KYRGYZ PARLIAMENT MORE CLEAR-SIGHTED THAN MOLDOVAN COUNTERPART.

The parliament of Kyrgyzstan has demonstrated a "prudent attitude" toward the plan to create a Russia-Belarus Union, a senior parliamentarian stated yesterday. Human Rights and Nationalities Commission chairman Dooronbek Sadyrbaev said that any implicit approval of that plan "might arouse displeasure on the part of Kyrgyzstan’s donor countries, first of all the United States." For that reason, the parliament yesterday decided to postpone the ratification of the Russia-Belarus-Kazakstan-Kyrgyzstan Customs Union treaty, and will only resume the debate after receiving a "complete package" of documents on the Russia-Belarus Union. (Interfax, April 22). In the European part of the CIS, a majority of the Moldovan parliament set the opposite kind of precedent by hastening to welcome — albeit in an unofficial document — the planned Russia-Belarus Union. (See Monitor, April 22)

"Post-Colonial Stress" in Russian Policy.