CLONING ILYICH, OR ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH.

Professor Valery Bykov, the scientist in charge of preserving Lenin’s embalmed body, has suggested that cloning might be used to make a genetic copy of the Bolshevik leader. Bykov voiced the proposal yesterday in an interview with the Turkish newspaper, Hurriyet. (Itar-Tass, April 21) The remark is likely to provoke a fresh storm of controversy in Russia. President Boris Yeltsin re-ignited the issue last month, when he said it was time Lenin was buried, and the Communist-dominated Duma responded with a furious condemnation of "this act of vandalism." In 1993, Yeltsin said he would order the burial within weeks, but did nothing; last month, he talked about burying Lenin by the end of 1997. Observers speculate that this apparent indecision in the usually decisive Yeltsin may reflect a deeper ambivalence about Russia’s national identity and its Communist past. (BBC World Service, April 9)

Official Denies Reported 1993 Theft of Two Nuclear Warheads.