THE INTERIOR MINISTRY PLANS NEW SPECIAL UNITS.

According to Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin, who spoke on October 20, President Boris Yeltsin has signed a decree concerning the interior ministry’s “internal troops,” with the goal of creating “highly mobile operational units of the MVD [Interior Ministry] capable of handling situations which suddenly crop up in any territory.” Stepashin says that these units will be modeled on four existing “highly professional” brigades which have already proved their worth in various “hot spots.”

Yeltsin took another step involving the MVD: He signed a decree promoting Nikolai Kulikov, head of Moscow’s Main Directorate of Internal Affairs (GUVD), to the post of deputy interior minister. According to Stepashin, the Moscow GUVD’s main task will be to continue to fight crime in the capital and to suppress the production and sale of illegal alcohol. He said that the Moscow police had already shown “tangible results” in its anticrime campaign, and that budget revenues from alcohol sales in Moscow had already been raised by 50 percent. Stepashin said that Kulikov’s promotion was made in agreement with Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov and Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov (Russian agencies, October 20).

NIKITIN FINALLY GOES ON TRIAL.