RUSSIAN RESEARCHERS TO MAKE $1,000 A MONTH, THREE YEARS AFTER, SAYS MINISTER

MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has every chance to raise researchers' salaries to an average 30,000 rubles a month by 2008, says Andrei Fursenko, Education and Research Minister. "We think it possible," he remarked to the media, today.

Meanwhile, Russian Academy of Sciences staff researchers make slightly more than six thousand rubles a month (R27.79/$1 is the official Central Bank rate for today). The salaries are to rise 3.5- to 5-fold, depending of whether the rises will be calculated proceeding from the inflation pace. "As I see it, we ought to proceed from current prices with due account for the inflation," said the minister.

The rises will come as a gradual arrangement, with the peak for 2007/08, he added.

The Education and Research Ministry is having a Board session tomorrow for debates on how to enhance the efficiency of government-funded research. "We can't increase this efficiency unless we increase personnel remuneration. That's clear," Mr. Fursenko said.