08/17/1998 07:17:02 FOCUS-Russia says moves will halt speculation

(Adds detail) MOSCOW, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Russia's drastic changes to its monetary policy on Monday were intended to protect domestic producers and ordinary citizens from market speculation and support domestic industries, senior officials said. In separate statements released just minutes after the announcement of a package of dramatic changes to rouble policy, both the finance minister and the central bank chief said the moves were intended to protect ordinary citizens and domestic producers from a market gone haywire. Russia on Monday announced that it was lifting the ceiling on the rouble exchange rate, halting payments of foreign debts for 90 days and banning foreigners from investing in short-term T-bills. The state has sufficient resources to protect citizens from the fallout of the international financial crisis, Zadornov said, adding that the measures taken were intended to prevent financial speculators from getting rich at the state's expense. Dubinin said the state had made a choice on behalf of Russian citizens and domestic producers, and that the measures adopted would put an end to the period when "one of the most profitable enterprises in Russia has been financial speculation", Interfax reported. In the past several days, the financial and currency markets have departed from the normal framework, and only purely speculative operations have been taking place, he said. Zadornov promised that the measures would improve the government's ability to pay its debts to industry, including wages to employees in state industries that have been withheld for months. REUTERS 170714 GMT aug 98 <