YELTSIN SENDS LOBOV, SECURITY COUNCIL GROUP TO CHECHNYA.

In order to break the deadlock in the Grozny talks and to speedup the disarming of Chechen units, Russian president Boris Yeltsinhas named Oleg Lobov as his personal representative in Chechnyaand dispatched a Security Council delegation to the region. Thatgroup is to report back by August 30, when Yeltsin will convenea meeting on what Moscow will do next. Meanwhile, Russian tanksmoved into Gudermes, Chechnya’s second largest city, in a newdisplay of force. But the Chechens continued to say that Moscowwas blocking progress in the talks, and the Moscow media continuedto suggest that the conflict was far from over and even that theChechen opposition had reestablished its control over certainparts of the republic. Duma deputy Vladimir Lysenko told SegodnyaAugust 24 that the Chechens were increasingly bitter toward Moscowgiven the atrocious behaviour of Russian forces there, that nowithdrawal of Russian forces had yet been withdrawn and that theturning in of weapons was largely a sham. Russian television suggestedAugust 23 that Moscow could not afford to purchase Chechen armsat the current rates: the station suggested that the Russian governmentwould have to come up with 72 trillion rubles to buy all of theweapons.

Paramonova: No Banking Crisis Yet.