YELTSIN GIVES AWARDS TO W.W.II, CHECHEN VETERANS.

On May 25,Russian television showed Boris Yeltsin distributing awards to veterans ofWorld War II and of the Chechen conflict. In addition, Yeltsin gave awards to some civilians. Among the most prominent of those receiving decorations was General Dmitri Volkogonov. Volkogonov, a biographer of Lenin and Stalin, is also chairman of Moscow’s POW commission. He said that his group had succeeded in returning home 207 Russian soldiers who had been held by the Chechens, but he added that 58 Russian servicemen are still held by theChechens as “hostages.”

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