RUSSIA’S DEMOCRATIC CHOICE.

United Democrats leader Yegor Gaidar predicts with concern that Communists and other left-wing parties have good chances in the election because the government has lost the initiative in promoting reform and lost touch with the electorate. Gaidar is also concerned about Yurii Skokov’s and Aleksandr Lebed’s Congress of Russian Communities (KRO) bloc, whose growing prominence, in Gaidar’s view, reflects a shift of part of Zhirinovsky’s electorate toward the KRO, but is also a mass media creation. "Skokov’s recent Washington meeting with Russian-born political scientist Dmitri Simes is not a major international event, as it was depicted by the Russian mass media," said Gaidar. (7)

Strikes Threaten Government’s Stabilization Course.