LESS FORCE, MORE “FORCE” MINISTERS.

Foreign minister Kozyrev’s recent remarks on the use of force to defend ethnic Russians in the former Soviet republics continue to draw criticism in Russia. Duma Foreign Relations Committee chairman Vladimir Lukin that Kozyrev’s statement reflects the fact that “our country has less and less force, and more and more ‘force’ ministers,” Izvestiya reported April 20. One unnamed Russian foreign ministry official noted that Kozyrev’s statement would undercut recent improvements in Moscow’s relations with the Baltic states. “It is surprising,” he concluded, “that Andrei Vladimirovich did not make any distinction” between Russian citizens and ethnic Russians.

For Want of a Law…