Soviet economy; End of the line? 'Perestroika' comes with high costs
Apr. 25, 1990
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MOSCOW - Lines and shortages are by now old hat. Valeri Kazikaev, who heads Mirbis, the first business school here, drives down Gorky Street past a 100-person line in front of the Estee Lauder store. It's the only place that stocks decent makeup. He passes a grocery where the only meat is pre-wrapped globs resembling liverwurst. Along the sidewalk, pedestrians walk in worn shoes. New ones are hard to find.
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Ventures in U.S.S.R. get boost
Aug. 22, 1991
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Now that the Soviet coup is over, one of the big obstacles to doing business there - the threat of a coup - also is over.
That will open doors to nervous U.S. businesses and proposed ventures that have been shut out by the conservative, save-my-job mentality of the Soviet central bureaucracy.
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P&&G unveils first post-coup venture with Soviets
Aug. 28, 1991
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After a hold-your-breath week, some U.S. companies are giving a vote of confidence to doing business in the Soviet Union or its republics.
On Tuesday, Procter && Gamble Co. made the first announcement of a major U.S.-Soviet deal since the coup attempt Aug. 19. The agreement between P&&G and Leningrad State University had been in the works for months, and P&&G spokeswoman Linda Ulrey says the deal is "proceeding as planned. We're confident this is still a sound move."
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Soviet economy in chaos; Gorbachev's slow reforms leave a void
Sept. 4, 1991
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Oh, those lines of weary Soviets. They're all over TV and newspapers. Lines for shoes and furniture. Lines for sausage that looks like soap. Lines for soap that smells like sausage.
How did those lines really get there? And can anybody make them go away?
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Filling Soviet shelves; Food blitz would boost reformers
Sept. 11, 1991
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The main ingredient for democracy in the Soviet Union right now, says Dwayne Andreas, is food.
Lots of it. Fast.
The man known as the Soybean King, who dines with Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow and hosts Boris Yeltsin in his Florida condo, is pushing a plan to "saturate" the 10 largest cities in the Soviet Union with $1 billion in food from the USA. To beat the winter, a food blitz must begin in six weeks.
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Soviets' tough economics lesson: Inflation
Sept. 19, 1991
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Those lines in the Soviet Union are only half the problem. Even if people can find anything in stores there, prices make it hard to afford much.
Inflation has pumped up the cost of maintaining an average Moscow lifestyle - basic food, Soviet-made cars, two-room apartments - to 1,304 rubles a month, says a survey by Commersant, a Moscow business weekly.
