MINERS’ PROTEST BEGINS TO BITE.

Striking coal miners are continuing to picket the Trans-Siberian railway in Kemerovo Oblast. Their protests, now entering its third week, are beginning to have serious consequences for factories in Kemerovo Oblast and neighboring regions of Siberia. The Kuznetsk and West Siberian metallurgical plants–the largest such plants in eastern Russia–have had to shut down some of their blast furnaces and slow operations in their steel-smelting and rolling shops. Plants in Krasnoyarsk Krai have also been hit. (Itar-Tass, July 11)

As well as demanding the payment of back wages, miners in the Kuzbass are calling for the resignation of President Boris Yeltsin and his government. The name of Krasnoyarsk Krai governor Aleksandr Lebed is increasingly mentioned as a possible replacement. National union leaders are talking about holding a national miners’ strike in October, though miners in the Kuzbass want action to be taken sooner than that.

ORDER FOR SALMAN RADUEV’S ARREST UNLIKELY TO BE CARRIED OUT.