FORMER FINANCE MINISTER: RUBLE PEG DESTABILIZING.

In aJuly 11 Segodnya article, former Russian finance ministerBoris Fedorov said that the soft peg of the Russian ruble againstthe dollar would destabilize the economy. Russia has failed tomeet all of its macroeconomic promises to the IMF, he said, notingthat inflation averaged 12 percent a month during the first halfof 1995, up from 10 percent a month the year before. And he pointedout that in the last several months, the Russian money supplyhas grown 15 percent, a development certain to push prices up. Another article in the same issue of the paper noted that thetemporary stabilization of the ruble had caused the ruble’s circulationrate to accelerate, something that also makes future inflationmore, not less, likely. A longer term threat to the Russian economyis the dramatic fall in central investments. Compared to the firstquarter of 1994, state investments as a share of the federal budgetfell from 7.3 percent to 5.2 percent, Sovetskaya Rossiya reportedJuly 11.

Journalist: Russian Generals Sold Guns to Dudayev.