YELTSIN MODIFIES CHECHNYA GOVERNANCE

. President Boris Yeltsin yesterday issued a decree transforming the federal civilian administration in Chechnya into a representation of the federal government in the republic, and appointed Nikolai Fedosov as federal representative with the rank of deputy prime minister. The move seeks to convey the impression that a special status is in store for Chechnya and also to suggest that direct central rule has been superseded by local rule ostensibly exercised by Doku Zavgayev’s republican bodies. Foreign and independent Russian observers are in consensus that Zavgayev’s authority hardly encompasses even downtown Grozny. Zavgayev’s own deputy prime minister complained that the republic’s Moscow-installed Supreme Soviet never manages a quorum on the rare occasions when some of its members meet. (6)

Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Seeks Alternatives to Russian-Led CIS Security Arrangements.