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To: philv who wrote (8056)	3/4/1998 5:50:00 PM
From: Tom Byron	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116764

Calling Damage Control. cme.com Check the afterhours globex. Intl news knocking the nasdaq down in afterhours trading. (down -30.00). Need to click on "prices" and then globex -5minutes quotes.

To: philv who wrote (8056)	3/4/1998 7:22:00 PM
From: Bucky Katt	Respond to of 116764

Soros says he gave Russia money to pay back wages 6.06 p.m. ET (2307 GMT) March 4, 1998 MOSCOW (AP) - The Russian government got "several hundred million dollars'' from George Soros during a severe cash crunch last summer to help it pay overdue pensions, the American financier said Wednesday. The government owed many months' worth of back pensions and wages to millions of retirees and state workers throughout the country. "They were stuck,'' Soros said after lunch with Moscow business leaders. Soros said the loan was to bridge a one-week period between the receipt of a bond issue and the July 1, 1997, deadline President Boris Yeltsin had set for paying the pension arrears. Banks managing the bond issue may not have been aware of the severity of Russia's cash crisis at the time, Soros said. Russia issued $2 billion in 10-year bonds via JP Morgan Securities and SBC Warburg last June. The Russian government managed to deliver on Yeltsin's promise in July, stretching its resources to the limit. Soros said he gained "a very favorable'' interest rate on the loan, but refused to elaborate on the transaction. But when a deadline for repaying back wages came up last December, the government again turned to Soros for a loan, he said. This time, the financier turned them down. "I didn't want to make a habit of it,'' he said. But Soros appeared intent on continuing to donate money to Russian libraries, museums, and health and education programs. Earlier Wednesday, he announced plans to contribute more than $100 million for the programs this year. Soros also described plans for what he has dubbed the "Pushkin project'' - a program for providing about 1,000 books a year to each of about 3,500 provincial libraries throughout Russia. Aleksandr Pushkin was a 19th-century Russian poet. The financier said he has insisted that Russia gradually take over the financing of the three-year project. "It is my hope that (the project) will have a lasting effect and will not disappear when my support disappears,'' he told reporters. Soros has spent an estimated $350 million on charitable projects in Russia in the past decade. He has pledged to contribute $500 million more to improve Russian health, education and culture, and augment military reform. He also announced plans to donate $5 million this year to support Russia's cash-strapped museums, including Yasnaya Polyana, former country home of writer Leo Tolstoy, and Kizhi - a unique ensemble of old, fancifully designed wooden churches in northern Russia. Russian museums have been chronically short of funds since the 1991 Soviet collapse. Museum workers worry the lack of money could endanger valuable collections. Soros also detailed his programs to assist treatment of drug addiction, tuberculosis, and improve maternal and child health. He also said he would contribute $20 million this year to one of his biggest projects in Russia - introducing Internet access to the nation's universities.