ARMS PRODUCERS GET LICENSES TO EXPORT.

The number of Russian arms producers licensed to export weapons independently has been raised to eight, but they will reportedly remain subject to tight government controls. According to a spokesman for the official Russian state arms trading company, Rosvooruzheniye, the procedure to secure a go-ahead for an arms shipment is "rigorous," requiring approval not only from the defense ministry, the foreign ministry, and the intelligence services, but also from the Russian president, First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets, and the main commission for military-technical policies. MiG-MAPO, which was the first company allowed to conclude independent deals, has now been joined by Izhmash, Metrovagonmash, Gidromash, Rosvertol, Antei, the Ufa Engine Amalgamation, and the Tula Instrument Building Bureau. (4) Government officials have reported recently that Russian arms sales totaled more than $3 billion last year, an increase, they say, of some 80 percent over 1994.

Slow Going in Russo-Japanese Relations.