YELTSIN ANNOUNCES ELECTION YEAR BUDGET.

In a speech to his government June 22, Boris Yeltsin laid out his plans for the 1996 budget: more money going to the population, reduced taxes, more power for the regions, a fight against waste and abuse in the state bureaucracy, and a cut in the government’s indebtedness to private firms. This election year budget is unlikely to be realized: despite his calls for not violating budget norms, Yeltsin on the same day asked the Duma to amend the 1995 budget, Russian television reported. And the fiscal situation may be far worse than Yeltsin claimed in his upbeat remarks: in the first six months of 1995 Moscow realized less than 1 percent of its planned revenues from privatization, Russian television reported June 22; and Segodnya said the same day that the costs of Chechnya were close to busting the budget.

Progress at Chechen Talks.