CLINTON SAYS UNITED STATES BACKS RUSSIAN REFORM.

During a joint news conference yesterday with Italian president Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, U.S. president Bill Clinton said that Washington is "clearly on the side of reform" in the Russian elections and that U.S. policy toward Moscow after the elections would "depend entirely on how the new government proceeded… their policy on political reform, on democracy and freedom." (AFP, April 2) Clinton’s remarks were aimed at addressing accusations that his administration has come too close to endorsing Boris Yeltsin in the upcoming Russian presidential election. They also come amid an effort by several U.S. Republican House members to investigate recent reports in the Washington Times suggesting that Clinton made a political bargain with Boris Yeltsin during private talks in Egypt March 13. (UPI, April 2)

Russian Offensive In Chechnya Intensifies.