BELARUSIAN PRESIDENT REVERSING ECONOMIC REFORMS.

Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko yesterday urged "the most intense possible government control over the country’s industry" while visiting a Soviet-era, now ailing electronics plant in Minsk. Lukashenko also announced plans to raise customs duties on imported television sets and radio equipment in order to protect Belarusian producers from foreign, particularly Japanese, manufacturers. (Interfax, May 13) In other recent anti-market measures, Lukashenko ordered the nationalization of the Interbank currency exchange and instructed the government to increase already massive subsidies to the unprofitable collectivized farm sector.

Russia Protests Solana Remarks.