KRASNODAR SAYS YELTSIN’S LAND DECREE DOES NOT APPLY TO IT.

Lawmakers in the southern city Krasnodar are demanding that Yeltsin’s presidential decree legalizing the sale of land should be suspended throughout Krasnodar Krai — one of Russia’s main agricultural-producing regions. They argue that a free market cannot be permitted in the region because of the very large numbers of people who have taken refuge in the region from warfare in Chechnya and Transcaucasia. The lawmakers say the "constant flow" of migrants and refugees into the region has given rise to high crime and a very uncertain situation regarding housing and other real estate. Meanwhile, Mikhail Lapshin, leader of the Agrarian Party, has happily pointed out that, if Gennady Zyuganov is elected president in June, he has promised the Agrarian Party to cancel Yeltsin’s decree and to pass legislation stating that farmland will "belong to working peasants, who can lease it but not sell it." Lapshin stressed that his party intended to ensure that Zyuganov kept this promise. (Interfax, March 23 and 25) Some 40 million Russian citizens currently own plots of land.

Signatures Submitted in Support of Yeltsin.