RUSSIA-BELARUS UNION SEEN AS STRATEGIC BOON BY COMMUNIST LEADERS.

Russian Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, meeting with Belarus president Aleksandr Lukashenko yesterday in Minsk, stated that the planned Russia-Belarus Union would "change the geopolitical situation in Europe" and, additionally, spur other "republics" of the former USSR into integration with Russia. In Moscow, the Duma’s Communist chairman, Gennady Seleznev, stated that "NATO must understand that Russia will conclude an alliance with Belarus in order to gain access to the former USSR’s western borders." (Itar-Tass, May 8-9)

Yeltsin Gives Foreign Minister a Show of Support.