It said Yugoslavia's poorest republic, Montenegro, was the first to implement the law, which went into effect July 1.

Dagestan is one of the poorest republics in Russia with around 40pc of the population unemployed.

In those poor Soviet republics, where average income rarely tops $600 a year, it has replaced its weaker cousin, opium, as the drug of choice.

And the poorer republics are unlikely to miss what they never really enjoyed.

However, Ingushetia continues to remain as one of Russia's poorest republics, largely due to the ongoing conflict, corruption and civil disorders.

The Slovenes were embittered that their relatively prosperous republic was being milked by the poorer republics and given nothing in return.

While it was one of the poorer republics in the early 1950s, Bosnia's economy recovered quickly, as its extensive natural resources were exploited to stimulate industrial development.

Being one of the poorer republics in the early 1950s it quickly recovered economically, taking advantage of its extensive natural resources to stimulate industrial development.

They are one of the poorest republics in the Russian Federation.

The hemisphere's poorest republic, they said, could not afford the luxury of political choice.