SOROS BAILS OUT RUSSIA.

The U.S. investor and philanthropist George Soros told a press conference in Moscow on March 4 that he will invest $100 million in philanthropic efforts in Russia this year, including a $20 million "Pushkin project" to buy books for regional libraries and another $20 million to build regional Internet centers. Soros has already spent an estimated $350 million on charitable projects in Russia in the past decade. (Russian and Western agencies, March 4)

Soros also revealed that in June of last year he made a hefty one-week bridging loan to the Russian government, pending arrival of $2 billion in 10-year bonds issued by JP Morgan and SBC Warburg. The money was used to pay pensions by the July 1 deadline set by President Yeltsin. Soros said that he had declined to make a similar loan in December. His Quantum Fund also put up half the $1.8 billion raised by Oneksimbank to purchase of 25 percent of shares in the Svyazinvest telecom company last July.

Russian Coal Industry Faces Drastic Cuts.