By October 1998, with 40 percent of the population counted as living below the subsistence minimum, Moscow was reduced to appealing to the international community for assistance to pay for food imports. As inflation soared to an annualized rate of 84 percent, Russians lost confidence in their national currency. As the new millennium began, dollars made up 87 percent of the value of all currency in circulation in Russia. Outside the United States, Russia was the largest dollar economy in the world. International investors in Russia were required to pay their local taxes in American currency.
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