RUSSIA’S DEFENSE MINISTRY: HANDICAPPING THE FAVORITES.

According to Aleksandr Lebed, Boris Yeltsin will choose a new defense minister sometime today or tomorrow. Duma deputy Boris Gromov appears to have dropped off of the media’s latest contenders list. Russian TV reported that General Staff Academy chief Igor Rodionov, Border Forces commander Andrei Nikolayev, and Ground Forces commander-in-chief Vladimir Semenov are now the men to watch; the commander of Russian forces in Chechnya, Vyacheslav Tikhomirov, and the Moscow Military District commander, Leonty Kuznetsov, are the dark horses. (NTV, June 21; Moskovsky komsomolets, June 22)

Chechnya Negotiating Process Blocked.