SUICIDES, MURDERS AND GENERAL CRIME ALL GOING UP IN RUSSIA.

Almost 62,000 Russians took their own lives last year, whilenearly 48,000 people were murdered in the country, Komsomolskayapravda said July 25. Meanwhile, Moscow interior departmentchief Maj. Gen. Boris Kondrashov said that crime in general wasrising in his city and not falling as Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkovrecently claimed, Moscow’s Mayak radio reported July 27. Izvestiyaon July 26 suggested that things might improve in this areanow that the country has a new criminal code. "Law enforcementagencies won’t be able to use their usual subterfuge that ‘wecould clamp down on crime but there is no law on the books,’"the paper said.

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