CONSULTATIVE COUNCIL TO MEET NEXT WEEK, WITHOUT SPEAKER.

Russia’s new Consultative Council will hold its first meeting early next week, presidential press secretary Sergei Yastrzhembsky announced yesterday. He said the meeting will take place without Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznev, who is refusing to participate in protest against Boris Berezovsky’s appointment to the Russian Security Council. The Speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, Yegor Stroyev, said he will attend the meeting. (ORT, October 30) Meanwhile, liberal economist Yegor Gaidar, commenting yesterday on rumors that he has been invited to join the Security Council, said he had received no such invitation and would not accept it if he had. (NTV, October 31)

Scientists Appeal to Russian Government.