2 February 1999
DAILY REVIEW FROM TATARSTAN
Tatarstan To Reduce Its Payments To Moscow?
"We are not asking for federal subsidies, we are asking for our own money," said Tatar Premier Rustam Minnikhanov on 1 February at the Kazan Institute of Economy and Finance. In regard to the current negotiations under way between Kazan and Moscow over the treaty on interbudget relations, Minnikhanov said Tatarstan's government considered it vital to reduce its payments to Moscow, since the federal budget "was formed without proper regard" for the needs of Tatarstan's budget. Minnikhanov said it has been agreed that most intergovernmental treaties would be prolonged -- except the treaty on interbudget relations. Minnikhanov said he did not know how the negotiations would turn out but he said Moscow fully understood the importance of the talks.
Chally Mayor Still Awaiting Job Offer From Moscow
Chally Mayor Rafgat Altinbayev said on 1 February that he could neither confirm nor deny a report that he was being considered for the federal post of deputy minister of communications. Reports about the appointment arose last May when he rejected an offer to become Tatarstan's premier and later pulled out of the campaign to become the chairman of Tatarstan's State Council. President Mintimer Shaimiev sharply criticized Altinbayev's behavior and he became somewhat politically isolated considering he had been within Shaimiev's inner circle of friends and advisors.
KamAZ Acquires Share Of Major Russian Dump Truck Company
Bashkortostan's Cabinet of Ministers issued a decree giving the KamAZ auto plant a 40 percent share in the NefAZ dump truck plant in Neftekamsk, Bashkortostan. NefAZ has produced dump trucks and off-road trucks with parts from KamAZ since 1977. In 1990, Bashkortostan's government privatized NefAZ, with 40 percent of its shares held by the republic and the rest distributed to private shareholders. Production fell drastically from some 80,000 vehicles annually in the late 1980s to some 800 vehicles last year. Now KamAZ is planning to revive NefAZ's production by making the KamAZ 55111 -- currently the most popular dump truck on the market.
Compiled by I.Nurmi