RUSSIAN CHAIRMANSHIP PRESERVED, FOLLOW-UP SUMMIT SCHEDULED.

The summit resolved to prolong Yeltsin’s chairmanship of the Council of Heads of State, and consequently the Russian chairmanship of CIS bodies down the line, for another term, implying until at least the next summit. In a symbolic gesture, Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma endorsed the extension of Yeltsin’s term in a letter to the assembled presidents. The move signifies Kiev’s retreat from its own earlier proposals, which had been backed by Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, to end Russia’s de facto permanent chairmanship of CIS bodies and to introduce the rotating arrangement required by the CIS charter. The presidents scheduled the next summit for June 1997, but the venue remains undetermined as some presidents apparently objected to the habitual holding of the summits in Moscow. (Interfax, Itar-Tass, March 28-29)

Russia, Georgia, Score Victories in Caspian Energy Battles.