OFFICER: COMMANDS MORE IMPORTANT THAN CONSTITUTION.

Testifyingat the trial of a young man who sought alternative service buthad been imprisoned instead, a Russian officer said that constitutionalguarantees of a right to alternative service were irrelevant andthat the boy must serve or go to jail, Voronezhskiy kur’yerreported May 20. The officer said that for him, "thebasic documents are the laws of the Russian Federation and theorders of superior officers," not the constitution.

Russian Inflation Outstrips Russian Incomes.