BETTER THAN NOTHING?

Workers at the Akhtuba factory in Volgograd are being paid with samples of the plantÕs new products — including rubber sex aids — and they arenÕt happy about it. The factory once produced navigational equipment for the navy and employees have reportedly not received any money for more than a year. (Reuter, February 24) But the Volgograd workers may not have it so bad. Authorities in Yaroslavl oblast’s Poshekhon district are offering to pay overdue wages to secondary-school teachers in manure. (Komsomolskaya pravda, February 27)

Yeltsin Meets with General Rumored to be Candidate for Defense Minister.