PROSECUTOR GENERAL TO INVESTIGATE NEMTSOV PHONE TAPPING.

The Russian prosecutor general has launched an investigation to determine who tapped the telephone of First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov. (Itar-Tass, September 9) On August 4, the newspaper Novaya gazeta published the transcript of a phone conversation between Nemtsov and businessman Sergei Lisovsky (who leapt to fame when, in June 1996, he was caught carrying half a million dollars of Yeltsin campaign money out of the Russian White House in a cardboard box). Nemtsov’s conversation seemed innocent enough: he asked Lisovsky to expedite payment of his book royalties so that he could include them on his income declaration. But Nemtsov went on to say that he had delayed the issue of the presidential decree requiring government officials to make income declarations while he waited for Lisovsky to pay him. No one seemed surprised that Nemtsov’s telephone was tapped, but observers professed shock that the signing of a presidential decree could be delayed to suit the personal convenience of a cabinet minister.

Duma to Debate Amnesty for Sick and Elderly Prisoners…