RYABOV: "RUSSIA IS NOT A BANANA REPUBLIC."

Rejectingsuggestions that the authorities would falsify the results ofthe December 1995 Duma elections, and that independent electionmonitors were needed, Central Electoral Commission chairman toldRussian television July 26 that "not even a banana republicwould allow [such outside monitors] and Russia is not a bananarepublic." On the same program, Duma deputy Stanislav Govorukhinsaid that "we do not trust executive power" in thisarea; and a Russian specialist on elections said that the votemight be distorted by as much as 20 percent.

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