ECONOMY GROWING

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ECONOMY GROWING

Parlamentskaya Gazeta, May 29, 2002, p. 1

Despite the slackening of the growth of industry, unemployment has decreased down to the smallest level over the past seven years in Russia. The growth of real incomes has even increased. Trade and market services become the sectors of the economic galvanization. At the same time, notwithstanding expectations, the yearly tempo of industrial growth decreased in April, and official statistics do not show any considerable growth of investments, although the outflow of capital has dwindled.

According to the State Statistics Committee, Russians’ incomes have been steadily growing for the past two years, although this is hardly noticeable in everyday life. Judging from the data of the State Statistics Committee, an unexpected model of economic growth is being realized in Russia. However, analysts do make haste to do any long-tern forecasts, since everything may change in the second quarter of the year.

PRIME MINISTER DETERMINING PRIORITIES

Parlamentskaya Gazeta, May 29, 2002, p. 1

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov has told the Finance Ministry and the Economic Development and Trade Ministry finish the elaboration of the draft budget and determined the following priorities: guaranteed payment of salaries to state sector employees, increase of monetary allowance of servicemen, funding of the judiciary, military, and pension reforms, and maintenance of the budgetary stimulation of the economic growth based on the macroeconomic stability. Another priority is development of the budgetary federalism within the framework of strictly distributed expenditure duties and revenues between federal, regional, and municipal government agencies.

The draft budget is to be submitted to the Duma in late August.

ANTI-GLOBALIZATION ACTIVISTS DECEIVED

Moskovsky Komsomolets, May 29, 2002, p. 2

A meeting of anti-globalization activists at the Pushkinskaya Square ended before it started. As soon as leader of trade union activists, deputy Oleg Shein stepped to the tribune and took a megaphone in his hands, a police officer approached him sternly.

The thing is that an application to hold the meeting had been submitted but the prefecture issued no permission. Therefore, about 50 young opponents of globalization from Barnaul, Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh and Moscow held their gathering under the guise of “meeting with a deputy.” However, the police flatly opposed any forms of gathering. A police officer attempted to seize the megaphone from Shein, but the latter firmly held on to his “weapon.” An attempt to drag the deputy down from the tribune by a sleeve also failed. It was then the police officer applied for help. The assistance arrived from the rear of the meeting participants. Antoglobalists who had no time to come round were beaten with batons and dragged to an UAZ vehicle standing nearby. The youths were not born yesterday: they fell to the asphalt and clasped their hands in order it would harder to disengage them. The passers-by had an opportunity to witness a picture which is rare nowadays: young guys, who clutched at the asphalt with their teeth almost as at Malaya Zemlya and Special Police Force soldiers who were poking their legs and batons left and right and sometimes pulling a victim out of the common medley. All participants of the meeting were taken to Khamovniki police station.

BELLIGERENT BORDER

Rossiyskaya Gazeta, May 29, 2002, p. 1

Uneasy times have come to the border nowadays. Over the past four months of 2002, over 5,400 Russian and foreign fishing vessels have been examined. As a result, 218 of them were detained and over 500 fined. The amount of fines comprised almost 7 million rubles. Over 5,000 tons of illegally caught seafood were seized from poachers. The amount of claims for damages from illegal fishing was 12.1 million rubles.

This year alone border guards about 2,000 trespassers, 40 of them at the Tajik-Afghan border, where this year Russian border guards have been involved in combats ten times already and came under fire seven times.

In 2001 drug dealers lost almost 6 tons of potion, almost 50% of it being heroin.

Over the past four months, jointly with customs officers border guards have arrested smuggled goods for the amount of over 45 million rubles and over $270,000. Over 40 participants in foreign trade were checked by their reports, and the damage valued at over 138 million rubles to the state was prevented and additional 65 million rubles were transferred to the federal budget.

No wonder that in such a hard life the border guards make so many enemies in organized crime… Last year, 11 border guards were killed on duty and 38 wounded.

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