RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT CALLS ON PRESIDENT TO TIGHTEN CONTROL OVER TELEVISION.

Russia’s Communist-dominated Duma has called on President Yeltsin to bring Russian Public Television (ORT) under full state control. At present, the state owns 51 percent of ORT and 100 percent of Russian Television (RTR). Parliamentarians complain the TV coverage they get is too little and too negative, and hard-liners claim it lost them the presidential election. They want Yeltsin to create an all-party watchdog to oversee ORT. Yabloko party deputies voted against it, saying the proposal amounted to censorship and expropriation. (ORT, AP, October 4)

UKRAINIAN TRADE DEFICIT COMPLICATES REFORMS.