No. 48, Part I, 8 March 1995

We welcome you to Part I of the Open Media Research Institute's Daily
Digest. The Digest is distributed in two sections. This part focuses on
Russia, Transcaucasia and Central Asia, and the CIS. Part II,
distributed simultaneously as a second document, covers East-Central and
Southeastern Europe.

RUSSIA

LUZHKOV THREATENS TO RESIGN. Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov has threatened to
resign unless President Boris Yeltsin reinstates Moscow Prosecutor
Gennady Ponomarev and Moscow police chief Vladimir Pankratov, news
agencies reported. Yeltsin fired the city's top law-enforcement
officials on 2 March in response to the assassination of television
journalist Vladislav Listev, and the Security Council endorsed the
dismissals unanimously on 7 March. In a televised interview the same
day, Luzhkov claimed the purge was in fact aimed at him personally,
leaving him no choice but to resign. Luzhkov is far more popular than
Yeltsin in Moscow. However, Yeltsin has made the dismissals a
centerpiece of his plan to restore order in the city. -- Laura Belin,
OMRI, Inc.

SECURITY COUNCIL WANTS MORE MONEY TO FIGHT CRIME. Security Council
Secretary Oleg Lobov told reporters on 7 March that funding the fight
against crime was the main topic discussed at the council's session the
previous day, agencies reported. He said the country needs 1 trillion
rubles to combat organized crime and corruption rather than the 500
billion rubles allocated in the draft 1995 budget, passed on its third
reading on 24 February. Lobov also said Yeltsin had urged prompt
consideration of a law to protect judges and that the president would
soon sign a decree increasing the role of the Federal
Counterintelligence Service in uncovering crimes and restoring its
investigative organs. According to Lobov, 2.6 million crimes were
committed in Russia in 1994, nearly 1 million of which have not been
solved. -- Penny Morvant, OMRI, Inc.

CONFERENCE TO DISCUSS CHECHEN SETTLEMENT. A conference to discuss terms
for a cease-fire in Chechnya, new elections, and the republic's future
status will be held in Moscow on 14 March, Yeltsin's chief of staff,
Sergei Filatov, told Interfax on 7 March. Representatives from Chechnya,
the North Caucasus, and the Chechen diaspora in Russia will participate.
It is unclear whether Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudaev will send a
delegation. Also on 7 March, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg
Soskovets told Interfax that restoring the Chechen economy is contingent
on a political settlement of the conflict. So far, seven potential
candidates to head the Russian government department to coordinate the
Chechen reconstruction have refused the position. -- Liz Fuller, OMRI,
Inc.

AIR FORCE DROPPING MINES IN CHECHNYA. The Russian Air Force has been
dropping mines on various "strategically important" Chechen regions
controlled by Dudaev supporters over the last several days, Interfax
reported on 7 March, quoting a representative of the joint command of
federal forces. Last December, President Yeltsin signed a decree placing
a three-year moratorium on the export of anti-personnel mines after U.S.
President Bill Clinton's UN appeal for the eventual global elimination
of anti-personnel landmines. The export ban, however, applies only to
mines not equipped with a self-destruction device, and the mines dropped
in Chechnya apparently do not fall into that category. Aircraft-
delivered mines are considered particularly dangerous because no
accurate record can be kept of their location. -- Doug Clarke, OMRI,
Inc.

OSCE WILLING TO MEDIATE CHECHNYA CONFLICT. The OSCE is willing to help
mediate the conflict in Chechnya and set up a permanent mission in the
republic, international agencies reported. Hungarian Prime Minister
Gyula Horn made the announcement on 7 March after talks with President
Yeltsin. Hungary currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the OSCE.
Yeltsin said, "We have made considerable progress in tackling many of
the problems discussed in Budapest during the OSCE summit in December of
1994,"  Interfax reported. Horn stressed the positive results of the
Budapest summit and hoped further progress could be made toward a
comprehensive security regime in Europe. -- Michael Mihalka, OMRI, Inc.

WORLD BANK APPROVES $400 MILLION LOAN TO RUSSIA. The World Bank approved
a $400 million loan to Russia on 7 March, international agencies
reported. The loan is intended to help create a private market in land
and home sales. It will assist local governments in selling land to
private individuals. Housing projects in six cities--St. Petersburg,
Tver, Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod, Barnaul, and Moscow--will initially
receive assistance. A World Bank statement said the project was
"designed to demonstrate practical ways that markets can produce housing
and help revive the Russian economy." -- Michael Mihalka, OMRI, Inc.

MOST BANK TO SUE GOVERNMENT NEWSPAPER. The board of Most Bank plans to
sue Rossiiskaya gazeta, a state-subsidized organ of the Russian
executive branch, Interfax reported on 7 March. The Most Bank statement
denounces "brazenly distorted facts" in the newspaper's account of
"business relations" between Moscow Mayor Luzhkov and Most Bank
President Vladimir Gusinsky. Since the newspaper is financed from the
federal budget, the statement continues, its editor-in-chief and
director-general should be charged with "embezzlement of state capital"
as well as libel. The bank and the government have been at odds over
alleged corruption for several months. On 2 December 1994, masked men
from Yeltsin's presidential guard raided the bank without a search
warrant, confiscated documents, and arrested several bank employees. --
 Laura Belin, OMRI, Inc.

GAIDAR WILL NOT SUPPORT A YELTSIN BID FOR REELECTION. Russia's Choice
leader Yegor Gaidar told Izvestiya on 7 March it is "very unlikely that
our party will support President Yeltsin if he decides to run" for a
second term. While Gaidar said he does not support the idea of
impeaching the president, he reiterated his opposition to Yeltsin's
policies in Chechnya. -- Robert Orttung, OMRI, Inc.

BURBULIS CENTER PROPOSES REFERENDUM ON CONSTITUTION. The Strategiya
center, headed by former State Secretary Gennady Burbulis, issued a
study that proposed holding a nationwide referendum on several articles
of the constitution along with the December elections, Interfax reported
on 7 March. The document cited problems with the president's excessive
powers and the division of the executive branch into two parts
(president and government). It also said the constitution does not
clearly define the division of responsibility between the federal and
local levels. The constitution failed to define the duties of the
prosecutor's office, the study asserted, and the provisions for adopting
a constitutional amendment are too strict. The result is that the
provisions of the constitution are often ignored for the sake of
political expediency. -- Robert Orttung, OMRI, Inc.

ELECTIONS HELD IN TATARSTAN AND BASHKORTOSTAN. Interfax reported that
59.7% of registered voters took part in the elections to the Tatarstan
State Council on 5 March. Final results have not been tabulated.
Overall, 468 candidates competed for 130 seats in the new parliament. On
the same day, a total of 57.7% of registered voters participated in the
elections to the Bashkir State Council. The new Bashkir legislature will
be bicameral, with 351 candidates competing for 154 seats in the House
of Representatives and 131 candidates seeking one of the 40 seats in
Legislative Chamber. In both republics, turnout was much stronger in
rural areas than in urban centers. The mayor of Ufa, Mikhail Zaitsev,
appeared three times during the day on local television to exhort
citizens to vote. The old communist elites are likely to win both races
because independent candidates had difficulty collecting the large
number of signatures necessary to qualify for the ballot, Segodnya
reported on 7 March. -- Robert Orttung, OMRI, Inc.

PRIME MINISTER HEADS MILITARY STUDY COMMISSION. Prime Minister Viktor
Chernomyrdin will head a special commission to study the problem of
military reform, according to Security Council Secretary Lobov, RIA
reported on 7 March. The commission will first study a Defense Ministry
report submitted to the council the previous day. He suggested that a
conference would be convened within the next few weeks to hear the ideas
of the military district commanders, the heads of the services, and
military scientists. -- Doug Clarke, OMRI, Inc.

MOSCOW SUPPORTS NUCLEAR TEST BAN BUT. Lobov also told journalists that
Russia supports the principle of a total ban on nuclear testing, RIA
reported. He added, however, that Russia would set unspecified
conditions so that such a ban would not lead to a weakening of the
country's security. Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev initiated
a testing moratorium for the USSR in October 1991, and Yeltsin has
continued it. All other declared nuclear powers, except China, have also
stopped testing. -- Doug Clarke, OMRI, Inc.

RUSSIAN INSPECTORS AT U.S. MISSILE BASE. A team of Russian inspectors
arrived at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana on 5 March, after having
specified that location for their first surprise inspection under the
terms of the START-1 treaty, which entered into force last December,
Western agencies reported. As many as 200 Minuteman ICBMs were once
stationed at Malmstrom. The leader of the 10-member Russian team said
the event was "a very momentous occasion." The Russians will visit 36
U.S. strategic nuclear sites over a four-month period in order to verify
the accuracy of the data the Americans have provided, while American
inspectors will look at 65 former Soviet nuclear weapons facilities in
Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. -- Doug Clarke, OMRI, Inc.

YELTSIN SIGNS DECREE TO BAN CUSTOMS EXEMPTIONS. In an effort to help
finance the budget deficit, President Yeltsin signed a decree on 6 March
to abolish customs exemptions, Russian and Western agencies reported.
The law revokes special privileges by which certain groups, including
sports organizations and veterans' associations, avoided paying Russia's
huge import duties on cars, alcohol, and other goods. First Deputy Prime
Minister Anatoly Chubais said the decree applies to all Russian
enterprises and organizations, whether they belong to the Kremlin office
or anywhere else. The decree, along with other trade liberalization
measures, comes as Russia tries to close a $6 billion standby loan with
the IMF. -- Thomas Sigel, OMRI, Inc.

DEPUTY FINANCE MINISTER ALEXASHENKO RESIGNS. Russian Prime Minister
Viktor Chernomyrdin signed an order on 7 March dismissing Deputy Finance
Minister Sergei Alexashenko. However, in an interview with the Financial
Information Agency, Alexashenko said he resigned of his own free will
because he could no longer work with the new people hired at the
ministry and abide by "other game rules." -- Thomas Sigel, OMRI, Inc.

YELTSIN SIGNS COMPROMISE LAW ON FOREIGN ADOPTIONS. President Yeltsin
signed a law banning commercial adoption agencies and liberalizing the
categories of children eligible for foreign adoption, Western agencies
reported on 7 March. The legislation, which goes into effect on 1 May,
is a compromise worked out after Yeltsin vetoed a draft law in December
that barred all intermediaries from the foreign adoption process, in
effect preventing foreigners from adopting Russian children. The new law
allows non-profit agencies registered with both the Russian and foreign
government in question to represent families and makes all children for
whom no Russian family can be found eligible for foreign adoption. At
present, only children with medical problems or alcoholic or mentally
ill parents, as well as older or ethnically non-Russian children, are
eligible. -- Penny Morvant, OMRI, Inc.

VORKUTA MINERS BEGIN INDEFINITE POLITICAL STRIKE. Miners at the Yuzhnaya
pit in Vorkuta began an all-out strike on 6 March, the chairman of the
pit's independent trade union told Interfax. The miners are demanding
the resignation of the president and government to protest the fact that
they have not been paid since December 1994. The same day, a week-long
strike by 600 mine construction workers in Vorkuta was suspended after
the Vorkutaugol association paid the workers' employer, Poloz, debts
from November and December 1994. In an interview with Interfax on 7
March, the chairman of the Coal Industry Workers' Union, Vitaly Budko,
said social tension remains high in mining areas across the country
although debts are starting to be paid. He expressed concern at the
amount of time it is taking the state to channel funds to the coal
industry. -- Penny Morvant, OMRI, Inc.

TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA

EXPLOSION AT MKHEDRIONI HQ. One man was killed and three injured by an
explosion at the Rustavi headquarters of the Georgian paramilitary
organization Mkhedrioni during the night of 7 March, Interfax reported.
While a Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman said the explosion resulted
from careless handling of ammunition, Mkhedrioni's press center said
sabotage could not be excluded. -- Liz Fuller, OMRI, Inc.

NEW KYRGYZ PARLIAMENT TO MEET SOON. The newly-elected parliament will
soon be called into session by President Askar Akayev, according to
presidential spokesman Kamil Bayalinov, Interfax reported on 7 March.
The Central Election Commission reported that 76 deputies have been
registered already. Twenty-two deputies have been confirmed in the 35-
seat Legislative Assembly (upper house) and 54 in the 70-seat Chamber of
People's Representatives (lower house). Previously, the commission
reported that 89 deputies had been registered, but that figure was
revised after some unsuccessful candidates filed disputes over electoral
irregularities. The commission stated that most complaints were
unfounded and expects the remaining members to be confirmed by 9 March,
in time to open the first session of parliament. -- Bruce Pannier, OMRI,
Inc.

[As of 1200 CET]

Compiled by Victor Gomez

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