AGRARIAN LEADER SAYS RURAL VOTERS WILL SUPPORT OPPOSITION.

Vasily Starodubtsev, head of the Agrarian Union of Russia, yesterday told voters in the Orel region (Central Russia) that the campaign for a referendum on private land ownership launched by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin’s "Russia is Our Home" movement was the last straw, guaranteeing peasants’ vote against the government. The rural vote is estimated to account for 38 percent of the electorate. "Everything was stolen or sold out during the years of so-called reforms, only the land is left," said Starodubtsev, a member of the seven-man junta which attempted the 1991 coup. Starodubtsev, who was elected a Federation Council member in 1993 on an independent ballot, predicted the Agrarian Party would get at least 10 percent of the votes in Sunday’s election. (3)

GLONASS Satellite System Completed.