>..IMO Russkies ain' no dummies! This is their way of saying "Gotcha". When
the price stabilizes much higher, the shipments will resume.>>
The price is much higher! Big troubles!
FOCUS-Russian govt urges calm as protests start
By Andrei Khalip
MOSCOW, April 8 (Reuters) - The Russian Justice Ministry issued an appeal for order on Wednesday as the first protesters took to the streets on the eve of nationwide labour protests.
Trade unions and left-wing political groups plan to mobilise strikes and demonstrations at mounting wage arrears that have left many on the bread-line. About two million downed tools or joined rallies across Russia in a similar day of action a year ago.
Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov told a news conference he expected 15 million people to take part in the protests. But a survey conducted by the All-Russian Centre for the Study of Public Opinion showed support for the day of action was mainly concentrated among pensioners, manual workers and the jobless.
Interfax news agency quoted the survey as showing 30 percent of those canvassed did not even know about the planned protests.
Russia's Justice Ministry warned protesters to abide by the law.
"If there are unlawful acts, they will be dealt with decisively according to the law and the guilty will face the legal consequences," it said in a statement.
The ministry said tensions were high and, noting a rise in "politically intolerant statements by public figures," it cautioned against playing on racial, ethnic and social divisions and against "fascism and other forms of extremism."
Thousands of doctors and other medical staff got their demands in a day early on Wednesday, staging a demonstration outside the White House, seat of the federal government in central Moscow.
A government official promised to hand their demands for higher salaries and an end to arrears to prime minister-designate Sergei Kiriyenko.
Despite government promises to pay off months of delayed wages, central and regional authorities owed doctors, teachers and other public sector workers 7.6 billion roubles ($1.2 billion) as of March 1.
Failure to pay them precipitated President Boris Yeltsin's decision to sack Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and his entire government two weeks ago.
Mikhail Shmakov, head of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions, told Ekho Moskvy radio that total wage arrears across the Russian Federation including the private sector stood at 58 billion redenominated roubles ($9.6 billion), exceeding a previous all-time record posted last summer.
But he made clear the unions had been encouraged by Kiriyenko's pledge to tackle the arrears problem if he was approved in the post of prime minister by Russia's parliament.
"Our last meeting with acting Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko showed that he is personally concerned and has ordered those working out the government's new programme to listen attentively to the proposals of the trade unions," Shmakov said.
The medical personnel who took to the streets on Wednesday appeared largely to follow trade union appeals to focus protests on economic issues, not political slogans, although red Soviet flags were much in evidence at some rallies.
"We just want to live normal lives and get our pay on time," said one middle-aged woman holding a banner at a picket outside Moscow's White House government building.
Doctors can earn as little as $50 a month, well below the national average, and many complain that even when they are paid, it is simply not enough to live on.
Communist and allied hard-left protesters say they want Thursday's protests to demand a change to Russia's economic course and a coalition government -- something Yeltsin refuses to countenance.
REUTERS
11:07 04-08-98 |
