WWW Irkutsk Newsletter
7 Mar 1997

IRKUTSK "TAX REVOLT" FIZZLES OUT. Irkutsk Governor Yurii Nozhikov on 1
March halted the oblast's payment of federal taxes, complaining that
Irkutsk gave 4 trillion rubles ($700 million) to the federal budget in
1996 and got nothing in return. He also noted that the oblast owes 600
billion rubles in unpaid wages to budget organization workers. But
during his visit to Moscow on 4 March, Nozhikov agreed to end his "tax
revolt," Segodnya reported on 5 March. He met with Prime Minister
Chernomyrdin, who promised to transfer 310 billion rubles to Irkutsk in
1997, and with Procurator-General Yurii Skuratov, who threatened him
with legal action if he did not resume tax payments. Tula Governor
Nikolai Sevrugin and Krasnodar Governor Nikolai Kondratenko have also
threatened to stop paying taxes to Moscow if federal debts to their
regions are not paid. -- Peter Rutland

OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 47, Part I, 7 March 1997