RUSSIAN JOURNALIST CRITICIZES BUSH.

In an article appearing in the May 25 issue of Novye Izvestia, entitled “Is There Torture in Russia?” journalist Zoya Svetova began by observing: “President Bush, who this week is to meet in Moscow with President Putin and decide important strategic questions with him, considers that he is communicating with the first person of a democratic state. But can a country be so considered if its government ignores the recommendations of international organizations and does not observe the obligations it has assumed when it signed international conventions? In particular, the [UN] Convention against Torture.”