PRESIDENT KUCHMA NAMES OUSTED CRIMEAN SPEAKER AS HIS ENVOY.

Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma has appointed Vasili Kiselev, who last week was ousted by fellow parliamentarians after only four months as leader of the Crimean parliament, to be his envoy in the autonomous republic. The move appears to be a substitute, or perhaps a preliminary, to declaring direct rule from Kiev over the predominantly Russian republic. (Itar-Tass, February 8)

Moscow’s Georgadze Game: Hide-and-Seek.