Russian Ruble Tumbles

The Russian ruble tumbled Friday, trading at about 20 to the U.S. dollar and threatening to hit its lowest point since the country's economic crisis struck in August.

The ruble's latest slide is an ominous sign for the government, which desperately wants to stabilize the economy as Russia heads into the difficult winter months.

With President Boris Yeltsin hospitalized, and Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov still struggling to implement a recovery plan, the economy continues to founder and remains vulnerable to additional shocks.

Primakov said the government would not attempt to fix the ruble rate and would continue to let dollars circulate freely in Russia. He acknowledged the crisis had left the government with few good options.

"The government has found it has less room to maneuver in these conditions than it had a year or two ago," Primakov told a session of the World Economic Forum in Moscow.

He blamed previous governments for the country's economic turmoil and said a lack of stability, as well as the loss of confidence in the country's future, had jeopardized economic reform efforts.

Primakov's government is urgently seeking foreign help, but International Monetary Fund chief Michel Camdessus came and left this week without giving any signal that a frozen loan package will be released soon.

The Clinton administration is sending a group of economics and foreign policy specialists to Moscow for consultations next week. The State Department said the trip was part of a regular pattern of talks with Russian officials.

With the country's financial markets essentially wiped out by the economic crisis, the value of the ruble is one of the leading indicators of economic confidence.

After stabilizing temporarily at about 16 to the dollar, it has been falling in recent days. The official rate was down from 18.8 on Thursday to 19.6 today, and in street trading it took more than 20 rubles to purchase one U.S. dollar.

The ruble dipped below 20 to the dollar shortly after the country's economic crisis hit in August, before making a modest comeback. The ruble was at about 6 to the dollar before the crisis.

Meanwhile, the government announced inflation has gone up more than 65 percent so far this year and is expected to top 70 percent by year's end.

If the government does not receive foreign assistance soon, it is expected to start printing more rubles to pay off millions of workers and pensioners who haven't received their money for months.

But the additional money is almost certain to push inflation higher and could bring back the hyperinflation that Russia suffered during the early 1990s.

Primakov, meanwhile, met with Yeltsin in the hospital Friday and advised him to make a full recovery before returning to the Kremlin, the president's spokesman Dmitry Yakushkin said.

Yeltsin was admitted to the hospital on Nov. 22, and Yakushkin declined to sawhen he might be released.