Dumabudget committee chairman Mikhail Zadornov said that rising expensesconnected with the Russian military actions in Chechnya had become "asignificant factor affecting the implementation of the budget", and could makeit impossible to fulfill deficit targets, Segodnya reported May 24. Zadornovadded that he had predicted such an... MORE

After failingMay 24 to override Yeltsin's veto of the parliamentary election bill, the Dumaasked the Russian president to reconsider his position, Moscow radio reported.Yeltsin sought in his above-mentioned television appearance to suggest thatthe real conflict was not between him and the parliament, but between the... MORE

Aleksandr Sobyanintold Izvestiya May 23 that Russian students of the elections had identifiedfraud in all previous Russian voting. He said that there were between 9 and 11million fraudulent ballots cast in the December 1993 voting. Such levels offraud--close to 20 percent of those voting--cast doubt... MORE

FederalSecurity Service deputy director Aleksei Pushkarenko said there are no"organized groups" involved in smuggling nuclear contraband, Itar-Tass saidMay 24. Gen. Pushkarenko, who is in charge of security at nuclear installations,said his agency has not registered a single case of the leaking ofweapons-grade uranium from Russia.... MORE

Speaking to the first meeting of the Presidential Council onScience and Technical Policy, Boris Yeltsin said that Russian scholars shouldcooperate with Western research institutions but only with a clearunderstanding of the need to defend Russia's national interests,Podmoskovskie izvestiya said May 23. The Russian president acknowledgedthat... MORE

Boris Yeltsin gave his approval to a Federal Security Serviceplan to sign a variety of agreements with the special services of otherCommonwealth countries, Krasnaya zvezda reported May 24. The paper didnot say what these agreements would consist of, or how many of the 11 othermember... MORE

The defense ministry'ssuccess in extending the term of military service, and canceling academicdeferments, "indicates its intent to preserve a mass army preparing for war,"Duma defense committee chairman Sergey Yushenkov told Kuranty May 23.Yushenkov, himself a reserve colonel and a member of Russia's DemocraticChoice party, said... MORE

Citing rising debts andinsufficient income, the editor of Nezavisimaya gazeta announced that the dailywould suspend publication, that paper reported in its May 24 issue. VitalyTretyakov said that his paper--which has carried the reformist banner for fourand one-half years--would seek new funding and hoped to return.Nezavisimaya... MORE

Following the appearance of14th army commander Lt. Gen. Aleksandr Lebed before a Duma committeeMay 24, the parliament's lower house passed a resolution prohibiting thereduction, reorganization or withdrawal of that army from Moldova'sTransdniestr region unless there is a political settlement, Moscow radioreported. Cossacks Get Organized.

The Presidential Council for Cossacks hasapproved a draft concept paper for the development of Cossack communitiesthroughout the Russian Federation, Krasnaya zvezda reported May 23. Theconcept paper reportedly says that all Cossack activities should be voluntary,and that Cossacks should focus on military service and guarding Russia'sborders.... MORE