Gorbachev, Foe Resolve Budget Dispute

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Russian Federation leader Boris N. Yeltsin on Tuesday resolved a dispute over the 1991 budget that threatened to cripple the Soviet economy, Tass news agency said.

Vitaly Ignatenko, Gorbachev’s spokesman, said that the president and Yeltsin had ironed out differences over how much money the Russian Federation should contribute to the central budget, the independent Interfax news service reported.

Under Yeltsin’s aggressive leadership, the Russian Parliament decided two weeks ago to slash its funding of the Soviet budget from the 1990 level of $86 billion to $14.2 billion this year. Russia has always provided most of the Soviet budget.

Interfax reported that Gorbachev and Yeltsin agreed on a compromise under which Russia will contribute about $48.5 billion to the central government for 1991. That funding level would decrease Russia’s share of the national budget from more than half to less than one-third.