YELTSIN EXPECTED TO VETO LAND CODE.

President Boris Yeltsin will "undoubtedly" veto the land code approved last week by the upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, according to Ilya Yuzhanov, chairman of the State Land Committee. Yuzhanov said the bill, which outlaws the free sale of agricultural land, is "reactionary" in that it violates the constitutional right of Russian citizens to own land. That right, the government argues, must include the right to buy and sell land freely.

Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin has responded to the parliament’s action by ordering Yuzhanov’s committee and the Economics Ministry to draw up a package of presidential and governmental decrees that will ensure that Russian citizens are able to exercise their rights. (Itar-Tass, July 3) Meanwhile, the land code will join the growing list of bills over which the president and parliament are at loggerheads. Last week, the Federation Council resolved to appeal to the Constitutional Court over Yeltsin’s refusal to sign into law bills on the government and on the return of artworks seized at the end of World War II. (Itar-Tass, July 4)

Gazprom