CHARGES AGAINST NIKITIN APPARENTLY DROPPED.

Nikolai Kovalev, director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), said yesterday in Moscow that he agreed with the prosecutor general’s decision to release retired navy captain Aleksandr Nikitin (see Monitor, December 17). Kovalev explained that "it would be politically disadvantageous for us to charge Nikitin with espionage because Bellona [the Norwegian environmental organization employing Nikitin] would be indirectly charged too." Kovalev said he still believed Nikitin had committed espionage. (Interfax, December 17)

Primakov Criticized for Supporting Milosevic.