YELTSIN OFFICIALLY REGISTERED.

Yesterday, the Central Election Commission registered Boris Yeltsin as the second official candidate for the Russian presidential election. Registration gives a candidate the right to launch a full-scale election campaign. Today, President Yeltsin arrived for a two-day fact-finding trip in the southwest Russian region of Belgorod, a predominantly agricultural region where traditionalist opinions hold sway. Yeltsin’s aide Sergei Filatov said yesterday that the president plans to make several such trips before the election. "We are paying special attention to the regions in our election campaign," he said. Filatov added that if Yeltsin does not manage to establish closer rapport with the general population, he will lose the election. "Simple anti-Communism will not suffice," Filatov said. (Russian Television, Interfax, April 3) In an interview published this week, Filatov confessed that the present leadership has "lost touch with the voters. There have been tours around the country, meetings, and public statements. But there is not a trusting relationship between the citizenry and the authorities." (Moskovskie novosti, No. 13, 1996)

Nationalist Declares for Zyuganov.