BEREZOVSKY ANNOUNCES STEPS TOWARD ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION OF CHECHNYA.

Russian commercial interests have already raised $1 million to build a cement factory in Chechnya and the LogoVAZ corporation is giving Djohar-gala 50 automobiles "to help the fight against terrorism," Security Council deputy secretary Boris Berezovsky told a briefing at Interfax’s central office in Moscow this week. Russia, he said, must help Chechnya in both the economic sphere and the social sphere, because "if we can’t find hundreds of thousands of dollars for this today, we shall have to pay billions for it tomorrow."

Speaking of the reopening of the Chechen sector of the pipeline through which it is proposed to export "early" oil from Azerbaijan’s offshore oil fields, Berezovsky emphasized that "the political basis for this was created with the signing of the May 12 peace treaty between Russia and Chechnya, and an economic basis will be found as well… It is unquestionably beneficial to us that the pipeline goes through the territory of the Russian Federation." (Petroleum Information Agency, May 13)

Russia’s Long-Suffering Pensioners.