European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 22, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Soviet soldiers at a Moscow Airport unload a plan Load of fresh fruit and vegetables flown in from Tel Aviv by Al Al Israel airlines As a gift in response to food shortages in the soviet Union. Bounty people can go to the expensive private markets where Farmers sell for free Market prices the food they Are allowed to grow above state orders. In Moscow s Central Market Farmers from Azerbaijan. Armenia and Georgia Hawk glistening Mounds of red tomatoes cucumbers pomegranates exotic Eastern fruits lettuce Basil tangerines and eggplants further into the Market is the Row of older peasant women who once worked on state farms and now grow Small harvests at Home Selling barrels of pickled cabbage a. The prices Are prohibitive for citizens who earn. On average about 250 rubles a month recent prices in the Centra Market were 1 Ruble about 60 cents at. The new commercial Exchange rate for an egg 4.5 rubles a Pound for cucumbers 5,9 rubles a Pound for. Pickles 13 rubles a Pound for meat. Although soviet president Mikhai Gorbachev has issued repeated decrees demanding that former contracts and food allotments stay in effect no one has been enforcing his orders. The Western governments that Are lavishing the soviet Union with food and Bank credits say that they want to help Gorbachev carry through with his Market oriented economic program arid survive a painful Winter. But a fierce political debate has begun in the soviet Union Over whether will further or hinder political a change a a Quot a a. Some soviet radicals charge that the food from the West is Only buying time for the centralized communist system by staving off crisis. Quot while we Are eating cookies from faraway countries an idea could occur to us Quot wrote Pavel Vos Chanov a commentator in Komsomol Skaya pravda the crusading Liberal newspaper of the communist youth league. Quot does such abundance do any Good to us does it not make the Days of the administrative bureaucratic system longer the system which has starved the people for. Years Quot a a a a a a \. A a a a a a a a a. On the streets Many people express shame at the. Outpouring of Aid and anger that the nation has been brought to such poverty. Quot of so they won t let us die this Winter of thanks Quot said Alexander Prokofiev a Leningrad shopper Quot but we should t Start Wilh buying from the West it s the wrong Way to Start. We should t stretch out our hands and beg for mercy Quot both in Nee great gifts a ibo Olis malic tote perfect gift for Fiat special someone at christmastime and stars and strips bookstores have just tote Jit everyone a tastes and interests. There Are books on cooking Art tote Biffie sports automotive repair music computers mini Tail aircraft of tip Drens stories travel. You name it we be and Rem Effier Are to saturday december 22, 1990 the stars and stripes Page 17
