FARMER DEPUTIES TO SEEK LAND REFORM.

Vladimir Bashmachnikov, president of Russia’s Association of Farmers and Agricultural Cooperatives, yesterday called the election of a few farmers to the new Duma "the first bridgehead won by farmers and other landowners." The farmers were elected on the "Russia is Our Home" party list. Agricultural interests were mainly represented by the Agrarian party in the outgoing Duma, but that party "did everything to preserve the old system of collective and state farms," Bashmachnikov said. The new farmer deputies propose to amend the agricultural law passed by the Federal Assembly and signed by President Boris Yeltsin late last year. Private farmers are said to disagree with the provision of the law that makes it impossible for agricultural workers to take a quota of land with them if they leave the collective farm. (12) Given the reduced representation of reformers in the new Duma, the farmers’ chances of achieving even this modest amendment look slim.

Estonia’s Special Security Relationship with Denmark.