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To: Little Joe who wrote (23831)	12/4/1998 7:27:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 117072

Full story Russia PM pledges reforms, Soros unimpressed 11:46 a.m. Dec 04, 1998 Eastern By Peter Graff MOSCOW (Reuters) - Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov told a gathering of global captains of industry Friday that Russia remained committed to free markets and trade. But international financier George Soros said Russia's unraveling economy was already beyond international help. Lines reappeared at exchange booths in Moscow, underlining the gloom as the rouble continued sliding against the dollar. President Boris Yeltsin met Primakov at the hospital where the Kremlin leader is recovering from pneumonia, and appeared relaxed in television footage. His spokesman said Yeltsin looked ''energetic'' and wanted to return to work as soon as possible. But the president's fate has become almost a sideshow as Primakov searches for a formula to resurrect the devastated economy while spurning the recipes of international lenders. ''We understand that the road for Russia is democratic reform, continuation of market reform and organic growth of our country as part of the world economy,'' Primakov told a Moscow gathering of the World Economic Forum, which groups leading industrialists, financiers and economists. But he said Russia would need a ''Russian'' solution to its crisis, rather than the ''standard model'' of Western-backed reform. He said previous economic experiments had strained the public's tolerance for change. ''The worst is that widespread distrust in the concept of a move toward the market has formed in Russia.'' Primakov has tried to present himself to international investors as market-friendly. But his embryonic anti-crisis plans, which include more state controls on the economy, have placed him at odds with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). IMF chief Michel Camdessus visited Moscow this week and left saying Russia could expect no loans until next year. First Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Maslyukov, a Communist in charge of economic policy in Primakov's Cabinet, said Friday he would travel to the Fund's Washington headquarters later this month to set out Russia's case again. Soros, the influential Hungarian-born U.S. billionaire financier, said the situation in Russia was ''out of hand.'' ''There is very little that can be done from the outside until, probably, things get a lot worse and there will be some political developments that will allow again some outside intervention,'' he said at a public appearance in Washington. Maslyukov responded harshly, telling reporters during a break at the economic forum: ''I am not worried about the opinion of Mr. Soros. I am more interested in my own opinion, because I think I know Russia better than he does. ''He knows a speculative Russia, paying one rouble with one hand and getting back 100 in the other. I know a completely different Russia, one which works and lives a real life.'' But liberal parliamentary leader Grigory Yavlinsky, echoing the discouragement of many other free-marketeers, told Reuters television on Friday that Maslyukov and Central Bank Chief Viktor Gerashenko were ''old-style communists (who) are not prepared to do anything reasonable with the economy.'' ''On the economic side, he (Primakov) has an absolutely disastrous government from my point of view,'' he said. The rouble, which had been relatively steady for several weeks after big falls in August and September, resumed its slide, nudging 20 to the dollar. In August a dollar bought 6.3 roubles. Traders said the fall was being driven by the central bank, which was holding dollars needed to pay foreign debts and had printed some roubles to help bail out commercial banks. Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited