RYBKIN DENIES THAT HE WILL REPLACE KOZYREV.

Duma chairman Ivan Rybkin, in a Moscow press conference September 28, denied suggestions that Boris Yeltsin wants him to replace Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev. Rybkin said that he knows of nothing which would confirm press reports that Yeltsin is unofficially forming a new cabinet, but did confirm that he met Yeltsin in Sochi to discuss the situation in the government. (3)

Stories about Prime Minister Chernomyrdin’s possible retirement have appeared in all major Russian newspapers in the last few days. If the government is replaced, so the speculation goes, an early departure will be Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev, widely criticized for alleged "failures" of Russian foreign policy in many areas, particularly the former Yugoslavia. Rybkin’s name has emerged not only because of his exposure to foreign policy as the Duma’s chairman but because he is a graduate of the Diplomatic Academy.

FAPSI Computerizes Russian Bureaucracy.