HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP OPPOSED TO MOSCOW’S ENTRY INTO CE.

A Russian human rights group has called on the Council of Europe’s secretariat to suspend Russia’s acceptance into the European Community. "Systematic human rights violations, the undeclared war in Chechnya, absence of a genuine judiciary and political persecution. All of this makes it impossible to treat Russia as a civilized state," reads a letter from The Committee for Defense of Viktor Orekhov, made available yesterday. (2) Orekhov, a former KGB officer who helped dissidents during the Brezhnev era and was imprisoned for that, has recently been jailed again on trumped-up charges in what many consider an act of revenge by the KGB’s successors in current power structures.

Yeltsin Promotes Two Ministers, Dismisses Another.