The Current Digest

The Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press is faced with closure. An editorial source comments that the Digest is always a couple of weeks behind the times, because it gets the newspapers from Moscow and then has to select what articles to translate. But it's a great research tool, and it's too bad that it may cease publishing. It was founded in 1949 as The Current Digest of the Soviet Press, and for a long time was the only English-language source of Russian news available in the West. At present the publication's only hope now is to find a company to buy it out, but a contributing editor says that it doesn't look promising at this point.

The online version is available to subscribers only, but to give an idea of the journal's scope, here are some entries from the latest issue:

Volume 57, Issue No. 44 November 23, 2005 View Full Issue
HOW THEY BLEW UP A BILLIONAIRE. (By Yelena Suponina. Vremya novostei, Oct. 24, 2005, p. 5. Condensed text:) The UN Security Council will decide tomorrow what to do about Syria. Upheaval threatens that Middle Eastern country of 17 million people. What President Bashar Assad, 40, needs to do is to gain time. His situation is dire but not hopeless. View Full Article
AN ACCUSATION THAT CANNOT BE DENIED. (Kommersant, Oct. 27, 2005, pp. 1, 9. Excerpts from first and condensed text of second of two items:) (By staff correspondent Mikhail Zygar). – The US, Great Britain and France yesterday submitted to the UN Security Council a draft resolution proposing that sanctions be imposed on Syria. . . . View Full Article
IRAN’S PRESIDENT EXPOSES HIS COUNTRY TO ATTACK. (By Ivan Groshkov and Andrei Terekhov. Nezavisimaya gazeta, Oct. 28, 2005, pp. 1, 6. Condensed text:) World diplomacy is still reeling from an unprecedented statement made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Iranian leader’s remark that Israel should be "wiped off the map" has prompted even those who initially tried to defend Tehran against the sharp attacks of the US to now distance themselves from Iran. Moscow openly acknowledged yesterday that Ahmadinejad has strengthened the position of those who say that the Iranian nuclear dossier should be referred to the UN Security Council. . . . View Full Article
SERGEI LAVROV SPEAKS PRO-ARAB WITH JEWS. (By staff correspondent Grigory Asmolov. Kommersant, Oct. 28, 2005, p. 10. Condensed text:) Jerusalem – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov completed a two-day working visit to Israel yesterday. Despite the friendly atmosphere at the talks, the parties failed to come to terms on any of the key problems confronting their bilateral relationship. . . . View Full Article
VETO STAYS IN POCKET. – Moscow Saves Damascus From Economic Sanctions. (By Andrei Zlobin. Vremya novostei, Nov. 1, 2005, p. 2. Condensed text:) The UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution No. 1636 on Syria yesterday. The unanimous vote showed that the members of the Security Council – some of which had been demanding harsh sanctions against Damascus, while others had been warning of the danger that events could follow the "Iraq scenario" – had managed to reach a compromise decision and perhaps to avoid a further deterioration of the situation in the Middle East. The resolution calls on Damascus to cooperate fully and unconditionally with the commission investigating the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, and also to detain all Syrian citizens whom the commission suspects of involvement in the terrorist act. The UN member countries, for their part, must freeze the bank accounts of such individuals and bar them from entering their territories. If Damascus fails to cooperate, the resolution provides for the "possibility of considering further action against Syria." . . . View Full Article
GERMAN GREF OFFERS THE PRIME MINISTER TWO PERCENT. (By Vadim Visloguzov. Kommersant, Oct. 22, 2005, p. 1. Condensed text:) German Gref, the head of the Economic Development Ministry, finally responded yesterday to Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov’s assignment to draft a bill reducing the value-added tax. But the minister declined to reduce Russia’s principal tax by five percentage points at once, proposing instead to reduce the VAT to 16% while concurrently eliminating the preferential 10% rate. On the surface, the idea looks like a compromise, but in actuality, it torpedoes the prime minister’s plans for a decisive reduction in the tax burden. . . . View Full Article
PRESIDENT SWITCHES GOVERNMENT TO A DIFFERENT PROGRAM. (By Pyotr Netreba. Kommersant, Oct. 25, 2005, p. 2. Condensed text:) White House officials have decided not to return the medium-term economic development program to the Ministry of Economic Development for yet another reworking. . . . View Full Article
HIGH-RISK FUND. – Commercial Exploitation of Russia’s Scientific Achievements Is Getting Under Way. (By Yevgeny Yasin. Rossiiskaya gazeta, Oct. 25, 2005, p. 5. Excerpts:) I have finally heard something that I’ve been waiting to hear for a long time: The government is seriously considering the creation of a venture-capital fund. The commercial exploitation of the achievements of Russian science is truly a task of paramount importance. . . . View Full Article
IT’S THE TAX AGENCIES THAT SHOULD ANSWER FOR INFLATION. (By Yevgeny Yasin, research director at the Higher School of Economics. Nezavisimaya gazeta, Oct. 27, 2005, p. 2. Condensed text:) Inflation depends on a multitude of factors. Above all, it depends on the amount of money in circulation (the so-called money supply) and the extent to which that supply is in keeping with the demand for money. . . . If the business climate is poor and business activity declines, then demand for money drops and the money supply should also retract accordingly, because if it does not, the result is an excess of money, and that leads to an increase in inflation. View Full Article