ROSSEL ORGANIZES REGIONAL BLOC.

Newly elected Sverdlovsk governor Eduard Rossel told NTV August 27 that he had organizedan electoral bloc of 54 regions. To be called "TransformedFatherland," the bloc will run against Chernomyrdin’s "Russiais Our Home" grouping. But Rossel stressed that his blocwas not anti-Yeltsin and that he supports Yeltsin’s suggestionson increasing prison terms for violent criminals. One issue thatRossel’s new bloc will be very much concerned with is the distributionof tax revenues between Moscow and the region. Segodnya reported August 25 that the Russian government will soon announcea new center-regional split of tax revenues and will give theregions the right to introduce special regional or local taxes.While that should please the regions, such a step will almostcertainly add to the complications of doing business in Russia,complications that Yeltsin had sought to do away with by pushing through tax simplification measures earlier this year.

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