
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 18, 1990                   TAG: 9004180006
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Medium

NEW COUNCIL HAS CAPITALIST PLAN FOR COMMUNIST CAPITAL

The radicals running the Moscow City Council discussed getting rid of the giant bust of Lenin from their meeting hall Tuesday, then spent their lunch hour at an anti-corruption rally next to Red Square.

That was only the beginning for the new dominant force in city hall, which wants to turn the capital of communism into an experimental economic zone where the free market reigns.

The key figure in the economic revolution brewing in this city of 9 million is Gavriil Popov, an outspoken economist and lawmaker expected to be elected mayor today. His Democratic Russia bloc won more than 60 percent of the 495 council seats in an election in March.

Popov refused to be interviewed during Tuesday's session, but his bloc's plans are laid out in Kommersant, a new business newspaper with a decidedly capitalistic slant.

The newspaper listed among plans being worked out by the Democratic Russia bloc's "Group on Urgent Measures":

Moves to free the private businesses known as cooperatives from a tangle of regulations.

Incentives to attract foreign capital "on an unprecedented scale for Moscow," including easing rules on long-term leasing of buildings and allowing firms to pay in part with services to ease city problems.

A virtual free market in agricultural produce.

A "visiting card" system that would allow goods in Moscow to be sold only to Muscovites with proof of residence.

Takeover and redistribution of some Communist Party property and sell-off of some government property.

There has been no Kremlin reaction. The city is largely independent when it comes to funding.

But the new council's first session, which began Monday, raised doubts about how effective it would be. Legislators bogged down for hours in procedural wrangles typical of Soviet bloc parliaments.

Tempers already have risen over several issues, including the question of removing the Lenin bust, and Moskva deputies have repeatedly walked out of the hall in protest.

But they have agreed on one thing: to remove the fancy sturgeon from the buffet at the House of Political Enlightenment, where their sessions are held.

by CNB