DEMOCRATS FACE RESTRICTIONS IN NORTH CAUCASUS ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN.

In an open letter dated August 12, the parliamentary groupRussia’s Democratic Choice called attention to restrictions onits supporters’ freedom to campaign in a number of Russian Federationregions, particularly in the North Caucasus. The letter was addressedto President Boris Yeltsin, Internal Affairs Minister AnatolyKulikov, Acting Prosecutor General Aleksei Ilyushenko, and otherofficials. It charged that the authorities of North Ossetia, Daghestan,and Kabardino-Balkariya pressure the democrats by firing themfrom their jobs, by politically-motivated judicial investigations, and by blocking their access to the mass media in order to avoida real electoral competition. The reformists called for a haltto such practices, Moscow’s Echo radio reported. Meanwhile Karachay-Cherkessia’strade unions warned that they would launch protests during theelectoral campaign unless that republic’s government pays to morethan 400,000 workers their long overdue wages.

North Ossetian-Ingush Talks Suspended.