The Sarmatian Review Index

Amount of money charged to credit cards in the United States during the 1996 Christmas season:
$131 billion.
Source: CBS Evening News, 28 December 1996.

Percentage of the Russian federal taxes provided by the ten (out of 89) regions of Russia: 60%.
Names of these regions: Moscow, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Tatarstan, St. Petersburg, Samara, Omsk Oblast, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Sverdlovsk Oblast, and Krasnodar Krai.
Source: Natalia Gurushina in OMRI Daily Digest, 7 November 1996.

Size of the Russian military in 1996: 2.5 million. Size of the additional military units such as Interior Troops, Border Guards, and Railway Troops: 1.8 million.
Source: Defense Council Secretary Yurii Baturin in an interview with Itogi on 29 October 1996, as reported by Scott Parish in OMRI Daily Digest, 30 October 1996.

Foreign direct investment in Russia in 1995 and in 1996: $1.5 billion and (estimated total of) $800 million.
Breakdown of the investment by area in the first eight months of 1996: trade and services, 41%; financial services, 14%; energy, 9%.
Breakdown by area: Moscow, 47%; Tatarstan and St. Petersburg, 6% each; Western Siberia, 5%.
Source: Nezavisimaia Gazeta, 29 October 1996, as reported by Natalia Gurushina in OMRI Daily Digest, 30 October 1996.

Number of people in Russia who regularly use the World Wide Web (Internet): 50,000.
Source: Robert Orttung in OMRI Daily Digest, 12 November 1996.

Number of drug-related crimes registered in Moscow in 1996: 4,600.
Source: Reuter, 2 January 1997.

Number of summonses for violations which 122 vehicles registered with the Russian mission received from the city of New York during the first six months of 1996: 14,437.
Number of summonses for violations which 15 vehicles registered with the Belarusian mission received from the city of New York during the first six months of 1996: 828.
Source: Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, as reported by Reuter, 2 January 1997.

Inflation in Russia in 1996: 21.8%.
Source: UPI, 7 January 1997.

Inflation in the Czech Republic in 1996: 8.8%.
Source: Jiri Pehe in OMRI Daily Digest, 10 January 1997.

Inflation in Bulgaria in 1996: 300%.
Source: UPI, 10 January 1997.

Inflation in Poland in 1996: 18.5%.
Source: GUS (Central Statistical Office), as reported by Donosy, 16 January 1997.

Increase in the Polish GDP in 1995 and 1996: 7% and 6.5%.
Source: ZUS and PAN (Central Insurance Agency and Polish Academy of Sciences) statistics, as reported by Donosy, 2 January 1997.

Number of cars sold in Poland from 1 January to 31 November 1996: 347,845, including 103,633 imported and 244,212 domestic cars.
Percentage increase by comparison with the same period in 1995: 39.7%.
The most popular car in Poland: Fiat 126, priced at Zl. 11,920 (ca. $4,200).
Source: °ycie Warszawy, 31 December 1996.

Number of GM cars sold in Poland in 1995: 30,000.
Planned annual production of GM cars in Poland by the year 2000: 150,000.
Source: UPI (Warsaw), 10 December 1996.

Number of cars imported into the Czech Republic in 1996: 71,083.
Percentage increase over 1995: 61%.
Source: Reuter, 10 January 1997.

Percentage rise of international routes of Russian air carriers in 1996: 30%.
Percentage decline of domestic routes of Russian air carriers in 1996: 30%.
Percentage fall in the number of passengers carried by Russian air carriers: 15%.
Amount of money lost by Russian airlines in 1996: $220 million.
Source: Reuter, 28 January 1997.

Amount of money Aleksei Soskovets, 20-year old son of former First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Oleg Soskovets, charged to his American Express credit card in six months in 1994: $103,532 including $25,000 in a Swiss jewelry shop and $724 for a dinner at Moscow's Metropole Hotel.
Source: Peter Rutland in OMRI Daily Digest, 13 January 1997.

Amount of money Poles spent on computers and computer programs in 1996: $2 billion.
Source: Donosy, 21 January 1997.

Estimated amount of money Americans spent on gold jewelry in 1995: $11.8 billion.
Source: Houston Chronicle, 27 January 1997.

Value of U.S. treasury securities with a built-in hedge against inflation sold on 29 January 1997: $37.2 billion.
Source: Houston Chronicle, 30 January 1997.

Anticipated size of the freshman class at the University of Warsaw in September 1997: 10,000.
Source: Donosy, 28 January 1997.

Number of copies which a Polish legal newspaper, Gazeta Prawna, expects to sell daily upon its merger with the economic daily Nowa Europa: 90,000.
Source: Reuter. 3 January 1997.

Number of practicing medical doctors in Poland in 1996: 90,000.
Source: Jakub Karpinski in OMRI Daily Digest, 8 January 1997.

Czech trade deficit in 1996: $5.5 billion.
Source: Jiri Pehe in OMRI Daily Digest, 9 January 1997.

Estimated cost of restructuring the Polish military to adjust it to NATO standards: $7.7 billion over 15 years.
Source: Polish non-governmental think tank, as reported by the UPI, 20 January 1997.

Another estimated cost of restructuring the Polish military to adjust it to NATO standards: $1.5 billion.
Source: an unnamed NATO official, as reported by Donosy, 21 January 1997.

Proposed size of 1997 Russian budget and budget deficit discussed by the Duma in January 1997: revenues of 434.4 trillion roubles ($77.3 billion) and expenditures of 529.8 trillion roubles, with a deficit of 3.5%.
Source: Reuter, 23 January 1997.

1997 Polish budget approved by the Sejm in January 1997: revenues of $39.7 billion and expenditures $43.8 billion, with a deficit of $4.1 billion.
Polish GDP in 1997 as projected by the 1997 draft budget: $150 billion.
Source: UPI, 24 January 1997.

Polish income from tourism and border trade in 1996: $7 billion.
Number of foreigners who visited Poland in 1996: 87.5 million.
Of these, number of people who spent at least one night in Poland: 20.3 million.
Number of foreigners who visited Poland in 1989: eight million.
Number of border crossings by Poles in 1996: 44 million.
Source: Deputy head of Poland's Physical Culture and Tourism Office Robert K´piski, as reported by Reuter, 29 January 1997.

Grigory Yavlinsky's prediction of the fate of Russian economy in 1997: GDP decline of 6%, industrial output decline of 8%, capital investment decline of 18%.
Source: Walker Simon of Reuter, 28 January 1997.

Population decline in the Russian Federation in 1996: 475,000, to 147.2 million.
Figure by which deaths exceeded births in the Russian Federation in 1996: 1.6.
Areas of the Russian Federation which experienced population growth in 1996: the Muslim-inhabited Caucasus Mountain areas and Siberian districts inhabited by indigenous peoples.
Number of people who legally emigrated from the Russian Federation in 1996: 97,500.
Number of people who legally immigrated to the Russian Federation in 1996: 2,500.
Source: UPI (Moscow), 31 January 1997.

Russian government spending in 1996 as percentage of the GDP: 40%.
Source: Russian economy minister Evgeny Yasin at the Davos World Economic Forum on 31 January 1997, as reported by Robert Evans of Reuter, 31 January 1997.

Percentage of the Russian Federation population who drink polluted water: 60%.
Source: Russian environmental minister Viktor Danilov-Danilyan, as reported by Adam Tanner of Reuter, 31 January 1997.

Increase in Czech exports in 1996 (by comparison to 1995): 3.5%.
Source: The Czech Statistical Bureau, as reported by Alan Crosby of Reuter, 3 February 1997.


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