ANOTHER ROUND FIRED IN RUSSIAN BANK WAR.

On October 2 Komsomolskaya pravda ran an article accusing Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin of signing an order in June granting government guarantees for loans worth $140 million to the Media-Most group to fund the launch of TV satellites. Komsomolskaya pravda, which is financed by Vladimir Potanin’s Oneksimbank, alleges that this violates President Yeltsin’s May 10 1997 decree banning government guarantees for commercial bank loans. Such a direct attack on the prime minister suggests that the fragile bankers’ truce is well and truly over.

Kremlin Calls for NATO’s Transformation.