YELTSIN SUPPORT PUT AT 53 PERCENT.

Moscow’s respected Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) says that 53 percent of Russian voters (plus/minus 4 percent) plan to vote for Boris Yeltsin on July 3. Center director Yuri Levada reported yesterday on a poll of 1,600 respondents held in 58 Russian towns and villages on June 18-20. Levada said 38 percent of the respondents (plus/minus 4 percent) would support Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov. Fifty-one percent of those who voted in the first round for Grigory Yavlinsky say they will switch to Yeltsin in the runoff, as will 39 percent of those who voted for Aleksandr Lebed. Some 14 percent of Lebed’s supporters, six percent of Yavlinsky’s supporters and 25 percent of Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s supporters will vote for Zyuganov. But many voters whose candidates did not survive the first round (39 percent of Lebed’s supporters, 32 percent of Yavlinsky’s and 38 percent of Zhirinovsky’s) remain undecided. Levada said 76 percent of respondents said they planned to vote July 3, but doubted that overall turnout would be that high. (Interfax, June 26)

Backstage at the Defense Ministry… Continued.