SHAKHRAI ATTACKS "RUSSIA IS OUR HOME."

On August 30, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Shakhrai took his Party of Russian Unity and Accord out of the governmental electoral bloc "Russia is Our Home." At a press conference reported by Kommersant Daily on August 31, Shakhrai accused "Russia is our Home"–headed by his superior, Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin–of "sharp deviation" from its platform, of bureaucratic ossification, and of depriving its constituent parties of their own identity. Moscow analysts see indications that Shakhrai’s withdrawal was coordinated with President Boris Yeltsin’s administration, and thus, apparently, is intended to curb Chernomyrdin’s recent accumulation of authority.

Two More Setbacks for Chernomyrdin?