CHERNOMYRDIN PLEDGES LOYALTY TO YELTSIN, OTHERS DEMUR.

Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin says he will not challenge President Boris Yeltsin if the president decides to run for a second term in office. Also declaring its support for Yeltsin yesterday was the leadership of the "Russia is Our Home" movement, which Chernomyrdin leads. At a meeting yesterday, the movement’s council decided to recommend that its regional branches begin collecting the one million signatures required to register Yeltsin’s candidacy. Support was not wholehearted, however. Two council members expressed their disagreement publicly while others, who did not want to be identified, said they were thinking of leaving the movement in protest. Lyudmila Naruseva, a council member and Duma deputy who is also the wife of St. Petersburg mayor Anatoly Sobchak, said she was disappointed by Chernomyrdin’s refusal to run and would support Yeltsin’s candidacy only if he resolved the war in Chechnya. (7)

Moscow and Washington to Air Differences in Helsinki.