REGIONS ENGAGE IN HARD BARGAINING WITH CENTER.

Boris Nemtsov, reelected governor of Nizhny Novgorod oblast on 17 December with 58 percent of the vote, was sworn in for a new term in office on 28 December. He announced that oblast authorities were negotiating a treaty on the division of powers between the region and the federal government. Nizhny Novgorod’s treaty will have none of the political aspects of the agreement concluded by Tatarstan two years ago, said Nemtsov, and will deal with only two topics: "money and property." (8)

Leaders of Krasnodar krai and Sverdlovsk oblast expect their regions to sign power-sharing agreements with the federal government in early January. Krasnodar krai is located in southern Russia along the Black Sea and Sverdlovsk oblast in the Ural mountains. Sverdlovsk leader Eduard Rossel says the only remaining stumbling block to an agreement is the amount of tax revenue the oblast will be required to transmit to Moscow. While Rossel seeks a maximum of thirty percent, Finance Ministry officials are demanding more. Rossel says the matter can only be resolved by Yeltsin personally. Krasnodar krai, for its part, has negotiated for broad powers to regulate migration into the region, introduce its own system of land development and natural resource exploitation, develop health resorts, and grant official rehabilitation to the Kuban Cossacks. Given Cossack traditions and aspirations, the latter could be interpreted as the power to muster a regional militia. (9)

Moscow Mayor Cracks Down on Vagrants, Homeless.