RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT PROMISES (AGAIN) TO PAY MINERS.

Russian finance minister Aleksandr Livshits has signed a time-table for repaying wage arrears in the coal industry. First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Potanin will be dispatched next week to the major striking coal basin, the Kuzbass, to try to resolve the situation there. The upper house of the Russian parliament decided yesterday to hold an extraordinary session on December 10 to hear a report by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin on what the government is doing to pay wage and pension arrears. (Itar-Tass, December 5)

Chechen Refugees to Take Part in Election.