DUMA IN TOUGH MOOD.

The Communist-dominated Duma clearly feels under no pressure to compromise at present. The Communists and their nationalist and agrarian allies are insisting that they will not support Kirienko on a second vote. This is only to be expected. It is no guide to how the Duma may act on a third and final vote. The opposition are, however, also threatening to appeal to Russia’s Constitutional Court for a ruling on Yeltsin’s right to propose the same candidate twice or even three times.

The nationalist Popular Rule faction is also threatening to set up a parliamentary commission to check last week’s reports in the German press that Kirienko had during his time in Nizhny Novgorod attended one or more seminars organized by the Church of Scientology and that he had given money to the organization’s Hubbard College. Kirienko has denied the alleged contacts. (RTR, April 13)

Former Russian Border Guard Chief Elected to Russian Parliament.