Latest Monitor Articles
KWASNIEWSKI TO LOBBY FOR NATO EXPANSION IN MOSCOW.
Despite a recent rise in tensions between the two countries, Polish president Alexander Kwasniewski has accepted an invitation from Russian president Boris Yeltsin to visit Moscow in April, Kwasniewski's foreign office announced yesterday. (6) The visit, which is expected to be a difficult one, follows... MORE
GHOSTS OF ARMY DAYS PAST.
Speaking yesterday on the eve of Russian Army Day, Defense Minister Pavel Grachev warned of unnamed forces striving to weaken and divide Russia and said that only a strong army was capable of ensuring the nation's security and integrity. (5) His evocation of such Cold... MORE
RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT APPROVES COUNCIL OF EUROPE MEMBERSHIP.
The Federation Council yesterday unanimously approved documents endorsing Russia's membership in the Council of Europe and thus cleared the last hurdle to Moscow's long-delayed entry into the European human rights organization. The Duma had voted overwhelmingly the preceding day in favor of membership. First Deputy... MORE
CHUBAIS DISMISSES POSSIBILITY OF RENATIONALIZATION.
CamdessusÕs insistence that there must be no backtracking on privatization goes to the heart of a debate now raging in Russia: if a future Communist government tries (as seems likely) to renationalize significant areas of the Russian economy, will it be able to do so?... MORE
…IMF LOAN UNLIKELY TO BOOST YELTSIN’S RE-ELECTION CHANCES.
The IMF has had plenty of experience since 1991 with Russian commitments to meet agreed conditions. Broadly speaking, the commitments have not been met, yet policy has tended to move in the right direction -- much of the time. The extension of a new IMF... MORE
IMF SAYS YELTSIN’S WAGE ARREARS PROMISES NO OBSTACLE TO LOAN, BUT…
The IMF's conditions on budgetary and monetary policy may have been less of a sticking point than the condition on removing oil export taxes, but only because the key target is further off -- one percent monthly inflation in December 1996 -- and the appropriateness... MORE
MOSCOW MAY BE UNABLE TO MEET IMF REQUIREMENT ON EXPORT TARIFFS
. The conditions listed by Camdessus include the scrapping of export duties on oil and gas by July (effectively, that is, by the present Russian leadership) and the maintenance of fiscal and monetary policies calculated to reduce monthly inflation to one percent a month by... MORE
IMF AGREES TO LEND RUSSIA $10 BILLION.
Michel Camdessus, managing director of the IMF, announced yesterday the extension to Russia of a new, three-year loan equivalent to $10.2 billion. (1) The IMF decision followed what is now a familiar pattern of events: prolonged and difficult negotiations at the expert level over the... MORE