FORMER RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTER AWAITS NEW JOB.

Former defense minister Pavel Grachev claimed yesterday that President Boris Yeltsin had ordered his chief of staff earlier this year to find Grachev "a serious position in the civil service." Grachev, who said that he hoped the directive would be carried out before the end of 1997, also took credit for planning most of the military reform measures announced in recent months by current defense minister Igor Sergeev. But Grachev also characterized the measures as "only a prologue" to real military reform. (Russian media, November 24)

Shokhin Predicts Chubais will Soon Lose His Remaining Government Post.