The Sarmatian Review Index

Price paid by an American breeder for Eleuza, a Polish Arabian mare during the yearly auction of Polish Arabians in Janow Podlaski in August 1996:
$71,000.
Source: Donosy, 22 August 1996.

Number of post-secondary institutions in the U.S. offering credit-bearing Polish language courses in 1994:
62.
Source: Leonard A. Polakiewicz, The Polish Review, vol. XLI/2 (1996).

Estimated value of foreign direct investment (FDI) in select countries of the former Soviet bloc by 31 December 1995:
Hungary: $11.2 billion; the Czech Republic: $5.6 billion; Russia: $5.5 billion; Poland: $5.4 billion; Kazakhstan: $2.6 billion; Ukraine: $1 billion.
Source: ECE's [Economic Commissionfor Europe] East-West Investment News, as reported by Reuter, 16 July 1996.

Another estimate of the value of foreign direct investment (FDI) in select countries of the former Soviet bloc by 31 December 1995:
Hungary: $10.8 billion; Poland: $5.84 billion; Czech Republic: $5.53 billion.
Estimated FDI in 1996-97:
Czech Republic: $3 billion/year; Poland: $2 billion/year; Hungary: $2 billion/year.
Source: Dresdner Bank of Germany, as reported by Reuter, 6 August 1996.

Estimated foreign FDI in Russia in 1996:
$1.6-$2.0 billion.
Source: B. Furmanov, deputy chair of the State Investment Corporation in Russia, as reported by Peter Rutland of OMRI, 2 August 1996.

Foreign direct investment in Bulgaria in 1995:
$90 million. Estimated FDI in Bulgaria in 1996: $60 million.
Source: Liliana Semerdjieva of Reuter (Sofia), 16 August 1996.

Percentage decrease in investments in Russia in 1996, domestic and foreign (by comparison to 1995):
14%.
Percentage of current industrial turnover in Russia that consists of barter deals:
30%.
Source: First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Lobov, as reported by Penny Morvant of OMRI Daily Digest, 9 August 1996.

Estimated amount of direct aid Russia received from the West since 1992:
$20 billion, including $4 billion from the United States.
Amount of loans from the G-7 countries, IMF and World Bank Russia received since 1992:
$50 billion.
Estimated amount of Russia's foreign debt:
$130 billion.
Source: Issues 96: The Candidate's Briefing Book, edited by Stuart M.Butler and Kim R. Holmes (Washington, DC: The Heritage Foundation 1996), p. 499.

Value of arms sold by Russia to Iran in 1994:
$400,000.
Estimated value of Russian contribution to the ongoing project of Bushehr nuclear reactor in Iran:
$800,000.
Source: UPI, 6 August 1996.

Percentage by which German trade with Central and Eastern Europe (excluding Russia) rose between 1993 and 1995:
30%.
Percentage by which 1995 German exports to Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic rose (by comparison to 1993):
53% (to the Czech Republic), 34.5% (to Hungary), 31% (to Poland).
Percentage of German exports that go to Central and Eastern Europe:
8.2%.
Germany as percentage of the region's entire trade with Western industrialized nations:
33%.
Imports from Central and Eastern Europe (excluding Russia) as percentage of total German imports in 1995:
9%. Value of these imports: DM 58 billion.
Percentage of increase since 1993:
50%. Three countries (in descending order) from which most imports came:
Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic.
Three most important German trading partners in Central and Eastern Europe, by size of trade:
Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia.
Source: Bundesbank, as reported by Reuter, 18 July 1996.

Percentage of Polish exports going to countries of the European Union:
76%.
Source: Teresa Kuczynska, `Stagnacja i rabunek', Tygodnik Solidarnouz, No. 30(410), 26 July 1996.

Trade with Germany as percentage of Polish foreign trade:
38%.
Source: Marcin Grajewski of Reuter (Warsaw), 12 September 1996.

Projected Polish trade deficit in 1996:
$8 billion.
Source: UPI, 1 August 1996.

Government estimate of Polish trade deficit in 1996:
$6 billion.
Projected value of Polish exports and imports in 1996:
$25.9 billion and $31.9 billion.
Estimated percentage growth of Polish exports and imports in 1996 (by comparison to 1995):
exports, 13%; imports, 29%.
Government estimate of foreign investment in Poland in 1996:
$4 billion.
Source: Polish planning minister Miroslaw Pietrewicz, as reported by Marcin Grajewski of Reuter (Warsaw), 16 August 1996.

Percentage of Ukrainian export revenues spent on energy imports in 1995:
66%.
Source: David Chance of Reuter (London), 5 September 1996.

Three largest current recipients of US aid:
1.Israel 2. Egypt 3. Ukraine.
Source: Reuter (Kiev), 5 September1996.

Value of Russian exports in 1995:
$61.5 billion.
Value of barter deals in these exports:
$4.9 billion.
Source: Marina Volkova of the State Customs Committee, as reported by Reuter (Moscow), 23 August 1996.

Percentage drop in production levels of St. Petersburg's industries in the first six months of 1996 (in comparison to the same period in 1995):
25%.
Source: UPI, 31 July 1996

Amount of losses incurred by Russian airlines in the first seven months of 1996:
$192 million.
Percentage decline in the volume of air transportation over the same period in 1995:
6.8%.
Percentage decline in revenue from travel and cargo:
25% (40% in eastern Siberia).
Current debts of Russia's airlines:
$865 million, including $137 million owed to the federal government and $25 million owed to workers.
Source: Gennadi Zaitsev, director of Russia's Federal Aviation Service, as reported by the UPI (Moscow), 14 August 1996. Based on an Interfax report.

Number of fighters and fighter bombers in the Polish Air Force in 1996:
460, including 21 jet fighters MiG 29s.
Number of fighters and fighter bombers to be replaced and for which bids will be invited in 1997:
100.
Source: Reuter, 1 August 1996.

Value of Polish-Chinese trade in 1995:
$500.5 million.
Percentage increase over 1994:
33.7%.
Source: Polish Press Agency (PAP), as reported by the UPI (Warsaw), 19 August 1996.

Projected Polish grain harvest in 1996:
29.6 million tons including 8.7 million tons of wheat and 3.3 million tons of barley. Other crops: 15.5 million tons of sugar beet, 26.6 million tons of potatoes, 0.47 million tons of rapeseed.
Source: Reuter, 2 August 1996.

Projected Ukrainian grain harvest in 1996:
26 million tons.
Source: Reuter, 24 October 1996.

Projected Romanian wheat harvest in 1996:
3.1 million tons.
Source: Reuter, 23 August 1996.

Unemployment in Poland in July 1996:
14.1%.
Unemployment in Poland in July 1992:
16.9%.
Percentage of the unemployed who currently get unemployment benefits:
52%.
Unemployment entitlements:
12 months of compensation amounting to one-fourth of the average wage, or about $102. Beneficiaries have to work for at least six months in a new job to qualify for another12 months of unemployment compensation.
Source: Labor Minister Andrzej Bczkowski, as reported by the UPI (Warsaw), 19 Aug 1996.

Percentage by which the population of the Russian Federation is expected to decline yearly for the remainder of the century:
0.6%.
Source: Izvestiia, 21 August1996; Laura Belin of OMRI Daily Digest, 21 August 1996.

The figure by which deaths exceeded births in the Russian Federation in the first seven months of 1996:
491,000.
Drop in the population of the Russian Federation in the same period:
300,000 (to 147.7 million).
Number of marriages concluded in the same period of time (by comparison with the same period in 1995):
451,000 and 542,000.
Average age of Russian Federation citizens in 1996:
36.2.
Source: State Statistics Committee, as reported by the UPI, 30 September 1996.

Number of aliens in 1995 who applied for, and received, permits to reside permanently in Poland:
42,000.
Estimated number of illegal aliens in Poland in 1995:
500,000.
Areas of origin of the majority of illegal aliens in Poland:
the former Soviet republics and Southeast Asia.
Source: Edmund Kierzkowski, "Fala obcokrajowcow dopiero wzbiera", Rzeczpospolita, 23 September 1996, p. 17.

The incidence of syphilis per 100,000 population in Russia versus the rest of Europe:
177 versus 3.
Source: Russian Health Ministry, as reported by the UPI, 22 October 1996.


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