Leaders Discuss Printing Rubles

Russia’s new government proposed printing money to pay wages that are overdue, but no decision on increasing the money supply will be made until the Central Bank’s new board of directors is in place, Chairman Viktor V. Gerashchenko said. The board is scheduled for a confirmation vote in parliament today. Meanwhile, the head of the centrist Our Home Is Russia party, Alexander N. Shokhin, was named deputy prime minister in charge of financial issues. Shokhin has promised that Russia’s policies will be based on “fundamental market-economy principles.” Prime Minister Yevgeny M. Primakov met with an International Monetary Fund delegation and said the Russian side is committed to “market reforms, but pointed out the need for some changes in the ways of their implementation to ensure sustainable economic growth and to take into account all the social aspects of the reforms,” according to the Itar-Tass news agency.