LARGE OIL AND GAS PROSPECTING FIRM ESTABLISHED.

President Boris Yeltsin has signed a decree creating the Polar Geological-Extracting Company on the basis of five land-survey enterprises in Western Siberia. The company will search for oil and gas on the territories of the Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenets) and Yamalo-Nenets autonomous districts. It will be formed by transferring state-owned shares of several other oil prospecting companies not destined for sale in 1995 privatization plans into its authorized capital. (5)

Shumeiko’s New Movement Offers Yeltsin Conditional Support.