KUCHMA TRIES PSYCHOLOGICAL PRESSURE ON THE PARLIAMENTARY LEFT.

Echoes of Yeltsin’s 1993 military attack on the Russian parliament also reverberate in Kyiv, but with a different connotation. President Leonid Kuchma has more than once offered assurances that he, “unlike others,” would not use force against a parliament whose left wing checkmates the president. In recent days, however, the signals seem to be slightly changing. Presidential spokesman Oleksandr Maydannik stated yesterday that Kuchma is receiving a growing number of messages from “the people,” which urge him to curtail the parliament’s powers or even to dissolve the chamber. (Ukrainian agencies, July 1)

The statement may be read as a cautious start toward preparing public opinion for some presidential move along the lines suggested. This also seemed to be the message of Kuchma’s latest and unusually forceful statement, which depicted the newly elected parliament as hopelessly paralyzed by leftist obstruction and damaging to national interests (see The Monitor, June 30 and July 1).

BAKU IRKED BY OIL CONSORTIUM’S INDECISION ON EXPORT PIPELINE.