Ex-Soviets Expected to Need More Aid

The West and Russia will need to step up financial aid to former Soviet republics to help them cope with a $15.5-billion shock from Moscow’s reforms, international monetary sources said Tuesday.

They said a new study by the International Monetary Fund says that is how much the former Soviet states outside Russia will lose in a year as Moscow cuts off cheap credits and subsidized exports to them as part of its reforms.

The states will have to make up for the loss in terms of trade through a combination of their own reforms and extra foreign financing, the study says.

International monetary sources stressed that the numbers in the study are not definitive. The study also does not prescribe how much of the loss should be made up through more foreign help.