[PEN-L:9755] Re: 1/3 of Russians in Poverty;

["Frank Durgin" <fdurgin1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

According to Izvestiya of July 21, 1999 p. 6, the All-Russian Center for
the Study of Living standards reported that 57% of all Russians had incomes
below the minimum subsistence level. That level averaged 985 rubles $40 per
month for all of Russia and 1,304, $53) for Moscow.  In Moscow, 25% the
population had below subsistence incomes and in St Petersburg 50%.

By way of contrast  only  4.1%  of all Russians had incomes of over 4854
rubles  (threshold for the well off and wealthy)(about $200 at current rate
of exchange).
In Moscow 23% of the population had incomes above the "well off and wealthy
threshold" which in Moscow is 6534 rubles($267). In St Petersburg only
1.75% had incomes over the  "well of and wealthy" threshold

----------
> From: meisenscher <meisenscher@xxxxxxx>
> To: Recipient list suppressed
> Subject: [PEN-L:9747] 1/3 of Russians in Poverty; US Blocks Query on VX
Gas;Colombian Strike Looms
> Date: Friday, July 30, 1999 11:04 PM
>
> IN THIS MESSAGE:   1/3 of Russians in Poverty; US Blocks Query on VX Gas;
> Colombian Strike Looms
>
> Study: 1/3 of Russians in Poverty
>
> By Nick Wadhams
> Associated Press Writer
> Friday, July 30, 1999; 11:20 a.m. EDT
>
> MOSCOW (AP) -- More than one in three Russians is living below the
official
> poverty line, according to government figures released Friday, the latest
sign
> of the wreckage left by last year's economic meltdown.
>
> About 35 percent of the population, or 51.7 million people, received
monthly
> salaries below Russia's minimum subsistence level of 872 rubles ($36)
during
> the first half of the year, the Russian Statistics Agency said.
>
> That figure was up from 22 percent living in poverty during the same
period
> last year, when the minimum monthly subsistence level averaged out to
> about 429 rubles ($71 at the time).
>
> Some economists say the figure overstates the poverty problem somewhat
> because many Russians make money in the economy's informal sector and
> don't declare their income to the government.
>
> Still, the figures reflect the dramatic decline in living standards that
has
> been
> taking place throughout this decade.
>
> The financial crash last August resulted in widespread job layoffs and
pay
> cuts, sent inflation soaring, and pushed millions more into poverty.
>
> In more fallout from the crisis, imports crashed by 46 percent in the
first six
> months of 1999, while exports fell by 11 percent, the agency said.
>
> After the ruble devaluation, many imports became prohibitively expensive
for
> Russians. The agency didn't give exact foreign-trade volumes, but monthly
> figures show exports totaled $34.4 billion against imports of $19.6
billion, for
> a trade surplus at around $14.8 billion for the first half of the year.
Russia's
> trade surplus was just $900 million from January to June of 1998.
>
>               © Copyright 1999 The Associated Press
> =======================================
>
> U.S. Blocks Questions About VX Gas
>
> By Edith M. Lederer
> Associated Press Writer
> Friday, July 30, 1999; 4:16 a.m. EDT
>
> UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The United States has blocked China and France
> from asking weapons inspectors questions about the use of small
quantities
> of the deadly VX nerve agent left in a Baghdad laboratory.
>
> Hasmy Agam, Security Council president and Malaysia's U.N. ambassador,
> had circulated a letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan with questions to
the
> U.N. inspectors from France and China, which asked for proof that VX
wasn't
> used to contaminate Iraqi missile warheads.
>
> The United States on Thursday objected to France's questions, which U.S.
> officials felt trivialized the issue of disarming Iraq and focused
unfairly on
> weapons inspectors from the U.N. Special Commission, or UNSCOM. The
> letter to Annan has not been sent.
>
> The issue of VX became a flash point for the Security Council last year
when
> the United States found traces of the nerve agent on fragments of Iraqi
> missile warheads. Iraq has admitted producing 3.9 tons of VX agent, but
has
> denied loading the deadly agent into missile warheads.
>
> Seven vials containing tiny quantities of VX were among the chemical and
> biological material left in a Baghdad laboratory when inspectors pulled
out of
> Iraq in mid-December on the eve of U.S. and British airstrikes. Iraq
barred
> them from returning.
>
> France, China and Russia -- Iraq's closest allies on the Security Council
--
> urged the council to have the samples analyzed, intimating inspectors may
> have laced Iraqi warheads with the agent.
>
> But the majority of the 15-member council agreed with the weapons
> inspectors, who said the VX could only be used to calibrate equipment
used
> to test for the nerve agent, posed no danger, and should be destroyed.
>
> A team of independent chemical experts sent to Baghdad to make the
> laboratory safe went ahead and destroyed the VX samples on Tuesday. But
> China and France wanted UNSCOM to answer questions about why VX was
> in the lab and why most of it wasn't destroyed if it degrades after about
a
> year.
>
> One question proposed by France asked whether equipment in the Baghdad
> laboratory was used to analyze the Iraqi warheads before they were sent
to
> the American lab which found the VX traces.
>
> Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin accused the Security Council of ordering
> the destruction because it knew that UNSCOM inspectors had used the VX
> to contaminate the warheads.
>
> The issue of UNSCOM's lab in Baghdad comes as the Security Council is
> debating a new policy toward Iraq. By drawing out the debate over a
> seemingly clear-cut technical issue for several days, France, Russia and
> China put the council on notice that they will closely scrutinize Iraq's
> outstanding disarmament obligations -- and that reaching consensus will
not
> be easy.
>
>               © Copyright 1999 The Associated Press
> ========================================
>
>
>  July 30, 1999
>
>
>  Dow Jones Newswires
>
>  Colombia Ecopetrol Workers Plan Strike On Govt
>  Reforms
>
>  BOGOTA -- Workers at Colombia's state oil company Ecopetrol (E.ECO) will
>  strike if Congress passes a controversial labor reform bill, the head of
the
>  company's labor union said Friday.
>
>  Hernando Hernandez, president of Ecopetrol's Syndical Workers' Union, or
USO,
>  said on Colombian radio that "without any type of discussion and
unanimously,
>  the workers approved a general strike in all the installations of
> Ecopetrol, with
>  paralysis of production, if the Congress finally approves... to snatch
away our
>  conquests."
>
>  He added that USO members had given the union's bosses the power to
declare
>  the strike "at the opportune moment."
>
>  Over one-half of Ecopetrol's roughly 10,000 workers are affiliated to
USO,
> which
>  frequently calls strikes to protest at government policy.
>
>  It has carried out at least three brief labor stoppages in the year to
date.
>
>  The government's labor reform package - scheduled to go before Congress
>  imminently - aims to make more flexible the hiring and firing
arrangements of
>  Colombian employers. It includes proposals to introduce a sliding scale
of
>  indemnity payments, eliminate overtime rates between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
and
>  allow employers to count some public holidays as vacation time.
>
>  No comment was available from Ecopetrol.
>
>   - By Mary Morrison; 571-215-7132;
>  mmorrison@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>
>  Briefing Book for: E.ECO
>