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Politics : Clinton -- doomed & wagging, Japan collapses, Y2K bug, etc -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ahda who wrote (127)	9/7/1998 12:27:00 PM
From: SOROS	Respond to of 1151

Electronic Telegraph - 09/07/98 MEMBERS of Moscow's middle class are being thrown out of work in their tens of thousands by the financial chaos that has already destroyed the value of their savings. Bankers, businessmen, stock market traders, salesmen and anyone connected with imports - those who thought they were building a new and better Russia - face the loss of well-paid jobs they may have held for years. The rich transferred their assets abroad long ago. The poor majority have no savings and many have not received wages for months. The in-betweens are the ones who are suffering most pain. Until recently, they were the last people afraid of unemployment. Blue-collar workers from smokestack factories producing little except pollution were vulnerable, but not the new elite, they reasoned. Now, with banks on the verge of collapse and the trading system close to ruin, whole departments of well-trained, motivated young professionals are being laid off. Estimates vary but at least 100,000 in the financial sector are at risk in Moscow, where the middle class is concentrated. Each supports five or six dependents. President Yeltsin holds round-table talks today with the opposition to try to break the political deadlock. Afterwards, the parliament will vote on whether to approve his candidate, Viktor Chernomyrdin, as prime minister. Mr Chernomyrdin told European finance ministers that Russia would stabilise its economy with international help. But, in a spectacular vote of no confidence, Muscovites rushed to stock up on provisions for the winter in scenes reminiscent of the Soviet era, with panic buying of staples such as rice, cooking oil and pasta. Many professionals have been working all hours in an attempt to save their companies from the worst effects of the economic crisis. The queues were so long to withdraw money from customers' accounts at the Rossiisky Kredit bank that the branch where Irina Nikonova worked stayed open till 8pm every day as she tried to calm panic-stricken depositors. When the blow came, her employers gave her a choice: to resign straight away without any redundancy payment or to work out two months' notice. If she chose the second option, she was left in no doubt that the bank would use any excuse to get rid of her at any time, including arriving a minute late for work. Ms Nikonova, 22, who always came top of her class at school and graduated with distinction from Moscow's elite economics institute, said: "Of course, I feel terrible. I am convinced that I shall never find a job in the banking sector again." Vladimir Solvoyev, director of the recruitment agency Universal Personnel, said: "We are getting up to 100 inquiries a day. We would get more but the phones can't cope." Sergei Solomentsev was filling out forms at the agency's office. He said: "On top of being made redundant, I have lost the equivalent of œ12,000 in the rouble and bank crash. The difference from 1917 is that the aristocracy had inherited its wealth and could flee abroad. Today's middle class is self-made. It has a lot to lose and nowhere to go." But becoming unemployed may be the catalyst that turns the politically inert bourgeoisie into a force for change. Mr Solvoyev said: "Right now, the middle classes are paying for their political stupidity. They took the view that politics here was dirty and that mud was for pigs only. But who is going to change this country if it is not us?"