RUSSIA CALLS FOR CONSOLIDATION OF CIS ECONOMIC POTENTIAL.

The Minister for Foreign Economic Relations, Oleg Davydov, said that Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan must create a free economic zone for the purpose of integrating themselves into the European Union as a single economic bloc. Davydov stressed that the zone must be created without waiting for the completion of economic reform in each CIS member country. Russia and her CIS partners, he believes, must lift all border, customs, and tariff barriers to the free movement of capital, commodities, and people within the Commonwealth. (2)

Davydov’s statement comes in the wake of Moscow’s call for the military and political integration of an "Eastern Bloc" to confront possible NATO eastward expansion. It also follows Yeltsin’s September statement calling for the creation of a "common capital and property market" of all the CIS states.

Upper House Approves Referendum Law.