DUMA CONSIDERS RE-INSTITUTING VICE-PRESIDENT.

The Russian Duma has instructed its Legislation Committee to come up with proposals for re-introducing the post of vice-president. (Itar-Tass, January 22) Russia had a vice-president from 1991-93, but Boris Yeltsin fell out with Aleksandr Rutskoi and ensured that no such post was included in the 1993 constitution. This is only one of a number of constitutional changes now being proposed in Russia as a reaction to President Yeltsin’s recent illness. Giving more power to parliament has become a standard demand, and was voiced again yesterday by the speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, Yegor Stroyev. But some Russians are even suggesting that a constitutional monarchy might give the population more political control and more stability than does the existing imperial presidency. (Nezavisimaya gazeta, January 21)

Row Over OSCE Funding of Chechen Elections.