YELTSIN MAKES AN EXAMPLE OF UDMURTIA’S AUTHORITARIAN LEADERS.

President Yeltsin has issued a decree ordering the authorities in Udmurtia (which, unlike most of Russia’s republics, does not have an elected president but is governed by a State Council) to obey a January ruling of the Russian Constitutional Court. According to that ruling, the Udmurt authorities violated the Russian Constitution last year when they dismissed democratically-elected mayors and instead appointed administrators of their own choosing. Yeltsin’s March 10 decree dissolves the state-established local administrations and orders the popularly-elected mayors, many of whom have stepped down from office but some of whom have been resisting the orders of the republic authorities, to resume their duties. (Itar-Tass, March 11) So far, Udmurtia’s leaders have ignored all Yeltsin’s instructions, arguing that the Constitutional Court’s ambiguously-worded ruling found in their favor. But the Russian president is determined to make an example of Udmurtia in order to show other, more autonomy-minded and more powerful regions that he is back in charge and is not going to take any insubordination from the regions.

Commanders of Border Troops Consider Russian Cooperation Proposals.