TAX EVASION UP AS GOVERNMENT CUTS BUDGET OF TAX COLLECTORS.

More than 14,000 individuals and firms are now evading taxesentirely, and this evasion costs the Russian government some 7.3trillion rubles, the head of the Federal Tax Police Sergei Almazovtold Interfax July 20. He said his group could do little to combatthis rising tide of evasion because the government had given itonly 23.6 percent of the money it needed. Almazov also lashedout at the Duma for passing a law which gives tax evaders thesame punishments as those who engage in illegal hunting or crueltreatment of animals.

Flow of Illegal Guns Now Going From Chechnya to Russia.