— CAUCASUS:

Prime Minister Primakov and the presidents of Ingushetia and North Ossetia met together with commanders of the Russian army and other Russian armed forces in an effort to strengthen security and defuse a border conflict that left several dead two weeks ago. None of Primakov’s predecessors devoted this kind of personal attention to Caucasian ethnic disputes…. With the release last week of two British aid workers, only one foreigner, a Frenchman, is believed held hostage in Chechnya. Many Russians are still being held, including Boris Yeltsin’s personal envoy.