NEW POLITICAL BLOCS NOT WINNING SUPPORT.

Despite predictions that the two new electoral blocs headed by Russian prime minister Chernomyrdin and Duma speaker Rybkin would win 67 percent of the votes in this year’s parliamentary elections, a new poll shows them doing far worse. A countrywide sampling of opinion showed that only 13 percent of the voters would back Chernomyrdin’s group and only 10 percent would back Rybkin, Moskovsky komsomolets reported May 6. While it is early days yet, this result suggests that the new blocs may not unite the center of the political spectrum as many observers had hoped.

Prosecutor Wants to Try Stankevich.