CHUBAIS UNDER RENEWED FIRE.

True to his word, investigative journalist Aleksandr Minkin yesterday published a detailed report of a money-laundering scheme in which First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais is alleged to have offered financial inducements to unnamed commercial banks to take part in a bookkeeping scam. The aim was to make it appear as though the federal government was successfully collecting overdue taxes owed by tax-laggards and deadbeat enterprises. (Novaya gazeta, November 17) Scenting blood, the Communist, Agrarian, and nationalist parliamentary factions said that they will refuse to debate the 1997 budget as scheduled this week unless Chubais is sacked in connection with the scandal. (NTV, November 17)

Military Prosecutor Looking Into Security of Arms Depots.