CIS POLICY: ENDS AND MEANS.

Turning the Commonwealth ofIndependent States into "an effective regional organization"was the main topic discussed at a meeting between Prime MinisterViktor Chernomyrdin and Russia´s ambassadors to the CIS member-countries,the foreign ministry’s CIS Affairs Department head Leonid Drachevskytold a Moscow briefing. The subject was also discussed last weekat the ambassadors´ conference chaired by Foreign MinisterAndrei Kozyrev. But Drachevsky inadvertently revealed Moscow´slimited means to that end when he praised the ambassadors fornot raising "the problem of their low salaries, althoughit is very acute," Interfax reported July 11.

Russian Demographic Situation Seen as Catastrophic.