YAVLINSKY ACCUSES YELTSIN OF INTIMIDATION.

Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky also reacted negatively to Yeltsin’s threat to dissolve parliament, accusing Yeltsin of trying to intimidate the Duma. Yavlinsky said Yabloko shares Yeltsin’s concern that the Duma’s statements on foreign policy are "not always professionally correct" and supports Yeltsin’s efforts to legalize the sale of land. But, he said, Yabloko has serious misgivings over the government’s 1998 budget and Tax Code, and doubts whether the Yeltsin leadership is any better qualified to manage an honest and transparent market economy than are the Communists. (Itar-Tass, October 3)

Interviewed on Russian TV, Vitaly Tretyakov, chief editor of Nezavisimaya gazeta, said he doubted Yeltsin would dissolve the Duma this fall, but that Yeltsin was quite likely to do so in the spring. "Dissolving the Duma now would leave the country without a budget," Tretyakov said. But dissolving it in the late spring of 1998 would be "ideal" from Yeltsin’s point of view since it would enable parliamentary elections to be held in 1998, instead of 1999, giving the Kremlin a breathing space in which to gear up for the presidential election of 2000. (NTV, October 5)

Former Mayor of St. Petersburg under Investigation.