KORZHAKOV LEADS IN EARLY RETURNS.

Former Yeltsin bodyguard and ex-KGB general Aleksandr Korzhakov is leading with 26 percent of the votes counted so far in the parliamentary by-election in Tula, south of Moscow. Russian media are describing the election as "a circus." In second place for the seat, left vacant when Aleksandr Lebed moved to the Kremlin last year, is local activist Eduard Pashchenko with 17 percent. Former world chess champion Anatoli Karpov is third with 16 percent. Electoral officials stress that these figures are preliminary and that the picture could change by the time final results are announced. (Itar-Tass, BBC World Service, February 10) Yelena Mavrodi, former beauty-queen and wife of one of Russia’s most notorious swindlers, was forced to withdraw from the ballot following allegations that she was paying her supporters to bring in votes.

Chechnya’s Stability Hinges on Basaev.