SERGEI KOVALEV HOSPITALIZED.

Sergei Kovalev, Russia’s leading human rights activist, has suffered a serious heart attack and is in intensive care in a Moscow hospital. (Reuters. July 8) Kovalev, a former political prisoner and now a member of the Duma, resigned his post as President Yeltsin’s human rights commissioner in February this year in protest against human rights abuses in Chechnya. Addressing a group of visitors sponsored by the Jamestown Foundation in Moscow on June 15, Kovalev stood out from many other Russian politicians by the pessimism with which he evaluated the chances that a Yeltsin victory would bring more democracy to Russia. "Whatever happens," he said, "one should not expect that democratic institutions will be fostered by the present leaders of this country. Had I though it might be otherwise, I should not have resigned my post. There is a long way still to go before civil society understands that it has to be the boss in this country."

Tajik Troops Recapture Tavildara.