SAMARA LEGALIZES FREE SALE OF LAND.

The regional parliament in Samara Oblast, powerhouse region on the Volga, voted yesterday to legalize the free sale and purchase of land, including agricultural land, in the region. Samara’s new law goes even further than the pioneering law adopted last November in neighboring Saratov Oblast, in that Samara will permit foreign citizens to purchase land. The move is highly controversial: Saratov’s law is under challenge from Russia’s prosecutor general, who claims the regions do not have the right to take decisions regarding land sales; pickets marched outside Samara’s Oblast Duma yesterday. Samara, Saratov and neighboring Tatarstan have all been prompted to take independent action because of the standoff on the land issue between President Yeltsin and Russia’s communist-dominated State Duma. (RTR, June 25)

WORKERS PROTEST IN MARITIME KRAI.