FAILURE TO PAY SOLDIERS "SHAKING THE WHOLE ARMY."

Krasnaya zvezda said August 23 that the failure ofthe government to pay salaries to soldiers and officers was "shakingthe whole army" and could trigger lack of discipline andother problems. The same day, Interior Minister Anatoly Kulikovtold Russian radio that his men in Chechnya had not received theirpay for three months. One consequence of this is that desertionsare on the rise, Russian television reported August 22. This non-paymentcrisis is spreading. Another is that officers are leaving thearmy and are now unemployed, Rossiiskie vesti reportedAugust 19. Russian radio reported August 21 that in many miningand industrial regions, workers have not been paid since the beginningof summer, and that this failure of the government and the firmsto live up to their part of the wage bargain was increasing socialtensions. The only thing limiting the workers from taking actionis rising unemployment: with one in five workers without a job,most have nowhere to go.

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