YELTSIN ON NATO, WAR IN CHECHNYA.

Russian president Boris Yeltsin renewed his attack on NATO enlargement in an interview published by the French magazine Politique Internationale. Yeltsin characterized the preservation and expansion of NATO as "an attempt to keep the foreign policy mechanisms and the mentality of ‘Cold War’ times." He said that such policies would hinder "the design and creation of a modern security system which would meet the new realities in Europe." Yeltsin also rejected Western accusations that Moscow is guilty of human rights abuses in its conduct of the war in Chechnya, and argued, disingenuously it would seem, that the conflagration would not spread because those republics bordering on Chechnya lacked the characteristics that had led to the original outbreak of hostilities. (Itar-Tass & Interfax, April 30)

Yeltsin’s remarks on NATO were echoed by Mikhail Tarasov, foreign policy aide to Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. He called for the transformation of the Western alliance into a political organization and repeated Moscow’s long-standing demand for the creation of an all-European security system, with the OSCE playing the leading role. (Interfax, April 30)

Moscow Versus the Far East on Russo-Chinese Border.