SHAKEUPS.

Internal Affairs (MVD) Minister, Col. General Anatoly Kulikov has announced the dismissal of the deputy chief of the Moscow city police, Maj. General Valerii Aksakov, for "betrayal." Kulikov accused Aksakov of having passed inside information to a suspect in a "spectacular criminal case". Meanwhile, back at the Prosecutor General’s Office, a spokesman confirmed that the former acting Prosecutor General Aleksei Ilyushenko has been removed from the procuracy, and former First Deputy Prosecutor General Vildan Uzbekov has been suspended from his position. (7) The ouster of these officials are part of Kulikov’s and the new Prosecutor General Yuri Skuratov’s attempts to curb corruption in both agencies (in the MVD’s case the "clean hands" operation). The Moscow press has linked Ilyushenko and Uzbekov with the embezzlement scandal in the Balkar Trade company, where the two officials were said to have had connections.

Shevardnadze.