YELTSIN MAY ANNOUNCE CANDIDACY ON HOME GROUND.

President Yeltsin is to visit the city of Yekaterinburg February 13-14. Known in the Soviet period as Sverdlovsk, this is the region in which Yeltsin was born and where he made his power-base until he moved to Moscow to become that city’s Party boss. Presidential spokesman Sergei Medvedev said Yeltsin may use the visit to announce whether or not he intends to run for re-election. (7) Meanwhile, Yekaterinburg is the latest Russian city (following Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh, and others) in which citizens’ initiative groups have called for a referendum on stopping the war in Chechnya. The initiative is backed by the Yekaterinburg branch of the "Memorial" society and by activists in the "Transformation of the Fatherland" movement, which is led by the governor of Sverdlovsk Oblast, Eduard Rossel.

Shares-for-Loans Scheme to Continue Under New Rules.