FOREIGN MINISTER ELECTED DUMA DEPUTY, MAY NOW RESIGN.

According to preliminary returns, Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev was re-elected Duma deputy in the single-mandate district of Murmansk, where he ran as an independent candidate. Kozyrev may soon send in his resignation, a source in his inner circle said, noting that the constitution bars Duma deputies from simultaneously holding posts in the executive branch. So far, speculation on a successor has centered on First Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, London ambassador Anatoly Adamishin, Brussels ambassador Vitaly Churkin, presidential foreign policy adviser Dmitri Ryurikov, Federation Council chairman Vladimir Shumeiko, and chairman of the Duma’s international affairs committee Vladimir Lukin (Yabloko) who earlier served as ambassador to the United States. (5)

Chairman of Duma Defense Committee Reelected.