…AND FOR CAPITAL FLIGHT.

The Yeltsin leadership is also proposing another kind of amnesty — one that it hopes will encourage Russians to repatriate exported capital and fuel an eagerly awaited but elusive economic turnaround. Sergei Almazov, head of the Federal Tax Police, says the government wants to declare an amnesty for all those who sent capital abroad illegally, as long as they agree to re-invest it in Russia. If only ten percent of the fugitive capital returns from abroad, Izvestia writes, this would give the economy a valuable boost. (Izvestia, September 10)

The Duma is expected to consider two possible mechanisms when it debates the proposal in October. Under the first option, people would be given a six-month window during which they could declare foreign income to the tax police, pay the appropriate back tax, and re-invest the money in Russia with no further questions asked. Alternatively, tax would be excused. The government is also thinking of ways to legalize profits earned from the shadow economy, though what these will be is still unclear. (RTR, September 4)

Meanwhile, Kazakhstani prime minister Akejan Kajegeldin has been quoted as saying it will be practically impossible for today’s governments to recover the "Communist Party gold" believed to have been smuggled out of the USSR. "The Communists’ methods were not primitive," he was quoted as saying. Kajegeldin reportedly told a Russian newspaper that he cooperated in the early 1990s with the KGB and with Russian prime minister Ivan Silaev to set up commercial ventures abroad and launder Communist Party and state funds. (Komsomolskaya pravda, September 10)

Officials Deny Aid to Iranian Nuclear Missile Program, Lost Nuclear Weapons.