RED CONCLAVE IN MINSK.

Approximately 1,000 delegates from all former Soviet republics, including a disproportionately large Russian representation, yesterday attended a Congress of the Peoples of the USSR. It was the third such congress initiated by Russian Communists, and the first to be held outside Russia under Belarusan president Aleksandr Lukashenko’s sponsorship in Minsk. Gennady Zyuganov, Nikolai Ryzhkov, Yegor Ligachev, Oleg Shenin, Nina Andreeva, Valentin Varennikov, Albert Makashov, Stanislav Terekhov, and Viktor Anpilov were all on hand. Despite factional differences which erupted at times, the participants unanimously called for canceling the December 1991 agreements that established the CIS and for voluntary unification of the peoples in a "renewed USSR" on the basis of "socialism and people’s power." Speakers and the final resolutions described Lukashenko’s policies as a model to follow in terms of uniting two Slavic states as a prelude to restoring the former Union. Lukashenko addressed the forum to repeated standing ovations. (Interfax, NTV, March 16)

Toward a "Single Criminal Space" ?