YELTSIN AND ZYUGANOV TO PRESENT ECONOMIC PROGRAMS IN EARLY APRIL.

Communist presidential candidate Gennady Zyuganov, campaigning in Barnaul in Russia’s Far East, said yesterday that he will present his economic program to the Duma early next month and that experts are working on other programs which will be published as the June election approaches. Yeltsin aide Sergei Filatov said the Russian president will present his election program at the congress of the movement for support of Yeltsin’s reelection in Moscow April 6-7. Prior to that, Yeltsin will make a major television address March 31, when he intends to unveil his plan for settling the Chechen conflict. Filatov said yesterday that the war in Chechnya topped the list of issues of greatest concern to the electorate at the present time, followed by wage arrears and the law and order situation in the country. Filatov cited opinion polls as indicating that Yeltsin’s popularity was rising while that of Zyuganov was falling. Despite this slippage, almost all the polls show Zyuganov still in the lead. (Interfax, March 26)

Russian Economist Approves Reintegration of Russia and Eastern Europe.