PURGING THE YELTSIN ADMINISTRATION.

Vladimir Polevanov, a senior official in the Presidential Administration, was fired because he formed an anti-Yeltsin political bloc, and not as a result of a staff reduction, Moskovsky komsomolets reported May 31. Polevanov offended both Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and Presidential Administration chief Sergei Filatov when he organized the “New Russia” political bloc, the paper said. Polevanov himself told the paper that his dismissal shows that “a fight against dissent has been launched in the country.”

Downsizing The Russian Government.