Offer to invest "mattress" money in the economy.

Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov told bankers in the crisis-hit country on Wednesday that he wanted to persuade people to invest in the economy the billions of dollars they keep under their mattresses. Primakov, speaking as bankers met after one of the worst financial crises in Russia_s post-Soviet history, said the government would support loss-making banks if they were important although this would be an exception not the rule. "The best investment resource is the funds of individuals and legal entities, the funds of the residents of the Russian Federation," Primakov told the conference. "We should ensure the creation of conditions under which money will not be held under the mattress...but will be profitably invested into production, small and medium-sized businesses, domestic banks," he said. The government says as much as $50 billion of cash dollars are held at home, an amount second only to the United States. Primakov said the problems of the bank system, the restructure of which has been criticized by some as too slow, was still preventing the flow of payments and settlements. Some 18 billion rubles ($722.9 million) was frozen in banks as of February, three times more than in August 1998, he said.