1.   After much pressure from foreign investors, the government agreed to let nonresidents use those rubles to buy stocks and bonds at leading Russian companies.

2.   Russian banks, many of which operate more like freewheeling speculative funds than banks in the Western sense, may instead use the rubles to buy dollars.

3.   Alexidze said Abkhazia, which borders Russia and uses the ruble as its currency, would be forced to cooperate with Georgia to repair its war-shattered economy.

4.   Russian rubles are used for most transactions.

5.   The Central Bank order, which went into effect earlier this month, bans foreign banks from using rubles in their Russian bank accounts to buy hard currency.

6.   Georgians so mistrust the interim currency that they have long been using Russian rubles for nearly all transactions.

7.   Although their own currency had been stable for a year since a successful austerity drive, Georgians continued to use Russian rubles rather than their own coupons.