WILL A POLITICIAN BE THE NEXT ASSASSINATION VICTIM?

A groupof political analysts told Obshchaya gazeta (no. 34) thatthey believe recent assassinations of businessmen and bankersare warning shots and that the next person to be killed by organizedcrime will be a politician, possibly as early as next month. Sayingthat politicians now have a status "lower than that of anentrepreneur" in Russian society, the analysts concludedthat the politicians’ "turn" to die had come. SeveralDuma deputies have been beaten up in recent days; the most recentcase involved Sergei Resheulsky, who was almost killed outsidehis home in Makhachkala, Sovetskaya Rossiya reported August 24.Meanwhile, Kommersant-Daily said August 24 that Russianbanker Ivan Kivelidi may have been killed because of his investigationinto the disappearance of Communist party funds after the collapseof the Soviet Union.

Criminals Seen Wanting Duma Immunity.