CHERNOMYRDIN ADOPTS HARD LINE IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

Despitehis reputation as a cooperative moderate, Russian premier ViktorChernomyrdin actually supports a very tough line in foreign affairs,Segodnya reported August 18. The program of Chernomyrdin’s"Russia is Our Home" bloc contains a foreign policysection calling for reorienting Moscow’s policy away from an exclusivefocus on the West, using force to defend Russia’s interests inthe former Soviet republics, and opposing NATO expansion at allcosts. Moreover, Chernomyrdin and the program both speak withnostalgia about the old Soviet Union: Chernomyrdin told a CISmeeting in Minsk that "there will be a union" in thefuture but that it will not "encroach" on anyone’s sovereignty.