CASE CLOSED.

The Office of Russia’s Prosecutor General has closed its investigation of the October 1993 uprising in which forces loyal to President Yeltsin quashed the paramilitary units supporting the parliament’s hard-liners. In the aftermath of that episode, the case was opened under the article of the criminal code penalizing the organization of mass disorder. But on September 4 and 5, senior investigators from that office told Russian media that both sides to the conflict were to blame, and that if the Duma hadn’t amnestied the leaders of the hard-line opposition, they would have brought charges against the military and police commanders, "and certain other people." The announcement seems to explain why Sergei Filatov, head of Boris Yeltsin’s presidential administration, on September 1 called for the dismissal of Acting Prosecutor General Aleksei Ilyushenko for "seriously discrediting the authorities."

Chechnya Roundup.