed investment fund MMM was charged with tax evasion and obstructing an investigation. Sergei Mavrodi, who was arrested on Aug 4, masterminded the pyramid scheme that lured millions of Russians to invest with promises of high returns. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted of tax evasion.

Aug 15, 1994
GERMANS SUSPECT RUSSIA'S MILITARY IN NUCLEAR SMUGGLING.
German authorities said a small amount of weapons-grade plutonium 239 that was intercepted on a plane from Moscow to Munich last week was the first shipment in a 10-pound exchange worth $250 million. Officials also claimed that the extremely toxic compound came from Russian security services. The police arrested a Colombian and two Spaniards as couriers. There were not any leads on a prospective buyer of the fissionable material. Scientists say a tiny particle of plutonium 239 inhaled can cause lung cancer and a small amount dumped into a city's water supply can kill close to a million people. While some experts claim it takes at least 20 pounds of the radioactive substance to build a nuclear bomb, other reports have indicated a bomb can be manufactured using less than three pounds of material. (Plutonium is an element that exists only in small amounts in nature and is manufactured as a byproduct in some types of nuclear reactors.) The amount of nuclear material recovered last week was 1.23 pounds, and consisted of 87% pure plutonium 239. Russian officials have denied that the material originated from Russia's military stockpiles, a claim that German police have challenged on the strength of laboratory tests that trace the material to Russia. Russia lacks a single controlling body to account for radioactive material; its Defense Ministry and Atomic Energy Ministry keep separate records and Moscow does not claim responsibility for nuclear material produced in other countries of the former Soviet Union.

Aug 13, 1994
SMUGGLED NUCLEAR MATERIALS SEIZED IN GERMANY.
German officials announced that they have seized a large amount of weapon-quality nuclear material that was being smuggled out of Russia. The officials said the material was the largest amount seized yet and indicates that there is a serious criminal conspiracy under way that is aimed at equipping interested buyers with the means to build an atom bomb. The amount of radioactive plutonium 239 seized about 500 grams is about 5% of the amount required to make a bomb. It was seized from baggage on a Lufthansa flight between Moscow and Munich. Three people, apparently couriers, were arrested. German officials are concerned that Russian scientists or security staff are selling the material. Russian atomic officials said they have no reports of missing plutonium from any of their facilities.

Aug 11, 1994
SECOND ATOMIC SAMPLE FOUND IN GERMANY.
Press reports said German police discovered a second small sample of highly enriched nuclear weapons-grade uranium-235 in June after finding a similar sample of plutonium-239 in May. The samples are believed to be from much larger quantities of radioactive material smuggled out of Russia and intended for sale to third parties, such as Iran and Iraq, interested in making an atomic bomb. One German official said, "This could turn into the most serious security threat since the end of the cold war, and it is getting steadily worse." German police said there were 123 cases of atomic smuggling mostly cesium and uranium used in industry from former communist countries last year.

Jul 27, 1994
STOCK COMPANY FALTERS.
Thousands of investors in a shady stock company called MMM, a pyramid scheme, scrambled to sell their shares, which lost half their value in a day. The popular investment company's stock is owned by at least 5 million people. Observers say the company's rise and fall points to the overwhelming public fascination with capitalism and a desire to get rich quick. Political leaders are fearful the collapse of MMM and other companies like it will undermine the public's commitment to free-market reform. In a pyramid scheme each new round of investors supplies the money for the previous group so that original investors divide the money invested by those after them.

Jul 4, 1994
FBI OPENS IN MOSCOW.
The director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Louis Freeh, opened a branch of the FBI in Moscow to fight organized crime there before it is allowed to become "a threat to world security." On a 10-day tour of Eastern Europe, Freeh said Russian gangsters could "use their existing and expanding criminal networks to exploit weapons-grade radioactive materials." Freeh also warned against the threat crime gangs pose to Russia's nascent capitalism and said that U.S. banks are vulnerable to Russian Mafia money-laundering practices.

Jun 23, 1994
THOUSANDS ARRESTED IN MOSCOW CRACKDOWN.
Television reports said 2,000 people were detained and 200 crimes "solved" as a result of a Jun 21 crackdown by 20,000 Interior Ministry troops in Moscow. The crackdown followed President Boris Yeltsin's Jun 14 decrees against organized crime, which enhanced police powers at the expense of civil rights.

Jun 23, 1994
YELTSIN REJECTS DUMA'S CALL TO SUSPEND CRIME BILL.
President Boris Yeltsin rejected a recommendation by the State Duma asking him to suspend his controversial Jun 14 anticrime decree.

Jun 22, 1994
DUMA REJECTS CRIME DECREE.
The State Duma rejected Boris Yeltsin's drastic anticrime decree because it violates the 1993 Constitution, the existing penal code, and basic public liberties. The Duma also rejected for the third time the national budget plan, which has faced strong opposition from conservative lawmakers because of its cuts in defense credits.

Jun 18, 1994
YELTSIN'S ANTICRIME DECREE SPARKS CONTROVERSY.
An anticrime decree that grants sweeping powers to police forces and suspends some of Russia's new basic civil liberties has set off a wave of protest from President Boris Yeltsin's enemies and supporters. The decree allows police to detain people at will and to conduct searches without warrants. While public dissatisfaction is high because of a soaring crime rate and gangland murders and car bombs, most view the new anticrime document as a universal threat to newfound rights and its critics see eerie similarities in the document to the age of Stalin, when simplified police and court procedures facilitated the mass terror of his regime. According to the Interior Ministry, there are more than 5,600 criminal gangs in Russia from which more than $70 billion worth of merchandise was confiscated in the last year alone. In 1993, over 25,000 crimes were committed with handguns. Yeltsin's decree, which bypassed the legislature, has aroused the opposition of the State Duma, which circulated a draft resolution calling the decree unconstitutional. Yeltsin cut short a trip to the Far East on Jun 17 to return to Moscow to contend with opponents of the decree.

May 16, 1994
ORGANIZED CRIME EYES NUCLEAR WARHEADS.
According to a report in the Atlantic Monthly, Russia's mobsters are seeking control of 15,000 nuclear warheads as a means to "hijack the state." The investigative report by an award-winning journalist revealed that a cache of stolen weapons-grade uranium was seized in April by government forces in the town of Izhevsk and that plutonium has been smuggled from Russia to North Korea.

Apr 27, 1994
LAWMAKER SLAIN IN CONTRACT HIT.
State Duma member Andrei Aizderdzis became the first politician to be killed in a gangland murder when he was shot with a shotgun outside of his home in the Moscow suburbs. Aizderdzis, a former banker, was a member of the centrist New Regional Policy party and owner of a newspaper that had recently published a list of the names and backgrounds of 266 alleged organized crime bosses. Press reports said that in 1993 10 bank directors were slain, apparently after refusing to pay out " loans" demanded by organized crime chieftains.

Feb 18, 1994
MOSCOW FLEA MARKET HIT BY RASH OF BOMB EXPLOSIONS.
Moscow police reported that the third explosion in a week occurred in the giant Luzhniki flea market after anonymous calls to police warned of a war on "speculators." Only one bystander was injured in the bomb blasts, which have targeted supplies of goods.

Feb 14, 1994
SERIAL KILLER EXECUTED.
President Boris Yeltsin rejected a last-minute appeal for clemency on behalf of Andrei Chikatilo, who was soon after executed after being convicted of 52 murders committed from 1978 to his capture in 1990. His victims included boys, girls, and women from Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

Jan 28, 1994
REPORT FINDS GROWING NETWORK OF ORGANIZED CRIME.
A report on crime commissioned by President Boris Yeltsin found that almost 80% of private enterprises and commercial banks lose up to 20% of their turnover to gangsters through payoffs, kickbacks, debt collection, money laundering, and monopoly pricing. The report, which documented collusion between local law enforcement (including the Interior Ministry and the Security Ministry) and criminal gangs, claimed that this sort of crime accounts for a quarter of the inflation rate and poses a serious threat to entrepreneurialism and foreign investment in the country. The report traced a 250% jump from 1992 in crimes committed with firearms and predicted that if the government does not take decisive steps against increasing lawlessness millions of Russians will be more inclined to support the populist law-and-order appeals of the Liberal Democratic Party, headed by ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Oct 28, 1993
JURY TRIALS TO BE RESTORED.
The Justice Ministry announced that it will reintroduce jury trials next week in five regions. The system was abolished after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution on the grounds that it was a bourgeois and corrupt process.

Aug 28, 1993
POLICE ARREST MAN FOR TRYING TO SELL URANIUM.
A spokesperson from the Interior Ministry revealed that a man has been arrested for trying to sell uranium. Police acting on a tip-off made the arrest outside the Kurchatove Institute, a major nuclear studies center. The man was carrying a sealed container that was holding uranium.

Aug 18, 1993
VICE PRESIDENT ACCUSED OF CORRUPTION.
Justice Minister Yuri Kalmykov revealed the findings of a special government commission and accused Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoy of concealing government money in a Swiss bank account. Kalmykov asked the Constitutional Court to investigate Rutskoy, who is an opponent of President Boris Yeltsin. The commission also alleged that Prosecutor General Valentin Stepankov is corrupt and said it would ask the legislature to remove him from office. Other allegations were leveled at high officials in the Economy and Foreign Economic Affairs ministries regarding violations of quota and license laws relating to intergovernmental agreements.

Apr 22, 1993
CORRUPTION CHARGES FILED AGAINST YELTSIN ALLY.
The prosecutor general's office released a statement charging Defense Minister Gen. Pavel Grachev with involvement in "illegal deals" in connection with military property in the former East Germany belonging to what was the Soviet Union. Grachev has been a staunch backer of President Boris Yeltsin and has ensured the support of the military thus far. The prosecutor general's office also announced the interrogation of another Yeltsin ally, former First Deputy Prime Minister Gennady Burbulis, and other high-ranking officials in a separate corruption investigation. (The allegations followed last week's assertion by Yeltsin's chief opponent, Vice President Alexander Rutskoy, that Federal Information Service head Mikhail Poltaranin took part in the sale of former Soviet military property in Germany.)

Jan 30, 1993
MAN ARRESTED FOR YELTSIN ASSASSINATION PLOT.
The Itar- Tass news agency revealed that police have arrested an army major on charges of plotting to assassinate President Boris Yeltsin. The man was seized in a government building on Jan 27. Early reports indicate that the suspect, who has not been named, was acting alone and planned the killing to protest the nation's transformation from a communist to a capitalist system.

Nov 10, 1992
BELARUS CLAIMS TO HAVE DESTROYED URANIUM RING.
Belarusian government officials said they have uncovered and destroyed a smuggling ring that was taking uranium into Poland from Russia after arresting a Russian carrying 5.5 pounds of uranium at the Brest border crossing. The man admitted smuggling a larger quantity of the material into Poland earlier in the year.

Economic Affairs

Oct 31, 1997
IMF DELAYS DISBURSEMENT OF LOAN MONEY TO RUSSIA.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that it will delay a $700 million installment of a three-year loan it has made to Russia. The installment will be withheld until early 1998, the IMF said, because of concerns over poor tax collection in Russia. In a joint statement with the Russian Finance Ministry, the IMF recognized Russia's overall economic efforts but explained that "despite increased tax collections, overall revenue performance of the federal budget remains insufficient for budget execution."

Oct 25, 1997
CASPIAN SEA PIPELINE OPENS.
A new pipeline opened to transport oil from the Caspian Sea through war-torn Chechnya for export to the west. It has been estimated that approximately 120,000 tons will flow through the pipeline by the end of 1997 and that it will eventually accommodate as much as several million barrels a day. If so, the Caspian region will rival the Middle East as a world energy source. Crude oil reserves in the Caspian Sea region are among the last known extensive oil reserves in the world.

Oct 13, 1997
BULGARIA AND RUSSIA SIGN GAS SUPPLY DEAL.
Press reports said Bulgaria and Russia have signed an agreement that will guarantee a gas supply to Bulgaria and will open the door for Russia to sell large amounts of gas to western Turkey. The 10- to 15-year agreement was reached at a meeting between Bulgargas, Bulgaria's state-run gas company, and Gazexport, Russian gas monopoly Gazprom's foreign trade division. Direct negotiations between the commercial companies marked a departure from previous state-to-state deals. "The gas deal is a landmark in our development. We either had to defend our independence and show that we were a sovereign European country or accept that we were a Russian satellite for ever," Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandur Bozhkov said. The supply deal is tied to a separate agreement under which Bulgaria will continue to own the section of a transit pipeline in Bulgaria that delivers Russian gas to western Turkey and Istanbul. As winter approaches, a gas supply and transit agreement with Russia has been a priority for Bulgaria, which is totally dependent on Russia for its natural gas.

Sep 28, 1997
DESPITE U.S. WARNINGS, RUSSIAN AND FRENCH FIRMS AGREE TO GAS PROJECT IN IRAN.
Iranian and French press reports said a major French oil company, in partnership with Russia's largest gas company and a major Malaysian oil company, has signed a $2 billion gas deal with Iran. Despite a 1996 law threatening U.S. economic sanctions against any foreign companies who invest more than $40 million in Iran, the French oil company Total will share the contract with Russia's Gazprom and Petronas of Malaysia. The contract outlines a plan to extract 1,995 cubic feet of gas daily from a new part of the Pars-e Jonubi offshore field. The U.S. Clinton administration has warned Total, the leader in the deal, that the United States will take action against companies that defy the 1996 law. The law was enacted to prevent Conoco Inc., an American oil company, from participating in a similar deal. U.S. allies have criticized the policy, disputing the right of the United States to punish foreign companies who are conducting business outside its borders. Under the law, the U.S. government could ban the foreign companies from exporting any goods to the United States or prohibit them from borrowing more than $10 million from American banks.

Sep 24, 1997
YELTSIN TO TAKE STEPS TO ENSURE FREE-MARKET COMPETITION.
Signaling a fundamental shift in economic policy, President Boris Yeltsin announced that Russia's government will play a stronger role in protecting free competition in the country's economy. He outlined several steps he will take to help foster capitalism by shifting away from favoritism and cronyism toward a more apparent distinction between business and government. Outlining a plan aimed at redistributing income throughout Russia, he promised to revamp the tax system so that businesses will pay taxes in the regions where they are located instead of paying in Moscow, where many of their headquarters are located. He also vowed to move the government's money from favored private banks to a federal treasury to be established by 1998, and he reiterated his pledge to tighten government regulation of energy monopolies to drive down energy prices. Since the dissolution of communism in Russia, a small number of businesspeople and bankers have gained control over much of the newly capitalist economy, widening the already large gap between the rich and the poor.

Sep 9, 1997
RUSSIA, CHECHNYA SIGN OIL DEAL.
Russia signed a long-awaited oil deal with Chechnya, paving the way for 200,000 tons of Caspian oil to be moved from Azerbaijan through Chechnya to the Russian Black Sea port city of Novorossiisk by the end of 1997. After weeks of bargaining and negotiations, an agreement was reached in Moscow between Russia and the breakaway republic, fulfilling Moscow's obligations to the international consortium planning to begin the oil transportation in late September. Relations between Russian and Chechen leaders have been strained in recent months over Chechnya's public execution of criminals as well as the ongoing dispute over the region's autonomy.

Sep 9, 1997
WORLD BANK RECOGNIZES RUSSIA AS EMERGING ECONOMIC GIANT.
The World Bank released a report saying that over the next 25 years Russia, Indonesia, India, China, and Brazil will transform into economic powerhouses that will likely "redraw the economic map of the world." The bank forecast that the five economic giants will see their imports, exports, and share of world output more than double in the period from 1992 to 2020. The richest industrial countries share of world output is forecast to fall from 81.4% to to 66.7% during the same period. Developing nations will prosper from the increased worldwide stability and should anticipate economic growth, according to the report. The economies of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, which took a beating after the fall of communism, will begin to stage a comeback, the report said. The bank forecast a slowing in economic growth among the economies of east Asia, and forecast economic acceleration in sub- Saharan Africa, a region that has been known for extreme poverty.

Aug 4, 1997
DENOMINATION OF THE RUBLE TO CHANGE.
To show that the government has tamed inflation, President Boris Yeltsin announced that as of Jan 1, 1998, three zeros will be taken off the denomination of the ruble. In other words, instead of an exchange rate of about 6,000 rubles to one U.S. dollar, the rate will become six rubles to one U.S. dollar. The change is not a devaluation, and Yeltsin said, "Nobody will lose anything as a result of this reform." The decision was praised by many economists as a sign that the government is optimistic about its chances of stabilizing the economy.

Jul 25, 1997
PARTIAL SELLOFF OF TELECOM FIRM SUCCESSFUL.
In Russia's single largest privatization to date, the government's Federal Property Commission sold a 25% stake in the telecommunications holding company Svyazinvest for $1.9 billion. The purchaser, who paid 59% more than the first bid, is a consortium comprising Oneximbank, Russia's largest commercial bank, and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, an international investment group. The government will put most of the money toward paying back wages to the armed forces, but a significant amount will be spent on updating Russia's archaic telecommunications systems.

Jul 18, 1997
TELEPHONE COMPANY PRIVATIZATION SALE ENDS.
Bidding for a quarter share of the giant Russian telecommunications company Svyazinvest was reported to have closed. The winning candidate will be announced on Jul 25. Although Jul 21 is officially the final day for taking part, the requirement that applicants make a $400 million deposit by today appears to preclude any additional tenders. The minimum bid was set at $1.18 billion. Russian banking groups Alfa, Most, and Oneximbank are believed to have formed consortia with Western companies in order to generate enough liquid capital to make a bid. Svyazinvest owns a minority interest in national long-distance carrier Rostelekom and 85 local telephone companies valued at $1.4 billion.

Jul 17, 1997
STATISTICS SUGGESTS COUNTRY'S ECONOMY IS NOT SO HEALTHY.
Press reports said data published this week by the country's state statistics committee is much less sanguine about Russia's economic position than the upbeat prognoses contained in recent speeches by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and President Boris Yeltsin. The released figures indicate that Russia's gross domestic product fell 0.2% in the first half of 1997, continuing a six-year downward pattern of overall economic activity.

Jul 14, 1997
CASPIAN SEA OIL DEVELOPMENT DISCUSSED.
Press reports said the Kazakh government and a group of seven Western oil companies are involved in talks concerning a major oil-drilling project off Kazakhstan, in the northern part of the Caspian Sea. It is not known whether the area actually contains any petroleum, but scientists have identified promising geological patterns. The consortium members are Agip, British Gas, British Petroleum, Mobil, Shell, Total, and Statoil. Two Russian enterprises, Lukoil and Rosneft, are also believed to want to participate in the undertaking, a proposal that is welcomed by all the current negotiators. Kazakhstan already has functioning land-based oil fields located near the Caspian Sea.

Jul 13, 1997
DETAILS OF GAZPROM ACCOUNTS REVEALED.
The Financial Times reported that, for the first time, an audit using International Accounting Standards was performed for the giant Russian utility company Gazprom. The figures were prepared by the international accounting firm Price Waterhouse. Bruce Edwards of Price Waterhouse, who was in charge of the project, said the quality of raw accounting data used for the audit was good. Gazprom, which contributes 8% of Russia's gross domestic product, recently paid back some of the taxes it owes to the Russian government, which in turn allowed a pension backlog to be wiped out.

Jul 13, 1997
YELTSIN TO SCRAP HOUSING SUBSIDIES
Press reports said President Boris Yeltsin plans to end housing and utility subsidies by 2003. The proposal affects three-quarters of those currently receiving the allowances, with only the poorest Russians continuing to be eligible. Although the popular system, a holdover from communist days, provides a measure of economic protection in a country where salary and pension payment is unreliable, the subsidies retard growth and have a particularly negative impact on local governments, which spend up to a third of their budgets on the payments. Utility subsidies also encourage recipients to waste environmentally limited resources because they have an unrealistically low price.

Jul 4, 1997
ECONOMY MUCH IMPROVED, YELTSIN TELLS NATION.
President Boris Yeltsin announced that Russia's five-year economic recession is finally at an end. The prognosis, contained in a radio speech given on the anniversary of Yeltsin's re-election, followed an announcement by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin that Russia's gross domestic product rose by 1% in the first six months of 1997. Nonetheless, Yeltsin's remarks were greeted with substantial skepticism. While acknowledging that some modest success has been achieved, most commentators portrayed Yeltsin's comments as characteristically over-optimistic.

Jun 27, 1997
PENSION DEBTS TO BE PAID OVER WEEKEND.
First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais announced that $480 million has been assigned so that the backlog of pensions that is owed by the government to retirees can be paid off by Jul 1. Banks will stay open over the weekend so that the arrears can be swiftly disbursed. A campaign directed by Chubais to collect delinquent taxes from large companies such as the Gazprom natural gas utility, which at one point owed $3 billion in taxes, has been successful. Other revenue has come from a bond issue and from international loans. These actions generated enough income to permit the payments to pensioners.

Jun 27, 1997
RUSSIA-CHINA TRADE DEAL CONCLUDED.
Prime ministers Viktor Chernomyrdin of Russia and Li Peng of China signed an agreement to boost trade between the two nations to $20 billion by 2000. Meeting in Beijing, the two leaders agreed to continue collaborating on oil, gas, electricity, and railroad projects, including a proposed $7 billion pipeline construction plan that would connect the oil deposits of Siberia's Irkutsk region with areas in China that are experiencing rapid economic development.

Jun 21, 1997
YELTSIN MEETS WITH U.S. BUSINESS LEADERS.
While the other "Summit of the Eight" conference participants talked about finance targets, President Boris Yeltsin and one of two recently appointed first deputy prime ministers, Anatoly Chubais, met with representatives of U.S. businesses, including Lockheed Martin, DuPont, U.S. West, and United Technologies. Among the topics discussed at the gathering, which took place at Denver's Museum of Natural History, was Lockheed Martin's $1 billion deal with Russia to build the new Atlas rocket engine near Moscow. Yeltsin said the existence of a number of such contracts is evidence of the market's faith in Russia's economic future. (The "Summit of the Eight" brings together Group of Seven member states and Russia.)

May 21, 1997
PRIME MINISTER SUBMITS REDUCED 1997 BUDGET PLAN.
Responding to a difficult economic situation, with government revenue less than had been anticipated in the original version of the 1997 budget, Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin submitted a revised proposal to the State Duma. The plan reflects the thinking of reformers in the government, including the new first deputy prime minister, Boris Nemtsov, who was appointed after the prior budget was approved. It imposes spending cuts of 20% over the original, reduces military funding, and cuts subsidies to the coal industry and other traditionally state-aided segments of the economy.

Apr 28, 1997
YELTSIN APPROVES MONOPOLIES REFORMS.
First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov announced that the government has decreed sweeping changes in key energy monopolies, which include the electricity and gas industries. According to President Boris Yeltsin's decree, the state will retain authority over the utility companies but a partial sell-off will occur to generate new capital. The reforms are also aimed at ensuring continuous, reliable service.

Mar 27, 1997
RUSSIANS STRIKE FOR PAY.
More than 1 million Russians gathered in cities and squares in a nationwide strike protesting chronic economic privations. The protests called by trade union officials were observed by state workers from Siberia to the Black Sea. Many workers have not been paid for as long as eight months. As many as 100,000 people showed up at rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The Interior Ministry said there were formal protests in another 1,200 cities. No significant violence was reported and the turnout was below union officials' hopes for some 21 million protesters.

Dec 28, 1996
BUDGET APPROVED.
The State Duma approved by a 243-117 vote the final draft of the Kremlin's budget without the haggling that has characterized past budget votes. The 1997 budget calls for spending some $96 billion, or 530 trillion rubles. "By backing the draft federal budget the Communists have taken a major step toward transforming themselves into a party of responsible opposition," remarked the newspaper Segodnya on the unusual cooperativeness of President Boris Yeltsin's leading parliamentary opponents. Those who most strongly opposed the budget plan were Yabloko, the party headed by Grigory Yavlinsky. The budget's biggest allowances go to the military and toward servicing the Kremlin's debt. Recently, government revenue has been consistently below expectations.

Dec 15, 1996
IMF RESTARTS LOAN TO RUSSIA.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) resumed its disbursement of a $10.1 billion loan to Moscow after suspending payments in October because the Kremlin was not doing enough to raise tax revenue and close tax loopholes. The Kremlin's recent decision to prosecute several companies for tax evasion prompted the IMF to release its delayed $336 million tranche. While inflation is down, Moscow has done little to further privatize the economy and large inefficient industries are still being allowed to operate. The State Duma today approved the first draft of the government's 1997 budget, which Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin claimed would reverse industrial decline and spur a 2% growth in the economy.

Dec 11, 1996
MINERS END STRIKE.
Russian coal miners decided to resume work after calling a nationwide strike last week to demand back wages. The miners' union said the Kremlin had promised to pay salary arrears by the end of the year. As many as 400,000 miners from 180 mines quit work because of a $400 million government debt owed the coal industry.

Dec 6, 1996
CASPIAN PIPELINE DEAL GETS GO-AHEAD.
The governments of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Oman, and nine oil companies, including Chevron and Russia's Lukoil, finalized a deal to export fuel from Kazakhstan to the international marketplace. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium had been mired in various snags since its inception in 1992. The accord clears the way for the building of a $2 billion pipeline slated for completion in 1999. "This is a momentous occasion. We have agreed to build a pipeline that will unlock the reserves of the Caspian region," said a Chevron representative.

Dec 3, 1996
COAL MINERS STRIKE FOR PAY.
As many as 40,000 Russian coal miners went on strike today to protest the nonpayment of wages and to call for the resignation of the government. Some miners have not been paid since June, according to Vitaly Budko, the leader of the main coal miners' union. Other state-funded workers, such as power plant workers and teachers, joined the strike. Budko claimed that 161 of the country's 189 mines will be closed, amounting to four-fifths of the mining work force. Tens of thousands of teachers in eastern Siberia joined the strike and in St. Petersburg some 150 workers at a nuclear plant staged a one-day "warning strike." Russia relies on coal for the majority of its heating needs and for half of its electrical needs. With $500 million in help from the World Bank, Russia is expected to shut down some 80 coal mines in the near future. State wage arrears are expected to reach $9 billion by the end of the year.
 
 

Striking coal miners at a Dec 3, 1996 rally to protest the nonpayment of wages and call for the government's resignation [AP/Wide World]

Oct 31, 1996
SUICIDE OF TOP SCIENTIST PROMPTS RENEWED CALLS FOR PAYMENT OF BACK WAGES.
Russian police said a leading nuclear scientist shot himself yesterday. The suicide of Vladimir Nechai, the director of the top-secret Chelyabinsk-70 nuclear complex in the Urals, became headline news in Moscow as nuclear physicists called for the payment of months of back wages and other relief to the depressed cold war-era nuclear center. Millions of state workers, including soldiers, miners, teachers, doctors, and others, have gone unpaid for months because of a country-wide tax crisis. The Chelyabinsk center employs some 16,000 workers and the surrounding town has a population of some 46,000. Nechai was a weapons designer and had managed the closed city since 1988. His deputy director said that the center's financial troubles had aggravated Nechai's depression.

Oct 24, 1996
IMF MAY SUSPEND MULTIBILLION DOLLAR LOAN.
Officials of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) left Moscow today without an agreement with Russia's Central Bank, putting the balance of a $10 billion loan to Russia on hold until further evaluation next month. The IMF has already disbursed $2.4 billion of the loan. The IMF cited chronic tax evasion as the main reason behind the suspension of funds. A new emergency tax commission created earlier in the month has so far targeted four relatively small companies, with collective delinquencies at $100 million, for bankruptcy proceedings. The huge gas monopoly Gazprom, with $3 billion in unpaid government taxes, was conspicuous by its absence from the commission's list of tax delinquents. The State Duma has compiled its own list of 73 corporate tax dodgers, which together owe almost $5 billion.

Oct 12, 1996
YELTSIN TO GET TOUGH ON TAXES.
President Boris Yeltsin announced the creation of a new government commission on tax-collecting headed by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and directed by Anatoly Chubais, the president's chief of staff. The news was welcomed by Western economists, who have long complained that Russia's tax laws are not being enforced aggressively enough. The radio announcement came as the State Duma rejected the 1997 government budget because its revenue projections were too optimistic. The new government commission reestablishes for Chubais, the former head of privatization, a direct role in economic decision-making. Unofficial estimates put the sum of uncollected federal and local taxes at some $28 billion. Gazprom, the huge natural resources monopoly, has not paid about $2 billion in taxes it owes for the current year alone. Millions of state workers have not been paid their wages in months, and the threat of widespread strikes has grown steadily.

Oct 1, 1996
ALL CORNERS APPEAL TO KREMLIN FOR MORE FUNDING.
Russian Defense Minister Gen. Igor Rodionov warned that army officers are so poor they may sell their own weapons because their stipends have not been paid in months. The warning echoed protests from leading economic and cultural institutions that rely on state funding that strikes and closures are imminent unless the Kremlin loosens its tight purse strings. Rodionov said the military's financial problems would not provoke a mutiny, as his ally Aleksandr Lebed had warned, but that "chronic under-financing" threatens to tear the armed forces apart. "The army has denied itself a lot of the things but if things go on like this the situation will become intolerable," Rodionov said, adding that hundreds of thousands of soldiers live below the poverty line and that more than 110,000 officers do not have housing. Rodionov said that the $18.3 billion earmarked for the military in the 1997 draft budget will cover only one-third of its needs. Rodionov said the military ranks now number some 1.5 million troops and that the forces will be reduced to 1.2 million in 1997. (Rodionov also said that the military has postponed to 2005 its plans to convert to a professional, all-volunteer force.) Meanwhile, St. Petersburg cultural figures issued an open letter to Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin warning that various libraries, theaters, and museums including the Hermitage Museum and the Markinsky theater are closing their doors today because of a lack of state funding. In related news, the entire northern city of Vorkuta went on strike to protest five months of wage arrears.

Sep 16, 1996
ENERGY WORKERS STRIKE AGAIN IN FAR EAST.
More than 16,000 workers at power plants in Russia's Far East went on strike to protest wage arrears dating to April. Other workers such as doctors and bus drivers in the Primorski region have threatened to join the strike. Most strikers want the federal government to intercede and sack the regional governor, Yevgeny Nazdratenko, whom they accuse of fixing local energy prices at low, unprofitable rates. A public referendum on Nazdratenko was due to be held next week. The powerful governor was elected by a wide margin last December. A power blackout hit Primorski in July after local fuel reserves ran out. Nazdratenko has sought against the dictates of the Kremlin to import coal from Asian nations in lieu of the more expensive alternative of shipping coal from European Russia.

Aug 21, 1996
IMF TO RELEASE MONEY TO RUSSIA.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to pay Russia an installment of $330 million after having delayed the payment because of concerns about the government's low tax-collection revenues. The funds are part of a $10.2 billion three-year loan approved in February. "Executive directors were satisfied that the Russian government and Central Bank met their July targets and are pursuing policies consistent with the attainment of macroeconomic objectives of the program," the IMF said. The IMF reportedly eased the terms of its loan to Moscow so that President Boris Yeltsin could pay for his campaign promises, stretching the limit for Russia's budget deficit from 4% to 5.3% of gross domestic product.

Aug 6, 1996
RUSSIAN MINERS RETURN TO WORK.
About 12,000 coal miners in the Russian Far East region of Primorski returned to work after a three-week strike to protest wage arrears. The miners received state promises to pay most of their back wages. The entire Pacific region was paralyzed by strikes and power blackouts last month when power companies were too poor to purchase fuel oil to make electricity. Many state industries and military bases lacked state funds to pay their utility bills, which amounted to some $180 million.

Jul 22, 1996
IMF DELAYS MONTHLY PAYMENT TO RUSSIA.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that it is withholding a $330-million payment to Russia because Russia's tax revenue was below projections. It was the first such delay in a monthly payment since the IMF began loaning money to Russia to bring its budget deficit and inflation under control. The IMF approved a three-year, $10.2 billion loan in February with stringent month-by-month reviews of the economy's status. With tax collection faulty to begin with, the drop in Russia's tax revenue was attributed in part to the refusal of some companies to pay taxes until after the recent June/July presidential elections, when the defeat of the Communist Party candidate was assured. President Boris Yeltsin also stretched the budget considerably with a flurry of campaign spending promises, necessitating a $1 billion transfer of funds from the Central Bank to the federal budget. IMF officials said they expect Moscow to act quickly to fix the problem and that the payment will likely be disbursed within the month.

Jul 19, 1996
COMMUNISTS QUASH BILL ON FOREIGN OIL INVESTMENT.
In a setback to the privatization efforts of the administration of Russian President Boris Yeltsin, the communist-dominated State Duma voted against legislation intended to encourage foreign investment in the oil and gas industry. The politically charged legislation outlines the legal framework for sharing oil production. Foreign and U.S. companies said the law would have cut taxes on oil and gas output in exchange for a share of the oil produced by the foreign companies (which have balked at investing billions of dollars in the industry until sharing arrangements are worked into the legal system). Communists and nationalists have long opposed the market reform measures because they see them as a means by which the West will exploit Russia's natural resources. Major oil development projects have been put on hold pending approval of the new laws. Russia's own Ministry of Fuel and Energy has estimated the total long-term investment potential of production-sharing agreements at $50 billion. The new legislation, rejected by a 150-148 vote, was supplemental to a broad production-sharing bill that was approved by the Duma in December 1995.

Jun 10, 1996
CENTRAL BANK SEEKS TO LIMIT INFLATION.
In a bid to reassure anxious Western and Russian economists, Russia's Central Bank said it has taken measures to contain economic damage from the release of $1 billion into the federal budget to cover President Boris Yeltsin's campaign promises. Central Bank officials had at first balked at the president's order, fearing that the printing of new money would raise inflation and undermine the bank's independence, and had planned a court challenge. After meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, Central Bank chief Sergei Dubinin said, "I think we will manage to neutralize the inflationary effects." To compensate for the transfer, which has already taken place, the bank said it is tightening credit by increasing its reserve requirements for commercial banks. Yeltsin has said he plans to spend the money before presidential elections on Jun 16. The money will be used to back Yeltsin's campaign promises to teachers, doctors, and the military.

Jun 8, 1996
CENTRAL BANK RELENTS ON FUNDS DEMAND.
The Central Bank of Russia agreed to fulfill President Boris Yeltsin's demand to release the equivalent of $1 billion into the federal budget to cover the incumbent's campaign promises before presidential elections on Jun 16, according to the Interfax news agency. Bank directors had said they would challenge the president's order in court because they said it undermined the bank's independence and posed a threat of hyperinflation to the Russian economy.

Jun 6, 1996
YELTSIN TELLS BANK TO RELEASE FUNDS.
In a move that violates Russia's agreements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), President Boris Yeltsin told the nation's Central Bank to release $1 billion into the federal budget to back his campaign promises to teachers, doctors, and the military. IMF and Central Bank officials said the order, which was approved by the State Duma, will lead to inflation and weaken the bank's independence. "This money does not in fact exist. This money is not backed by anything," the Central Bank chairperson protested. Yeltsin claimed that the transfer of funds will not hurt the economy because the bank has funds in reserve. Bank officials said they are prepared to challenge the order in court because the bank is legally independent from the president and the legislature. Western economists said the order contradicts assurances the Kremlin made to the IMF, which approved a three-year, $10.1 billion loan to Russia on the condition that it adhere to anti-inflationary measures and a strict program of free-market reforms. About $1 billion of the loan has already been released to Russia.

Jun 1, 1996
RUBLE TO TRADE ON WORLD MARKETS.
For the first time since the 1920s, the Russian ruble will become a fully convertible currency, able to be bought and sold inside and outside Russia, according to an announcement by the Central Bank. The lifting of currency regulations brings the Russian economy into compliance with the norms of the free market and meets requirements set by the International Monetary Fund as a condition for loans and assistance.

May 28, 1996
COMMUNISTS RELEASE ECONOMIC PLAN.
Russian Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov unveiled the resurgent party's plan to rescue the declining economy of the former superpower. The document, titled "From Destruction to Construction," proposes state intervention and large-scale spending, including heavy protectionism, state control of major industries, and wage and price controls. Unlike the free-market reforms of President Boris Yeltsin, the plan focuses on tight governmental control and regulation, calling for massive state spending on the country's aging military-industrial complex and on education and medical care. It calls for price controls on consumer goods and raw materials, advocating a cut in energy prices as a means of boosting production. The Communists propose to raise money not from treasury bonds and Western loans, as the Yeltsin administration does, but through better tax collection, government bonds, and central bank credits. Comprehensive taxes would be applied on goods to drive out the widespread use of the U.S. dollar. Moscow press coverage of the plan was uniformly negative, viewing it as a threatening and unrealistic attempt to return to an outmoded Soviet command economy. One Western economist quoted in the New York Times said, "It won't work now because it didn't work before. If factories don't efficiently produce what consumers want to buy, no amount of government aid can turn that around."

Apr 29, 1996
PARIS CLUB RESCHEDULES RUSSIA'S SOVIET DEBT.
After a weekend of "difficult" negotiations, the Paris Club, a group of 18 creditor nations, agreed to reschedule $40 billion of former Soviet debt owed them by Russia, extending by six years a grace period on principal payments and spreading out total payments over a 25-year period. Loan officials warned that the deal was founded on Russia continuing with economic reforms and maintaining an accord with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which earlier this year agreed to loan Russia $10 billion over three years. The deal was seen as an effort to "lock in" Russia to economic reforms ahead of presidential elections in June, in which Communist candidate Gennady Zyuganov is favored by a slight margin over Yeltsin. The largest creditor nations to Russia, in descending order, include Germany, France, Italy, and the United States.

Apr 8, 1996
RUSSIAN BANKS IN CRISIS.
At least 10% of Russia's commercial banks are failing, according to the Association of Russian Banks. A stabilization program designed to reduce inflation has squeezed weaker banks, many of which have cashed in their treasury bill portfolios to stay afloat. Central Bank chief Sergei Dubinin has said the government will not bail out banks in crisis. A European Union report said as many as 1,600 of Russia's 2,285 active banks will collapse during the next few years.

Mar 25, 1996
RUSSIA DROPS TARIFF PLAN.
Western economists said Moscow has dropped a controversial plan to raise import tariffs by as much as 20%, thus clearing the way for approval of a new $10.2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The tariff threat had stalled the IMF loan, which will now deliver as much as $1 billion to the Kremlin before presidential elections in June 1996, giving a boost to the chances of the incumbent, President Boris Yeltsin. Many believe the speedy approval of the IMF loan, the second largest in the fund's history, was politically motivated by the West's fear of a return to power of the Communist Party should presidential candidate Gennady Zyuganov win upcoming elections. Washington announced that Russia has also dropped a protectionist ban on American poultry imports but is still considering raising tariffs on the frozen birds.

Mar 8, 1996
YELTSIN MAKES LAND A COMMODITY.
President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree privatizing the land the government ceded to villagers and farmers when the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991. The decree, which applies to about 40 million owners of garden plots and 12 million workers at collective and state farms, permits people to rent, lease, buy, or sell land for the first time since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Agrarian and communist parties and the owners of loosely reorganized collective farms criticized the move, saying it will invite "speculation" and "plundering." The decree forbids the sale of land to foreigners and does not apply to urban land. Many viewed the decree as a ploy by Yeltsin to give the rural poor a tangible reason to support reform over communism in June presidential elections.

Feb 22, 1996
IMF, RUSSIA AGREE ON NEW LOAN.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reached an agreement with Russia to loan that nation $10.2 billion over the next three years as long as it continues to privatize its economy, liberalize trade, and follow other guidelines to make it run according to capitalist rules. Quick to capitalize on the loan for political purposes, President Boris Yeltsin, running for reelection this year, called the agreement a vindication of his international credentials. IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus warned that the agency will cut off funds if a new government elected in June decides to end reforms. Nearly $4 billion is slated to be loaned within the first year, but funds will be disbursed in monthly installments. By Apr 1, the Kremlin is supposed to lift most oil and gas export tariffs and close tax loopholes.

Feb 8, 1996
IMF GIVES $1 BILLION TO RUSSIA.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $1.05 billion loan to Russia, the last installment of a $6.3 billion loan approved last year. The IMF said nothing about the status of a proposed new $9 billion loan to be disbursed over the next three years.

Feb 5, 1996
COAL MINERS END BRIEF STRIKE.
Coal miners returned to work after staging a two-day strike to demand back pay and increased state subsidies for the ailing industry. The Kremlin agreed to sink $2.2 billion into the coal industry for the year, a sum that includes $133 million in unpaid wages since October 1995. The miners had demanded $200 million in salary arrears, most of which is owed by power stations and coal consumers, not the government. The Russian Coal Workers Union said it will strike again if funds are not paid by Mar 1.

Feb 1, 1996
COAL MINERS STRIKE.
As many as half a million Russian coal miners went on strike, demanding $200 million in back wages. The miners, representing about half of the industry's workers, joined nearly 250,000 teachers who struck the day before, also in demand of unpaid wages. Coal miner strikes in the past have foreshadowed major political shakeups, preceding the decline of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1989 and the ascent to power of Boris Yeltsin in 1991. Sensitive to this trend, especially during a presidential election year, the Kremlin sought unsuccessfully to defuse today's strike and is expected to placate the miners despite concerns about how to scrape up the money. The Kremlin has sought to reassure international lenders that it will maintain economic austerity measures demanded by the West. According to a World Bank study, only two-thirds of Russia's coal industry is strong enough to survive without state subsidies, which means that about 900,000 miners stand to lose their jobs if the industry were to be made viable.

Jan 30, 1996
CHERNOMYRDIN VISITS WASHINGTON.
In a routine visit to Washington, Russian Premier Viktor Chernomyrdin assured the U.S. government that Russia is still committed to free-market reforms despite President Boris Yeltsin's shift to hard-line politics in a presidential election year. In a bid for reelection this June, Yeltsin has made numerous spending promises that if kept could shoot the Russian economy into a high rate of inflation. At stake for Russia is a three-year $9 billion International Monetary Fund loan negotiated mostly by dismissed economy minister Anatoly Chubais. U.S. President Bill Clinton said he approves of the loan, which is likely to be granted dependent on an ongoing review of the Russian economy.

Dec 26, 1995
SELL-OFF PLAN HALTED.
The Kremlin suspended a controversial privatization plan to sell shares in 29 state industries in the face of complaints that the auctions were plagued by insider trading and fraud. The sell-off plan was organized last fall by a consortium of banks as a way of satisfying the Kremlin's short-term need for currency. The first auctions caused an uproar when shares were snapped up by the organizing banks at fire-sale prices.

Dec 20, 1995
UPPER HOUSE APPROVES DRAFT BUDGET.
As communists and nationalists tightened their grip on the State Duma, Russia's lower parliamentary chamber, the Federation Council, or upper house, approved a strict budget for 1996. Meanwhile, Premier Viktor Chernomyrdin vowed that the strong showing by communists in the Dec 17 legislative balloting would not deter the government's policy of capitalist economic transformation. However, Chernomyrdin hinted that the government may soften the impact of austere reforms by increasing some import duties and paying compensation to the elderly whose incomes cannot keep up with the pace of inflation.

Nov 22, 1995
CHERNOMYRDIN ALLY GETS BANK JOB.
On a vote of 344-1 the State Duma ratified the appointment of the new Central Bank head, Sergei Dubinin. The former finance minister in Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin's Cabinet, Dubinin is, according to Western opinion, an experienced and respected financial reformer. President Boris Yeltsin sacked him in 1994 after the precipitous fall of the ruble. Dubinin is a board member of Gazprom, the huge monopoly gas producer of which Chernomyrdin himself was once the chief executive.

Nov 15, 1995
DUMA OKAYS BUDGET.
The State Duma approved by 237 votes to 77 the draft 1996 budget after the Kremlin agreed to increase social spending by $1 billion over the previous proposal. Meanwhile, the Federation Council, or upper house, confirmed that next year's presidential poll will be held on Jun 16.

Nov 10, 1995
RUSSIA GETS BIGGEST STAKE IN AZERI OIL DEAL.
Azerbaijan gave Russia the biggest stake in a $1.7 billion international contract to develop the Caspian Sea oil fields. The deal is separate from a recent $8 billion deal from which Russia received a much smaller share. Russia's Lukoil oil monopoly will have a 32.5% stake in the projects, followed by Italy's Agip gas company, the U.S. Pennzoil company, and the Azeri SOCAR company.

Nov 8, 1995
CENTRAL BANK GOVERNOR FIRED.
President Boris Yeltsin sacked the acting head of Russia's central bank. The departure of Tatiana Paramonova, an internationally respected bank governor, raised doubts among Western powers about the direction of the former Soviet Union's economic reforms, especially as parliamentary and presidential elections loom. The State Duma has so far been unable to agree on next year's budget while the Kremlin seeks a three-year loan from the International Monetary Fund for upwards of $12 billion. Paramonova was unpopular with the communist- and nationalist-dominated legislature for her tight control of the Kremlin's purse strings. "This is a very disconcerting development because Mrs. Paramonova had all the right instincts. There has been talk of pressure on the government to spend and maybe that is why she went. If that is true then we are in for a rocky time," said a Western economist based in Moscow. Alexander Khandruyev, the bank's first deputy chair, was appointed acting governor. He had close ties to Viktor Gerashchenko, the discredited bank governor who resigned in October 1994.

Nov 1, 1995
YELTSIN INCREASES MINIMUM WAGE.
From his hospital bed, President Boris Yeltsin signed laws increasing the minimum wage and minimum pension by 15%.

Oct 30, 1995
GERMANS SEIZE RUSSIAN RESEARCH VESSEL.
A German shipyard seized a Russian Antarctic research ship for nonpayment of services. The ship may have to forgo its annual voyage to Antarctica because Moscow has not released funds to cover the $3.2 million in repairs to the vessel's engines.

Oct 23, 1995
U.S. COMPANY GETS RIGHTS TO RUSSIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC ARCHIVE.
The Russian government has given a U.S.-based entertainment company exclusive distribution rights to a rare musical archive estimated to be worth $9 billion, according to a company official. Phoenix Entertainment will gain the rights to as many as 400,000 recordings dating from the 1930s, which feature such artists as Dmitry Shostakovich, Mstislav Rostropovich, and such Western musicians as Yehudi Menuhin, Luciano Pavarotti, and the folk singer Pete Seeger. A British company, Telstar Records, will distribute the recordings, some of which are in decay. Russian politicians and others had stalled the deal since 1992, playing on nationalist sentiments in an effort to keep the recordings out of the hands of Westerners.

Oct 18, 1995
DUMA TURNS DOWN DRAFT BUDGET.
Telling the Kremlin to rethink its spending plans, the State Duma, Russia's lower parliamentary house, voted against a draft reform budget by a vote of 138-129. Lawmakers said they will create a special commission to reexamine the budget's figures.

Oct 15, 1995
MOSCOW, HAVANA SIGN NEW TRADE PROTOCOLS.
Russian and Cuban officials signed a trade protocol for 1996-98. The two governments say the pact heralds a new stage in trade relations between the nations. Under the agreement, Havana will provide Moscow with 1.5 million metric tons of sugar in return for 4.5 million metric tons of oil. Oleg Soskovets, Russia's first deputy premier, and Carlos Lage, vice minister of the Cuban council of state, also signed protocols designed to bring the countries into closer collaboration in such fields as tourism, industry, and transportation. Both officials expressed optimism in the new trade pact, although neither country has met its trade quotas for the current year 1 million tons of sugar in exchange for 3 million tons of petroleum. Russia also announced that it would provide $300 million toward completion of Cuba's unfinished nuclear power plant near Cienfuegos.

Oct 9, 1995
FALL GRAIN HARVEST LOOKS GRIM.
Government officials announced that Russia's fall gain harvest will be its lowest since 1965, totaling only some 66 million tons. Drought and farm mismanagement were listed as the leading causes of the poor harvest. Russian officials claimed that the nation will not need outside help to make up for the low harvest and that Russia "will remain self-sufficient in grain until the 1996 harvest." The eventual effects of the harvest include economic strife for farmers and price increases in milk and meat. The grain harvests in neighboring former Soviet republics Kazakhstan and Ukraine were similarly low, with the former recording a harvest of 12 million tons and the latter one of about 135 million tons.

Oct 9, 1995
RUSSIA HOPES TO SELL OFF PHONE COMPANY.
The Kremlin is looking to raise up to $2 billion by selling a quarter stake in the Svyazinvest state-owned telecommunications holding company. Fourteen major telecommunications companies in Europe, Asia, and North America have already been approached.

Sep 27, 1995
FARMER'S MARKET VENDORS ARRESTED.
Several dozen fruit and vegetable vendors were arrested and interrogated by the Interior Ministry police in Moscow on suspicion of widespread price fixing. The vendors all came from the open food market in Istra, outside Moscow.

Sep 26, 1995
TEACHERS STRIKE.
Press reports said as many as 500,000 teachers from 11,000 public schools throughout Russia struck to air their grievances about low pay, delayed paychecks, and staff shortages. Most teachers make at most half of the average monthly income of $111. Many teachers have not been paid for the last four months, excluding most of those in and around Moscow, where they are closer to the capital's coffers. Several days ago, Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin ordered the state to pay the teachers' back pay, which amounted to $56 million.

Sep 25, 1995
BANKS TO GET CONTROL OF STATE ENTERPRISES.
President Boris Yeltsin decreed that several major banks will get the titles to large state-owned industries in exchange for cash loans to the Kremlin.

Sep 15, 1995
IMF GIVES MOSCOW $525 MILLION IN VOTE OF CONFIDENCE.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a $525 million loan to the Kremlin in a sign that the West had confidence in the Russian economy, which has managed to stabilize its inflation rate as part of an austerity campaign urged by the IMF. President Boris Yeltsin said last week that he would not oppose a rise in inflation if it helped to pay pensions to those throughout Russia who have not been paid their state wages in months. Monthly inflation for the month of August was 4.6%, the lowest since reforms began in 1992. The IMF released the loan despite the Kremlin's inability so far to guarantee a new source of revenue from taxing Gazprom, the huge natural gas monopoly that has so far enjoyed exemption from government taxation.

Sep 6, 1995
CHUBAIS TARGETS LUKOIL FOR TAX PAYMENTS.
Moscow's economy minister said Russia's rich energy producers are jeopardizing the country's fragile new budget by not paying their fair share of taxes. Anatoly Chubais, the deputy prime minister in charge of the economy, ordered Lukoil, Russia's largest gas and oil company, to pay about $250 million in overdue taxes by Oct 1. Lukoil, formerly headed by current Premier Viktor Chernomyrdin, has traditionally been sheltered from the high taxes now imposed on new companies and corporations.

Sep 5, 1995
CHUBAIS SEES ROSY FUTURE FOR RUSSIAN ECONOMY.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais told reporters "that after 1997, for ten years the Russian economy will have a period of high growth." Chubais also predicted that within two years Russia's economy will enjoy a growth rate comparable to the tiger economies of Asia. Chubais attributed his optimism to the government decision to raise taxes on Gazprom, the natural gas monopoly that is Russia's largest single company. The gas company has enjoyed Soviet-era protections against Russia's new tax laws. Gazprom officials have vowed to fight the new levies.

Aug 31, 1995
YELTSIN APPROVES PLAN FOR PRIVATE COMPANIES TO RUN STATE AGENCIES.
With state coffers pinched by tough austerity measures, President Boris Yeltsin approved a controversial plan allowing private companies to run and profit from state-owned companies in return for loans to Moscow. Under the plan, which was put forward earlier this year by a consortium of bankers offering $2 billion in cash to Moscow, private businesses will offer loans at auction for a controlling stake in leading state manufacturing and natural resources companies. The companies will be allowed to sell off the government stake on the Kremlin's behalf next year. Auctioning must be completed by the end of 1995 to meet the government's budget needs.

Aug 24, 1995
AUSTERITY MEASURES SQUEEZE BANKS.
Russian banks stopped lending money to one another as fears arose that many banks are on the verge of collapse. Interbank lending rates shot up by as much as 1,000% in some cases. The government announced that it will extend until the end of the year exchange controls that limit fluctuations of the ruble to between 4,300-4,900 rubles to the dollar. Tatiana Paramonova, acting head of the Central Bank, vowed that she will not help banks caught on the brink of insolvency by the government's ongoing attempts to cut the money supply and stabilize the ruble.

Jul 22, 1995
RUSSIA-LIBYA ACCORDS SIGNED.
Russia and Libya signed several bilateral economic agreements in Moscow, a first step in reestablishing full trade and even cultural ties between the two countries. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Davydov, who signed the agreements, said that the joint projects outlined in the accords are worth at least $1.5 billion and include the building in Libya of oil and gas pipelines, power stations, and electricity transmission lines. Libya had had an outstanding debt to the Soviet Union of about $2.4 billion, a debt that had chilled relations between Russia and Libya since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Libya has since recognized Russia as the legal successor to the Soviet Union.

Jul 19, 1995
DUMA DOES NOT CONFIRM BANK CHIEF.
In a slap at tough economic austerity measures pushed by the government, the State Duma refused to confirm Tatiana Paramonova as permanent Central Bank chief. She is currently the acting chief and the vote has no binding effect on her status. Described by Western economists as Russia's iron lady because of her achievements at reining in Russian spending, Paramonova said she will stay on the job despite the vote and await President Boris Yeltsin's decision on her future. Yeltsin is the only one with the power to dismiss the chief.

Jul 17, 1995
RUSSIA, EU SIGN TRADE PACT.
The European Union (EU) signed an interim trade pact with Russia. The pact had been delayed for the last seven months to protest Moscow's crackdown in the breakaway Chechnya region. Representatives of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) also started talks with Russia to hammer out a new treaty by year's end that will allow NATO to extend some sort of limited partnership to central European countries and even to former Soviet republics.

Jul 10, 1995
MOSCOW SETTLES DEBT WITH SOUTH KOREA.
Moscow reached an agreement with South Korea to reschedule the debt to the Asian country that was incurred during the Soviet era. Moscow will provide $450 million worth of raw materials and defense equipment in partial payment of outstanding loans.

Jul 5, 1995
RUBLE FIXED.
Government officials announced a plan to fix the exchange rate of the Russian ruble at its current value, approximately 4,500 rubles to the dollar. The fixed rate is designed to stabilize the volatile currency, curb runaway inflation, and reduce deficit spending rates. The Central Bank said it will institute a trading band ranging from 4,300 to 4,900 rubles to the dollar within which the ruble will be allowed to fluctuate. The trading band is scheduled to end on Oct 1.

Jul 3, 1995
NEW RUSSIA COMPARED TO OLIGARCHY.
In a press interview on the state of the Russian economy, the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Jacques de Larosiere, said that while the economy has improved it is vulnerable to manipulation by a small group of people. De Larosiere said the economy could go one of two ways: "Russia could become a distorted market economy centered on a limited group of powerful lobbies vying for a slice of the stagnant economic pie," or it could become an effective market economy consistent with Western models. The banking official specifically cited three structural problems in the economy: a poor tax system, uncertain laws governing business, and a poorly regulated securities market.

Jun 30, 1995
RUSSIA, EXXON SIGN OIL DEAL.
Moscow and the U.S. Exxon company signed a $15 billion oil and gas development deal related to the Sakhalin Islands. The project, known as Sakhalin I, was finalized during a visit by U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who held two days of meetings with Russian Premier Viktor Chernomyrdin. U.S. officials speculated that the fields contain as many as 2.5 billion barrels of oil and gas condensate. Gore said that the two sides had also made progress in a stalled deal that calls for the United States to purchase 500 tons of weapons-grade uranium from Russia, but that he was unsuccessful in dissuading the Kremlin from carrying out a $1 billion deal with Iran to develop a nuclear power plant.

Jun 13, 1995
UNPAID WORKERS PROTEST.
As many as 2,000 angry workers staged a protest in the industrial town of Yekaterinburg to demand the payment of back wages. The workers, from the air defense equipment factory Vektor, have not been paid since February, partly because the government has failed to pay the company for goods delivered. The government recently clamped down on spending as part of an austerity package required by foreign lenders.

Jun 5, 1995
SOCIAL WELFARE SPENDING TO RISE.
Anatoly Chubais, the first deputy prime minister in charge of the economy, said Moscow will increase financing of the social welfare sector as more and more workers lose their jobs to a changing economy in which the government has cut back on inflationary subsidies to ailing factories. Chubais said the money will come from sources outside the government's budget. Western lenders have expressed satisfaction so far with Russia's more disciplined economy, which has enjoyed a stable inflationary rate and growing industrial production. "Russia has never been closer to real economic revival," Chubais said.

May 5, 1995
BANKS OFFER LOANS TO GOVERNMENT.
A coalition of Russian banks has offered loans to the government in return for shares in newly privatized companies, according to press reports. The proposal, which would help ease the budget deficit with a credit of $2 million, is to be reviewed by the government. The plan has stirred controversy among some large enterprises, which resent the banks' encroachment on the industrial infrastructure.

Apr 11, 1995
IMF APPROVES LOAN FOR RUSSIA.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) formally approved a $6.8 billion loan to Moscow, saying the country was finally following a "bold and ambitious" economic reform plan.

Mar 27, 1995
INVESTORS FAVOR RUSSIA, KAZAKHSTAN.
A United Nations study released today shows that Kazakhstan and Russia head the list of economies of the former Soviet region and eastern Europe that are the beneficiaries of long-term foreign investment projects. Of the nearly $118 billion invested in the region in 1994, Kazakhstan and Russia accounted for $82 billion, mostly in the form of oil and gas development deals. U.S. companies have funded about half of these deals, followed by Turkish and western European investors.

Mar 10, 1995
MOSCOW GETS IMF LOAN.
Moscow secured a $6.4 billion standby loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after weeks of negotiations and promises that it will exert more fiscal discipline over its economy. The loan will be paid out in monthly installments (most likely beginning in April) instead of quarterly so that IMF officials can monitor Russia's progress. The loan is the most formal yet from Western countries, which have insisted that Russia liberalize its energy sector, cut price controls and import taxes, and nullify internal tax exemptions as conditions for this standby loan. Western donors have also expressed concern over the cost of Russia's military campaign in secessionist Chechnya. In related news, the State Duma voted 240-75 to dismiss the human rights commissioner, Sergei Kovalyov, who has been a fierce critic of the Chechen war. The vote is not binding and was largely taken as a gesture of the dominant nationalist sentiment of the legislature.

Mar 4, 1995
WORLD BANK TEAM ASSESSES RUSSIAN OIL SPILL.
A monitor group from the World Bank left for the Russian Arctic region of Usinsk to clear the way for a possible $200 million oil cleanup project. U.S. officials estimate that 270,000 tons of oil have spilled from leaky pipelines in the area. Bank officials said a major leak noticed there last fall has been stopped. Russian attempts to clean up the oil before the spring thaw have been criticized as inadequate.

Mar 1, 1995
YELTSIN DECREES NEW SPENDING LIMITS.
Bowing to pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), President Boris Yeltsin signed new decrees today aimed at ensuring fiscal discipline, eliminating corruption, and raising revenue. The IMF is at the tail end of negotiations with Moscow to loan Russia $6.2 billion in installments tied to the country's enactment of difficult economic reforms. The decrees, announced by First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais, are designed to keep Russia's budget deficit to 8% of its gross domestic product and reduce inflation. They affect all spending not mandated in the 1995 budget and will require all spending decisions to be overseen by Yeltsin and a commission created by Chubais. Yeltsin will also have control of special tax and customs exemptions, which have been the source of widespread favoritism and corruption in government, and authority to regulate prices, thus curtailing the artificial raising of prices on products made by state monopolies.

Feb 24, 1995
DUMA PASSES BUDGET AGAIN.
The State Duma approved the third reading of the 1995 budget, removing farm subsidies from the proposed budget in a bid to please the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and secure a standby loan of $6.25 billion. Finance Minister Vladimir Panskov said the passage of the budget will reflect well on IMF talks, which reconvened yesterday.

Feb 23, 1995
YELTSIN VETOS MINIMUM WAGE INCREASES.
President Boris Yeltsin vetoed legislation passed by the State Duma that triples the minimum wage. At the same time he decreed a 70% increase in such social aid programs as family subsidies and student loans.

Feb 7, 1995
IMF LOAN TALKS STALLED.
Preliminary talks between Russian officials and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to secure a $6.25 billion loan were reported unsuccessful but the two sides said they expected to reach agreement by the end of the month. High inflation, the Chechen war, and poor tax revenue were cited as the main obstacles to agreement on an accurate picture of Russia's budget. Inflation for January reached a high of 17.8%, plunging the ruble to a low today of 4,133 to the dollar. Causes of the high inflation rate are tied to the payment of credits last summer to farming and factory lobbies. Costs of the Chechen war so far stand at about $1 billion. Moscow's policy of not taxing its biggest industries, such as the natural-gas monopoly Gazprom, was cited by analysts as a consistent problem in Russia's tax system; revenue from enforcing these taxes would more than cover the budget's current shortfalls. Compounding the budget crisis, the State Duma has approved a minimum wage hike; President Boris Yeltsin is expected to veto it. Under IMF pressure, Moscow passed legislation on Dec 31 that liberalized oil exports but Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin issued a decree last week that perpetuates the former, restrictive system. Meanwhile, coal miners began a strike on Feb 1 to demand unpaid wages totalling $320 million.

Jan 25, 1995
DUMA PASSES 1995 BUDGET.
The State Duma passed the 1995 budget, clearing the way for negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for loans worth $6.25 billion. However, Western economists were skeptical of the figures in the budget, especially estimates of the cost of the Chechen war, and pointed to the political instability in Moscow as an obstacle to IMF aid approval. The Duma tacked on several amendments to the budget, including a hike in the minimum wage, that increased by almost half a billion dollars the proposed deficit in the government version of the budget.

Jan 13, 1995
RUSSIAN OIL ON WAY TO CENTRAL EUROPE.
Russian and Ukrainian officials signed a deal that allows the resumption of crude oil shipments to central Europe. Shipments through Ukraine last year had been interrupted because of disputes about the size of pipeline fees paid to Ukraine.

Jan 8, 1995
RUSSIA WILL COMPLETE IRANIAN NUCLEAR PLANT.
In a deal worth $800 million, Russia contracted to complete construction of a nuclear plant in southern Iran that was begun by German engineers in 1974, stalled after the overthrow of the Shah, then heavily damaged in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. The plant at Bushehr is designed as a civilian power source, but Israel and the U.S. have recently expressed concern that Iran may plan to convert it to nuclear weapons production.

Jan 5, 1995
MOSCOW AGREES TO LIBERALIZE OIL MARKET.
Amid intense lobbying by international lending institutions, Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin signed a decree on domestic oil prices that eliminates quotas requiring oil companies to sell more than half their production at artificially depressed prices. The decree will raise the cost of energy, which now stands at a low 30% of world levels, for most Russians but will open the way for $13 billion in cash loans from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to supplement the strained 1995 budget. The decision was welcomed by Western diplomats, who said the Russian economy has nevertheless experienced monthly inflation rates in the double digits. To make matters worse, the unexpected costs of the Chechen war, which some estimate at $5.5 billion, have put an added strain on the budget. Also today, the ruble at 3,623 to the dollar traded at the lowest rate since the market crash in October. The new cuts in oil sales quotas are designed to reduce state planning in the industry and to raise needed tax revenue and profit so that companies can dig new wells and make upgrades and repairs to damaged pipelines. Last month, President Boris Yeltsin's influential security chief, Aleksandr Korzhakov, had appealed to Chernomyrdin in a letter not to liberalize Russia's oil market, temporarily stalling Moscow's plans to do so. In the unusual letter, Korzhakov said the decision to liberalize the market and open it up to foreign influence was "absolutely impermissible."

Dec 23, 1994
DUMA PASSES 1995 BUDGET.
The State Duma adopted by 231 votes to 127 the federal 1995 budget. The Federation Council (higher house) and President Boris Yeltsin must still approve the text of the bill, which differs slightly from the version supported by the government.

Dec 9, 1994
RUSSIA APPLIES TO JOIN WTO.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Trade Minister Oleg Davydov presented an application by his nation to join the World Trade Organization (WTO), the new body that will absorb the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade on Jan 1, 1995. Davydov said his nation wishes to be admitted without any concessions being placed on entry because of its clear commitment to free trade, and to be treated equitably for its goods.

Nov 23, 1994
BANK NOMINEE NOT CONFIRMED.
The State Duma rejected President Boris Yeltsin's Central Bank nominee by 119 votes in a political gesture. The rejection of Tatyana Paramonova, who recently replaced Viktor Gerashchenko, has no binding effect on her appointment and several deputies conceded that the legislature will eventually ratify her appointment. Deputies said they disagreed with the constitutionality of Yeltsin's unilateral decision making and the forced resignation of the conservative Gerashchenko.

Nov 23, 1994
SOVIET DEBT STANDS AT $113 BILLION.
According to a Finance Ministry document obtained by Reuters, Moscow and its former Soviet republics had accumulated $112.7 billion in debt at the start of 1994. Russia took responsibility for the outstanding debts of its former republics when the Soviet Union broke up in 1991. Germany, Italy, and the United States head the list of international creditors owed payments in the billions of dollars.

Nov 21, 1994
INVESTIGATION INTO CAPITAL FLIGHT STYMIED.
A spokesperson for Kroll Associates, a private corporate investigating firm, said the agency's inquiry into the flight of capital from Russia has been blocked by the country's internal security apparatus. The firm was hired in 1992 with the support of the International Monetary Fund and the Group of 7 leading industrialized countries. The firm has found bank accounts in the West where funds from Russia have been illegally transferred but efforts to name and locate those responsible have been frustrated by the noncooperation of Russian intelligence officials.

Nov 19, 1994
RUSSIA TO CONTINUE OIL SHIPMENTS TO CUBA.
Russian Minister for Foreign Economic Relations Oleg Davydov announced that Moscow will continue terms of an agreement made in December 1993 with Cuba and trade 1 million tons of oil for 500,000 tons of Cuban sugar. The announcement contradicts a report published last month from the Itar- Tass news agency saying Russia was going to terminate the agreement because Havana did not have enough sugar to sell. In the 1993 deal, Russia promised to exchange 2.5 million tons of oil for 1 million tons of Cuban sugar.

Oct 31, 1994
ILO REPORT PLUMBS DEPTHS OF "HIDDEN UNEMPLOYMENT."
A report by the International Labor Organization (ILO) indicated that over one-third of the Russian workforce is in "hidden unemployment," a term denoting long-term leave. In addition, the number of Russians openly unemployed is at least five times higher than official figures currently represent.

Oct 20, 1994
CABINET APPROVES AUSTERE NEW BUDGET.
The government approved a strict 1995 budget amid criticism of the fall of the ruble earlier in the week and the loose spending policies that triggered the drastic depreciation. With lending by the International Monetary Fund contingent on tight fiscal control, the Cabinet drafted a budget that aims to reduce next year's budget deficit to 8.3% of the gross domestic product and lower inflation to 1% a month. The agriculture and coal industries are targeted for reduced state subsidies.

Oct 18, 1994
NEW CENTRAL BANK CHIEF NAMED.
President Boris Yeltsin named Tatyana Paramonova to succeed Viktor Gerashchenko as acting chairperson of the Central Bank. She is the only woman in the bank's senior management and is described as "tougher on inflation" than Gerashchenko, who has been blamed for the ruble's recent precipitous fall in value. Her appointment must still be approved by the State Duma to be permanent. Russian bankers said they were surprised by the choice but Western economists said she is "basically promarket."

Oct 14, 1994
CENTRAL BANK CHIEF QUITS.
Central Bank Chairperson Viktor Gerashchenko resigned in the wake of a ruble crisis that saw the currency lose roughly a quarter of its value against the U.S. dollar within a day. President Boris Yeltsin publicly demanded that Gerashchenko step down because the Central Bank waited too long to shore up the ruble. The ruble ended the week at 2,998 to the dollar after dropping to 3,926 on Oct 11. Gerashchenko was regarded as a foe of market reformers because of his advocacy of issuing credits to ailing state-supported industries a Soviet-era practice that increases inflation.

Oct 12, 1994
YELTSIN FIRES MINISTER AFTER RUBLE'S DROP.
President Boris Yeltsin sought to calm fears over the ruble's drop in value yesterday, dismissing Finance Minister Sergei Dubinin and calling for the firing of Central Bank head Viktor Gerashchenko. Economists attributed the ruble's weakening to currency speculation, inflationary expectations, and the slowness of the Central Bank to shore up the currency. Government credits pumped into agriculture and industry over the summer have also contributed to higher inflation: the ruble's value for 1995 is figured at 3,500 to the U.S. dollar, compared to 2,000 over the summer. The government intervened to stop the ruble from dropping to 4,000 to the dollar; today the market closed at 3,736 rubles to the dollar. Andrei Vavilov replaced Dubinin.

Oct 11, 1994
RUBLE FALLS BY ALMOST A QUARTER OF ITS VALUE.
The ruble's value plunged by nearly 25% in its steepest one-day decline ever. The government announced it will defend the currency's value by buying more rubles in the financial market and raising short-term interest rates to discourage the borrowing of rubles for speculation.

Oct 5, 1994
LOAN PAYMENTS POSTPONED.
Russia was granted preliminary permission to postpone payment on about $29 billion in loans made to Moscow prior to the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. The agreement was reached after a year of negotiations that finally saw Russia accorded First World status in the eyes of its creditors. Lending banks had wanted the right to seize government funds and property around the world if Moscow defaulted on its loans a standard practice in dealings with Third World and developing countries. Under the agreement, Moscow will not have to make payments on the loans for another five years.

Sep 28, 1994
RUBLE DROPS IN VALUE.
Financial reports indicated that the Russian ruble fell 16.5% against the U.S. dollar this month, raising fears of inflation and the suspension of international loans. Inflation stands at 8%, twice that of last month. Notwithstanding, U.S. officials said Moscow stands to receive an immediate $10 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund if the government maintains its austere economic reform program.

Sep 26, 1994
MOSCOW PROPOSES CASPIAN SEA COMMITTEE.
The government proposed a multinational coordinating committee on the future of Caspian Sea oil production after lawmakers voiced objections to an $8 billion foreign oil deal off the Azerbaijani coast. Several government ministers say they oppose the deal because of the potential ecological damage to the Caspian, which provides a dwindling supply of high-quality caviar.

Sep 20, 1994
OIL DEVELOPMENT DEAL SIGNED.
A joint foreign and Azerbaijani oil agreement worth $8 billion was signed in Baku, the Azerbaijani capital. Russian Foreign Ministry officials refused to recognize the deal to exploit oil reserves in the Caspian Sea, claiming Moscow should have a greater influence over the terms of the contract. The oil consortium consists of members from Russia, the United States, Norway, Turkey, and Britain. Russia wants the oil pumped out of the Caspian to pass through Russian territory, a prospect that most consortium members accept because the alternative pipeline would pass through Iran. The deal must still be ratified by the Azerbaijani legislature, which has shown resistance to allowing the entry of Western oil companies.

Sep 9, 1994
RUSSIA, IRAQ SIGN TRADE AGREEMENT.
Press reports said Russia and Iraq have penned a $10 billion trade accord to take effect when the United Nations-backed oil and economic embargo of Baghdad is lifted. Baghdad will pay in oil and hard currency for Russian technical aid in building steel, methanol, and other industrial plants.

Sep 1, 1994
GOVERNMENT REGULATES TV ADS.
Moscow approved a draft law on advertising designed to prevent the blanket advertising that contributed to the success of the now-collapsed MMM investment fund. The law, which still must be passed by the State Duma, bans unlicensed companies from advertising and limits a company from running more than two ads per hour on television and radio. The bill also outlaws subliminal advertising and ads for cigarettes and alcohol.

Aug 22, 1994
MMM INVESTMENT FUND REOPENS.
Press reports said the collapsed MMM investment fund reopened for business selling "tickets," not shares, to long lines of prospective investors. The tickets are not officially registered as shares and the government claimed that they are nothing more than "pretty postcards." The fund had been closed since Aug 4, when founder Sergei Mavrodi was arrested on charges of tax evasion. The company claims it will exchange the tickets for shares at some later date at a rate of 10 tickets to a share. The tickets cost 1,515 rubles. MMM shares have been selling on the black market for 3,000 rubles each.

Aug 22, 1994
CENTRAL BANK CUTS INTEREST RATES.
Press reports said Russia's central bank cut its interest rates for the seventh time this year. The bank cut its three-month refinancing rate from 150% to 130%. The rate is equivalent to 10% a month, twice the current 5% inflation rate. The ruble stands at an all-time low of 2,190 to the U.S. dollar.

Aug 17, 1994
RUSSIA, UKRAINE AGREE ON GAS DEAL, AGAIN.
For the third time this year, Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement covering Ukraine's gas debt to Russia. Kiev has agreed to pay one-quarter of its $1.2 billion fuel bill to Russia's Gazprom gas company over the next three months, the balance of which will take the form of a Russian ownership stake