DRINKING ON THE JOB IN THE PRESIDENTIAL GUARD.

President Yeltsin has sacked his personal photographer, security guard Dmitry Sokolov, for drunkenness. The hapless Sokolov is reportedly one of a dozen officers, including one of those charged with carrying the nuclear briefcase, recently fired from the president’s security service. The sackings are said to have resulted from a wild party in the Kremlin guardroom on February 10, following the victory of former security chief Aleksandr Korzhakov in a parliamentary by-election in Tula. (Itar-Tass, Moskovsky komsomolets, February 26)

A Victory for Ex-Soviet Soldiers.