BELARUS-RUSSIA PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY: "GIVE THEM RHETORIC".

Held yesterday in Minsk against a background of mass protests (see Monitor, March 11), a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Russia-Belarus Community achieved little more than electing Russian Duma chairman Gennady Seleznev as head of the Assembly. Despite considerable rhetoric, no decisions were made on "legislative integration and unification" — the session’s declared goal. President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s speech inconsistently mixed appeals for "integration" with Russia and insistence on preserving sovereign equality for Belarus. (Belapan, Interfax, March 11)

Transdniester Closes OSCE Branch Office, Bans Mission Chief.