Russia to clamp down on barter deals .  MOSCOW 1996-08-23  Russian officials , keen to cut capital flight , will adopt tight measures to cut barter deals in foreign trade to a minimum , a customs official said on Friday .  " We have always been concerned about barter deals with other countries , viewing them as a disguised kind of capital flight from Russia , " Marina Volkova , deputy head of the currency department at the State Customs Committee , told Reuters .  Volkova said last year goods had been exported under many Russian barter deals , with nothing imported in return .  She said the cost of such unimported goods was $ 1.10 billion in 1995 .  Barter deals were worth $ 4.9 billion last year , or about eight percent of all Russian exports estimated at $ 61.5 billion , she said .  " The cost of exported goods is too often understated , so the actual share of barter deals in Russian exports and the amount of unimported goods may be even higher , " Volkova said .  A few days ago Russian President Boris Yeltsin issued a decree on state regulation of foreign barter deals , and Volkova said this " could substantially improve the situation " .  In line with the decree , which will come into force on November 1 , all Russian barter traders will be obliged to import goods worth the cost of their exports within 180 days .  " If traders are late , they will have to pay fines worth the cost of their exported goods , " Volkova said .  Understating the cost of exported goods could still be a loophole for barter dealers , but Volkova said the authorities are currently " tackling the technicalities of the issue " .  Barter has always been a feature of the Soviet Union 's foreign trade , but Yeltsin 's decrees liberalising foreign trade in 1991-1992 has given barter a new impetus .  A few years ago , barter deals accounted for up to 25-30 percent of Russian exports because " thousands ( of ) trade companies which popped up preferred barter in the absence of reliable Russian banks and money transfer systems " , Volkova said .  " Now many [START_ENT] Russian [END_ENT] banks are strong and can make various sorts of money tranfers , while incompetent traders are being ousted by more experienced ones .  But the current share of barter deals in Russian exports is still high , " she said .  -- Dmitry Solovyov , Moscow Newsroom , +7095 941 8520
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