YAVLINSKY ANNOUNCES ELECTION PLATFORM IN ST. PETERSBURG.

Meeting with Yabloko supporters in St. Petersburg over the weekend, party leader Grigory Yavlinsky announced a two-year program which was immediately dubbed the "700-day plan" (in reference to the "500-day plan" discussed in the last weeks of the Soviet Union, of which Yavlinsky was one of the authors). Yavlinsky promised that, within one hundred days of his election as president, he would withdraw federal troops from Chechnya and put a stop to fighting in the separatist republic. He said he would call a referendum to settle Chechnya’s future status. Next, Yavlinsky said, he would raise living standards of the elderly, students, and public employees by raising taxes, closing outlets for capital flight, and canceling the tax exemptions currently enjoyed by some of Russia’s richest corporations, such as the natural gas giant, Gazprom. He also promised to slash the bureaucracy. (Interfax, May 12)

Gorbachev, Communists Deplore Media Bias.