DEFENSE INDUSTRIALISTS FOR YELTSIN?

Russia’s recently appointed minister of defense industries said June 9 that, despite the many difficulties they have faced since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia’s defense industrialists support the continuation of economic reform. In an obvious suggestion that enterprise leaders in this sector would vote for the president over the Communists in the upcoming election, Zinovy Pak said that the majority of defense industrialists are attracted more "to the leaders of reform than to a return to the old system." He also made the questionable claim that few defense industrial leaders now seek to procure government orders. (RTR, "Zerkalo," June 9) Some in the former Soviet Union’s powerful defense industrial complex have undoubtedly flourished since the transition began to a market economy. For many others, however, support for Boris Yeltsin, to the extent that it exists, is probably attributable in large part to a series of measures recently taken by the president aimed at providing additional government funding for the defense industries.

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