Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Cut arms production, Russian economists say Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 15:23:03 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD Cut arms production, Russian economists say \BY William Scally \CR REUTERS NEWS AGENCY Russia's military-industrial complex is producing too many armaments and must switch to civilian production to pave the way for economic reforms, a group of high-level Russian economists said yesterday. The economists said reliance on the export of weapons would deepen Russia's domestic crisis, including collapsing production and high inflation. The economists, including Defense Ministry adviser Vitaly Shlykov and Lt. Gen. Viktor Samoilov, adviser to the first deputy prime minister, took part in a two-day conference on Russian economic reform and defense organized by the International Security Council, a Washington policy group. A statement summing up the conference said the economists estimated that Russia's gross national product would decline more than 20 percent in 1992 with inflation raging at several thousand percent a year. They warned that "the current reform process has not brought the military-industrial complex and its mobilization reserves under control" and that arms production is draining economic resources, including high technology, human skills and state reserves accumulated over 50 years. "The excessive production of these armaments must stop, whether for internal consumption or for export," said the statement, drafted by Mr. Shlykov and William Van Cleave of the International Security Council. "Reliance on the export of armaments will only deepen the domestic crisis and reduce the prospect for genuine reform." Freeing resources for use in the civilian economy offers "the best, indeed the only, prospect for implementing genuine, radical structural reform that will avoid the pitfalls of hyperinflation and unemployment," the statement said. Mr. Shlykov told reporters there is "a pervasive feeling of pessimism inside the country and distrust of emerging economic programs." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM