RUSSIAN SUPPORT FOR CIS EXPORTS PROPOSED.

At a Moscow briefing yesterday, Russia’s minister for CIS cooperation Valery Serov called for state financial support for Russian exports to CIS countries. The Russian government may introduce subsidies and preferential credits to exporters "in order to support Russian industry and secure the CIS markets for Russia." Serov also suggested using Russia’s leverage as a creditor of CIS states to obtain preferential treatment for Russian goods. Terming "CIS integration a priority of Russia’s foreign policy," Serov said that the CIS customs union and other coordinating economic bodies have the potential of ensuring that "integration becomes irreversible." (Interfax, July 2) The proposed measures threaten CIS countries’ producers in their home markets, would probably reduce unsubsidized Western trade with those countries, and might distort the putative CIS common market into an extended Russian market. Most CIS countries are likely to resist this.

Yeltsin Denounces Balts to Clinton.