GOVERNMENTAL RESOLUTION ON DAGESTAN EXPECTED
Izvestia, August 19, 1999, p. 1
Acting Senior Deputy Premier Nikolai Aksenenko gave the Federal Immigration Service and some other ministries and departments twenty-four hours to prepare and propose a draft resolution of the government on additional finances for the Dagestanis who had left their homes because of the hostility in the region.
Aksenenko chaired a conference where it was noted that at least 10,300 Dagestanis had been forced to flee. The Russian government, in a sense of urgency, is discussing different ways to bring help to the Dagestani refugees.
INTERNATIONAL AUDITORS FIND NO MISCHIEF OR MISUSE
Komsomolskaya Pravda, August 19, 1999, p. 2
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) shed light on how the last pre-crisis credit (July, 1998) was spent.
The IMF contracted Pricewaterhouse Coopers, one of the most respectable companies in the world, to find out how the credit had been spent. The auditors failed to discover any criminal spending: Russia ate up all of the $4.78 billion. The first billion was used to plug the existing budget holes: pacification of the miners on strike other matters. The rest went to buyers of hard currency on stock exchanges whose appetites the Central Bank ineffectively tried to appease, reflecting the potential buyers’ fear of further devaluation.
All in all, Russia is obligated to pay a total of 230 billion rubles to all of its creditors before 2004 and an additional $47 billion before 2028.
"… BUT I HAVE PROMISES TO KEEP…"
Komsomolskaya Pravda, August 19, 1999, p. 3
Prime Minister Putin and acting Finance Minister Kasianov promised than federal troopers in Dagestan would be paid as peacekeepers in Kosovo. That means $1,000 per soldier and $200-400 more per officer. Kasianov even claims that the draft resolution was signed yesterday.
The Interior Ministry and the Defense Ministry call the draft resolution “timely” but are doubtful about the ability of the state to find the money. Indeed, there are approximately 5,000 servicemen of the Interior Ministry and Defense Ministry in the hot spot now…
COAL MINERS ON STRIKE
Tribuna, August 19, 1999, p. 1
Coal miners organized mass protest actions yesterday in the towns of Borodino, Nazarovo, and Sharypovo of the Krasnoyarsk territory.
Those present object to the sale of the mines to private companies. Soon afterwards, more than 500 of their representatives organized a protest action in the city of Krasnoyarsk.
The protesters appeal to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to reverse the decision to sell the mines.