No. 66, 06 April 1993

RUSSIA



RUSSIA CALLS FOR UKRAINE TO GIVE UP NUCLEAR WEAPONS. Only a day
after the Presidents of the US and Russia issued a declaration
endorsing Russian control over the nuclear weapons of the former
Soviet Union, the Russian government issued a harsh statement
accusing Ukraine of violating agreements to give up its nuclear
weapons and of harboring ambitions to become a nuclear power.
The government statement, published by ITAR-TASS on 5 April,
charged that Kiev was taking active steps to establish control
over nuclear weapons on Ukrainian territory and warned that "nuclear
weapons cannot and must not be an object of political games."
Moscow offered to provide, along with the US and Great Britain,
security guarantees to Kiev, to come into effect after Ukrainian
compliance with the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear
weapons. The Russian government also proposed removing as quickly
as possible to Russia all nuclear warheads currently in Ukraine.
According to Reuters on 5 April, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Anatolii
Zlenko said that Kiev's position was unchanged and accused Moscow
of dragging its feet on the issue of compensating Ukraine for
relinquishing the weapons. Although the substance of the Russian
declaration appears to contain little that is new, its bluntness
and timing signal a new escalation in the long conflict between
Moscow and Kiev over nuclear weapons control. -Stephen Foye

YELTSIN, SHUMEIKO ON REFERENDUM. President Yeltsin made a brief
visit to the eastern Siberian city of Bratsk on his way back
to Moscow from the Vancouver summit, ITAR-TASS and Reuters reported
on 5 April. Speaking to residents of the city, Yeltsin urged
a "yes" vote for all four questions on the referendum, including
that of early presidential elections. Meanwhile, First Deputy
Prime Minister Vladimir Shumeiko said in an interview reported
by RFE/RL that the most important referendum questions were those
on confidence in the president and on early parliamentary elections.
The first of these made the other two questions irrelevant, he
said. -Wendy Slater

VORONIN SAYS REFERENDUM MAY FAIL. First Deputy parliamentary
speaker Yurii Voronin told Russian TV on 3 April that the referendum
may not take place because of the increasing political apathy
of most of Russia's population, in which case another extraordinary
Congress of People's Deputies should be convened to find a way
out of the political crisis. Voronin, supported by the communist
faction in the parliament, said that he regards the second question
in the referendum-that on confidence in President Yeltsin's economic
reform policy-as the most important one. Voronin criticized much
of the Russian media for not being objective in its coverage
and defended the Congress decision to create supervisory councils
for broadcasting. -Alexander Rahr

CHUBAIS VIEWS PROGRESS OF PRIVATIZATION. Deputy Prime Minister
Anatolii Chubais gave updated figures on the status of Russian
privatization on Ostankino TV's "Krasnyi Kvadrat" program on
3 April. Chubais said that 17-20% of all privatization vouchers
had already been invested in enterprises or investment funds,
and that it was quite likely that all would be invested by the
end of the year. He also claimed that a mere 4% of the population
had sold their vouchers instead of using them for investment.
Chubais expressed optimism that a full 50% of all small state
enterprises would be privatized by the end of 1993. He also noted
the increased pace of ownership transfer at larger enterprises.
There had been 286-auctions of the assets of such enterprises
in March, and he expected not less than 400 auctions to be held
in April and 500 in May. -Erik Whitlock

GAS INDUSTRY TO BE PRIVATIZED. The Russian government plans to
sell more than one half of the shares in Gazprom, the natural
gas monopoly, ITAR-TASS reported on 5 April. Gazprom will be
converted into a joint-stock company valued at 89.3 billion rubles.
The government will retain some 40% of the shares; up to 15%
will be offered to gas industry workers on preferential terms;
28.7% will be offered for sale to people who live in gas-producing
regions; 5.2% to the residents of Yamalo-Nenets, the heart of
the gas-producing region; and 10% will be sold to the public
to finance the development of new gas fields. -Keith Bush

RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN GAS DISPUTE STILL UNRESOLVED. According to
a representative of Russia's gas industry, Gazprom, there is
still no agreement on the tariffs for transporting Russian gas
through Ukraine, nor on the price Ukraine should pay for Russian
gas, Reuters reported on 5 April. The gas dispute began in February
when Russia demanded world prices for its gas and Ukraine responded
by threatening to raise transit fees for Russia's gas exports
to Western Europe, 90% of which pass through Ukrainian territory.
Ukraine depends on Russia for most of its gas supplies, and Gazprom
has threatened to cut off supplies to Ukraine if the row over
prices is not resolved and debts cleared. Ukraine also depends
to a large degree on Russia for oil supplies, and Russia has
in the past week cut supplies in response to what it claims is
failure by Ukraine to make deliveries of machinery and food.
-Sheila Marnie

BACKPAYMENT DEMANDED FOR OIL DELIVERIES TO CIS. The chairman
of the Oil Industry Committee, Viktor Ott, told ITAR-TASS on
30 March that Russia has been subsidizing oil and gas deliveries
to its CIS trading partners. Ott put the value of Russian oil
and gas supplied to other former Soviet republics in 1992 at
$16-billion if world prices were used. In return, according to
Ott, Russia received fuel and energy equipment from CIS nations
worth only $800,000. -Keith Bush

YELTSIN IN MAGADAN; CHANGES IN LOCAL LEADERSHIP. ITAR-TASS reported
that during Yeltsin's brief visit to Magadan on 3 April en route
to the Vancouver summit the president denied that the resignations
of several local leaders in Siberia had resulted from central
policy. He said that the head of local administration in Sakhalin
oblast, Valentin Fedorov, had asked to resign and that he would
probably be offered a government post. (ITAR-TASS had reported
on 2 April that the legislators had passed a no-confidence vote
in Fedorov.) Yeltsin's nominee for Fedorov's former post, Evgenii
Krasnoyarov, was confirmed by local legislators on 2 April. Arkadii
Veprev, the head of administration in Krasnoyarsk, had also requested
to be released from his duties, Yeltsin said. On 26 March, Reuters
reported that Yeltsin had reinstated the Irkutsk and Novosibirsk
heads of administration, Yurii Nozhikov and Vitalii Mukha, whom
he had dismissed in his TV speech of 20-March. -Wendy Slater


RIGHT WING OFFICERS LAUNCH LEGAL OFFENSIVE. Russian newspapers
gave wide coverage on 2-3-April to a ruling handed down by the
military court of the Moscow Military District which recognized
as unlawful the discharge from the armed forces of Stanislav
Terekhov, chairman of the nationalist and neo-communist Officers
Union. According to reports appearing in Komsomolskaya pravda,
Nezavisimaya gazeta, and Sovetskaya Rossiya, Terekhov's lawyers
argued that the discharge order, which had been issued by Defense
Minister Pavel Grachev in response to Terekhov's widespread political
activities, was illegal because, among other things, the very
notion of "political activities" itself carried no legal weight.
Terekhov, who was discharged last fall, has been a virulent critic
of Boris Yeltsin and Grachev. Komsomolskaya pravda reported on
2 April that three officers discharged from the Northwestern
Group of Forces, all for political activities connected with
the Baltic Officers Assembly, also intend to challenge the legality
of their dismissals. -Stephen Foye

TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA



ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN. Azerbaijan parliament spokesman Isa Gambarov
told Western agencies on 5-April that Azerbaijani forces had
launched a counter-offensive against Armenian forces and prevented
the capture of the town of Fizuli; however a spokesman for the
Nagorno-Karabakh defense forces denied that Armenian forces were
attempting to take the town. Turkish President Turgut Ozal has
advocated the use of force to halt what he termed unacceptable
action by Armenia, according to Reuters quoting ITAR-TASS. In
response to requests by Azerbaijani President Abulfaz Elchibey
and the Turkish government, the UN Security Council is to issue
a statement on 6 April assessing the situation in Azerbaijan.
-Liz Fuller

TAJIKISTAN PROTESTS TO AFGHAN GOVERNMENT. After issuing a declaration
of protest on 3 April over violations of the Tajik border from
the Afghan side, Tajikistan's Foreign Ministry on 5 April handed
Afghanistan's Acting Consul in Dushanbe Muhammad Umar Asir a
formal protest and an accusation that Afghanistan is interfering
in Tajikistan's internal affairs. The Foreign Ministry warned,
according to Khovar-TASS, that unspecified action would be taken
if Afghanistan did not end its support for the armed Tajik opposition.
Tajik government spokesmen and Russian border guards officers
have spoken of camps set up in Afghanistan to train Tajik opposition
fighters, but previously Tajik government officials have described
these camps as being under the control of fundamentalist leader
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, not the Kabul government. Since Hekmatyar
has assumed a major role in Kabul, Tajikistan's conservative
leadership may believe that a government-to-government protest
will now have some effect. -Bess Brown

UP TO 90,000 TAJIK REFUGEES REMAIN IN AFGHANISTAN. Tajik consular
official Takhir Akhmedov was quoted by ITAR-TASS on 3 April as
saying that between 75,000 and 90,000 refugees from Tajikistan
are still in Afghanistan. Akhmedov, who is a member of a parliamentary
commission on refugee affairs, said that he met with Tajik refugees
in Afghanistan during the last month and sought to persuade them
that those who did not actively participate in the civil war
have nothing to fear on their return. He objected to foreign
press reports and opposition claims that returnees are likely
to be attacked by the irregular forces of the pro-government
Popular Front, saying that such stories are without foundation.
-Bess Brown

RADIOACTIVE WASTE IN KAZAKHSTAN. A group of geologists participating
in an official survey of environmental conditions in Kazakhstan
has found some 8 million tons of highly radioactive waste and
225-million tons of less-radioactive material which have not
been properly disposed of, ITAR-TASS reported on 5 April. The
highly radioactive material was generated at the Semipalatinsk
nuclear weapons test site and at uranium mines and refining facilities
in the southern and western parts of the country. Among the offenders,
the report cited the Mangyshlak power combine, site of Central
Asia's only major nuclear power-generating facility, and the
Ulba Metallurgical Plant outside Ust-Kamenogorsk in East Kazakhstan.
Studies of waste generated by mining not related to the nuclear
industry have found that coal and rare metals mines in various
parts of Kazakhstan have also generated radioactive wastes. Subsurface
water from oil wells in western Kazakhstan is also radioactive.
The study has resulted in a map of 529 sites where radioactive
material is located. Discussions are underway on the most effective
disposal of the wastes within Kazakhstan. -Bess Brown

CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE



UN DELAYS VOTE OVER TIGHTENING SERBIAN SANCTIONS. The BBC reported
on 6-April that the United States and Russia have agreed to postpone
the Security Council vote for a week to enable Washington to
toughen up the language of the resolution while allowing Moscow
more time to pursue its own political initiatives. The broadcast
added that Secretary of State Warren Christopher has openly suggested
that Washington might seek an easing of the embargo on Bosnian
arms purchases if the Serbs remain obdurate in rejecting the
Vance-Owen plan. EC peace negotiator Lord Owen cautioned against
such arms sales, but added that the Bosnian Serbs' stubbornness
must be met with action and not "pussyfooting." Their leader,
Radovan Karadzic, said, however, that the Serbs could tough anything
out since they are in the right. -Patrick Moore

UN MOVES TO EVACUATE MORE REFUGEES FROM SREBRENICA. The 6 April
Washington Post quotes UN refugee spokesman Jose Maria Mendiluce
as saying that the world organization hopes "to take out 1,000
to 1,500 women, children, elderly, and sick" from the embattled
enclave each day. Local Muslim officials oppose the move, arguing
that it weakens the defense of the town and promotes ethnic cleansing.
Gorazde and Zepa are the other two areas still in Muslim hands
in eastern Bosnia. Meanwhile, the BBC reports that UN human rights
envoy and former Polish Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki might
resign if no action is taken to implement his recommendations
for Bosnia, including moves to close down the Serb-run concentration
camps. On a tougher note, the 5 April New York Times quotes Lady
Thatcher as having recently told the US Naval Academy that the
West must show "resolve" since only it "in fact has the aircraft
and the missiles to go in and take out the Serbs." -Patrick Moore


WEU STEPS UP PRESSURE ON RUMP YUGOSLAVIA. At a meeting in Luxembourg
on 5-April, Western European Union foreign and defense ministers
decided to act for the more effective enforcement of UN sanctions
against rump Yugoslavia along the Danube. According to Western
agencies, the WEU will dispatch up to 10 speedboats and some
250 to 300 crewmen to help Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary patrol
the river. The involvement was described by WEU officials as
a "police and customs operation" with "non-military character."
WEU Secretary General Wim van Eekelen told journalists that tighter
controls on the Danube will have a very quick impact on Serbia's
oil imports through the Black Sea. Romania already accepted the
WEU plans. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the West-European
assistance will help Romania better monitor traffic on the Danube.
Hungarian state secretary for foreign affairs Janos Martonyi
said Hungary thanks the WEU for its help in enforcing the embargo
against Serbia, but could only accept it if there will be a guarantee
prohibiting the use of weapons, Hungarian Radio reported on 5
March. The boats, Martonyi added, will have to be under Hungarian
command. Dan Ionescu and Karoly Okolicsanyi

SERBIAN UPDATE. The 6 April Washington Post quotes Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic as saying that he "appreciates" the US position
on Bosnia, believing that "the US will not be the world policeman
[because] this administration is oriented to the essential problems
of the United States...." The New York Times and the Belgrade
daily Politika, meanwhile, report at length on Serbia's latest
banking scandal. In recent weeks the virtual collapse of one
Serbian private bank, Jugoskandik, has highlighted the role of
free-wheeling but shaky private banks paying high interest rates
in keeping the Serbian economy afloat and in laundering loot
from the wars in Bosnia and Croatia. Now the largest such institution,
the Dafiment Bank, is experiencing a run on its windows, and
a shootout of current and former guards on 5 April left one dead
and four wounded. There is widespread speculation that the collapse
of Dafiment could bring about widespread social discontent as
well as pressures on the government, which has been close to
the bank. Meanwhile, Borba reports that Serbs may soon face other
problems, since electric power workers have declared a general
strike for 13-April. -Patrick Moore

US CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION CONCLUDES UKRAINIAN VISIT. A 14-member
US Congressional delegation is due to conclude its visit to Kiev
on 6 April and continue on to Moscow. On 5 April the delegation
met with Ukrainian government and parliamentary leaders. According
to Ukrainian TV, apart from prospects for US-Ukrainian relations,
the main topics of the discussions were the question of Ukraine's
ratification of the START-1 treaty, Ukrainian-Russian relations,
and economic reforms and foreign investment in Ukraine. Ukrainian
TV reported that the speaker of the Ukrainian parliament Vasyl
Plyushch urged the US to develop its ties with Ukraine "as a
sovereign state, and not an appendage of Russia." For his part,
the head of the US delegation, Richard Gephardt, assured his
hosts of the US's "all-round support for Ukraine." Ukrainian
TV commented, however, that Gephardt "did not give a direct answer"
to the question from journalists: "can Ukraine count in the near
future on the same sort of significant help from the West as
Russia?" -Bohdan Nahaylo

LATVIAN, ESTONIAN OFFICIALS CRITICIZE YELTSIN'S REMARKS. On 5
April Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar sharply criticized comments
by Russian President Boris Yeltsin in Vancouver linking the withdrawal
of Russian troops from Estonia and Latvia to the human rights
situation in the countries, BNS reports. Juri Luik, the head
of the negotiating team on Russian troop withdrawal, said that
Yeltsin's remarks might have a negative effect on the next round
of talks to be held in Nakhabino near Moscow on 6-7-April. Latvian
parliament chairman Anatolijs Gorbunovs said that the Russian
army should not be used as a means of political dictate on Latvia
and he intended to appeal to the CSCE and UN to participate as
observers in Latvian-Russian troop withdrawal talks. Saulius
Girnius

LANDSBERGIS COMMENTS ON RUSSIAN WITHDRAWAL. At a press conference
on 5 April Lithuanian opposition leader Vytautas Landsbergis
urged the government to propose to Russia to speed up its withdrawal
of troops from the republic before the 31 August 1993 deadline,
Radio Lithuania reports. He also said that Lithuania should appeal
to the UN and NATO to send "blue helmets" (UN peacekeeping forces)
from Western states to Lithuania if there was chaos in Russia.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Povilas Gylys doubted the advisability
of such a move noting it could provoke "the most radical forces
in neighboring countries." -Saulius Girnius

THREE BULGARIAN SOLDIERS MURDERED IN CAMBODIA. Three members
of Bulgaria's 765 man UN peace keeping force in Cambodia were
murdered on 2 April in the province of Kompong Speu, according
to Bulgarian and Western sources. In a sharply worded condemnation,
the UN Security Council called the act, perpetrated by the Khmer
Rouge, "cowardly" and demanded that hostile acts directed at
UN personnel be halted immediately. In a separate incident, two
soldiers from Bangladesh were also murdered while serving as
peace keepers in Cambodia Duncan Perry

WALESA PROMOTES NATIONAL GUARD. Polish President Lech Walesa
observed more than a thousand soldiers of the special Vistula
division engage in "tactical exercises" in Czerwony Bor on 5
April. The Vistula troops, now subordinated to the internal affairs
ministry, are responsible for the security of state and parliamentary
institutions and diplomatic offices; they number about 11,000.
Walesa has proposed transforming the Vistula troops into a "national
guard" that would assist the police and border guard in times
of threat and would be subordinated to the president. Speaking
to reporters on 5 April, Walesa discounted suggestions that he
wanted control over the troops in order to expand his own political
power. He did concede, however, that legislation drafted by his
office and scheduled for consideration by the Sejm in coming
weeks would prompt a "major battle," PAP reports. -Louisa Vinton


BY-ELECTION RESULTS IN HUNGARY. Tamas Nagy, a joint candidate
of the new Party of the Republic and the Agrarian Association,
won a vacant parliamentary seat with 36.7% of the votes in the
central Hungarian electoral district of Kunszentmiklos, Hungarian
Radio reported on 5 March. Only 28.3% eligible voters cast their
ballot. Three previous rounds, in which the Socialist Party's
candidate scored first, were nullified because less than 25%
of eligible voters participated. The government coalition parties
and the Young Democratic Party withdrew their candidates in the
last run. -Karoly Okolicsanyi

US CONGRESSMEN TO BUCHAREST. Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae
Vacaroiu received on 5 April US congressman Frank Wolf (R.-Virginia)
and Senator Daniel Coates (R.-Indiana), who are paying an unofficial
visit to Romania. Vacaroiu expressed the hope that a Romanian-US
trade agreement will be perfected soon, and that the US will
restore MFN preferential trade status to Romania. He also said
that Romania needs more financial support from the West in order
to overcome the difficult transition to a market economy and
to compensate for the losses caused by the embargo against Serbia
and Montenegro, which he put at over $7-billion. -Dan Ionescu


ROMANIA, GERMANY SIGN ENVIRONMENTAL ACCORD. On 5 April German
Environment Minister Klaus Toepfer and his Romanian counterpart
Aurel Constantin Ilie signed in Bucharest a bilateral accord
of environmental cooperation. The agreement calls for cooperation
to control land, air and water pollution, as well as in waste
management and ecological education. Toepfer, who held talks
with Romanian President Ion Iliescu, Premier Nicolae Vacaroiu
and Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu told reporters that Romania
was an important partner for Germany and that Bonn was supporting
its social and economic reforms. On the previous day, Toepfer
had extended official apologies to Romania for illegal dumping
of German toxic waste in Transylvania last year. -Dan Ionescu


TAX BREAKS TO BE OFFERED FOREIGN INVESTORS IN SLOVAKIA. Slovak
and international media report that under a bill drafted by the
Slovak government foreign investors in Slovakia would be offered
tax holidays for up to seven years. Slovak officials told the
media on 5 April that foreign companies registered in Slovakia
after 31 December 1992 will be given a tax holiday for the first
year for which they show a positive balance. Companies with at
least 30% foreign ownership or at least 1 million DM invested
would get a tax holiday for two additional years. The bill also
provides for two-year holidays for foreign banks. Banks opening
in the cities of Zvolen and Banska Bystrica in central Slovakia
would be given additional five years. -Jiri Pehe

STOCK EXCHANGE TO BE OPENED IN PRAGUE. The Prague Stock exchange
is to be officially opened on 6-April, CTK reports. Initially,
obligations will be traded only on the secondary market; full-scale
trading, including that on the primary market, is to follow soon.
Owing to the decision of the Czech government to postpone issuing
shares to the millions of investors who bought them as part of
the voucher privatization process (the decision is designed to
put pressure on the Slovak government to pay back debts owed
to the Czech Republic; many more Slovaks bought shares in Czech
companies than vice versa), trading with shares that are to be
issued as part of the voucher privatization process will not
start on 6 April as originally planned. -Jiri Pehe

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS STRIKE IN BULGARIA. The Bulgarian press
reports that air traffic controllers walked off their jobs at
midnight local time on 5 April. They plan to stay out until demands
for higher pay are met. They had held warning strikes in the
previous week. The controllers have suggested that landing and
other fees be reallocated to increase their salaries. The strike
will continue until demands are met, say the controllers, who
will service emergency flights and three airplanes at the beginning
of each hour. Normally Sofia's international airport services
between 500 and 1,200 planes per day. -Duncan Perry

UNEMPLOYMENT DROPS IN HUNGARY. According to figures provided
by MTI on 5 March, unemployment has dropped to 697,500; in February
there had been 705,000 people unemployed in the country. This
is the first decline in years; the last time a drop in unemployment
was reported was in May 1991. The drop from February to March
(from 12,9% to 12.7%) was said by MTI to be accounted for by
the start of the agricultural season and by better employment
counseling. -Karoly Okolicsanyi

ROMANIAN JOBLESS OVER ONE MILLION. According to data released
by Romania's Labor Ministry on 5-April, the number of registered
unemployed in the country is 1,065,281, of whom 622,418 are women,
103,045 industrial workers and 16,817 college graduates. This
represents 9.6% of the workforce. There are currently 3,179 open
jobs in Romania. A Labor Ministry official told Radio Bucharest
that a slight drop in unemployment as against last week had seasonal
reasons, reflecting the resumption of activity in the construction
sector after the winter months.

POLISH FISHERMEN BLOCK PORTS. Some 300 Polish fishing boats blocked
ports along the Baltic coast from Swinoujscie to Gdansk for twelve
hours on 5 April to protest government fishing policy. The protest
was peaceful and coast guard vessels were allowed to sail unhindered,
Polish TV reports. The fishermen were demanding duty-free boat
fuel and low-interest credits. A spokesmen for the fishermen's
union said the protesters were not asking for favors but merely
wanted the same state subsidies provided as to their Western
competitors. The fishermen also called for customs barriers against
cheaper imports, particularly from the former Soviet Union, and
a relaxation of seasonal limits on cod fishing. Government officials
announced that duties had already been lifted on boat fuel and
that some preferential credits would be offered. Further talks
are pending on other issues. -Louisa Vinton

UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT RECONVENES; DISCUSSES BUDGET. The Ukrainian
parliament reconvened in plenary session on 6 April after a two-week
period during which deputies had worked in the various parliamentary
commissions, Radio Ukraine reported. On the agenda for this week
is discussion of the proposed budget for 1993 and of measures
to combat hyper inflation. Bohdan Nahaylo

POPULATION DECLINES IN LATVIA AND LITHUANIA. The population of
Latvia and Lithuania is declining, BNS reported on 5 April. In
1992 in Latvia 35,428 people died and 13,913 were born while
about 50,000 emigrated. The number of marriages in 1992 also
decreased from 22,337 in 1991 to 18,906. In January-March 1993
the number of deaths in Lithuania exceeded the number of births
for the first time after World War II. Compared to the same period
in 1991, the number of births declined by about 2,000 while deaths
increased by about 1,000. The life expectancy of Lithuanians
also decreased from 71.8 years in 1989 to 70.5-years in 1992.
Emigration in 1992 (27,324) exceeded immigration (6,206). -Saulius
Girnius

[As of 1200 CET] Compiled by Wenndy Slater and Michael Shafir



CORRECTION: CONTRADICTING THE INFORMATION IN THE DAILY REPORT
OF 5 APRIL, ESTONIAN MEDIA REPORTED ON 6 APRIL THAT THE REPRESENTATIVE
ASSEMBLY OF RUSSIAN SPEAKERS IN ESTONIA ONLY DISCUSSED BUT DID
NOT APPROVE AN AMENDMENT DEMANDING THAT RUSSIAN BE GIVEN THE
STATUS OF AN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE.

CORRECTION. The Daily Report on 5 April incorrectly identified
Serdar Chariyarov as the new Turkmen Defense Minister. In fact,
Radio Rossii reported on 3 April that Chariyarov had been named
to an unspecified Deputy Defense Minister post.











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