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Russians Won't be Bothered with Share Vouchers

By the narrowest of margins President Boris Yeltsin has managed to retain his powers against fierce opposition from the latest session of the Russian Congress of Peoples Deputies. His reform programme will go ahead. Just how dramatic are the changes for the Russian people as they enter another winter is described by Gemini News Service's correspondent in Russia.

Mikhail Pasternak writes from Moscow
THE dramatic Congress of People's Deputies of Russia has taken place tn conditions that in some ways closely resemble those of October 1917 at the time of the Bolshevik revolution.
People ha\A got tired of the uncertainties and the political arguments. Power structures and law supervision arc extremely Weak. The democrats have lost popularity and cannot organise strong enough support for the government.
Corruption clouds all levels of power, angering the new businessmen. Uncontrolled amounts of weaponry are to be found on the black market.
And yet there is another side of the picture. Russian capitalism Is moving ahead with fantastic speed, although even to start a small business you must have at least 4-5 million roubles — about SI0,000, which is the equivalent of an average salary for 400 months.
There are now 1.700 non-statc banks in Russia, 200,000 private farms, and 250 stock exchanges. Potential buyers of western-imported cars arc estimated to total 100.000. The number of hard currency shops in Moscow and the other big cities is growing rapidly. Moscow alone has 20 hard currency casinos.
One of many paradoxes Is that former communist industrial leaders are now running their state factories like private owners. They have accepted the rules of the market and are showing skills In the hard new conditions.
At the same time inflation is rising as never before. At the beginning of September the US dollar stood at 200 rou-
bles. By the beginning of December It was about 460 roubles.
The average salary of teachers and municipal doctors is 3-4.000 roubles. Industrial workers about 8-12.000 roubles. A modest pair of shoes costs 5-6,000 roubles, popular Chinese winter suits on the street markets about 15-20,000 roubles, and one bottle of champagne 1.000 roubles.
Russians have quickly forgotten about the empty shops and endless queues of the old
days. They say that in Brezhnev's lime There were queues but cheap bread.' Now they blame Yeltsin because "there arc goods but no money." Only the coloamd, historical Inertia of the Russians saves Yeltsin from a wave of strikes.
Acting Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, who is leading the economic reforms, launched his mass privatisation campaign on October 1 in great haste and without having worked out many Important details. Privatisation cheques — vouchers with a face value of 10.000 roubles at 1989 prices — were issued. The idea was to make each Russian citizen the owner of a part of privatised plants, factories or small ventures.
But the Russians showed indifference to the scheme and only 25-35 per cent of these vouchers have been picked, although they arc free (one voucher per citizen).
Many people sell their vouchers on the street markets for 4-5,000 roubles, which makes them about five per cent of their face value at 1989 prices. Neo-communtsts joke that this five per cent shows just how much trust people really put in the market reforms and in the Russian President.
Nevertheless 36-year-old Gaidar forged ahead and started the creation of regional slate property funds and encouraged stock exchange trade in vouchers. It looked as if he fell that hts young liberal government was doomed and that he was trying to push through as many reforms as possible regardless of the quality of the performance.
Some 15-20 per cent of Yeltsin supporters among the people's deputies moved over to the opposition, which explains- some of the steps the President has taken in recent weeks. He accepted hardline demands and suspended the withdrawal of the Russian army from the Baltic states, even us ing their language that he was "defending the interests of the .suffering Russian minority'' in the states.
lie accorded only formal Russian support for UN actions against the Serbs In the former Yugoslavia because the com munlsts and nationalist opposition. who have formed a united organisation — the National Salvation Front (NSF) — de manded "support for our Slavic brothers in Serbia."
All the main NSF figures have visited Serbia to show • support for President Slobodan Milosevic. In territorial disputes with the other republics
Yeltsin has begun, to take a tougher line.
Yeltsin suffered another blow" when Ukraine introduced its own cuflfcncv II declared the rouble invalid and a wore of paper roubles pouring Into Russia Increased Inflation All attempts by Yeltsin and Gaidar to preserve a rouble zone failed.
Bodyguards In black uniform have become one of symbols of the NSF. Its main purpose is to fight the "pro western market betrayers," to "restore strong order and prices of food of 1985," to start "the people's trial against Gorbachev and Yeltsin, who both broke the greatest union of republics In the world".
The NSF is not very original. simply repenting some
ideas of Lenin from 1917. Hkc starting to form parallels structures of power. Soon after the NSF was created one of the most aggressive nco-commu-nlst organisations called Labour Moscow called for the creation of "interbrigade" — units to be rendy lo fight on the streets.
Yeltsin was forced to issue a decree prohibiting the NSF and lawyers have started to build a case against Labour Moscow leaders. Such mea-surea are seen, however, as simply good publicity fof the NSF. Russians do not much respect authority.
One of the most famous Russian proverbs, which goes back to the 14th Century, says
'Laws are created for the common people to break."
- GEMINI NEWS
About the Author MIKHAIL PASTERNAK Is a Ruaslan journalist based in Moscow. He is winner of 1990 Moscow Union of Journalists award and has reported from Mongolia, Bulgaria. Croatia and the Baltic states