LEBED SEEKS BROADER COALITION.

One of the leaders of the Congress of Russian Communities, Lt.-General Aleksandr Lebed, said that his bloc is seeking to build a political consensus "of the entire Russian people." Speaking at the inaugural meeting of an organization named the "Russian Orthodox Political Conference," Lebed said that historically, Russia was always defeated when it was disunited and "as long as every Russian prince was thinking only of himself or of his son." Lebed also appealed for the creation of think tanks to support correct policy making decisions. (5)

The Russian Orthodox Political Conference is a new entity which is drawing support from the Congress of Russian Communities, the Stanislav Govorukhin bloc, Viktor Askyuchits’ Russian Christian Democrats, , and the electoral list of the former chairman of the State Property Committee, Vladimir Polevanov. The ROPC seeks to establish common ground among these nationalist organizations and add a religious dimension to their electoral campaigns.

Duma Could Become a Refuge for Mafia, Savitsky Warns.