YELTSIN AGAINST NEW ELECTION LAW.

President Yeltsin will oppose and, ifnecessary, veto the Duma law establishing rules for the upcomingparliamentary elections, Segodnyasaid May 16. Presidential press secretarySergei Medvedev said that Yeltsin believes having half of the deputieselected by party list will mean that the Duma will not “represent thepeople.” In a meeting with Russian officials from the provinces, Yeltsinsharply criticized what he called “capital-city” parties, Itar-Tass said.Yeltsin’s opposition to the party list approach, however, reflects the factthat he believes officials now in office will be able to dominatesingle-member constituencies far more effectively than they could under partylist voting and thus prevent a repetition of December 1993 when VladimirZhirinovsky’s nationalists did far better in the party list voting than theydid in the single-member district competitions. This transparent calculationby the Russian president drew criticism in Nezavisimaya gazeta and IzvestiyaMay 16.

A Way Out Of CFE Restrictions?