OMSK DEFENSE WORKERS PROTEST.

More than 2,000 workers from defense plants in the Omsk region picketed the local administration office yesterday, protesting that they had not been paid for 4-5 months. The local governor, Leonid Polezhayev, said the economic situation in the region was "catastrophic" and blamed Moscow. He charged that the central government was collecting vast amounts of tax revenue in the Omsk region without contributing a single ruble to the region’s budget, something he termed "undisguised robbery." (Itar-Tass, October 16, 1996)

Kazakh Navy Gets Cutters from Germany.