CONSTITUTIONAL COURT EXPECTED TO RULE ON CHECHNYA THIS WEEK.

Yeltsin aide Georgy Satarov said that he expected the ConstitutionalCourt will make its ruling at the end of this week or early nextweek, Interfax reported July 17. The court will not call eitherdefense minister Pavel Grachev or Federation Council speaker VladimirShumeiko, however. In testimony to the court, human rights activistSergei Kovalev said that Russian foreign minister Andrei Kozyrevhad said that the Russian army had assured Yeltsin and the governmentthat the military could take Chechnya in "blitzkrieg"style, NTV reported July 16. But deputy premier Sergei Shakhraisaid that Russia had achieved its war aims in any case, and thatChechen leader Dzhokhar Dudayev no longer controlled the situation.

Militia Unarmed but Now Busy in Budennovsk.