SECURITY COUNCIL MEMBERSHIP FORMALIZED.

In a decree issued yesterday, Russian president Boris Yeltsin named the staff of Russia’s post-election Security Council. The Council is chaired by Yeltsin and is Kremlin newcomer and council Secretary Aleksandr Lebed’s main formal source of authority. The advisory body’s permanent members include Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, Federal Security Service chief Nikolai Kovalev, Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov, and Minister of Defense Igor Rodionov. Other members are the directors of the Russian Border Forces and Foreign Intelligence Service, the Ministers of Justice, Internal Affairs, Atomic Energy, Defense Industries, and Finances, as well as the ministers of Civil Defense and Emergency Situations.(Interfax, AP, August 1) As has been much noted in the Russian press, many Security Council members were also named to Russia’s recently created Defense Council, the fabrication of which has been interpreted as a move by Yeltsin to limit the political clout of the Security Council and its ambitious secretary. (See Monitor, July 26 & 30)

New Appointments to Presidential Staff.