THE COSTS OF CHECHNYA.

Former acting premier Yegor Gaidar told the April 11 Kievskie vedomosti that “the crisis in Chechnya has inflicted serious damage to the national economy.” But Russian finance minister Panskov told Vek (no. 17), that the war and rebuilding after it would not affect either the government deficit or the rate of inflation in Russia. Many Western observers have set the cost of the fighting at $5 billion and rising; estimates of the costs of rebuilding Grozny and other locations destroyed by Russian bombing run higher still.

Former Nationalities Head Urges Yeltsin to Phone Dudayev.