…SIMILAR REACTION IN PERM.

In neighboring Perm oblast, reactions to the Duma decision were even more muted. There, too, local officials refrained from public comment. Local newspapers financially dependent on the regional administration condemned the Duma decision without discussing it in detail, the independent press virtually ignored the event, and no public opinion polls were taken. As in Sverdlovsk, leaders of Yabloko and "Russia is Our Home" spoke against the decision. Two days after the Duma vote, several hundred Communists and nationalists demonstrated in Perm and called for a referendum to be held throughout the CIS on the voluntary reunification of the USSR. Moves toward the reintegration of Russia and Belarus were also met with indifference by the local press and population in Perm.

Latvian-Russian Border Talks Stop Before Starting.