YELTSIN SETS MILITARY PRIORITIES.

In a speech to militaryacademy graduates June 28, Boris Yeltsin said that he backed "preservingand upgrading the strategic nuclear forces" as the "mainguarantee" of the country’s security, Interfax reported.Yeltsin said he would also push for the creation of "rapiddeployment forces based on paratroopers" that could be quicklydispatched to various conflicts "including those within thecountry." And he suggested that economic recovery will allowMoscow to increase military spending next year. That will be welcomenews to the military. In the first quarter of this year, the governmentfunded the military at only 46-60 percent of budgetary provisions,Interfax reported June 28. Moscow’s plans to develop high techweaponry will be funded largely off-budget, the news service inits report about a Russian State Committee on Defense Industriesmeeting on next year’s defense appropriations.

Officer: Commands More Important Than Constitution.