GOVERNMENT SEEN FAILING TO STEM RISING TIDE OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS.

Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin has not been able to stemthe rising tide of unemployment, the growing polarization of society,and the increasing incidence of venereal disease, alcoholism andcrime, according to commentator Aleksei Frolov writing in Rossiya(no. 26). Frolov suggested that the further criminalizationof Russian society was "all but assured." A poll publishedin Moskovskiye novosti (no. 56) supports that view: itshows that a vast majority of Russians see the present as a periodof disillusionment, with no hopes for improvement before the year2000.