RUSSIAN PLAN FOR DIRECT UN-CIS TIES UNDERCUTS INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES.

Ex-Soviet first deputy foreign minister Vladimir Petrovsky, reincarnated as UN under-secretary general, agreed yesterday in Geneva with Russian deputy prime minister Valery Serov on a plan to establish official direct links between Moscow-based "CIS integration structures" and "the UN’s Geneva-based structures." The two will prepare an agreement to that end "in the near future," according to Serov, who is responsible for CIS affairs in the Russian government and also chairs the CIS Economic Integration Committee. (Itar-Tass, April 22)

Moscow has been seeking official UN recognition of the CIS as a regional organization, led de facto by Russia, and the establishment of direct ties between international institutions and Russian-controlled CIS bodies. Petrovsky has used his top UN post in New York, and more recently in Geneva, to work with Russian officials in promoting this objective over the head of CIS member countries. The majority of these countries have resisted such efforts as incompatible with their independence.

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