TIGHTER CURRENCY CONTROLS ORDERED.

President Boris Yeltsin has ordered urgent measures to stiffen currency controls, which his economic aide Aleksandr Livshits describes as designed to combat capital flight via fake import contracts. Livshits said the measure was the first of a series intended to bring order to the movement of Russian capital abroad. And he claimed that these measures would be implemented with "the help of a certain mechanism" blocking any irregularities. (10)

Russians have reportedly invested more than $43 billion abroad, a large chunk of the money illegally. (11) Of that, an estimated $18 billion is illegal capital flight which its owners hold in cash, securities, and real estate. The measures to stem this phenomenon are to go into effect 30 days after the decree’s publication.

Russian Voters’ Rights Abroad.