CRIME IN SAMARA: A

fire in the regional headquarters of the Interior Ministry killed seventeen police officers in Samara on the Volga river. Investigators had been looking into criminal activity at the state-owned AvtoVAZ auto plant, the old Fiat-built facility which turns out Ladas and Zhigulis in the city of Togliatti. At the funeral, Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin promised action: “Let no one think [the arsonists] will escape responsibility. No, they will not.”