YELTSIN ASKS UPPER HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT TO COUNTERBALANCE LOWER HOUSE.

President Yeltsin met yesterday with Yegor Stroyev, speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council. Heading their agenda was discussion of the Duma vote denouncing the Belovezhye accord. Both men agreed that the Duma’s action represented an attempt to usurp powers that, under the constitution, belong to the Federation Council. (Interfax, March 18) Viktor Stepanov, prime minister of the Republic of Karelia and a member of the Federation Council, predicted that the Federation Council would appeal to the Constitutional Court on this issue. Today Yeltsin formally requested the Federation Council to invalidate the Duma’s resolutions. He argued that the Duma’s action questioned the legality Russian statehood. (Interfax, March 19)

Chechnya’s Destruction Continues.