SMALL BUSINESS GETS SMALLER….

Age: 23 years

According to Segodnya, a Media-Most publication, the number of small businesses registered in Russia has fallen from around 910,000 in 1994 to 875,500 in October 2000. Taxation, arbitrary and excessive regulation, and criminal interference have driven small business underground. Poland, with only one-fourth of Russia’s population, has some 2 million registered small businesses.