BREATHING SPACE IN RAIL BLOCKADE.

Striking coal miners in western Siberia lifted their blockade of the Trans-Siberian railway yesterday morning, July 19, and have promised not to re-impose it before tomorrow, July 21. They were responding to a concession by the government, which dispatched Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Sysuev to the Kuzbass over the weekend to discuss the miners’ grievances with their leaders. Earlier, the government had insisted it would not talk to the miners until they lifted the rail blockade, changing its stance only after the governor of Tomsk Oblast went to Moscow last week and complained to President Yeltsin about the economic difficulties suffered by industry in his region as a result of the rail blockade. Sysuev promised the miners that the government will start to treat the problems of the Kuzbass in a systematic way. In the past, he said, the government paid attention to the miners’ complaints only in times of crisis. Sysuev promised that a high-level government commission led by Fuel and Energy Minister Sergei Generalov will visit the Kuzbass on July 21. (Russian agencies, July 19)

MASKHADOV EXTENDS STATE OF EMERGENCY.