The Sarmatian Review Index

Health
Area of the Russian Federation in which strains of tuberculosis untreatable by drugs have been found: the Ivanovo region in central Russia.
Estimated percentage of untreatable cases among all cases of tuberculosis: from two percent to 14 percent.

Source: The World Health Organization announcement 22 October 1997, as reported by Houston Chronicle, 23 October 1997 and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty News, 24 October 1997.

Education
Number of institutions of higher learning in Poland in 1996: 236.
Of these, number of private institutions of higher learning: 130.
Total number of students in these institutions: one million.

Source: Kazimierz Sowa and Z.A. Kruszewski, papers given at the Fifth Bi-Annual Conference on Polish and East Central European Affairs, St. Mary's College, Orchard Lake, MI, 18 October 1997.

Number of people in Poland who have access to the Internet: 2.5 million.
Percentage of people with higher education, high school education, and elementary education who have access to the Internet: 36 percent, eight percent and one percent, respectively.

Source: Micha Jankowski in Donosy, 24 October 1997.

Ecology
The most radioactively contaminated place on earth: the weapons-grade plutonion factory Mayak in southern Urals. According to a joint Norwegian-Russian team, Mayak has released five times more radioactivity into Russia's waterways and ground water supplies than all the above-ground atom bomb tests put together.

Source: Nature, as reported by Houston Chronicle, 29 December 1997.

Year in which the first radioactive 100,000-ruble banknotes were discovered in Moscow's commercial banks: 1992.
Degree of irradiation in these banknotes: 1,000 times the normal one.
Disposition of these banknotes: left in circulation so far, promise of decontamination after 1 January 1998.
Rumors about these banknotes: they were put in circulation by Russia's FSK (Secret Service).

Source: Editorial in the Russian daily Segodnia, as reported by Russia Today,29 December 1997.

Demography
Estimated number of ethnic Poles in the Republic of Kazakhstan (survivors or descendants of Poles deported there by Stalin during the years of Soviet-Nazi friendship, 1939-1941): 100,000.
Of these, number of Poles who want to return to Poland: 60,000.

Source: President of the Polish Humanitarian Action Group Janina Ochojska, in an interview with RFE/RL, as reported by Bogdan Turek in "Poland: Prime Minister assures Poles living in Kazakhstan," RFE/RL, 2 January 1998.

Number of Russian soldiers who die every year of beatings, hazings, suicide or other non-combat causes: 5,000.

Source: Jolyon Naegele in RFE/RL News, 23 October 1997.

Economy
Estimated amount of money in the Russian stock market: $100 billion, or equal to India's stock market capitalization.

Source: Financial Times, 28 October 1997.

Estimated number of private cars in Moscow at the end of 1997: three million (Moscow's population is ten million).

Source: Molly Colin in the Christian Science Monitor, 29 December 1997.

Percentage of Krakow inhabitants who own a car: 33 percent (Krakow's population in 1997: 1.2 million).

Source: Agence France-Presse, 3 February 1998.

Estimated percentage decrease in 1997 domestic investment in Russia (compared to 1996): 9 percent.

Source: Mikhail Gorbachev in Houston Chronicle, 1 January 1998.

The World Bank estimate of the amount of money earmarked for foreign investment in Russia in 1992-96: $130 billion.
Of this sum, the amount reinvested in the West: $65-$70 billion.

Source: Zbigniew Brzezinski in an interview given to Komsomolskaia Pravda, as reported by the AFP, 6 January 1998.

Foreign direct and indirect investment in Russia in 1997: nine billion.
Countries which invested most in Russia: the Netherlands, United States, Britain, Germany.

Source: Gosinkor director Yuri Petrov, as reported by AFP, 14 January 1998.

Prediction of Polish economic growth in 1998: 5.6 percent.
Polish economic growth in 1997: 6.5 percent.
Projected revenues in 1998: $39.9 billion.

Source: 1998 Polish budget, as reported by AFP, 23 January 1998.

Russian budget for 1998 approved by the Duma in March 1998: projected revenues $61 billion, expenditures $83 billion, planned deficit $22 billion, or 4.7 percent of the GDP.

Source: AFP, 4 March 1998.

Number of new cars sold in Poland in 1997: 477,960 (28 percent increase over 1996).

Source: Michal Jankowski in Donosy, 21 January 1998.

Percentage decline in Romanian economy in 1997: 6.6 percent.

Source: AFP, 11 February 1998.

Foreign investment in Ukraine in 1997: $759.2 million.
Overall foreign investment in Ukraine since 1991: $2.05 billion (as of January 1998).
Breakdown by area of investment: food industry, $422.1 million; retail and wholesale, $337.6 million; processing, $168.7 million; construction, $90.6 million.
Breakdown by country: United States $381.2 million, the Netherlands $214 million, Germany $184.7 million, Russia $150.4 million, Britain $149.9 million, Cyprus $125.6 million.

Source: AFP (Kyiv), 13 February 1998.

Percentages of world oil reserves by country (1995): Saudi Arabia 25.7 percent; Iraq 10.1 percent; United Arab Emirates 9.9 percent; Kuwait 9.5 percent; Iran 9.4 percent; Venezuela 5.9 percent; Russia 4.8 percent, Mexico 4.6 percent; United States 2.6 percent; others 17.5 percent.
Percentages of world oil production by country (1995): Saudi Arabia 13.1 percent; United States 11.8 percent; Russia 9.4 percent; Iran 5.6 percent; Mexico 4.7 percent; China 4.6 percent; Venezuela 4.5 percent; Norway 4.3 percent; United Kingdom 4.0 percent; United Arab Emirates 3.5 percent; Canada 3.4 percent; Kuwait 3.2 percent; others 27.9 percent.

Source: Hillary Durgin in Houston Chronicle, 4 February 1998.

Society
Circumstances in which the Russian republic of Tatarstan adopted the Latin alphabet for the Tatar languages: the Second World Congress of Tatars held in Kazan in 1997.

Source: Rimzil Valiev, Rim Sitdikov and Guelnar Khasanova: "1997 In Review: Tatarstan Faces Challenges," RFE/RL, 31 December 1997.

Results of survey of global corruption in the area of contractual negotiations (listing ten most corrupt countries): Russia, Nigeria, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Iran and the former Yugoslavia.

Source: A survey by British, Scandinavian, German and US firms published in the Guardian, 5 November 1997 (as reported by Agence France-Presse, 5 November 1997).

Number of Russians who died of drinking low-quality vodka in 1997: 43,000.

Source: AFP, 6 January 1998.

Self-described status of Russians regarding religious matters: 46 percent atheists, 45 percent Orthodox Christians, two percent Muslim, 0.2 percent Catholic, 0.1 percent Jewish, one percent other faiths. Six percent said they could not answer.

Source: 1997 poll, as reported in Houston Chronicle, 24 January 1998.

Amount of money approved by the Duma (the Russian parliament) for spending in 1998 on compensation for victims of Soviet-era political repression: $83,000, or 50 percent less than in 1997.

Source: RFE/RL, 6 February 1998.

Number of homeless people who died in the streets of Bucharest from cold or disease between 1 January - 11 February 1998: 80.

Source: AFP, 12 February 1998.

Percentage of Poles who consider the Catholic Church to be a trustworthy institution: 77 percent.

Source: A Gazeta Wyborcza poll, as reported by AFP, 26 February 1998.

Politics
Names of countries which are NATO members and which ratified by 26 March 1998 the agreement about admission of Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary to NATO: Denmark , Norway, Canada and Germany.

Source: Donosy, 4 February, 4 and 27 March 1998.


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