More than a quarter of a million teachers have walked off the job in a bid to force the government to pay them back wages. Employees in state factories are receiving their salaries in kind because of the lack of cash, and unpaid Russian soldiers can be seen begging on street corners. Blame Russia's nightmarish tax system, which consists of 4,000 often contradictory laws, resolutions, decrees, and directives. Its notoriously inefficient tax-collection system tends to punish those who pay and encourage those who don't to keep their income out of government sight. The real culprits, though, aren't everyday citizens but giant industrial and financial companies with powerful connections in Moscow.
Many big firms enjoy inexplicable tax breaks, while others threaten layoffs unless they're exempted.
Huge oil and gas companies pay virtually no taxes while average Russians have to sell their last belongings in order to survive. Other than the prospect of a cabinet shake-up, Yeltsin offered no ready solutions, although he did express sympathy for his compatriots' plight and said he understood why one poll found that more than half his countrymen are dissatisfied with him. Inc. All rights reserved.