CHERNOMYRDIN PREDICTS IMF WILL SOON RESUME PAYMENTS.

Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin says he expects the International Monetary Fund to release the delayed October tranche of its $10.2 billion loan to Russia in mid-December. Chernomyrdin spoke after meeting IMF managing director Michel Camdessus in Paris last week. (BBC World Service, November 28) The Fund withheld the October disbursement because of Russia’s poor tax collection record.

Yeltsin Sacks Commander of Russian Land Forces.