Becausethe Federation Council turned down the bill establishing new Dumaelectoral districts, and because the Russian parliament is unlikelyto reconvene in August to pass the bill, the Central ElectionCommission is likely to use the existing districts, which do notreflect population shifts, Segodnya reported July 25. Onthe... MORE

Of the 112 Federation Council members who turned in a questionnaireon the procedures for the election of their body, 78 approvedthe law which the upper house had earlier rejected (90 voteswould be needed to pass it), 4 opposed the measure, and 30 declinedto give an... MORE

Duma defense committeemember Petr Romanov was quoted in this week's Argumenty i fakty to the effect that "Russia will emerge from the presentcrisis with great difficulty if a third world war does not breakout first.: Romanov's remarks were quoted in an article by AleksandrKondrashev who... MORE

Russiandeputy defense minister Andrei Kokoshin said that further cutsin the defense budget could weaken the country's defenses, andsuggested that any reductions should be proportional to cuts inother government services, Russian radio reported July 24. A Bloc in Search of a Name.

Duma speaker Ivan Rybkin'sleft-center electoral bloc is a no-name operation in two ways.With few exceptions, none of its participants are well-known tothe country--Agrarian leader Mikhail Lapshin denied Rybkin's claimsthat the agricultural party would cooperate with Rybkin's bloc--andthe bloc itself does not yet have a name... MORE

An unnamed seniorRussian diplomat told Itar-Tass July 25 that Moscow was consideringwhether to renew its friendship treaty with North Korea. The treaty,signed in 1961 and renewed every five years since that time, isdue to expire in September 1996. Moscow's growing economic tieswith South Korea suggest... MORE

The Russianand Japanese governments have agreed to establish an intergovernmentalcommission modeled on the US-Russian Gore-Chernomyrdin one, Interfaxreported July 25. The commission, to be headed by Russian deputypremier Oleg Soskovets and Japanese deputy premier Yohei Kono,will meet regularly to consider outstanding problems--includingthe Kurile islands dispute--and to... MORE

Russianofficials plan to use Finland as a major trade link with the West,now that Finland has become part of the European Union, Ostankinotelevision reported July 25. Among the big winners from this decisionwill be Karelia which neighbors Finland; among the losers, shippersin the Baltic countries... MORE

BorisYeltsin told Ostankino television July 25 that he had had a "toughtalk" with the leadership of the Federal Security Service(FSB) when he introduced its new chief, Mikhail Barsukov, andhis two top deputies, Viktor Zorin and Anatoly Trofimov. Specifically,he told them that they must work harder... MORE

Boris Yeltsin met withPrime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin July 25 for their usual weeklymeeting, Russian television reported. The station showed Yeltsin,who is recovering at a Barvikha dacha, looking fit and it reportedthat the president has increased his workload to five hours aday. Moscow May Not Renew... MORE