Yeltsin's Capitalist Coupons Head For Siberia
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday September 24, 1992
MOSCOW, Thursday: Mr Boris Yeltsin has had no end of bad news to tell the beleaguered citizens of Russia, but now he is rushing to give them some good.
At his urging, the printing of coupons for the privatisation of the Russian economy has been accelerated.
Yesterday, Mr Anatoly Chubais, the man in charge of the program, was able to report that the first seven million coupons had been sent out to the Russian Far East and Siberia, where distribution will start next week. A further 35 million will be ready for Moscow and St Petersburg within days.
Every man, woman and child in Russia will receive a coupon with a face value of 10,000 roubles ($A52), which they can use to buy shares in Russian State enterprises.
The plan has drawn howls of protest from communist stalwarts, who ignore -or don't know - their history. When Lenin, their god, hit remarkably similar economic trouble to that Russia faces today, he introduced the New Economic Policy, which allowed a measure of private ownership.
Mr Chubais was explicit at yesterday's briefing: there will be no ban on buying and selling the coupons.
One of the clever young technocrats on Mr Yeltsin's team, Mr Chubais pointed out that the objective was to privatise the Russian economy, not to make every Russian a shareholder.
But you have to be quick: the coupons may be used only until the end of the year. By that time, about 35 per cent of the Russian economy will have been privatised, the Government believes.
There is no mystery about why Mr Yeltsin has been urging haste. With his popularity flagging and his acting Prime Minister, Mr Yegor Gaidar, running the gauntlet of an angry Parliament, Mr Yeltsin needs a diversion.
Ten thousand roubles isn't much, though the shrewd business minds on Mr Yeltsin's team have pitched the float at a price well below what they think the available assets are worth, so that the coupons should quickly trade at a premium, possibly a factor of three. Everyone likes the idea of selling for 30,000 a piece of paper marked "10,000".
The contrast is irresistible: even at the height of his terror, Josef Stalin could not make every Russian a communist.
On however small a scale and no matter how briefly, Mr Boris Yeltsin is about to make every Russian a capitalist.
© 1992 Sydney Morning Herald