SENIOR MILITARY COMMANDER KILLED IN PLANE CRASH.

Col. Gen. Sergei Seleznev, commander of the Leningrad Military District since 1991, was one of 17 people killed when an An-12 military transport crashed yesterday soon after takeoff from an airfield in the Tver region. A four-engine turboprop aircraft, the An-12 is roughly equivalent to the U.S. C-130. It has been in service since 1960. (Interfax, December 17)

Charges Against Nikitin Apparently Dropped.