YELTSIN ACCEPTS LEBED’S RETIREMENT.

Boris Yeltsin has signed Lt. Gen. Aleksandr Lebed’s request for retirement, presidential spokesman Sergei Medvedev told Itar-Tass June 14. Although defense minister Pavel Grachev had accepted the resignation of the controversial commander of Russia’s 14th Army in Moldova’s Transdniestr region with unseemly haste last week, Yeltsin delayed his decision out of concern that a Lebed in civilian clothes could represent a political challenge. Lebed has hinted broadly in the past that he may run for president against Yeltsin next year.

Gromov Blasts Grachev, Yeltsin.