World Notes SOVIET UNION

Though it occupies one of five permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council, the Soviet Union has long been one of the U.N.'s pickier dues payers. Moscow has consistently refused to ante up for special operations that it opposed politically, starting with a peacekeeping force at the Suez Canal in 1956. But last week the Soviets announced that they will mop up their red ink, paying a total of $197 million in outstanding debts owed for peacekeeping operations in the Middle East dating back to 1975. Moscow's check will erase its current IOUs, but not its historical ones. In 1973 the U.N. ceased billing the Soviets for some $67 million worth of debts.