PRESIDENT AND PRIME MINISTER WOO ELECTORATE.

President Boris Yeltsin and Premier Viktor Chernomyrdin have both promulgated populist measures in recent days. With elections only four weeks away and the Chernomyrdin-led "Russia is Our Home" block trailing behind the major opposition parties in the opinion polls, the measures seem intended to soften up embittered sections of the electorate. On November 17, Chernomyrdin assured Russian military commanders that the government would soon pay off all arrears owing to the armed forces, enabling servicemen to be paid the September and October wages still owed to them. (7) The following day, Yeltsin ordered the creation of a state fund to compensate investors and shareholders who lose money in fraudulent pyramid investment schemes. (8)

Court Declines to Rule on Electoral Law.