19 July 1999
DAILY REVIEW FROM TATARSTAN
Russian Agrarians Seek To Cooperate With Tatarstan
Possibilities for cooperation between the Agrarian deputies' group of the Russian State Duma and Tatarstan's legislative and executive authorities were discussed at a meeting of the Agrarian group's leader, Mikhail Lapshin, and Tatarstan State Council chairman Farid Mukhametshin in Kazan on 16 July. The visit is aimed at concluding a cooperation agreement with Tatarstan, more specifically with the political movement Vsya Rossiya (All Russia), which was created on the initiative of Tatarstan's president, Mintimer Shaimiev. The visitors told Mukhametshin of the program, charter, and tasks of their group. Both sides agreed that they should unite some of their efforts at the federal level. Lapshin said in an interview with Tatar Radio that concrete forms of cooperation will be discussed later with Shaimiev. Lapshin said he hoped that Shaimiev "will support our aspiration to be an original participant of [the] political process." Mukhametshin told Tatar Television that the Agrarians recently moved away from Russia's radical left wing, making it possible to seek cooperation with them.
Tax Police Increasing Payment Of Taxes
The chief of the Russian Federal Service of Tax Police, Vyacheslav Soltaganov, said about 1 percent of Russia's population duly pays its taxes, Tatar Television reported. Soltaganov made his comments at a meeting of federal tax police body heads from the Povolzhye and Volga-Vyatka regions, held near Kazan on 16 July. Soltaganov said that tax police bodies are to collect five times the number of taxes they collected last year. Tatarstan's tax police are listed among the most effective in Russia. Currently, some 2,000 tax defaulters were exposed in Tatarstan -- from a grand total of 6,000 in the whole Russian Federation.
IBM To Tackle Tatarstan's Y2K Problem
The IBM computer company discussed the prospect of resolving the year 2000 (Y2K) computer bug problem at a session of the governmental Commission on Information and Information Security in Kazan on 16 July. The IBM director for Eastern Europe and Asia, Penko Dinev, said in an interview with Tatar Radio and Television that IBM will work with telecommunications specialists in Tatarstan to deal with the problem and will organize consulting and training for them.
KamAZ To Exhibit New Models At Moscow's Auto Show
New models from the KamAZ truck plant will be shown at Moscow's international automobile exhibition next month, Tatar Radio reported. A dumptruck with a load capacity of 15 tons and equipped with a turboengine (of the euro-2 mode) will highlight the show. Models with excavating equipment, a tanker, and new models of the Oka small car will be also introduced.
Compiled by Gulnara Khasanova