BOLDYREV SAYS FOREIGN LOANS “SENSELESSLY SQUANDERED.”

Meanwhile, Yuri Boldyrev, the deputy chairman of the Audit Chamber, the independent Russian government agency established by the parliament to monitor the use of state budgetary funds, said that he was convinced that previous International Monetary Fund credits had been “senselessly squandered.” Boldyrev claimed that a “huge quantity of foreign loans went toward the creation of various foundations and centers under the Russian government and president,” which spend the funds for carrying out various “consulting services.”

Boldyrev was Russia’s “comptroller”–chief corruption fighter–at the beginning of Yeltsin’s tenure, but was fired in 1993 after he brought evidence of corruption among high-level military officials and in the Moscow city government to the president’s attention. The comptroller’s post was abolished after Boldyrev was fired. Boldyrev’s electoral bloc, which he formed last year, did well in St. Petersburg’s local elections last December. Boldyrev said that the main task of his bloc in the upcoming parliamentary elections will be to push for “a mechanism of punishment of state officials for crimes carried out” (Russian agencies, August 2). Boldyrev has said that he would support a presidential bid by former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, and his bloc is likely to enter into any coalition Primakov joins–when and if he does so.

MIXED SIGNALS FROM MOSCOW ON THE BALKANS?