YELTSIN EXPANDS PRESIDENTIAL AUTHORITY OVER RELIGION

. President Boris Yeltsin has set up a Council for Relations withReligious Organizations as part of the presidential administration,Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported August 6. Under the terms of Yeltsin’sdecree, the council will assist in formulating presidential policytowards religious denominations and will report to the presidentabout the situation in religious communities. The council willbe headed by Anatoly Krasikov, former head of Yeltsin’s pressservice. A similar council has already been in existence underthe authority of the prime minister’s office. Yeltsin’s moveillustrates the presidential administration’s growing tendencyto duplicate the functions of the cabinet of ministers by settingup parallel presidential bodies, steadily expanding the sphereof presidential authority.

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