YELTSIN OFF FOR TALKS WITH HASHIMOTO.

Russian president Boris Yeltsin departed this morning for Krasnoyarsk, where he will hold two days of informal talks with Japanese prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto. In the runup to the unprecedented and much anticipated meeting, Kremlin sources have tended to emphasize economic issues and the opportunity the talks hold for the two men to forge a close personal relationship. Earlier today in Tokyo, however, Hashimoto conveyed to visiting Russian Federation Council chairman Yegor Stroyev his intention to press Yeltsin for a faster resolution to the Kuril Islands territorial dispute, substantive discussion of which the Kremlin would prefer to postpone indefinitely. (Itar-Tass, Kyodo, October 31)

The Enforcers.