PROPERTY RIGHTS:

The Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s legislature, failed to override President Yeltsin’s veto of a proposed Land Code that would have severely restricted the right to sell agricultural land. A new land-code bill, drafted by a joint government-parliament-labor union working group, should be ready for public debate in April. While the federal government dithers, the regions act. Laws allowing free sale of land (except to foreigners) have passed in one region and are close to passage in three others.