RYBKIN BLOC PUTS ITS BEST FEET FORWARD.

The "left-of-center" electoral bloc headed by Duma chairman Ivan Rybkin has made public an extended list of the luminaries on its candidates’ lists. In addition to Rybkin these include Col. General Boris Gromov, cosmonaut Musa Manarov, political scientist and perestroika inspirer Fyodor Burlatsky, economists Stanislav Shatalin and Nikolai Shmelev, Imperial Bank president Sergei Rodionov, and popular singers Iosif Kobzon and Aleksandr Rozenbaum. The Rybkin bloc, which decided to adopt its leader’s name and contest the elections as the "Ivan Rybkin bloc," unites 57 organizations and political parties. However, observers in Moscow focused on Iosif Kobzon, who was denied an entry visa into the US this year because of his reputed connections with the Russian mafia. (4)

Industrial Party Bloc Launched.