ABSTRACT
The breakdown of economic relations between the republics of the Soviet Union was a major factor contributing to the decline in industrial production from the end of 1989 onwards and the virtual collapse of the fiscal and monetary system in 1990-91 as republican governments (following the lead of the Russian government) withheld local turnover tax revenues from the central budget from the autumn of 1990 onwards. Russian pressure for greater economic sovereignty within the Union, including control of tax revenues, money supply and prices, accelerated after the election of Yeltsin as Russian president in 1990, while the emergence of a new voice capable of arguing for republican sovereignty in economic affairs in Moscow itself, gave a further lead to national governments to reflect growing domestic centrifugal and nationalist tendencies.
