KREMLIN DEFENDS DYACHENKO APPOINTMENT.

President Yeltsin’s press office has rejected an accusation by the Speaker of the Russian Duma, Gennady Seleznev, that the president broke a federal law when he appointed his daughter as his official image adviser. Seleznev had said the appointment of Tatyana Dyachenko violated Russia’s civil service law, which forbids a state employee from appointing a close relative to work as his or her subordinate. The Kremlin countered that the president is not a civil servant and that this law therefore does not apply to him. In any case, Dyachenko will not be directly subordinated to her father but to the presidential chief of staff, Valentin Yumashev. (RIA, AP, July 1)

Seleznev is unlikely to be convinced by this explanation. Most of the Russian media, however, seem to have concluded that, since Dyachenko was already working very closely with her father, little is going to change by formalizing her position.

Wrangle Over Russian Defense Policy Continues.