REGIONS DEMAND GREATER CONTROL OF TAX REVENUES.

The regions should be allowed to keep some of the taxes they raise rather than sending all revenues to Moscow and waiting for the center to send some money back, regional officials told Moscow representatives at a June 5 meeting in Krasnoyarsk. Some 66 of the country’s 87 regions now get money back, but see no reason why they should have to send all of their revenue to Moscow in the first place. Moreover, the regional officials complained that the Russian central government has adopted the practice of unfunded mandates–ordering the regions to spend money which they do not have and cannot raise–as a way of limiting the federal deficit. In other tax news, economics minister Vladimir Panskov said that there would not be any major changes in the tax system this year, Rossiiskie vesti said June 7. Panskov did say that the special 1. 5 percent tax on businesses, designed to raise support for the economy, would be dropped as would the tax on excessive salaries.

Duma Seeks to Rein In Kaliningrad Separatism.