PRESS CONTINUES TO COMMENT ON THE FAMILY’S POWER PLAY.

Russian media have claimed that a clique of Kremlin insiders consisting of Dyachenko, Berezovsky, Voloshin, Yumashev and Sibneft oil chief Roman Abramovich has grabbed most of the country’s politically and financially important posts. The press has begun referring to the group as the “mini-Politburo” or The Family.

Boris Berezovsky today tried to play down rumors that he had influenced the formation of Sergei Stepashin’s cabinet and that Boris Yeltsin is planning any radical moves (such as dissolving the Duma). Other observers, however, continue to say otherwise. Political scientist Andranik Migranyan, a former Kremlin adviser, wrote today that Stepashin’s cabinet has essentially been “privatized by the Kremlin family,” and that it is seeking total control over all the country’s main financial flows, including such “natural monopolies” as Gazprom, the gas giant, run by Rem Vyakhirev, and United Energy Systems, Russia’s electricity grid, run by Anatoly Chubais. Migranyan wrote that dismissal was quite possible.

“We are entering an extremely unstable period,” Migranyan wrote. “Most likely, a new phase of the fight–which is a fight to the finish. I foresee the appearance of new kompromat [compromising materials] and a bitter information war. Naturally, the problems of economic growth and a national program for overcoming the crisis will be put on the back burner. And how can these be priorities when the issue is total control over power and resources by the present Kremlin group?” (Trud, June 4)

NEWSPAPER CLAIMS TO HAVE GOTTEN HOLD OF PLAN TO KEEP YELTSIN IN POWER.