RUSSIAN AND THE IMF.

Russian Central Bank chairman Sergei Dubinin says the IMF will decide in mid-August whether to grant Russia the delayed July tranche of its $10.2 billion loan, but that the government must first prove that it can improve its tax collection procedures. Deputy Economics Minister Sergei Vasilyev says the government is considering drastic measures. "Show trials [of tax evaders] are necessary," he told the newspaper Trud. "Once we put a few directors of major enterprises in jail, others will learn from their example. Show bankruptcies will also do no harm." (Trud, July 23) The government is also considering setting up a special barter branch of the federal tax service to enable firms to pay taxes in kind instead of in cash, First Deputy Premier Vladimir Kadannikov said yesterday. (Nezavisimaya gazeta, July 25)

U.S. Lifts Arms Trade Ban on Ex-Soviet Countries.