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- <text id=92TT0441>
- <title>
- Mar. 02, 1992: World Notes:Russia
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- Mar. 02, 1992 The Angry Voter
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 35
- World Notes
- RUSSIA
- Communist Garage Sale
- </hdr><body>
- <p> Can capitalism take root in Russia? Well, it depends on what
- you've got for sale. There are few consumer goods available, but
- selling symbols of the discredited past seems to be a booming
- business. The West African People's Republic of Benin, bucking
- the worldwide trend, is said to have paid $75,000 for a statue
- of founding father Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. The ZIL limousines of
- the former leadership are on the block at as much as $10,000.
- Old government telephones made of semiprecious metals can
- reportedly be had for $400 each, complete with anti-bugging
- devices.
- </p>
- <p> Everything from technology to tours has a price tag. A
- visit to KGB headquarters that would once have chilled the blood
- now costs $30 a head. An interview with the former head of
- Soviet intelligence is offered for $600, and the space program's
- director of mission control is available for $200; $1,000 will
- buy time with a prisoner on death row. The Defense Ministry
- charges $1,500 for pictures of nuclear sites. And low-grade
- classified information can be purchased from a Yekaterinburg
- firm that specializes in defense enterprises; both ex-Soviet and
- foreign clients may buy.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
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