…WITH KREMLIN APPROVAL; DEMOCRATS PROTEST BITTERLY.

Col. Gen. Eduard Vorobyov, former first deputy commander-in-chief of Russia’s ground forces and now a Duma deputy (Russia’s Democratic Choice) said on television that Yeltsin as commander-in-chief bears personal responsibility for the violence and warned that "the president’s honor is at stake." Deputy Aleksei Arbatov (Yabloko) said that Yeltsin’s armistice talks before the presidential election had been "an electoral farce." This point was made yesterday by much of the pro-reform and democratic press in Moscow, which lifted its moratorium on criticism of the president. Aleksandr Lebed and Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin’s state commission for Chechnya settlement again justified on television the resumption of the war. (Itar-Tass, Interfax, NTV, Western agencies, July 11)

U.S. Looks for Good Things from Yeltsin’s Victory…